About Our Speakers
A Manhattan-based psychiatrist and researcher, Dr. Judith Joseph is at the forefront of mental health innovation, bringing a wealth of expertise to her practice and research. Author of the highly anticipated book High Functioning: Overcome Hidden Depression and Reclaim Your Joy, she has expertise in pediatric and adult mental health. An internationally renowned speaker, she has been a lecturer and professional speaker at prestigious intuitions such as The Executive Office of The President of The United States at The White House, Ivy League Universities and Fortune 500 companies across the United States and Europe.
She skillfully uses her clinical and research experiences to bridge the gap between academic knowledge and real-world mental health challenges. Her insightful content and approachable style demystify complex psychiatric topics, making her an invaluable resource for anyone seeking clarity and empowerment in their mental wellness journey.
The US House of Representatives and Congress presented Dr. Judith with a Proclamation Award for her research, advocacy in the Caribbean-American community and reach on social media, presented by Congresswoman Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick nominated.
Dr. Emily Jacobs' body of research is redefining our understanding of the human brain and its capacity to undergo dynamic neuroanatomical changes and plasticity well into adulthood. In 2024 her team published the first detailed map of the human brain across pregnancy, giving a first glimpse into this fascinating neurological transition.
Women’s health is severely understudied across the biomedical sciences and this knowledge gap is especially striking in neuroscience. Less than 0.5% of neuroimaging studies consider female specific experiences — including the menstrual cycle, pregnancy, menopause and more (Jacobs, Nature 2023).
Launched in 2023 to eliminate the gender data gap in neuroscience, the Ann S. Bowers Women’s Brain Health Initiative (WBHI) is an endowed research institute dedicated to accelerating the pace of discovery for women’s brain health across the lifespan. By uniting research efforts across eight UC campuses, Stanford and Cornell, the WBHI is building the largest and most comprehensive dataset of brain imaging and women’s health phenotypes to date. The WBHI team spans 50 senior investigators driven by a radically simple idea: progress in neuroscience will flourish when the health of men and women are valued equally.
Dr. Jacobs has been named a Hellman Fellow, a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation “Health and Society” Scholar, a National Institutes of Health Women's Health Fellow, and a National Academy of Sciences Frontiers of Science Fellow for "distinguished young scientists under 45." Science News recently named her as one of “Top 10 Scientists” to watch around the globe. In addition to research, Dr. Jacobs and her team regularly partner with K-12 groups to advance girls' representation in STEM, worked featured in the book STEMinists: The Lifework of 12 Women Scientists and Engineers. Her work is featured in The New York Times, National Geographic, Scientific American, NPR, BBC, TED, Netflix and MasterClass.
Matthew Walker, PhD, is professor of neuroscience and psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, and founder and director of the Center for Human Sleep Science. He has received funding awards from the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health, and is a Kavli Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences. He has been featured on numerous television and radio outlets, including CBS 60 Minutes, National Geographic Channel, NOVA Science, NRP and the BBC.
Dr. Walker’s research examines the impact of sleep on human health and disease. He has received numerous funding awards from the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health, and is a Kavli Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences. His research examines the impact of sleep on human brain function in healthy and disease populations. To date, he has published over 100 scientific research studies.
As the founder of Brain Health Kitchen, Dr. Annie Fenn's career pivoted from board-certified ob-gyn to a culinary educator dedicated to Alzheimer's prevention. Her approach blends medical knowledge with culinary skills, providing a unique educational experience that emphasizes diet and lifestyle's role in cognitive health. Her mission at Brain Health Kitchen is to empower individuals with the tools to nourish their brains, utilizing evidence-based dietary strategies.
Dr. Fenn's venture into Brain Health Retreats reflects my commitment to immersive wellness experiences. Partnering with esteemed travel companies, she has introduced programs in picturesque locales such as Costa Rica and Italy, centered around brain health education. Her team's efforts have fostered a community committed to proactive brain health management through engaging, hands-on cooking classes and seminars.
She is committed to reaching younger brains with science-based education and cooking experiences. As an adjunct faculty member at Harvard University and the University of Cincinnati, she also teaches guest lectures and semester-long courses in brain health nutrition to medical students and undergraduates.
Dr. Gillian Coughlan is junior faculty at Mass General Hospital/Harvard Medical School. Her research centers on personalized risk factors of Alzheimer's disease pathology, with a particular focus on sex differences and women's health, applying various brain imaging modalities and a multi-cohort study approach to research.
Alzheimer’s Disease disproportionally affects women and Dr. Coughlan's research projects at MGH focus on elucidating personalized risk factors associated with change in Alzheimer’s disease biomarkers. One of her key contributions to the field has been identifying how menopausal hormone therapy impacts regional tau accumulation, a finding that has the potential to reshape clinical approaches to Alzheimer’s Disease prevention in postmenopausal individuals.
Building on foundational research conducted during her PhD, focusing on the APOE4 genotype and cognitive markers for Alzheimer’s disease (AD), Dr. Coughlan has expanded her research to include multi-modal neuroimaging and cutting-edge techniques to further investigate AD pathology.
Dr. Jessica Shepherd, voted as one of Dallas’ best doctors, is a board certified OB/GYN, fellowship trained Minimally Invasive Surgeon and women’s health media expert, and has completed formal training with The Institute For Functional Medicine, expanding her knowledge and abilities to care for a diverse patient population. She is seen regularly as an expert on Good Morning America, The Today Show, CNN, Dr. Oz, CBS News, and more.
Her passion for women’s health has allowed her to be an advocate for conditions such as endometriosis, fibroids, sexual health, menopausal health and health care disparities. In addition to writing for various magazines including Vogue, Cosmopolitan, Women’s Health, Women’s Day, Self, Family Circle, Parents, Essence, and Verywell, she also gives lectures nationally and internationally on health issues.
As a health care expert, she strives to educate people on their bodies and how to address their physical, sexual, emotional health in addition to the incorporation of wellness. Her vibrant personality has been highlighted in keynote addresses at events nationally and allowed her to work with celebrities including Sheryl Crow, Ciera, Brooke Burke, Erin Andrews, Dr. Jackie Walters, Kandy Burress and Laila Ali.
Dr. Nina Miolane directs the Geometric Intelligence Lab at UC Santa Barbara, whose goal is to reveal the geometric signatures of natural and artificial intelligence and to build next–generation intelligent systems: Geometric AI. Her lab develops tools from geometry, topology, computer vision, machine learning and deep learning which are then incorporated into the open-source packages: Geomstats and TopoX with the PyT-team.
Dr. Miolane's research fundings include an NSF Career Award, an NIH R01 grant, a NSF SCALE MoDL grant, Google Season of Code and Noyce Initiative UC Partnerships grant for the University of California Women's Brain Initiative. She was the recipient of the L'Oréal-Unesco for Women in Science Award, the Hellman Fellow award and is involved in outreach initiatives in France and in the U.S. At UCSB, her work has been recognized by an Academic Senate Faculty Grant and a UC Regent's Junior Faculty Award. In her free time, she adventures in the golden state's outdoors, hiking in the mountains, riding motorcycles along the coast, or piloting single-engine airplanes in the Californian skies.