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.

Tegan Gelfand

Tegan is a government affairs expert with nearly twenty years of experience in health policy and advocacy. She currently leads Federal Government Affairs for a pharmaceutical company focused on infertility. Tegan worked on Capitol Hill for several health care committees. She received her Master's degree in Legislative Affairs from the George Washington University, and her Bachelor's degrees in History and Music from Allegheny College. She and her husband live in Alexandria, VA with their two sons.

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.

Joey 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.

Julie Langdon

Julie has 20 years of experience in finance, both in wealth management and corporate debt investing. A double Hoo, Julie holds a B.A. in Economics from the University of Virginia and an MBA from the Darden School of Business. She is also a CFA Charterholder. Julie is happiest when she has one too many things on her plate. To keep her busy, she enjoys cooking, reading, fitness, and spending time with her husband, her two daughters, and family and friends.

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.

Medical and Scientific Advisors

Robert H Debbs, DO, MHCI, FACOOG, Dist.

Dr. Debbs is Professor of Clinical Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Perelman School of Medicine of the University of Pennsylvania where he also holds a Master of Health Care Innovation degree. He has served as the director of The University of Pennsylvania Maternal Fetal Medicine Network since 2000. In that role, Dr. Debbs presently serves as the director of maternal fetal medicine Penn Medicine-Princeton Health, Inspira Health System, and Shore Medical Center Somers Point New Jersey.

He actively lectures, participates in research, and teaches students, residents, fellows, nurses and midwives at the University of Pennsylvania and throughout the country. In that role, Dr. Debbs has received the prestigious teaching award from the Association of Professors in Gynecology and Obstetrics. He is a past president of the American College of Osteopathic Obstetricians and Gynecologists where he holds the title of Distinguished Fellow. He previously served as the chair of the postgraduate education committee and is past Chair of the Medical Education Foundation. Dr. Debbs is Chair of the subsection in Maternal Fetal Medicine for the American Osteopathic Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology where he also serves as an examiner. Dr. Debbs has been named a top doctor both locally and nationally for the past 20 years. Dr. Debbs has been an invited visiting professor at several universities and is committed to education and improving the safety of Women’s health care using innovative approaches to access, affordability and improved outcomes. He served as a founding member of the Political Action Committee of the American Congress of OBGYN and has received the most valuable player award three times for his work in supporting access to Women’s health care. He resides in New Jersey with his wife Susan, his two children, Bailey and Jenna, and Carter, their dog.

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.

Charles J. Lockwood, MD, MHCM

Dr. Lockwood is the Executive Vice President (EVP) of USF Health, where he leads the Morsani College of Medicine (MCOM), the Taneja College of Pharmacy, the colleges of Nursing and Public Health as well as the schools of Physical Therapy & Rehabilitation Sciences and Graduate Biomedical Sciences. He also oversees the USF Health faculty practice group, one of the largest multispecialty practices in Florida. Dr. Lockwood serves as the MCOM Dean and professor of Obstetrics & Gynecology and holds a secondary appointment as a professor in the College of Public Health. Lockwood assumed all these leadership roles when he joined USF Health in May 2014 and has served as an EVP at Tampa General Hospital (TGH) since 2015. Previously, he served as Dean of the College of Medicine and Vice President for Health Sciences at the Ohio State University and chaired the departments of Ob/Gyn at Yale and NYU.

His research has been supported for over 30 years by multiple NIH and foundation grants. He has authored more than 325 peer-reviewed publications, 180 editorials, three monographs and co-edited 7 major textbooks, 3 with multiple editions (h-index 95; i10-index 371; 35,068 citations). Lockwood is credited with leading the research team that discovered fetal fibronectin (fFN) as a predictor of impending preterm birth and discovering mechanisms for progesterone receptor activity downregulation in infection, abruption, and stress-associated preterm birth. His lab discovered fundamental mechanisms for transplacental ZIKV infections.

He is a longstanding section editor for UpToDate and was the Editor-in-Chief of Contemporary Ob/Gyn for 20 years, where his editorials garnered six national publishing awards. He is past president of the Society for Reproductive Investigation (SRI) and the American Gynecological and Obstetrical Society. He has chaired multiple American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, FDA and NIH committees. He is the President of the Florida Medical School Quality Network, on the Board of Governors of the Florida Medical Association and on the board of the Global Virus Network which has 84 centers in over 40 countries. He serves as a professional member and chair-elect of the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) that accredits U.S. allopathic medical schools.

Dr. Lockwood is magna cum laude graduate of Brown University, earned his MD from the University of Pennsylvania, and his Master of Science in Health Care Management from the Harvard School of Public Health. He completed his Ob/Gyn residency at Pennsylvania Hospital, a maternal-fetal medicine fellowship at Yale and a post-doctoral fellowship in molecular hemostasis at Mount Sinai School of Medicine. He is a member of the Phi Beta Kappa, Sigma Xi and Alpha Omega Alpha honor societies, the National Academy of Medicine, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. His research has led to multiple awards including the SRI’s Distinguished Scientist Award, the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine’s Lifetime Achievement Award, and the NICHD-FIR Beacon award. In addition, he is a recipient of the ACOG Public Service Award for his “enduring commitment to women’s health” and the University of Maryland Dean’s Distinguished Gold Medal. He has been cited on national “Best Doctors” lists for three decades.

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.

Recurrent Pregnancy Loss Association Awareness. Advocacy. Answers.