Early Career Board Member

Nura Fitnat Topbas Selcuki

MD, PhD candidate
Chair
Istanbul, Turkey

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.

Email: nura.topbasselcuki@wrh.ox.ac.uk

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Early Career Board Member

Stacy McAllister

Secretary
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 Board Member

Mira Mousa

BSc, MSc, PhD
Mentoring Lead
Abu Dhabi, UAE

Assistant Professor in Public Health and Epidemiology, Khalifa University

Mira is a genetic epidemiologist specializing in women’s health, diabetes, cancer, and translational medicine. 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.

Mira serves as Deputy Program Manager of the Biomedical Science Discovery (BISDI) Program, and a member in the Emirati Genome Program, contributing to national efforts to enhance genomic research and precision medicine in the UAE.

Her research spans multi-omics approaches, genetic risk profiling, and genotype-phenotype mechanisms with a strong focus on reproductive health conditions such as endometriosis and polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS).

Email: mira.imousa@ku.ac.ae

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Early Career Board Member

Mathew Leonardi

MD, PhD, FRCSC
Social Media Lead
Hamilton, Canada

Advanced Gynaecological Surgeon and Sonologist (Ultrasound Specialist), Hamilton Health Sciences, Canada; Assistant Professor, McMaster University, Canada; Honorary Adjunct Lecturer, University of Adelaide, Australia

Dr Mathew Leonardi is an expert in complex gynecology, endometriosis excision surgery and gynaecological ultrasound (assistant professor) at McMaster University Medical Centre in Hamilton, Canada. He is an honorary adjunct lecturer at the University of Adelaide. His philosophy of care includes working in an interdisciplinary team and patient-centred decision making. He has been awarded his PhD from the University of Sydney which is focused on the utility of ultrasound in the diagnosis and surgical management of endometriosis.

Dr Leonardi is a nationally and internationally recognized leader in his field. He has published over 110 peer-reviewed scientific articles, several textbook chapters, and presented at numerous international congresses on endometriosis. He has received numerous awards for his conference presentations on endometriosis. He is an avid researcher, actively contributing academically to the advancement of gynecologic health.

Dr. Leonardi is on the World Endometriosis Society Early Career Board and a founding member of the Next Generation Committee at the International Society of Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynecology. He is an Associate Editor for Reproduction & Fertility and on the Editorial Board for the Journal of Minimally Invasive Gynecology, and the Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology of Canada. He is part of an international research group named Imagendo, which won the most prestigious science award in Australia, the 2023 ANSTO Eureka Prize for Innovative Use of Technology.

Email: leonam@mcmaster.ca

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Early Career Board Member

Jessica Opoku Anane

MD, MS
Website Lead
New Jersey, USA

Chief, Complex Benign and Minimally Invasive Gynecologic Surgery; Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School

Dr. Jessica Opoku-Anane is an Associate Professor and minimally invasive gynecologic surgeon at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, where she serves as the Chief of Complex Benign and Minimally Invasive Gynecologic Surgery. She leads the Rutgers University Comprehensive Endometriosis and Chronic Pelvic Pain Program, providing innovative clinical, surgical, and integrative treatment options for patients with endometriosis and chronic pelvic pain. Her surgical expertise spans advanced laparoscopy, robotic surgery, hysteroscopy, reduced-port and single-incision techniques, vaginal natural orifice transluminal endoscopic surgery (vNOTES), and office-based procedures.

Dr. Opoku-Anane earned her medical degree from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, completed residency training at Harvard’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital, and pursued AAGL MIGS fellowship training at George Washington University and the Center for Endometriosis Care in Atlanta. She also holds a Master’s degree in Clinical and Translational Research and completed a two-year research fellowship with the National Institutes of Health. Her research focuses on cancer-associated mutations in deep endometriosis, bioinformatics applications, and addressing health equity in chronic pain and endometriosis care.

A dedicated educator, Dr. Opoku-Anane trains MIGS surgeons both locally and in sub-Saharan Africa. She also serves as faculty for the Association of Professors of Gynecology and Obstetrics Surgical Education Scholars Program. Through her work, she remains committed to advancing care and improving outcomes for patients with endometriosis and chronic pelvic pain worldwide.

Email: jopokua1@gmail.com

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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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