Teresa K. Woodruff, Ph.D. is a Thomas J. Watkins Professor of Obstetrics & Gynecology at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and Professor of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Cell Biology in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences. She is the Chief of a newly created Division of Fertility Preservation and the Executive Director of the Institute for Women's Health Research. She is the immediate past Director of the Basic Science Programs for the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center (2000-2007). She is the basic science Deputy Editor for Fertility and Sterility (2008- present) and member of several editorial boards including Molecular Cellular Endocrinology, Journal of Molecular Endocrinology and Endocrine Reviews. Her awards include the Distinguished Teaching Award from Northwestern University and the Endocrine Society's Richard E. Weitzman Memorial Award given to an exceptionally promising investigator who has not reached the age of 40 by the time of the award.

Dr. Woodruff has published more than 140 peer-reviewed papers as well as 40 editorials and book chapters. She is the PI on 4 NIH grants as well as PI and director of two NIH funded center grants (The Center for Reproductive Research (U54) and the Oncofertility Consortium (UL1). The major goals of her laboratory are to identify the mechanisms underlying ovarian follicle development, selection and recruitment and to provide new angles on ovarian disease and fertility conserving options for women. Of singular importance, Dr. Woodruff has established a team of oncologists, fertility specialists, social scientists, and education and policy makers to translate this work to women who will lose their fertility due to cancer treatment. She coined the term oncofertility to describe this work, a word that is now officially recognized as a new 'slang' term in the English language. She edited the first book on this topic called Oncofertility (Springer, 2007) where the scope of the problem and current technology, clinical practice tables, procedural guidelines and patient stories are collected. Hallmarks of Woodruff's career includes strong focus in three areas: ovarian biology, interdisciplinary approaches to problems, and application of basic science research from the bench to the bedside.