Advancing women's mental health through education, open dialogue, and collaboration.
Our Story.
In 2018, Drs. Sofia Noori and Stefanie Gillson, two Psychiatry residents at Yale University, went searching for conferences that could provide an overview of many women’s mental health topics in one place. The 2 residents could not find any event in the country that offered a broad clinical overview of the many pressing issues facing women today.
Amid the backdrop of the ‘me too.’ movement, Dr. Noori, Dr. Gillson, and an intrepid group of trainees created the much-needed space for Women’s Mental Health that they had always wanted.
In 2019, the committee launched WMHC, the first academic and trainee-led conference on Women’s Mental Health in the nation.
Our inaugural conference was held in-person with 400+ attendees and subsequent conferences virtually in April 2021 with over 1,000 attendees and in May 2022, where we reached our registration maximum of 1,500. Our 2023 conference brought back an in-person component, steaming sessions worldwide while also hosting Esmé Weijun Wang’s return to Yale, and community and networking events in New Haven.
Previous keynote speakers have included V (formerly known as Eve Ensler), the writer of The Vagina Monologues, Tarana Burke, founder of the #MeToo movement, Roxane Gay, author, social commentator, and activist, and Dominique Jackson, star of POSE & author of The Transsexual from Tobago.
Although started at Yale University, the WMHC committee is now comprised of a diverse and multidisciplinary team of volunteers from around the world. We are residents, practitioners, students, advocates, writers, TEDx Speakers, podcast hosts, company and non-profit founders and beyond, connecting from all over the country. Our members are invested in their local communities and aim to support open dialogue and collaboration between trainees within the Yale community and those across the globe.
The WMHC is always free and open to the public. It is supported by the generosity of donors, with Yale University and Yale New Haven Hospital donating administrative support so 100% of funds raised can be reinvested into the conference and related initiatives.
WMHC is a trainee-led space that improves care for people identifying as women* by promoting competency in women’s mental health.
To equip attendees with practical skills that will materially improve their screening and management of women’s mental health;
To highlight the often under-recognized contributions of women’s mental health researchers, advocates, and clinicians;
To create an enduring community of women’s mental health advocates that furthers structural and cultural change both locally and nationally.
“We need each other’s skills, creativity, energy, and wisdom in order to advance research on women and non-binary people and mental health.”
- Dr. Chyrell Bellamy, opening speaker at WMHC 2019
