2025 Virginia A. Beal Lecture: Veronica Barcelona
Barcelona will discuss "Race, Racism, and Perinatal Health Inequities."
Content
The Department of Nutrition will host the 37th Annual Virginia A. Beal Lecture on April 1st. This year, the department is partnering with the UMass Amherst Center for Research on Families (CRF) and the Tay Gavin Erickson Lecture Series to bring Dr. Veronica Barcelona, Assistant Professor of Nursing at the Columbia University Irving Medical Center, as she presents "Race, Racism, and Perinatal Health Inequities."
Join Dr. Veronica Barcelona for an in-depth exploration of the epidemiology of perinatal health disparities, with a focus on the role of race and racism in shaping healthcare outcomes for Indigenous, Native American, and Black women. Dr. Barcelona will present findings from her NIH-funded research on the epigenetic links between multilevel racism and preterm birth, as well as her work utilizing machine learning to examine stigmatizing language in clinical records and its connection to pregnancy-related complications. She will also provide evidence-based recommendations for clinicians on improving language use in documentation and discuss future research directions to address these systemic inequities.
We invite scholars, clinicians, and students to engage with Dr. Barcelona's critical insights on advancing equity in maternal health.
Registration required as seats are limited. Please RSVP here.
Program Agenda:
5:30 PM – Dietetic Interns Poster Presentation
5:50 PM – Opening Remarks (Dr. Lindiwe Sibeko)
6:00 PM - Introduction of Guest Speaker (Drs. Lorraine Cordeiro and Lucinda Canty)
6:05 PM– Guest Speaker’s Talk (Dr. Veronica Barcelona)
7:00 - 8:00 PM - Dinner & Networking
7:20 PM – Nutrition Department Student Scholarship Ceremony and Closing Remarks
About Veronica Barcelona, PhD, MSN/MPH
Dr. Barcelona holds degrees from the University of Michigan, Johns Hopkins University, and Tulane University, with postdoctoral training at Yale University. Her research focuses on the mechanisms and risk factors of adverse pregnancy outcomes, with over 65 peer-reviewed publications and numerous awards for excellence in research.
About the Virginia A. Beal Lecture Series
In 1989, Professor Emerita Virginia A. Beal, a pioneer in the field of nutrition and a longtime member of the nutrition faculty at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, established an endowment to provide students, faculty, dietetics professionals, and alumni and friends, with an opportunity to discuss the challenges and advances that are currently at the forefront in the Nutrition field. The Virginia A. Beal Lectureship has become an anticipated annual tradition. The evening is a celebration of nutrition research, and an opportunity to acknowledge the department's finest students through the presentation of endowed scholarship awards, one of which bears Virginia Beal’s name. Professor Beal presented the first lecture in 1989, and in the intervening years, nationally-renowned researchers in nutrition have spoken at this annual event.