8th Annual Women’s Health Research Day
Article
On April 29, 2026, the University of Illinois Center for Research on Women and Gender along with the Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women’s Health program and the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and the Luma Center hosted its 8th annual Women’s Health Research Day. The event featured keynote speaker, Dr. George Saade, MD, Old Dominion University. Dr. Saade presented a talk entitled “Pregnancy as a Window to Future Health.”
The event also featured Drs. Sirimon Reutrakul and Beatriz Peñalver Bernabé who each presented their research. Dr. Reutrakul presented “Digital and Therapeutic Innovations for Type 1 Diabetes in Pregnancy.” Dr. Peñalver Bernabé presented “Inside the Invisible World of Maternal Mental Health.”
In addition to the speakers, students, fellows, faculty, and staff were invited to submit abstracts for a chance to be selected to deliver an oral abstract at the event and to present a poster regarding their research. 92 submissions were invited to present posters at the event symposium.
One postdoctoral fellow and one graduate student were chosen to present their abstracts to attendees, Sofija Jovanovic Gasovic, PhD and Janette Garcia Campos respectively.
This year the poster awards were expanded to award two recipients each level. The undergraduate winners were Diana Mihaylova, Baeyoung Yoo, and Lillian Borbas. The graduate winners were Ashley Ross and Kathy De La Torre. The fellow winners were Kelly Kons, MD, MEd and Sydney Dautel, MD. The faculty winners were Emily White VanGompel, MD, MPH and Sandy Sufian, PhD, MPH.