Karima Hijane
President/Treasurer
Karima Hijane is the President of Rachel’s Well, a non-profit organization that is working to improve women’s health by raising awareness, removing barriers to care, and stimulating research. She initiated and has been actively working on a multi-faceted grassroots effort to improve the healthcare of women living with Primary Ovarian Insufficiency (POI) (a.k.a. Premature Ovarian Failure) and related disorders. She is leading an awareness effort to educate medical communities, lawmakers and the general public about POI and the importance of the menstrual cycle. Karima was diagnosed with POI in 2007 after years of suffering. She is a strong supporter of participatory research. She speaks as a patient activist about her physical and emotional experience leading up to and after being diagnosed. She has addressed audiences at medical schools, conferences and in the media. Recently Karima’s story was featured in the Washington Post health section. Earlier this year, she was part of a research plan working group at the NIH for Fragile X associated-Primary Ovarian Insufficiency, in response to congressional appropriations language. She also lobbies Congress to create legislation and get funding for POI research and education. She has led and organized groups of patient activists to urge Congress into positive action. Prior to her nonprofit work, Karima worked as an Information Technology/Management consultant with BearingPoint and SAIC for various government and military agencies. She has also worked as an independent consultant on healthcare IT projects. She holds a B.S. in Computer Science from George Mason University. She can be contacted at Karima@RachelsWell.org
Justina A. Trott, MD, FACP
Vice President
Dr. Justina Trott currently serves as the director of the Residency Program of Internal Medicine at St. Vincent’s Hospital, the Sante Fe National Community Center of Excellence in Women’s Health and the Women’s Health Services Family Care and Counseling Center. She is also a clinical professor at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine and part of the core faculty of the Northern New Mexico Family Practice Residency Program in Sante Fe. Dr. Trott has held a variety of distinguished positions, including acting as president and board member of the American College of Women’s Health Physicians. She has been published in notable peer-reviewed and non-peer reviewed publications, including The American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and has given more than a dozen presentations on topics of importance to women’s health, including the menstrual cycle, menopause and gender-specific medicine. Dr. Trott earned her bachelor’s degree in from New York University and her medical degree from the Medical College of Pennsylvania. Dr. Trott is fluent in Spanish and has traveled extensively through the United States, Cuba, Central America, South America and Europe.
Yoko Nakamura Nelson, BA, MS
Secretary
Mrs. Nelson, retired as an art and Japanese language teacher is a co-founder of Rachel’s Well, Inc. Since her retirement, Mrs. Nelson substitute teaches, volunteers for Rachel’s Well, Inc, the Fairfax County Arts Council in Fairfax County, Virginia, and serves as a Japanese interpreter for the Fairfax County Medical Reserve Corps. She holds B.A. in art and M.S. in art education. Prior to her retirement, Mrs. Nelson was active in educational fields as a classroom teacher, a curriculum writer, presenter of workshops, mentor of other teachers and an officer of art education organizations. Mrs. Nelson has been recognized by a number of awards for teaching excellence both in art and foreign language.
Paula J. Adams Hillard, MD
Board Member
Paula J. Adams Hillard, M.D., is currently a Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Stanford University School of Medicine where she serves as Chief of the Division of Gynecologic Specialties. Until May of 2007, she was a Professor at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, where she founded and directed the fellowship program in Pediatric and Adolescent Gynecology. Dr. Hillard was a member of the Department of Ob-Gyn at the University of Cincinnati from 1984 to 2007, and was the Director of Women’s Health for the University of Cincinnati college of Medicine. Dr. Hillard has been active on a number of national medical committees, including chair of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists’ (ACOG) Committees on Patient Education, Adolescent Health, and Guidelines for Women’s Health; she is a past member of the Gynecology Practice Committee. She is an examiner for the American Board of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. She is an active contributor to the literature in adolescent gynecology and contraception with more than 100 journal articles and abstracts published. She has served as an editorial board member for a number of professional journals. She speaks frequently at national and international meetings and postgraduate courses on topics in ambulatory obstetrics and gynecology, pediatric and adolescent gynecology, cervical cancer screening, interpersonal violence, and primary care. She is an Associate Editor of a major textbook, Novak’s Gynecology, the editor of the 5-Minute Consult in Obstetrics and Gynecology, and the author of more than 50 book chapters on women’s health. She has been a consultant and a member of task forces and committees for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the American Medical Association, American Cancer Society, and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.
Deidre Maccannon, MD, MM
Board Member
Dr. Deidre Spicer Maccannon is a writer, speaker and women’s health consultant. She most recently served as assistant professor and coordinator of the Hysterectomy Alternatives Program in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Georgetown University Medical Center. Previously, Dr. Maccannon was co-director of both the National Center of Excellence in Women’s Health and the Hysterectomy Alternatives Program at the University of Michigan. Dr. Maccannon also served as director of Ford Motor Company’s Women’s Health Initiative, charged with increasing the awareness and use of preventive healthcare by Ford female employees, retirees and dependents nationwide. Dr. Maccannon has lectured across the country on numerous topics of importance to women’s health, including cardiovascular disease and menopause, the early detection of breast cancer, and the management of fibroids and abnormal menstrual cycles. She also speaks on important public health topics, including improving access to quality healthcare and empowering women through patient education. Dr. Maccannon has held distinguished positions within the American Medical Association, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the Council on Resident Education in Obstetrics and Gynecology. Dr. Maccannon completed her undergraduate and medical degrees at Northwestern University where she also obtained a health services management degree from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management. Dr. Maccannon then completed an obstetrics and gynecology residency at the Johns Hopkins Hospital where she was appointed to serve as administrative chief resident. She subsequently completed a health services research fellowship as a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar at the University of Michigan.
Charlene Connolly, Ed D, RN
Board Member
Dr. Charlene Connolly currently serves as the executive vice-president of the International University of Nursing (IUON). IUON’s administrative offices are located in New York City with the campus on St. Kitts in the Caribbean . IUON offers ADN and BSN degrees with a global focus in Nursing. IUON partners with accredited U.S. partner schools where students transfer and complete their education and graduate from the partner school. Prior to her position at IUON, Dr. Connolly served as provost of the medical education campus of Northern Virginia Community College (NVCC) where she has held several prominent positions since 1991, including assistant to the president of the medical education campus and division dean of nursing and allied health. More recently, Dr. Connolly became a board member for Rachel’s Well, Inc., a 501c3 non-profit organization that provides free life-saving cancer-screening tests to uninsured women in Fairfax County , Virginia . Prior to working for the NVCC, Dr. Connolly was regional director of the medical health education department for the Southern California region of Kaiser Permanente and department administrator for member health education at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center . She has held memberships in several prestigious organizations including the National Nursing Advisory Council, National Health Education Roundtable and the Community Campus Partnerships for Health. She has been published in the Journal of Nursing Education and the Journal of Policy, Politics and Nursing Practice, in addition to writing two books: Nursing in the Community: Service-Learning and Creating a Community-Based Interdisciplinary Collaborative Practice in Teaching in the Community. Dr. Connolly has served as a consultant to several medical education campuses including Wesley College, Louisiana State University, the Kentucky Community College System and Cincinnati State and Community College and has given numerous presentations on nursing education at conferences across the country. She has also received several national nursing awards, including being selected as one of 15 Robert Wood Johnson Executive Nurse Fellows from 2000-2003. Dr. Connolly received her bachelor’s degree in nursing from Hunter College , her master’s degree in nursing education from New York University and her doctorate in education degree in instructional leadership – higher education from St. John’s University in New York City.
Deidre Defoe, MD
Board Member
Dr. Defoe is an OB&GYN with experience in both private practice and public health. She received her medical and public health training at Howard University and Johns Hopkins University. Her passion for women’s health issues and the community is exemplified in her employment, research and publications, and community activities. She has been actively involved in public health both as an attending physician by providing medical services to underserved women and as a health policy maker. She was instrumental in creating new systems and protocols to improve health outcomes in the Northern Virginia community. Some of her studies include “ Barriers to Definitive Diagnosis of Cervical Cancer after An Abnormal Pap Test Result in Uninsured Women ,“ “Exploring New Ways to Decrease Clinic Wait Time: A Patient Centered Survey, “ and “ A Retrospective Review on the use of Intra-Uterine Devices in the Public Health Clinic.” Dr. Defoe has held leadership positions throughout her career. At the American college of Obstetricians and Gynecologists/ACOG, ( Junior Fellow Vice chair and Chair of the Washington, DC chapter, 1997 –1999, Junior Fellow Vice Chair and Chair District IV, 1999 - 2001). She was also nominated as ACOG Future Leaders in Obstetrics and Gynecology, 2000. Dr. Defoe completed the Leadership in Women’s health policy fellowship, Chapel Hill, NC, 2000. She served on the Speakers Bureau for FEI Women’s Health and is presently Senior Faculty for Organon USA Pharmaceutical. She is also actively involved in her local Fairfax church where she volunteers her time as a Sunday school teacher. Dr. Defoe is also the Junior Girl Scout leader for troop # 277 in Alexandria, Virginia.
Lawrence M. Nelson, MD, MBA
Non Voting Board Member
Federal Liaison to Rachel’s Well, Inc
Lawrence Nelson, M.D, is a research gynecologist and a commissioned officer in the United States Public Health Service stationed at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. He serves as head of the Integrative Reproductive Medicine Unit, at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. Dr. Nelson is also associate professor in the department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at both George Washington School of Medicine and the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences. Dr. Nelson has held positions on several NIH committees, served as the chief of the NIH Clinical Center gynecology consult service, and is a member of numerous professional societies, including the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, the American Society for Reproductive Medicine and the Society of Reproductive Endocrinologists. Dr. Nelson has published more than 75 medical articles, web resources, Cochrane Reviews and book chapters covering topics of importance to women’s health, such as amenorrhea and bone health, ovarian failure and fertility. He has received several awards for his work, including the U.S. Public Health Service Commendation Medal and the Meritorious Service Medal. Dr. Nelson has received the prestigious Listener’s Award of the Genetic Alliance “for forging partnerships that create powerful forces for change.” He has been awarded two patents on a “Human Gene Critical to Fertility.” Dr. Nelson is aligned with Rachel’s Well, Inc., a 501c3 nonprofit organization, as the official Federal Liaison approved by the National Institutes of Health, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, and the United States Public Health Service. The mission of Rachel’s Well, Inc. is “To improve women’s health by raising awareness, removing barriers to care, and stimulating research.”