2024 Emory at Grady Women's Sexual Health Summit

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Agenda | September 5, 2024

8 - 5 p.m.

8:30 a.m.: Summit Introduction and Opening Remarks
Anandi Sheth, MD, MSc and Martina Badell, MD

8:50 a.m.: Sexual Behaviors, the Vaginal Microbiome, and HIV Risk: A Journey in Research on HIV and Women's Health
Maria Alcaide, MD

9:15 a.m.: Understanding Syphilis/Congenital Syphilis in Women and Pregnancy
Kate Miele, MD, MA

9:45 a.m.: HIV and STI Prevention
Valeria Cantos, MD

10:15 a.m.: Break (15 minutes)

10:30 a.m.: Updated CDC Contraceptive Guideline Recommendations: 2024 U.S. MEC & U.S. SPR
Antoinette Nguyen, MD, MPH

11:00 a.m.: Updates in Breast/Chestfeeding
Elizabeth (Betsy) Collins, MD, MPH

11:30 a.m.: Q&A and Panel Discussion from Morning Lecture Series
Moderator: Marisa Young, MD, PhD

11:50 a.m.: Boxed Lunch Pick-Up and Relocation to Assigned Roundtables

12:00 p.m.: Lunch Roundtables at the Faculty Office Building
Discussion Topics – HIV, STIs, Contraception, Inclusive Sexual History, Community Engagement

12:50 p.m.: Return to Auditorium for Afternoon Session

1:00 p.m.: Leaders Panel: How to Use Institutional Infrastructure/Resources to Facilitate Women’s Sexual Health Research
Panel Members: Carlos del Rio, MD | Igho Ofotokun, MD, MSc | Alicia K. Smith, PhD | Ravi Thadani, MD, MPH | Kimberly Workowski, MD

1:40 p.m.: HPV and Cervical Cancer Prevention
Lisa Flowers, MD, MPH

2:10 p.m.: Engaging Transgender and Gender Expansive People in Sexual Health Research
Cassie Grimsley Ackerley, MD, MSc

2:40 p.m.: Taking a Trauma-Informed Approach to Women's Sexual Healthcare: Why It Matters and How to Do It
Ameeta Kalokhe, MD, MSc and Jessica Sales, PhD

3:10 p.m.: Q&A and Panel Discussion from Afternoon Lecture Series
Moderator: Marisa Young, MD, PhD

3:30 p.m.: Closing Remarks and Evaluation Dissemination

4:00 p.m.: Networking Reception, Featuring Posters and Table Displays on Clinical and Research Programs within Emory @ Grady

2024 Co-Chairs

Anandi Sheth, MD, MSc

Martina Badell, MD

Maria Alcaide, MD
University of Miami

Dr. Alcaide is an Infectious Diseases specialist, Professor of Medicine, OB/GYN, and Public Health Sciences, Vice Provost for Research and Scholarship, and Director of the Miami Center For AIDS Research (CFAR) Clinical Core at the University of Miami. Through these roles, she provides guidance and recommendations on the conduction and strategic plan of research at the University of Miami and the Miller School of Medicine, and scientific and administrative oversight to multiple multidisciplinary research studies focused on HIV and other emerging infections.

Dr. Alcaide received her medical degree at the Universidad Autonoma de Madrid and completed her residency in internal medicine and fellowship in Infectious Diseases at the University of Miami/Jackson Memorial Hospital in 2007. Dr. Alcaide is a physician scientist who joined the University of Miami in 2007 as an assistant professor in the division of Infectious Diseases. She was appointed as associate professor in 2013 and full professor in 2020. Dr. Alcaide has been continuously funded by NIH since 2009. She combines a clinical practice in HIV with focus on HIV and women, in particular during pregnancy, with research activities. She is principal investigator on large NIH funded multidisciplinary studies in infectious diseases the US and international settings. Her research portfolio focuses on HIV and women and includes evaluation of the vaginal microbiome and HIV acquisition, comorbidities and coinfections, and issues affecting reproductive age women and pregnancy.

In the US, she is the principal investigator of large study evaluating behavioral and biological factors that affect HIV acquisition among women, the Miami MACS/WIHS Combined Cohort Study (MWCCS), the Women HIV Cohort Study/ Study of Treatment And Reproductive outcomes (STAR cohort), and a study evaluating how co-infection with HIV and SARS-CoV-2 affect the development of new SARS-CoV-2 variants. These NIH funded cohorts are the largest US multisite studies evaluating the effect of HIV across the lifespan among men and women in the US, with focus on reproductive health, co-morbidities and coinfections. In international settings she is a coinvestigator of studies evaluating interventions to improve adherence to antiretrovirals in challenging populations such as pregnant women in South Africa and Zambia, and challenging patients in Argentina. As a result of her work, Dr. Alcaide has authored over 120 scientific publications.

In addition to her clinical, research, and administrative responsibilities, Dr. Alcaide also plays a critical role in mentoring junior investigators. As former director of the Miami Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) and the Miami CFAR Mentoring Programs, she has mentored junior investigators and lead national and international mentoring initiatives.

Valeria Cantos, MD

Dr. Valeria Cantos is an Associate Professor at the Division of Infectious Diseases at Emory the Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, USA. Dr. Cantos’ research focuses on implementation science projects to increase PrEP uptake among Latino gay and bisexual men. Dr. Cantos leads several NIH-funded clinical trials related to HIV prevention, including long-acting formulations of PrEP and HIV vaccines, as well as STI prevention and treatment.

Elizabeth (Betsy) Collins, MD, MPH

Dr. Collins is originally from Cleveland, Ohio and completed her undergraduate degree in Biochemistry at the University of Texas at Austin. She then went on to complete a combined degree at The Ohio State University in Medicine and a Masters of Public Health with a focus on Policy and Management. Her entire family are alumni of Ohio State, where she also met her wife. She matched at the CDC in the Epidemic Intelligence Service fellowship in Atlanta as she was finishing medical school and was fortunate to match at Emory University in Gynecology and Obstetrics for residency in Atlanta.

Emory's residency, which focuses on addressing health disparities and promoting health equity, well-prepared her to care for very high acuity patients from around the state of Georgia as well as for academic practice in Atlanta. Dr. Collins stayed on as an Assistant Professor of Gynecology and Obstetrics with the Generalist Division at Emory University Hospital Midtown. She also teaches both medical students and residents.

Dr. Collins has a full-time clinical practice in OB/GYN at Emory Midtown. Her clinical interests are preventative medicine, healthy living through life changes, family planning, and reproductive justice/ advocacy, decreasing maternal morbidity and mortality (especially in patients of color), breastfeeding and postpartum care, and LGBTQIA patient care. She has a growing transgender patient population and while she does not provide hormone management, she does provide well adult exams including chest exams, pap smears, STD testing and management, PReP, and gynecologic surgery. She also sees pregnant patients and GYN surgery consults including for laparoscopic and vaginal hysterectomy, fibroid removal, ovarian cysts, and abnormal bleeding management, to name a few.

Lisa Flowers, MD, MPH

Dr. Lisa Flowers, MD, MPH, is a Professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Fellowship Director of the Lower Anogenital Screening and Treatment Fellowship, Director of the Colposcopy and Anoscopy clinics at the Grady Cancer Center of Excellence, Emory University Healthcare Systems, and the Ponce Infectious Disease Center. She is a gynecologist specializing in HPV related cancers, women with a genetic risk for ovarian and endometrial cancer and health disparities especially in HIV populations. She has been a clinical specialist and translational researcher in the screening, detection and treatment of HPV related precancers and cancer. She is the Emory site Principal Investigator (PI) for the AIDS Malignancy Consortium (AMC) testing novel treatments to stop the development of virally mediated cancers and site PI for the NIH/NCI multi-site study ANCHOR (Anal Cancer/HSIL Outcomes Research Study) focusing on HPV related precancerous cells in women and men with HIV. She is the President of ASCCP, the organization which develops the guidelines for managing HPV related anogenital tract cancers in the US, board member of the International Federation of Colposcopy and Cervical Pathology and teaches cervical cancer prevention strategies in Latin America, Africa and China.

Cassie Grimsley Ackerley, MD, MSc

Cassie Grimsley Ackerley, MD, MSc, is an Assistant Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics in the Divisions of Infectious Diseases and Pediatric Infectious Diseases at the Emory University School of Medicine. Dr. Grimsley Ackerley’s research focuses on understanding the biological mechanisms that influence the immune response to mucosal HIV transmission, particularly among sexual and gender minority populations, including transgender and gender expansive people utilizing gender affirming hormone therapy. Dr. Grimsley Ackerley leads sponsored clinical trials in HIV prevention at the Hope Clinic and serves as principal investigator for investigator-initiated mucosal immunology studies. 

Ameeta Kalokhe, MD, MSc

Dr. Kalokhe is an Associate Professor in the Emory School of Medicine Division of Infectious Diseases and Rollins School of Public Health Department of Global Health. Her research focuses on the intersections of violence and HIV, intimate partner violence prevention, and trauma-informed care domestically and in India. She is the Medical Director of the Emory ID Clinic Ryan White HIV Program and engages in inpatient care at Grady Memorial Hospital and outpatient care at the Emory University Hospital Midtown ID Clinic.

Kate Miele, MD, MA

Kate Miele, MD MA FACOG is an obstetrician/gynecologist and Medical Officer with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Division of STD Prevention. Her areas of expertise are syphilis, tuberculosis, hepatitis C, substance use, and perinatal surveillance. She is also an Adjunct Instructor with the Emory University’s Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics and provides clinical care at Grady Memorial Hospital and Piedmont Atlanta Hospital.

She completed her Obstetrics and Gynecology Residency at the University of North Carolina after earning a Doctor of Medicine from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, a Post-Baccalaureate Certificate from New York University, a Masters of Arts from The New School in International Affairs, and a Bachelor of Arts from the College of William and Mary with High Honors in East Asian Studies. She has seven years of professional nonprofit experience, including working in international reproductive health with EngenderHealth, global diplomacy with One To World, environmental advocacy with Green Corps, and grassroots community organizing in Kenya and India with GROOTS International.

Antoinette Nguyen, MD, MPH

Antoinette Nguyen is a senior medical officer with the Division of Reproductive Health at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and adjunct associate professor with the Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics at Emory University. She received her MD and MPH in epidemiology from Emory University and completed a residency in obstetrics and gynecology at Northwestern University and a fellowship in complex family planning at the University of North Carolina. She co-leads CDC contraception guidelines, including the U.S. Medical Eligibility Criteria for Contraceptive Use, and the U.S. Selected Practice Recommendations for Contraceptive Use. Her work focuses on contraceptive safety and effectiveness, the development and implementation of evidence-based contraception guidance, and abortion surveillance. She also provides technical assistance to the World Health Organization (WHO) and collaborates with WHO to provide the evidence base for WHO’s global family planning guidance.

Jessica Sales, PhD

Dr. Jessica Sales is a Professor in the Department of Behavioral, Social and Health Education Sciences in the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University. She is also Co-Director of the Prevention and Implementation Sciences Core of the Emory Center for AIDS Research (CFAR) and Director of the Emory CFAR Implementation Science Hub. A developmental psychologist by training, over the past 15 years her research has focused on improving mental and sexual health outcomes of reproductive-age women in the Southern United States through the development and delivery of evidenced-based interventions in community, schools and safety net healthcare clinics. Currently, Jessica is the principal investigator for three NIH-funded implementation science projects focused on integrating new evidence-based practices, including pre-exposure prophylaxis for HIV prevention (PrEP) and trauma-informed care, into safety net family planning clinics and Ryan White-funded HIV clinics across the Southern United States.