Linda C. Giudice, M.D., Ph.D., and Allison S. Carlson

In the summer of 2004, I consulted Dr. Linda Giudice, who is currently on the Editorial Board of Seminars in Reproductive Medicine, regarding potential future issues and topics. She informed me she and a colleague, Alison Carlson, were developing a conference on the environment and infertility.

In late February 2005, the Stanford University School of Medicine Women's Health at Stanford program and the Collaborative on Health and Environment brought together a multidisciplinary group of experts at a meeting entitled Understanding Environmental Contaminants and Human Fertility: Science and Strategy. The meeting was held at the Vallombrosa Retreat Center in Menlo Park, CA, and the conferences developed a consensus statement, which is included as the last article of this issue.

Thus it is with great pleasure that I introduce this month's co-guest editors, Linda C. Giudice, M.D., Ph.D., and Alison S. Carlson.

Dr. Giudice is Professor and Chair of the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco. She is a biochemist and gynecologist/reproductive endocrinologist whose research has focused for nearly two decades on endometrial biology and placental-uterine interactions, and who has clinical interests in endometriosis, implantation, and ovulatory disorders; infertility; and assisted reproduction. Dr. Giudice received her B.S. from Columbia University and her Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of California at Los Angeles. She was a postdoctoral fellow at Rockefeller University, working under Nobel Laureate Gunter Blobel. She also did postdoctoral research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). She subsequently received her M.D. from Stanford University and did her residency in obstetrics/gynecology at Stanford University and Washington University (St. Louis, MO) and her fellowship in Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility (REI) at Stanford. She was on the Stanford University faculty for 19 years and was the Director of the REI Division, the Center for Research on Women's Health and Reproduction, and the Women's Health @ Stanford Program. She has trained more than 90 undergraduate and graduate students, and postdoctoral fellows. Since 1990, her laboratory has been continuously funded by the NIH for research on human endometrium, and she is a coeditor of the textbook, The Endometrium. At the national level, Dr. Giudice has been a member of two NIH study sections and the March of Dimes study section C, and has chaired the NIH Population Research Committee and the Steering Committee of the NIH Specialized Cooperative Centers Program for Reproductive Research. She currently chairs the NIH Reproductive Medicine Network and is the Chair of the Reproductive Health Drugs Advisory Committee to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. She is past President of the Society for Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility and sits on the Executive Board of the Reproductive Scientist Development Program and on the Frontiers in Reproduction Board of Scientific Counselors. She was Chair of the Gordon Research Conference (GRC) on Reproductive Tract Biology and was on the Council of the GRC. She is the current President of the Society for Gynecologic Investigation and sits on its Executive Council. She is on the Board of Directors of the Society for Women's Health Research and the Board of Directors of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine. She also sits on the editorial boards and is associate editor of numerous professional journals. In 2002, Dr. Giudice was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. She is a sought-after lecturer and consultant for issues related to research, mentoring, education, and policy in women's health and reproduction. Dr. Giudice joined the faculty of the University of California, San Francisco, as Professor and Chair of the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences in October 2005.

Alison Carlson is a Phi Beta Kappa 1978 Graduate with Distinction of Stanford University with a B.A. in human biology (neuroscience focus), a program that combined the study of natural and behavioral sciences with public policy. She was a teaching assistant for a Stanford undergraduate course on issues in environmental policy and then a Visiting Biologist intern in the Office of the Commissioner at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 1979. During more than 15 subsequent years working as a sports coach, commentator, and advocate for women athletes, Ms. Carlson convened an international Work Group on Gender Verification Policy in Sports to research, educate, and lobby about a policy at the intersection of sports, medicine, and women's rights/health. Pertaining to the topic of sex chromosome (genetic) screening of women competitors and athletes with sex differentiation disorders, she authored and/or coauthored both lay and medical journal articles; spoke publicly, in the media, and at professional meetings; educated athlete groups; and coordinated a successful lobbying effort among international and national sports governors and other stakeholders to amend policy that was considered by many experts to be medical malpractice. In 1995, Ms. Carlson began a 4-year engagement as an administrator of an academic certificate program at the Stanford Graduate School of Business for students interested in public service and social entrepreneurship. Her work there as a creative resource for M.B.A. degree candidates included a pointed focus on environmental policy and management. After 5 years as an infertility patient-impelled by the dearth of discussion among reproductive health practitioners and patients about the growing body of scientific evidence linking environmental influences to fertility compromise-Ms. Carlson shifted her work toward environmental health. She is now a Senior Research Fellow with Commonweal's Health & Environment Program, and Facilitator of the Commonweal-administered National Collaborative on Health and the Environment's Fertility/Early Pregnancy Compromise Working Group. She speaks and writes frequently about environmental reproductive health, organizes meetings and educational efforts on the topic, and is collaborating with the University of California/San Francisco and its Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences in organizing a National Summit on Environmental Challenges to Reproductive Health and Fertility, slated for January 2007.