More than 100 people came to our Fund for Women and Girls panel discussion about health issues affecting women and girls living in poverty.

At the May 10 discussion, we learned about the issues from our expert panel:

  • Dr. Kemi Alli, the Chief Executive and Medical Officer at the Henry J. Austin Health Center in Trenton;
  • Dr. Margaret L. Lancefield, MD, PhD, a member of the Princeton HealthCare System (PHCS) Board of Trustees, who recently retired from the PHCS Medical Staff;
  • Elizabeth Walters, MS, CNM, the Director of Education Programs at HiTOPS in Princeton; and
  • Susan N. Wilson, MSEd, a national leader in the fight for effective sexuality education and adolescent pregnancy prevention, who moderated the discussion.

From the panel, we learned about the ACE study, how limited transportation can affect healthcare, and how your zip code can impact your wellbeing.

Here’s more information from the CDC about the ACE study that found “childhood experiences, both positive and negative, have a tremendous impact on future violence victimization and perpetration, and lifelong health and opportunity. As such, early experiences are an important public health issue.”

You can learn more about county health rankings from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Here are resources to learn more:

  • Calculate your own ACE score
  • Healing Neen – the video Dr. Alli mentioned, about a woman with an ACE score of 10 – is available in trailer or full-length versions. Please note that this deals with difficult subjects.
  • More on the relationship between place and health outcomes in NJ
  • KidsCount data center – a rich resource to explore poverty indicators and outcomes in our state.