When Linda Moslow, A16P, A18P, entered perimenopause in her early 40s, she was blindsided. “I’d always been healthy and grounded in wellness,” she says. “Suddenly, I couldn’t recognize myself.” The months of anxiety, sleeplessness, and confusion that followed left her feeling unmoored until she found a team of doctors who helped her understand what was happening.
The experience was both personal and galvanizing. Realizing that millions of women lacked the support she’d been lucky to find, Moslow started a community group of more than 20 women navigating menopause who met weekly to share their stories. “Finding ways to educate ourselves and advocate for ourselves was empowering,” she says. “But I still wanted a solution on a larger scale.”
Her husband, Jeff Moslow, A86, A16P, A18P, chair of the Tufts University Board of Trustees, believed that her grassroots effort could—and should—become something bigger. “It was eye-opening to realize that, despite women representing more than half the population, medical research still follows protocols designed for men,” he says. “As we talked more about it, I saw that there’s a gap there—and that Tufts is uniquely equipped to close that gap.”
That recognition marked a turning point. Confident in Tufts’ collaborative culture and deep expertise, Jeff Moslow believed the university was exceptionally well positioned to lead a transformation in women’s health. With world-class programs in medicine and nutrition and a close partnership with Tufts Medicine, a health system that prioritizes evidence-based, patient-centered care, Tufts is built to connect research with real-world outcomes, he says.
Together, the Moslows approached university leaders, including Christina Economos, NG96, dean of the Gerald J. and Dorothy R. Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University, and Helen Boucher, dean of Tufts University School of Medicine and chief academic officer of Tufts Medicine. The conversations that began with Linda Moslow’s group soon crystallized into a shared vision for change, with a plan to harness Tufts’ strength in research, education, and care to better serve women at every stage of life.
An Integrated Approach
Now, fueled by a $4 million gift from the Moslows, that vision is taking shape as the Tufts Women’s Health and Menopause Initiative, a first-of-its-kind academic collaboration uniting the leading expertise of Tufts University’s schools of medicine and nutrition with the renowned Tufts Medicine health system.
The Moslows’ gift endows two inaugural professorships—one at the School of Medicine and one at the Friedman School—whose holders will co-direct the initiative and drive its interdisciplinary agenda. Under the co-directors’ leadership, the initiative will advance clinical care, education, and research in novel ways that improve women’s health across the lifespan.
For Economos, the effort captures Tufts’ spirit of collaboration and the breadth of its strengths.
“I am deeply grateful for the Moslows’ visionary philanthropy and their belief in Tufts’ unique potential to improve perimenopause and menopause care,” she says. “Their transformative gift is allowing us to pioneer the nation’s only academic initiative that brings together the expertise of a leading school of nutrition, medical school, and health system. It enables us to redefine women’s health and longevity.”
Boucher echoes this sentiment, emphasizing the importance of academic excellence and scientific innovation. “With their extraordinary gift, Jeff and Linda Moslow are deepening Tufts’ leadership in medical education, women’s health research, and clinical care,” she says. “Their generosity will empower future clinicians to work together to support women’s health across the lifespan and ensure more women benefit from the personalized, evidence-based care they deserve.”
The initiative presents a model for how universities can mobilize their full range of expertise to address women’s needs. In addition to advancing research, clinical practice, and education, Tufts seeks to elevate the national conversation by placing women’s health at the center of academic inquiry and public discourse.
Tufts President Sunil Kumar says the effort reflects the university’s forward-looking mission and the values the Moslows embody.
“Jeff and Linda represent the best of Tufts,” Kumar says. “Their generosity, curiosity, and commitment to collaboration mirror the ideals that guide our Board of Trustees and the university as a whole. This initiative is an investment not only in better care for women everywhere but also in the integrative, discovery-driven approach that defines Tufts’ impact.”
Visionary Goals to Transform Women’s Health
The investment is essential, says Linda Moslow, especially in light of how one landmark study upended the course of women’s health care. Two decades ago, a large federal study—the Women’s Health Initiative—changed the field almost overnight when its early findings linked hormone replacement therapy (HRT) to increased risks of breast cancer, heart disease, and stroke. Those results led millions of women and their doctors to abandon HRT. Only later did researchers realize that the study’s design—focused largely on older, postmenopausal women—had skewed the results, leaving a generation of women in perimenopause without clear guidance or care.
The fallout from that moment still shapes the way that many women experience midlife care today—creating the gap that the Moslows are helping Tufts to fill.
Building from their catalyzing gift, with additional philanthropic support, the initiative aims to establish an academic model for compassionate, integrated menopause care, one connecting specialists in nutrition, cardiology, endocrinology, mental health, and sexual health. Through Tufts Medicine’s network and telehealth programs, the hope is to share these benefits with women across Massachusetts. In addition, the initiative will serve as a training ground for medical residents, dieticians, and other students across health sciences disciplines to learn evidence- and team-based approaches to care.
Education will be central to this work. Tufts plans to embed menopause and women’s health content across curricula in its medical, physician assistant, physical therapy, and nutrition programs. Continuing and executive education offerings will extend this learning to practicing clinicians nationwide, amplifying Tufts’ role as a hub for best-practice training. Tufts undergraduates also will have learning opportunities related to the program.
Research, too, will anchor the initiative’s efforts. Across disciplines, Tufts scientists focus on longevity and healthy living. In the context of the Women’s Health and Menopause Initiative, they will explore vascular aging, neurobehavioral health, diet, and chronic disease. They also seek to build a national menopause outcomes registry that links patient data, clinical care, and research, creating an unprecedented foundation for data-driven insights that will shape the future of women’s health.
“This is about giving women permission to see themselves in the science,” Linda Moslow says. “When research finally reflects our reality, we can make informed choices and live healthier lives.”
“The whole concept of the initiative is remarkable because it brings together medicine, nutrition, and lifestyle science in a way that’s never been done before,” Jeff Moslow adds. “We’re helping to build a model that finally will truly serve women.”
Inspiring Future Investment
The Moslows are now looking ahead to how their gift and Tufts’ leadership might spark a new wave of collaboration and philanthropic support for women’s health.
“If we can motivate other donors to invest in women’s health—at Tufts or beyond—that would be the ultimate measure of success,” Jeff Moslow says. “When other universities look to Tufts and say, ‘Show us how you did it,’ that’s when we’ll know this work is changing the standard of care.”
Linda Moslow believes the initiative will fulfill the vision that began with a small circle of women seeking answers. “Seeing Tufts take up this work and scale it nationally shows what’s possible when women’s voices are heard,” she says. “It’s exactly what we hoped for when this journey began.”
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