Ambassador

ABBOTT Jason

WCE2025 Co-President
Sydney, Australia

Dr Jason Abbott is Professor of obstetrics and gynaecology at the University of New South Wales. He has published more than 220 peer-reviewed publications, has supervised more than 40 students through higher research degrees and garnered more than $20million in research funding. He is the co-Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Minimally Invasive Gynaecology, is the chair of the National Endometriosis Clinical and Scientific Trials (NECST) Network, Australia and directs the GRACE research group and is a member of the Endometriosis advisory group to the Australian government.

Jason Abbott was appointed a WES Ambassador in August 2019 and most recently the WCE2025 Co-President.

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Early Career Board Member

Leslie Farland

WES/WERF Research Priorities Group
Arizona, USA

Leslie V. Farland, ScD, is a tenured Associate Professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health at the University of Arizona.

She 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 the University of Arizona, 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) endometriosis and risk of comorbid chronic diseases, 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 100 scientific articles on women’s health, with over 40 focused on endometriosis.

Email: lfarland@email.arizona.edu

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Additional Board Member

Sawsan (Suzie) As-Sanie

Membership
Ann Arbor, USA

Associate Professor (with tenure) of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Michigan, USA Director, University of Michigan. Endometriosis and Chronic Pelvic Pain Programme, USA Director, University of Michigan. Minimally Invasive Gynecologic Surgery and Fellowship, USA

Dr Sawsan As-Sanie is an associate professor at The University of Michigan, where she is a director of the Minimally Invasive Gynecologic Surgery Programme and Fellowship, and the director of the Endometriosis and Chronic Pelvic Pain Programme.

Dr As-Sanie received her medical degree from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in 1998 and completed her residency in obstetrics and gynaecology at MetroHealth Medical Center and the Cleveland Clinic Foundation in 2002.  Following residency, she completed a three year clinical and research fellowship in Advanced Laparoscopy and Chronic Pelvic Pain at the University of North Carolina.  During this time, she also received her MPH in epidemiology from The UNC School of Public Health.

Dr As-Sanie is committed to promoting improvements in the healthcare of women with chronic pelvic pain and endometriosis by pursuing clinical and translational research in the epidemiology, physiology, and treatment of endometriosis and other pelvic pain disorders.

She is an NIH-funded clinician scientist and has published and lectured widely on the mechanisms involved in the initiation and maintenance of chronic pelvic pain and post-surgical pain, with a focus on endometriosis-associated pelvic pain.

Through collaborations with Dr Daniel Clauw and the University of Michigan Chronic Pain and Fatigue Research Center, her team has published many of the first studies to demonstrate the role of central nervous system sensitisation in the initiation and maintenance of chronic pain in women with endometriosis-associated chronic pelvic pain, which is independent of the presence and severity of endometriosis.

These studies have shifted the paradigm in the care of women with chronic pelvic pain and have been sited extensively to explain why the degree of endometriosis does not correlate with the severity of pain symptoms. She is the principal investigator of an NIH-funded prospective observational study to identify peripheral and central nervous system factors, which may predict persistent chronic pelvic pain following hysterectomy, including the influence of chronic overlapping pain conditions on endometriosis and hysterectomy outcomes.

She is the past-president of the International Pelvic Pain Society (IPPS) and serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Minimally Invasive Gynecology.  She was recently appointed to the Society of Women’s Health Research Interdisciplinary Network on Female Pelvic Health, and has worked on multiple additional national and international committees dedicated to advancing the access, knowledge, and high-value care of women with endometriosis and chronic pelvic pain.

Dr As-Sanie was the recipient of the 2011 Rodolphe Maheux Award for presenting the best clinical abstract at the 11th World Congress on Endometriosis.

Sawsan As-Sanie was appointed a WES Ambassador in August 2019.

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Additional Board Member

Adrienn Salamon

Global Societies Outreach
Budapest, Hungary

President, Női Egészségért Alapítvány, Hungary

A 40-year-old woman who has been living with endometriosis for the past 14 years and whose life completely changed after a 7-hour surgery. Today she is a happy wife and, thanks to IVF treatment, also the proud mother of two beautiful children: the 8-year-old Abigel Zora and the 4-year-old Zakariah Lenard.

She is also the President of the Női Egészségért Alapítvány, which is the only official NGO in Hungary to raise awareness and educate about endometriosis and support women suffering from the disorder. She has started the Foundation in 2010 after being diagnosed with endometriosis and she has been advocating for women’s health ever since. Learning to live with the disease has undoubtedly been a great challenge, but now she has made it her mission to support endometriosis patients and their families. Her driving force is her dream that not a single woman has to go through the same struggle she experienced due to endometriosis.

She and her foundation is one of the consortium partners of FEMaLe. The Finding Endometriosis using Machine Learning project (FEMaLe) will develop and demonstrate the Scalable Multi-Omics Platform that converts multi-omic person population datasets into a personalised predictive model to improve intervention along the continuum of care for people with endometriosis. They will design, validate and implement a comprehensive model for the detection and management of people with endometriosis to facilitate shared decision making between the patient and the healthcare provider, enable the delivery of precision medicine, and drive new discoveries in endometriosis treatment to deliver novel therapies and improve quality of life for patients.

Adrienn is also the organizer of the EEL Masterclass places in Budapest at the request of Dr. Attila Bokor

Two of the many great achievements of her Foundation in Hungary:

  • the diagnostic delay has been reduced to 4 years in Hungary
  • rules and laws have been changed in Hungary (Hungarian Endometriosis Guideline signed by the Secretary of State for Health; tax reductions for women affected by endometriosis)

She believes in the power of collaboration that “Together it’s easier”.

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Additional Board Member

Idhaliz Flores

PhD
Social Media Oversight in support of Mathew Leonardi
Ponce, Puerto Rico

Department of Basic Sciences, Department of ObGyn, Ponce Health Sciences University, Chair, Division of Women’s Health, Ponce Research Institute

Idhaliz Flores, PhD, is molecular biologist with 20 years of experience in research on Women’s health, endometriosis, pelvic pain and infertility. Dr. Flores is Professor of Basic Sciences and Ob-Gyn at Ponce Health Sciences University (PHSU) in Puerto Rico and Director of the Endometriosis Research Program at the Ponce Research Institute.

Her research focus includes discovery of molecular biomarkers, genetics/epigenetics, immune mechanisms, psychosocial impact, health disparities, stress and stigma associated with endometriosis.

Accomplishments of her research program including documenting epidemiological patterns, identification of potential immune diagnostic/therapeutic markers, discovery of genetic and epigenetic drugable targets, investigating central mechanisms of pain in the rat model and the HPA axis in patients, and pioneering studies of the effects of stress on disease progression, pain mechanisms, and inflammatory correlates.

Dr. Flores has received multiple NIH grants, has published over 60 scientific papers, and has mentored dozens of students in the biomedical sciences.

Dr. Flores is member of the Board of Directors of ENDOPR (Fundación Puertorriqueña de Pacientes con Endometriosis), a member of UNIENDO (an alliance of endometriosis patient associations in Latin America/Spain), Board Member of the World Endometriosis Society (WES), Co-founder and Chair of the Scientific Board of Sur 180 Therapeutics, and Chief Scientific Officer for Nura Health, a start-up company that develops non-invasive diagnostics for endometriosis.

Email: iflores@psm.edu

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Additional Board Member

Kaori Koga

MD, PhD
Global Outreach (in support of Adrienn Salamon)
Tokyo, Japan

Professor and Chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Reproductive Medicine, Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba University, Japan

Kaori Koga has been the Professor and Chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Reproductive Medicine, Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba University, Japan since 2023.

She received her M.D. degree from Chiba University in 1996, and her Ph.D. degree from the University of Tokyo in 2003. She then worked as a post-doctoral fellow in the Uterine Biology Group (Lois Salamonsen’s laboratory) at the Prince Henry’s Institute, Australia, and in the Reproductive Immunology Unit (Gil Mor’s laboratory) at Yale University. Her expertise is in the management of endometriosis, including MIS and ART. She is the author or co-author of more than 200 scientific articles published in peer-reviewed international journals.

Prof. Koga is a board member of the World Endometriosis Society and the Society of Endometriosis and Uterine Disorders, and a member of the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology, the American Society for Reproductive Immunology and the International Society for Immunology of Reproduction.

Email: kaorikoga@chiba-u.jp

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Additional Board Member

Ezekiel Mecha

BSc, MSc, PhD
Global Outreach (in support of Adrienn Salamon)
Nairobi, Kenya

Reproductive Biochemist/Endocrinologist and Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Science and Technology, Department of Biochemistry, University of Nairobi; Coordinator of International Collaborations and Linakges, Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Nairobi; University of Nairobi Internationalization committee

Dr. Mecha holds a PhD in Reproductive Endocrinology (Dr. Hum Biol) from Justus- Liebig University, Giessen Germany and has done two Post-Docs from the same institution. Dr Mecha has more than 30 publications in the field of endometriosis and other related reproductive conditions in peer reviewed international journals.

Dr Ezekiel Mecha is the director of Endometriosis East Africa, an organization involved in advocating for Endometriosis awareness campaigns, Progress in understanding the pathogenesis of endometriosis, different diagnostic approaches to endometriosis, treatment options of endometriosis and understanding of the Co-existence of the other uterine disorders (e.g. adenomyosis and uterine fibroids) in East Africa.

Dr. Mecha is among the founding members of Pan- African Society of Endometriosis (PASE) and currently he serves as the board member of PASE. Dr Mecha was instrumental in the formation of PASE whose inaugural congress (1st PASE Conference) took place in Cape Town, South Africa in 2025.

Dr Mecha’s research interests include identification of earlier diagnostic biomarkers of endometriosis, adenomyosis and cancer using metabolomics, proteomic and transcriptomic approaches. His research in endometriosis focusses in understanding the roles of Transforming Growth Factor betas/receptors superfamily molecules in pathogenesis of endometriosis.

Dr. Mecha is an associate editor of the Journal of Reproduction and Fertility since May 2021. Before Joining WES as a Board member in 2023, Dr. Mecha had served as the WES ambassador for two years (2021-2023). Dr Mecha has been involved in organizing a number of workshops and conferences promoting endometriosis awareness and research in Kenya and Africa. In May 2021 and June 2022, Dr. Mecha organized the inaugural 1st and 2nd East African Endometriosis Conference respectively (https://east-african-endometriosis-conference.org/ and https://east-african-endometriosis-conference.org/) which attracted participants and speakers from all over the world in the field of endometriosis whereby a number of topics covering endometriosis awareness, research and treatment were discussed. Dr. Mecha has initiated long term collaborations in endometriosis research with a number of Universities in Europe, USA and UK.

Dr Mecha has a long standing commitment in advancing endometriosis awareness and research in Africa. He has been awarded a number of grants to conduct endometriosis research and awareness campaigns in the Africa. He has also been involved in creating endometriosis awareness in Kenya through organization of meetings with the communities, endometriosis patients, gynaecologists, Kenya ministry of Health and other NGOs involved in endometriosis awareness campaigns in Kenya. He has published a number of articles in the Kenyan daily newspapers and actively given talks on endometriosis awareness in the various TV stations in Kenya. In keeping the Kenyan population to know the current status of research and management of endometriosis globally, Dr. Mecha has been organizing media interviews for WES senior members whereby they are interviewed about their research and this is published in the leading Kenyan Newspapers to reach out to the wider Kenyan population

Dr. Mecha feels that it is extremely important to have global collaborations in endometriosis research especially from the angle of metabolomics, proteomic and transcriptomic approaches. These approaches will be important in the identification of earlier diagnostic markers for endometriosis for effective therapeutic intervention. He is both an endometriosis research scientist and a great advocate for endometriosis research, awareness and better management.

Email: emecha@uonbi.ac.ke

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Executive Board Member

Stacey Missmer

MSc, ScD
Past President 2023-2025
Grand Rapids, USA

Professor and Associate Chair for Research of Obstetrics and Gynecology at University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA Adjunct Professor of Epidemiology at Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, USA Lecturer in Pediatrics, Division of Adolescent/Young Adult Medicine, Boston Children's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA Adjunct Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Biology at Michigan State University, Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA Scientific Director, Boston Center for Endometriosis, USA

Stacey Missmer received her Bachelors degree in Biology from Lehigh University and her Master and Doctor of Science degrees in Epidemiology from Harvard School of Public Health.

She joined the Nurses’ Health Study (NHS) Research Group at Harvard University in 1998 initially as a member of Dr Susan Hankinson’s hormonal markers of breast cancer discovery team and subsequently as the senior endometriosis investigator. In 2007, Dr Missmer joined the International Endometriosis Genomics Consortium as the US Principal Investigator – combining resources for GWAS discovery of endometriosis with Australia PI, Dr Grant Montgomery and UK PI, Dr Krina Zondervan.

In 2012, Dr Missmer co-founded the Boston Center for Endometriosis with Dr Marc Laufer, and serves as the Scientific Director where she designed and leads the Women’s Health Study: from Adolescence to Adulthood (A2A) – a multi-hospital and population-based cohort with longitudinal data and biologic sample collection. In 2014, as a member of the World Endometriosis Research Foundation (WERF) Board of Directors, she conceived of and became Co-Principal Investigator with Dr Zondervan of the Endometriosis Phenome and Biobanking Harmonization Project (WERF EPHect).

In 2016, Dr Missmer was the first faculty member to be endowed through Michigan State University’s Global Impact Initiative. In 2024 she joined University of Michigan as a Professor with Tenure and Associate Chair for Research in Obstetrics & Gynecology. At UMich she is founding a department-wide biorepository designed to enhance discoveries across obstetrics and gynecology. In collaboration with Drs. Sawsan (Suzie) As-Sanie and Andrew Schrepf, they are launching INSPIRE – Innovative Solutions for Pelvic Pain and Endometriosis Initiatives, Research, and Education.

She is past Chair of the Endometriosis Special Interest Group and also of the Nutrition Special Interest Group for the American Society of Reproductive Medicine (ASRM). Formerly an Associate Editor, she is a member of the Statistical Advisory Board for Human Reproduction and is the inaugural Field Chief Editor for Frontiers in Reproductive Health.

Much of Dr Missmer’s research has focused on identifying factors that affect the risk of endometriosis – particularly among young women and girls. Her research team identified novel endometriosis associations with in utero exposures and was the first to discover early life body size, trauma, and dietary risk factors for endometriosis. In addition, her team discovered that girls and women with endometriosis are at greater risk for cardio- and cerebrovascular disease, early natural menopause, and long COVID. She conducted the first longitudinal cohort studies of risk for multiple autoimmune and immune dysregulated conditions. Through the WisE study that combines data and biologic samples among several EPHect harmonized sites, they are defining and validating endometriosis heterogeneity by applying exposome, multiomics, and machine learning methods that have successfully revolutionized our understanding of risk, treatment, and prognosis among clinically informative cancer subtypes.

Email: missmer@med.umich.edu

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Executive Board Member

Paul Yong

MD, PhD, FRCSC
Treasurer
Vancouver, Canada

Associate Professor, Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University of British Columbia (UBC); Gynecologist and Research Director, BC Women’s Centre for Pelvic Pain and Endometriosis

Dr. Paul Yong is a Canada Research Chair (Tier 2) in Endometriosis and Pelvic Pain, leading a research program on endometriosis-associated pain with a focus on dyspareunia (http://yonglab.med.ubc.ca). His research interests include somatic mutations, local neurogenesis, and comorbid pain conditions in endometriosis.

Dr. Yong is also a practising gynecologist with a fellowship in Endometriosis, Pelvic Pain, and Advanced Laparoscopy.  He is an active member of the International Society for the Study of Women’s Sexual Health (ISSWSH), a part of the gynecology clinical practice committee of the Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists of Canada, and co-led the Endometriosis Phenome and Biobanking Harmonisation Project (EPHect) physical examination standards for the World Endometriosis Research Foundation.

Previously, Dr. Yong served as a WES Early Career Ambassador and on the inaugural WES Early Career Board.

Email: pyong@cw.bc.ca

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Executive Board Member

Gita Mishra AO

PhD, FAHMS
President-Elect
Brisbane, Australia

NHMRC Leadership Fellow; Director, Australian Women and Girls’ Health Research Centre; Faculty of Health, Medicine and Behavioural Science, The University of Queensland

Gita Mishra is an NHMRC Leadership Fellow and Professor of Life Course Epidemiology at the University of Queensland (UQ). She is also the founding Director of the Australian Women and Girls’ Health Research Centre at UQ, where she leads the NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence in Women and Non-Communicable Diseases and the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health.

As an author of over 500 scientific papers, book chapters, and evidence reports, Professor Mishra is internationally recognised for her research on women’s health epidemiology. Her research program directly contributed to the Australian National Action Plan for Endometriosis. Her team produced the first comprehensive figures on its prevalence for national statistics and identified the importance of of endometriosis diagnosis on birth outcomes prior to using assisted reproductive technology rather than afterwards. She also leads the Medical Research Future Fund study on Genetic variants, Early Life exposures, and Longitudinal Endometriosis Symptoms (GELLES) that focuses on adolescent and young women.

Professor Mishra is lead editor of the recently published book “A Life Course Approach to Women’s Health” (July 2023) that presents a comprehensive overview of research in the field and is part of the ground-breaking Life Course Series from Oxford University Press.

She also works closely with governments on policy development. In 2023, Professor Mishra was scientific advisor to Queensland Health for the Queensland Women and Girls’ Health Strategy 2032. Currently, she a member of the National Women’s Health Advisory Council established by the Australian Government and is on the Strategic Advisory Committee for the Queensland Women and Girls’ Health Promotion Program.

In 2018, Professor Mishra became a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences. She has since received the 2022 RANZCOG award for Excellence in Women’s Health, and in 2023 she was appointed as Co-President for the 2025 World Congress for Endometriosis to be held in Sydney.

Email: g.mishra@sph.uq.edu.au

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