South Carolina Menopause Collaborative
Advancing evidence-based menopause care, education, and access across the Palmetto State.
A First-in-the-Nation Initiative
The South Carolina Menopause Collaborative (SCMC) is building a statewide network to improve access to evidence-based menopause care, education, and support. Our goal is to connect clinicians, academic partners, and public health leaders to redefine how South Carolina supports women in midlife and menopause.
Why This Matters
Every day, women across South Carolina are waking up exhausted, anxious, drenched in night sweats, losing sleep, losing patience, and wondering why no one prepared them for this chapter of life. They are juggling careers, caregiving, marriages, leadership roles, and personal identity changes while trying to hide their symptoms and push through.
Menopause touches everything—heart health, bone strength, brain function, mental health, sexuality, metabolism, sleep, weight, and emotional wellbeing. Yet most women here will never meet a menopause-trained clinician. Most will never receive treatment based on research. Many will be dismissed or told to “just live with it.”
South Carolina has a chance to change that story—not someday, but now. We can become the first state in the nation to build a coordinated menopause care model, proving that women’s midlife health deserves visibility, investment, education, and respect.
We are building something new, and we can’t do it alone. When clinicians, educators, and community partners step forward, we create momentum—and momentum becomes transformation. This is your invitation to help reshape the future of women’s health in South Carolina.
What We’re Building
A statewide multidisciplinary referral network
Free clinician education and CME
Menopause curriculum improvements in medical and nursing schools
Public menopause resources and symptom education
Rural care access strategies
A unified voice for policy and awareness
Founder & Executive Director
Hali Neely, MSN, APRN, FNP-BC, MSCP
The South Carolina Menopause Collaborative was founded by Hali Neely, MSN, APRN, FNP-BC, MSCP, a women’s health nurse practitioner and lifelong South Carolinian raised in rural Westminster, SC. Hali proudly attended the South Carolina Governor’s School for Science & Mathematics, Clemson University, and Anderson University, and she began her career as an obstetrics nurse at Greenville Memorial Hospital and an outpatient lactation consultant at The Breastfeeding Center at Parkside before transitioning into full-time clinical practice as a nurse practitioner.
She specializes in hormone therapy and midlife medicine and holds national certification as a Menopause Society Certified Practitioner, caring for thousands of women across perimenopause and menopause throughout her career. Her vision is to position South Carolina as the first state in the nation with a coordinated menopause care model built on evidence-based standards and statewide collaboration.
Hali is deeply committed to improving access for rural counties, historically underserved communities, and women who have never had access to specialized menopause support. SCMC reflects her belief that South Carolina can lead the country by connecting clinicians, elevating standards of care, and ensuring every woman—regardless of geography, income, or background—can access the menopause support she deserves.
Founding Members
We are uniting menopause-focused clinicians across every region of South Carolina.
Dr. Andrew White, MD, FACOG, MSCP
Regional Founding Council, Upstate
Dr. Andrew White is a Board-Certified OB/GYN and Menopause Society Certified Practitioner serving patients in the Upstate. Originally from Cheraw, SC, he attended the University of South Carolina School of Medicine in Columbia, and has since dedicated his practice to improving health and quality of life for South Carolina women.
Dr. White is passionate about evidence-based, individualized menopause care—supporting women through hot flashes, sleep disruption, mood changes, bone health, sexual health concerns, and other midlife transitions. He is equally committed to helping women avoid unnecessary cesarean deliveries, manage abnormal bleeding, and find answers for pelvic pain.
As a founding clinical member of the South Carolina Menopause Collaborative, he will help shape statewide clinical guidance, referral pathways, and provider education for menopause care in the Upstate.
(And if you ever need a karaoke partner, his go-to song is “Islands in the Stream.”)
Dr. Kate Schuh White, MD, FACOG, MSCP, DABOM
Regional Founding Council, Lowcountry
Dr. Kate Schuch White is a Board-certified Menopause and Sexual Medicine Specialist, also Board Certified in Obesity Medicine. She has 28 years of managing and treating menopausal symptoms and helping women thrive. She cares for and educates women through her practice at Lowcountry Ob/Gyn, in Charleston, SC, and on Instagram and TikTok @DrKateWhiteObGyn, and on her podcast @HeadsAndTailsPodcast with her husband Jay White, marriage and family counselor - helping midlife couples recalibrate all their relationships. She lectures nationally and internationally, also at the nail salon and in the line at the grocery, and anywhere there is a midlife woman. When she realized that her patients needed much more than her residency training had prepared her for in the area of menopause and sexual medicine, and metabolic obesity medicine, she sought out top training in those areas at ISSWSH and The Menopause Society, and the American Board of Obesity Medicine. Now she makes it her mission to spread the word every day. She believes that women’s menopausal symptoms need to be validated. Women deserve education so that they can participate in shared decision-making to achieve a better health span, as well as a better life span.
• MD degree: Medical University of South Carolina, Residency: University of Texas Medical Branch
• Speaker in all areas of women’s health, to empower women with knowledge about menopause and healthy aging
• Podcast host: Heads and Tails Podcast
• Medical editor for healthcare journalism
• Married to her husband, Jay White- a marriage and family counselor, since 1998, raising their son Jack, and daughter Crawford in Mount Pleasant, SC
Dr. Lawren Honken, MD, FACOG, MSCP
Regional Founding Council, Midlands
Dr. Lawren Honken, a Board-Certified OB/GYN, certified menopause practitioner, and has a graduate certificate in Integrative Medicine fellow at George Washington University, brings over nine years of expertise in women’s health from the Midlands of South Carolina. With a genuine passion for guiding women through life’s health transitions, Dr. Honken believes in making complex medical knowledge feel like a heart-to-heart conversation with a trusted friend.
As a physician, she quickly realized that her role offers a unique advantage—access to medical experts and the tools to navigate the healthcare system. Now, she’s on a mission to empower other women with that same clarity and confidence. Dr. Honken’s approach to care puts her patients at the center, blending her medical expertise with each person’s individual values to create personalized, patient-led decisions. She’s passionate about helping women understand their bodies, prioritize their autonomy, and advocate for themselves.