Marleen Vallinga graduated as an MD in the Netherlands in 2014. After a couple years of residency in urology she decided to change her career path. In 2021 she started her PhD project in Amsterdam together with Pip Roijer. Together they are the daily coordinators of this project, where Marleen focusses on the feminizing genital gender COS. The second part of her PhD concerns the pedicled peritoneum vaginoplasty, hoping to improve quality of care for individuals who are not eligible for standard vaginoplasty or in need of revision. Next to research, she is passionate about sexology and is in training to be a sexologist at Rino-groep in Utrecht.

Pip Roijer started as a PhD researcher in 2021 after graduating from medical school. During her studies she already had a special interest in gender surgery. This has continued to increase and now, together with Marleen, she is responsible for the day-to-day coordination of this research project. Her focus is mainly on the development of the COS for masculinizing genital gender surgery. She is also working on the development of a framework of standards for gender surgery, so that the quality and safety of surgical care can be guaranteed in the Netherlands.

Matteo Angelini is a PhD researcher in the Department of Plastic, Reconstructive and Hand Surgery at Amsterdam UMC and a medical student at San Raffaele University and Hospital in Milan. He first joined the team in 2023 for a clinical and research internship, driven by a desire to learn more about gender-affirming surgery. During this time, he developed a particular interest in genital gender-affirming surgery (gGAS). Matteo is currently contributing to the GenderCOS project, particularly in the development of outcome measurement instruments (OMIs) and timing of assessment for the core outcome sets. His long-term goal is to train as a gender-affirming surgeon, combining clinical care with research to improve outcomes and equity in transgender healthcare.

Alex Bakker (1968) is an historian and writer who also works as a researcher for documentaries and exhibitions. In 2014 he published his autobiographical novel about his transgender background ‘My untrue past’. Bakker specializes in Dutch transgender history and wrote the first book about it: 'Transgender in Nederland. Een buitengewone geschiedenis' (Boom Uitgevers, 2018), followed by ‘The Dutch Approach. Fifty years of transgender health care at the VU Amsterdam gender clinic’ (Boom Uitgevers, 2021). He is co-author of ‘Others of My Kind: Transatlantic Transgender Histories’ (University of Calgary Press, 2020) that was awarded 2021 Choice Outstanding Academic Title.

(Picture by Marc Driessen)

Dr Bouman is a transgender health specialist working at the Nottingham Centre for Transgender Health and honorary Professor at the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom. His clinical work and practice focus on hormone prescribing and providing psychological support for transgender and gender diverse patients seeking gender affirming medical interventions. He has a particular interest in the aging population. Currently, Dr Bouman serves the World Professional Association of Transgender Health (WPATH) as its President. He is also Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Transgender Health.

Tom is a United Kingdom National Health Service plastic surgery registrar with an emerging sub-speciality interest in gender affirmation surgery of the face, chest and genitals. Tom has a passionate interest in outcomes-based research and believes data driven surgical care can drive improvements in care quality. Tom is a provisional member of the British Association of Gender Identity Specialists and enjoys teaching and training healthcare providers in the provision of transgender and gender diverse patient care.

Dr. Shane Morrison is a plastic surgeon with specialized training in gender affirmation surgery at the University of Washington and Seattle Children’s Hospital. Prior to medical school, he conducted research in Switzerland as a Fulbright Scholar. During medical school at Stanford, he spent time as a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Medical Research Fellow and worked on healthcare policy in Kosovo as a Boren Fellow. He completed his plastic surgery residency at the University of Washington and did further specialized training in gender affirmation surgery at the University of Michigan and Ghent University Hospital in Belgium.

Dr. Mark-Bram Bouman has been working as a reconstructive gender surgeon in the Amsterdam University Medical Center (UMC) since 2003. He believes gender care should be easy accessible and open minded, where an open conversation about expectations and mutual respect is crucial. Dr. Bouman defended his PhD thesis on total laparoscopic vaginoplasty in 2016 and is currently supervising multiple research projects in the Amsterdam UMC. He has been appointed professor in plastic surgery and is currently head of department of the plastic, reconstructive and hand surgery department of the Amsterdam UMC. By combining research and clinical practice he aims to make best quality gender surgery and care accessible to those who need it.

Dr. Margriet Mullender is a professor at the Department of Plastic, Reconstructive and Hand Surgery at the Amsterdam UMC. She received her PhD in Medicine in 1997, and since 2010 she works in the field of plastic surgery. She heads a group of dedicated researchers who focus on various aspects of transgender care.

The development, implementation and evaluation of "patient centered" care strategies is a central theme. In all studies, the experiences of transgender and gender diverse individuals as well as experiences of care providers play an important and central role. We strive to optimize patient care using modern tools and applications. The practical implementation and evaluation of these innovations, involving all stakeholders is explicitly a part of our research strategies. These new developments are assessed on the basis of their value for the target population, and their usefulness for healthcare providers.

Javier Belinky was born in Buenos Aires in 1976. He graduated with honour at the School of Medicine of Buenos Aires University and was trained as a urologist. He works as a genital reconstructive urologist and gender surgeon in public and private practice.

Javier is a member of the Argentinian Society of Urology, American Confederation of Urology, World Professional association for Transgender Health (WPATH) and the American Urological Association. He is on the board of the Argentinian Society of Urology and WPATH and was a local chair member of the WPATH Symposium 2018. He is in charge of the guideline chapter about reconstructive surgery of the American Urological Confederation. Furthermore, Javier has published multiple national and international articles on gender health.

James Bellringer trained as a Urologist in the UK. In 2000 he took up the opportunity to train in vaginoplasty at Charing Cross Hospital with Mr. Mike Royle, where he worked till 2014. After leaving there, he went to Parkside Hospital in London, where he now performs around 200 feminising operations annually. He recently accepted the post of Honorary Consultant at St. George’s Hospital in London, to support the new gender service there. In addition to working in the UK, he has been a visiting surgeon in Göteborg, Stockholm, Linskoping, Amsterdam and Bordeaux.

Aline Ceulemans is a Resident Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at the Ghent University Hospital. After spending two years of general surgery training in ETZ Elisabeth Tilburg and a year as a resident plastic surgery in AZ Groeninge Kortrijk, she has returned to UZ Ghent for the remainder of her training. Here she will have the opportunity to increase her knowledge and expertise on transgender surgery, learning from some of the best in the field, Prof. Dr. Monstrey and Prof. Dr. Buncamper.

Professor Buncamper graduated from Maastricht University and gained a broad knowledge in the field of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery through his work at the Department of Plastic Surgery in UZ Gent, Erasmus Medical Center Rotterdam, Velthuis Kliniek, VUmc Amsterdam and many international fellowships. Currently he is working at UZ Gent where his focus lies in gender affirming surgery (top-surgery, phalloplasty and vaginoplasty) and genital reconstructive surgery.

Dr. Tim van de Grift is a psychiatrist-sexologist and assistant professor at Amsterdam UMC with extensive experience in gender-affirming healthcare and research. His work focuses on psychosexual outcomes and decision-making across the spectrum of medical transition. Within the GenderCOS project, Tim contributes his expertise in patient-reported outcomes, rigorous research methodology, and interdisciplinary collaboration to help advance the quality and relevance of gender-affirming surgical care and research.