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ABC Welcomes New Advisory Board Members
(AUSTIN, Texas, Feb. 28, 2013) The American Botanical Council (ABC)
announces the addition of 17 new members to its Advisory Board. These esteemed
individuals — with diverse academic backgrounds ranging from analytical
chemistry, oncology, and pharmacognosy to environmental science, aromatherapy,
and Traditional Chinese Medicine — are committed to promoting healthier living
through herbal and plant-based medicine. Advisory Board members volunteer their
time to peer review articles that appear in HerbalGram,
HerbalEGram, HerbClips, and various ABC publications. Additionally, HerbalGram editors
seek feedback and advice from Advisory Board members on issues such as research
questions, article ideas, ABC policies, book reviews, and much more.
The new Advisory Board members include an oncologist, a cardiologist, an
endocrinologist, a dermatologist, a nurse/aromatherapist, a nutritionist, a
doctor of acupuncture and oriental medicine, a mycologist, a geneticist, two
pharmacognosists, two family practice physicians, two natural product chemists,
and two environmentalists.
“We are deeply grateful to include these experts on the ABC Advisory Board,”
said ABC Founder and Executive Director Mark Blumenthal. “For many of these
individuals, receiving official ABC Advisory Board status simply formalizes an
already established, long-term relationship in which many of these friends and
colleagues have been contributing their time and expertise to ABC and many of
its publications as expert peer reviewers. The wide spectrum of scientific and
clinical expertise held by these individuals as a group reflects the increasing
complexity and sophistication of the modern herbal movement and of ABC’s vital
nonprofit educational mission.”
Following are the names and brief bio-sketches of the new ABC Advisory Board
members.
Donald I. Abrams, MD, is chief of the
Hematology-Oncology Division at San Francisco General Hospital, an integrative
oncologist at the University of California – San Francisco (UCSF) Osher Center
for Integrative Medicine, and a professor of clinical medicine at UCSF. A
graduate of Brown University and Stanford University College of Medicine, Dr.
Abrams worked in a UCSF retrovirology laboratory when the first cases of
AIDS were being diagnosed. His current research, some of which is supported by
grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), involves cancer,
nutrition, and HIV/AIDS. Dr. Abrams is a member of the American Medical
Association, the Society for Integrative Oncology, and a member and past
president of the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association. Currently, he is involved
with clinical investigations in integrative oncology with specific interests in
medicinal mushrooms, cannabis, Traditional Chinese Medicine interventions, and
nutrition. He co-edited an Oxford University Press textbook, Integrative
Oncology (2009), with Andrew Weil, MD, and serves on the editorial
boards of the Journal of AIDS, Integrative Medicine Insights, and as
the associate editor of The Journal of the Society of Integrative Oncology.
Gary N. Asher, MD, is an assistant professor in the
University of North Carolina (UNC) School of Medicine’s Department of Family
Medicine, medical director of Integrative Medicine Services at UNC’s Lineberger
Comprehensive Cancer Support Program, and a practitioner of medical acupuncture
at UNC’s Family Medicine Acupuncture Clinic. A graduate of Columbia University
and Ben Gurion University in Israel, Dr. Asher also has a Master of Public
Health degree with a focus in health care and prevention from UNC. He has over
15 years of experience working with botanical medicines, including clinical
training and practice, and gained manufacturing and quality control experience
within the herbal industry during his time as a lab manager for several small
companies. His postdoctoral fellowship at UNC included training in
complementary and alternative medicine clinical research and clinical pharmacology.
Dr. Asher is a member of the Society for Integrative Oncology, the American
Academy of Medical Acupuncture, and the American Society for Clinical
Pharmacology and Therapeutics. He is currently conducting two clinical trials
with curcumin, a component of turmeric (Curcuma longa).
Robert Alan Bonakdar, MD, has served as the director
of pain management at Scripps Center for Integrative Medicine since 2002. Dr.
Bonakdar focuses on herbal medicine and natural product therapies in
integrative family medicine, particularly for chronic pain conditions. A member
of several conventional and integrative medical associations, he likewise
serves as a peer reviewer for a variety of medical journals, including American
Family Physician and the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine.
He also sits on the boards and committees of several foundations and groups,
including his current position as president of the American Academy of Pain
Management. Dr. Bonakdar authors and edits many chapters and articles on
integrative medicine, and was editor of The H.E.R.B.A.L. Guide: Dietary Supplement
Resources for the Clinician (Lippincott Williams & Wilkins,
2010). In 2004, he co-founded the renowned Scripps conference “Natural
Supplements: An Evidence-Based Update,” which he still co-directs.
Nancy Booth, PhD, currently works for Spherix Health
Sciences Consulting as a senior science consultant. In that role, she counsels
clients on product safety and regulation. Her specialties include the areas of
dietary supplements, food ingredients, pharmacognosy, analytical method
development, chemistry, and biochemistry. Dr. Booth earned her doctorate in
pharmacognosy from the esteemed College of Pharmacy at the University of
Illinois – Chicago, and conducted her postdoctoral research on botanical dietary
supplements through a fellowship from NIH. Dr. Booth is also a member of the
American Chemical Society, the Institute for Food Technologists, the American
Society of Pharmacognosy, and the Chemical Consultants Network. She is an
American College of Nutrition Fellow.
Deni Bown serves as project manager of the
International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) Forest Project in
Ibadan, Nigeria. Her responsibilities comprise environmental education,
reforestation, natural resource management, and biodiversity monitoring, in
addition to the management of IITA’s Nursery and Medicinal Plant Garden. Bown
is the author of several books, including the Herb Society of America’s Encyclopedia
of Herbs & Their Uses (1995), and has been a recipient of the
British Broadcasting Corporation’s Wildlife Photographer of the Year award in
the plants category. She has chaired the UK’s Herb Society, served as regional
chair of the UK’s Plant Heritage, and was the honorary president of the Herb
Society of America. At present, Bown consults for Lagos State Urban Forest in
Nigeria.
Jane Buckle, RN, PhD, a registered critical care
nurse, specializes in holistic therapies for the nursing profession. Through
her consulting firm, R.J. Buckle Associates, LLC, many scholarly journal articles,
mainstream media stories, and two aromatherapy books — Clinical
Aromatherapy in Nursing (Arnold Publishers, 1997) and Clinical
Aromatherapy: Essential Oils in Practice (Churchill Livingstone,
2003) — Dr. Buckle has taught thousands of nurses and other healthcare
practitioners the benefits of integrating essential oils into patient
treatment. She created the United States’ first clinical aromatherapy course
for nurses, has lectured on complementary medicine at the University of West
London, and currently serves on the editorial boards of several peer-reviewed
journals. In 1994, Dr. Buckle patented her own gentle, structured touch method,
known as the “M” Technique. She received her PhD in health service management
and a post-doctorate diploma in biostatistics and epidemiology as an NIH-funded
Complementary and Alternative Medicine Research Fellow at the University of
Pennsylvania.
Alan M. Dattner, MD, is a pioneer in holistic
dermatology, a field that integrates nutrition, skin care, and natural
products. He has served as a clinical cancer fellow at Albert Einstein College
of Medicine, a fellow of the American Academy of Dermatology (AAD), and as a
visiting scientist in the dermatology branch of the National Cancer Institute,
where he discovered important links between environmental factors and
inflammatory diseases. Dr. Dattner graduated from the University of Rochester
and obtained his medical degree from New York University, and was a founding
member of the AAD’s Task Force for Nutrition and the Evaluation of Alternative
Medicine. He lectures and writes on holistic dermatology topics, operates a
clinical practice in New Rochelle, New York, and also sees patients at the
Healthy Tao Center for Wellbeing in Manhattan.
Stefan Gafner, PhD, is the director of analytical
chemistry at Tom’s of Maine, where he focuses on quality control of botanical
raw materials and finished products, as well as plant metabolites with
antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties for applications in oral and
personal care. After graduating with a BSc in pharmacy from the University of
Bern’s Institute of Pharmacy in 1992 and a PhD in pharmaceutical sciences from
the University of Lausanne in 1997 — both located in Switzerland — Dr. Gafner
moved to the United States for his postdoctoral work on plant-based cancer
chemopreventative agents at the University of Illinois – Chicago. Dr. Gafner is
a member of the American Society of Pharmacognosy, the Society for Medicinal
Plant Research (GA), and the Phytochemical Society of Europe. He also serves on
the editorial board of Natural Products Against Cancer and is
a reviewer for the Journal of Natural Products, Phytochemistry,
and Planta Medica. To date, Dr. Gafner has co-authored more than
30 peer-reviewed publications and book chapters and has been awarded three
patents.
Frank L. Greenway, MD, is the medical director and a
professor at Louisiana State University’s (LSU) Pennington Biomedical Research
Center, a clinical professor of medicine in the Department of Medicine at the
State University Medical Center in New Orleans, and an adjunct professor in
LSU’s Human Ecology Department. Dr. Greenway is a graduate of the University of
California – Los Angeles School of Medicine and Stanford University, and served
as a major in the US Army National Guard’s Medical Corps. He is currently a
member of the International Association for the Study of Obesity, the American
Society for Nutritional Sciences, and the American Association of Clinical
Endocrinologists. Dr. Greenway’s current research involves health outcomes of
weight loss, diabetes prevention, resveratrol treatment on insulin sensitivity,
and vitamin D for type 2 diabetes. He has authored more than 150 articles in
peer-reviewed journals.
Mimi Guarneri, MD, founded the Scripps Center for
Integrative Medicine in La Jolla, California, where she served as medical
director from 1999 to 2012 and thereon as senior consultant in integrative
medicine. Dr. Guarneri — who is board-certified in cardiology, holistic
medicine, internal medicine, and nuclear medicine — earned her doctoral degree
from the State University of New York Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn.
Currently, Dr. Guarneri is an assistant clinical professor in the Department of
Medicine at the University of California – San Diego, as well as director of
the Integrative Cardiology Fellowship at Scripps Center for Integrative
Medicine and Department of Cardiology. Her articles have appeared in respected
journals, including Annals of Internal Medicine and the Journal
of Echocardiography.
Susan Leopold, PhD, is executive director of the
medicinal plant conservation nonprofit United Plant Savers (UpS). She manages
all UpS programs, including the Botanical Sanctuary Network, Partners in
Education, UpS membership and internships, garden grants, and the at-risk plant
program. She earned her PhD in environmental studies at Antioch University –
New England, for which she completed her dissertation titled “Loss of
Ethnobotanical Knowledge in the Bull Run Mountains.” For the seven years
preceding her employment at UpS, Dr. Leopold was a librarian at the renowned
Oak Spring Garden Library, home to — among other treasures — the collection of
rare botanical books and manuscripts of Rachel Lambert Mellon. There, Dr.
Leopold entered the collection into a searchable database, established a
digital photography lab, and oversaw graduate research.
Rachel Mata, PhD, is a professor at the Universidad
Nacional Autónoma de México. Her research interests include natural product
drug and agrochemical discovery and chemistry, biochemistry, and pharmacology
of medicinal plants. Among her 180 scientific publications to date, Dr. Mata
has authored a number of book chapters and respected journal articles as well
as three books. She is a member of the editorial boards of the Journal
of Natural Products and Current Topics in Medicinal Chemistry,
and she co-edited the book Phytochemistry of Medicinal Plants (Springer,
1995). She studied for her MSc and PhD in medicinal chemistry at Purdue
University in Indiana. She also held a teaching position at Universidad Central
de Venezuela, where she earned her bachelor’s degree
in pharmacy.
William Morris, PhD, DAOM, LAc, president of the Academy
of Oriental Medicine at Austin’s (AOMA) Graduate School of Integrative
Medicine, is a leading figure within North America’s Traditional Chinese
Medicine community. Morris led the American Association of Acupuncture and
Oriental Medicine to become a single national association, and later played an
instrumental role in AOMA’s obtaining regional accreditation with the Southern Association of Colleges
and Schools as a level 5 doctoral granting institution. Prior to that, he spent more than a decade of
study examining the Ding family lineage of internal medicine and the Gu family
lineage of external medicine. He earned a doctorate in acupuncture and oriental
medicine, a PhD in transformative studies, and a Master of Science in medical
education. Morris has written several books on acupuncture and Chinese medicine
— including Mai Dao: Path of the Pulse (2009) and Li
Shi-zhen Pulse Studies: An Illustrated Guide (People’s Medical
Publishing House, 2011). He serves as editor and regularly authors articles for
Acupuncture
Today and American Acupuncturist, and lectures on
pulse diagnosis, Chinese herbs, and other topics.
Danica Taylor Harbaugh Reynaud, PhD, is the founder
and CEO of AuthenTechnologies LLC, the founder and executive director of the
nonprofit International Sandalwood Foundation, and a visiting scholar and
museum specialist at the University and Jepson Herbaria at the University of
California – Berkeley, where she earned both her bachelor’s and doctoral
degrees in integrative biology. She is a geneticist and botanical taxonomist
whose focuses include the development of DNA-technology-based botanical
authentication methods, as well as the study of and conservation strategies for
sandalwoods (Santalum spp.). Dr. Reynaud has served as a reviewer for
academic journals such as Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, Journal
of Biogeography, and the Botanical Journal of The Linnaean Society.
Alexander G. Schauss, PhD, is the
senior research director at Natural and Medicinal Products Research and CEO at
AIBMR Life Sciences in Puyallup, Washington. As lead scientist, Dr. Schauss has
worked on projects in 44 countries for AIBMR to support research activities and
deal with regulatory matters for over 500 companies or institutions. He earned
his undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral degrees at the University of New
Mexico at Albuquerque and California Coast University in Santa Ana,
respectively. Dr. Schauss is a Fellow of the American College of Nutrition
(FACN), and a member of the American Society of Nutrition, the Society for
Experimental Biology in Medicine, and the Association for African Medicinal
Plants Standards (AAMPS), among others. In 2005, he received the Linus Pauling
Lecture Award for contributions to the medical sciences from the American
College for the Advancement of Medicine. Dr. Schauss is the author or co-author
of over 200 publications, and the author or co-author of 23 books in the fields
of nutrition and botanical medicine.
Navindra Seeram, PhD, is an assistant professor of
pharmacognosy at the University of Rhode Island’s College of Pharmacy, where he
runs the Bioactive Botanical Research Laboratory. He previously was the
assistant director of the David Geffen School of Medicine’s Center for Human
Nutrition at the University of California – Los Angeles. Dr. Seeram — who
received his doctoral degree in natural products
chemistry from the University of the West Indies in Kingston, Jamaica — focuses
his research on traditional medicines and botanical extracts, particularly
examining how they might prevent or treat chronic illnesses. He has been the
recipient of several awards and honors, including the American Chemical
Society’s 2009 Young Scientist Award. Dr. Seeram publishes in numerous
scientific journals and helps organize conferences for the natural products
community.
Paul E. Stamets is the founder, owner, and managing
director of Fungi Perfecti, LLC, founder and managing director of Agarikon
Press and The Life Box Company, as well as the owner and managing director of
Mycopesticide, LLC. Widely acknowledged as North America’s premier advocate for
medicinal mushrooms and fungi for bioremediation, Stamets has been a mycologist
for more than 30 years, during which he discovered four new species of
mushrooms and pioneered techniques in the field of edible and medicinal
mushroom cultivation. A graduate of Kenyon College and The Evergreen State
College, he is a member of the GMP/GAP Board on Standards for Production of
Medicinal Plants/Medicinal Mushroom Production for the US Pharmacopeia, on the
editorial boards for The International Journal on Medicinal Mushrooms and
Mushroom,
the Journal, and an advisor to the Program for Integrative Medicine
at the University of Arizona Medical School. In 2008, Stamets received National
Geographic Adventure Magazine's Green-Novator and Argosy Foundation's
E-chievement awards. Stamets is the author of six books on mushroom cultivation
and has presented a TED talk on the vast health and environmental benefits of
mushrooms titled “Six Ways Mushrooms Can Save the World.” |
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