In this episode, Dr. Baron sits down with Shari Ungerleider, Senior Manager and Head of Education and Outreach for jscreen, to share her journey as a mother to her son Evan, who was diagnosed with Tay-Sachs disease. Her story illuminates the power of love, resilience, and the importance of genetic awareness and education.

Shari shares the story of her son life, from missed milestones to his diagnosis at 13 months old. Following expert advice, they pivoted from chasing experimental cures to creating a lifetime of memories, focusing on comfort and love. She discusses the emotions that go alongside a diagnosis, the choices around family planning, and how she turned loss into advocacy and education to help others.

If you are navigating the realities of medical diagnoses or carrying the memory of a child who has passed, this episode is for you.

About Shari Ungerleider:

Shari Ungerleider is a Senior Manager and Head of Education and Outreach for jscreen, a non-profit organization dedicated to saving lives through genetic screening and education. In this role, Shari partners with educational institutions, religious and community organizations and advocacy groups to provide education programs and screening events. She presents programs and shares her story to show the impact that genetic testing and counseling can have on family planning.

Shari, along with her husband Jeff and father Stanley Michelman founded the Evan Lee Ungerleider Foundation when her son was diagnosed with Tay-Sachs disease. This foundation is part of the National Tay-Sachs and Allied Diseases Association, where she is a past president and served on the board for over 20 years. Shari has four children, Evan (mentioned above), Justin, Leigh and Sydney. She lives in Wayne, NJ with her family.

As a result of Evan's illness, Shari became an advocate to educate and raise awareness about the importance of carrier screening coupled with genetic counseling. She turned her family's tragedy into something positive so that others would be spared the suffering they experienced. Shari's life mission for over 25 years has been to educate and outreach about the importance of genetic screening coupled with genetic counseling.

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In this episode, Dr. Baron sits down with Lauren Makler, CEO and co-founder of Cofertility, to discuss her profound journey navigating a sudden medical diagnosis and how it changed her perspective on family building. This honest conversation explores the intense intersection of medical trauma, the desire to become a parent, and finding agency when life feels out of control.

At 29 years old, Lauren's life shifted instantly when she received a diagnosis of a rare disease called multicystic peritoneal mesothelioma. Facing multiple surgeries and the very real possibility of losing her ovaries, her diagnosis led her to look into egg donation.

This personal journey opened her eyes to gaps in the fertility industry and ultimately inspired Lauren to co-found Cofertility, reshaping the donor conception landscape to help others safely navigate their own unique paths to parenthood.

If you're navigating a medical diagnosis or holding on to hope while facing the road to parenthood, this episode is for you.

About Lauren Makler:

Lauren Makler is the Co-Founder and CEO of Cofertility, a human-first fertility ecosystem that helps women freeze their eggs for free when donating half, making egg donation less transactional and egg freezing more accessible. Named one of Inc's 2025 Female Founder 500 and Fast Company's 2023 Most Creative People in Business, and featured in top press outlets including Vogue, Forbes, Entrepreneur, Marie Claire, Women's Health, and many more, Lauren is recognized for her innovative approach to increasing accessibility and driving systemic change in healthcare. She's shared her insights on these topics—ranging from healthcare equity to innovation in fertility—at high-profile events including the Hello Sunshine Shine Away summit, HLTH, Harvard Business School, and other leading conferences and institutions.

Previously, as an early Uber employee, she founded Uber Health, leveraging Uber's vast driver network to improve healthcare outcomes through patient transportation and healthcare delivery. Under her leadership, the business helped millions of patients access the care they needed. Before that, she played a key role in expanding Uber's core business along the East Coast and led the company's first healthcare initiative—nationwide, on-demand flu shot campaigns.

After receiving a rare disease diagnosis, Lauren's personal fertility journey inspired her to create a more accessible, empowering path for those looking to freeze their eggs or find an egg donor. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and their miracle babies, Eden and Jonah.

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In this episode, Dr. Baron sits down with Rabbi Daniel Fellman, Senior Rabbi of Temple Sinai in Pittsburgh, to discuss his deeply personal experience with loss and fertility challenges. Recorded live in Pittsburgh, this raw and honest conversation explores the unique intersection of communal religious leadership and private grief.

Rabbi Fellman shares the story of his and his wife Melissa's fertility journey, navigating a polycystic ovarian syndrome diagnosis, and the heartbreaking loss of one of their fraternal twins at 22 weeks. He describes the painful medical and halakhic choices they faced, the profound "black hole" in Jewish law regarding early infant loss, and how they ultimately managed to save their surviving son, Zach, through an emergency cervical cerclage.

The conversation explores the heavy burden of compartmentalizing personal trauma while serving a congregation through their own seasons of grief and joy. Rabbi Fellman opens up about his private moments of wrestling and "rebelling" against God, his family's subsequent experiences with a second trimester miscarriage and raising a child with special needs, and how these collective scars have shaped his life.

If you are trying to understand how to hold faith alongside profound loss, or navigating the complicated emotions of pregnancy after loss, this episode is for you.

About Rabbi Fellman:

Rabbi Daniel J. Fellman, a native of Omaha, Nebraska, serves as the Senior Rabbi of Temple Sinai. Before joining Temple Sinai in 2021, Rabbi Fellman served as Rabbi at Temple Concord in Syracuse, New York, for 12 years and as Assistant and Associate Rabbi at Ashe Emeth Memorial Temple in New Brunswick, New Jersey, for four years.

Rabbi Fellman earned his Master's Degree in Hebrew Letters in 2004 and was ordained by the Hebrew Union College—Jewish Institute of Religion in 2005. His thesis, "An American Friendship: Harry Truman, Eddie Jacobson and the Establishment of the State of Israel," explored the extraordinary friendship of two Americans and the role that relationship played in America's early support for Israel. Rabbi Fellman is a 1996 graduate of Colorado College, where he earned his BA in Political Science and earned the Abel Greg and Lucy Finney Award for religious leadership on campus.

In addition to his congregational duties, Rabbi Fellman was named one of the "40 under 40" in Syracuse, served as the chair of the Roundtable of Faith Leaders, and received the Interfaith Leadership Award for his work building civil society. Rabbi Fellman was a Clal Rabbis Without Borders Fellow and is currently a fellow with the Institute for Jewish Spirituality.

Rabbi Fellman served as the Jewish Chaplain at Syracuse University for two years, and spent three years as an adjunct instructor at the State University of New York at Cortland where he taught Jewish studies. He resuscitated the Syracuse Board of Rabbis and was an active presence in Jewish community building. He is an Eagle Scout, and was a founder of the Hillel at Colorado College.

Rabbi Fellman and his wife Melissa are the parents of three children—Zachary, Jacob, and Elizabeth

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