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Doris Rouse, Wendee Wechsberg named Triangle Business Journal 2014 Women in Business Awards winners

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. — Triangle Business Journal recognized Doris Rouse, Ph.D., vice president of the center for global health at RTI International, and Wendee Wechsberg, Ph.D., director of RTI Global Gender Center and substance abuse treatment evaluations and interventions at RTI, as 2014 Women in Business Awards winners. 

The award honors Rouse for her contributions in innovation and Wechsberg for her dedication as a mentor. 

The Women in Business Awards program recognizes dynamic women in the Triangle for their outstanding leadership and accomplishments in business and/or community service. The judges, composed of Triangle Business Journal staff and Triangle area business leaders, selected 25 award recipients among more than 100 entries. 

“These winners are putting accomplished leadership to work in their professions, challenging any lingering gender gap,” said Bryan Hamilton, publisher of Triangle Business Journal. “Not only are they delivering an impressive list of achievements, but they’re also champions of our community and role models to women hoping to follow in their footsteps.”

At RTI, Rouse has developed global health innovations through partnerships with government, industry and universities. Her research includes the development of a web-based tool, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, to assess the impact of innovative technologies on maternal, fetal and neonatal mortality in low-resource areas. 

Rouse also led the development of a new compound to improve tuberculosis treatment, and helped form the Global Alliance for TB Drug Development. She currently serves on the Global Health Advisory Committee at the University of North Carolina School of Public Health. 

“Doris and Wendee are passionate leaders who are improving the lives of individuals around the globe,” said Tim Gabel executive vice president of Social, Statistical and Environmental Sciences at RTI. “We are very excited to see these two amazing women recognized for their significant accomplishments.” 

Wechsberg is dedicated to helping develop the next generation of researchers. She has mentored drug abuse researchers around the world in substance abuse treatment research and practice, particularly in South Africa and Russia. As the director of the new RTI Global Gender Center, Wechsberg works to bring together a network of multidisciplinary scientists, program evaluators and researchers across RTI with domestic and international collaborators to improve knowledge, policies and programs for the reduction of gender inequities and disparities worldwide. 

Wechsberg is also an adjunct professor at both the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University. In these roles, she mentors U.S. graduate students and postdocs and encourages their participation in international collaborative research on gender and ethnicity, HIV risk and substance abuse among women. 

This year’s winners will be recognized at an awards luncheon on April 7 at the Raleigh Marriott City Center in Raleigh. Triangle Business Journal will profile the winners in a special section, published in the April 11 print edition.