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The faculty for our programs exemplify the ideal of experienced
practitioner and inspiring instructor. It is equally important to
present comprehensive, valid information and to stimulate dynamic,
creative thinking processes in students. Therefore, individuals who
have both extensive experience in their field of expertise and a
dedication to education and student interaction are invited to join
our team of faculty. Our programs are committed to interactive, experiential
learning as this type of learning is shown to have a more long-lasting
impact on students.
 For
example, in our program for medical students (GMEP),
professional practitioners rotate in as instructors for an average
of two to three days, while we cover a particular subject, such as
homeopathy, nutrition, Ayurveda, etc. They lecture, lead discussions,
and are available to help guide the students through their small
group research exercises, talk one on one, and give feedback on findings
during the large group report session. In addition to the rotating
instructors, we invite a select group of doctors to be part of the
group for several days at a time for the purpose of sharing their
own unique perspective as practicing physicians committed to the
ideals and goals we are establishing through this program. These
physicians serve to guide and mentor the students through their critical
evaluation process as they apply their learning to evidence-based
science in order to integrate the traditional healing practice into
a practical clinical approach to patient care.
(Biosketches listed below)
Richenel "Muz" Ansano, M.A., Interim Executive Director,
Transcultural Healing Perspectives
Evan Buxbaum, M.D. - Environmental Medicine and Ecological Healing
Arti Chandra, M.D., M.P.H. - Nutrition
Walton Deva - Earth-honoring Healing Practices
Jonathan Paul DeVierville, Ph.D. - Healing
Environments, Dreamwork
Lori Fendell, P.A., MPH, Lic.Ac. - Botanical
Medicine, Five Element Acupuncture
Mitch Fleisher, M.D. - Homeopathy
Tom Janisse, MD - The Healing
Power of Story
Ron Kertzner, J.D. - Leadership and Communication Training
Richard Lewis, M.D.
- Environmental Medicine
Holly Lucille N.D., RN - Naturopathic
Medicine
Betsy MacGregor, M.D. - Death
and Dying
Porangui Carvalho McGrew, LMT - Manual Therapies,
Creative Art Therapy
Reenita Malhotra - Ayurvedic Medicine
Jim Oschman, Ph.D. - Energy Medicine
Sylver Quevedo, M.D. - Transcultural
Healing Perspectives
Larry W. Scherwitz, Ph.D. - Lifestyle
Management, Research
Malcolm Smith, M.D. - Homeopathy
Penney Stringer, M.D.
- Nutrition
Star Urmston, LMT, Lic. Ac.
Chill Yee, M.D., Transcultural Healing Perspectives
Outstanding students who have participated
in a Global Medicine Education training retreat are selected to
become Interns in our program, team-teaching and being mentored
by our faculty.
Christa Fagan
Luke Fortney
Jonathan George
Mike Hsu
Sean O'Laoghaire
Rashmi Sudarsanan
Stephen Dahmer
Richenel “Muz” Ansano, MA, was trained as a cultural anthropologist.
He first worked for the cultural ministry of his native island of Curaçao
where he started out coordinating and performing cultural research, and promoting
community cultural development. He also held the post of Director of the Cultural
Ministry. More recently, he was the Associate Director of the John Hope Franklin
Humanities Institute at Duke University, a center promoting interdisciplinary
work in the humanities.
Muz is broadly interested in relationships between
cultures, and in spirituality and healing. He has studied Caribbean
and African religions of possession, and healing practices, as well
as Charismatic healing practices within the Catholic Church. He wants
to promote a better understanding of the ways of medicine and healing
of African descendants in the Americas. He is especially interested
in the cultural adaptations, and practical cultural development.
In this context he did preliminary studies of the healing services
of the Movement for Charismatic Renewal within the Roman Catholic
Church in Curaçao with short comparative observations in Trinidad.
He also did participant observation in Montamentu,
and San Antonio healing sessions
in Curaçao. He worked with and observed spiritual healers
treating patients from their own as well as other cultures. He used
this research base to propose a cultural approach to establishing
Integrated Community Health Care in Curaçao, also including
a section in his proposal for a Curaçaoan cultural policy
on using popular medicine for democratizing health services.
A firm believer in interactive learning methods he
has worked with religious groups, social workers, cultural and community
groups, adult education organizations and others to get to a healing
perspective on culture. With these groups he has looked at ways of
dealing with the disjuncture between health politics and policymaking,
health services, and patients’ own health management. This
includes issues ranging from popular etiology and treatment, to the
relationship between spirituality, and colonial health politics.
An energy healer, he has been exploring ways of bringing
a multiple intelligences perspective to the humanities, as well as
using oral histories, life histories and other qualitative research
tools. He hopes that through these he can help promote a better understanding
of the relationship between spirituality, states of consciousness,
individual health, and community health. back
to top
 is a board certified pediatrician,
practicing most recently at the Alaska Native Medical Center
in Anchorage, Alaska. He graduated from Williams College with
a degree in English Literature, then received his medical training
at Duke University and his pediatric training at the University
of Vermont. He also holds a Masters degree in Epidemiology from
the University of North Carolina, with a concentration in international
healthcare and traditional modalities of healing. An avid outdoorsman
and environmentalist, he holds a particular interest in the interaction
between environment and human health and well-being. Prior to
his career in medicine he spent time as a researcher in the energy
conservation field, a rock-climbing instructor, a wrangler on
a dude ranch, a high school teacher, and a traveler in Eastern
and Central Asia. back
to top
Dr. Arti Chandra has a longstanding interest in complementary approaches to
healing and wellness as well as a commitment to working with underserved and
ethnically diverse populations.
She completed her B.S. in Psychology,
where she wrote a research paper on homeopathy; completed a training
program in and volunteered as a pregnancy counselor and reproductive
health educator; and studied medical anthropology. She then pursued
a master's degree in public health - in the areas of maternal and
child health and international health - to better understand the
social, political, environmental and cultural systems that contribute
to the health of individuals and of populations. The subject of her
Master's thesis was on the health beliefs and practices of Cambodian
refugees in inner city Chicago. She then went on to pursue medical
degree at Loyola School of Medicine near Chicago. While there she
was very active in the American Medical Student Association, serving
as local chapter president for one year and going on to serve as
National Coordinator for the Nutrition and Preventive Medicine Task
Force . She worked very closely for those two years along side the
coordinator of the Humanistic Medicine Task Force, focusing on many
joint projects, including the writing and publication of The Wellness
Guide for Medical Students. This publication, designed to help first
year medical students maintain some sense of emotional, spiritual
and physical balance in their lives as medical students, was for
many years an annual, nationally distributed publication for incoming
students. During medical school, Dr. Chandra also became active with
the American Holistic Medical Association, attending workshops and
conferences to further her knowledge and appreciation for complementary
approaches to healing. Through the AHMA, she was able to arrange
a one month mentoring rotation with Bill Manahan MD, a family physician
with a holistic pracitice in Minnesota.
Dr. Chandra completed her residency in family practice
in Seattle in 1995, where she began working with alternative providers
in the co-management of many of her patients' needs. Subsequently,
she worked as a family physician and faculty member at an inner city
clinic in Chicago for 3 years. She has since returned to Seattle,
where she completed a Faculty Development Fellowship at the University
of Washington and where she is presently providing full spectrum
family practice care to an ethnically diverse patient population.
In her work with lower income, ethnic minority patients, she strives
to integrate a variety of complementary healing approaches for her
patients, and maintains a humanistic and spiritually-oriented practice
style.
back to top
is
the owner of Deva Designs, a design build firm in Hillsborough, NC.
He grew up in a small town in Eastern North Carolina where he spent
most of his free time in the woods. He is degreed in business with
an accounting concentration. Certification as a massage practitioner
and training as an etheric healer led him to operate a massage and
energy practice. He founded and maintained an artist co-op, Everything
in Between, in Raleigh NC. Walton owned and operated a leather craft
design and production business. Through this, he taught leather craft
to inmates in the Federal Prison System in North Carolina.
Since 1984, Walton has studied and practiced
various meditation techniques and related practices such as Christian
mysticism, Native American dance and vision quest, Buddhism, Hinduism,
Tai Qi, Qi Gong, Feng Shui, Findhorn, and Perelandra. His studies
have been primarily on the kinesthetic and experiential levels, with
applications to his daily life. With this practice and experience
he has uncovered and rediscovered his creative nature/nature connection
and has allowed his intuition to blossom. He has been involved in
Native American Healing Circles for many years, founded under the
guidance of teacher/shaman Will Rockingbear. He, his partner, and
community created a sacred fire circle on their land and he hosts
a men’s fire circle most months.
Walton remains a community member involved in the building and maintenance
of Watersong Lodge Peace Chamber. Founded under the guidance and vision of
Joseph Rael, Beautiful Painted Arrow, this is one of more than sixty Peace
Chambers worldwide where people of all faiths gather to pray, chant, do ceremonies,
and spiritual dances for world peace. As a Native American elder, Rael has
been invited to speak before the United Nations on world peace and to address
the Pentagon on the role of the warrior in the modern world. Walton has assisted
others in spiritual quest/connection using ceremonies as the doorway.
For several years Walton has been a healing
practitioner with the Mantra Project, a study being done through
Duke University Hospital Systems to determine the effects of prayer,
healing touch, visualization-imagery, and music when used prior to
and during various medical procedures.
Designing, building, and remodeling homes and landscapes since 1995, he uses
his creative nature/nature connection to listen. He listens to his customers,
their land, and their homes in order to create homes, renovations, and landscapes
that have a connection with nature and are more in balance with the elements,
the environment, and the people that live there.
He continues to deepen this connection by his intention to operate his business
with balance, the sharing of his authentic self, teaching and observing what
he learns, and through his ongoing spiritual and ceremonial practices. back
to top
 , Professor of History, Humanities, Interdisciplinary & Global
Studies, received his Bachelor and Master of Arts
in American Studies from Bowling Green State University, Ohio and
later a Master
of Science
in Social Work from The Worden School of Social Work, Our Lady of
the Lake, University of San Antonio, Texas. Before completing his
formal Ph.D. work and a two volume doctoral dissertation on A
History of American Spas and Healing Waters, with The Department
of American Civilization at the University of Texas, Austin, he attended
the
Universities of Copenhagen and Zurich as well as trained four years
at The C. G. Jung Institute for Analytical Psychology, Zurich and
several years later attended The Sebastian Kneipp School, Bad Wörishofen,
Germany.
His teaching interests and research experience is in American, Western
and World History and Humanities with a special concentration on
Spa Cultures, Civilization and the New Cosmology. Other fields of
interest include natural therapeutic health care systems, spa medicine,
hydrotherapy and balneology which he has taught at the university
and college levels as well as at spas and health resorts in America,
Europe and Asia. Also, he has taught analytical, Jungian and archetypal
psychology and dream work at the graduate school level and community
seminars and workshops.
A Licensed Professional Counselor, Licensed Social Worker - Advance
Clinical Practitioner and Texas Registered Massage Therapist, he
maintains a private practice and personal and corporate consultation
services.
A frequent presenter at The International Spa Association,
The World Congress of Health Resort Medicine and Spa Therapy, and
World Spa
Summits in the America, Europe and Asia, he contributes to The Global
Medicine Education Foundation and Conferences of the International
Society for the Study of Dreams. Recently he was awarded a summer
Fullbright Fellowship for study in China and a summer Ford Foundation
Fellowship to Schumacher College in England. He is a member of The
International Society for the Comparative Study of Civilizations
and The Institute for Noetic Sciences
Currently Director of the Alamo Plaza Spa at the Menger Hotel and
President of The Hot Wells Institute, San Antonio, Texas, he serves
as Secretary of the International Spa Association Foundation and
is a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee for the International
Society of Medical Hydrology and Climatology.
Annually he directs “The Avant-Garde Spa Culture Seminar:
Dream Spa Course, Liquid Sound Workshop & Kur Tour Course® to
Bad Sulza, Germany.
back to top
Lori Fendell, P.A., M.P.H., Lic.Ac., has had a full-time private practice as
a licensed acupuncturist and herbalist since 1991 in Durham, North Carolina.
She has given numerous lectures on acupuncture, integrated medicine and herbs
at Duke/UNC and other university medical schools, the Global Medicine Education Student Program, and the Traditional Acupuncture Institute. For the past seven years,
she has been an active member of the Acupuncture Association of North Carolina.
From 1979 to 1993, Lori held clinical positions as a physician assistant
in primary care, gyn care, ER care, health education, program development,
and nutritional education.
Lori functioned in various capacities – including
clinical monitor, supervisor, project administrator, and participant
- with
the Research Triangle Institute of North Carolina where she was involved
with the NIH International Committee of Opportunistic Infections.
She also performed research at the University of Maryland on the
rotavirus and diarrhea in infants.
For a year, she worked in refugee health care in a
Thai-Cambodian border camp where she functioned as clinical supervisor,
program
developer, and medical trainer for village health care personnel.
While there, she developed a health care manual for community public
health education. back
to top
Dr. Mitch Fleisher is a board-certified family
physician specializing in classical homeopathy, nutritional and
botanical medicine, chelation and bio-oxidative therapy with over
twenty years experience practicing the gentler art and science
of integrative medicine. Dr. Fleisher has served as an active member
of the clinical faculty of the National Center for Homeopathy,
a Clinical Instructor for the University of Virginia Health Sciences
Center and at the Medical College of Virginia, where he has taught
homeopathy in the introductory complementary medicine programs,
and has and continues to lecture throughout the U.S. and internationally
on classical homeopathy and nutritional therapy to both medical
professionals and the lay public. Dr. Fleisher has served on the
faculty of the New England School of Homeopathy and as a Clinical
Preceptor for the esteemed Hahnemann College of Homeopathy, and
is a graduate of both of these homeopathic institutions. He attended
Stanford University School of Medicine, during which time he began
his homeopathic studies in 1975, and he is a former Assistant Clinical
Professor of Family Medicine at the Medical College of Virginia
and former Associate Medical Director of the MCV/Blackstone Family
Practice Residency Training Program, of which he is a graduate.
He is also a former Assistant Clinical Professor of Family Medicine
at the University of Virginia Health Sciences Center and is a Fellow
of the American Academy of Family Physicians, Diplomate of the
American Board of Family Medicine, Diplomate of the American Board
of Homeotherapeutics and Diplomate Candidate of the American Board
of Chelation Therapy. He serves as a professional, integrative
medicine consultant to several major health care institutions and
corporations, as an organizer and participant in integrative medicine
clinical research, as an editorial advisor for several published
texts on homeopathy and nutritional therapy and contributes articles
on homeopathic medicine, nutritional therapy, chelation therapy
and integrative, complementary alternative medicine to medical
journals and popular magazines. Dr. Fleisher is in private practice
in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains in Nellysford, Virginia,
and can be contacted at (434) 361-1896. He may also be reached
via his website, www.alternativemedcare.com,
designed as an international resource for integrative medicine. back
to top
Tom Janisse, MD, MBA is the founding
Editor-in-Chief of The Permanente
Journal and
publisher of The Permanente Press. In
January, 2006 he completed nine years as
Associate Medical Director of Northwest Permanente Medical Group
in Portland, Oregon, where he performed relationship research
on the highest performing physicians on the "Art of Medicine" patient
survey.
His 27 years of clinical practice included Emergency Medicine in
the Sierra Nevada mountains of Northern California, and Anesthesiology
and Chronic Pain Medicine with Kaiser Permanente (KP) in Oregon.
He was founding medical director of the Planetree Patient-Centered
Care Unit at Kaiser Sunnyside Hospital, and was the NWKP sponsor
for the development of the regional Integrative Medicine Clinic.
Tom received a grant from the National Endowment
for the Arts in Literature, and his subsequent literary work included
founding Peninhand
Press in 1977, in Volcano, California, and publishing: short stories--All
Stories, All Kinds; California oral history--The
Argonaut Mine Disaster; and poetry books--the
volcano review1-6, Peninhand, Falstaff
Medical Poetry I and II, and Notes
of a Cornerman. His published works include:
a poem, "Dying Distant," in the New
England Journal of Medicine, and a story, "Bring the Bottles," in the book
Emergency Room: Lives Saved and Lost: Doctors Tell Their Stories.
In 2003 he developed Narrative Medicine workshops
called, "Writing & Telling
Your Clinical Stories to Improve the Art of Medicine," which
he delivers across the country, including at the Institute of Noetic
Sciences' annual meeting in 2005 and Spring Renewal Retreat in 2006.
He published the resultant stories of participants in the "Spirit" section
of The Permanente Journal. His newest book is "Soul of the Healer:
Art & Stories," a full-color collection of the paintings,
drawings, photography, poetry, stories and essays of doctors and
nurses.
back
to top
 Ron partners with individuals and organizations
to create collaborative, learning communities. These communities
foster an environment:
- where individuals contribute their unique perspective
while working together to achieve common goals (collaboration);
- where people increase their capacity to achieve
the results they desire (learning); and
- where people are seen not only for what they can
do but also for who they are (community).
Ron consults with senior leadership teams, conducts
leadership trainings and serves as an executive coach and group facilitator.
He specializes in the skills of conscious leadership, self-awareness,
conflict resolution, masterful conversations and emotional intelligence.
Organizations he has worked with over the past 20 years
include: the Global Medicine Education Foundation, the Rockwood Art
of Leadership Program (a leadership program for social entrepreneurs
and activists), GE Healthcare, the Colorado Trust’s Healthy
Communities Initiative, the Boston Foundation, Lundy Foundation,
the US Congress and the Parliament of the World’s Religions.
Ron graduated from Boston University School of Law
in 1982. In 2005, he was ordained as an interfaith minister with
the OneSpirit Interfaith Seminary in New York. His post-graduate
work also includes negotiation training through the Program on Negotiation
at Harvard Law School, dialogue training through the Dialogue Project
at MIT’s Organizational Learning Center and non-violent communication
with Marshall Rosenberg. He is a certified Shadow Work facilitator.
Shadow Work assists individuals to communicate in healthy, authentic
ways rather than inadvertently creating conflict. back
to top
Over the past 20 years, Dr. Richard Lewis has become a nationally recognized
expert in occupational and environmental health. He received his undergraduate
degree from Stanford University and his medical degree from Case School of Medicine.
He trained in internal medicine and occupational/preventive medicine at the University
of California, San Francisco and is board-certified in both disciplines. Dr.
Lewis has served as corporate health advisor to major Fortune 500 companies,
healthcare institutions, industry associations, labor unions, insurance companies,
and governmental agencies. Dr. Lewis most recently served as the Director of
Employee and Occupational Health at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation. Dr. Lewis
is an author, researcher and lecturer and remains on the teaching faculty at
Case School of Medicine.
Dr. Lewis brings a real world perspective to the work
of GMEF. He has directly participated in evaluations of the immediate
and long-term effects of workplace hazards on employee and community
health. This has ranged from individual clinical assessments to epidemiologic
studies. Dr. Lewis recognizes the profound impact that corporate
and community values play in the recognition and management of industrial
and environmental health concerns, as well as in the general promotion
of employee and public health. Dr. Lewis’ current work is directed
at improving employee health through promotion of healthy, sustainable
business and health organizations. Few physicians can match the diversity
and depth of Dr. Lewis’ experience in these complex areas. back
to top
Dr. Holly Lucille is a licensed Naturopathic Physician graduating form the Southwest
College of Naturopathic Medicine in Tempe, AZ where she received the prestigious “Daphne
Blayden Award” for her “Commitment
to Naturopathic Medicine, academic excellence, compassion, perseverance, a loving
sense of humor and a positive,
supportive outlook”. Holly is the past president of the California
Naturopathic
Doctor’s Association where she worked to ensure the availability of safe
naturopathic health care for all people by spearheading a lobbying effort to
have Naturopathic Doctors licensed in the state of California. She has worked
with the LA Free Clinic providing health education, promotion and prevention
in the public health system and last year was awarded the “SCNM
Legacy
Award” for her “contribution to the
advancement and development
of the field of Naturopathic Medicine". Dr. Lucille is on the clinical
staff
of Renaissance
Malibu, an addiction and recovery center, where she applies the principles of
Naturopathic Medicine to aid people in recovery. She is a member of the Scientific
Advisory Board of both Enzymatic Therapy and Integrative Therapeutics, Inc. and
has a private practice in Los Angeles called Healing From Within Healthcare where
her focus is comprehensive Naturopathic Medicine and individualized care. Dr.
Lucille lectures throughout the nation and has been featured on Lifetime Television
for Women and the Discovery Health Channel as well, been a guest on a number
of radio show speaking on naturopathic medicine. She is the author of Creating
and Maintaining Balance: A Women’s Guide to Safe, Natural, Hormone Health. (IMPAKT
Health, 2004) and recently joined forces with Jon Benson, the author of Fit
Over
Forty to develop “Naturopause” an informational audio
program focusing on nutrition and exercise to optimize normal hormonal transitions
including menopause and andropause. Dr. Lucille has been promoted as an expert
in her field and has a heartfelt passion for the individual wellness of all people.
“I feel if we can all start getting better and really feeling
better, we all will start DOING better and that is what this world
needs right now!” ~HL
Betsy MacGregor has a BA from Wellesley College, an MS in neurosciences from
NYU Graduate School, and an MD from Mount Sinai School of Medicine. An important
part of her education occurred when she took a year's leave of absence from medical
school to care for a dying friend, an experience that taught her enduring lessons
about health and healing beyond what medical school ever could -- lessons about
the power of the human spirit to flourish in spite of critical illness.
Dr. MacGregor’s medical training is in pediatrics,
and for sixteen years she was the Director of Adolescent Medicine
at Beth Israel Medical Center (BIMC) in New York City. In 1992 she
founded and for five years directed the BIMC Pediatric Pain Management
and Comfort Care Program, which brought a mind-body-spirit perspective
to the care of seriously ill children and rigorous medical approaches
to the treatment of their pain. In 1993 she founded the BIMC Program
for Humanistic Health Care, an interdisciplinary program focused
on educating health care professionals about the psychological, social
and spiritual dimensions of health and healing, about alternative
and complementary therapies, and about the central role in health
care of human relationship and caring. Over six years the Program
grew to involve hundreds of BIMC staff in educational activities
and a shared exploration of the heart of healing work, and laid the
foundation from which a clinical/educational/research center for
integrative medicine, the Continuum Center for Health and Healing,
has developed.
In 1998 Dr. MacGregor joined the BIMC Department of
Pain Medicine and Palliative Care. There, as a Soros Faculty Scholar
with the Open Society Institute Project on Death in America, she
conducted a three-year research project on dying and the inner life,
in which people with terminal illness shared the personal experience
of facing their own dying. From this work she came to view illness
and death as profound teachers, offering the possibility of a deeper
understanding of the human potential. She has spoken and taught widely
about the lessons of this project at regional and national conferences,
professional meetings, advocacy groups and other gatherings. In addition,
she has run numerous focus groups, workshops and retreats on exploring
the heart of care giving, learning from life-threatening illness,
caring for the caregivers, and being with dying. Recently, her most
profound learning came from being diagnosed and treated for cancer
-- an experience that gave her an intimate taste of the uncertainty
and preciousness of life and taught her much about how to receive
care as well as give it.
Dr. MacGregor is thankful to be sharing life with her
husband and partner of thirty-four years, Charles Terry, and their
two children, Daniel and Kendra. She and Charles recently left NYC
to begin a new chapter of their lives amidst the natural beauty of
the Pacific Northwest. There Dr. MacGregor is a principal participant
in the design of Enso House, a hospice residence on Whidbey Island,
Washington, emphasizing a spiritual focus for terminal patients and
their caregivers. She is also a consultant to foundations in the
areas of humanistic health care and medical education and provides
guidance to individuals with life-threatening illness and to their
caregivers. back to top
Reared among three cultures, Brazil, Mexico
and the U.S., Porangui was exposed to various traditional forms
of healing and ceremony at an early age.
Drawing from his cross-cultural background, Porangui’s work as an artist
and therapist involve exploring the healing properties of sound & movement
as an integral part of our individual and collective well being.
After nearly a year of studying & traveling in
Beijing, China and Hanoi, Vietnam, Porangui entered Duke University
where he developed an interdisciplinary program of study exploring
the relationship of sound, movement and health entitled, Healing
through Music & Dance: Psychological and Cultural Perspectives. His
major integrated various fields of study ranging from psychoacoustics
to ethnomusicology.
Porangui’s desire to meaningfully connect his
studies with his country of origin led him to conduct independent
research in the Amazon. Involving marginalized youth and the practice
of Capoeira (an Afro-Brazilian folkloric fight-dance) as prevention,
his research revealed that practicing Capoeira improved their sense
of autonomy and self-efficacy. Returning to Duke, Porangui continued
his work exploring the role of sound, movement and ritual while maintaining
a performance schedule as a DJ, dancer and percussionist.
After receiving the John Hope Franklin Student Documentary
Award and a Fine Arts award from Duke, Porangui filmed & produced
a cross-cultural documentary exploring the integrative art of Capoeira.
Serving as an extension of his thesis work on the negotiation of
mind and body through Capoeira, the film led him into the field of
Prevention and Behavioral Health. Porangui has worked with young
adults and children while struggling to understand the impact of
rights of passage, or lack thereof, to adolescents in our urban centers
especially in the areas of substance abuse and suicide. He has also
worked as a consultant to the Regional Behavioral Health Authority
of Maricopa County and contributed to the Arizona State Prevention
Framework.
Porangui integrates his background as a body-worker,
artist, musician and filmmaker in his creative healing work. His
vision promotes resiliency, empowerment and well being drawing
from diverse arts and cultures. Most recently, he has launched
a web based creative firm, solcreation.com that specializes in
new media design and promotes interdisciplinary collaborations
while integrating art and technology to generate social change. back
to top
 the founder of AYOMA, presents her vision
of Ayurveda, India’s 5000-year-old therapeutic lifestyle concept,
through AYOMA. Reenita teaches programs in Ayurvedic Medicine to
medical students at the University of California at San Francisco’s
Osher Center for Integrative Medicine, to healthcare professionals
at Bay Area medical facilities, and is the resident Ayurvedic Clinician
at San Francisco’s premiere center for integrated medicine,
the Institute of Health & Healing, at California Pacific Medical
Center. She has provided Ayurvedic education to the Yoga Journal
conferences, the World Presidents Organization (WPO), and through
various medical practitioners, organizations and conferences in
the U.S. and Europe.
Born and raised in Bombay, India, Reenita grew up with Ayurveda.
While completing her Bachelor of Arts at Williams College in Massachusetts,
she began to appreciate
Ayurveda’s healing powers. She was amazed to find her classmates’ use
of Tylenol as a cure-all. “As a child I had no knowledge about Tylenol.
Whenever I had a cold or a headache my father would apply herbal oils or give
me a breathing exercise that always worked,” she said.
Inspired to gain an intellectual understanding of Ayurveda, Reenita received
her Diploma in Ayurvedic Medicine (Ayur Vaidya Visharad) from Rajkiya Ayurveda & Unani
Parishad. When her husband’s business led them to the Orient, Reenita
began to work with and teach nurse practitioners and midwives about Ayurveda.
In Tokyo, she established the Aromaveda Wellness Center, which stirred the
interest of a Four Seasons health resort in Southeast Asia. When its principal
wanted to explore Ayurveda’s healing properties, they asked Reenita for
demonstration and samples of Ayurveda’s body therapy programs and herbal
products for research.
That invitation led her to internationalize
the packaging of herbs into teas, oil, jams and aromatic inhalers,
which evolved into the creation of AYOMA in 1998. In 1999 it launched
its first system of products and services, which are available at
prestigious spas and wellness centers such as: Institute of Health & Healing,
California Pacific Medical Center, San Francisco, Canyon Ranch, The
Four Seasons resorts, the Peninsula Beverly Hills, The Spa at Torrey
Pines in La Jolla, CA, and Champneys Health Resort in the UK, and
the AYOMA LifeSpa, Hotel Valencia Santana Row, San Jose, CA.
Reenita’s extensive experience
in marketing and education has given her the tools to work tandem
with wellness industry professional to develop a certified course
in Ayurvedic bodywork therapies, accredited by NCTMB (National Council
for Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork). She has also developed an
18 month course in Ayurvedic medicine specifically for medical practitioners
as well as numerous courses for lay people. She provides Ayurvedic
consultations and education at the California Pacific Medical Center’s
Institute of Health & Healing and has written a book titled “Inner
Beauty – Discover natural beauty and well-being with the traditions
of Ayurveda” published by Chronicle Books, January 2005 available
through www.ayoma.com and
through www.amazon.com. back
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Jim Oschman is the award-winning author of Energy Medicine: the scientific
Basis, published in the spring of 2000 by Churchill Livingstone/Harcourt,
Edinburgh. This book is rapidly becoming a classic, as it is giving the most
ardent skeptics a logical and scientifically sound basis for a variety of energetic
approaches to health, including Acupuncture. Recently Elsevier Health Sciences
published Jim’s second book, Energy Medicine in Therapeutics and Human
Performance. This research provides new insights into the ways the body
can function in peak athletic or artistic performances and in profound therapeutic
encounters. Jim lectures widely on the science behind a variety of complementary
and alternative therapies. His research has led to useful insights that can help
all therapists better understand and advance their work and explain it to others.
Jim has both the academic credentials and the background in alternative therapies
to carry out his explorations. He has degrees in Biophysics and Biology from
the University of Pittsburgh. He has worked in major research labs around the
world. His scientific papers have been published in the world's leading journals.
And, to learn about the theories and practices underlying complementary methods,
Jim has both taught and attended classes at various schools around the world,
and experienced a wide range of bodywork techniques. He has also become involved
in the development of cutting-edge medical devices and other applications of
the emerging concepts of energy medicine. Jim is a member of the Scientific Advisory
Board for the National Foundation for Alternative Medicine, and is the recipient
of the Foundation's Founders Award. He has also received a Distinguished Service
Award from the Rolf Institute. back
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Sylver Quevedo, MD, MPH, is the Medical Director of Clinical Programs at the
Osher Center for Integrative Medicine. A board-certified specialist in internal
medicine with a subspecialty in nephrology, Dr. Quevedo is also providing integrative
medicine consultations to patients at the Osher Center's clinical practice. His
interests include quality of life in chronic illness, the interface between spirituality
and medicine and the comparative study of healing traditions.
Dr. Quevedo earned his medical degree at Harvard
Medical School and a masters degree in public health at Harvard's
School of Public Health. His postdoctoral training included family
and community medicine, internal medicine, studies in law and public
policy at Stanford Law School, and a fellowship in nephrology and
medicine at Stanford University Medical Center, where he was a
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholar. As a member of
the Stanford Medical School faculty, he served as Associate Chief
of Nephrology and Medical Director of the Artificial Kidney Center
at the Santa Clara Valley Medical Center. He was also founding
director of the Center for Integrative Medicine at the O'Connor
Hospital in San Jose.
Dr. Quevedo has served on national boards and committees of the American Kidney
Fund, the National Academy of Sciences and the American College of Physicians. back
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 a leader
in the field of behavioral and mind/body medicine, is a research
scientist who has specialized
in mind-body research, lifestyle and its link to preventing and reversing
heart disease, evidence-based Complementary and Alternative Medicine
(CAM) research, and behavioral medicine for more than 25 years. Since
obtaining his doctorate in social psychology from the University
of Texas at Austin, Dr. Scherwitz has worked as director of research
and co-principal investigator with pioneering physician Dean Ornish,
M.D. (author of the New York Times bestsellers Dr. Dean
Ornish's Program for Reversing Heart Disease and Eat More, Weigh
Less) on
well-known lifestyle-change research, which demonstrated heart disease
may be "reversed" with a lifestyle that includes a "no-fat-added" plant-based
diet; stress management; exercise; and group support—without
drugs or surgery.
As co-author of research papers with Dr. Ornish, the results of
this innovative research program and intervention have been published
in prestigious medical journals such as The Lancet, the American
Journal of Cardiology, and the Journal of the American Medical
Association.
It has also been covered in lay publications ranging from The New
York Times and Time Magazine to USA Today and US
News and World Report--as
well as Bill Moyers' PBS documentary, Nova.
Following his research with Dr. Ornish, Dr. Scherwitz was Principal
Investigator on comparable research, i.e., the European Lifestyle
Heart Trial, at two medical clinics in Europe: a 350-bed cardiovascular
clinic in Germany, and a 1,000-bed clinic in Holland. In this capacity,
he trained interdisciplinary medical teams in both Germany and Holland
to administer the Ornish reversal program to heart patients. The
results of this research were published in the European medical journal,
Homeostasis, and other medical publications.
Since returning to the States, Dr. Scherwitz has served as the Director
of Research at California Pacific Medical Center’s Institute
for Health & Healing in San Francisco. In this capacity, he conducted
evidenced-based research on Complementary and Alternative Medicine
(CAM) interventions, ranging from guided imagery and jin shin jyutsu
to hospice care and body work.
As an assistant professor at the University of California
at San Francisco, Dr. Scherwitz oversaw multi-million dollar grants
administered
by the National Institute of Health research, which targeted psychosocial
risk factors and heart disease. He also directed research on major
population research projects that included the national Multiple
Risk Factor Intervention Trial (MRFIT), the Western Collaborative
Group Study (WCGS), and the Coronary Artery Disease Study in Young
Adults (CADSYA).
Prior to his lifestyle- and risk factor-based cardiovascular
research, Dr. Scherwitz pursued innovative behavioral research at
the University
of Wisconsin at Madison, where he discovered self-centeredness
(as measured by excessive use of the pronouns, i.e., “I,” “me,” “my,” and “mine,” as
a risk factor for coronary heart disease. In pursuing this research,
he collaborated with Type A Behavior pioneers and co-founders Ray
Rosenman, M.D. and Meyer Friedman, M.D.
During his career, Dr. Scherwitz has published
more than 75 articles in medical journals on evidence-based CAM,
lifestyle, and behavioral
research in prestigious publications ranging from the Journal
of Personality and Social Psychology to Lancet, the American
Journal of Epidemiology, and Psychosomatic Medicine. Popular publications—ranging
from Newsweek and Psychology Today—have written about his work.
He has contributed to the treatment of heart patients by researching
and practicing in-depth meditation and yoga techniques and teaching
these stress management skills to research participants of the European
Lifestyle Heart Trial. A certified Integral Yoga instructor, Dr.
Scherwitz has been practicing yoga and meditation for more than 25
years.
While in graduate school, Dr. Scherwitz studied psychophysiology
through a fellowship he received from Harvard Medical School. He
also worked as a behavioral observer on underwater research project
in the Virgin Islands. Dr. Scherwitz lives in Northern California
and is married to Deborah Kesten, M.P.H., a nutrition researcher,
educator, award-winning author, and columnist, with a specialty in
Integrative Nutrition. back
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 is
a licensed primary care physician whose sole modality of practice
is classical homeopathy.
Having left a successful screen writing career after years of food
allergies were cured by a single dose of a homeopathic medicine,
Malcolm uses his skills as a videographer to document his work with
homeopathy in a clinical setting. He currently teaches at the Homeopathic
Academy of Southern California, at the National College of Naturopathic
Medicine in Portland, Oregon, and is a core faculty member of the
Global Medicine Education Foundation. He is currently a part of a
government funded study using homeopathy to treat PTSD and is the
founder of The Homeopathic Symposium, (www.homeopathicsymposium.com)
an on-line medical distance learning project utilizing actual patient
video to document and teach the homeopathic treatment of serious
illness.
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Penney Stringer received her Bachelor’s
Degree from Cornell University in Spanish Literature and Biopsychology.
She graduated from Georgetown University Medical School. Here she
was blessed to have as her mentor Dr. James Gordon who is founder
of the Center for Mind Body Medicine in Washington DC. Early on
in her medical school training, she was involved in a project that
paired med students with inner city Hispanic high school kids to
share in the wonder of mind body techniques such as meditation
and journaling, nutrition, and the excitement of science. During
her years at Georgetown she spent as much time as she could at
the Center for Mind Body Medicine. Early in her study of medicine,
she became interested in the healing power of nutrition. During
medical school, she dedicated her electives to working in the public
health settings and participated in the Health Promotion Disease
Prevention project for migrant workers in rural Illinois, setting
up a project to educate migrant workers about the dangers of pesticide
exposure. She expanded her horizons during medical school with
international electives in Honduras and Quito, Ecuador where she
worked in an emergency room and in rural clinics. She attended
a Family Practice Residency through a UC Davis network program
in Martinez California. During residency, she traveled to Senegal
and the Gambia through the Jewish World Service and helped to educate
health care workers and set up free standing clinics in local villages.
Her first job after residency was in the Public Health arena in
Seattle, Washington. The clinic, which was affiliated with Bastyr
University, was a national model for the integration of Western
medicine, naturopathic medicine, and acupuncture within a public
health setting. Here, she worked directly with a naturopathic and
homeopathic physician, an acupuncturist, and an extensive and highly
subsidized natural medicine pharmacy to help her indigent patients.
As she watched the wonderful benefits of acupuncture on her patients,
she decided to study acupuncture at the Northwest Institute of
Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine and completed her studies there
in 2001, later getting trained in Toyohari Acupuncture, a style
of acupuncture practiced mostly by blind practitioners in Japan.
Since residency she has had extensive training in Functional Medicine
through the Institute for Functional Medicine and has taken a very
keen interest in functional endocrinology.
Today she lives in Richland, Washington along
the Columbia River with her husband. Here she co-founded the Center
for Health and Well-Being. Her practice is committed
to integrating functional nutritional and biochemical-based natural therapies
with Western medicine, acupuncture, behavior change models, education, and
mind-body skills groups aimed at harnessing the body’s innate healing capacities.
She believes that self-care and nutrition should form the foundation for all
primary care. She has a deep passion for sharing the joys of nutritional and
functional medicine with her patients and her colleagues. back
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Star Urmston was born and raised in Santa Monica, California,
in the loving
home of two wonderful and artistic parents. She was raised in a world
steeped in art, color, creativity and open mindedness. And she also
was fascinated by the mechanics and health of the body, from her
thirteen
years
as a competitive springboard diver. As a result, she studied both
worlds while receiving her BA at Brown University. She
majored in fine art - specifically photography, competed on the varsity
diving team and
fulfilled
pre-medical requirements while at Brown. Over the summer of her sophomore
year, she was accepted into a surgery observation fellowship at Cedar's
Sinai
Hospital in LA. She was able to shadow anesthesiologists all summer
- observing everything from a child being born to organ
transplant surgeries. She loved the creativity and self introspection/ motivation of the
art world, and the intellect and inquiry and rigor of
the medical world but
found that she could not choose one without the other.
After graduating Brown in 1993, Star traveled in South America for
fourteen
months, seeking clarity. She traveled in Ecuador, Peru, Chile and
Bolivia,
living for a time in a small fishing village in Peru. Toward the
end of her
trip, she received word from home that her grandfather was dying
and
returned to Los Angeles to take care of him in his last months. During
the
time she lived with her grandfather, she began studying Shiatsu massage
at
the Shiatsu School of Santa Monica. She found the clarity that she
had been
seeking- at last finding a way to integrate her love for medicine
and
creativity in the acupuncture/ herbology traditions. She went onto
study
Swedish Massage at the Institute for Psychostructural Balancing in
Los
Angeles and then Polarity Therapy and Craniosacral Unwinding at Polarity
Healing Arts in Topanga, CA.
Star Urmston went on to complete her Master's
Degree in Chinese Medicine at Emperor's College of Chinese
Medicine in 2004. She currently practices Acupuncture, Herbology,
Massage Therapy and Polarity Therapy in her
offices
in Culver City and Los Angeles. Her practice focuses on "energy
medicine."
This is working with, supporting and enhancing life energy through
touch,
through herbs and needles, through relationship and verbal interaction,
through energy balancing and bodywork, etc. She is an ongoing student
of
life energy and the process of lining up with and living in harmony
with the
laws of nature. back
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Dr. Yee completed undergraduate training at Occidental College in
Southern California. He attended medical school at the University
of Nevada School of Medicine and was a member in the first Global
Medicine Education student program. He subsequently completed a residency
in family practice at UC Davis. Along the way, he managed to get
married, have a baby girl, complete his medical acupuncture training
at Helms/UCLA, become board certified with the American Board of
Holistic Medicine, and matriculated into an integrative medicine
fellowship at the University of Arizona. He is currently the medical
director of Native American Health Center in Sacramento. He has special
interest in sports medicine, particularly integrative medicine in
the management of sports related injuries. His future aspirations
include further training in a formal primary care sports medicine
fellowship. back
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|
Walton N. Deva
Betsy MacGregor,
M.D.
Penney
Stringer, MD
Star Urmston
Chill Yee,
M.D.