Click on the headshots below to find out more about each committee member for the FIGO 2023 World Congress.
Dr. Nawal Nour is the Chair ofthe Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. She holds the Kate Macy Ladd Professorship at Harvard Medical School.
Prior to assuming the role of Chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Dr. Nour served as the Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer for Faculty, Trainees and Students, since 2018. Dr. Nour has also served as the director of Ambulatory Obstetrics Practice for two decades and assumed leadership of the Ambulatory Gynecology Division last year. In addition, she is the Founding Director of the African Women’s Health Center and the Division Director of both Ambulatory Obstetrics and Gynecology.
Recently named one of Forbes 40 Women to Watch Over 40, Dr. Nour established the world-renowned African Women’s Health Center which provides appropriate holistic health and outreach programs to the African community in Boston. As the founder and current director, Dr. Nour was honored as a 2003 MacArthur Foundation Fellow for creating the country’s only center of its kind that focuses on both physical and emotional needs of women who have had or undergone female genital cutting. Dr. Nour has also published several articles related to women’s health including, HIV and Pregnancy in Resource-Poor Settings.
Dr. Nour was born in the Sudan and raised in Egypt and England. She came to the United States to attend Brown University. She received her medical degree from Harvard Medical School, completed an Ob-Gyn residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and an MPH at Harvard School of Public Health. She has received numerous awards for her community work and outreach including honorary doctorate degrees from Bowdoin College and Williams College. Dr. Nour presently serves on the Brigham Health Board of Trustees.
Professor Philippe Descamps is a distinguished professor of obstetrics and gynaecology and has been the Head of the Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Angers University Hospital in France since 1999. In addition, he is the Director of the regional endometriosis care centre EndoRef-Angers.
Professor Descamps was elected as the French representative to the FIGO Council 2015 – 2021. He has sat on the Minimal Access Surgery Committee (2018 – 2021) and was a member of FIGO’s Strategic Planning Committee (2020 – 2021).
At a national level, Professor Descamps has supported the French National College of Gynaecologists and Obstetricians (CNGOF) by serving as the President of its International Relations Committee (2012 – present) and a member of its Board and Bureau (2005 – present). In addition, he was the Vice-President of the French Society of Gynaecological and Pelvic Surgery (SCGP) between 2011 and 2021.
Dr Conry is the current President of the Environmental Health Leadership Foundation, leading efforts to improve the health and well-being of women through systematic changes in health care delivery with a focus on the environment.
Dr Conry holds positions as the Chair of the US Women’s Preventive Services Initiative and Vice Chair of the PMNCH Provider Engagement in Countries Committee. She serves on the Secretary’s Advisory Committee on Infant and Maternal Mortality (ACIMM) of the US Department of Health and Human Services. She is also a Board member for the Forum Institute and the Heartland Health Research Alliance.
Dr Conry is a Past President of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) and was a practicing OBGYN at Kaiser Permanente in Northern California. She holds a Medical Degree from, and completed her Residency at, the University of California at Davis. She holds a PhD in Biology from the University of Colorado, Boulder.
Dr Kihara is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of Nairobi, where she has worked for the past 15 years. She is currently the Division Chair of the UON- KNH Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology.
Since 2021, Dr Kihara has been the President of the African Federation of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. She is also a past President of the Kenya Obstetrical and Gynaecological Society (2013 – 2017), providing assistance on the Beyond Zero Campaign since 2013. Additionally, she was a member of the FIGO Pregnancy and Non-Communicable Diseases Committee 2017 – 2021.
She is involved in Women’s Health advocacy nationally, regionally and internationally. She provides technical assistance in contributing to bills, policy, strategic direction and guidelines in sexual and reproductive health and rights. She is passionately engaged in adolescent health and advocates for primary actors to use various ministry lines and community empowerment to meet their objectives.
Dr Kihara holds a Fellowship from the East Central Southern African College of Obstetrics and Gynaecology (2019) and a Masters in Obstetrics and Gynaecology from the University of Nairobi (1999).
Dr Shantha Kumari is the current President of the Federation of Obstetric and Gynaecological Societies of India (FOGSI). She is a Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology and a senior laparoscopic surgeon.
Previously, Dr Shantha Kumari was the 2018 – 2019 Chairperson of the Indian College of Obstetricians & Gynaecologists (ICOG) and the ICOG Secretary 2015 – 2017. She was a member of the Managing Committee of the Indian Association of Gynaecological Endoscopists from 2012 to 2018, and Chairperson of the Clinical Education Committee at the Indian Menopause Society 2015 – 2016.
From 2015 to 2018, she was a member of the FIGO Working Group on Violence Against Women (VAW), and was later on the FIGO Committee for Human Rights, Refugees and Violence Against Women (2018 – 2021). In 2016, she initiated the ongoing ‘DHEERA – No to Violence Against Women’ campaign to raise awareness among OBGYNs and the general public about the effect of violence on women’s health.
Mary Ann Lumsden became CEO of FIGO in January 2020. She has been using her broad experience gathered over the previous 35 years, to support the Officers in improving the lives of women and children around the globe. She had only been in post for 6 weeks when the COVID pandemic started and had to learn new virtual communication and engagement skills very rapidly. She is very much enjoying getting to know the membership around the world and making many new friends.
Mary Ann is also currently Hon Professor of Gynaecology and Medical Education at the University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK having retired from the University in 2021. Prior to her retirement, she was also International lead for the College of Medical, Veterinary Medicine and Life Science at the University and thus travelled widely in Asia in particular.
She was Senior Vice President of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists with responsibility for Strategy until December 2019 when she demitted office. She was also Workforce Lead and developed a Workforce Strategy for Obstetricians and Gynaecologists in the UK
Mary Ann is Past President of the International Menopause Society, having been President from 2016-2018. She was Vice Chair of the Women’s Health Expert Advisory Group to the Medicine and Hormones Regulatory Authority (2012-2017). She has always been interested in evidence-based medicine and has considerable experience in development of Guidelines, covering Menopause, Menstrual Disorder and Early Pregnancy. She has also been involved in International Guideline Development with the US Endocrine Society and the International Menopause Society.
Although very busy in her new post, she is still interested in research and is currently continuing to write up her work. She has over 150 peer-reviewed papers, many Chapters and also has given many invited lectures around the world. The Clinical Trials in treatments for common gynaecological conditions are largely finished but are still in the process of being published in journals including the New England Journal of Medicine.
Dr Meg Autry is a Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at UCSF and is the Scientific Program Chair for the 2023 FIGO Conference. She received her medical training at Wake Forest University, Bowman Gray School of Medicine, and completed her residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at UCSF. She was the Residency Director and Director of Graduate Medical Education in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences at UCSF for 17 years. Most recently she has assumed the interim Chief of Obstetrics and Gynecology positions at UCSF Fresno. Since serving 3 years in the US Army, where she was stationed in Germany, she has worked in education. She served on the CREOG question writing committee, as well as the NBME question writing committee, is a board examiner and in 2016, she completed a 2-year term as President of APGO (Association of Professors of Gynecology and Obstetrics). She was the Program Chair of the Pacific Coast Obstetrical and Gynecological Society in 2015 and is past President of the San Francisco Gyn Society. She was on the editorial board of the journal Obstetrics and Gynecology as the representative of the Society of Academic Specialists in Gynecology and Obstetrics (SASGOG) and was also on the board of SASGOG. She is on the ACOG presidential task force for Global Health and is the current Chair of the ACOG Scientific Committee.
Dr Autry’s research activities revolve around education and education innovations. She is interested in faculty attrition, workforce issues, and the impact of educational innovations implementation. She co-authored an article in Obstetrics and Gynecology on remote teaching of basic surgical skills with colleagues in Uganda. Dr Autry was the primary investigator on an APGO educational grant developing a curriculum for learners in underserved settings both internationally and nationally. Her residency program received Song Brown Funding from the state of California to recruit and train learners in low resource settings particularly in California and her program also had have Josiah H. Macy Jr Foundation money for interprofessional education.
Professor Olivier Graesslin is a professor in the department of Gynecology and Obstetrics in the University Teaching Hospital of Reims and has acted as head of the department since 2009. Professor Graesslin is also Vice-President of the FéFOG (Fédération Francophone d’Obstétrique et Gynécologie). He was previously General Secretary of the National College of French Gynaecologists and Obstetricians between 2012 and 2020.
Frank Louwen is Professor of Medicine / Gynaecology and Obstetrics at the University of Frankfurt/Main, Germany. He is on the Goethe University Medical School Clinical Ethics Committee and Scientific Committee, Vice President of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gynäkologie und Geburtshilfe (DDGG – German Society of Gynecology and Obstetrics), member of the Board for Quality Management of the Government of Germany and President of the German Foundation for Women’s Health. Internationally, he is Executive Board Member of International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO), Council Member of the European Board and College of Obstetrics and Gynaecology (EBCOG) and President of the German-Israel Society for Gynecology and Obstetrics. He received an Honorary Doctorate from the Russian Academy of Sciences. Frank is the coordinator of Evidence Based Medicine Guidelines on Normal vaginal delivery and Sectio caesarea. His current research covers molecular mechanisms of preeclampsia, molecular correlation of obesity with preeclampsia and breast cancer, stem cells from breast milk in oncology and the function of mitotic regulators and their inhibitors in oncology.
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Professor Dr Néstor César Garello
Professor Cheikh A Tidiane CISSE
Dr Ravi Chandran is currently Consultant Obstetrician and Gynaecologist at the Gleneagles Medical Centre in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia.
He became a member of the UK’s Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists in 1988, and went on to receive training in maternal-foetal medicine at King’s College Hospital London and the John Radcliffe Hospital at Oxford University. He pursued an academic career at the National University of Malaysia and during his tenure as Associate Professor, was involved in research activities culminating in publications in leading peer reviewed journals. He became a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons in 1996, Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland in 1998 and in 2001, was elevated to the Fellowship of the RCOG.
He is a Past President of the Obstetrical and Gynaecological Society of Malaysia and over the last 15 years, he has been actively involved in the Asia and Oceania Federation of Obstetrics and Gynaecology (AOFOG). He joined the Executive Board as Treasurer in 2009, followed by a tenure as Vice-President 2013 – 2015. In June 2017, he was elected as President of AOFOG. During his time as President-Elect (2015 – 2017) and President (2017 – 2019), he made it his mission to make AOFOG a more efficient and pro-active organisation, making its work more relevant to its diverse body of member societies.
Dr Elif Göknur Topçu is a junior Ob & Gyn specialist in Istanbul, Turkey. She received her training in University of Health Sciences KSS Research and Training Hospital in Turkey. She did a short term fellowship in Maryland University Medical Center in Maryland, USA for a year. She is the current president of World Association of Trainees in Obstetrics and Gynaecology (WATOG) and the former president of European Network of Trainees in Obstetrics and Gynaecology (ENTOG). She is in the executive board of Turkish Trainees of Obstetrics and Gynaecology (TTOG). She is a member of European Board & College of Obstetrics and Gynaecology Standing Committee on Training and Assessment (EBCOG SCTA). She is interested in postgraduate training, reproductive endocrinology and infertility.
