Our Events
Women’s Legacy Collective Spring Discourse
The Attack on Science: Featuring Dr. Holden Thorp, Editor-in-Chief of Science
Thursday, April 9 | 5:30-6:30 PM ET | Webinar
Science depends on systems built throughout history: individual and team creativity and innovation, peer review, research investment, academic freedom, and institutional and university safeguards that protect integrity and public trust.
In recent years, foundational elements of the American scientific enterprise have faced increasing strain. Federal research agencies confront instability. Vaccine misinformation undermines confidence in evidence-based care. Over 10,000 PhD-level scientists have departed public service, raising questions about the durability of scientific leadership within government and academia.
Hosted by the Women in Medicine Legacy Foundation and co-sponsored by the Center for History and Ethics of Public Health at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, this Collective Spring Discourse examines how scientific integrity is maintained, how safeguards erode, and what history teaches us about protecting the institutions that promote discovery.
Dr. Danielle Laraque-Arena, President of the Women in Legacy Foundation introduces the collaboration of the WIMLF with the Columbia Center for History & Ethics, Co-chaired by Dr. Merlin Chowkwanyun. Launching this collaboration the Collective Discourse is featuring its guest Speaker, Dr. Holden Thorp, Editor-In-Chief of Science, a publication of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Moderated by Dr. Stephanie Davis, Board member of the WIMLF, this conversation has invited the Editor-in-Chief of one of the world’s most influential scientific journals, to bring his vantage point that spans academic publishing, federal research policy, and global scientific leadership. His perspective offers insight into how science is stewarded during periods of political and social pressure.
Grounded in our mission to preserve and promote the history of women in medicine, this discourse situates today’s challenges within a broader historical frame.
This virtual event is open to physicians, scientists, public health leaders, educators, and students committed to safeguarding the integrity of science and advancing equitable healthcare.
About the Speakers
Featured Discourse Speaker: Dr. Holden Thorp
Editor-in-Chief, Science
Dr. Holden Thorp has served as Editor-in-Chief of the Science family of journals since 2019. He came to Science from Washington University in St. Louis, where he was Provost and Professor, following three decades at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, including service as its 10th Chancellor.
A chemist by training, Dr. Thorp earned his bachelor’s degree from UNC Chapel Hill, his doctorate from the California Institute of Technology, and completed postdoctoral work at Yale University. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Inventors, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
As Editor-in-Chief of one of the world’s most influential scientific journals, Dr. Thorp oversees editorial standards that shape global scientific discourse. His leadership spans research integrity, academic publishing, federal research policy, and institutional governance at a time when scientific systems face sustained public and political scrutiny.
Dr. Merlin Chowkwanyun
Associate Professor of Sociomedical Sciences
Center for History and Ethics of Public Health
Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health
Dr. Merlin Chowkwanyun is a historian of public health whose scholarship centers on the history of community health, environmental health regulation, racial inequality, and social movements around health. His work examines how local activism, policy debates, and institutional structures shape public health outcomes.
He is the author of All Health Politics Is Local: Battles for Community Health in the Mid-Century United States (UNC Press) and is currently completing a second book reassessing social determinants approaches to health, forthcoming from W.W. Norton.
Dr. Chowkwanyun serves as Principal Investigator, alongside Dr. David Rosner, on a National Science Foundation Standard Research Grant supporting ToxicDocs.org, a digital repository containing millions of pages of once-confidential documents related to industrial poisons. He teaches courses on health advocacy and mixed methods and co-teaches the history module in Columbia’s CORE curriculum.
Dr. Danielle Laraque-Arena
Professor of Clinical Epidemiology and Pediatrics
Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons
President and Professor Emerita, SUNY Upstate Medical University
Dr. Danielle Laraque-Arena is an injury prevention scientist, board-certified pediatrician and child abuse specialist who has advanced maternal-child health in underserved and disenfranchised communities nationally and internationally. Her scholarly work has emphasized the essential connection between eliminating health disparities and achieving equity in representation within the health professions.
Over more than 40 years, Dr. Laraque-Arena has advanced cross-disciplinary research in maternal-child health, and most recently elevated the discourse of the role of violent deaths in maternal mortality. Her research has led to transformative initiatives in child health, including establishing the medical home model of care in disadvantaged communities to address the health needs of vulnerable populations; founding multidisciplinary child protection teams; and advanced community-based participatory injury science research. Her scholarly work has emphasized a child and human rights framework to tackle local/global child health imperatives and humanitarian efforts.
She is the author of numerous peer-reviewed manuscripts and authored/edited several books including Principles of Global Child Health, Ending the War Against Children, Leadership at the Intersection of Gender & Race in Healthcare and Science and the upcoming publication (2026) of the compendium Imperatives for Action and Impact of Humanitarian Crises Affecting Children. She is the Past President of the Academic Pediatric Association, Past Co-Chair of the New York State Governor’s Task Force on Maternal Mortality and Disparate Racial Outcomes, and past chair of Vaccinate Your Family; and a fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Academic Pediatric Society.
Dr. Stephanie Davis
Curnen Distinguished Professor and Chair, Department of Pediatrics
Chief of Children’s Clinical Services, UNC Children's
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Dr. Stephanie Davis is a pediatric pulmonologist and Chair of the Department of Pediatrics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, as well as Chief of Children's Clinical Services at UNC Children’s. Her research focuses on understanding, diagnosing, and developing new biomarkers for lung diseases affecting infants and children, including cystic fibrosis, primary ciliary dyskinesia, and chronic respiratory disease associated with prematurity.
Her NIH-funded work seeks to better understand early disease pathogenesis, develop predictive and diagnostic tools, and test therapeutic interventions aimed at slowing or preventing disease progression at the earliest stages of life. Dr. Davis has led initiatives expanding preschool lung function testing, investigating viral influences in cystic fibrosis, characterizing respiratory outcomes in extremely premature infants, and evaluating inhaled hypertonic saline therapies in young children.
Dr. Davis has held several high-profile national leadership positions, including President of the Society of Pediatric Research, Chair of the Board of Directors for the American Board of Pediatrics, Chair of the Pediatric Assembly for the American Thoracic Society, and Secretary-Treasurer of the Association of Medical School Pediatric Department Chairs. An internationally recognized expert in pediatric pulmonology, Dr. Davis has served on numerous national and international consensus panels establishing guidelines for the diagnosis, monitoring, and treatment of pediatric respiratory disease.
AMWA Lectureship
We partner with the American Medical Women’s Association for a panel discussion on the impact women have made in the field of medicine and the medical sciences every September as part of Women in Medicine Month.
Alma Dea Morani, MD Renaissance Woman Award
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