Associate professor of surgery and pediatrics at Akron Children's Hospital, in Akron, OH. Currently Associate Professor of Surgery and Pediatrics and a Pediatric Surgeon at Akron Children's Hospital. Dr. Ponsky attended Medical School at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio from 1995-1999, Residency in General Surgery at The George Washington University in Washington, DC from 1999-2005, Pediatric Surgery Fellowship at Children's National Medical Center in Washington, DC from 2005-2007, and an Advanced Minimally Invasive Pediatric Surgery Fellowship at The Rocky Mountain Hospital for Children in Denver, CO from 2007-2008.

Dr. Strine is a pediatric urologist and co-director of the Comprehensive Fertility Care and Preservation Program at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. He obtained his medical degree and completed his residency at Indiana University School of Medicine. He completed his fellowship at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. His clinical and research interests include fertility, minimally invasive surgery, complex genitourinary reconstruction, and clinical outcomes research.

Olivia Jaworek Frias is the Patient Navigator of Fertility Preservation in the Comprehensive Fertility Care and Preservation Program (CFCPP) at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center (CCHMC). Olivia received her bachelors in science of nursing at the University of Akron and masters in science of nursing at Xavier University. Olivia started her career caring for oncology and bone marrow transplant patients on the inpatient unit. She brought her expertise to the division of Pediatric and Adolescent Gynecology (PAG) at CCHMC, where her role as the patient navigator of fertility preservation transpired. Olivia is an integral piece to the fertility program, as she is the initial and main point of contact for patients and families and identifies each patient eligible for a fertility consult.

Michelle L. McGowan, PhD is a Research Associate Professor in the Ethics Center and Division of General and Community Pediatrics at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center within the Department of Pediatrics and the Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at University of Cincinnati. Dr. McGowan earned her PhD in Women Studies from the University of Washington and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Bioethics at the Center for Genetic Research Ethics and Law at Case Western Reserve University. Dr. McGowan conducts research on the ethical and social implications of reproductive and genomic technologies, with a particular focus how users of reproductive and genomic technologies conceptualize the risks and benefits of the integration of these technologies into research, clinical, and consumer settings. Her research aims to illustrate how the perspectives of users of novel technologies – including patients, families, health care providers, researchers, and consumers - can contribute to bioethical discourse and the development of institutional, professional, and social policies and practice guidelines. Her recent scholarship has focused specifically on oocyte donation, preimplantation genetic diagnosis and screening, fertility preservation, carrier screening, direct-to-consumer and clinical genomic testing, precision medicine, and participant-centric approaches to genomic research.

Director, Oncofertility Consortium.
Teresa K. Woodruff Ph.D. is the Thomas J. Watkins Professor of Obstetrics & Gynecology, the Vice Chair of Research (OB/GYN), the Chief of the Division of Reproductive Science in Medicine, Feinberg School of Medicine, and Professor of Molecular Biosciences at the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences at Northwestern University. She is also the Director of the Center for Reproductive Science, Founder and Director of the Women’s Health Research Institute and Director of the Oncofertility Consortium. She is an internationally recognized expert in ovarian biology and, in 2006, coined the term “oncofertility” to describe the merging of two fields: oncology and fertility. She now heads the Oncofertility Consortium, an interdisciplinary team of biomedical and social scientist experts from across the country.She has been active in education not only at the professional level but also with high school students. To this end, she founded and directs the Oncofertility Saturday Academy (OSA), one of several high school outreach programs that engages girls in basic and medical sciences. She is civically active and is an elected member of The Economic Club of Chicago and an elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Woodruff served on the school board of the Chicago-based Young Women’s Leadership Charter School, served as president of the Endocrine Society and championed the new NIH policy that mandates the use of females in fundamental research.  

Co-Director, Comprehensive Fertility Care and Preservation Program
​Dr. Burns is an assistant professor of pediatric oncology at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. Dr. Burns received her medical degree in 1999 from Temple University School of Medicine. She went on to complete a pediatric residency at St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children in Philadelphia in 2002 and a fellowship in pediatric hematology/oncology/BMT at the Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin in 2005. She also obtained a Masters of Science degree in epidemiology from the Medical College of Wisconsin in 2005. Dr. Burns is the Co-Director of the Comprehensive Fertility Care and Preservation Program at CCHMC as well as the Clinical Director of the Cancer Survivorship Center at the same institution. She specializes in leukemia/lymphoma therapy in pediatric and young adult patients, late effects of childhood cancer, and oncofertility, including the risk of therapy-induced infertility and potential fertility preservation options.

Dr. Breech is the Director of the Division of Pediatric and Adolescent Gynecology at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center (CCHMC). She has been a leader within the Comprehensive Fertility Care and Preservation Program (CFCPP) since January 2014. She is interested in the development of the optimal interdisciplinary pediatric care delivery model to share with other providers throughout the world.

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