Conference Speakers
Below you can read more about our speakers. The presentation topics are to be added later.
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JANET SMITH, PhD
Professor Smith is the author of Humanae Vitae: A Generation Later and A Right to Privacy. Her volume entitled Self-Gift contains her previously published essays on Humanae Vitae and the thought of John Paul II. She edited Why Humanae Vitae is Right: A Reader; Life Issues, Medical Choices (with Christopher Kaczor); Living the Truth in Love: Pastoral Approaches to Same-Sex Attractions (with R. Paul Check); and Why Humanae Vitae is Still Right, a reader with 21 essays by various authors. More than two million copies of her talk, “Contraception: Why Not” have been distributed. Professor Smith served three terms as a consulter to the Pontifical Council on the Family, and 8 years on the Anglican Roman Catholic International Commission III. She authors a regular column for the National Catholic Register and has appeared on Geraldo, Fox Morning News, CNN International, CNN Newsroom, AlJazeera, and EWTN among others. Professor Smith has received three honorary doctorates and several awards for her scholarship and service. |
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Dr. PAUL CARPENTIER, MD, CFCMC
Medical Director of Gianna Center for Women’s Health and Fertility of Long Island. Affiliated with Catholic Health, Babylon, NY |
In 1989, Dr. Carpentier was one of the first family physicians trained in NaProTECHNOLOGY and was honored with the international AAFCP award for
Outstanding Medical Consultant in Natural Family Planning. He continues to specialize in women’s healthcare and teamed with Catholic Health of Long Island to successfully open the Gianna Center for Women’s Health and Fertility. This highly regarded Center serves women with various reproductive health issues, men with infertility, and persons with chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, and other autoimmune disorders. While in New York, he is contributing to research on chronic pelvic pain, treating PCOS with pioglitazone, and chronic endometritis with Doxycycline. Previously in New England, his practice, In His Image Family Medicine, contributed data to the international NaProTECHNOLOGY Effectiveness Study (iNEST). And with Dr. Mark Rollo and Nurse Barbara Meier, he published a twenty-five-year retrospective clinical study of NaProTECHNOLOGY for the treatment of infertility. Assumption College conferred an Honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters, and the Diocese of Worcester conferred their “Mother Teresa Prolife Award” for his 25 years of promoting pro-life and pro-women efforts throughout New England, and for providing authentically Catholic women’s healthcare in Massachusetts. He is a Fellow of the National Catholic Bioethics Center and serves on the Healthcare Policy Committee of the Catholic Medical Association. He recently served 12 years as a Trustee of the International Institute for Restorative Reproductive Medicine and previously served as President of the American Academy of FertilityCare Professionals. As a graduate of St. Louis University School of Medicine with honors in High-Risk Obstetrics and Medical Ethics, the University of Massachusetts Family Medicine Residency, and Brandeis University Physician Leadership in Healthcare Reform, he contends that NaProTechnology, and the excellent preconception care that it encompasses, can do much to help couples achieve healthy pregnancy, improve fetal development, and reduce costs of obstetrical and newborn care. |
Mrs. KATHY RIVET BS, CFCP, CFCE
Manchester, NH
Began teaching Natural Family Planning in 1973 and attended the first Teacher Education
Program for the Creighton Model FertilityCareTM System in 1978. Since then, she has
devoted more than five decades to educating Practitioners and Educators and serving
families through FertilityCare and NaProTechnology.
She directed two hospital-based Creighton Model FertilityCare programs at Catholic
Medical Center in Manchester, New Hampshire, and St. Joseph Hospital in Nashua, New
Hampshire. She has served on the faculty of the St. Paul VI Institute since 1980. From 1999
to 2024, she directed Marguerite d'Youville FertilityCare Practitioner Education Program.
In addition to her professional accomplishments, she is the wife of Joe, the mother of four
children, grandmother of thirteen, and great-grandmother of three. Her lifelong
dedication to education, family, and women's health has made a lasting impact on
generations of practitioners and the families they serve
Manchester, NH
Began teaching Natural Family Planning in 1973 and attended the first Teacher Education
Program for the Creighton Model FertilityCareTM System in 1978. Since then, she has
devoted more than five decades to educating Practitioners and Educators and serving
families through FertilityCare and NaProTechnology.
She directed two hospital-based Creighton Model FertilityCare programs at Catholic
Medical Center in Manchester, New Hampshire, and St. Joseph Hospital in Nashua, New
Hampshire. She has served on the faculty of the St. Paul VI Institute since 1980. From 1999
to 2024, she directed Marguerite d'Youville FertilityCare Practitioner Education Program.
In addition to her professional accomplishments, she is the wife of Joe, the mother of four
children, grandmother of thirteen, and great-grandmother of three. Her lifelong
dedication to education, family, and women's health has made a lasting impact on
generations of practitioners and the families they serve
Dr. SHIRLEY GONZALEZ, MD, CFCP, CFCMC
Dr. Shirley González is a board-certified pediatrician, obesity medicine specialist, Certified FertilityCare™ Practitioner, and Certified FertilityCare™ Consultant at Newton Pediatrics. She is passionate about adolescent health, menstrual cycle disorders, obesity prevention, and medical education. Dr. González founded the TEEEN® (Teen Empowerment, Exercise, Education, and Nutrition) Program, a family-based pediatric obesity intervention that has demonstrated statistically significant improvements in BMI, nutrition knowledge, health-related quality of life, and parent health behaviors. She has conducted research in pediatric obesity, menstrual cycle disorders, motivational interviewing, health-related quality of life, medical education, and interprofessional education, presenting her work at national meetings. A Harvard Macy Institute Scholar, she developed an interprofessional education initiative focused on teamwork, communication, and patient-centered care. She also founded the Medical Career Scholars (MCS) Program and the Medical Interest Group (MIG), which mentor students interested in healthcare careers. Dr. González is the recipient of multiple awards, including the Boston Business Journal Champion in Health Care Award and the Tisch College and Tufts University School of Medicine Community Learning Faculty Award. Her approach to medicine emphasizes empowering patients and families, identifying the underlying causes of symptoms through thoughtful differential diagnosis, and restoring health so that children and adolescents can flourish and reach their full potential.
Dr. Shirley González is a board-certified pediatrician, obesity medicine specialist, Certified FertilityCare™ Practitioner, and Certified FertilityCare™ Consultant at Newton Pediatrics. She is passionate about adolescent health, menstrual cycle disorders, obesity prevention, and medical education. Dr. González founded the TEEEN® (Teen Empowerment, Exercise, Education, and Nutrition) Program, a family-based pediatric obesity intervention that has demonstrated statistically significant improvements in BMI, nutrition knowledge, health-related quality of life, and parent health behaviors. She has conducted research in pediatric obesity, menstrual cycle disorders, motivational interviewing, health-related quality of life, medical education, and interprofessional education, presenting her work at national meetings. A Harvard Macy Institute Scholar, she developed an interprofessional education initiative focused on teamwork, communication, and patient-centered care. She also founded the Medical Career Scholars (MCS) Program and the Medical Interest Group (MIG), which mentor students interested in healthcare careers. Dr. González is the recipient of multiple awards, including the Boston Business Journal Champion in Health Care Award and the Tisch College and Tufts University School of Medicine Community Learning Faculty Award. Her approach to medicine emphasizes empowering patients and families, identifying the underlying causes of symptoms through thoughtful differential diagnosis, and restoring health so that children and adolescents can flourish and reach their full potential.
Dr. DAMIAN OLSEN MD, CFCMC
