Mary Lou Ballweg

Who is Mary Lou Ballweg?

Mary Lou Ballweg is the president and executive director of the Endometriosis Association, an organization she cofounded in 1980 that promotes awareness of and education regarding the disease endometriosis. Besides founding and leading the Association, she has overseen the publication of the Association’s three books and its educational materials, an extensive body of literature on the disease, and the development of two million dollars-plus educational awareness campaigns, four public service announcement campaigns, and many other outreach efforts. She is editor of the Association's bimonthly newsletter and has produced numerous articles and chapters for journals, magazines, newsletters, and medical textbooks.

She helped establish the world’s first research registry for endometriosis. She was responsible for a major breakthrough in research in 1992 linking dioxin to endometriosis for the first time, helped develop groundbreaking work on cancer and endometriosis, and has an ongoing collaboration with the National Institutes of Health on research on autoimmune diseases and endometriosis.