2025 PRIMED Cohort

The American Society for Reproductive Medicine's Center for Policy and Leadership congratulates the 2025 PRIMED Scholars Cohort on an excellent year of thoughtful advocacy, discussion, and learning. Please meet our 2025 scholars class and view their final capstone projects presented at the 2025 ARSM Congress and Expo in San Antonio, Texas, below. 

2025 Cohort Members:

Gisel Bello, MD

Dr. Bello is a third-year OB/GYN resident at Emory University and aspires to become a reproductive endocrinologist and infertility specialist with advanced expertise in reproductive surgery. She is a proud daughter of Dominican immigrants and grew up in the housing projects of Harlem, where she learned first-hand the impact of social determinants of health on women’s reproductive care.

Capstone Project: "Project Stories To Organize Reform Kit (S.T.O.R.K.)" 

Kelly M. Chacón, MD

Dr. Chacón is an REI clinical fellow at the University of California, San Diego. She is committed to improving access to fertility care through clinical, research, and advocacy efforts with a particular interest in oncofertility and policy implementation.

Capstone Project: “A Tale of Two Mandates: Downstream Implementation of State-Mandated Coverage of Medically-Indicated Fertility Preservation"

Austin Johnson, MD

Dr. Johnson is an REI clinical fellow at the University of Washington in Seattle, WA. His clinical, research, and advocacy interests focus on providing equitable access to family-building options for the LGBTQIA+ community. For his work with the transgender/gender non-binary community, he received the ASRM Diversity Fellowship Research Award and SASGOG Excellence in Research Award.

Capstone Project: “A Tale of Two Mandates – The Washington State Building Families Act”

Jamie Kuhlman, PhD

Dr. Kuhlman is a Licensed Psychologist and the Owner of Courageous Path Counseling, PLLC, in Nashville, TN. She specializes in infertility, postpartum, and maternal mental health through individual counseling and psychological evaluations for third-party reproduction. She has served as the Tennessee State Captain for three years for RESOLVE’s Federal Advocacy Day in partnership with ASRM.

Capstone Project: "The Illusion of Reproductive Choice: How Restorative Reproductive Medicine Violates Reproductive Autonomy and Informed Consent"

Caiyun Liao, MD, MPH

Born and raised in southern China, Dr. Liao recently completed an REI fellowship at Yale. Dr. Liao spent her formative years with her grandmother, an orphaned WWII refugee who did not have the opportunity to receive a formal education. This experience motivated Dr. Liao to devote her career to advancing women’s well-being and reproductive justice. She has been recognized by both ASRM and Yale University’s Office of Health Equity Research for her work on health disparities and access to care.

Capstone Project: “Demystifying the 'Science' & 'Evidence' Behind RRM”

Abigail Mancuso, MD

Dr. Mancuso is a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility Division at the University of Iowa Health Care. In 2024, she became motivated to get more involved in advocacy following the introduction of a bill in her state that threatened the practice of IVF.

Capstone Project: "Explaining Unexplained Infertility" 

Mamie McLean, MD

Dr. McLean specializes in the evaluation and treatment of infertility, IVF, third-party reproduction, and recurrent pregnancy loss at Alabama Fertility Specialists. Following the 2024 LePage decision, Dr. McLean became engaged in political advocacy through Fight for AL Families. She strives to preserve the doctor-patient relationship essential to fertility care and hopes to see access to IVF mandated across Alabama.

Capstone Project: "Codifying Access to IVF: Advocacy Lessons from Alabama"

Benjamin Peipert, MD

Dr. Peipert is an REI fellow at the University of Pennsylvania with a passion for improving efficiency in fertility care and advancing equity across the spectrum of reproductive health. He completed his residency in Obstetrics & Gynecology at Duke University, where he was Education Chief Resident.

Capstone Project: "The Illusion of Reproductive Choice: How Restorative Reproductive Medicine Violates Reproductive Autonomy and Informed Consent"

Lis Regula, PhD

Dr. Regula serves as Advocacy Associate for Men Having Babies (MHB), where he works to advance equitable and accessible surrogacy and third-party reproduction for LGBTQ+ prospective parents and improve the standards included in MHB's Framework for Ethical Surrogacy. He has been both an egg donor and a surrogate and currently lives in a very queer home in Columbus, Ohio, with his daughter, cat, and memory of his husband, MJ Eckhouse.

Capstone Project: “Family Solidarity: Intersectionality and Coalition Building to Combat Project 2025 Goals in Reproductive Healthcare Policy”

Jennifer Straub, MEd

Dr. Straub is the Regional Director of Operations at CCRM Fertility and a healthcare leader with expertise in strategic operations, employee engagement, and reproductive medicine advocacy. She serves as Treasurer/Secretary of the ASRM Association of Reproductive Managers (ARM) Board, is a member of The Chick Mission Medical Advisory Board, and participates in key ASRM committees. Jennifer has attended Resolve’s Federal Advocacy Day in partnership with ASRM since 2023 and will be a Texas State Captain in 2025.

Capstone Project: “Advocacy Leadership: A Strategic Imperative for Fertility Clinics. Building a Business Case for Formal Advocacy Leadership in Fertility Clinics & Networks”

Chelsea Woody, MMSc, CGC

Ms. Woody is a certified genetic counselor and current executive MBA candidate. She serves as a clinical science specialist at CooperSurgical, where she offers genetics education and support to fertility practices. Her professional interests include patient advocacy, novel modalities of genetic counseling service delivery, and collaboration with non-genetics colleagues.

Capstone Project: “Advocacy in Action: Elevating the Genetic Counselor’s Role”