Who We Are

INGfertility designs and commercializes products to support fertility.  Our mission is to provide innovative, effective products for trying-to-conceive couples, physicians, veterinarians and animal breeders, in order to optimize reproductive outcomes.

The Management Team

CEO and Co-founder:  Dr. Joanna Ellington

Dr. Ellington has been CEO of INGfertility since its inception in 1994. Dr. Ellington received her Doctor of Veterinary Medicine in 1984 and her PhD from Cornell University in 1990 in Reproductive Physiology. She is also a Board Certified Diplomat of the American College of Theriogenologist (Animal ObGyn).

Dr. Ellington is an internationally recognized scientist in the area of sperm physiology with over 75 publications, working with stallion, bovine, canine and human sperm. Her primary areas of research have been in: sperm storage in the female; how sperm DNA is damaged by assisted reproduction methods or male exposure to medications and toxins; and the role of arabinogalactan in protecting cell function, including that of sperm and embryos.

Dr. Ellington developed the formulation for Pre~Seed® after observing the need for a lubricant designed to optimize sperm function, during her 20 years of federally funded research in male infertility and sperm physiology.

Dr. Ellington has received the prestigious National Institutes of Health’s Physician Scientist Award and First Independent Research in Science Training Award. The NIH also funded INGfertility’s initial work on Pre~Seed® through a small business grant (SBIR).

Her research in male reproductive physiology was honored by the scientific community when she received the internationally recognized Young Andrologist Award in 2003. In 2004, Dr. E was also awarded the Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Tennessee, College of Veterinary Medicine. This award annually recognizes one outstanding alumni from UT Knoxville with regards to public service and impact. She has also held leadership positions in several medical societies, including an Executive Council position in the American Society of Andrology (sperm physiologists).

Vice President:  Dr. G. Dennis Clifton

Dr. Clifton is a pharmacist and a nationally recognized leader in the area of pharmacy education and pharmaceutical research. He received his Bachelor of Pharmacy degree from Oregon State University and his Doctor of Pharmacy degree from the University of Kentucky. He served on the faculty of the University of Kentucky, College of Pharmacy for 12 years and on the faculty of Washington State University for 6 years, where he was Interim Dean of the College and a Department Chair. Dr. Clifton is an active scientist with over 18 years of experience in clinical research. He has authored over 65 peer-reviewed publications in medical and pharmacy journals.

Advisory Board

David Mortimer, Ph.D.

Dr. Mortimer is internationally recognized in the field of sperm biology and reproductive physiology and has worked as an academic and laboratory director in Great Britain, Canada and Australia since the 1970s. He was Scientific Director of Sydney IVF (1991-1999) where he developed many of the standard laboratory systems used currently in human assisted reproduction. He has also been a Clinical Senior Lecturer in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Sydney and, before that, an Associate Professor at the University of Calgary. Dr. Mortimer has twice served as an Advisor to the World Health Organization in updating their manuals for standardizing the diagnosis and management of infertile men. Since 1986 he has worked as a consultant and been involved with product development for many of the leading companies in assisted reproduction technology including, among others, Cook IVF, NidaCon International, Pharmacia (Biomaterials) and Select Medical Systems. He is currently President of Oozoa Biomedical Inc., a Vancouver, Canada based consulting company which provides services to IVF units, product manufacturers and biotechnology groups internationally.

Donald P. Evenson, Ph.D.

Dr. Evenson is a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at South Dakota State University and President and Director of SCSA Diagnostics, Inc. in Brookings, SD. He earned his PhD in Cell and Molecular Biology at the University of Colorado, Boulder, CO. In 1980 he and his colleagues at Sloan Kettering published a cover story in Science on the heterogeneity of chromatin/DNA structure in animal and human sperm as related to fertility potential. Since that time Dr. Evenson together with national and international colleagues have received millions of federal research dollars from all the primary federal granting agencies to validate and use what is now termed the Sperm Chromatin Structure Assay (SCSA) for detection of damaged sperm DNA as related to infertility and toxicology. He has more than 100 manuscripts, as well as numerous abstracts and book chapters published on the role of DNA fragmentation in sperm is a major cause of male sub/infertility even when all the other semen parameters appear normal by standard criteria. The SCSA has recently been deemed in a consensus publication by a panel of worldwide experts on methods to detect sperm DNA damage as the only assay at this time that has the statistically proven capability to be used in clinics for diagnostic and prognostic assessment of potential male sub/infertility due to fragmented DNA. Due to the demand for this assay to be done on clinical specimens, a university affiliated commercial enterprise, SCSA Diagnostics, Inc. has been formed under Dr. Evenson’s direction.

Jean L. Fourcroy, MD, Ph.D., MPH

Dr. Fourcroy received her MD from the Medical College of Pennsylvania and her Ph.D. (Endocrinology/Embryology) from the University of California at San Francisco. Her surgery and urology residencies were completed at George Washington University Medical Center and she received Board Certification in Urology in 1981. In 1999 she received a MPH from the Medical College of Wisconsin. She has served in the Navy as Captain at Bethesda Naval Hospital Urology Department and continues serving with the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences and Walter Reed Army Hospital. She recently retired from the Food and Drug Administration as a Medical Officer. As a Medical Officer she was involved with many aspects of the regulatory process and the development of drugs and devices. She has been an invited participant with the Drug Enforcement Agency in workshops both domestic and international and, currently, is a member of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency. She is an active member of the American Urological Association, the American Society of Andrology, American Medical Association, and Past President of the American Medical Women’s Association. She is the recipient of a 1998 American Urological Association Presidential Citation Award, the Camille Mermod Award from the American Medical Women's Association in 1999, and an Outstanding Service Award from the American Society of Andrology in 2000.

Toni Weschler, MPH