Newsroom
RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. — Wendee Wechsberg, PhD, Director of RTI International’s Global Gender Center, is available to comment on the potential risks’ vulnerable populations – specifically women – may face throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
As COVID-19 spreads and global travel comes to a halt, it is critical to find new ways to reach vulnerable populations around the world and continue to provide necessities—like HIV medications, educational programs and skill-based trainings—to communities in need.
Vulnerable women are already at a higher risk for domestic violence and experience limited access to money, goods and materials, which will escalate throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. RTI is exploring virtual technology as a tool to remain in communication with these communities in hopes of combatting feelings of abandonment they may face on top of the multi-faceted impacts COVID-19 will bring, globally.
Dr. Wechsberg has more than three decades of experience, and served as principal investigator/project director on studies with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institute on Drug Abuse, and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.
To request an interview, contact the RTI Newsroom at news@rti.org.
