Presenters
Stuart P. Adler, MD
Stuart Adler, M.D. is a Professor of Pediatrics, Microbiology and Medicine and Director of Infectious Diseases at the Children’s Medical Center, Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center. Dr. Adler has specialized in CMV infections among women and children for over 28 years and has published extensively on this topic. He has participated in clinical trials for vaccines and prevention of infection in daycare centers through hygienic methods and advocates universal screening of mothers and newborns.
Presenting on:
Prevention of CMV Infections During Pregnancy by Behavior Modification
Stuart Adler, M.D. is a Professor of Pediatrics, Microbiology and Medicine and Director of Infectious Diseases at the Children’s Medical Center, Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center. Dr. Adler has specialized in CMV infections among women and children for over 28 years and has published extensively on this topic. He has participated in clinical trials for vaccines and prevention of infection in daycare centers through hygienic methods and advocates universal screening of mothers and newborns.
Presenting on:
Prevention of CMV Infections During Pregnancy by Behavior Modification
Kathleen F. Gensheimer, MD, MPH
Dr. Kathleen Gensheimer serves as a Medical Officer/Epidemiologist in the FDA Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, Office of Analytics and Outreach, Division of Public Health Informatics and Analytics, Epidemiology Branch. She provides authoritative medical and epidemiological advice, guidance, assistance, interpretation, and recommendations regarding food safety, as well as working to promote collaboration with multiple partners from within and outside of FDA, including laboratory, public health, agriculture, and regulatory partners at the state and local levels. In addition to serving on the Advisory Board of the One Health Initiative and the Editorial Advisory Board of the journal, Infectious Disease News, Dr. Gensheimer is an Associate Editor for the journal, Emerging Infectious Diseases. Dr. Gensheimer previously served for 5 years in the FDA Office of Foods and Veterinary Medicine as Chief Medical Officer and Director of the Coordinated Outbreak Response and Evaluation Network, where she oversaw foodborne outbreak investigations; and for 28 years as State Epidemiologist in Maine, where much of her work involved surveillance, response, and prevention of foodborne-related issues of public health concern. Presenting on: Prenatal listeriosis: Risk factors, education, and prevention |
Tracy B. Grossman, MD, MSc
Tracy B. Grossman is a Maternal Fetal Medicine fellow in New York City. She will be completing her fellowship in July of 2019. She is a native New Yorker and has completed most of her medical training in the New York City area. She performs research focused on maternal and neonatal adverse outcomes and has a special interest in neurologic disorders of pregnancy. She plans to continue pursuing research as a Maternal Fetal Medicine specialist in the future. Presenting on: Isolated acute funisitis in the absence of acute chorioamnionitis: what does it mean? |
Lindsey Henke, MSW, LICSW
Lindsey M. Henke, is a clinical social worker practicing as a psychotherapist specializing in maternal mental health with a focus on perinatal grief and trauma and the pregnancy that follows a loss. She received her undergraduate degree and Masters in Social Work from the University of Minnesota. She is the Executive Director of Pregnancy After Loss Support (PALS) a 501c3 which she founded in 2014, after the birth of her baby born after the stillbirth of her first child in 2012. She is dedicated to advocating for grieving parents and those pregnant again after the death of their child. Presenting on: Why, Where & How Perinatal Loss Parents Grieve Online |
James A. McGregor, MDCM
Dr. James A. McGregor has served as Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology practicing at UCLA, USC and the University of Colorado Hospital. Dr. McGregor practiced as a fully engaged obstetrician and gynecologist for forty years at Cedars-Sinai/UCLA, Tucson Medical Center and University of Colorado Hospitals until his retirement in 2010. He is currently on Group B Strep International's Board of Directors and shares his expertise with GBSI through giving presentations and talking to providers and parents at perinatal conference exhibits around the world. Presenting on:
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Amy Perhach
Amy Perhach is the Communications Coordinator of Group B Strep International (GBSI). Amy, previously, volunteered at GBSI for over a decade, having lost a sister to group B strep. She has a Communication Studies background with a focus on Interpersonal and Organizational Skills. Presenting on: Primary prevention of prenatal infection using the mnemonic "HYGIENE" |
Marti Perhach
Marti Perhach cofounded Group B Strep International (GBSI) in 2006. Previously she had served as President for GBSI's sister organization, The Jesse Cause, since 1999. GBSI was cofounded to expand the scope and audience of the GBS awareness campaign. She also serves as GBSI’s CEO. Her background is Business Administration with a major in Hotel & Restaurant Management and a minor in Marketing from Cal Poly Pomona. Marti enjoys organizing conference exhibits to share information on how to help protect babies from group B strep disease. Marti's daughter, Rose, was stillborn in 1998 due to group B strep. Presenting on:
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Lisa Saunders
Lisa Saunders, a former licensed in-home child care provider, was unaware she was putting her pregnancy with Elizabeth at increased risk for cytomegalovirus or CMV by professional caring for toddlers in her home and volunteering on weekends in her church nursery. She was also the mother of a toddler and unaware of the importance of refraining from sharing cups and food with her. Her daughter Elizabeth was born with a severely damaged brain from congenital CMV in 1989 and died at 16 during a seizure in 2006. In 2015, Lisa was instrumental in helping Connecticut become the second state in the U.S. to pass a law requiring newborns who fail their hearing screen to be tested for CMV. She educates the public about CMV prevention through books, articles and public speaking, and is currently working to ensure all child care providers learn of their occupational hazard for CMV. She is the leader of the Child Care Providers Education Committee with the National CMV Foundation and is the parent representative of the Congenital Cytomegalovirus Foundation. Presenting on: Help Child Care Providers Fight Cytomegalovirus (CMV): Protect Newborns From #1 Birth Defects Virus |
Michelle Sepulveda, MA
Michelle has worked with families of children with special needs and infant mental health services for more than ten years. She recently completed her Master’s in Human Development at Pacific Oaks College and a mother of two children. Her experience in working with parents, especially grieving mothers is a gift she shares with others and her experience as a grieving mother gives her an empathetic touch. Presenting on: Maternal Identity and Grief Resilience |
Ilona Tiemens-van Putten, MsC, MD
Doctor Ilona Tiemens-van Putten will introduce the watermethod. It is a method to keep a deceased baby beautiful till the cremation or burial. In the Netherlands this method had become the new standard method used after a birth of a young fetus. She will speak about her own experience and invention of this watermethod. Presenting on: Introduction of the water method for preservation of the deceased fetus |