**WINNER, 2012 WOMEN'S HEALTH FOUNDATION’S "PASSION FOR PELVIC HEALTH" NATIONAL AWARD**

 
Heather Guidone is a dedicated women's health professional with a core focus on female reproductive issues - specifically endometriosis and pelvic pain gynepathologies.  She has served the clinical and consumer health industries for more than two decades in various capacities as a frequent lecturer to advocacy groups, health professionals and students across the United States and Canada, and has contributed content to several prominent books and publications on related health and advanced gynecologic topics.  Ms. Guidone has also been contracted exclusively by one of the country's leading biomedical communications firm for more than a decade as a lead medical writer and consultant on a myriad of professional healthcare modules, wherein she has developed countless endometriosis, gynecologic surgery, reproductive and general women’s health education materials in both the consumer-oriented and professional sectors.  Her work has been featured in innumerable publications and resources ranging from the National Women with Disabilities Task Force to electrosurgical manuals to RedBook Magazine.  Continually striving to promote education and advocacy across the minimally invasive gynecologic surgery (MIGS), pelvic pain and endometriosis arenas, she remains highly active in the Laparoendoscopic surgery, biotech and research communities.

 
Ms. Guidone is perhaps best known for her role with the Center for Endometriosis Care, where she serves as Surgical Program Director.  Responsible since 2005 for education, advocacy and management protocols associated with the Center's surgical excision program, she can often be found in the CEC's operating room, in pre- and post-op holding visiting patients and their families, at various speaking engagements across North America, and anchoring a number of off- and online education and support resources for endometriosis.  She has also held numerous consultancies with many global institutions including international celebrity Padma Lakshmi’s Endometriosis Foundation of America, where she served a three-year term as the EFA’s consulting Director of Education & Research Liaison, AOL Health, Thrive@Health and many others.  She holds a senior voting seat on the Executive Board of Directors of the Endometriosis Research Center, to which she was elected in 1997, and is currently serving out her two-year term as an elected member of the Executive Board of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine’s Women’s Council.

 
She also serves a cross-organizational initiative for the global establishment of multiple ‘Centers of Excellence’ for the research and treatment of endometriosis, and has a committed interest in early intervention among the adolescent pelvic pain population.  To that end, she has taught - and continues to teach - students about endometriosis, ranging from 7th grade to university level and was responsible for the planning and execution of Ms. Lakshmi's School Nursing Education Conference (the first in the country) in October 2011.  She will also serve as an invited presenter at Advanced Learning Institute’s annual industry conference in mid-2012, representing endometriosis for the first time at the event.  A strong advocate for legislative improvement in endometriosis, her testimony concerning dioxin exposure as related to endometriosis was read before the California State Legislature at the invitation of the general Assembly in support of AB2820, a consequential bill calling for the independent investigation of toxins in feminine hygiene products.  She also co-authored the text contained in various endometriosis legislative Awareness Resolutions passed by local and national lawmakers, including House Concurrent Resolution No. 291, a groundbreaking National endometriosis awareness Resolution. The Resolution was unanimously passed by the 107th Congress of the United States, and is the first and only such formal Legislation ever to pass in the United States concerning endometriosis to date. Since that time, the states of New York, Utah, New Mexico, Colorado, Florida, Michigan, California, Wyoming, Pennsylvania and others have also passed one or more subsequent statewide Awareness Resolutions.  In late 2011, she was one of two exclusive invitees to Co-chair and present for the first time on endometriosis in Washington, DC at the annual Women in Government's Health Summit.  This critical event, lauded by state and federal legislators alike, led to the creation of the first-ever “Legislative Toolkit” on the disease, now used by all levels of government.

 Ms. Guidone continues her involvement in, and fostering of, ongoing research efforts ranging from recruitment for trials on proprietary treatments to coordinating genetic research studies and has served as a Clinical Coordinator for industry partners and professional organizations, including the Association of Reproductive Toxicologists.  She is a member of various professional societies related to women’s health and gynecologic surgery, and remains active in a number of professional Special Interest Groups (SIGs) on endometriosis, contraception, the environment and reproduction, imaging in reproductive medicine, nutrition, menopause, pediatric and adolescent gynecology, and female sexuality.  As a women’s health educator, she holds many medical and professional Certifications, including PeriOperative Standards & Recommended Practices and Operating Room Protocols, Health Education, Minimally Invasive Surgery Protocols, Med-Surg, Anatomy & Physiology, Journalism for Business, Healthcare Management and more from such respected institutions as Rutgers University School of Adult Continuing Education, Sacramento State College of Continuing Education and Columbia University School of Professional Continuing Education.

 She has been included in "Who’s Who among American Women" and is a former member of OBGYN.net's Women & Patients Advisory Board, as well as the previous editor of EndoZONE and Endometriosis Pavilion sites. She has also served as a twelve-term judge by invitation for the National Health Information Resource Centers celebrated "World Wide Web Health Awards" Program.  Ms. Guidone is frequently sought after by various media and advocacy groups for her expertise and activism in reproductive health, endometriosis and chronic pelvic pain pathologies, and is routinely invited by others to contribute content, endorsements and forewords to their own publications, including "Coping with Endometriosis" by Glenda Motta, RN, MPH and Robert Phillips, Ph.D., "Living well With Endometriosis" by Kerry-Ann Morris (HarperCollins), the best-selling "Endometriosis: 100 Questions & Answers" by pioneering surgeon David B. Redwine, MD, Dr. Susan Evan’s critically acclaimed “Endometriosis & Other Chronic Pelvic Pain” and most recently, “Healing Painful Sex" by Deborah Coady, MD and Nancy Fish.  Her own "Letter from Survivors," a poignant insight into the life of the endometriosis patient, has received international acclaim and been extensively shared by more than 1.5 million unique sources, both online and off, and was presented on the steps of the Lincoln Monument in Washington, DC at the country’s first national EndoWalk Event.  Additionally, her work concerning healthcare on the Internet was featured in the book, "Real People, Real Stories: How the Internet is Touching Lives."  She has appeared as a guest on many radio shows and media outlets dedicated to women’s health and infertility; most recently “Saturday Mornings with Joy Keys”. Her efforts have been profiled in a number of publications, including Atlanta's high-profile Season Magazine and in late 2010, alongside famed NYC surgeon Tamer Seckin, MD in the Times Herald Record, a division of the Dow Jones Media.

In March 2012, she was chosen by the Office on Women's Health in the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services as their featured “Spotlight on Women’s Health”, and is the proud 2012 Winner of the National Women’s Health Foundation’s “Passion for Pelvic Health” Award, an honor she calls “an acknowledgement of all women and girls with endometriosis who struggle to be heard every day”.

Her passion for women’s health and well-being continues to foster her tireless efforts across the patient support, advocacy and scientific agendas as related to women’s healthcare needs.  From writing substantive educational content to coordinating research studies to lobbying insurance companies for proper coverage of disease treatment, she continues her endeavors to meet the domestic and international demands of the women's reproductive health community across the global sector, collaborating with and contributing to like-minded initiatives in order to promote advances in the “art and science” of the disease.