Michael Kleerekoper, MD, MACE, has joined the faculty at the University of Toledo Medical School where he is a Professor in the Department of Internal Medicine and section chief of the Endocrinology Division. He is also the author of numerous journal studies, Kleerekoper serves on the editorial boards for Endocrine Today, Endocrine Practice, Journal of Clinical Densitometry, Journal of Women's Health, Osteoporosis International and Calcified Tissue International. Dr. Kleerekoper is also a founding board member of the newly formed Academy of Women’s Health.

A graduate of Aleppo University, Syria, Dr. Hammami completed his postdoctoral research in Pediatrics at the Newborn Center of the University of Tennessee in Memphis, and then accepted a faculty appointment at Wayne State University School of Medicine in Detroit, Michigan and a research position at the Detroit Medical Center, Department of Pediatrics. In 2006 he was granted the American Medical Association (AMA) foundation for Excellence in Medicine and Leadership award for his public health advocacy and community work. He was awarded the “Health Policy Champion Award” by the Michigan Department of Community Health in 2011, Arab American of the Year in Medicine in 2012 and nominated by the White House for Heroes for Health in 2013. Dr. Hammami served as Executive Director of the National Arab American Medical Association (NAAMA) from 2006 to 2009 and then elected as national president for 2011. He currently serves as the Chief of Health Operations of Wayne County Department of Health and Human Services and County Health Officer for Wayne County where he oversees all health related operations for the 13th largest County in the Nation. Dr. Hammami is responsible for promoting and assuring health and quality of life by providing, maintaining, developing and coordinating a wide-range of innovative and fiscally responsible educational and health services including technology intitatives. Dr. Hammami is a member of several professional and honor societies and has had many publications in various peer reviewed medical journals.

Health and Human Services

Katie Moriarty (CNM, PhD, CAFCI, RN) is the Director of Nurse-Family Partnership at Detroit Wayne County Health Authority. She has been a nurse-midwife since 1992 and was the first midwife certified by Acupuncture Canada. She launched the first Integrative Healthcare and Complementary Therapies Clinic in Pregnancy and Reproductive Women’s Health at the University of Michigan, Nurse Managed Center. She is the Region IV Representative for the Board of Directors of the American College of Nurse Midwives (ACNM). Dr. Moriarty earned her BScN at the University of Windsor, Ontario CANADA; MS and PhD from the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Pregnancy and Reproductive Women’s Health

Dr. George Perry received his PhD in Marine Biology from Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California at San Diego. He completed his Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Department of Cell Biology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas.Dr. Perry joined the UTSA faculty in 2006 from Case Western Reserve University where he was Professor of Pathology and Neurosciences and Chair of the Department of Pathology. He is also distinguished as one of the top 20 Alzheimers disease researchers with over 800 publications, one of the top 100 most-cited scientists in Neuroscience & Behavior and one of the top 25 scientists in Free Radical research . He currently serves as and President for the American Association of Neuropathologists. He is on the editorial board of over 60 journals including American Journal of Pathology and Journal of Biological Chemistry, and is Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease.

His studies are focused on the mechanism of formation and physiological consequences of the cytopathology of Alzheimer disease. We have shown that oxidative damage is the initial cytopathology in Alzheimer disease. They are working to determine the sequence of events leading to neuronal oxidative damage and the source of the increased oxygen radicals. Their current studies focus on (i) the mechanism for RNA-based redox metal binding; (ii) the consequences of RNA oxidation on protein synthesis rate and fidelity; (iii) the role of redox active metals in mediating prooxidant and antioxidant properties; (iv) the signal transduction pathways altered in Alzheimer disease that allow neurons to evade apoptosis; and (v) mechanism of phosphorylation control of oxidative damage to neurofilament proteins.

Dr. Tekmal is a Professor of Ob-GYN and Carl J. Pauerstein Professor and the Director of Division of Reproductive Research. At Univ. of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio’s, NCI-designated Cancer Center, Dr. Tekmal is the Theme Leader of the Women’s Cancer Program. After receiving his Ph.D. in biochemistry from India in 1982, Dr. Tekmal completed postdoctoral training in molecular biology at Michigan State Univ. and Univ. of MS Medical Center. He started his academic research career at Oakland Univ. in MI and in 1989, joined the ob-gyn faculty at UTHSCSA for the first time. After few years, Dr. Tekmal moved to Emory Univ. in Atlanta, where he achieved the rank of professor and led the Breast Cancer Research Program at Emory’s Cancer Institute. In 2003, the UTHSCSA’s Ob-Gyn department recruited Dr. Tekmal to lead Division of Reproductive Research. Dr. Tekmal’s work explores the importance of local estrogen in the initiation and progression of breast cancer as well as therapeutic role of estrogen receptor beta in breast cancer treatments. His group also investigates the role of macrophage colony stimulating factor and its receptor and the role of CD44 a cell adhesion molecule in endometriosis and gynecological malignancies. Dr. Tekmal’s work has been recognized and funded by NCI/NIH, Department of Defense and Komen as well as from other foundations and pharmaceutical industries. I serve as a member of several grant study sections including NIH, Koman and DOD as well as other private/state funding organizations including international organizations (UK cancer research, Italian Cancer Research) and editorial boards of several biomedical journals. Dr. Tekmal was an invited speaker for many national and international meetings.

Irene Chain Kalinowski (1956) was born in Rotherham South Yorkshire, England to Polish immigrant parents, grew up and trained as a midwife in Rotherham. She has practiced midwifery through three continents, Europe, the Middle East and New Zealand. She currently practices in New Zealand as a self-employed case loading midwife. She holds a diploma in Homeopathy and provides holistic midwifery care where 95% of women sustain normal birth and celebrate it. She has delivered more than two thousand babies. She has practiced midwifery for thirty five years. A journey, that has taken her through countries where women have faith in childbirth and through countries where birth is medicalised and women are fearful of it. To that her first book the Heart and Soul of Midwifery tells a story of how birth has become so complex in our western society and how we need to make changes in the way we provide maternity services. She released her second book My Body My Baby in March 2013 inspired by her niece’s traumatic birth experience and alarming C Section rates. Deeply concerned about the loss of a dear midwifery colleague she co- authored the book With Woman With Midwife with Me in 2014. Irene believes that no woman should be traumatised from her birth experience and that childbirth should be a spiritual and celebrated event. Irene is very passionate about midwifery and her colleagues around the globe to which she co- authored the book Three Blind Mice in which three midwives have three mouse angels and they are on a mission to save childbirth and midwives. Irene has Also authored Let It Be and The Ugly Ducklings, and has co-scripted two screen plays. She is Director of Marketing at Word First Publishing

Levine received his Bachelor of Science from the University of Wisconsin at Madison in 1974 and his M.D. from the Chicago Medical School in 1978 and completed his residency in obstetrics and gynecology at Illinois Masonic Medical Center in 1982. He has been Board Certified in Obstetrics & Gynecology continuously since 1984. He is a member of a number of medical societies including the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the Chicago Gynecological Society, the Central Association of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and the American Medical Informatics Association, to name a few. His involvement in research, education and quality has allowed him to author numerous articles in medical journals, leading him to often lecture to physician audiences. Dr. Levine serves as Director of Informatics & Research in a department of obstetrics & gynecology for decades, having developed and implemented a SQL perinatal database; and as a Medical Director of Informatics for a hospital, promoting the adoption of an Electronic Health Record in a large healthcare system. He continues to have a general obstetrics and gynecology practice, and has been listed in America’s Top Doctors for over a decade. He lives with his wife and has 2 adult children.

Mostafa I. Abuzeid, M.D., F.A.C.O.G., F.R.C.O.G., studied at Cairo University in Cairo, Egypt, where he received his P.N.S undergraduate degree in 1970. He continued with is graduate work at Cairo University, Faculty of Medicine, where he received his M.B., CH.B degree with honors. In 1979, Dr. Abuzeid traveled to the United Kingdom, where he completed his OB/GYN residency training at the following Hospitals: St. Stephens Hospital, Westminster School of Medicine, London; Marston Green Hospital, Birmingham; University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff, United Kingdom. In 1981, he completed an OB/GYN residency at Wayne State University, Affiliated Hospitals, Detroit, Michigan. During his residencies, he developed a passion for the field of reproductive medicine. In 1984, Dr. Abuzeid pursued his dream of becoming an infertility specialist, and in 1986 he completed a fellowship in reproductive endocrinology and infertility at the University of South Alabama College of Medicine in Mobile, Alabama. Dr. Abuzeid is board certified in OB/GYN as well as reproductive endocrinology and infertility in both the United Kingdom and the United States. In 1989, Dr. Abuzeid established an in vitro fertilization clinic in Flint, Michigan, at the renowned Hurley Medical Center, where he began not only his career as a clinician but also as an academician as assistant professor in OB/GYN for Michigan State University's School of Human Medicine, Flint Campus. In 1991, Dr. Abuzeid became associate professor, and in 2001, he became full professor. As a professor, he has trained many medical students and residents in the field of reproductive medicine. Today, Dr. Abuzeid, Professor of OB/GYN, Director of Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility, and Director of IVF Michigan, Rochester Hills and Flint, Michigan, continues to work as a respected clinician, researcher, and professor and is a member of both the European Society of Human Reproduction and the American Society for Reproductive Medicine. Dr. Abuzeid is considered a foremost expert in the area of infertility, having authored well over 200 publications, abstracts, book chapters, and reviews. He continues to research at his facility to remain on the cutting edge in the field of reproductive medicine.

Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility