People

Board of Directors

Ben Burnham, Co-Founder

Ben has 15 years of experience in finance and business operations and is currently part of the central supply chain team at Amazon Retail. He holds a BS is Electrical Engineering and Economics from Duke University and an MBA from Kellogg School of Management. He is an avid hiker and skier, a die-hard Duke basketball fan, and a constant explorer. He previously held a board position (ex officio) with Polaris Charter Academy in Chicago.

Megan Hanson, Co-Founder

Megan's professional experience includes health care marketing and non-profit management. She began her career as a Teach for America corps member and then spent several years working with community-based programs at Neighborhood Centers. She left her most recent role with Baxter Healthcare to focus full-time on RPL Association. She holds a BS in Biomedical Engineering from Duke University and an MBA from Kellogg School of Management. Megan is a life-long learner, a travel fanatic, a bookworm, and a chocolate aficionado. She blogs about her personal experience of recurrent miscarriage at MisbehavingUterus.com.

Joseph Konefal

Joey's professional passion is leading product innovation that improves people's lives and has a positive societal impact. He has held several roles in engineering, product management, and product development in his career. He is currently the Vice President of Research and Development for XOS, a laboratory instrumentation company. He holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Duke University, an SM in Engineering Systems from MIT, and an MBA from MIT. His favorite personal pastime is skiing with his wife, Kate, and son, Wyatt in the Adirondack Mountains of New York.

Ronald Librizzi, DO

Dr. Librizzi retired as one of the world's leading practitioners of maternal fetal medicine, specializing in saving mothers-to-be from life-threatening conditions that might prompt other caregivers to terminate pregnancies. He graduated with honors in 1974 from the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine. Dr. Librizzi retired as Chief of maternal fetal medicine at Virtua Health System in New Jersey, Clinical Associate Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, and Clinical Associate Professor of Nursing in the Associated Faculty of the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing.

Melissa Loonan, Esq.

Melissa received her Bachelor of Arts from Concordia College in Moorhead, MN with a major in Organizational Communications. She obtained her Juris Doctor (JD) from William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul and began practicing law in 2015. Her practice included representing cities in the courtroom managing heavy caseloads. She currently works in Regulatory Services at U.S. Bank. Melissa lives in the Twin Cities with her husband and son, who was born between multiple losses.

Hannah Palac, MS

Hannah is a biostatistician and has over 10 years of experience working in clinical research in both academia and industry. She has expertise in clinical trial design and analysis, data integration, and data management. Her educational background includes an MS in Biostatistics and Epidemiology from Northwestern University and a BS in Psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is a member of the American Statistical Association and Society for Clinical Trials. When not analyzing data, she enjoys running, traveling, and cheering on the Wisconsin Badgers.

Ashlee Van Schyndel, MPH

Ashlee (she/her/hers) is a PhD candidate at the University of Illinois Chicago in the Maternal Child Health program in the division of Community Health Sciences. Her research revolves around health policy and employment as a determinant of sexual and reproductive health. She has a background in advocacy, particularly around abortion, Title X funding, contraception, Bi+ health, and sexual violence. She has a MPH in Health Policy and certificate in LGBT+ Health from the University of Louisville, and a BA in Anthropology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Micaela Stevenson Wyszewianski, MD

Micaela Stevenson Wyszewianski is a resident physician in obstetrics and gynecology at the Medical College of Wisconsin. She comes to RPLA with many years of experience in nonprofit work as well as in political and community organizing for increased access to reproductive healthcare for patients. She has a strong research interest in recurrent pregnancy loss and infertility with plans to do a fellowship in reproductive endocrinology after graduation from residency. She has engaged in multiple research projects on recurrent pregnancy loss. She hopes to use her career to further explore underlying reasons for recurrent pregnancy loss as well as long term health conditions associated with recurrent pregnancy loss. In her free time, Micaela is an avid reader and traveler.

Scientific Advisors

Ruth Lathi, MD

Dr. Lathi is a Professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Director of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility (REI) Research, and Director of the multi-specialty Recurrent Pregnancy Loss program at Stanford University. She is also the Program Director of the REI Fellowship.

Dr. Lathi graduated from Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a BS in Molecular Biology; she earned her MD degree at University of California, San Francisco, and completed her residency training in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Baylor College of Medicine. She completed her sub-specialty fellowship training in REI at Stanford University.

Dr. Lathi has a special interest in treating recurrent pregnancy loss, the role of preimplantation genetic diagnosis in the treatment of reproductive disorders, and the prognostic value and utility of genetic testing of miscarriage tissues, and long-term outcomes of fertility treatments. She is the primary investigator on the HOPE Project (Harnessing multiple Opportunities for Pregnancy loss Exploration), a NIH funded, national research study that seeks to find explanations of pregnancy loss and predict future pregnancy outcomes.

Winifred Mak, MD, PhD

Dr. Mak is an Associate Professor at UT Health Science San Antonio as well as Associate Professor at Dell Medical School, UT Austin and is a board-certified Reproductive Endocrinologist with a special interest in Recurrent Pregnancy Loss. She is the Director of the Early Pregnancy Loss program at UT Health. She completed medical school at the United Medical and Dental Schools of Guy’s and St. Thomas Hospitals (London, UK) and completed her Obstetrics and Gynecology residency at Addenbrooke’s Hospital (Cambridge, UK) and St. Mary’s Hospital (London, UK). After residency, she received her PhD in Genetics from Imperial College (London, UK). She then completed a second residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center (Los Angeles) and completed her fellowship in Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility at the University of Pennsylvania. She was recruited to be an NIH Research Scholar at Yale School of Medicine focusing her research on reproductive biology and discovered a protein which is important in early embryo development. She also served as the Director of the Yale Recurrent Pregnancy Loss program.

Currently, Dr. Mak’s research focuses on uncovering new causes for unexplained recurrent pregnancy loss. Her publications have appeared in high impact journals, and she has received numerous awards on both the national and international platform. Dr. Mak’s work has been supported by several grants through agencies such as NIH, ASRM, and the Medical Research Council.

Dr. Mak educates patients and their families about pregnancy loss through her blog MiscarriageMD.

Gregory Piazza, MD, MS

Dr. Gregory Piazza is the Director of Vascular Medicine in the division of Cardiovascular Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH). He is also an Associate Professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School (HMS).

Dr. Piazza received his medical degree from University of Massachusetts Medical School. He completed a residency in Internal Medicine and fellowships in Cardiology and Advanced Cardiovascular Imaging at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. He also served as chief medical resident at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. He then completed a fellowship in Vascular Medicine at BWH. Dr. Piazza is board certified in Internal Medicine, Cardiovascular Disease, Vascular Medicine and Echocardiography.

Dr. Piazza’s practice focuses on the evaluation, management and prevention of venous thromboembolism (VTE), thrombosis-related infertility, and stroke prevention in atrial fibrillation. The author of over 140 peer-reviewed publications, his research investigates innovative treatment of VTE, thrombosis-related infertility and pregnancy loss, and prevention of stroke. Dr. Piazza has received research support from the National Institutes of Health.

Elizabeth Sefton, PhD

Dr. Sefton is a Scientific Program Manager for Training and Research Development at Stanford University within the ChEM-H Institute and Innovative Medicines Accelerator (IMA). The ChEM-H Institute aims to improve human health by understanding life on the molecular level, while the Innovative Medicines Accelerator aims to overcome obstacles in drug discovery and development. In the research development realm, Dr. Sefton manages requests for proposals and seed grant opportunities that support innovative research conducted in human subjects. Additionally, Dr. Sefton supports clinical study operations for seed grant recipients.

Prior to Stanford, Dr. Sefton managed the Master of Science in Reproductive Science and Medicine Program at Northwestern University from 2016-2019. From 2013-2016, Dr. Sefton was program manager for an NCATS/DARPA funded project that resulted in a microphysiologic model of the female human reproductive tract. Dr. Sefton received her PhD in Life and Biomedical Sciences from Northwestern University in 2013. She studied cell signaling in uterine leiomyoma in the lab of Julie Kim, PhD.

Recurrent Pregnancy Loss Association Awareness. Advocacy. Answers.