Our Bodies, Ourselves: Menopause

About the Contributors

Our Bodies Ourselves Staff

Judy Norsigian is executive director of Our Bodies Ourselves. A co-founder of the Boston Women’s Health Book Collective and co-author of all Simon & Schuster editions of Our Bodies, Ourselves, she is a renowned speaker and writer on women’s health. 

Heather Stephenson is a program manager for Our Bodies Ourselves. She was the managing editor of the 2005 edition of Our Bodies, Ourselves.

Sarai Walker is a former associate editor at Our Bodies Ourselves and served as the graphics editor for the 2005 edition of Our Bodies, Ourselves. She is currently earning her doctorate in English literature and writing a novel. 

Kiki Zeldes is the website manager for Our Bodies Ourselves, where she has worked since 1997. She was part of the editorial team for the 2005 edition of Our Bodies, Ourselves and developed its companion website.

Contributors

John Abramson, M.D., is the author of Overdosed America and a clinical instructor at Harvard Medical School. He practiced family medicine in Hamilton, Massachusetts, for 20 years, and served as chairman of the department of family practice at Lahey Clinic.

Janice Acton is a writer, researcher, and adult educator. Over the past 30 years she has worked with community-based health, women’s, solidarity, and peer network organizations. She is a partner in Tides Turning Consulting and lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Jeanne L. Alexander, M.D., is the director of the Northern California Kaiser Permanente Medical Group Psychiatry Women’s Health Program, an adjunct assistant clinical professor of psychiatry, Stanford University, and founder of a 501(c)3 non-profit, Alexander Foundation for Women's Health (www.afwh.org).

Amy Allina is program director of the National Women's Health Network, a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C.  She is also an author of The Truth about Hormone Replacement Therapy: How to Break Free from the Medical Myths of Menopause.

Ellen Barlow is a freelance writer specializing in health and medicine. Formerly a writer/editor at Harvard Medical School, she is co-author of a book on diabetes and women and contributed to the original Ourselves, Growing Older, among numerous other publications.

Shannon Berning is an editor for Alyson Books, the oldest publisher of books by, for, and about lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, and transgender people. She wrote the “Relationships with Women” chapter for the 2005 edition of Our Bodies, Ourselves.

Barbara Brenner is executive director of Breast Cancer Action (www.bcaction.org), a national grassroots education and advocacy organization. Since first diagnosed with breast cancer at 41, in 1993, she has led activists in challenging the status quo in breast cancer.

William Burke, M.D., received bachelor and medical degrees from Columbia University. He completed his residency in obstetrics and gynecology at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center and a fellowship in gynecologic oncology at the University of Michigan, where he now teaches.

Aggie Casey, MS, RN, is the director and clinical nurse specialist for the Cardiac Wellness Program of the Mind/Body Medical Institute. She is also a researcher and an associate in medicine at Harvard Medical School.

Susan Green Cooksey, Ph.D, is a nurse practitioner and researcher with Kaiser Permanente Northwest. A certified menopause clinician and a lead practitioner at the Portland site for the Women’s Health Initiative, she has completed research on women’s menopause experiences.

Judith Costlow has been facilitating menopause workshops since 1977.  She is a founding member of the Santa Fe Health Education Project, co-author of Menopause A Self-Care Manual, and a health education specialist for the state of New Mexico.

Kristin DeJohn, an award-winning writer and television producer, has been honored by the American Medical Association and by American Women in Radio and Television. She began researching women’s midlife experiences as primary writer for the book Mind Over Menopause.

Joan Ditzion is a founder of the Boston Women’s Health Book Collective and a co-author of all editions of Our Bodies, Ourselves. A geriatric social worker and educator, she appreciates the love and support of her husband and two sons.

Barbara K. Dunn has a Ph.D. in genetics from the University of Wisconsin and an M.D. from Georgetown University. She also trained at the National Cancer Institute in medical oncology.  Her focus is on breast cancer chemoprevention and genetics.

Jean Elson, Ph.D., MA, MEd, is the author of the book Am I Still a Woman? Hysterectomy and Gender Identity, as well as several academic and popular articles. She teaches sociology at the University of New Hampshire.

Josephine Etowa, Ph.D., RN, is a professor of nursing at Dalhousie University. Her nursing career spans across international, multicultural, community development, and women’s health issues.  She is a founding member and past chair of the Health Association of African Canadians.
 
Gloria Feldt capped 30 years at Planned Parenthood by serving as president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Federation of America from 1996 to 2005. She is the author of The War on Choice and Behind Every Choice Is a Story.

Wendy Garling, MA, is a writer and editor specializing in health care and women’s issues. She earned her master’s in Sanskrit at University of California at Berkeley and teaches at the Women’s Well in Concord, Massachusetts, www.womenswell.org.

Margaret Morganroth Gullette is the author of Aged by Culture, which was named a "Noteworthy Book" of 2004, and of the prizewinning Declining to Decline. She is a resident scholar in the Women's Studies Research Center at Brandeis University.

Judith Hsia, M.D., is a professor of medicine in the Division of Cardiology at George Washington University and a principal investigator for the Women’s Health Initiative.

Leslee Kagan, MS, NP, is a nurse practitioner and director of the Mind/Body Medical Institute’s Menopause and Infertility Programs. An associate in medicine at Harvard Medical School, she co-authored Mind Over Menopause: The Complete Mind/Body Approach to Coping With Menopause.

Barbara Keddy is a retired professor of nursing and women's studies at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.

Rebecca Kightlinger, D.O., is an assistant professor at the University of Virginia and a board-certified obstetrician gynecologist in practice at the University of Virginia Midlife Health Center.  She has a special interest in vulvar disease.

Katy Backes Kozhimannil is a researcher and advocate whose work focuses primarily on program and policy evaluation in sexual, reproductive, and maternal health care.  She is pursuing a doctorate in health policy at Harvard University.

Angela Kueck, M.D., received a bachelor’s degree from Notre Dame. She attended medical school and completed her residency in obstetrics and gynecology at Georgetown University. She is currently a fellow in gynecologic oncology at the University of Michigan.

Amy Lazev, Ph.D., is a faculty member in the Psychosocial and Behavioral Medicine Program, part of the Division of Population Science at the Fox Chase Cancer Center. She is a clinical psychologist and specializes in behavioral medicine and smoking cessation.

Ginny Levin, MPH, is a health educator and research coordinator of disease prevention clinical trials for women at George Washington University. She worked on PEPI, HERS and WHI, three large clinical trials of hormone use in postmenopausal women.

Margaret Lock is a professor of medical anthropology in the department of Social Studies of Medicine at McGill University. Her books include Encounters with Aging: Mythologies of Menopause in Japan and North America. Her writing has earned numerous awards.
 
Nancy London, MSW, was a co-author of the original version of Our Bodies, Ourselves and is the author of Hot Flashes, Warm Bottles: First-Time Mothers Over Forty. She runs support groups for older first-time mothers. For information, see www.mothersoverforty.com.

Charlea T. Massion, M.D., has been a board-certified family physician and women's health specialist since 1981. She is an advisor to the American College of Women's Health Physicians and a coauthor of The Truth about Hormone Replacement Therapy.

Marianne McPherson, MS, is a doctoral student in social policy at Brandeis University’s Heller School and an Our Bodies Ourselves program consultant. Her research interests concern gender, reproductive health, and menstruation. She thanks her family and friends for their support.

Vicki Meyer earned a doctorate in community health at Texas Woman’s University. She is the founder of the International Organization to Reclaim Menopause and is an adjunct professor at the University of South Florida, where she teaches women’s studies.

Ellen Sullivan Mitchell, RN, Ph.D., is an associate professor at the University of Washington School of Nursing. She is currently responsible for a large, long-term research study about women's health during midlife, focusing on the menopausal transition and early postmenopause.

Margaret F. (Peggy) Moloney is an associate professor and nurse practitioner at Georgia State University. She has migraine headaches, and conducts research into perimenopausal women’s experiences of migraines. In the 1970s, she learned about women’s health from Our Bodies, Ourselves.

Miriam E. Nelson, Ph.D., is an associate professor at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University. She is the author of the best-selling “Strong Women” book series and founder of Strongwomen.com.

Patricia Noone is a Ph.D. student in sociology at University of New Hampshire. She is involved in research on women, the family, and medical sociology.

Patti Owen-Smith, Ph.D., is a professor of psychology and women’s studies at Oxford College of Emory University. She has conducted award-winning research on homeless women and is the recipient of numerous honors for her teaching.

Lenore M. Pomerance, MSW, is a psychotherapist in Washington, D.C., specializing in midlife and menopause issues. Through her Menopause Counseling Center, www.menopausecounseling.com, she holds periodic workshops on healthy emotions and aging.  Family, work, and masters competitive rowing are her passions.

Nancy Poole works as a provincial research consultant on women’s substance use with BC Women’s Hospital in Vancouver, and with the British Columbia Centre of Excellence for Women’s Health on research related to women’s substance use and associated health issues.

Kimala Price, Ph.D., is a research fellow at Ibis Reproductive Health in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She has a doctorate in political science and a graduate certificate in women’s studies from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor.

Jennifer Rhode, M.D., received her bachelor’s degree from Auburn University. She attended University of Alabama for medical school and completed her residency at Keesler Medical Center. She is a fellow in gynecologic oncology at the University of Michigan.

Marcie K. Richardson, M.D., is co-director of the Harvard Vanguard Menopause Consultation Service, an advisor to the Harvard Woman's Health Watch, and a trustee of the North American Menopause Society. She has two sons who know a lot about menopause.

Lenore Riddell, RN, MSN, is an advanced practice nurse (women’s health) in Vancouver, BC, Canada. Lenore is very active in giving presentations and workshops on reproductive health and general women's health concerns in Vancouver and other communities in British Columbia.

June Rogers is the editor of A Friend Indeed, a North American health newsletter for women in menopause and midlife.  She is the recipient of the Margaret Mead Journalism Award from the American Medical Writers Association, among other awards.

Carolyn M. Sampselle, Ph.D., RNC, FAAN, is a professor of nursing and associate dean for research at University of Michigan School of Nursing.  Her research on behavioral prevention of incontinence won recognition from the National Association for Continence in 2002.

Barbara Seaman is the author of The Doctors’ Case Against the Pill, The Greatest Experiment Ever Performed on Women: Exploding the Estrogen Myth, and other books on women’s health. She co-founded the National Women’s Health Network in 1975.

Susan Sered is author of Uninsured in America: Life and Death in the Land of Opportunity. A medical anthropologist, she is Senior Research Associate at Suffolk University's Center for Women's Health and Human Rights.

Moonhawk River Stone, MS, is a psychotherapist in private practice specializing in working with transgender people. He is himself an out transsexual man who is an activist, educator, and writer in the transgender community.

Kristen Suthers, Ph.D., MPH, is the Menopause & Aging Program specialist at the National Women’s Health Network.  Originally a social scientist in gerontology, her career is now devoted to advocating for social justice in scientific research and women’s health.

Mara Taub has been facilitating menopause workshops as a member of the Santa Fe Health Education Project since 1980. She is also a founding member and the editor of the free, national Coalition for Prisoners' Rights Newsletter, begun in 1976.

Wendy Wolfson writes about the effects of innovations in science, medicine, and technology on society for national and international publications. She has been a radio commentator and online columnist. She holds degrees from Bryn Mawr College and Boston University.

Nancy Woods, Ph.D., is dean of the School of Nursing and professor of family and child nursing at the University of Washington.  She has led 30 years of research in women's health, the menstrual cycle, and menopausal transition.

Diana Zuckerman, Ph.D., is president of the National Research Center for Women & Families, a nonprofit research and advocacy organization in Washington, D.C.  She is trained in psychology and epidemiology, and is widely quoted on health policy and safety issues.