Pushing the boundaries of women's health research
IWHR Staff
TERESA K. WOODRUFF, PhD
As the director of the Institute for Women’s Health Research, Teresa Woodruff, PhD, provides exceptional leadership to this unique enterprise. Dr. Woodruff recognizes the unparalleled advances that can occur through a partnership between basic research and translational research that focuses on moving scientific discoveries from the laboratory, through clinical trials, to actual patient care applications. She seeks to establish the Institute as a national—and, ultimately, international—model and to position Northwestern on the forefront of all types of research related to women’s health.
Dr. Woodruff is uniquely qualified to provide leadership to the Institute and to chart a course for women’s health research at Northwestern, for she is an internationally recognized expert in ovarian biology. In 2006, Dr. Woodruff coined the term “oncofertility”— to describe the merging of two fields: oncology and fertility. Breakthroughs in ovarian tissue cryopreservation and in vitro follicle maturation are brightening the outlook for preserving fertility in young women with cancer and other diseases that are treated with life-saving but potent therapies. Based on promising science being done in her lab, Woodruff was awarded a prestigious Roadmap Grant from the NIH to advance her work in 2007. She now heads a national Oncofertility Consortium, an interdisciplinary team of biomedical and social scientists, oncologists, pediatricians, engineers, and ethicists from universities across the country–bringing national experts together to accelerate the new field. In addition to serving as the director of the Institute and the Oncofertility Consortium, she is currently the Thomas J. Watkins Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chief of the Division of Fertility Preservation at the Feinberg School, and the Director of the Center for Reproductive Research at Northwestern University.
Dr. Woodruff also is a skilled and committed educator. In 2009. She received the Northwestern Universi ty Distinguished Women in Science and Medicine Award from the Women’s Medical Faculty Organization as well as the Faculty Mentor of the Year Award, designed to allow faculty to hone their peers who embody both the letter and spirit of mentoring. As testament to her contributions in this area, in September of 2009, Dr. Woodruff was honored as the Feinberg School’s Faculty Mentor of the Year. She is unwavering in her encouragement of students’ and colleagues’ professional growth, and she harnesses this same passion as she nurtures the growth of the Institute for Women’s Health Research.
SHARON GREEN, MHA
Sharon started her career as a medical technologist working in the special hematology departments at the University of Illinois and then at the University of Chicago. After several years in the laboratory, her career, while always medically related, shifted toward new program development. She now has over 30 years experience developing new organizations. Her former positions include serving as the first executive director of the Y-ME National Breast Cancer Organization, the first deputy director of the Office of Women’s Health at the Illinois Department of Public Health, and one of seven co-founders of the National Breast Cancer Coalition in Washington, DC .
She established the Office of Special Population Initiatives at the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center at Northwestern where she was responsible for getting the Center named as a Fertile Hope Center of Excellence. She currently serves at the Executive Director of the new Institute for Women’s Health Research at the Feinberg School of Medicine where she is responsible for strategic planning and community engagement. Ms. Green has an undergraduate degree in medical technology and a master’s degree in health administration.
NADIA JOHNSON, MA
Nadia is the Program Manager for the Institute. She has degrees in Biology, Kinesiology, and Psychology from the University of Colorado at Boulder, and a masters degree in Medical Science from Loyola University Chicago. She has worked with large epidemiological databases at DePaul University and at Children's Memorial Hospital. She has worked with the Oncofertility Consortium's educational programs at Northwestern University since 2009, developing programs for high school science teachers and students.
