Let's Talk Women's Health:
The CHANGE Summit

Dr. Somi Javaid is a board-certified OB/GYN, a leading women’s sexual health and menopause advocate, and the founder and CMO of HerMD, a comprehensive women’s health practice revolutionizing the future of women’s health care. Dr. Javaid aims to make women’s healthcare exceptional by educating, advocating for, and empowering patients to take control of their health concerns. 

Annelise Skor Swigert, MD, is a board-certified obstetrician- gynecologist and has been practicing the full scope of women’s health care at Southdale ObGyn for more than two decades.

Dr. Swigert earned a Bachelor of Arts in French Literature at Wellesley College in Boston and went on to earn a Doctor of Medicine from Northwestern University in Chicago. She has served as Chief Resident at the University of Minnesota and Hennepin County Medical Center.

Dr. Swigert appreciates the focus at Southdale ObGyn on both physician and patient wellbeing and is proud to be part of a team that delivers exceptional patient care. She thrives working in a dynamic, caring practice where no two days are exactly alike.

“I have the unique opportunity to care for women through every part of their life: teen years all the way into menopause and feel privileged to be a part these journeys.”

 “Understanding the complexity of our bodies and our hormones is imperative at every age” .

Fluent in French, Dr. Swigert enjoys using this skill in the office and abroad. She is an active translator and was able to use both language and medical skills on a mission trip to Haiti.

With over 20 years of clinical experience, Dr. Jila is committed to empowering women through personalized, science-backed care. As a certified Menopause Society collaborator and host of the Her Time, Her Health podcast, she integrates cutting-edge research with compassionate, holistic treatment across the lifespan.

Dr. Robin Austin, Associate Professor at the University of Minnesota School of Nursing and Director of the Center for Nursing Informatics, brings more than 20 years of clinical experience in pain management, women’s health, and integrative health. With a DNP and PhD in Nursing Informatics and dual training as a chiropractor and nurse, her research integrates data science methods to address whole-person needs, with a focus on chronic pain and menopause in midlife women. She is a Research Mentee with the Menopause Society and a Fellow of both the American Academy of Nursing and the American Medical Informatics Association.

Kristen Mark, PhD, MPH is a sex and relationships researcher, educator, and therapist. Dr. Mark is a Professor in Family Medicine and Community Health at University of Minnesota Medical School, the Director of the Center for Women's Health Research, and the Director of Education of the Eli Coleman Institute for Sexual and Gender Health. She holds the Joycelyn Elders Endowed Chair in Sexual Health Education. Dr. Mark leads several NIH grants focusing on women's health research, training future women's health researchers, and training healthcare providers to be prepared for sexual and gender health issues that arise in their patient populations. As an internationally recognized leader in sexual health, Dr. Mark is involved in global efforts to improve sexual health, rights, and justice worldwide through her work with the World Association for Sexual Health as the Scientific Chair. She has published over 100 peer reviewed journal articles, presented her work at hundreds of academic conferences, and is regularly relied upon to digest sex and relationship science to the public through print, radio, and television media. 

Dr. Indy Lane became Vice President of Women’s Health at Allina Health in July 2024. She is a board-certified Ob/Gyn and Certified Menopause Practitioner, overseeing the Women's Health Clinical Service Line, including high-risk maternal and fetal programs, general obstetrics and gynecology, midwifery, and subspecialty gynecology.

Dr. Rachel R. Hardeman is a nationally recognized scholar, storyteller, and
architect of systems that heal. Named to TIME Magazine’s list of the 100
Most Influential People in the World, she is reimagining what it means to
build systems of care rooted in love,
science, and liberation.
A proud graduate of Xavier University of
Louisiana—an HBCU that shaped her
belief in education as a practice of
liberation—Rachel earned her MPH and
PhD from the University of Minnesota
School of Public Health. There, as a
tenured professor, she made history as the
founding director of the Center for
Antiracism Research for Health Equity (CARHE), a nationally recognized
hub for antiracist research, policy, and narrative change.
Dr. Hardeman has published more than 100 peer-reviewed articles in
leading medical and public health journals, including the New England
Journal of Medicine, Journal of the American Medical Association, Health
Affairs, and the American Journal of Public Health. Her influence,
however, extends far beyond academia. Her research has informed both
state and federal policy—shaping Vice President Kamala Harris’s White
House Initiative on Black Maternal Health, Congresswoman Lauren
Underwood’s Momnibus Act, and Minnesota’s Dignity in Pregnancy and
Childbirth Act, advancing antiracist care and accountability across systems.
Because she believes research should never sit on a shelf, Dr. Hardeman
created the Measuring Racism Data Portal®—the first national, publicly
available tool to make structural racism visible and actionable. Launched at
Aspen Ideas 2024, the platform equips policymakers, researchers, and
communities with multidimensional data to answer Dr. Camara Jones’s
enduring question: “How is racism operating here?” A cornerstone of her
data-justice vision, the portal turns measurement into movement—making
the invisible undeniable so systems can be held accountable.

Now, Rachel is building a creative ecosystem for liberation that translates
radical imagination into systems that heal. Her work blends data justice,
maternal wisdom, and design thinking to ask not only What’s wrong? but
What’s possible?
Outside of her public work, Rachel is an unapologetically proud dance
mom—though not that kind of dance mom—the kind who finds joy in
nurturing her daughter’s artistry. She’s into Olympic-style
weightlifting—because lifting a barbell reminds her she can carry what’s
heavy, both in body and in life—she’s fueled by deep conversation,
energized by her favorite artists Prince and Lizzo, and believes joy itself is a
form of resistance training.
At her core, Rachel was born a dreamer—she builds worlds. Whether
through research, writing, or movement, she reminds us that every story is
a study, every dream a data point, and every act of imagination a method of
survival.

Perry's experience spans large Fortune 500 companies as well as high-growth and private equity-backed organizations in her professional career. Prior to joining emtelligent as the chief growth officer, she served as vice president of business development and partnerships for ABOUT Healthcare. Perry also was national healthcare practice director and business development director at management consulting firm West Monroe Partners. Earlier in her career, she was an executive for 15 years at Xerox Services (now Conduent) and parent company Xerox Corp.

In addition to her full-time professional roles, Perry is president of Women's Health Leadership TRUST, an organization with 500 members that elevates and supports women at all phases of their healthcare career, and an advisory board member at Broadpath, a privately held call center company. Perry also served as a member of the executive leadership team for the American Heart Association's Heart Ball, as board chair for more than three years of Neighborhood HealthSource, a Federally Qualified Health Center in Minneapolis, and was honored with a 2020 Minneapolis/St. Paul Women in Business award from the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal.

She earned a bachelor's degree in marketing and economics (with a specialty in international business) from the University of Wisconsin – Madison.