Early Career Ambassador

SCHREURS Anneke

Amsterdam University Medical Centre
Amsterdam, Netherlands

OBGYN resident and postdoctoral researcher at the Amsterdam University Medical Centre in Amsterdam, the Netherlands

Anneke Schreurs successfully defended her PhD thesis on quality of care and quality of life in women with endometriosis in June 2023. Anneke is part of the research team of multiple Dutch RCT’s on endometriosis (TUBIE, SOMA, COPIE), but also focusses on patient preferences (in ART) and alternative therapies for endometriosis (dietary interventions). In 2021 she started her residency in OBGYN with the hope of specializing in the field of endometriosis care in the future.

She was selected as a World Endometriosis Society Early Career Ambassador in 2023.

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Early Career Ambassador

SASAMOTO Naoko

Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School
Boston, USA

Assistant Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Biology, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

Naoko Sasamoto, MD MPH PhD, is a gynecologist and epidemiologist with research focus on improving clinical outcomes of endometriosis and ovarian cancer by integrating biomarker data and clinical data. Dr. Sasamoto’s current research lies in a unique niche in the intersection of adolescent endometriosis and pain, utilizing -omics data to further understand the underlying biology and discover clinically applicable biomarkers ultimately tailoring personalized treatment. Her contribution to the scientific literature has improved understanding of the risk factors and pain phenotypes of endometriosis diagnosed in adolescence.

She was selected as a World Endometriosis Society Early Career Ambassador in 2023

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Early Career Ambassador

OPOKU ANANE Jessica

Columbia University Medical Center
New York, USA

Minimally Invasive Gynecologic Surgeon at Columbia University Medical Center in New York. Director of the Comprehensive Endometriosis and Chronic Pelvic Pain Program and a provider in the Center for Research and Advanced Fibroid Treatment. She is also a Co-Director of the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the Department of Ob/Gyn.

Jessica Opoku-Anane obtained her medical degree from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and went on to complete her residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Harvard Brigham and Women’s and Massachusetts General Hospitals. She subsequently completed an AAGL fellowship in advanced minimally invasive gynecologic surgery at George Washington University and trained at the Center for Endometriosis Care in Atlanta. Prior to joining Columbia University in January 2022, Dr. Opoku-Anane was as an associate professor at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) where she served as the Chief of Minimally Invasive Gynecology and Urogynecology and founder and Director of the UCSF Multidisciplinary Endometriosis Center.

In addition to her clinical activities, she has been active in research and spent two years with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) both locally and in sub-Saharan Africa. Her more recent research includes a randomized control trial to test the ability of antifibrinolytics to decrease blood loss during myomectomy, a study accessing cancer associated mutations in deep endometriosis, and several studies on health equity among historically marginalized patients with endometriosis.  Additionally, she directs the Community Outreach and Education Core for the UCSF-Stanford P01 Endometriosis Center for Discovery, Innovation, Training and Community Engagement (“ENACT”). This Core trains and mentors new investigators in endometriosis research and empowers people with endometriosis to understand their symptoms and options for care and to inform the research community, from the patient’s perspective, about their needs and goals.  Dr. Opoku-Anane also has a longstanding interest in global health and spends extended periods of time throughout Africa on clinical and research programs. She has published a systematic review article on increasing laparoscopic surgery in developing countries and assists with the development of laparoscopic programs throughout sub-Saharan Africa.

She was selected as a World Endometriosis Society Early Career Ambassador in 2023.

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Early Career Ambassador

HARRIS Holly

Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center
Seattle, USA

Associate Professor, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, USA

Holly Harris is an epidemiologist at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center with expertise in nutrition, gynecologic conditions, and female cancers, with a particular interest in endometriosis. Since receiving a MPH from the University of Southern California and a ScD from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, her work has focused on dietary factors and endometriosis as well as the co-occurrence of endometriosis and other conditions (e.g., autoimmune conditions, ovarian cancer). Much of her research has used the Nurses’ Health Study II (NHSII) prospective cohort. In addition, Dr. Harris is currently leading a NIH-funded randomized intervention study to examine the impact of diet on pain and quality of life among people with endometriosis.

She was selected as a World Endometriosis Society Early Career Ambassador in 2023.

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Early Career Ambassador

GIBBONS Tatjana

Oxford University
Oxford, United Kingdom

Clinician and DPhil student at the Nuffield Department of Reproductive Health, University of Oxford, United Kingdom.

Tatjana Gibbons holds an MBBS (2019) and BSc in Reproductive medicine (2017) both from Imperial College London. In 2021, she embarked on a DPhil programme with the renowned Endometriosis CaRe Centre at the University of Oxford, where she is leading a clinical study investigating novel non-invasive imaging tests for endometriosis.

As a Cochrane author, Dr Gibbons has contributed to several reproductive medicine publications. Currently she is the co-first author of the first-ever network meta-analysis comparing and ranking all available treatments for endometriosis. This research aims to facilitate evidence-based clinical decision-making and guidelines in the field. Moreover, currently she is collaborating with the International Committee for Monitoring Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ICMART) on the first scoping review to assess global endometriosis policy, delivery systems and rights.

She was selected as a World Endometriosis Society Early Career Ambassador in 2023.

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Early Career Ambassador

DE SILVA Praveen

North Shore Hospital
Auckland, New Zealand

Clinical Lead of Endometriosis and Minimally Invasive Surgery Waitemata Health District, Auckland

Praveen is an Endometriosis specialist and completed an AGES Surgical Fellowship through Sydney Women’s Endosurgery Centre. He is an active member of AGES and FRANZCOG and has given lectures on pelvic pain, nerve blocks and robotic surgery at their scientific meetings.

He obtained his Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery through the University of Otago in New Zealand. He has additionally completed a postgraduate thesis in medical cost effectiveness, for which he received first class honours. More recently Praveen has been the principal investigator in a published randomised controlled trial investigating post-operative pain control using a hypogastric nerve block. He continues to have research interests in pelvic pain and regularly collaborates with colleagues in Australia and the Middle East.

He was selected as a World Endometriosis Society Early Career Ambassador in 2023.

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Early Career Ambassador

EVANS Devon

University of Manitoba
Winnipeg, Canada

Assistant professor at the University of Manitoba. Head of the University’s Section of Minimally Invasive Gynecologic Surgery (MIGS)

Devon Evans is a gynaecologist with fellowship training in MIGS. He is passionate about the provision of high-quality, comprehensive care to people with endometriosis/adenomyosis and pelvic pain and opened the Section of MIGS as well as the Saint Boniface Hospital Pelvic Pain and Endometriosis clinic to coordinate care and advocate for a historically under-serviced population. He completed his MPH at the Harvard Chan School for Public health and is involved in research collaborations with the team at the Boston Center for Endometriosis, the International Federation of Fertility Societies (IFFS), and the International Committee for Monitoring Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ICMART).

He is also an active member of the Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology of Canada (SOGC) clinical practice guideline committee and was selected as a World Endometriosis Society Early Career Ambassador in 2023.

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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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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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