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

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

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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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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