Leah McKay

Leah started with us one year ago and has done a wonderful job focusing on eSUPeR, eASPIRe, and MUSA follow-up within PFDN.

Leah obtained her BA from Penn State. Following graduation, she traveled and lived in Ohio, Texas, and Alaska. Pursuit of her MA in Biology brought her to New England, specifically Massachusetts. After graduation, she worked in a job that didn’t suit her research interests. Urogynecology appealed to her because a family member was having pelvic floor issues and had been treated at one of our fellow PFDN sites!

Leah feels fortunate to work directly with patients in her role within PFDN. Many patients say their experiences are life changing. Leah appreciates how women are constantly learning about their issues and most are satisfied and happy. They know they are in good hands.

When thinking about the PFDN in the next 10 years, Leah anticipates we will continue creating awareness/acceptance and de-stigmatize women’s experiences.

Leah really enjoys science/research. She feels the need to be in a setting where she continues to learn and grow so she can push the boundaries of her current knowledge.

In her spare time Leah participates in indoor rock climbing, which she highly recommends to anyone who might be thinking about it. She is very active and spends time working out at the gym, hiking, and enjoying nature. Leah’s best friend is a 100-pound Doberman named Drax who she describes as the “sweetest boy”. He keeps Leah on her toes!

Meet Smudge – our dinosaur mascot. He has been with the division for several months now and does wonderful work.

Julia Shinnick

Julia Shinnick is a Urogynecologist at Brown/Women & Infants Hospital. After graduating from Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia, she came to Brown for her Ob/Gyn residency training in 2016. She stayed at Brown for Urogynecology fellowship in 2020 and joined as faculty in 2023.

Dr. Shinnick has interests in clinical research. She was initially inspired to pursue a career in Urogynecology through a summer clinical research internship as an undergraduate.

The most rewarding part of working with the PFDN is being able to contribute to studies that help shape the care for patients across the country.

In the coming years, Julia believes the PFDN will have a positive impact through centering patients in the ways that we ask and answer questions.

Sarashwathy “Sara” Veera

Sara started with us as a Student Intern in May,2018. She decided to join our team as a Research Assistant the following year and has since been promoted to Senior Research Assistant.

Sara came to us as a pre-med undergrad looking for clinical work opportunities. She was drawn to areas of medicine that are stigmatized and unique. Sara had a friend who connected her to us. She feels there is an opportunity here for community related health and outreach which is exciting to Sara as this movement in its developmental stages. Sara appreciates how close our research team is with the rest of our department and that we are not alone in our journey.

The most rewarding part of working with the PFDN for Sara is the protocol development process. It is never a “one size fits all” and Sara appreciates the collaboration where we address local issues specific to each site. “It is cool to get perspective all across America”.

When thinking about PFDN in the next 10 years, Sara envisions breaking away from the standard. An example would be the creation of new validated questionnaires and using better informed data collection methods using input from community members.

Sara started out as pre-med but as she has had more exposure, she may re-direct. She is curious about public health and may focus on more experiential learning. Her future position may not fit a template.

In her spare time, Sara is busy! She does a lot of volunteering, is involved with community networks within the area, teaches kizomba and tarraxo dancing, is learning how to forage for mushrooms, crochets, paints, and is a birder. Sara is also a great cook, focusing on South Indian dishes to get in touch with her culture.

Dr. Jamie Griffith is a professor in the Department of Ob-Gyn at the University of Chicago with a joint appointment in the Department of Psychiatry. He is a clinical psychologist with interests in clinical assessment, behavioral interventions, and clinical decision-making. He is a member of several research teams with a focus on pelvic health. He gave the keynote address to the PFDN in 2023 entitled “Perspectives on patient-reported outcomes”. He works closely with the urogynecologists at the University of Chicago to lend a holistic perspective to both research and clinical care.

Dr. Griffith’s research includes the relationship between cognition and emotion, autobiographical memory, and mental health comorbidities. More recently, he has grown his research to include the intersection of medicine and mental health in areas including chronic pelvic pain and pelvic floor disorders. A common thread of this work is enhancing clinical assessment, making it more efficient for clinicians and patients. For example, one of his R01s funded by NIDDK is focused on connecting patient-reported outcome data to clinical decision-making. Dr. Griffith is leading several projects examining the intersection between mental health and urogynecology, focusing on pelvic floor disorders, addressing disparities in urinary control symptoms, and developing new self-management interventions for women with pelvic floor disorders.

Tara Samsel is one of our Clinical Research Coordinators for the PFDN. She joined University of Chicago last June when she moved to Chicago. She is an aspiring OBGYN and became interested in Urogynecology after conducting her undergraduate research focused on physiological and microbiome changes in postmenopausal and postpartum women. As a new member of the PFDN, she is excited to be involved in the upcoming BASIS and TULIP PFDN studies.

Tara grew up near St. Paul, Minnesota and finished her bachelor’s degree in Cellular & Molecular Biology at Barnard College of Columbia University. While at Barnard, she worked as a research assistant at Columbia University’s Medical Center and Fertility Clinic. She worked in their embryology lab conducting an independent research project adapting a robotics platform to function as an automated liquid handling system for IVF plating. She also earned her Emergency Medical Technician certification while in her junior year. Prior to starting her career at the University of Chicago she interned for two digital women’s healthcare start-ups, Caraway and Allara, developing her interest in gynecological healthcare.

Rowena Jinxuan Shi serves as our Lead Clinical Research Coordinator at the University of Chicago for the Pelvic Floor Disorder Network (PFDN). With just over a year of dedicated involvement, Rowena has embraced her position, aligning herself closely with the network's mission to elevate understanding, treatment, and support for individuals contending with pelvic floor disorders.

Her journey into the realm of pelvic floor disorders began with a passion for research and a deep-seated desire to make a tangible impact in women’s healthcare. After completing her master's degree at the University of Chicago, Rowena naturally gravitated towards opportunities where she could merge her scientific knowledge with genuine empathy for those confronting health challenges. Joining Dr. Kenton’s team and the PFDN provided her with the perfect platform to apply her skills in a field where innovation and empathy intersect. Looking ahead over the next decade, Rowena envisions the PFDN continuing its trajectory of advancement. As she embarks on this journey, she is optimistic that collective efforts will pave the way for a future where pelvic floor health is understood and accessible to all.

In her free time, Rowena loves to travel. Exploring new places allows her to immerse herself in different cultures, try delicious local foods, and marvel at stunning landscapes and architecture. Each trip brings unforgettable experiences and connections, adding colorful chapters to her life story.

Laura Aughinbaugh DNP, WHNP, CNM has been with PFDN as a co-investigator for 8 years! She currently is involved with ESTEEM, ROSETTA, NOTABLE, ASPIRe, E-SUPeR, MUSA, and TULIP.

Laura is a Women's Health Nurse Practitioner and a Certified Nurse Midwife at UC San Diego Health. She has cared for women and for the childbearing family in these roles for 19 years. She currently spends her clinical time serving women in Urogynecology at UC San Diego Health. Laura’s introduction to PFDN started when she joined the UC San Diego Health team of healthcare providers and researchers. The most rewarding part of her participation in PFDN is knowing that the care and healing she offers women within the clinic, can go beyond her day-to-day encounters. She loves that her efforts today, will help improve the lives of women for future generations. There are only so many hours in a day and only so much she can do with her own two hands - PFDN enables her to reach more women through thoughtful investigation and evaluation. Laura is very grateful for the efforts of the PFDN.

Dr. Cecile Ferrando recently joined UCSD, taking over as Fellowship & Research Director of the Urogynecology & Reconstructive Pelvic Surgery Division and Co-Director of the URPS Clinic. While new to UCSD, Dr. Ferrando has been part of the PFDN for many years, having worked as an investigator during her FPMRS fellowship and subsequent faculty position at Cleveland Clinic since 2015. One of her biggest passions is graduate medical and surgical education. In Cleveland, she served as the Program Director of two fellowships and was the Vice Chair of Education for the Department of OBGYN. As a scientific investigator she has published over 100 original research papers. Her research interests include clinical outcomes of pelvic reconstructive surgery. She brings a unique skillset to UCSD and is excited to be an active contributor to their research program, as well as the PFDN.

Dulce Rodriguez-Ponciano is one of our Clinical Research Coordinators and has been part of our team for 7 years. She started with us as a Research Assistant in 2017 while completing her undergraduate degree. She has been involved with numerous PFDN trials and currently manages eSUPeR and eASPIRe. Dulce says the most rewarding part of working with the PFDN is establishing meaningful connections with participants and making them feel supported and truly valued.

Dulce grew up in Tijuana, México and currently resides in San Diego. She is passionate about contributing to services that benefit marginalized populations. She has volunteered with various health organizations since 2017. In her free time, Dulce enjoys roller skating and spending time at the beach.

Joseline Sanchez is a Clinical Research Coordinator who started with PFDN back in November 2023.

Right before graduating with her B.A in Public Health from UC Berkeley, Joseline began her clinical research journey at UCSF within the Division of General Pediatrics and Health Policy Studies. Born and raised in San Diego, California, Joseline knew she wanted to return home and continue her passion for Public Health and Medicine, assisting the community she grew up in. It was then that she found herself at UCSD Health.

Her interest in Women’s Health peaked while she assisted in Cervical Cancer research. She appreciates being part of research focused on improving women's health and is passionate about diversifying medical research. She enjoys engaging with women in both English and Spanish and being able to facilitate recruitment efforts.

In her free time Joseline loves to go to the beach, try new cuisines and is always on the hunt for a new Boba spot.

UT Southwestern first became a member clinical site in the Pelvic Floor Disorders Network (PFDN) in 2006 (Cycle II) with Dr. Joe Schaffer as the site’s Principal Investigator (PI). We were proud to champion early translational and basic science studies from the Network by developing a biorepository for specimens and tissues collected during clinical trials. UT Southwestern remained the Network’s main Biorepository through Cycle III. In Cycles IV and V, Dr. David (“Ike”) Rahn has been the PI for the site, and Dr. Maria Florian-Rodriguez has taken leadership of the Biorepository. All members of our team are passionate about improving the lives of women with pelvic floor disorders—and, through creative studies in the laboratory, working to prevent these conditions in the future!

Dr. Maria Florian-Rodriguez is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and a UT Southwestern Dedman Family Scholar in Clinical Care. She is a urogynecologist and specializes in the treatment of pelvic floor disorders. Maria earned her medical degree at the University of Puerto Rico School of Medicine. She completed a residency in obstetrics and gynecology at Temple University Hospital in Philadelphia and then received advanced training in urogynecology at UT Southwestern. She joined the UT Southwestern faculty in 2018. In the latest PFDN Cycle, she took over leadership of the UT Southwestern Biorepository, and she’s proud of the work of the PFDN Biospecimen Committee. She also chairs the Communications Committee.

Maria’s clinical interests include the surgical treatment of pelvic organ prolapse, urinary incontinence, mesh complications, and fistulas. Her research interests include studying the relationship between the vaginal extracellular matrix, cellular senescence, and prolapse.
A quote from Maria: “I’m passionate about treating women with pelvic floor disorders like urinary incontinence and pelvic organ prolapse because we have so many therapies that can dramatically improve their quality of life. These conditions are common – but it doesn’t mean women have to live with them!”

This month we recognize Kyle Herrala, MS, Clinical Research Project Manager for the Division of Urogynecology and Reconstructive Pelvic Surgery at UCSD. She also serves as the chair of the PFDN Research Coordinator Committee. She has been with the PFDN for almost 7 years and oversees all active research studies as well as manages the single-IRB for all participating sites in the PFDN.

Ms. Herrala was recently honored as the 2024 recipient of the Robin Haff Research Award at the American Urogynecologic Society (AUGS) conference held in Washington, DC in October. We congratulate her for her achievements!

Ms. Herrala began her career working in community health. She has always been passionate about health education and disease prevention and is a firm believer that quality health starts with the simple choices we make at home. Her interest in health prevention led her to earn a Master of Science in Health Education and Health Behavior. She worked with various non-profit organizations in areas such as food insecurity, childhood health and fitness, sexual assault and domestic violence prevention, and mental health. Ms. Herrala began working at UCSD and with the PFDN in 2018. The most rewarding part of working with the PFDN is being able to connect with patients and see first-hand the real-world impact of the work we are doing. She also loves being a part of the bigger picture goal to improve healthcare for women and having been with the network for so long now, has enjoyed seeing the how our research has directly affected patient care.

Ms. Herrala grew up in the Midwest and went to the University of Michigan (Go Blue!). She’s lived in San Diego for almost 10 years and absolutely loves it there! She can always be found outdoors either at the beach, camping in the mountains, or hiking with her husband and two kids. A few years ago, she set out to hike 52 trails in one calendar year, hiked the highest 6 peaks in Southern California, and summitted Mt. Whitney (the tallest peak in the contiguous US). She also enjoys yoga and is a certified instructor. Her favorite thing is sharing all of these adventures with her family.

Deborah L Myers MD

Dr. Myers has been in the subspecialty field of treating women with pelvic floor disorders for over 30 years. Her career as Division Director entailed building the Urogynecology Division at Women and Infants Hospital of RI/ Brown to ensure that the diagnosis and treatment of pelvic floor disorders was of wide range for the women of southern New England, along with building strength in research and education. Her administrative role as Vice Chair of the Department of OBGYN also helped to strengthen the research mission at the institutional level. Dr. Myers first became affiliated with the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Pelvic Floor Disorders Network as a member of their Advisory Board (2007- 2010). In this role she had the opportunity to guide network researchers in their queries and see how high-level multi-site trials were conducted. This role allowed her to incorporate ideas into the Brown division to further build their research infrastructure. This led to Brown’s successful application as a site for the PFDN in 2011 cycle #3 (2011-2016) where she served as Principal Investigator from 2011-2014. Brown has continued participation in the network for cycle 4 (2016-2022) and the current #5 cycle (2022-2027). As a PFDN site, Brown offers a high volume with multi-disciplinary and translational collaborators.

What is unique about PFDN research?
The PFDN has been a highly active network since its start in 2001 performing research trials to answer key clinical questions for women with pelvic floor disorders. In general, there are 5-7 trials at any one time either in development, active, or analyzing data of completed trials. Over 150 studies have been published in high tiered journals including landmark trials in Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) and the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) which shows the high caliber research being done in the PFDN. Notwithstanding the network’s high productivity, Dr. Myers finds the most unique aspect of PFDN research is its success in developing and executing surgical trials. Simply said, these are research trials that look at whether one surgical procedure is more successful than another and/ or if concomitant procedures/treatments are beneficial or not. Surgical trials are quite difficult to develop and execute, i.e., recruit for, as they need to ensure equipoise for the patient, relevancy, and the support and commitment of all the investigators in the network.

Deb Myers retirement group photo at the July 2024 Steering Committee meeting

AUGS, August 2018: Vivian Sung MD MPH (co-PI 2011-2014 and PI 2014- current), Charles Rardin MD (co-PI 2024-current), Deb Myers (PI 2011-2014 and co-PI 2014-2024)

What do you consider your most significant contribution to the PFDN?
Dr. Myers considers her most significant contribution to the PFDN when serving as chair of the Policy Procedures Quality Improvement (PPQI) Committee from 2011-2015. During this time, she drafted the PPQI manual which involved documenting the processes and roles of the steering committee, its officers, the Data Safety and Monitoring Board, the Advisory Board and its outside collaborations. The manual also created committee descriptions, voting actions, policies and protocols by which manuscripts and abstracts are processed, and several other aspects of PFDN work. Dr. Myers worked with Susie Meikle, MD, MPH who was the project scientist of the PFDN at that time. The manual took about 4 years to complete as it involved input and consensus from all Principal Investigators of the PFDN. She often referred to it as “herding cats” (LOL). The PPQI manual has since served as a base for updating policies and creating new ones, as it is truly a “living document”. Her most recent contribution to the PFDN was serving as chair of the pelvic organ prolapse quantification (POP-Q) adjudication committee and later assessing and drafting as writing team chair a manuscript that describes the network’s quality metric tools to improve data quality for POP-Q data.

What impact have you seen over the time you’ve been involved with the PFDN?
Besides the high-quality research done to answer clinical questions, Dr. Myers believes the PFDN through its research has been able to raise awareness of the condition of pelvic floor disorders to both patients and other medical professionals. Awareness to patients has increased from the studies done; the outreach to women that is needed to perform these trials increases the public’s knowledge about PFDs. Awareness of PFDs to medical professionals outside of gynecology has happened through the network’s s publications in non- OBGYN journals such as JAMA and NEJM. More health care professionals are asking patients about pelvic floor disorders and referring them to subspecialists.

2011 Vivian Sung MD MPH, Deb Myers MD

April 2015- Myers awarded the “PPQI” prize at the PFDN SC meeting Rockville MD

What do you envision for the PFDN in the next 10 years?
Through the PFDN’s continued research efforts and intent on including populations of a more diverse background, Dr. Myers predicts there will be increased inclusion of underrepresented patients. This in turn will increase awareness and education of PFDs amongst these diverse women and thus improve health care of all women. Another aspect she hopes to see for the PFDN is an increase in the basic science research of PFDs. As the subspecialty and its basic science research continues to grow, she awaits more research into the pathophysiology of PFDs, the ability to identify women at risk for PFDs and the science to regenerate tissues in pelvic floor disorders. Dr. Myers anticipates regenerative medicine will be a big part of health care in the future and looks forward to more basic science into PDFN research which will move the field forward over the next years.

What has been the most rewarding part of working with PFDN?
For Dr. Myers, besides being part of a network which has led to answers for significant clinical questions in the treatment and management of PFDs, the most rewarding aspect of working within the PFDN has been the ability to collaborate with researchers across the country. The exchange of ideas is open and honest and always leads to a better trial. The relationships that have developed amongst all the staff, which is the staff of the PFDN, the data coordinating center, the other site’s researchers and their staff, have been incredible and the most fulfilling. It has been an honor for her to work with this high level of group of researchers.

July 2015 PFDN Duke SC meeting- Vivian Sung MD MPH and Deb Myers MD with Wool E. Bull