RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK -- Director of the RTI Global Gender Center, Dr. Wendee Wechsberg, was named as one of the 50 “North Carolina Women We Admire” from Women We Admire. This magazine is a professional women’s network that celebrates some of the most accomplished women across the United States and Canada.

“Wendee M. Wechsberg, PhD, is the Director of the RTI Global Gender Center and the Director of Substance Use, Gender, and Applied Research. Dr. Wechsberg has been an applied community-based and gender-focused NIH researcher since 1994 and began her career as a clinician. She directed outpatient and residential substance misuse treatment programs until the onset of HIV changed her trajectory. For more than 30 years, Dr. Wechsberg has devoted her career to applied research, using mixed methods to develop and test the efficacy of gender-focused HIV prevention interventions with key populations with substance misuse. Currently, she collaborates with teams addressing stigma at multiple levels and using biobehavioral approaches to end HIV.

Dr. Wechsberg has served as principal investigator for North Carolina-based, other domestic and global studies. She has over 200 publications in the areas of gender, ethnicity, outreach, HIV risk, adolescents, couples, and women. She is also an adjunct professor in maternal and child health at UNC’s Gillings School of Global Public Health, and in Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Duke University School of Medicine. As the founding director of the RTI Global Gender Center, Dr. Wechsberg has worked to create an environment of collaboration to address gender inequality and enhance RTI’s vision to address the world’s most critical problems with science-based solutions in pursuit of a better future with a gender lens. Dr. Wechsberg was selected as a Forbes’ Women 50 Over 50 Impact Honoree in 2022.”

Since receiving the award in May, Dr. Wechsberg has served as the chair of the 15th InWomen’s Conference in Denver, Colorado. This conference began in 2007 and has since grown to reach more than 200 members representing 40 countries worldwide, with a listserv of more than 1,000. We are beyond excited to celebrate Dr. Wechsberg!

Read more about the other women honored for this award here!