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Gil Mor, M.D., Ph.D. is the John M. Malone Jr. MD, Endowed Chair of Women’s Health Research and Scientific Director of The C.S. Mott Center for Human Growth and Development at Wayne State University. He is Professor and Vice Chair of Obstetrics and Gynecology department, and the former Chair of the Department of Physiology.  Before moving to Wayne State University, he was a Tenured Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Reproductive Science at Yale University School of Medicine. In his research he examines topics related to the immunology of pregnancy and the role of inflammation in cancer formation and progression. He was the Division Director of the Reproductive Science Division at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology Yale and directed the Reproductive Immunology Unit and the Translational Research Program “Discovery To Cure”.  Dr. Mor was the Editor in Chief of the American Journal of Reproductive Immunology since 2009 to 2019, and the journal Placenta (2020-2022). He is the Past-President of the American Society for Reproductive Immunology.  Dr. Mor has been funded by grants from National Institute of Child Health Development (NICHD), National Cancer Institute (NCI) and National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) as well as by several pharmaceutical companies and is widely published in the areas of immunology and reproduction with more than 340 publications and is the editor of five books on “Immunology of pregnancy” and “Apoptosis and Cancer”.  He is also the Senior Editor of a book series on Reproductive Immunology with Elsevier.  Dr. Mor is recipient of several national and international prizes, including the Pearl River Professor from Jinan University Guangzhou China, the J. Christian Herr Award- and the AJRI Award from the Society for Reproductive Immunology. He is member of the Academy of Scholars at WSU and recipient of  the ASRI Distinguished Service Award.  Dr. Mor is member of the American Association for Cancer Research, the Society for Gynecologic Investigation, American Association of Immunologist, and the American Society of Reproductive Immunology. He is also Member of the International Advisory Committee for the Sino-American Center of Translational Medicine. Southern Medical University, China, Advisory Professor at Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan China and Honorary member and Professor of several scientific societies in Asia, South America, and Europe.

Dr. Dambaeva received her medical degree from Siberian State Medical University, Tomsk, Russia, in 1992 and started her career as a clinical laboratory physician in a municipal maternity hospital. In 2002 she obtained her PhD degree in Immunology and Allergology from the prestigious Institute of Immunology in Moscow, Laboratory of Clinical Immunology studying innate immunity in patients with various immunodeficiencies and working on clinical diagnostic application of flow cytometry for neutrophils analysis. For her postdoctoral training, she joined Dr. Golos’s laboratory at the Wisconsin National Primate Research Center, University of Wisconsin, Madison and studied placental expression of non-classical MHC-E in non-human primates. Dr. Dambaeva later worked as an assistant scientist at the Department of Comparative Biosciences, University of Wisconsin and continued her research on maternal-fetal tolerance; she characterized unique endometrial leukocyte populations in various non-human primates and established herself as a key researcher in the reproductive immunology field. Dr. Dambaeva completed a Medical Laboratory Immunology Fellowship program, accredited by the American Society of Microbiology in the clinical immunology laboratory at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science and in 2014 was board certified as a Diplomate by the American Board of Medical Laboratory Immunology (ABMLI). She currently serves as the Associate Director of Clinical Immunology Laboratory at the RFU. In April 2017, Dr. Dambaeva was appointed as Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at Chicago Medical School/Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science.

Dr. Hanna is a Professor of Pediatrics at NYU Grossman Long-Island School of Medicine, Chief of Neonatology, and the Director of the Women and Children Research Center. He currently chairs the Appointment, Promotion, and Tenure Committee at NYU Grossman Long Island Medical School and is the recipient of the 2023 Dean's Faculty Achievement in Basic Science Research Award. Dr. Hanna has also been awarded the Wholeness of Life Award by NYU Langone Hospital-LI and has been consistently listed as a Top Doctor by Castle Connolly in New York Magazine since 2012.

Dr. Hanna's interest for the last 25 years has focused on evaluating altered immune function in placental tissues and the role of placenta-specific microRNAs in modulating placental immune function to infection. His work was funded by several national agencies, including NICHD, March of Dimes, and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. Dr. Hanna was the senior author of a paper that was the most discussed JAMA Network article in 2022 regarding the detecting mRNA COVID-19 vaccines in human breast milk.  Dr. Hanna is a Past President of the American Society of Reproductive Immunology (2016-2018) and was the co-chair of three international ASRI meetings (Hamburg, Germany, 2012, New York, 2014, Shanghai, China, 2018). Dr. Hanna is a recipient of the J. Christian Herr Award for excellence in reproductive immunology research, the ASRI Distinguished Service Award, and a past associate editor of the American Journal for Reproductive Immunology.

Marta Rodriguez-Garcia, MD, PhD is an Associate Professor at Wayne State University. She did her postdoctoral training at the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT and Harvard, and then at Dartmouth in Dr. Wira’s laboratory to specialize in mucosal and reproductive immunology.  Her NIH-funded research focuses on understanding immune protection against HIV in the female reproductive tract. She has consistently received awards and invitations to present her research at national and international conferences. She recently received the Burroughs Wellcome Fund award for Investigators in the Pathogenesis of Infectious Diseases (PATH). She serves as a permanent member for NIH Study Section.  Dr. Rodriguez-Garcia joined the ASRI early in her career (2014) and has been an active member since then. She has attended and presented at the ASRI meetings, co-chaired and organized sessions (2015, 2019-2024) and participated in the Program Committee. She was selected by Dr. Kaushic to be the Co-Chair of the Publications Committee (2017-2019), thanks to Dr. Hanna’s initiative to include junior members in the committees. Currently, she is a Council Member. She regularly reviews papers for AJRI and is an Associate Editor of AJRI. ASRI has been instrumental in her career development, and she is looking forward to further contributing and giving back to the ASRI.

I have been involved with Reproductive Immunology since my post doctoral Fellowship oriented by Dr. Alan Beer, 1991-92. I'm pretty sure that this is the first year I have participated in the first ASRI meeting. Coming back to my country, Brazil, I was responsible for spreading the scientific information regarding Reproductive Immunology in numerous medical meetings, orienting masters and doctoral postgraduate students to obtain their degrees. The university I am affiliated to was the first to offer clinical immunology diagnostic and treatment for recurrent pregnancy loss for almost twenty years under the Brazilian Health System (Sistema Único de Saúde). I have also been active in my private practice, working with refereed patients for diagnosis and treatment of recurrent pregnancy loss and implantation failure patients. I have been also working as peer reviewer for many journals, especially for American Journal of Reproductive Immunology and Journal of Reproductive Immunology.  More recently I was granted the title of Clinical Reproductive Immunology Fellow and after that I was assigned as a Latin American Representative for ASRI. With this I was able to join other latin american fellows and organize the first on-line Reproductive Immunology Symposium in 2023. With this nomination as counselor I wish to contribute to strengthen the Society and contribute to spread its science and knowledge to more Latin American Countries.    

I am an Assistant Professor at the University of Minnesota. As a member of the Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases in the Department of Pediatrics, I lead a NIH-funded research program that seeks to understand how viral infection during pregnancy affects placental development and function. I participate in multiple graduate programs and am deeply committed to training the next generation of researchers. I have been a member of ASRI since 2020, served the society as part of the Program Committee in 2022 and 2024, and am co-chairing the 2025 meeting in St. Paul. I look forward to continuing to serve the Society as a Councilor.

I am honored to be nominated to serve on the ASRI Council. I am a physician scientist whose lab focuses on questions of maternal immunity and immune crosstalk across the maternal-fetal dyad, as well as the effects of maternal immune activation on fetoplacental development and how these effects are modified by fetal sex. I am an Associate Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Biology at Harvard Medical School, and a Maternal-Fetal Medicine specialist at Massachusetts General Hospital, where I also serve as Vice Chair of Research for the Department of OB/Gyn.  ASRI is a unique and welcoming society; even attending my first Annual Meeting, I immediately knew I had found an important scientific home, surrounded by colleagues with similar passions and scientific interests in a friendly and collaborative environment. I would look forward to the opportunity to serve the Society’s members on the Council, continuing to expand the Society’s reach by further increasing new membership among early career faculty, working on mentorship initiatives to foster the next generation of reproductive immunology-focused researchers, and strengthening bridges between clinical and basic researchers within and outside the society. As a mid-career investigator whose work bridges clinical, translational and basic research, I have prior experience serving in leadership roles in other professional societies (Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine Board of Directors/multiple Committee service, Perinatal Research Society Council and Co-PI of the Young Investigator Grantwriting Workshop, Society for Reproductive Investigation Governance Task Force, ACOG Junior Fellow Chair) and healthcare non-profits (Planned Parenthood Massachusetts Board of Directors). I therefore hope I would bring useful perspectives and experience to the Council. As a former Reproductive Scientist Development Program Scholar, I will work to further increase engagement of RSDP Scholars in ASRI, a natural home for these OB/Gyn physician scientists, many of whom are focused on reproductive immunology. 

Dr. Gaddy is an Associate Professor of Medicine and Pathology, Microbiology, and Immunology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC).  Her research focuses on how the host responds to infection of the reproductive tract, specifically in the context of pregnancy.  Her latest work demonstrates that the bacterial pathogen Group B Streptococcus can highjack placental macrophage cells as a Trojan horse to ascend the gravid reproductive tract and cross the placenta to infect the developing fetus.  Dr. Gaddy’s current research program seeks to understand the host and environmental factors that contribute to susceptibility to perinatal infections and also to elucidate the antimicrobial molecules produced in human breast milk.  Dr. Gaddy would bring expertise in bacterial pathogenesis, innate immunity, and reproductive immunology and she utilizes cutting-edge techniques such as high-resolution imaging modalities (including electron microscopy), primary cell and tissue models, preclinical animal models of disease, and multi-omics techniques in her research.  She has authored over 110 peer-reviewed manuscripts and is the Director of the Pre³ Initiative (Preventing Adverse Pregnancy Outcomes and Prematurity) and the Director of Infectious Disease Research in the Women’s Reproductive Health Research Center at VUMC.

Thanh Luu completed his Obstetrics and Gynecology residency at Oklahoma State University. He earned his medical and his master’s degree in biomedical science at Midwestern University in Downers Grove, Illinois where he worked on a project involving the formation of new blood vessels after a stroke.

During residency, he had extensive training in high-risk and routine pregnancies, minimally invasive laparoscopic surgery, and in-office procedures. This is allotted for a wide range of medical and surgical management of abnormal uterine bleeding, chronic pelvic pain, obstetrical care, urinary incontinence, and infertility. He is now currently pursuing a fellowship in Reproductive Immunology at Rosalind Franklin University to further his ability to help a unique population of women. He hopes to use his past laboratory and clinical experience to further the field of Reproductive Immunology.  

Udo Markert is Professor and Head of the Placenta Laboratory at the Jena University Hospital, Germany. He was President of the American Society for Reproductive Immunology (ASRI) 2012-2014 and has served for its Council during 8 years. He is President Elect of the German Society for Reproductive Medicine and was President of the European Society for Reproductive Immunology (ESRI; 2019-2023), Secretary General of the European Placenta Group (EPG; 2020-2023), and is currently Council Member of the International Society for Immunology of Reproduction (ISIR), ESRI, the International Federation of Placenta Societies (IFPA) and EPG. He has received several awards including the “German Innovation Award Medical Engineering” (2008), the “John Christian Herr Award” of the ASRI (2009), the Kiril Bratanov Medal (2015) and the American Journal of Reproductive Immunology (AJRI) Award (2016). Udo Markert is Organizer and Chair of the upcoming IFPA congress 2025 in Germany and has organized and co-organized several international conferences, such as the triannual ISIR congress 2016 in Erfurt, and the joint ASRI and ESRI congress 2012 in Hamburg. Since 2022, he is European Editor of “Placenta” and has been European Associate Editor of the AJRI (2010-2021). He was visiting professor at the Chongqing Medical University, China (2018-2023).

Stephen McCartney is an Assistant Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology in the division of Maternal Fetal Medicine at the University of Washington. Dr. McCartney's research is focused on how the immune system is involved in maintenance of normal pregnancy and pregnancy complications, particularly the intersection of immune and metabolic pathways at the maternal-fetal interface. Despite the widespread use of biological therapeutics in oncology and other medical fields, there remains minimal use of biologics for pregnancy complications. Through ASRI, Dr. McCartney seeks to advocate for and promote research that will drive translation of immune-based therapeutics in reproductive health. Dr. McCartney also believes strongly in mentoring and sponsoring the next generation of physician-scientists in reproductive health and would seek to attract diverse trainees to ASRI through outreach and scholarships.

I am professor and chair of the Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Molecular Genetics at the University of Kentucky, College of Medicine. My laboratory uses experimental and computational approaches to address fundamental questions on immunity and host defense including at the maternal-fetal interface. I am humbled by the opportunity to be considered for the position of councilor for the American Society for Reproductive Immunology (ASRI). I have only recently joined following an invitation from Dr. Moysekar to be a keynote speaker in the 2024. I am impressed by the collegiality, the ease of networking, and the warm welcome I received so far. While I am new to ASRI, I have served as council member, program chair, member of Women and Diversity committee, and editorial board member for the Society for Leukocyte Biology. I would bring this wealth of experience to ASRI to promote inclusive excellence in research focused on reproductive immunology, support early-stage investigators, increase collaboration with biotechnology, and science policy advocacy. In summary, I have the passion and the knowledge to help ASRI grow in new and exciting directions while upholding its current ideals and would be honored to be considered for the position of councilor.

Dr. Aleksandar Stanic is an associate professor in the University of Wisconsin-Madison Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, divisions of Reproductive Sciences and Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility. Dr. Stanic earned his MD and PhD (Immunology) at Vanderbilt University where he studied molecular controls of natural killer T cell development and glycolipid antigen recognition, followed by clinical training in Ob/Gyn and Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility at Harvard Medical School hospitals. Upon moving to UW-Madison, his lab focused on the discovery of cellular immune networks necessary for the organization of the maternal-fetal interface (Decidua-Placenta). As a basic/translational scientist and a clinician, Dr. Stanic is dedicated to the study of the role of immune function in preeclampsia, intrauterine growth restriction, recurrent pregnancy loss and implantation failure. His lab works with human, rhesus and mouse models of reproductive physiology and disease and employs high-dimensional flow cytometry and single cell sequencing approaches to discover and model the reproductive immune cell networks. Dr. Stanic is dedicated to the advocacy for research and funding in the reproductive sciences and hopes that ASRI will continue to increase its influence in both basic and clinical research realms in the US and internationally.

I am the Assistant Director at Rosalind Franklin University in the Clinical Immunology Laboratory. Our lab provides cutting-edge immunological testing for the diagnosis of recurrent pregnancy loss and unexplained infertility. I have 12+ years of experience as a medical laboratory scientist in a hospital setting with a focus on microbiology. In addition, I have an MBA with a focus on management and marketing.