Cohort 5 (2026 – 2028)
Shirley Dong, MD | Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center
Shirley Dong, MD plans to join faculty at The Ohio State University in the fall of 2026 after completing her fellowship also at Ohio State. She is passionate about evaluating the influence of socioeconomic factors on the identification and management of urogynecologic conditions.
She is excited to learn how to utilize large databases to study historically underrepresented groups in the literature. In her free time, she enjoys spending time with her husband and 2 children, pilates, and exploring national parks.
K. Marie Douglass, MD, MPH | Harbor-UCLA Medical Center
K. Marie Douglass, MD completed her undergraduate degree in Spanish and Women’s & Gender Studies at Wellesley College, a combined MD/MPH program at University of Miami, residency in OB/GYN at UCLA, and URPS fellowship at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center. She is currently faculty at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center. Her areas of interest include identifying and addressing health disparities, surgical simulation, and optimizing medical education.
Youngwu Kim, MD | Harvard University
Youngwu Kim, MD is an instructor at Harvard Medical School and an attending urogynecologist at Mass General Brigham. She completed residency training at the University of Massachusetts Medical School and fellowship training in Urogynecology at Massachusetts General Hospital.
Her research focuses on perioperative outcomes and surgical innovation in urogynecology, including applications to gender-affirming pelvic surgery. As a UrogynCREST Scholar, she aims to develop advanced analytic skills to leverage large clinical datasets and advance evidence-based care informed by her cross-disciplinary surgical practice.
Julia Shinnick, MD | Brown University
Julia Shinnick, MD is an Assistant Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology in the Division of Urogynecology and Reconstructive Pelvic Surgery at Women & Infants Hospital/The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University. She is dedicated to advancing care for women with lower urinarytract disorders, particularly overactive bladder and recurrent urinary tract infections, through rigorous patientoriented research. She completed medical school at Emory University, before moving to Rhode Island to complete residency and fellowship at Women & Infants Hospital/Brown University.
Dr. Shinnick has conducted and published multiple studies addressing physical activity after pelvic surgery, frailty perceptions, surgical decision-making, and diagnostic accuracy in urogynecologic care. Her prior research has been supported through funding from the Fellows Pelvic Research Network®, Collaborative Research in Pelvic Surgery Consortium, and Advance CTR Rhode Island. She has completed qualitative methodological training through the Qualitative Science and Methods Training Program at Brown, and is excited to expand her data science knowledge base and training through the 2026-2028 Duke/AUGS Urogynecology Clinical Research Educational Scholars Training.
Annika Sinha, MD | Duke University
Annika Sinha, MD is a board-certified obstetrician-gynecologist and Clinical Associate at Duke University, where she is completing a fellowship in Urogynecology and Female Pelvic Reconstructive Surgery. She earned her medical degree from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and completed her residency at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation. After her fellowship, she will join Medical College of Georgia – Augusta University as an assistant professor in Urogynecology. Her clinical and research interests focus on pelvic floor disorders, voiding dysfunction, and Bayesian statistical methodology.
Helen Zhang, MD | MedStar Washington Hospital Center/Georgetown University
Helen Zhang, MD is a Urogynecology and Reconstructive Pelvic Surgery fellow at MedStar Washington Hospital Center/Georgetown University Hospital. She earned her Bachelor’s degree in biomedical engineering and worked in biotech before attending medical school and pursuing residency training in Obstetrics and Gynecology. Dr. Zhang’s research focuses on advancing evidence-based care for pelvic floor disorders through clinical trials, health services research, and emerging technologies. Her current work includes studies on sacral neuromodulation outcomes, patient-centered treatments for pelvic pain, and innovative approaches to surgical counseling. She is an active member of the American Urogynecologic Society and is committed to a career as a physician-scientist dedicated to improving women’s pelvic health.
Cohort 4 (2024 – 2026)
Deepanjana “Dee” Das, MD | URPS Division, Cleveland Clinic
Christopher Hong, MD | University of Michigan
Edward Kim, MD | Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Alec Szlachta-McGinn, MD | Washington University
Stephanie Zuo, MD | University of Virginia
Cohort 3 (2022 – 2024)
Teni Brown, MD | Northwestern University
Linda Burkett, MD | VCU Health System
Olivia Chang, MD, MPH | University of California, Irvine
Priyanka Kadam Halani, MD | Scripps Health
Sarah E. Jeney, MD | University of New Mexico
Nancy Ringel, MD, MS | Yale University
Cohort 2 (2020 – 2022)
Lenore Ackerman, MD, PhD | University of California, Los Angeles
Alex Berger, MD, MPH | Penn Medicine
Ekene Enemchukwu, MD, MPH | Stanford University
Rachel High, DO | UT Austin, Houston Methodist, Texas A&M University School of Medicine
Melanie Meister, MD, MCSI | University of Kansas
Shannon Wallace, MD | Cleveland Clinic
Cohort 1 (2019 – 2021)
Lauren Cadish, MD | University of Southern California
Lee Richter, MD | Georgetown School of Medicine
David Sheyn, MD | UH Hospitals, Cleveland, OH
Megan Bradley, MD | Magee Women’s Hospital, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
Emi Bretschneider, MD | Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
Candace Parker-Autry, MD | Wake Forest Baptist Health
