Scientific Advisory Council

Susan I. Barr, PhD, RDN, FDC, FACSM is Professor of Nutrition at the University of British Columbia. She completed her undergraduate degree at the University of British Columbia, and obtained her PhD in Human Nutrition from the University of Minnesota and the Mayo Clinic. Her research interests focus on cognitive dietary restraint (the perception of constantly limiting food intake), and she has demonstrated important associations among high levels of dietary restraint, menstrual disturbances, and bone health in young women of normal weight.

Valerie Beral, MD, PhD, Oxford, Professor of epidemiology, Director of the Imperial Cancer Research Fund's cancer epidemiology unit, University of Oxford, Gibson Building, Radcliffe Infirmary, Oxford. Dr. Beral views the research goals of the unit under her direction as identifying ways in which cancers can be prevented.

Marilyn Borugian, PhD, is a research scientist [1] with the Cancer Control Research Program of the British Columbia Cancer Agency. After 25 years as a computer programmer, systems analyst, project manager and teacher in the financial services area of information technology, Marilyn has turned her analytical skills to cancer research, with a special interest in modifiable lifestyle risk factors. She published her Master's thesis on gender differences in colorectal cancer risk factors, and recently published a portion of her PhD dissertation on modifiable lifestyle factors such as body shape, diet, and exercise that have the potential to improve survival in women with breast cancer.

Siri Forsmo MD MPH PhD, currently post doctoral fellow at the Dept. of Public Health and General Practice, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway. Her training is in gynaecology & obstetrics, community medicine and public health. Her research is mainly in epidemiology, notably in the fields of female cancer, osteoporosis and fractures, health services and medical technology assessment. She is also involved in several interdisciplinary projects in medical history and bioethics.

Ian S Fraser AO, MD, BSc (Hons), FRANZCOG, FRCOG, CREI, Professor in Reproductive Medicine at the University of Sydney. gained his undergraduate, postgraduate and specialist training at the Universities of Edinburgh and Oxford. He gained specialist qualifications in obstetrics and gynaecology through the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (UK) and through the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RANZCOG). He is a certified subspecialist in reproductive endocrinology and infertility, and a past-President of RANZCOG. He is internationally recognised for his research in the fields of menstrual disorders, contraception, menopause and gynaecological endoscopic surgery. He has been appointed an Officer in the Order of Australia for service to medicine in the areas of obstetrics, gynaecology, reproductive endocrinology and family planning as a leading practitioner, researcher and educator, and to the establishment of professional and educational standards".

Janet E. Hall, MD, is Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Assistant Chief of the Reproductive Endocrinology Unit, Endocrine Division, Massachusetts General Hospital. Her research is directed toward understanding the neuroendocrine interactions underlying normal human reproduction and their disruption in clinical disorders of ovulation. The application of her research has helped many women with hypothalamic amenorrhea (HA), polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) and acquired hypogonadotropic hypo-gonadism (AHH) to conceive. Dr. Hall is also the Deputy Editor for the Journal of Endocrinology and Metabolism.

Suzanne C. Ho, BA, MSc, MPH, PhD, is Professor of Community and Family Medicine at the Chinese University of Hong Kong [2]. She is also Director of Postgraduate Programmes in Epidemiology and Biostatistics and Women’s Health Studies. With background in physiology and trained in public health and epidemiology, Suzanne’s research interests are in ageing, women's health, nutritional epidemiology and osteoporosis.

Dr. Patricia Janssen is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Health Care and Epidemiology located at the Centre for Health Evaluation & Outcome Sciences, St. Paul's Hospital, Vancouver. Her areas of Specialty are: Maternal/Fetal/Newborn Health, Women's Health, Population Health, and Clinical Epidemiology/Clinical Trials. She is currently researching; Updating standards for intrauterine fetal growth, Impact of exposure to interpersonal violence on pregnancy outcomes, Management of early labour, Health resources for pregnant immigrant and refugee women, Evaluation of a home safety kit on infant falls and Outcomes associated with home birth.

Elaine Kingwell, BSc., MSc., PhD. is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Division of Neurology, Faculty of Medicine at the University of British Columbia. She is an epidemiologist with a background in behavioural neuroscience and psychology. Her research interests include population health, health risk communication and the effects of bone mineral density testing on health behaviour as well as risk factors associated with multiple sclerosis (MS) and the risks and benefits associated with treatments for MS. In addition to her research projects related to MS, Dr Kingwell is a co-investigator on studies based at CeMCOR of the influence of exercise on bone fragility and a validation study of a questionnaire related to ovulation.

Susan M. Love MD, is an adjunct Clinical Professor of Surgery at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and the President and Medical Director of the Susan Love MD Breast Cancer Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to the eradication of breast cancer. She is one of the founders and a director of the National Breast Cancer Advisory Board. Her research on an intraductal approach to breast cancer led her to found ProDuct Health Inc., a medical device company which was recently acquired bythe Cytyc Health Corporation. She is the author of Dr. Susan Love’s Breast Book and Dr. Susan Love's Hormone Book, and most recently, Dr. Susan Love’'s Menopause and Hormone Book. Although retired from the practice of surgery, she still helps women through LLuminari, a multi-media women’s health content company and www.SusanLoveMD.org [3].

Monterrey Marks BScPharm (honours) from the University of British Columbia is a community pharmacist specializing in women’s health, especially with regards to hormones, nutrition and lifestyle. She has worked with pharmacies in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia. She also lived and worked as a pharmacist in New Zealand and has recently returned there to work in Auckland. Monterrey has been trained in the compounding of hormones in Australia and nutritional medicine in the US. Her aim is to provide reputable resources for the public and fellow health professionals as well as network amongst the professions to help educate and validate the safe and effective practice of hormonal and nutritional medicine. Ms. Marks has become known in the pharmacy community and region in which she works, for having expertise in progesterone. She is co-investigator in CeMCOR’s Community Pharmacists’ Knowledge of Progesterone study that is underway.

Moira A. Petit BA, MS, PhD. Dr. Petit is an Assistant Professor, in the Penn State University College of Medicine, Dept. of Health Evaluation Sciences. She is the Assitant director of the Penn State Young Women's Health Study [4] , a 10-year longitudinal study of bone health, physical activity, hormones and nutrition. Her research interests include the relationship of life style (physical activity and nutrition) and endocrine factors to skeletal health across the lifespan. She is also interested in stress fracture prevention and menstrual cycle changes in athletes. Her PhD work at the University of British Columbia was on exercise and bone in Asian and Caucasian children.

Sheila M. Pride MD. Dr. Pride is a reproductive endocrinologist and Clinical Assistant Professor of Gynecology at Vancouver Hospital and the University of British Columbia. She is particularly interested in the clinical care and consequences for women with long-standing anovulatory androgen excess (also known as “polycystic ovarian disease”). She has collaborated with Dr. Jerilynn C. Prior on menstrual cycle research since the early 1980s. Dr. Pride is the co-investigator in a proposed randomized, double blind placebo-controlled study of cyclic progesterone, low dose birth control pills or placebo in symptomatic early perimenopausal women.

John D. Wark MBBS, PhD, FRACP. Head, Royal Melbourne Hospital Bone and Mineral Service and Broadmeadows Osteoporosis Centre. Dr. Wark is Professor of Medicine at the University of Melbourne, Australia. He has an international reputation in the bone field and is known for his work on vitamin D metabolism; for studying twins of different ages and genders over many years; for the role of physical activity in bone health and for his work with the World Health Organization as a consultant on osteoporosis and menopause. He also works with merino sheep as an animal model of osteoporosis. Sheep are more suitable than many non-primates because they ovulate year-round (like women) rather than sporadically, or once a year.