Peter S. Bernstein is Associate Professor of Clinical Obstetrics & Gynecology and Women's Health in the Division of Maternal-Fetal Medicine in the Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology and Women's Health at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Montefiore Medical Center in New York City.

He also serves as the Director of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Department's ambulatory teaching site, Comprehensive Family Care Center, as well as the Director of Maternal-Fetal Medicine for Montefiore Medical Group, Montefiore's network of ambulatory offices.

After completing college and medical school at Yale University, Dr. Bernstein did his residency at Yale-New Haven Hospital. He then completed a fellowship in Maternal-Fetal Medicine at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in 1997 and obtained his master's degree in public health at Columbia University in 1998. He is Board-certified in Obstetrics and Gynecology and in Maternal-Fetal Medicine.

Dr. Bernstein has received funding from the March of Dimes (1998) for the development of a curriculum to teach residents about providing preconception care. He has also published on interventions to improve the delivery of preconception care. Dr. Bernstein's current area of research interest is in biochemical markers of preterm labor. He has conducted several research studies involving the use of cervicovaginal beta-hCG as a predictor of preterm delivery and successful induction of labor at term.

Paul Blumenthal is Associate Professor in the Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics at Johns Hopkins University. He serves as Director of Contraceptive Research and Programs at the Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center. He is also Director of the Cervical Cancer Prevention Project, of the JHPIEGO Corporation, an affiliate of The John Hopkins University and funded by a grant through the Alliance for Cervical Cancer Prevention by The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Dr. Blumenthal is committed to the development and implementation of innovative approaches to reproductive health issues in both the domestic and international arenas. His current research focuses on safety and efficacy studies of contraceptive methods, medical abortion regimens, alternative surgical abortion techniques, and on the development of technologies for cervical cancer prevention and detection. He has contributed more than 40 original articles to the published literature in these fields and many books, chapters, and invited articles.

While maintaining an active practice in obstetrics and gynecology in the United States, Dr. Blumenthal also works in developing countries and has served as a consultant, special advisor, and technical advisor on reproductive health training, service delivery, and research issues for such agencies as the World Health Organization, the United States Agency for International Contraceptive Research and Development, JHPIEGO, Family Health International, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Ipas, and others.

William Camann is an internationally recognized authority on obstetric anesthesia and pain control during childbirth. Dr. Camann has spoken to audiences around the world on the topic of labor pain and its relief. He has conducted many original research studies on the topic of pain relief and has authored numerous articles, book chapters, reviews, and professional publications related to obstetric anesthesia. Dr. Camann has received many awards in recognition of his teaching efforts and academic accomplishments. He is Vice President of the Society for Obstetric Anesthesia and Perinatology and is Director of Obstetric Anesthesia at the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. Dr. Camann is Associate Professor of Anesthesia at Harvard Medical School, Boston.

Lorraine Dennerstein is Foundation Director of the Office for Gender and Health, Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry, and Health Sciences at the University of Melbourne, Australia. She previously established and directed the Key Centre for Women's Health at the University of Melbourne from 1988-1996. In 1995 Prof. Dennerstein was appointed Personal Chair at The University of Melbourne. She was also the Foundation Director of the Department of Psychological Medicine at the Mercy Hospital for Women from 1988-1993.

From 1986 to 1989, Prof. Dennerstein was President of the International Society of Psychosomatic Obstetrics and Gynaecology. She is a member of the editorial committees of a number of international journals and is the author/editor of 22 books and more than 300 journal articles and book chapters.

Major research projects have focused on phases in women's lives when hormonal, social, and psychological changes occur simultaneously: menstrual cycle, pregnancy and postpartum, and menopause. Currently, Prof. Dennerstein is focusing her entire research effort as chief investigator of a decade-long population-based study of Australian women's experiences of the menopausal transition. Major and unique aspects of this investigation have been the study of well-being, sexuality, symptoms, cardiovascular disease risk factors, and bone density and their relation to a range of variables, including those associated with hormones, age, stress, lifestyle, and other health experiences. Prof. Dennerstein has just completed a number of projects for major international agencies. These include: Commonwealth Awards for Excellence program (Commonwealth Secretariat); a report on Women and Occupational Health (World Health Organization); and a report on Women, Bioethics and Human Rights (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization [UNESCO]).

Prof. Dennerstein's contribution to medical education and to research in women's health was recognized with the award of the Order of Australia in 1994.

Victoria L. Handa is an assistant professor of Gynecology and Obstetrics and the Director of Urogynecology at Johns Hopkins University. She received her undergraduate degree at Princeton University and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. Dr. Handa completed residency training at the University of California San Francisco and trained in urogynecology at the University of California Irvine. She currently directs the Johns Hopkins Advanced Training Program in Female Pelvic Medicine and Reconstructive Surgery. Prior to her appointment at Johns Hopkins, she was on the faculty at Duke University (1991-1993) and the University of California Davis (1995-2000).

Her clinical practice is in the area of urogynecology and pelvic floor disorders, including pelvic organ prolapse, urinary and anal incontinence, and other disorders of the lower urinary and genital tract. Her areas of research include the causes of pelvic floor disorders, the natural history of these disorders, and treatment outcomes, including the impact of treatment on quality of life and sexual function.

Florence P. Haseltine is currently the Director of the Center for Population Research (CPR) at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). At NICHD she has led a large and comprehensive program of research in the reproductive sciences, contraceptives, reproductive products and procedures, and has helped to develop a program to train obstetrician-gynecologists in basic research.

A board-certified obstetrician and gynecologist and an expert in reproductive endocrinology, she has helped to set the research agenda for the coming decade. Currently, she is working on the basis of gender differences and what these differences teach us about disease processes.

Dr. Haseltine received her undergraduate training at University of California at Berkeley, a doctorate in biophysics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a medical degree from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Following her internship at the University of Pennsylvania at Philadelphia and her residency at Boston Hospital for Women (Brigham and Women's Hospital), she served as assistant and associate professor in the Department of Obstetrics/Gynecology and Pediatrics at Yale University.

While at Yale University School of Medicine, she took a year of training at the School of Organization and Management to develop a proficiency in administration, policy, strategic planning, and business development. She wrote computer programs for automating sperm-counting and sold them to industry. She has served on the Scientific Advisory Board of Health Care Ventures, a venture-capital group specializing in biotechnology.

The health of women and their advancement professionally are central issues for Dr. Haseltine. In 1990, she founded the Society for the Advancement of Women's Health Research and was its first president. This organization has brought the issue of research on women's health to the attention of high federal officials and prominent members of the media as well as placing it on the nation's priority research agenda. As the Society's founder she wrote mission statements, raised monies, established bylaws, and hired the original staff. Within three years, the society was fiscally sound and now has a budget of over $1.5 million a year with 10 full-time employees and at least one year of reserve funds. Dr. Haseltine is also the Senior Editor and founding editor of the Journal of Women's Health.

Timothy R.B. Johnson, MD, was born in Duluth, Minnesota, on January 13, 1950. He received his A.B. with distinction and high honors and A.M. from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He then received his doctor of medicine degree in 1975 from the University of Virginia School of Medicine in Richmond.

Dr. Johnson served his residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Michigan from 1975 to 1979, after which he served his fellowship in Maternal-Fetal Medicine at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland. He served as Chief of Obstetrics and Staff Perinatologist at the USAF Medical Center, Keesler, in Mississippi from 1981 to 1983. From 1983 to 1985, he served as Chief of the Perinatology Section at Malcolm Grow USAF Medical Center, Andrews AFB, Washington, DC, and held an appointment as Assistant Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland. In 1985, Dr. Johnson was appointed as Assistant Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Johns Hopkins University. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 1988 and also appointed as Director of the Division of Maternal-Fetal Medicine.

In July 1993, Dr. Johnson was appointed as Bates Professor of Diseases of Women and Children and Chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Michigan Medical Center.

Throughout his career, Dr. Johnson has been active in numerous local and national societies. He has authored over 150 articles, book chapters, and other related publications. In addition, Dr. Johnson has been actively involved in teaching activities in the Third World countries and has made many visits to Ghana to assist in the training of Ghanaian physicians and midwives in the areas of fetal assessment, perinatal asphyxia, clinical aspects of fetal behavior, and maternal mortality.

In 1997, the Women's Health Program at the University of Michigan was selected as a National Center of Excellence in Women's Health supported by the U.S. Public Health Service's Office of Women's Health. Dr. Johnson serves as the National Center Director for this contract.

Andrew M. Kaunitz, a board-certified obstetrician and gynecologist, is tenured Professor and Assistant Chair in the OB/GYN department at the University of Florida Health Science Center/Jacksonville, and Director, Menopause and Gynecology Services at the Medicus Women's Diagnostic Center in Jacksonville.

Before joining the University of Florida, Dr. Kaunitz was Epidemic Intelligence Officer in the Division of Reproductive Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia. Dr. Kaunitz received an AB from Brown University, Rhode Island, and an MD from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York City. He completed his residency at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Chicago, Illinois.

Dr. Kaunitz has published more than 160 articles and chapters in the area of women's health in publications, including JAMA, Obstetrics & Gynecology, and the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology. Dr. Kaunitz serves on the Editorial Boards of Contraception, The Female Patient, Journal Watch: Women's Health, Contraceptive Technology Update, Dialogues in Contraception, and the multivolume text Gynecology and Obstetrics. As a recognized authority on contraception and the menopause, he lectures frequently in the United States and abroad. He is frequently sought by the media for his commentary on women's health issues.

Former Chair of the Association of Reproductive Health Professionals, Dr. Kaunitz was invited in 1992 by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to testify before its Advisory Committee considering contraceptive approval of depot-medroxyprogesterone acetate. Since 1994, he has consulted with the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists regarding preparation of Practice Bulletins and Committee Opinions addressing contraception. Dr. Kaunitz also is Co-Principal Investigator for the University of Florida site of the Women's Health Initiative, a large National Institutes of Health-sponsored study of the health of menopausal women.

Peter Kovacs graduated in 1994 from the Albert Szentgyorgyi School of Medicine in Szeged, Hungary. In 1995, Dr. Kovacs began his residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. Having completed the residency, he began a fellowship in Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in 1999. This summer Dr. Kovacs will return to Hungary to join the largest private in vitro fertilization center, The Kaali Institute-IVF Center in Budapest. He will be one of the reproductive endocrinologists at this center, which performs over 2000 IVF cycles annually.

In addition to his clinical responsibilities, Dr. Kovacs will head coordination of the clinical research at the center. His own research interest is twofold. Presently, he is conducting basic research on the effect of type I diabetes and insulin on the reproductive axis. His other is interest is in vitro fertilization, and he is investigating different ovarian stimulation protocols mainly for poor responder patients.

Anne McTiernan is an Associate Member (Professor) in the Cancer Prevention Research Program at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, Washington, and is a Research Associate Professor in the University of Washington Schools of Medicine and Public Health and Community Medicine. At the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, she is Director of the Prevention Studies Clinic and of the Exercise Testing and Training Facility. She received her medical training at New York Medical College and her primary care internal medicine training at the University of Washington. She received her PhD in epidemiology from the University of Washington.

Her research focuses on identifying ways to prevent new or recurrent breast cancer and colorectal cancer with a particular focus on physical activity and exercise. She is Principal Investigator of several clinical trial and cohort studies investigating the associations among exercise, diet, body weight, hormones, and risk for cancer incidence and prognosis. Dr. McTiernan is also a Co-investigator in the Women's Health Initiative (WHI) and directs clinical outcomes efforts at the WHI Clinical Coordinating Center.

Dr. McTiernan has published widely in major medical journals, includingthe New England Journal of Medicine,the Journal of the American Medical Association, and the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. She is lead author of the book, Breast Fitness: An Optimal Exercise and Health Plan for Reducing Your Risk of Breast Cancer, St. Martin's Press, 2000. Dr. McTiernan is also an editor of the Journal of Women's Health. She sits on several national and international health advisory boards.

Susan A. New has worked in the area of nutrition and bone health since 1989, after completing her MSc in Human Nutrition & Metabolism at the University of Aberdeen. Dr. New combined her expertise in the area of exercise physiology from her first degree in Sports Science, which she gained with Distinction, to seek funding for projects in the area of diet, physical activity, and skeletal health. She was awarded the 1991 UK Nutritional Consultative Panel PhD Scholarship, which she carried out under the supervision of Professor David Reid (University of Aberdeen) and Dr. Simon Robins (Rowett Research Institute, Aberdeen). Papers on this work were published in the top nutrition journal, the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, in June 1997 and in January 2000, and she received the Young Investigators Award at the 1st World Congress of Osteoporosis held in Holland (May 1996).

Dr. New moved to the University of Surrey in January 1996 to take up the position of Lecturer in Nutrition within the School of Biomedical & Life Sciences. Her research has continued to grow with great strength, and she currently holds (with Professor David Reid) the largest dataset currently available worldwide on nutrition, genetics, and perimenopausal bone loss (~ 4000 subjects). She has a number of other studies running at Surrey, including work on bone health in children, young women, and elite gymnasts. She recently received a second Young Investigators Award at the 7th UK Osteoporosis Conference held in Bath (April 2000) for her work on British gymnasts and was an invited plenary speaker at the 4th International Symposium on Nutritional Aspects of Osteoporosis held in Switzerland (May 2000).

Dr. New is the Honorary Communications Officer of the UK Nutrition Society and is the first nutritionist under the age of 35 years to hold an Officer's position. She is a Member of the Scientific Advisory Council of the National Osteoporosis Society and a Member of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the British Nutrition Foundation. She is also an Honorary Research Fellow of the Rowett Research Institute and a Registered Public Health Nutritionist.

Kathleen Pritchard is one of Sunnybrook's best-known academic physicians. Apart from her ongoing clinical and administrative duties as head of Clinical Trials & Epidemiology at the Toronto-Sunnybrook Regional Cancer Centre, she has maintained a productive program of research in the field of breast cancer. Her research interests include the assessment of adjuvant and hormonal therapy for breast cancer in multicenter clinical trials, the role of predictive and prognostic factors in breast cancer, menopausal symptoms and their effect on quality of life in women with a diagnosis of breast cancer, and the role of hormone replacement therapy in women with a diagnosis of breast cancer.

Dr. Pritchard also serves as Clinical Director, Ontario Clinical Oncology Group (OCOG), Co-Chair, Breast Cancer Site Group, National Cancer Institute of Canada Clinical Trials Group (NCIC CTG), and Chair, Management Committee, Canadian Breast Cancer Research Initiative (CBCRI). She also holds the position of Professor in the Departments of Medicine and Behavioural Science at the University of Toronto.

Dr. Pritchard sits on advisory groups for a number of major multicenter clinical trials and is widely published in the major international medical journals. She is a listed member in the International Who's Who of Professionals - Millennium Edition, 2001-2002, and "Best Doctors in America." In 1996, Dr. Pritchard was granted the Department of Medicine Research Award, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre. Other distinctive awards she has received are the Toronto Women's Breast Cancer Foundation Research Award, 1987-88, and the National Cancer Institute of Canada Clinical Trials Scholar, 1978-1984.

Currently Dr. Pritchard is Principal Investigator and Co-investigator, holding peer-reviewed grants from the National Cancer Institute of Canada, Medical Research Council of Canada, and the Canadian Breast Cancer Research Initiative.

John F. Randolph, Jr, is Associate Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Director of the Division of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility, Co-Director of the Center for Osteoporosis and Metabolic Bone Diseases, and Associate Research Scientist in the Reproductive Sciences Program at the University of Michigan. He received his bachelor's degree from Case Western Reserve University (1976) and his doctor of medicine degree from the University of Cincinnati (1980). He served his internship and residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Michigan (1980-1984) and his fellowship in Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility at the University of Connecticut (1984-1986) before returning to Ann Arbor to join the faculty of the University of Michigan. He became Acting Director of the Division of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility in 1987 and accepted the full Directorship in 1988. He is Board certified in both Obstetrics and Gynecology and Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility, and is a Fellow of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

Dr. Randolph's research interests center on the study of the menopausal transition, particularly the effects of the change in reproductive hormones. He is a co-Principal Investigator in the Study of Women's Health Across the Nation (SWAN), the national multicenter observational study of the perimenopause, and chairs the ovarian markers committee of the study. His investigative interest parallels his clinical interest in the prevention of osteoporosis and other hormone-related disorders, as well as in age-related infertility.

He is active in education at all levels, from teaching undergraduates basic human reproduction to continuing medical education of generalists, specialists and subspecialists. He chaired his departmental Residency Advisory Committee from 1986 through 1999. He served on the CME Committee for the American Society for Reproductive Medicine from 1996-2000.

Yolanda R. Smith is Assistant Professor in the Division of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and Assistant Research Investigator in the Reproductive Sciences Program at the University of Michigan. She received her bachelor's degree from Duke University (1985) and her doctor of medicine degree from Wake Forest University (1989). Dr. Smith served her internship in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Brigham and Women's Hospital (1989-1990) and completed her residency at the University of Michigan (1990-1993). She received her fellowship training in Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility at Johns Hopkins University (1993-1995), before returning to Ann Arbor of join the faculty of the University of Michigan.

In 2001 Dr. Smith became the Research Director for the University of Michigan Center of Excellence in Women's Health. Dr. Smith will be completing her Master of Science Degree in Clinical Research Design and Statistical Analysis at the University of Michigan in 2003. Dr. Smith's research interests include neuroendocrinology and pediatric/adolescent gynecology. Her research endeavors include studying the neuronal effects of hormones in women with neuroimaging techniques, such as PET. This work has included studying the effects of estrogen on the maintenance of cognitive function and mood, as well as regulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-ovarian axis.

Karen Smith-McCune received her BSc in Biochemistry from McGill University, Quebec, Canada, Diploma in History and Philosophy of Science from Cambridge University, Cambridge, England, PhD from Rockefeller University, New York, NY, and her MD from Stanford University, Stanford, California. She completed residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at University of California-San Francisco (UCSF) and returned to the lab for a 3-year postdoctoral fellowship in the laboratory of Dr. J. M. Bishop at UCSF. She is Director of the Dysplasia Clinic at UCSF/Mount Zion and runs a basic research lab investigating the pathophysiology of cervical cancer. She is a fellow of the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology and a member of the American Association for Cancer Research and the American Society of Colposcopy and Cervical Pathology. She serves on the National Comprehensive Cancer Network Cervical Cancer Screening panel. Her research goals are to translate the molecular signatures of cervical cancer into new diagnostics and therapies that can be disseminated to underscreened populations.