ASBD Board of Directors, 2012-2013

Joel Aronowitz, MD
Los Angeles, CA

Dr. Joel Aronowitz is a prominent Los Angeles plastic and reconstructive surgeon in practice for over twenty years. Dr. Aronowitz served as Chief, Division of Plastic Surgery at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center for over ten years. He is a graduate of the Accelerated MD program at the prestigious Baylor College of Medicine in Texas where he performed his general and plastic surgery residency training. Dr. Aronowitz is certified as a Diplomate of the American Board of Plastic Surgery and is an Ambassador of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. Additionally, he is a member of the American Society of Bariatric Plastic Surgeons as well as the California Society of Plastic Surgeons. Dr. Aronowitz is also a Clinical Assistant Professor of Plastic Surgery at the USC Keck School of Medicine and the Medical Director of the University Stem Cell Center in Santa Monica. Dr. Aronowitz is the Founder of the Breast Preservation Foundation. The mission of this non-profit organization is to reduce the unnecessary disfigurement of breast cancer surgery through a national campaign of public awareness, medical research and education. Some examples of such oncoplastic techniques include, skin-sparing mastectomy, nipple-sparing mastectomy and most recently presented, breast reduction mastectomy.

Anees Chagpar, MD
Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT

Dr. Anees Chagpar is the Director of the Breast Center — Smilow Cancer Hospital at Yale-New Haven and Associate Professor in the Department of Surgery at the Yale School of Medicine. Previously, Dr. Chagpar held the position of Associate Professor in the Division of Surgical Oncology at the University of Louisville, was the Director of the Multidisciplinary Breast Program at the James Graham Brown Cancer Center, and was the Academic Advisory Dean for medical student education at the University of Louisville School of Medicine. Born and raised in Canada, she completed her BSc and MD at the University of Alberta and her general surgery residency training and MSc at the University of Saskatchewan. She went on to complete the Susan G. Komen Interdisciplinary Breast Fellowship at the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, and an MPH at Harvard University. She also has a MA in Bioethics and Medical Humanities from the University of Louisville. She has taken on leadership positions in a myriad of professional organizations, and her clinical practice and research interests are dedicated solely to breast cancer.

Mauricio Magalhaes Costa, MD, PhD
Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Dr. Mauricio Magalhaes Costa graduated from Medical School at Federal University of Rio de Janeiro in 1981. Did his Medical Residence in Gynecology and Obstetrics at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro with a Specialization in Gynecology Oncology at Radiumhemmet—Karolinska Hospital in Sweden, and a Masters in Science and PhD in Gynecology at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. In addition, Dr. Costa earned an MBA in Business Administration and served as the Head of Gynecology Oncology at the University Hospital of Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. He is also the Director of the Breast Divison of the Brazilian College of Surgeons. Member of Executive Board of Senology International Society. Editor Director of SIS Eletronic Journal. President of Latin American Federation of Mastology.

Michael J. Cross, MD, FACS
Breast Treatment Associates, Fayetteville, AR

Michael J. Cross, M.D.,F.A.C.S., is a Surgical Oncologist who limits his practice to the diagnosis and treatment of medical and surgical diseases of the breast. He is certified by the American Board of Surgery and has completed a fellowship in Surgical Oncology of the Breast at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas Texas.

Dr. Cross is a fellow of the American College of Surgeons, a member of the American College of Surgeons Oncology Group, and American Society of Breast Surgeons. He served on the Board of Directors for the American Society of Breast Disease 2002-2005 and was the National Chairman for the membership committee. Dr. Cross also served as a faculty member for the American College of Surgeons Breast Ultrasound Committee and actively taught breast ultrasound across the United States. He is also Co-Director for the ASBD School of Oncoplastic Surgery since 2006.

Locally Dr. Cross has served on the Board of Directors of the Arkansas Chapter of the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation and served 7 years on the Northwest Arkansas Radiation Therapy Institute (NARTI) Board of Directors. He was appointed by Governor of Arkansas Mike Huckabee from 1997- 2003 to the Oversight Committee for Breast Cancer Research in the state of Arkansas. Dr. Cross also heads up the Breast Cancer Tumor Board and serves on the Cancer Committee Board at Washington Regional Medical Center.

Dr. Cross was born and raised in the State of Arkansas and received his undergraduate degree from the University of Arkansas and his medical degree from University of Nebraska. He completed a five year residency in General Surgery at Scott and White Memorial Hospital in Temple Texas followed by a fellowship in Surgical Oncology of the Breast in Dallas Texas. He has been in practice for the last 18 years performing surgical oncology of the breast and breast diseases.

Dr. Cross is one of five Breast Cancer Surgeons in the State of Arkansas and in May 2003 introduced accelerated partial breast irradiation also known as Breast Brachytherapy for the treatment of early breast cancer. Research is a vital part of his practice and the diagnosis and treatment protocols are based on the latest research available from across the United States. Dr. Cross participated in the Z-10, Z-11, and B-32 clinical trials in Breast Cancer.

Amy P. Early, MD, FACP
Department of Medical Oncology, Buffalo Medical Group, PC, Williamsville, NY

Dr. Amy Early is a medical oncologist at the Buffalo Medical Group and Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University at Buffalo School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. Dr. Early is also a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh. Her medical degree was awarded with Distinction in Medicine at Hahnemann Medical College, now Drexel University School of Medicine. She earned board certifications after postgraduate training at the University at Buffalo and Roswell Park Cancer Institute. Dr. Early completed a Master Clinical Teaching Fellowship at UB, and is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians. She began her career at Roswell Park Cancer Institute and has published scientific articles in medical journals and authored chapters for textbooks. She joined Dr. Richard Cooper at Buffalo Medical Group in 1983. Dr. Early has served as vice-chair of the Consensus Committee and chair of the Abstract Selection Committee of the American Society for Breast Disease. Her other professional affiliations include the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the American Society of Hematology, and the American College of Physicians.

Dennis R. Holmes, MD
Los Angeles Center for Women's Health, Los Angeles, CA

Dennis R.Holmes, M.D. is the Chief Breast Surgeon and Medical Director of the Los Angeles Center for Women's Health, a comprehensive multi-specialty center dedicated to improving health outcomes in women. In this capacity, as well as in his former role as Breast Section Chief of the Los Angeles County and University of Southern California Medical Center, Dr. Holmes has acquired a comprehensive understanding of the challenges and opportunities for improving the health and quality of life of women facing a diagnosis of breast cancer and related health challenges. Prior to leading the opening of the Los Angeles Center for Women's Health, Dr. Holmes also held the position of Breast Cancer Surgeon and Co-Chair of the Breast Cancer Research Committee at the University of Southern California Kenneth Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center in Los Angeles and Program Director of the Breast Surgery Fellowship training program at the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine. In addition to providing outstanding surgical care to women with breast cancer, Dr. Holmes is actively engaged in breast cancer clinical trials that are focused on reducing the side effects and inconvenience of breast cancer surgery and radiotherapy, as well as reducing the barriers to treatment. Dr. Holmes is an authority on breast cancer innovations and serves as a board member of the American Society of Breast Disease, program co-chair of the national Consensus Conference on Women's Health, program committee member of the American Society of Breast Surgeons and the National Consortium of Breast Centers annual conferences, and a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons. In this capacity, Dr. Holmes plays a major role in educating other breast cancer specialists on the optimal treatment of breast cancer. Dr. Holmes is also a sought after speaker for lay groups because of his ability to explain breast cancer prevention, diagnosis, and treatments to non-physicians. His free online guide, "10 Things You Should Do Before Undergoing Breast Cancer Surgery: A Patient Guide to High-Quality Breast Cancer Care" is a widely used guide to help women avoid common missteps in breast cancer diagnosis and treatment. The guide is available in English, Spanish, Mandarin, Korean, and Tagalog and may bedownloaded at www.drholmesmd.com. Among Holmes' research achievements is his pioneering research in intraoperative radiotherapy, which has contributed to establishing this innovative treatment as a new standard treatment of breast cancer. Intraoperative radiotherapy reduces radiotherapy treatment time from 30 days to only 1 day. Dr. Holmes has published and lectured internationally on intraoperative radiotherapy of the breast, serves as a National Co-Chair of the United States Targeted Intraoperative Radiotherapy Registry trial, and is author of the website: www.breastcancerIORT.org.

Julio Ibarra, MD
Orange Coast Memorial Medical Center, Fountain Valley, CA

Dr. Julio Ibarra, a native of Mexico, earned his medical degree from the National University of Mexico (UNAM) and did a year of rotating internship. He then came to the US where he worked as a research associate at UCI for 2 years. After completing the foreign medical graduate requirements, he did his pathology residency at the UCI,MC-LBMMC combined program. After completion, he did a year of fellowship in cytopathology and surgical pathology at LBMMC. Today, Dr. Ibarra is a pathologist in private practice in the MemorialCare Health System in Southern California. He serves as Medical Director of Pathology and Medical Director of pathology at the Breast Center at Orange Coast Memorial Medical Center (OCMMC) as well as on the Medical Executive Committee and the Board of OCMMC. He also holds an academic position of Associate Clinical Professor at the University of California at Irvine and serves on the Board of the National Accreditation Program for Breast Centers (NAPBC). In 1985, Dr. Ibarra started his breast pathology training under William Hartmann, MD, where he helped develop the Fine needle aspiration clinic at LBMMC in 1986, the Breast center in Long Beach in 1987 and in Orange Coast in 1998. Dr. Ibarra has published several papers in peer reviewed journals and participates in several national and international symposia on breast cancer related topics. He has been included in Best Doctors of Orange County as a "Pathologist" in 1998, 2001 and 2004. He has also been named in Best Doctors in America in 1998, 2001, and 2004-2007. Dr Ibarra has served the American Society of Breast Disease (ASBD) in different roles since 1999 including a term as President from 2007-2008. In addition, Dr. Ibarra was instrumental in the development of the ASBD's Clearinghouse for Breast Disease, a web based repository of all available guidelines/statements involving the different disciplines that participate in breast cancer diagnosis and treatment. Dr. Ibarra has also served as a panellist at the 2002, 2005, and 2007 Global Summit Consensus Conferences, and participated in writing the guidelines for breast cancer screening, diagnosis and treatment in countries with limited health care resources. He also participated in writing the pathology manuscript for Countries of limited resources. Dr. Ibarra believes passionately in a multidisciplinary approach to breast patient care. He stresses that "pathologists cannot and should not practice breast pathology in a vacuum. We should always work in conjunction with radiology and surgery to maximize the benefit to the patient. We should always sign out pathology cases with a clear understanding of the radiology findings that led to that biopsy in the first place." He encourages patients to understand the pathology that leads to their diagnosis and notes that organizations such as the American Society of Breast Disease, American Cancer Society and Susan G. Komen for the Cure, as well as many hospital-related web sites, offer valuable information to patients.

Shabnam Jaffer, MD
Mount Sinai Medical Center, New York, NY

Dr. Shabnam Jaffer is Associate Professor in the Department of Pathology at the Mount Sinai Medical Center, New York. She graduated from the Mount Sinai Medical School and continued with her anatomic and clinical pathology residency at Mount Sinai. She then pursued two fellowships at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in Oncologic Surgical Pathology and Cytopathology. She is board certified in Anatomic Pathology, Clinical Pathology and Cytopathology and currently specializes in Breast Pathology. She has actively presented posters and presentations at national meetings, lecturing regionally and nationally and served for four years as faculty member of a short course presented at the annual meeting of the United States/Canadian Academy of Pathologists. Dr. Jaffer has published numerous articles, book chapters and is an author of the textbook "Breast Core Biopsy - Correlating Radiologic and Pathologic findings in breast core biopsies". She is a member of the Breast Pathology Cadre of Cancer and Leukemia Group B. She is on the editorial board of the American Society of Breast Diseases. She also serves as Director for Pathology Education for the Sophie Davis School of Biomedicine (City University of New York Medical School).

Jane L. Kakkis, MD
Orange Coast Memorial Medical Center, Fountain Valley, CA

Jane Kakkis was born and raised in Southern California. Her father was a dedicated neurologist, her sister a well-known gynecologist specializing in menopause and her brother an accomplished, award winning physician/ research scientist. With her continuing interest in art, science and philanthropy, it was natural for her to follow in her siblings' footsteps.

Dr. Kakkis completed her undergraduate studies in pre-medicine and majored in Fine Arts at Pomona College in Claremont, California, where she graduated with distinction. She attended Tulane University Medical School where she completed a four year combined program and achieved a doctorate in Medicine and Masters Degree in Public Health. Her degree in public health was focused on preventive medicine, nutrition and epidemiology. She trained in surgery at the UCLA Medical Center, where she completed a categorical general surgery residency and a three-year fellowship in immunology and transplantation research.

Since she has arrived in Orange County, California, Dr. Kakkis has served in many capacities including as Surgical Director of the Breast Center and as Chief of Surgery for Orange Coast Memorial Hospital. She was instrumental in bringing recent technological advancements to the patients of Orange County. She has been developing protocols and educating people on the utilization of MRI for detection of breast cancer since 2002. She has advocated on behalf of patients and presented evidence based research to insurance companies to increase the criteria for which they allow coverage of breast MRI for patients. She has advocated on behalf of patients to change state laws requiring patients to be notified of their dense breast mammogram results and to be informed of additional screening methods. She was one of the first surgeons in Orange County to train in the insertion of localized radiation devices and has been offering localized radiation therapy since 2002. She also investigated and consulted for Oncotype DX genomics profiling and participated in the early clinical trials. All of these clinical advances are now being used to diagnose and treat breast cancer patients more effectively. Dr. Kakkis is well known for her attention to detail and her beautiful cosmetic results due to her expertise in oncoplastic surgical techniques. She has presented at numerous national and international conferences and published many articles in peer review journals. She is co-author of an edition of the Breast Cancer Survival Manual. She has been named as one of the "Best Doctors in America" since 2007; given the "Orange County Physician of Excellence" award and Honored with the inaugural "Fight with Grace" award.

She credits her mentor, Helena Chang, MD, PhD and the time she spent at the Revlon/UCLA Breast Center for inspiring her to dedicate her practice to the care of breast cancer patients. Her passion is to educate patients and treat them with the respect and individuality that allows them to make some of the most important decisions in their lives. She strongly believes in the interdisciplinary team approach to breast cancer care. She counsels patients in all areas including genetics, nutrition, fitness and wellness. She practices in Southern California and maintains hospital privileges at Orange Coast Memorial Medical Center, Long Beach Memorial Medical Center, Saddleback Memorial Medical Center, University of California, Irvine and Hoag Memorial Presbyterian Hospital. She currently serves as the Surgical Director of the Breast Center at Orange Coast Memorial Medical Center, The Breast Cancer Best Practice Team Leader for MemorialCare hospitals and is the Vice Chair of the Department of Surgery at Orange Coast Memorial Medical Center.

Krystyna Kiel, MD
Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, IL

Dr. Krystyna Kiel is a Radiation Oncologist at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, Illinois. She did her residency at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and has spend most of her career in Chicago, both at Northwestern Memorial Hospital and Rush University Medical Center. She was an associate professor at Northwestern University School of Medicine. Her practice and research has been primarily centered on breast cancer. She was chair of the breast committee for the ASCO annual meeting in 1997 and chaired educational symposia for ASCO. Her community involvement has been with the American Cancer Society and the Network of Strength (formerly Y-Me). On an international level, she has taught in symposia in South Africa, Egypt, and Tanzania. She was a former member of the NCCN breast panel helping to develop guidelines for physicians in the care of breast cancer. Her primary interest is in effective and cost-efficient care of breast cancer.

Shahla Masood, MD
University of Florida, Jacksonille, FL

Dr. Shahla Masood is a Persian born physician, who currently holds the positions of Professor and Chair of the Department of Pathology at University of Florida College of Medicine — Jacksonville and Chief of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at Shands Jacksonville. She is also the Director of the Pathology Residency training, as well as Cytopathology and Breast Pathology Fellowship programs. In addition, Dr. Masood is the Medical Director of Shands Jacksonville Breast Health Center. An internationally recognized expert in breast cancer diagnosis and prognosis, Dr. Masood has fostered the concept of an integrated multidisciplinary approach in breast cancer care, research, and education. She is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of The Breast Journal, the founder and the Past President of the "International Society of Breast Pathology", the Director of the "Annual Multidisciplinary Symposium on Breast Disease", "The Breast Cancer Public Forum", and is currently the President of "The World Society of Breast Health". Dr. Masood is heavily involved in the study of minimally invasive procedures such as fine needle aspiration biopsy and ductal lavage in providing diagnostic and prognostic information in high risk and breast cancer patients. She has defined the cytomorphology of high-risk proliferative breast disease in early 1990's and has pioneered the concept of cytomorphology as a breast cancer predictor. Dr. Masood is the author of the textbooks; "Cytopathology of the Breast", "Contemporary Issues in Breast Cytopathology", and numerous publications. She is a frequent speaker at national and international symposiums and is a member of several consensus meetings. She is also a member of board of trustees of "National Consortium of Breast Centers" and the Steering Committee of the "Breast Health Global Initiative" and a member of the "National Accreditation Program for Breast Centers". Dr. Masood is a patient advocate, a partner in community affairs, and an accomplished artist and gourmet cook. She has received numerous awards and recognition. To name a few, Dr. Masood is the recipient of the 2005 Super Bowl Player's Wives Fashion Extravaganza when she was honored as "Women Who Make Miracles Happen, Miracles in Medicine", Volunteer Jacksonville Celebration of Service Award "Heart of Gold Award", Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education Parker J. Palmer "Courage to Teach" Award, "Top Doctors in America", The Jacksonville Business Journal "Super Educator Heroes in Medicine Award", and The Florida Times Union "Eve Award" in the area of education. She also received the 2008 Recognition Award of the Iranian American Association. She is the mother of two accompanied physicians, Dr. Ali Kasraeian, a urologist and Dr. Sina Kasraeian, an orthopedic surgeon in fellowship training.

Beryl McCormick, MD
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY

Dr. Beryl McCormick is an attending physician and member of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, and professor of radiation oncology at Weill Medical College of Cornell University. She is presently both the Clinical Director and Chief, External Beam Services, for the Department of Radiation Oncology at Memorial Hospital. She received her M.D. degree from the College of Medicine of New Jersey, and her residency training at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Her entire career in medicine has been focused on the treatment of breast cancer. She was the first woman to be elected president of the New York Metropolitan Breast Cancer Group, and served as chairman of the RTOG Breast Committee from 1995 to 2006. She is presently a Vice-chairman for the new NRG Cooperative Group Breast Committee. Dr. McCormick is a Fellow of the American College of Radiology, and an ASTRO Fellow. She is consistently named to the "Best Doctor" lists of New York Magazine, and Castle Connolly. She is active in clinical research through both the Cooperative Groups and Memorial Sloan Kettering, and has authored over 150 peer review articles and book chapters.

Ricki Pollycove, MD, MS
San Francisco, CA

Ricki Pollycove, MD, MS, received her MD at the University of California, San Francisco andObstetrics and Gynecology board certification by the American Congress ofObstetrics and Gynecology in 1984. She earned a BA in Zoology/Immunology from the University of California at Berkeley, where she also earned a Master of Science. Her early research interests included the immunology of mammary tumor virus in mice in the U.C. Berkeley Cancer Research Genetics Laboratory, providing the lab bench background into the complexities of cancer biology. Currently, she is a North American Menopause Society Certified Menopause Practitioner (NCMP), specializing in long term care of cancer survivors. She served as volunteer clinical faculty at UCSF, 1981 until 2012, and is committed to serving actively on the Board of the American Society of Breast Disease. She presents regularly at national conferences in women’s health, and is on multiple advisory boards, makes frequent appearances on television and radio, while also providing keynote addresses to women’s health conferences. Her private practice is located in San Francisco and serves women, from adolescence through the 9th decade. As the numbers of very old women increases exponentially, Dr. Pollycove increasingly focuses on the diseases of aging, including breast disease, benign and malignant. Dr. Pollycove co-authored, with colleague James A. Simon, “Osteoporosis: Screening and Treatment”, to be published in the September 2012 issue of Clinics in Obstetrics and Gynecology. She also blogs on women’s health topics, for the Huffington Post and co-authored, “The Evolutionary Origin and Significance of Menopause” published in the March 2011 Menopause, Vol. 18, No. 3, pp.336-342. Her first book, "Mother Nurture: A Mother’s Guide to Health in Body, Mind and Intimate Relationships" (Penguin Group USA, 2002 - 384 pages), is a guide for coping with the relentless, sometimes overwhelming, stresses of raising young children in the twenty-first century, health, building teamwork and intimacy with a partner, and avoiding Depleted Mother Syndrome. Her second lay book, "The Pocket Idiot’s Guide to Bioidentical Hormones" (Alpha Books and Penguin Group USA, 2010 -192 pages), advocates for the wise use of evidence based hormone replacement therapy (HRT) to improve the quality of women’s lives and reduce risks for disease. It addresses the safety issue of hormone supplementation (bioidentical and otherwise) and the effectiveness of HRT. Her integration of evidence-based medical literature in the areas of gynecological endocrinology, internal medicine, inheritable genetic diseases, as well as cultural, ethnic, emotional, life-style and psycho-social factors are included in Dr. Pollycove’s comprehensive care of the whole woman. Thus a larger focus on risk reduction strategies can evolve for all diseases, uterine, ovarian and breast cancers; in other words, optimal healthy aging for women.

Barbara Rabinowitz, PhD
Southpoint, NC

Dr. Rabinowitz completed her doctorate in Clinical Social Work at Rutgers University and completed a postdoctoral certification as a sex therapist. Dr. Rabinowitz, who is also a registered nurse, served most recently as the Director of Oncology Services for Meridian Health, a three hospital healthcare system in New Jersey. In addition, she maintained a private practice in psychotherapy and sex therapy since the early 1980's. She served as a commissioner of the New Jersey Commission on Cancer Research and is the founder of the National Consortium of Breast Centers receiving the Inspiration Award at the 2008 national NCBC meeting. She is a previous president of the American Society of Breast Disease and in 2011 she received the Pathfinder Award from that organization. She has been an active leadership volunteer for the American Cancer Society and an awardee of the prestigious St. George National ACS award. Before recently moving to North Carolina, Dr. Rabinowitz served as a member of the NJ Governor's Task Force on Cancer Control, Prevention and Treatment. She currently serves as Vice-Chair of the Standards and Accreditation Committee for the National Accreditation Program for Breast Centers. She has published numerous articles and chapters in textbooks for physicians on the psychosocial aspects of cancer and related topics. She has completed two important cancer research projects, received a New Jersey Gallo Research Award for Scientific Excellence and is a frequently invited presenter for professional organizations nationwide. In addition she has recently undertaken a consulting practice, Creative Solutions. Dr. Rabinowitz is committed to furthering the education of professionals on the principles of interdisciplinary breast care and facilitating the development of programs that meet those standards.

Richard Reitherman, MD
MemorialCare Health System, Fountain Valley, CA

Dr. Richard Reitherman received his doctorate in neuroscience from the University of California, San Diego working on protein chemistry and the biology of cell surface neuronal recognition systems. He then accepted a post doctoral fellowship at the Salk Institute in La Jolla, California to study cell surface recognition molecules that mediate organ-specific metastasis. He earned his medical degree from the University of Southern California School of Medicine, and then completed his internship in internal medicine as well as his residency in diagnostic radiology at L.A. County USC Medical Center. In addition to his current position, Dr. Reitherman has been a Clinical Assistant Professor of Radiology at Harbor UCLA Medical Center. In regards to his research interests, Dr. Reitherman is well-known for his clinical role in the early adaptation, promotion and refinement of Breast MRI with more than 20 years experience in breast imaging and intervention. He has published many peer reviewed articles, abstracts, written over 20 editorials, and presented at over 40 conferences nationally and internationally. His last international conference presentation was as faculty member for Dr. Laszlo Tabar's Multimodality Detection and Diagnosis of Breast Diseases, Cairo, Egypt, Fall 2009. He has been a member of ASBD since 1992. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of the ASBD and he is Chairman of the Breast Specialty Training Committee for the ASBD. In addition, he is a member of the Screening Guidelines Committee (2005), and the First Breast MRI Consensus Committee that was held in 2004. His special clinical / research interests include improving screening for high risk women less than 40 years of age, multimodality imaging correlation with Large Section Histopathology, and implementation of standardized work flow algorithms for Breast Centers.

James A. Simon, MD, CCD, NCMP, FACOG
George Washington University, Washington, DC

Dr. Simon is Clinical Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the George Washington University in Washington, D.C. Dr. Simon maintains a private practice of reproductive endocrinology and infertility located at 1850 M St., NW, Washington, D.C., and is Medical Director of the Women's Health & Research Consultants®. Dr. Simon is certified by the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology in both obstetrics and gynecology, and reproductive endocrinology and infertility. He is also certified by the International Society for Clinical Densitometry (ISCD; CCD), directs a bone densitometry center, and by the North American Menopause Society, as a Certified Menopause Practitioner (NCMP).

Dr. Simon received his M.D. degree from Rush Medical College (1974-1978) and completed his internship and residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at the George Washington University Hospital (1978-1982). He completed his fellowship training in reproductive endocrinology and infertility at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center (1982-1985). Dr. Simon then became Assistant Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Jones Institute for Reproductive Medicine in Norfolk, Virginia (1985-1987). He served as Chief of the Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility Division at the Georgetown University School of Medicine (1987-1996) before assuming his current duties. During his tenure at Georgetown, Dr. Simon was the Biomedical Director of The Institute for Reproductive Health, a cooperative program of the National Institutes of Health and the US Agency for International Development (USAID), and was an adjunct scientist at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). In addition, he founded and directed the Bone Densitometry Unit and managed the Andrology Laboratory.

Dr. Simon is an established investigator in reproductive endocrinology. His basic research interest is implantation, specifically, embryo/endometrial signaling and tissue remodeling. His clinical research focuses on the menopause, particularly osteoporosis diagnosis, prevention and treatment, and hormone replacement therapies, including complementary and alternative approaches, and normal and abnormal female sexual function. He has established himself as an authority on oral micronized progesterone and the effects of routes of hormone therapy administration on both clinical pharmacokinetics and outcome, and on the impact of androgens on women's health, the skeleton, and sexuality. Dr. Simon's research has been supported by more than 300 research grants and scholarships from a wide range of sponsors, including The NIH, The American Heart Association, The Heinz Foundation and the pharmaceutical industry.

Dr. Simon is a former President and member of the Board of Trustees, the Professional Education, and the Menopause Practitioner Exam writing committee (Chairman) of the North American Menopause Society (NAMS). He is also a former member of the Board of Trustees, the Public Policy, Finance and Management (Chairman) Committees of the International Society for Clinical Densitometry (ISCD). Dr. Simon is a past President of the Washington Gynecologic Society. Dr. Simon is a member of the Board of Directors and is the current treasurer of the International Society for the Study of Women's Sexual Health (ISSWSH). A short-list of his other honors and achievements includes being selected to "Top Washington Physicians," America's Top Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and "The Best Doctors in America." He is an author or co-author on more than 400 published abstracts, articles, chapters and proceedings, including several prize-winning papers. Dr. Simon is coauthor of the paperback book: Restore Yourself: A Woman's Guide to Reviving Her Sexual Desire and Passion for Life. He serves as an ad hoc reviewer for numerous journals, including The American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, The Biology of Reproduction, Endocrinology, Fertility and Sterility, The International Journal of Fertility, The Journal of Bone and Mineral Research, The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, and The Journal of Clinical Investigation. He sits on the editorial boards of the journal Menopause, the official journal of the North American Menopause Society, The Journal of Sexual Medicine (Associate Editor), the official journal of the International Society for the Study of Women's Sexual Health, OBG Management and The Female Patient.

Alan A. Slomowitz, MD
McKinney, Texas

Dr. Alan Slomowitz is currently in private practice in McKinney, Texas and specializes in Radiation Oncology. After completing medical school at the University of Miami, his residency in Radiation Oncology at the Princess Margaret Hospital in Toronto, a year on the faculty at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in New York City, he then entered private practice in Dallas, Texas. He was on the clinical faculty at the Universityof Texas Southwestern Medical Center and was the Medical Director of Radiation Oncology and Chairman of the Cancer Committee at the Methodist Hospitals of Dallas. He is a past president of the Texas Radiological Society and is a Fellow of the American College of Radiology. His focus is in adult Radiation Oncology with interests in multidisciplinary integration of therapy, specifically with management of cancers of the breast.