Early Career Ambassador

TOPBAS SELCUKI Nura Fitnat

University of Health Sciences Turkey and University of Oxford
Istanbul and Oxford, UK

Doctor of Philosophy Candidate, Nuffield Department of Women’s & Reproductive Health, University of Oxford, United Kingdom. MD, Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University of Health Sciences Turkey, Sisli Hamidiye Etfal Training and Research Hospital, Istanbul, Turkey

Nura Fitnat Topbas Selcuki is a DPhil candidate in the EndoCaRe Group at Women’s and Reproductive Health at the University of Oxford. Fitnat’s research focuses on the genetic basis of adenomyosis compared to endometriosis. She will be performing genome-wide association studies to evaluate disease-associated variants. She also aims to expand the ancestral diversity of existing study populations by including two studies from the Eastern Mediterranean region, Cyprus Women’s Health Research (COHERE) Initiative and Turkey Oxford Endometriosis and Adenomyosis Study (TROX), in her analyses.

Fitnat is also an attending physician at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of Health Sciences Turkey based in Istanbul. She focuses on benign gynaecological diseases and has a special interest in endometriosis.  She is also an active member of the Turkish Endometriosis and Adenomyosis Society.

She was selected as a World Endometriosis Society Early Career Ambassador in 2019 and an Early Career Board member in 2023.

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Early Career Ambassador

GOKSEVER CELIK Hale

Acibadem Mehmet Ali Aydinlar University
Istanbul, Turkey

Associate Professor, Acibadem Mehmet Ali Aydinlar University Faculty of Medicine, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Acibadem Fulya Hospital, IVF and Endometriosis Center, Istanbul, Turkey. Postdoctoral research fellowship, Molecular Biology and Genetics, Istanbul University, Istanbul, Turkey  

Hale Goksever Celik is an obstetrician and gynecologist, graduated from the medical school of the Hacettepe University in 2005, and trained through Obstetrics and Gynecology fellowship at Dokuz Eylul University in 2010. She has been a postdoctoral research fellow at Molecular Biology and Genetics in Istanbul University.

Gynecological endoscopy, especially endometriosis surgery and reproductive health are included in her clinical interests. She has been participating on several researches and abstracts in national or international scientific congresses and book chapters. Her research projects are focused on the endometriosis surgery, genetic factors of endometriosis and fertility outcomes of the patients with endometriosis. She is the author/co-author of more than forty-five scientific articles published in the most important gynaecological journals, such as Fertility and Sterility.

She was selected as a World Endometriosis Society Early Career Ambassador in 2019.

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Ambassador

OSUGA Yutaka

University of Tokyo
Tokyo, Japan

Professor, Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Graduate School of Medicine, University of Tokyo, Japan. Vice President, University of Tokyo Hospital, Japan. President, Japan Society of Gynecologic and Obstetric Endoscopy and Minimally Invasive Therapy. Vice President, Japan Society for Reproductive Medicine. Vice President, Japan Society of Fertilization and Implantation

Professor Osuga received his MD in 1985 and PhD in 1995 from the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Tokyo, Japan. He completed his OB/GYN residency training at the University of Tokyo and subsequently trained as a postdoctoral fellow in the field of ovarian physiology in Stanford University from 1995 to 1997.

Professor Osuga provides clinical services in gynaecology and reproductive medicine with a special expertise in laparoscopic surgery and assisted reproductive technology.  His main research targets cover a wide variety of physiology and pathology of reproduction including endometriosis, implantation, folliculogenesis, and reproductive aging. He has authored more than 300 research papers published in eminent peer-reviewed international journals and has written and edited many textbooks.

He serves as an executive board member of several medical groups and associations and as an editor of several international journals. He is frequently sought out to provide his expertise at international medical conferences and academic institutions.

Yutaka Osuga was appointed a WES Ambassador in August 2019.

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Early Career Ambassador

McALLISTER Stacy

Emory School of Medicine
Atlanta, USA

Assistant Professor, Emory School of Medicine Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, USA

Stacy McAllister earned her PhD in Neuroscience under the mentorship of Dr Karen Berkley at Florida State University. During her graduate career, her primary research focus was investigating peripheral contributors to endometriosis-associated vaginal hyperalgesia (~dyspareunia) in a rat model of endometriosis.

As an instructor at Stanford University, she received a prestigious NIH (NICHD) K99 Award. Her research targets reactive aldehyde detoxification as a treatment strategy and diagnostic biomarker for endometriosis. Some of her additional research interests and projects include the involvement of the endocannabinoid system in endometriosis and its associated pain.

She was selected as a World Endometriosis Society Early Career Ambassador in 2018 and an Early Career Board member in 2023.

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Ambassador

OPPELT Peter

Kepler University
Linz, Austria

Professor and Chair of the Department of Gynaecology, Obstetrics, and Gynaecological Endocrinology, Kepler University, Linz, Austria

Professor Oppelt studied at the University of Regensburg and Munich in Germany. After his exams he started as a resident at the Goethe University Hospital in Frankfurt, Germany. After 5 years he moved to the Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen, Germany, as a fellow.

His main interests are the operative therapy and the classification system for endometriosis. In addition to his focus on the relationship between endometriosis and fertility, he is currently particularly interested in the methods of birth after deep endometriosis.

Professor Oppelt is a member of the board of the German Endometriosis Research Foundation (SEF), the German Society of Gynaecological Endoscopy, and the Austrian Society of Gynaecology and Obstetrics.

He was the president of the 10th Endometriosis Congress of the German speaking countries in Linz, Austria (2013) and was also in charge of the 4th European Congress of Endometriosis in Vienna, Austria (2018).

Due to his experience in the field, he has been a co-author of the German guidelines for endometriosis for many years.

Peter Oppelt was appointed a WES Ambassador in March 2019.

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Early Career Ambassador

MOUSA Mira

Khalifa University
Abu Dhabi, UAE

Postdoctoral, genetic epidemiological scientist at the Khalifa University, UAE.

Mira Mousa obtained her PhD from the Nuffield Department of Women’s and Reproductive Health Department at the University of Oxford. Mira is leading the ‘MAR’A Project: Middle Eastern Women Research Association,’ an epidemiological study on women’s health conditions in the Middle East that aims to develop a better understanding of cultural and regional gynecological health patterns. With institutional, stakeholder and governmental collaborations, her research focuses on delineating epidemiological and genomic profiles associated with common gynecological diseases, specifically endometriosis and related co-morbidities, as well as metabolic conditions.

She was selected as a World Endometriosis Society Early Career Ambassador in 2019 and an Early Career Board member in 2023.

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Early Career Ambassador

PONTRÉ Jennifer

King Edward Memorial Hospital
Perth, Australia

AGES laparoscopic fellow, King Edward Memorial Hospital, Perth, Australia

Jennifer Pontré obtained her medical degree from the University of Western Australia (UWA) and is a newly graduated fellow of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. She is currently completing a fellowship as an AGES certified laparoscopic surgeon at the King Edward Memorial Hospital in Perth, Western Australia.

She regularly lectures at the University of Western Australia and recently obtained her Masters of Reproductive Medicine through the University of New South Wales. She has a keen interest in research and was the recipient of an AGES research grant in 2017. She has authored several papers and book chapters in the fields of gynaecology and fertility, and is a regular presenter at national and international conferences. Dr Pontré is committed to the pursuit of excellence in the management of endometriosis.

She was selected as a World Endometriosis Society Early Career Ambassador in 2019

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Early Career Ambassador

FARLAND Leslie

University of Arizona
Tucson, USA

Associate Professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health at the University of Arizona.

Leslie Farland has training in biology (AB; University of Chicago) and reproductive epidemiology (MSc, ScD; Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health). Prior to joining the faculty at UofA, she was an Instructor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Harvard Medical School and served as the Director of Epidemiologic Research at the Center for Infertility and Reproductive Surgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Her research program focuses broadly on gynecologic and reproductive health and can be categorized into four major themes: i) the intersection between gynecologic health and chronic disease risk, ii) etiology and risk factors for endometriosis, infertility, and polycystic ovary syndrome, iii) environmental and occupational risk factors for reproductive health, iv) disparities in access to reproductive health care. She has published over 120 scientific articles on women’s health, with over 40 focused on endometriosis.

She was selected as a World Endometriosis Society Early Career Ambassador in 2018.

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Additional Board Member

Jacques Maas

WESinars and Education Lead
Veldhoven, The Netherlands

Máxima Medical Center

Gynaecologist, sub-specialist in reproductive medicine, and principal tutor for residents, Máxima Medical Center, Veldhoven, The Netherlands

Jacques Maas studied medicine in Maastricht, the Netherlands. Thereafter he commenced research in endometriosis and wrote his thesis ‘Invasion and angiogenesis in endometriosis; experimental studies in the chick embryo chorioallantoic membrane ’.

In 2007, he was registered as a gynaecologist and sub-specialist in reproductive medicine. For several years he worked at the endometriosis expertise centre of the department  of obstetrics and gynaecology at the Maastricht University Medical Centre.

Since 2011 he has worked at the woman, mother and child centre of the Máxima Medical Centre of Veldhoven. It was in this hospital that he got the opportunity to establish a multidisciplinary team for endometriosis care. Other aspects of his clinical work include endoscopic surgery, benign gynaecology, reproductive medicine, psychosomatics, and sexual medicine. His research interests focus on these aspects as well. In the field of endometriosis the main research topics are currently treatment of endometrioma, shared decision making, and pain. Jacques serves as a reviewer for national and international journals including the European Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Reproductive Biology, Fertility and Sterility, and Human Reproduction.

Dr Maas is a co-founder of the Academy of Psychosomatics in Obstetrics and Gynaecology and co-founder and president of the SIG Endometriosis of the Dutch Society of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. He is a member of the advisory board of the Dutch Endometriosis Society, and recently a member of the Endometriosis Guideline Group of ESHRE.

Jacques Maas became a WES Ambassador in 2018

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Additional Board Member

Engin Oral

WCE2027 Co-Presidents
Istanbul, Turkey

Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Istanbul, Turkey. President, European Endometriosis League 

Professor Engin Oral MD is a reproductive endocrinologist and a gynaecologic surgeon. He has been working in the field of obstetrics and gynaecology since 1993. His main areas of expertise are: in-vitro fertilization, infertility, endometriosis, gynaecologic endoscopy (hysteroscopy, laparoscopy), reproductive endocrinology, and the menopause.

As of November 2018, professor Oral is the current president of the European Endometriosis League, which he joined as a board member in 2016.

He obtained his medical degree at Istanbul University Medical Faculty, and his adventure with endometriosis started in 1995-1996 at Yale University, New Haven, USA, Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology (under the division of reproductive endocrinology with the mentorship of professors Aydın Arici MD and David Olive MD). 

In  2009 he founded the Endometriosis & Adenomyosis Society in Turkey and is currently the vice president of the society. In 2012, he organised the 2nd Asian Endometriosis Congress, which took place in Istanbul with his colleagues. After this, in 2016, he hosted an ESHRE Campus as a special interest group in Istanbul. 

Dr Oral has over 50 peer reviewed articles at international academic journals. His research is mainly focused on endometriosis, ART, and infertility.

Engin Oral was appointed a WES Ambassador in March 2019.

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