Who We Are

The Women’s Health Interdisciplinary Research Collaborative (WHIRC) is a UMD Grand Challenges Institutional Grant that unites more than 110 faculty, staff, and trainees across the University of Maryland.

Women have historically been underrepresented in clinical trials and health studies, creating knowledge gaps about health conditions that uniquely or disproportionately impact more than half the population. This underrepresentation also introduces bias into AI algorithms trained on datasets that lack sufficient women’s health data.

WHIRC addresses this critical gap by bridging disciplines — public health, psychology, bioengineering, and artificial intelligence — to expand women’s health research across the lifespan.

How We Define Women’s Health

WHIRC takes an inclusive view of women’s health. Our work extends to everyone who was born or identifies as a woman, and includes research that seeks to understand differences in health by sex or gender that stem from biological, behavioral, or social factors.

Our Team

WHIRC is led by four principal investigators from the School of Public Health, the College of Education, and the A. James Clark School of Engineering, and brings together affiliated faculty, staff, and trainees from across campus. Meet the leadership team and our members on the People page.