About
Our Mission
The percentage of women suffering from orgasm difficulty has not changed in 50 years (Kontula & Miettinen, 2016) despite improvements in sex education, gender equality and sex therapy. Whether one looks at studies in Finland, Australia, the USA, or Iran, one can find the prevalence of female orgasm difficulty world-wide.
The Female Orgasm Research Institute is building an extensive collection of female orgasm research to be found in one on-line location. By bringing the research into one online portal, we will better be able to see what research has been conducted and what additional research is needed.
We advocate for controversial treatments such as LSD therapy that was scientifically proven in the 1960s to be an effective treatment for women who experienced difficulty orgasming.
Explore Our Resources
Our Leadership Team
Dr. Suzanne Mulvehill
Founder & President
Dr. Suzanne Mulvehill is the Executive Director and Founder of The Female Orgasm Research Institute.
Dr. Mulvehill conducted her dissertation research on evaluating the effects of cannabis on women with and without orgasm difficulty and presented the results, which aligned with 50 years of research showing cannabis helps women orgasm, at the Cannabis Clinical Outcomes Research Conference in Orlando, Florida, in May, 2023, the World Meeting for Sexual Medicine in Dubai in December, 2023, and the European Society for Sexual Medicine in Bari, Italy, in February, 2024.
Dr. Mulvehill, like many women, was affected by orgasm difficulty and the shame associated with it. For more than 30 years, she sought treatment through traditional talk therapy, including sex therapy and cognitive therapy.
To her own surprise, she discovered healing her orgasm difficulty with cannabis. In 2020, Dr. Mulvehill sold her international business to return to school for her PhD in Clinical Sexology to identify proven pathways to female orgasm. She is the author of two business books. Dr. Mulvehill served as an elected official for two terms and led a political action committee for nearly a decade reforming public policy.
Dr. Jordan Tishler
Vice President
Dr. Tishler is a Cannabis Specialist. He is the President and CMO of inhaleMD, a medical practice in Cambridge, MA., specializing in treating male and female sexual dysfunction with cannabis. Dr. Tishler graduated from both Harvard College and Harvard Medical School, trained at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and is faculty at both the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School. He has spent many years working with the underserved, particularly providing care for Veterans. Having treated countless patients harmed by alcohol and drugs, his observation that he had never seen a cannabis overdose led Dr. Tishler to delve deeply into the science of cannabis safety and treatment.
Dr. Tishler is a frequent speaker and author on a variety of topics related to the medical applications of cannabis. He is the President of the Association of Cannabis Specialists which aims to educate clinicians, lawmakers, and the industry about best practices and needed tools for proper patient care.
Kelsey Engvik
Director
Kelsey Engvik supports the mission of the Female Orgasm Research Institute by contributing to its advocacy, research, and policy goals. She works closely with the founder and board leadership on strategic planning, public engagement, and state-level petitioning.
Kelsey also serves as the inaugural Director of the Women’s Cannabis Project, a program of the Female Orgasm Research Institute. In this role, she leads efforts to increase awareness, access, and legitimacy for female orgasmic difficulty (FOD) as a qualifying condition for medical cannabis treatment.
In addition to her work with FORI and WCP, Kelsey serves as the Marketing and Operations Director for the Association of Cannabinoid Specialists, where she collaborates with clinicians, educators, and policy leaders to promote medical cannabinoid access.
Kelsey holds an MBA in Marketing from the University of Massachusetts Lowell.
Dr. Liz Ray
RaySecretary/Treasurer
Dr. Liz Ray holds a Master’s degree in Dance/Movement Therapy and a PhD in Education in arts and curriculum design.
She is a teacher with over 25 years of experience in body-based practices through being a professional dancer, yogi, expressive arts therapist, and academic. Having completed her certificates in Sexological Bodywork, Embodied Sex Coaching, and Consent Education, she is based in Portugal, and works with individuals and couples of all genders in a Lisbon clinic.
Our Board
Angela Huser
Board Member
Angela Huser, formerly Vice President of the Female Orgasm Research Institute, continues to serve in the position as member of the Board as of March 2023. Angela is the owner of angelahuser.com, a coaching and change management company based in Denmark and Switzerland. Her mission in life is moving people. She partners with multinational corporations to support cultural change, innovation and helps build high performing teams. Angela is a sought-after speaker on topics including negotiations, confidence, and networking. Her dedication to female career advancement has been the reason for supporting the Female Orgasm Research Institute from the start. She believes in the importance of women having freedom in the board – as well as the bedroom. Angela holds a BA in Economics from the University of Zurich and an M.Sc. in Managing People, Knowledge, and Change from Lund University.
Dr. Osmo Kontula
Board Member
Dr. Kontula is one of the leading female orgasm researchers. For more than 30 years, Dr. Kontula has served as a research professor specializing in sexology and sexual science and is the author of numerous books, journal articles and poster presentations. Dr. Kontula has worked at the Population Research Institute , Family Federation of Finland and at the Department of Public Health, University of Helsinki. He serves as a Member of the Advisory Committee and Chair of the Sexuality Education Committee for the World Association for Sexual Health.
In Dr. Kontula’s 2016 research, titled, Determinants of Female Sexual Orgasm, that was published in partnership with Dr. Miettinen, revealed that, “The improvements in gender equality and sexual education since the 1970s have not helped women to become more orgasmic. Neither has the major increase in masturbation habits (among women in general).”
Dr. Maureen Whelihan
Board Member
Dr. Whelihan is a board-certified OB/GYN who has practised in Palm Beach County, FL since 1997. She graduated Alpha Omega Alpha from the University of South Florida College of Medicine and completed her residency at the University of Florida – Shands Jacksonville. She practices gynaecology in Lake Worth and is a founding partner in the Center for Sexual Health and Education, which is based in West Palm Beach. The Center for Modern Medicine began in 2018 to certify patients for medical cannabis.
She is the Compliance Chair for Florida Woman Care and sits on the Clinical Governance Board. She is a Past President of the Palm Beach County Medical Society, and the Past President of the Florida OBGYN Society.
Eliane Eggler
Board Member
Eliane Eggler is a lawyer and independent researcher in the fields of parental alcoholism, substance use disorder and the co-occurance of domestic violence, sexual abuse and coercive control.
She graduated from the law school of Zurich University and completed OneTaste’s coaching program on Orgasmic Meditation with a special focus on intimate partnership and sexual trauma. She is a children’s rights defender and custody matter analyst, stressing the correlation between maternal mental health and female orgasm.
Jim Pfaus, PhD
Board Member
Professor Jim Pfaus, PhD, IF, is a basic and preclinical researcher in the neuroscience and psychology of sexual behavior and neuroendocrine function in the Department of Psychology and Life Sciences at Charles University in Prague, and director of research for the Center for Sexual Health and Interventions at the Czech National Institute of Mental Health.
He received his bachelors in Psychology in 1983 from The American University in Washington, DC, then his PhD in Neuroscience in 1990 from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, BC Canada.
Jim’s research uses both rats and humans to understand how the brain and its neurochemical and neuroendocrine systems are organized for basic sexual responses like arousal, desire, sexual pleasure and orgasm, and sexual inhibition and disgust. His work has also shed light on the neural and molecular mechanisms by which conditioned sexual responses potentiate sexual preferences and reproduction, and how they figure in the development of fetishes and paraphilias.
He is the Editor-in-Chief of the journal Current Sexual Health Reports, Associate editor of Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, and Sexual Medicine Reviews, and past Associate editor of the Journal of Sexual Medicine, and sits on the editorial boards of other scientific journals in sexuality, neuroscience, and pharmacology. He is a Fellow and Board member of the International Society for the Study of Women’s Sexual Health and a Past President of the International Academy of Sex Research.
Michael Schwartz, MD
Board Member
Michael Alan Schwartz MD is a psychiatrist based in Weston, Connecticut. In 2018, he retired as Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Joint Professor of Humanities in Medicine at the Texas A&M School of Medicine. Over the past years, he had previously held positions as Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the John A. Burns School of Medicine at the University of Hawaii and at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in Cleveland Ohio where he was Professor and Vice Chair of Education in the Department of Psychiatry as well as Clinical Professor of Psychiatry.
Presently, Dr. Schwartz continues practicing psychiatry as well as writing and editing psychiatric books and articles. His work focuses on advancing pluralistic, person and people-centered approaches to psychiatric assessment, care and treatment. Dr. Schwartz is also one of the founding editors-in-chief of the Journal “Philosophy, Ethics and Humanities in Medicine” and former Associate Editor of the Journal “Philosophy, Psychiatry and Psychology.”
He is a Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association. Since 2013, Dr. Schwartz has served on the Executive Council of the Karl Jaspers Society of North America and since 2019 on the National Advisory Council of the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health.
Dr. Schwartz received his A.B. from Princeton University, his M.D. from Cornell University Medical College, and his training in psychiatry at Cornell’s New Hospital and its NY Hospital- Westchester Division. Dr Schwartz has become a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association. In 1998 he was co-awarded – with his academic colleague Osborne Wiggins – the Dr. Margrit Egnér-Stiftung Foundation Prize from the University of Zurich in Switzerland for “new ideas and exceptional achievements in the field of anthropological and humanistic psychology, including the corresponding branches of philosophy and medicine.” In 2000, he received the Exemplary Psychiatrist Award from NAMI (the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill).