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Biden Administration, Gender Equity, Health Care, News & Photo Features, Womens Issues, Women's Rights, Womens Issues, Womens Rights

At Clinton Global Initiative, First Lady Announces $500 Million More Funding for Women’s Health Research; President Biden Receives Global Citizen Award

President Biden accepts the 2024 Clinton Global Citizen Award at the Clinton Global Initiative, with Dr.Chelsea Clinton, President Bill Clinton, First Lady Jill Biden, and Secretary Hillary Clinton © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

By Karen Rubin, News-Photos-Features.com, [email protected]

First Lady Jill Biden at the 2024 Clinton Global Initiative announced the Department of Defense’s new commitment to spend $500 million on vital women’s health research. With this new investment, the Department will fund research on conditions that affect women uniquely, disproportionately, or differently—such as ovarian cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, and musculoskeletal injuries. This commitment is consistent with President Biden’s Executive Order on Advancing Women’s Health Research and Innovation as well as the Department of Defense’s broader efforts to support the health of the women it serves and the medical readiness of the force.
 
The First Lady, joined by Chelsea Clinton, vice chair of the Clinton Foundation, and Dr. Valerie Montgomery Rice, president of Morehouse Medical School and an infertility specialist and researcher, also discussed the rapid progress being made by the White House Initiative on Women’s Health Research, which was launched less than a year ago with the goal of fundamentally changing how we fund and approach women’s health research, that included $100 million for transformative research and development in women’s health.

First Lady Jill Biden at the 2024 Clinton Global Initiative announced the Department of Defense’s new commitment to spend $500 million on vital women’s health research. With this new investment, the Department will fund research on conditions that affect women uniquely, disproportionately, or differently—such as ovarian cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, and musculoskeletal injuries © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

“Women are living longer, which means they are living longer with chronic pain,” Dr. Biden said to emphasize the need to determine why women are more likely to become afflicted by Alzheimer’s, MS, and auto immune diseases and no one knows why. Up until now, research on medications, therapies and treatments have only been developed with men as subjects. There has been virtually no study of ovarian health – arthritis, migraines – and why women getting these conditions.

President Biden was determined to do something about it, so allocated $100 million to ARPA-H – the mega-research agency of the government which Biden created to do health research in the same way ARPA researches and develops technology; then the National Institutes of Health allocated $200 million to study how menopause affects the brain, heart, and bone health. Now, the Department of Defense has allocated $500 million to study military women’s health, which will yield insights for all women.

Dr. Rice, a ground-breaking OB/GYN, said more study has to be done on how nutritional balance influences the cycle, how estrogen levels fluctuate throughout the cycle, and about lifestyle changes. “The only way we can understand how to introduce interventions is to include women in the studies early.” She added that social determinants must be considered in order to engender trust so women will volunteer to participate in clinical trials. “It starts with trial design.”

Dr. Chelsea Clinton, Vice Chair of the Clinton Foundation, First Lady Jill Biden and Dr. Valerie Montgomery Rice, president of Morehouse School of Medicine discuss women’s health research as part of the mainstage session, titled “Look Around,” where leaders from across the social impact spectrum highlighted the ways in which they break down barriers between peer institutions, cultivate partnerships and community, and align values and programs to create new, specific, and measurable ways to support one another © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

Monday’s CGI event followed the First Lady joining the top of the President’s Cabinet meeting last week, where she expressed gratitude to the agencies for their continued progress and momentum towards that goal. This was the first time the First Lady joined a Cabinet meeting and is a testament to how personally important this effort to advance women’s health research is for both the President and the First Lady.
 
Since launching the initiative last November, the First Lady has visited research centers and universities, and spoken with doctors and scientists across the country to understand the research questions we need to ask – and the answers they could find if we invest in women’s health.
 
“Since launching the White House Initiative on Women’s Health Research last November, the First Lady has put the spotlight on the urgent need to close the gap in how we fund and approach women’s health research,” FLOTUS Press Secretary Vanessa Valdivi stated.”The Biden-Harris Administration has quickly mobilized to make progress in less than year, and in the months ahead the First Lady will continue to push the work of this initiative forward, and build on the incredible momentum and enthusiasm we’ve seen across the public and private sectors.”
   
The White House Initiative on Women’s Health Research
 
The White House Initiative on Women’s Health Research is ensuring that research on women’s health is a priority and galvanizing new research on a wide range of topics. In his State of the Union address, President Biden called on Congress to make a bold, transformative investment of $12 billion in new funding for women’s health research. The President also signed an Executive Order on Advancing Women’s Health Research and Innovation that directed the most comprehensive set of executive actions ever taken to expand and improve research on women’s health.
 
The Initiative—led by the Office of the First Lady and the White House Gender Policy Council and Chaired by Dr. Carolyn M. Mazure —consists of executive departments and agencies across the federal government, such as the U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services, Defense, and Veterans Affairs, and White House offices, such as the Office of Management and Budget and the Office of Science and Technology Policy. Members of the White House Initiative on Women’s Health Research have already taken action to advance women’s health research, including:
 

  • The President’s Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) committed $100 million for transformative research and development in women’s health for its first-ever Sprint for Women’s Health. ARPA-H received an unprecedented response to its call for proposals, receiving submissions from a mix of scientific visionaries from across the globe and sectors.
    • The National Institutes of Health (NIH) launched a new agency-wide effort to invest $200 million for new, interdisciplinary women’s health research—a first step towards the transformative central Fund on Women’s Health that the President called on Congress to invest in. This cross-cutting effort will allow NIH to fund ambitious, multi-faceted research projects such as research on the impact of perimenopause and menopause on heart health, brain health and bone health.
    • The Department of Health and Human Services announced $12.5 million in new funding to address the unique mental health and substance use treatment needs of women. The new Women’s Behavioral Health Technical Assistance Center will help fill vital gaps in health care providers’ knowledge and ability to treat the mental health and substance use conditions of women across the nation.
    • The NIH launched a new challenge to accelerate the development of innovative technologies for the diagnosis of endometriosis, a debilitating condition that affects about 1 in 10 women and often takes years to be diagnosed. NIH will award $3 million in prizes to innovators who develop new technologies that make it easier and quicker to diagnose endometriosis.
    • The National Science Foundation (NSF) issued its first-ever call for novel and transformative science and engineering research focused entirely on women’s health. NSF has also convened experts in the fields of engineering, biomedical research, and advanced computing to identify ways to improve women’s health research—including how artificial intelligence and machine learning can revolutionize our understanding of menopause.
    • DoD and the Department of Veterans Affairs launched a new Joint Collaborative to Improve Women’s Health Research for Servicemembers and Veterans to further promote joint efforts to advance women’s health research and improve evidence-based care for women Servicemembers and veterans.

The First Lady joined Chelsea Clinton and Dr. Valerie Montgomery Rice at the Clinton Global Initiative to discuss women’s health research as part of the mainstage session, titled “Look Around,” where leaders from across the social impact spectrum highlighted the ways in which they break down barriers between peer institutions, cultivate partnerships and community, and align values and programs to create new, specific, and measurable ways to support one another.
 
As vice chair of the Clinton Foundation, Chelsea Clinton works alongside the Foundation’s leadership and partners to improve lives and inspire emerging leaders across the United States and around the world. This includes the Foundation’s early child initiative Too Small to Fail, which supports families with the resources they need to promote early brain and language development; and the Clinton Global Initiative University (CGI U), a global program that empowers student leaders to turn their ideas into action. A longtime public health advocate, Chelsea also serves as vice chair of the Clinton Health Access Initiative and uses her platform to increase awareness around issues such as vaccine hesitancy, childhood obesity, and health equity.
 
Dr. Valerie Montgomery Rice, president of Morehouse School of Medicine (MSM) and the first woman to lead the freestanding medical institution, is a renowned infertility specialist and researcher. She most recently served as dean and executive vice president of MSM, where she has served since 2011. Prior to joining MSM, Dr. Montgomery Rice held faculty positions and leadership roles at various health centers, including academic health centers. Most notably, she was the founding director of the Center for Women’s Health Research at Meharry Medical College—an HBCU in Nashville, Tennessee—one of the nation’s first research centers devoted to studying diseases that disproportionately impact women of color.
 
Dr. Montgomery Rice joined the President and First Lady for the Women’s Health Research Executive Order signing at the White House in March and participated in two White House Initiative on Women’s Health Research events with Dr. Biden in Atlanta, GA in February.

President Joe Biden Receives 2024 Clinton Global Citizen Award

President Biden addresses the Clinton Global Initiative in accepting the 2024 Clinton Global Citizen Award, with President Bill Clinton, Secretary Hillary Clinton, First Lady Jill Biden, and Dr. Chelsea Clinton © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

Immediately after the panel discussion, president Joe Biden came onto the stage to surprise the CGI attendees, and perhaps be surprised himself by being awarded 2024 Clinton Global Citizen Award.

The award acknowledged Biden’s transformational presidency in taking the United States out of deadly COVID pandemic and double-digit unemployment, to the strongest recovery, the strongest economy, while transitioning the economy and society for economic, climate and civil justice, reestablishing the United States’ global leadership and standing up for democracy, peace and prosperity around the world, and standing up for country over personal interest.

As President Biden told the United Nations General Assembly just hours before, “I’ve made the preservation of democracy the central cause of my presidency. This summer, I faced a decision whether to seek a second term as president.  It was a difficult decision.  Being president has been the honor of my life.  There is so much more I want to get done.  But as much as I love the job, I love my country more.  I decided, after 50 years of public service, it’s time for a new generation of leadership to take my nation forward.”

To the Clinton Global Initiative he said, “I am congenitally optimistic about this country.  I really am… We’re good people.  We really are.  We just have to live up to what we expect of others,” in humbly accepting the award.

Previous Clinton Global Citizen Award winners have included First Lady of Ukraine Olena Zelenska (2023); Dolores Huerta (2022) for her advocacy of human rights of women, children and working class people worldwide; Nadia Mura (2016), a Yazidi woman who survived her capture and enslavement by ISIS and has become a voice for women and children trafficked in conflict; and Malala Yousafzai (2014) who survived an attack by the Taliban, targeted for going to school, and has gone on to be a strong advocate for girls’ education.

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Biden Administration, News & Photo Features

Guest List for the First Lady Jill Biden’s Box for the 2022 State of the Union Address 

First Lady Jill Biden at President Joe Biden’s 2021 Speech to Congress sat without guests because of the coronavirus pandemic. This year, the First Lady’s guest list includes individuals, who with their resilience, innovation, service, and courage, were chosen by the White House because they represent policies or themes to be addressed by the President in his speech.  © Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com via msnbc

WASHINGTON, D.C. –  First Lady Jill Biden will welcome selected guests from across the United States to join her in the viewing box for President Biden’s State of the Union Address this evening, Tuesday, March 1, 2022. Each of these individuals, with their resilience, innovation, service, and courage, were chosen by the White House because they represent policies or themes to be addressed by the President in his speech.   

The Second Gentleman, Mr. Douglas Emhoff, the President’s sister, Valerie Biden Owens, and the Ambassador of Ukraine to the United States, Oksana Markarova, will also join the First Lady in the viewing box.   

The following Americans, listed in alphabetical order, will be seated in the box with the First Lady and Second Gentleman: 

Joseph “JoJo” Burgess (Washington, Pennsylvania)  
New Employee Organization Trainer, United Steelworkers Local 1557  
Burgess is a 20-year member of the United Steelworkers and works at the U.S. Steel Clairton Coke Works facility, where he assists with training new hires and inspires future generations of steelworkers. The son of two former steelworkers, Burgess graduated high school in 1988 and promptly joined the U.S. Army, where he spent seven years in the military, including a tour during Operation Desert Storm. Upon his transition from the U.S. Army, he began his career in manufacturing. Burgess is an active member of the NAACP Washington branch.  His son recently became a third-generation steelworker in the Pittsburgh area.  Burgess introduced President Biden recently at an event at Mill 19 in Pittsburgh about the importance of investing in infrastructure, manufacturing, and making more in America.   

Joshua Davis (Midlothian, Virginia)  
7th Grade, Swift Creek Middle School, Diabetes Advocate 
Davis is a 13-year-old from Midlothian, VA, who was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes when he was 11 months old. When he was four years old, he advocated for the Virginia General Assembly to pass a bill making school safer for kids with Type 1 diabetes. The Davis family, including his father Brian, who also has Type 1 diabetes, has continued to raise awareness about the importance of lowering prescription drug costs for American families. Davis and his mother, Shannon, introduced President Biden at an event on prescription drug costs at Germanna Community College in Culpeper, VA on February 10, 2022.  

Refynd Duro (Galloway, Ohio) 
Progressive Care Unit Nurse, The Ohio State Wexner Medical Center  
Duro has been treating patients with COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic, and at times has had to quarantine away from her family because of her job, including her four-year-old son. She serves as a bedside nurse and advocate for bedside nurses and patient safety, a role she has held for 19 years. Her career started in a Neuro Intermediate Care Unit and in an outpatient dialysis unit. She then transferred to a level 1 trauma center at The Ohio State Wexner Medical Center, where she has been working for the last 12 years.   

Patrick “Pat” Gelsinger (Santa Clara, California)  
Chief Executive Officer, Intel 
Gelsinger serves as the CEO of Intel, where he spent the first 30 years of his career and served as Intel’s first Chief Technology Officer. He is a member of the National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee. On January 21, 2022, Gelsinger announced one of the largest investments in a semiconductor manufacturing facility in recent U.S. history. Construction on a $20 billion Intel facility near Columbus, Ohio, will begin this year built by union labor, creating over 7,000 construction jobs and another 3,000 jobs running the high-tech facility.  

Frances Haugen (Iowa City, Iowa) 
Former Facebook Lead Product Manager on Civic Misinformation 
Haugen is a specialist in algorithmic product management, having worked on ranking algorithms at Google, Pinterest, Yelp and Facebook. Haugen was recruited to Facebook to be the lead Product Manager on the Civic Misinformation team, which dealt with issues related to democracy and misinformation, and, later, worked on counter-espionage. She is an advocate for more humanity and transparency across the tech and social media industry, especially as it relates to teen mental health.

Melissa Isaac (Mt. Pleasant, Michigan) 
Gizhwaasod (“Protector of the Young”) at the Michigan Department of Education’s Indigenous Education Initiative and Founder of Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe (SCIT)’s Project AWARE Program   
Isaac is an enrolled member of the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe and serves her community through her role at the Michigan Department of Education. Most recently, Isaac worked as the Director of Education for the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe. As an elementary school teacher at Saginaw Chippewa Academy (SCA), Isaac recognized the need to support the mental health of her students and their families. She later successfully applied for a Project AWARE grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Using this grant, Isaac expanded mental health services for children at SCA and two public school districts, which included services for Native American children. Previously, First Lady and U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy met Melissa Isaac on October 24, 2021, when they hosted a listening session focused on youth mental health with members of the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe, educators, and families in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan.  

Danielle Robinson (Columbus, Ohio) 
Surviving Spouse of Sergeant First Class Heath Robinson 
Danielle Robinson is the widow of Sergeant First Class Heath Robinson, who deployed to Camp Bondsteel in Kosovo and the Camp Liberty/Victory complex in Iraq. SFC Robinson was serving on active duty as a combat engineer in the Ohio National Guard when he was diagnosed with a rare autoimmune disorder and stage 4 lung cancer.  He passed away in May of 2020.  Robinson is an advocate for helping service members and veterans who have been exposed to environmental hazards and burn pits while serving.  Robinson, the mother of an 8-year-old daughter named Brielle, has a Doctorate in Physical Therapy and has been practicing for 10 years. She works with patients who have orthopedic injuries and neurological disorders.  

Kezia Rodriguez (North Bergen, New Jersey) 
Student-Parent at Bergen Community College 
Rodriguez is a full-time student at Bergen Community College and mother of twin daughters. She enrolled her children in Bergen’s tuition-free child care program, an initiative made possible by the American Rescue Plan. Rodriguez is on track to graduate Bergen with an associate’s degree in general science and aims to transfer to a four-year institution for a bachelor’s degree in nursing. Having access to high-quality, affordable child care supports Rodriguez as she completes her education. Originally from Queens, New York, she is a first-generation American and the daughter of parents from Brazil. Rodriguez introduced the First Lady at Bergen Community College on January 20, 2022. 
 

Additional information about the State of the Union, including the livestream, is available at: WhiteHouse.gov/SOTU.

Democratic National Convention 2020, Democratic Party, Democrats 2020, Election 2020, Joe Biden, National Security, News & Photo Features

DNC: National Security Advisors Testify to Joe Biden’s Leadership Qualities to Address Nation’s Historic Challenges

Sally Yates, the former acting Attorney General who refused to enact Trump’s unconstitutional Muslim Travel Ban and alerted the White House to a compromised Michael Flynn, told the Democratic National Convention, “Public servants promise to defend our Constitution. Uphold our laws. And work on behalf of the American people. But from the moment President Trump took office, he has used his position to benefit himself rather than our country. He’s trampled the rule of law, trying to weaponize our Justice Department to attack his enemies and protect his friends.” (c) Karen Rubin/news-photos-features.com

The second night of the 2020 Democratic National Convention was themed “Leadership Matters” drawing a stark contrast between the lack of leadership of the incumbent, and the experience, integrity, competence and compassion to address the historic challenges facing the nation that former Vice President Joe Biden brings to the office of president.

“A moment like now demands real leadership. A leader who has the experience and character to meet the moment. A leader who will unite us, tell us the truth, take responsibility, listen to experts and be an example for the nation. Strong people and strong countries rise up during crises, don’t shy away from what is tough, and lead with competence. With Joe Biden as our president, we will restore honesty and integrity to our government, and stake out a renewed leadership role in the world. And we will create more justice, more fairness and more equality for all.”

Here are highlights from the evening’s speakers:

FORMER SECOND LADY OF THE UNITED STATES DR. JILL BIDEN

“You can hear the anxiety that echoes down empty hallways. There’s no scent of new notebooks or freshly waxed floors. The rooms are dark and the bright young faces that should fill them are confined to boxes on a computer screen.”

“How do you make a broken family whole? The same way you make a nation whole. With love and understanding—and with small acts of compassion. With bravery. With unwavering faith.” 

“There are times when I couldn’t imagine how he did it—how he put one foot in front of the other and kept going. But I’ve always understood why he did it…He does it for you.” 

FORMER ACTING U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL SALLY YATES

“Public servants promise to defend our Constitution. Uphold our laws. And work on behalf of the American people. But from the moment President Trump took office, he has used his position to benefit himself rather than our country. He’s trampled the rule of law, trying to weaponize our Justice Department to attack his enemies and protect his friends.”

“We need a president who respects our laws and the privilege of public service. Who reflects our values and cares about our people. We need a president who will restore the soul of America.” 

SENATOR CHUCK SCHUMER (New York)

“But if we’re going to win this battle for the soul of our nation, Joe can’t do it alone. Democrats must take back the Senate. We will stay united, from Sanders and Warren to Manchin and Warner—and together, we will bring bold and dramatic change to our country.”

 FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES JIMMY CARTER

“Joe has the experience, character, and decency to bring us together and restore America’s greatness. We deserve a person with integrity and judgment, someone who is honest and fair, someone who is committed to what is best for the American people.”

FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES BILL CLINTON

“Donald Trump says we’re leading the world. Well, we are the only major industrial economy to have its unemployment rate triple. At a time like this, the Oval Office should be a command center. Instead, it’s a storm center. There’s only chaos. Just one thing never changes—his determination to deny responsibility and shift the blame. The buck never stops there.”

“Our party is united in offering you a very different choice: a go-to-work president. A down-to-earth, get-the-job-done guy. A man with a mission: to take responsibility, not shift the blame; concentrate, not distract; unite, not divide. Our choice is Joe Biden.”

ADY BARKAN, HEALTHCARE ACTIVIST

“Even during this terrible crisis, Donald Trump and Republican politicians are trying to take away millions of people’s health insurance. With the existential threat of another four years of this president, we all have a profound obligation to act, not only to vote, but to make sure that our friends, family, and neighbors vote as well.”

FORMER UNITED STATES SECRETARY OF STATE JOHN KERRY

“Donald Trump pretends Russia didn’t attack our elections. And now, he does nothing about Russia putting a bounty on our troops. So he won’t defend our country. He doesn’t know how to defend our troops. The only person he’s interested in defending is himself.”

“Joe’s moral compass has always pointed in the right direction, from the fight to break the back of apartheid to the struggle to wake up the world to genocide in the Balkans. Joe understands that none of the issues of this world—not nuclear weapons, not the challenge of building back better after COVID, not terrorism and certainly not the climate crisis—none can be resolved without bringing nations together.”

Other speakers testifying to Biden’s leadership and presidential qualities included Colin Powell and a gaggle of national security advisors who have served in prior administrations, and Caroline Kennedy, daughter of President John F. Kennedy and former Ambassador to Japan, and her son, Jack Schlossberg, JFK’s grandson.