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’s career as a scientist and advocate has been guided by a central principle: “To be a leader means to really empower all of the people you work with.”

As a graduate student at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science, Woitowich helped develop an outreach program, Women in Scientific Discovery or Medicine, or WISDOM, to encourage young girls to pursue science careers. In 2016, she was selected for the Presidential Management Fellowship, a federal leadership program. Rather than pursuing a government role, she chose a career combining research, advocacy, policy and science communication.

Nicole Woitowich

During her graduate training, working on reproductive physiology and enzymology, Woitowich noticed the often-overlooked importance of sex differences, particularly the role of hormones in whole-body systems.

Reflecting on her training, she said, “I was taught to think about sex differences, so it felt natural to me. I didn’t realize others weren’t considering it.”

Woitowich is the executive director of the Northwestern University Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute and a research assistant professor in the Department of Medical Social Sciences. Her work focuses on advancing gender equity in science, emphasizing the importance of incorporating sex as a biological variable in biomedical research. She points to the lack of dedicated funding to address sex differences in research and highlights the efficiency of designing studies that consider sex as a critical variable from the outset.

“If we can design experiments to consider sex as we would time, dose, and reagents, we save time and resources by improving rigor and reproducibility,” she said.

Her commitment to interdisciplinary science is also evident in her role as executive director of a Clinical and Translational Science Award, or CTSA, hub.

“I’m not limited to one area of science,” Woitowich said. “In this role, I have the unique opportunity to engage with researchers across diverse fields, fostering collaborations that push scientific discoveries closer to real-world applications. My career allows me to support and amplify the work of others, helping to bridge gaps in knowledge and bring transformative innovations to patients and communities faster.”

She serves on the Â鶹´«Ã½É«ÇéƬ and Â鶹´«Ã½É«ÇéƬ Biology Finance Committee and directs the Women’s Health Access Matters, or WHAM, Research Collaborative, a nonprofit dedicated to improving women’s health research.

Woitowich is the 2025 recipient of the ASBMB Emerging Leadership Award, which honors an associate professor, assistant professor or equivalent with no more than 15 years of experience since receiving a Ph.D. and/or M.D.