Center for Health Equity Research and Promotion
CHERP Investigators Invited to White House Events
Lena Makaroun, MD, MS attending the White House Gun Violence Prevention Event (left) and Sonya Borrero, MD, MS attending the White House Convening on Access to Contraception (right)
CHERP Investigators, Lena Makaroun, MD, MS, and Sonya Borrero, MD, MS, were both invited to attend separate White House events on June 7, 2024.
Dr. Makaroun was invited to attend the White House Gun Violence Prevention Event as a representative of the American Geriatrics Society (AGS) due to her HSR-funded research on elder mistreatment and violence in older adults and her role in the American College of Surgeon’s Healthcare Coalition for Firearm Injury Prevention. Her research addresses health-related social risk factors for older adults, with a specific focus on elder abuse. Specifically, her current VA HSR-funded work aims to broaden our understanding of multi-faceted contributors to elder abuse risk and susceptibility and enhance healthcare system capacity for effective, interdisciplinary elder abuse response. Her goal is to develop evidence-based approaches to elder abuse detection and response in VA to improve health, safety, and well-being for older Veterans.
Dr. Borrero was invited to attend the White House Convening on Access to Contraception as a result of her focus on contraception and abortion care access, equity, and quality. Her research uses multiple methods and disciplinary approaches to understand the multilevel factors that influence reproductive health equity. In 2022-2023 Dr. Borrero served as a Chief Medical and Scientific Advisor in the US Department of Health and Human Services under the Biden Administration. She also has worked closely with other governmental, scientific, and community organizations and agencies to help advance reproductive health services and policies to support all people’s reproductive autonomy and their ability to build the families they desire.
Read more about their visits to the White House here.
