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.

Ann Coyle, RN

Ann is a neonatal intensive care nurse and Manager of perinatal bereavement programs at Virtua Health. Ann is committed to providing compassionate care and comfort to her patients and their families when they need it most. In her current role, she helps support grieving families who are coping with their loss.

Mari Trevino Glass

After graduating from the University of Texas at Austin, Mari began her work in development at the national nonprofit, Fund for Teachers. In May of 2017, Mari received her Master of Arts in Nonprofit Management. She has extensive experience in Board governance, campaign management, fundraising database systems, annual fund and special events fundraising. In addition to fundraising, Mari also loves her three cats - Toulouse, Stella and Jacques - her German Shorthaired Pointer, Cuatro, her husband, Bryan, and her adorable son, Benjamin (listed in no particular order).

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.

Amy Henderson Riley, DrPH

Amy is a public health professor at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia. Her work (including this article on Instagram Users’ Experiences of Miscarriage) has spanned maternal and child health, women’s health, and sexual and reproductive health topics in several countries around the world. She holds a BFA from the New School, an MA in Health Education from Columbia University, and a DrPH in Community Health and Prevention from the Drexel University Dornsife School of Public Health. She also completed a postdoctoral fellowship in communication at the Center for Media & Social Impact at American University. Amy lives in New Jersey with her husband and daughter, who was born after multiple unexplained miscarriages.

Jessica Ryniec, MD

Dr. Ryniec is a fertility specialist at CCRM Boston. She received her undergraduate degree from Wake Forest University and her medical degree from Georgetown University School of Medicine. During her residency for obstetrics and gynecology at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Dr. Ryniec received the Excellence in Female Pelvic Medicine Award and recognition for Outstanding Accomplishment in Women’s Health. After her residency, she completed her fellowship in Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility at the University of Vermont Medical Center. Dr. Ryniec has presented her research at prestigious medical conferences, such as the American Society for Reproductive Medicine Annual Meeting, and has authored several publications for notable peer-reviewed journals. She lives in Boston with her husband and two children.

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.

Scientific Advisors

Winifred Mak, MD, PhD

Dr. Mak is an Assistant 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 Austin. 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.

Dana McQueen, MD, MAS

Dr. McQueen is a Reproductive Endocrinologist at RMA Northern California and a board-certified OB/GYN. She received her bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Berkeley, medical degree from the University of California, Irvine and a master’s in clinical research from the University of California, San Diego. She then completed her residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Chicago and fellowship in Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. Dr. McQueen received additional subspecialty training in RPL by completing a fellowship in Recurrent Pregnancy Loss at the University of Illinois.

Dr. McQueen’s research focuses on risk factors for Recurrent Pregnancy Loss. She is interested in the relationship between chronic endometritis and miscarriage. In addition, she is investigating male factors related to RPL. Dr. McQueen has presented her research both nationally and internationally and published numerous peer reviewed journal articles and book chapters. She was awarded the prize paper from the ASRM Early Pregnancy Special Interest Group in both 2019 and 2020.

Clinically, Dr. McQueen sees both infertility and RPL patients and enjoys teaching medical students and residents.

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.

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.