Speaker Biographies

Nicole Alston

Community Liaison and Practicum Instructor
Columbia University

Nicole Alston is a social worker with a particular expertise in grief. In 2005, Nicole experienced the loss of her stillborn daughter, Skye. Within months, she began speaking to audiences nationally, and then internationally, about providing comprehensive psychosocial support for families who are grieving the death of a baby. Nicole has worked in various capacities at the Center for Prolonged Grief at Columbia University, and currently serves as Community Liaison and Practicum Instructor. Outside of Nicole’s work with the Center, she has taken clinical and non-clinical roles providing grief support to families after pregnancy loss as well as pediatric social work and group facilitation. Nicole is a consultant at Academy for Community Behavioral Health at CUNY School of Professional Studies. She is also a member of the Board of Directors for the International Stillbirth Alliance. Additionally, Nicole is the founder and CEO of Ok2Grieve, an organization established to inspire the world at large to see loss and unresolved grief from a broader perspective. She is currently producing animation videos related to grief experiences. Nicole holds a Master of Science in Social Work from Columbia University and is a Social Work Health Futures Lab Fellow.

Lauren Christiansen-Lindquist, Ph.D., M.P.H.

Assistant Professor, Department of Epidemiology
Emory University/Rollins School of Public Health

Dr. Christiansen-Lindquist is a Maternal and Child Health epidemiologist, with expertise on stillbirth in the United States. Her research interests include stillbirth prevention, and improving both stillbirth reporting and the care that families receive around the time of a loss. Dr. Christiansen-Lindquist led the first study to expand PRAMS methodology for stillbirth in the United States. She is an award-winning instructor and serves as the Director of Graduate Studies for MPH and MSPH programs in Epidemiology.

Noémie Elhadad, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, Department of Biomedical Informatics
Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians & Surgeons

Dr. Elhadad is Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Biomedical Informatics at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons and Director of Medical Informatics Services at New York-Presbyterian Hospital. Her research lies at the intersection of artificial intelligence, human-centered computing, and medicine, with a focus on developing novel machine-learning methods. She creates new AI methods and tools to support patients and clinicians in their information needs, with particular focus on ensuring that AI systems of the future are fair and just. She also leads Even, a research initiative at Columbia University on data-powered women’s health.

Jan Jaap Erwich, M.D., Ph.D.

Head of Obstetrics
University Medical Center Groningen, the Netherlands

Dr. Erwich is the Head of Obstetrics at the University Medical Center Groningen, the Netherlands. He is an expert obstetrician with a focus on background and prevention of perinatal mortality and parent care. He was the first director of a program for nationwide implementation of perinatal audits in all obstetric units in the Netherlands. He is a member of several national committees for improvement of obstetric care, was (past-chair) of the International Stillbirth Alliance, and the co-organizer of the biannual ISA-ISPID conference in Amsterdam in 2014. His PhD research was on placental arachidonic acid metabolism, and he conducted a postdoctoral project on embryonic and fetal growth in Adelaide, Australia. Since 2000, he has participated in large projects on stillbirth, diagnostic work-up, placental pathology and methodological development of perinatal audit and quality of obstetric care. He is still active in clinical obstetric care and chaired the hospital’s serious adverse events committee. He is very fortunate to be the father of two healthy boys, which continuously motivates him to take care of parents who have lost a child.

Vicki Flenady, Ph.D.

Co-Director of the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC)
The University of Queensland

Professor Vicki Flenady is the Co-Director of the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Centre of Research Excellence in Stillbirth. Vicki has a clinical background in midwifery and neonatal nursing, and a PhD in perinatal epidemiology in stillbirth prevention. Vicki’s research focusses on collaborative programs, in Australia and globally through the International Stillbirth Alliance, to effectively reduce the numbers of babies who are stillborn and to improve care for families who experience this loss.

Alexander Heazell, Ph.D., FRCOG, MBChB

Professor of Obstetrics
University of Manchester, UK

Dr. Heazell is Professor of Obstetrics and Director of the Tommy’s Stillbirth Research Centre, University of Manchester, UK, and the Regional Lead Obstetrician for the North-West of England. His research portfolio includes basic science, clinical and qualitative research studies to understand the causes of placental dysfunction, to prevent stillbirth and improve care for parents after stillbirth or perinatal death. He is the national lead for Rainbow Clinic, a specialized clinical service for parents in pregnancy after loss. He has received over £6M of grant income and has published over 280 research papers. He has authored national and international guidance on awareness and management of reduced fetal movements and the NHS England Saving Babies Lives Care Bundle. He is currently leading a follow-up evaluation of Version 2 of the Saving Babies Lives Care Bundle, MiNESS 20-28 and a multidisciplinary project within the Wellcome LEAP In Utero Programme. He is on the national steering group of the Perinatal Mortality Review Tool in the UK.

Tetsuya Kawakita, M.D.

Maternal-Fetal Medicine Physician
Eastern Virginia Medical School

Dr. Kawakita is a Maternal-Fetal Medicine physician at Eastern Virginia Medical School. He joined Eastern Virginia Medical School in 2020. He has successfully published 70 papers in peer-reviewed journals, the majority of which were first or last authored by Dr. Kawakita. He has mentored 20 medical students, residents, and fellows. Dr. Kawakita received a Medical Degree from Kanazawa University School of Medicine in Japan and has completed an Obstetrics and Gynecology residency and fellowship in Maternal-Fetal Medicine at Georgetown University -MedStar Washington Hospital Center. He earned a Master of Science Degree in Clinical Translational Research from Georgetown University in 2020. For his career, he envisions becoming an academician who advances the field of Obstetrics and Maternal-Fetal Medicine through clinical research and data science. His special research interests include stillbirth, obesity, maternal mortality, and social determinants of health.

Vesela P. Kovacheva, M.D., Ph.D.

Anesthesiologist, Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Assistant Professor of Anesthesia, Harvard Medical School

Dr. Kovacheva is a physician-scientist and an attending anesthesiologist at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Assistant Professor of Anesthesiology at the Harvard Medical School with a strong passion for clinical innovation and translational research. Dr. Kovacheva is a Faculty Affiliate at the Harvard Data Science Initiative and has a vision for transforming the practice of obstetric anesthesiology by using the latest advancements in artificial intelligence and populational genetics. She is interested in creating artificial intelligence (AI)-powered algorithms for risk stratification, personalized management of adverse patient outcomes, and closed-loop infusion. Her work also focuses on investigating the genetic factors associated with major causes of maternal morbidity and mortality, like postpartum hemorrhage.

Dr. Kovacheva did her anesthesiology residency and obstetric anesthesiology fellowship at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital. She also holds a Ph.D. in Neuroscience from Boston University, where her graduate research focused on the epigenetic mechanisms through which maternal nutrition during pregnancy affects brain development in the offspring.

Kathleen Massman, Ph.D., LPCCKathleen Massman, Ph.D., LPCC

Chief Executive Officer
Healing Moments Counseling

Dr. Massmann is the owner and CEO of Healing Moments Counseling in Monticello, MN, where she provides support to families grieving the loss of a child. She also is the owner and CEO of Psyche Consulting, a consulting group that provides training and education to community organizations, mental health providers, and medical providers nationwide. She has over 13 years of experience in the specialized field of pregnancy and infant loss, specifically focusing on grief and pregnancy after loss. Kathleen is a certified Compassionate Bereavement Care Provider through the MISS Foundation, a certified Stillbirthday Doula, and a Certified Perinatal Loss Provider. She works as a Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor in the area of pregnancy loss, infant loss, and pregnancy after loss. After experiencing the unexplained loss of her son Jacob in 2011, she has become an advocate for promoting competent and compassionate bereavement care to parents and families who have experienced the loss of a child.

She holds a Ph.D. in Advanced Studies in Human Behavior with a research focus on Stillbirth and Posttraumatic Growth. Additionally, she has a Masters of Science in Mental Health Counseling from Capella University.

Gordon Smith, M.D., Ph.D., D.Sc.

Professor, Obstetrics and Gynaecology
University of Cambridge

Dr. Smith is the Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the University of Cambridge, and serves as a Consultant in Fetal Medicine at the Rosie Hospital, Cambridge, UK, since 2001. His current research is focused on predicting placentally related complications of human pregnancy and studying the underlying mechanisms of disease. He led the POPS cohort (2008-2013) and is chief investigator of the POPS2 cohort (2020-2025) and nested randomized controlled trial (ISRCTN12181427). He has approximately £9M (~$11M USD) in current funding as chief investigator (Wellcome Trust, Wellcome Leap and MRC).

He has M.D., Ph.D. and D.Sc. degrees from the University of Glasgow, UK. He held Wellcome Trust research training fellowships at the University of Glasgow (1992-93) and Cornell University, USA (1996-1999). He was elected a Fellow of the UK Academy of Medical Sciences in 2010.

Sarah Stock, Ph.D., MBChB

Professor
University of Edinburg

Dr. Stock is Professor in Maternal and Fetal Health at the University of Edinburgh. She is the Program Director of Wellcome Leap’s ‘In Utero’ Program – a $50million global program to reduce stillbirth. She has research interests in preterm birth and stillbirth. With a laboratory science background, she now focuses on clinical trials and international data-driven studies to improve treatments for pregnancy complications. She went to Manchester University Medical School and has a PhD from the University of Edinburgh. Her clinical training was undertaken in Edinburgh, with periods in Glasgow, London, and Australia.