We are proud to announce the following keynote speakers:
Jacky Boivin
UNITED KINGDOM
Jacky Boivin, PhD, is a Reader and Chartered Health Psychologist in the School of Psychology, Cardiff University, and an honorary fellow in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at University Hospital Wales. Her most important contribution to the field of reproductive health has been to bring about a more systematic and research-oriented perspective to the investigation of psychological issues in reproductive health. She has authored numerous publications on the psychosocial aspects of infertility, is on the editorial board (associate editor) of Human Reproduction Update and Gynecologic and Obstetric Investigation, and is/has been on numerous advisory boards in reproductive health, including chair of the Psychology & Counseling section of the European Society for Human Reproduction and Embryology. She has served on the advisory boards of patient associations, and is on the World Health Organization task force on terminology, key outcomes, and widening access to ART in low-resource countries. Dr. Boivin contributes to public understanding of science through invited lectures in the community and media work. Current projects expected to have important implications in the field of reproductive health are investigation of why men are not represented in psychosocial fertility research, validation of an international fertility quality of life measure (FertiQoL) and a fertility awareness tool, follow-up of older mothers conceiving with fertility treatment, public health campaigns to raise awareness of risk factors for fertility problems, development of a decision aid to facilitate embryo disposition, and evaluation of novel psychosocial coping interventions for medical waiting periods.
Linda Giudice
USA
Dr. Linda Giudice, Chair of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences at University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), is a biochemist, gynecologist, and reproductive endocrinologist who specializes in endometriosis, implantation and ovulatory disorders, infertility, and assisted reproduction. In her research, she focuses on endometrial biology and placental-uterine interactions relevant to implantation and pregnancy disorders, environmental impacts on reproductive health, and human embryonic and endometrial stem/progenitor cells.
Dr. Giudice earned a Ph.D. in biochemistry at University of California, Los Angeles, completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Rockefeller University, working under Nobel Laureate Gunter Blobel, and completed post-doctoral research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). She earned her medical degree at Stanford University and completed a residency in obstetrics and gynecology at Stanford and Washington University in St. Louis, as well as a fellowship in reproductive endocrinology and infertility at Stanford. She was a faculty member at the Stanford University School of Medicine for 19 years where she was the Director of the Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility division. She has served on numerous NIH study sections, is former Chair of the Reproductive Health Drugs Advisory Committee to the FDA, and chaired the NIH Reproductive Medicine Network and Specialized Cooperative Centers Program in Reproduction and Infertility Research Steering Committees. She served on the board of directors of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) and the Society for Women’s Health Research and was President of the Society for Gynecologic Investigation (SGI). Dr. Giudice was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies in 2002 and currently is a member of the IOM Health Sciences Policy Board. In October 2005, she joined UCSF as the Robert B. Jaffe, M.D., Endowed Professor and Chair of the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences.
Dr. Giudice is the recipient of numerous awards for her work including the 2008 SGI President’s Distinguished Scientist Award, the 2008 Women in Science Award from the American Medical Women’s Association, and the ASRM 2008 Distinguished Researcher Award. She was honored as one of the NIH Great Teachers and the NIH Perinatology Branch Wall of Honor. She is also the recipient of the American Infertility Association “Illumination Award” for her work on the environment and reproductive health. In January 2010, Dr. Giudice was elected Co-Chair of the CDC National Action Plan on Infertility, Environmental and Occupational Exposure Working Group and Steering Committee.
Georg Griesinger
GERMANY
Georg Griesinger is a consultant and Senior Lecturer at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University Clinic of Schleswig-Holstein, Luebeck, Germany. He trained at the University of Vienna, where he worked in trophoblast research for his MD thesis at the Department of Obstetrics, and then did postdoctoral studies at University College London, where he obtained an MSc in prenatal genetics and fetal medicine. His PhD was on ovarian stimulation for IVF using GnRH-antagonists. His research interests include the endocrinology of ovarian stimulation and epidemiological studies in IVF. He is member of the scientific advisory board of the German medical association on issues of reproductive health. He serves as an Associate Editor for Human Reproduction, Reproductive Biomedicine Online, and Archives of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and regularly reviews for all major journals in the field. He is also member of the Cochrane menstrual disorder and subfertility group. Georg Griesinger is author or co-author of more than 80 articles, including 52 peer-reviewed papers.
Teresa Woodruff
USA
Teresa K. Woodruff, Ph.D. (Thomas J. Watkins Professor of Obstetrics & Gynecology, Fein-berg School of Medicine and Professor of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Cell Biology, Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences. Ph.D. 1983, Northwestern University). As a repro-ductive endocrinologist, Dr. Woodruff has spent the better part of her research career focus-ing on female reproductive health and infertility. To that end, she was made Chief of the newly created Division of Fertility Preservation at the Feinberg School of Medicine. Combin-ing this effort with her work on two R01 NIH grants, a P01 grant and core facility, and her work as director of two NIH funded center grants (The Center for Reproductive Research (U54) and the Oncofertility Consortium (UL1), Dr. Woodruff has established a team of oncologists, fertility specialists, social scientists, educators and policy makers to translate her research to the clinical care of women who will lose their fertility due to cancer treatment. To describe this effort, she coined the term oncofertility, a word that is now officially recognized as a new ’slang’ term in the English language. She edited the first book on this topic called Oncofertility (Springer, 2007) where the scope of the problem and current technology, clinical practice tables, procedural guidelines and patient stories are collected. She has been an advocate for gender specificity in clinical trials in an effort to better understand the effects that technologies and procedures have on women and is the Founder and Director of the Institute for Women’s Health Research. As an educator and mentor, she encourages young women to pursue careers in the sciences, and has developed the Oncofertility Saturday Academy in conjunction with the Young Women’s Leadership Charter School as a way to involve high school girls in college level science. She serves on the Endocrine Society Council and the Society for the Study of Reproduction Board of Directors. Her awards include the Distinguished Teaching Award (2000), the Mentor of the Year Award (2009) and the Distinguished Woman in Medicine and Science (2009) from Northwestern University. She was also honored by the Alumnae of Northwestern University with their Distinguished Alumnae Award (2008). She has been honored nationally with awards from the American Women in Science (AWIS) (2008) Innovator Award, the American Medical Women Association (AMWA) Gender Equity Award (2009), and the “Speaking of Women’s Health” Distinguished Service Award (2007). She was elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2005) and awarded the Endocrine Society’s Richard E. Weitzman Memorial Award (2000). She is the 2010 recipient of the Feinberg School of Medicine Tripartite Legacy Award, and will receive an honorary degree in 2010 from Bates College in Lewiston, ME.