Dr. David M. L. Rabin MD, PhD
Executive Director
Psychiatry & Neuroscience
Dr. David Rabin MD, PhD is a board-certified psychiatrist, translational neuroscientist, inventor, and entrepreneur specializing in the treatment of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Depression, Anxiety, and Substance Use Disorders. Dr. Rabin has spent the last 14 years researching treatments to combat the negative effects of chronic stress on physical and mental health. Dr. Rabin received his MD in medicine and his PhD in neuroscience from Albany Medical College and trained in psychiatry at Western Psychiatric Institute & Clinic at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.
While conducting research at the University of Pittsburgh, Dr. Rabin developed the science and technology behind Apollo, a breakthrough wearable technology that uses the neuroscience of touch and vibration to combat the negative effects of stress. Apollo sends gentle waves of vibration to your body that are clinically shown to bring your heart, lungs, and mind into balance, resulting in improved heart rate variability (HRV). By signaling safety to the body through your sense of touch, Apollo offers you control over your stress, so you can tackle whatever comes next. After clinical trials of the Apollo technology demonstrating its reliable effects on mood, sleep, and focus, Dr. Rabin co-founded Apollo Neuroscience to make the discovery available to the public.
In addition to his clinical psychiatry practice, Dr. Rabin is currently conducting research on the epigenetic regulation of trauma responses and recovery to elucidate the mechanism of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy and the neurobiology of belief in collaboration with colleagues at Yale, the University of Southern California, and MAPS (Multidisciplinary Association of Psychedelic Studies). The goal is to determine the mechanisms of the dramatic therapeutic benefits observed following psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy in treatment-resistant mental illness. The study has begun and is collecting DNA samples from patients with treatment-resistant PTSD who are participating in the current MAPS-sponsored trial of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy to evaluate the gene expression changes that result from the therapy.
Dr. Joseph Maroon MD, FACS
Secretary
Neurosurgery & Neuroscience
Joseph C. Maroon MD, FACS is clinical professor and vice chairman of the Department of Neurological Surgery and Heindl Scholar in Neuroscience at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. In addition to being a renowned neurosurgeon, he is a sports medicine expert, health and nutrition expert and Ironman triathlete.
Dr. Maroon is regarded as a premiere specialist in the surgical treatment of injuries and diseases of the brain and spine, specializing in minimally invasive procedures. Consistently listed in America’s Best Doctors for the past 20 years, he has an international referral base, including numerous professional athletes and celebrities.
Dr. Maroon obtained his medical and neurosurgical training at Indiana University, Georgetown University, Oxford University in England and the University of Vermont. He conducted extensive research into neurotrauma, brain tumors and diseases of the spine, which has led to many innovative techniques for diagnosing and treating these disorders. His research efforts garnered him numerous awards from various national and international neurological societies.
Dr. Maroon is the author of six books, and (co-)author of 40 book chapters and over 270 published scientific papers. He has given more than 150 presentations at national and international conferences and is often invited as visiting professor and key-note speaker. He has served on the editorial boards of eight medical and neurological journals and is currently associate editor of Surgical Neurology, and editorial board member of Neurological Research and The Physician and Sports Medicine journals. He also is past-President of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons, the largest society of Neurosurgeons in the world.
Dr. Maroon has been the team neurosurgeon for the Pittsburgh Steelers since 1981, and is Medical Director of the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). He has successfully performed surgery on numerous professional football players and other elite athletes with potentially career-ending neck and spine injuries. Notably, he safely returned most to their high level of athletic performance.
Dr. Maroon is highly invested in the prevention and treatment of concussions in high school, college and professional sports, specifically football. While working with the Steelers in the early 1990’s, the lack of an objective, reliable instrument to evaluate concussion symptoms became very apparent to Dr. Maroon. To fill this void, he and Dr. Mark Lovell developedImPACT™ (Immediate Post-Concussion Assessment and Cognitive Testing), an easy-to-administer, 20 minute long test to assess presence and severity of concussion symptoms. ImPACT™ has become the world-wide standard tool to assess sports-related concussions, and has been used in over 4.5 million athletes. In 1994, Dr. Maroon joined the National Football League’s mild Traumatic Brain Injury Committee as concussion expert. This committee, which in 2007 was renamed National Football League’s Head, Neck and Spine Committee, is still in place.
For his expertise on sports medicine and concussions, Dr. Maroon is frequently interviewed and quoted by the media, including the New York Times, USA Today, Associated Press, ESPN, Sports Illustrated, and ABC News Nightline.
Dr. Henry “Patrick” C. Driscoll MD
Board Member & Treasurer
Psychiatry
Dr. Henry Patrick Driscoll is a pediatric, adolescent, and adult psychiatrist with a focus on substance use disorders and psychoanalysis. Early in his training, Dr. Driscoll started his journey in medicine and healing with a deep interest in holistic approaches to health and wellness. A student of the mind and thinking, he studied philosophy as an undergraduate which led to his choice of neuroscience and psychiatry as ways to most positively impact the health and well-being of patients in a career in medicine.
His early research in the biology of aging at the National Institute on Aging included several peer-reviewed papers from the Laboratory of Molecular Gerontology under Drs. Robert Brosh, PhD and Wilhelm Bohr, MD, PhD. He completed his medical training as a Dean’s merit scholar at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine where he also completed a masters degree in clinical research with Dr. Charles Reynolds in his laboratory for the study of sleep, pharmacotherapy, and treatment-resistant late-life depression. He completed his psychiatric residency at Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center including a fellowship in child and adolescent psychiatry and a clinical focus in addiction medicine. This broad clinical experience with patients across the lifespan positions him well to communicate about our most current knowledge of how, to paraphrase Hippocrates, to use our food as remedies and make remedies of our foods. He has also contributed to several books and training manuals on doctor-patient engagement including co-authoring Humanizing Addiction Treatment with Antoine Douaihy, MD.
Dr. Driscoll found his calling in clinical work with young people and their families which is the primary focus of his current practice in Pittsburgh. As a dedicated educator who has earned top teaching awards from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, he continues his work in the use of collaborative therapeutic inquiry into all layers of thought and experience within the doctor-patient relationship as an advanced candidate at the Pittsburgh Psychoanalytic Center.
Dr. Lawton W. Tang MD
Vice President
Plastic Surgery
Dr. Tang received his medical training at State University of New York after winning several awards and research grants. Dr. Tang relocated to Miami, Mount Sinai to train in General Surgery and Trauma Critical Care. He then completed an Aesthetics Breast and Body Contouring fellowship, and was hired as a clinical instructor at University of Pittsburgh Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. Dr. Tang then specialized further in the Plastic and Reconstructive Fellowship at MCG. Dr. Tang remains actively involved in education by teaching surgeons in training from Huntington Memorial Hospital and University of Southern California. He continues to publish his research in many of the top plastic surgery journals. He is the published author of numerous articles and book chapters on plastic and reconstructive surgery, cosmetic surgery, and regenerative medicine. He has presented research at national and international plastic surgery conferences. Dr. Tang travels regularly, consulting with leaders in the field of cosmetic plastic surgery facilitating the exchange of ideas and constantly refining his techniques. He has been featured at the Breast and Body Contouring Symposium held annually with Dr. J Peter Rubin, as well as the Discovery Health Channel.
Dr. Tang continues to contribute to the body of literature of biomaterials being designed for skin, bone, and nerve regeneration, with a strong focus on polymeric materials, both native and synthetic. He has also received prestigious federal research grants to fund his regenerative medicine research. Of recent interest is the differentiation of preadipocytes into adipocytes, neural progenitor cells, and osteoblasts for tissue engineering applications.
Dr. Rachel Yehuda PhD
Board Member
Psychology
Dr. Rachel Yehuda is a professor of psychiatry and neuroscience, the Vice Chair for Veterans Affairs in the Psychiatry Department, and the Director of the Traumatic Stress Studies Division at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. She also leads the PTSD clinical research program at the Neurochemistry and Neuroendocrinology laboratory at the James J. Peters VA Medical Center. In 2020 she became director of the Center for Psychedelic Psychotherapy and Trauma Research at Mount Sinai.
She received her Ph.D. in Psychology and Neurochemistry and her M.S. in Biological Psychology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and completed her postdoctoral training in Biological Psychiatry in the Psychiatry Department at Yale Medical School. In 2019, she was elected to the National Academy of Medicine.
Dr. Yehuda has authored more than 500 published papers, chapters, and books in the field of traumatic stress and the neurobiology of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Her interests include the study of risk and resilience factors, psychological and biological predictors of treatment response in PTSD, genetic and epigenetic studies of PTSD and the intergenerational transmission of trauma and PTSD.
Dr. Kenneth M. Ford PhD
Board Member
Human & Machine Cognition
Kenneth Ford is Founder and Chief Executive Officer of the Florida Institute for Human & Machine Cognition (IHMC) — a not-for-profit research institute located in Pensacola, Florida. IHMC has grown into one of the nation’s premier research organizations with world-class scientists and engineers investigating a broad range of topics related to building technological systems aimed at amplifying and extending human cognition, perception, locomotion and resilience. Richard Florida has described IHMC as “a new model for interdisciplinary research institutes that strive to be both entrepreneurial and academic, firmly grounded and inspiringly ambitious.” IHMC headquarters are in Pensacola with a branch research facility in Ocala, Florida.
Dr. Ford is the author of hundreds of scientific papers and six books. Dr. Ford’s research interests include: artificial intelligence, cognitive science, human-centered computing, and entrepreneurship in government and academia. Dr. Ford received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from Tulane University. He is Emeritus Editor-in-Chief of AAAI/MIT Press and has been involved in the editing of several journals. Ford is a Fellow of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI), a charter Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, a member of the Association for Computing Machinery, a member of the IEEE Computer Society, and a member of the National Association of Scholars. Ford has received many awards and honors including the Doctor Honoris Causas from the University of Bordeaux in 2005 and the 2008 Robert S. Englemore Memorial Award for his work in artificial intelligence (AI). In 2012 Tulane University named Ford its Outstanding Alumnus in the School of Science and Engineering. In 2015, the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence named Dr. Ford the recipient of the 2015 Distinguished Service Award. Also, in 2015, Dr. Ford was elected as Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). In 2017 Dr. Ford was inducted into the Florida Inventor’s Hall of Fame.
In January 1997, Dr. Ford was asked by NASA to develop and direct its new Center of Excellence in Information Technology at the Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley. He served as Associate Center Director and Director of NASA’s Center of Excellence in Information Technology. In July 1999, Dr. Ford was awarded the NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal. That same year, Ford returned to private life and to the IHMC.
In October of 2002, President George W. Bush nominated Dr. Ford to serve on the National Science Board (NSB) and the United States Senate confirmed his nomination in March of 2003. The NSB is the governing board of the National Science Foundation (NSF) and plays an important role in advising the President and Congress on science policy issues. In 2005, Dr. Ford was appointed and sworn in as a member of the Air Force Science Advisory Board.
In 2007, he became a member of the NASA Advisory Council and on October 16, 2008, Dr. Ford was named as Chairman – a capacity in which he served until October 2011. In August 2010, Dr. Ford was awarded NASA’s Distinguished Public Service Medal – the highest honor the agency confers.
In February of 2012, Dr. Ford was named to a two-year term on the Defense Science Board (DSB) and in 2013, he became a member of the Advanced Technology Board (ATB) which supports the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI). In 2018, Dr. Ford was appointed to the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence.
Dr. Belinda Tan MD, PhD
Board Member
Dermatology & Dermatopathology
Dr. Belinda Tan MD, PhD is a board-certified dermatologist and dermatopathologist who spent her formative professional training years in Los Angeles where she currently resides. Early in her career, she began applying high impact technology ideas to clinical practice with the purpose of providing broader access to quality care. Today she is a physician-scientist-entrepreneur recognized as one of LA’s top 100 technology leaders. Dr. Tan is a member of the early founding team and continuing advisor to DirectDerm, the national leader delivering teledermatology services and improving health outcomes among underserved populations. She most recently co-founded and served as Chief Medical Officer of Science 37, a pioneering market leader in virtual clinical trials that raised more than $100M in venture capital and led several groundbreaking first-ever FDA-regulated studies. The company’s focus on bringing clinical research to people in their homes significantly improved diversity among clinical study participants, from an average of 5% to 40%.
Dr. Tan is a continuing student of life, a listener, and a mentor. As a spouse, mother, daughter, and sister, her first-generation immigrant journey, so far, has enriched her appreciation of belonging to a global community. Her personal and professional pursuits are guided by promoting inclusivity and access. Having personally seen the healing impact of complementary and alternative medicines, she is focused on advocating for access to culturally competent care for these therapies.
Inspired by the needs of people seeking healthcare within the LA County public health system where she trained, Dr. Tan mentored medical students and residents formerly as Assistant Clinical Professor of Medicine at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center. She also provides expertise to Venice Family Clinic, LA’s leading community health center. Dr. Tan’s multiple advisory roles include the LA Mayor’s WiSTEM initiative, Seed Health, and VisualDx. As an immunologist, she has published several peer-reviewed studies describing mechanisms about how the human innate immune system combats challenging infections like Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Mycobacterium leprae. She earned her MD and PhD from UCLA and a BS from MIT, with additional clinical training at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and Cornell-New York Presbyterian Hospital.
Dr. Bryan Donohue MD, FACC
Board Member
Cardiology
Dr. Donohue is an interventional cardiologist in practice for over thirty years. He attended the Georgetown University School of Medicine and trained in internal medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Donohue received additional training in cardiology at the University of California, Los Angeles and in interventional cardiology at the Andreas Gruentzig Center of the Emory University School of Medicine. His research has centered on the care of patients with acute myocardial infarction, and in collaboration with other leading cardiologists, this work has lead to a nationwide change in the treatment these patients receive with marked improvements in their outcomes. This clinical research has been published in leading peer reviewed journals including the New England Journal of Medicine, the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, and Circulation and he has been an invited speaker on this work both nationally and internationally.
Dr. Donohue has been asked to chair scientific presentations at the American College of Cardiology Annual Scientific Sessions, received a Fulbright Scholarship Award, has been recognized locally as heart doctor of the year, and cited as amongst the best heart doctors for women. His professional interests additionally include the athletic heart and he consults extensively with the World Wrestling Entertainment (W.W.E.) in that context.
Over the recent years Dr. Donohue has extensively studied the cardiovascular benefits of plant-based compounds and founded a nutritional supplement company to make available to the public particular phytochemicals that researchers have identified as central to lowering vascular risk . Ensuring the purity of the products and that the methods of production are as rigorous as those used in the pharmaceutical industry have been central to the foundation and development of this nutraceutical company.
Dr. Michael J. Breus PhD, ABSM, FAASM
Board Member
Sleep Medicine
Michael J. Breus, Ph.D., is a double board-certified Clinical Psychologist and Clinical
Sleep Specialist. He is one of only 168 psychologists in the world to have taken and
passed the Sleep Medicine Boards without going to Medical School. He is also the
founder of sleepdoctor.com.
Dr. Breus is the author of four books with the newest book (2021) Energize! Go
from dragging Ass to kicking it in 30 days, adds the concepts of Movement (not
exercise), and Intermittent Fasting to his already famous Sleep Chronotypes. And it
was recently named one of the top books of 2021 by The Today Show. In his third
book (2017), The Power of When, which is a groundbreaking biohacking book
proving that there is a perfect time to do everything, based on your biological
chronotype (early bird or night owl). Dr. Breus gives the reader the exact times to
have sex, run, a mile, eat a cheeseburger, buy, sell, ask your boss for a raise and
much more based on over 200 research studies.
He is an expert resource for most major publications doing more than 400
interviews per year (Oprah, Dr. Oz, The Doctors, NY Times, Wall Street Journal, and
more). Dr. Breus has been in private practice for 23 years and recently relocated to
and was named the Top Sleep Doctor of Los Angeles by Reader’s Digest.
Dr. Michelle Thompson, DO, AOBFP, ABOIM, DipABLM, FACLM
Board Member
Lifestyle, Integrative, and Family Medicine
Dr. Michelle Thompson is a triple-board certified physician in lifestyle, integrative, and osteopathic family medicine incorporating culinary medicine and mind-body skills into patient care. Dr. Thompson has also been educating medical students, interns, residents, and attending physicians at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center where she has been employed since 2006. She has served as the Chair of Medicine and is currently Vice Chief of Staff for UPMC Horizon and Jameson. Dr. Thompson created a “Doctors in the Kitchen-Food as Medicine and Physician Wellness” program offering CME credits to her colleagues to learn about self-care and lifestyle medicine. As faculty for Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine, Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, and the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, she has transitioned traditional journal clubs for the residents into the teaching kitchen across all specialties. Dr. Thompson designed lifestyle medicine grand rounds, which facilitated 8 family medicine residency programs to offer lifestyle medicine residency tracks and was recently announced as the medical director of the UPMC Well-being and Lifestyle Medicine Center.
Dr. Thompson has transformed the way healthcare is offered in her primary care practice and community offering free classes in nutrition, whole food plant based teaching kitchens, mindfulness workshops, yoga, tai chi, qigong, meditation, sound therapy, art therapy, forest bathing, shop with a doc, aromatherapy, dancing mindfulness, Ayurveda, mind-body medicine, and many other integrative tools empowering people to take control of their health.
As a champion for UPMC Physician Thrive, Dr. Thompson is a fierce advocate for physician wellness and addressing burnout by creating full-day programs for physicians and nurses to learn tools for resilience and self-care for which she was featured in The New York Times. She was also featured in the recent documentary Going Om discussing the health benefits of sound therapy as a treatment modality.
Dr. Thompson is a graduate of Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine and Youngstown State University. She completed her family medicine residency at UPMC Mercy Hospital in Pittsburgh, PA.
Segyu Choepel Rinpoche
Board Member
Buddhist Meditation & Tibetan Healing
Venerable Segyu Choepel Rinpoche is the founder, director, and head teacher of Juniper Foundation—a nonprofit and 501(c)3 tax-exempt organization dedicated to the preservation of the Segyu lineage of Tibetan Buddhism and healing. Founded in 1985, the Foundation has its headquarters in California, complemented by branch centers in Brazil and Uruguay.
Born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Rinpoche earned a degree in electrical engineering at Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro while also becoming a master in Brazil’s rich healing tradition. In 1983, Rinpoche moved to the United States and shortly thereafter was recognized by the 98th Gaden Tri Rinpoche, the spiritual head of Tibetan Buddhism’s Gelug School, as a master and holder of a renowned Tibetan Buddhist lineage known as the Segyu.
Rinpoche’s primary teacher was Kyabje Lati Rinpoche (1922-2010), one of Tibetan Buddhism’s most acclaimed masters of recent times and the former abbot of Tibet’s famous Gaden Shartse Monastery. Rinpoche spent over thirty years studying under Kyabje Lati Rinpoche, and other Tibetan masters, and collecting the ancient wisdom, methods and healing practices of Tibetan Buddhist thought. In tandem with this training, Rinpoche extensively studied Tibetan Medicine, in 2013 completing a three year traditional Tibetan Medicine training to be certified as a Naturaopathic Doctor of Tibetan Medicine with the Tibetan Medicine Education Center, Milan, Italy.
Venerable Segyu Rinpoche has a full schedule of teachings, healings, and retreats, taking him regularly to various locations in the United States, Asia, South America, and Europe. He also consults with physicians and psychologists on their therapeutic cases, advises on various psycho-spiritual research projects, gives public lectures, and participates in conferences and other events.
Dr. Matthew W. Cook MD
Board Member
Anesthesia & Functional Medicine
Dr. Matthew Cook is a board-certified anesthesiologist with over 20 years of experience in practicing medicine. He graduated from the University of Washington School of Medicine and completed his residency in anesthesiology at the University of California San Francisco. Dr. Cook has also completed a fellowship in Functional Medicine and has a Doctorate in Traditional Chinese Medicine. His early career as an anesthesiologist and medical director of an outpatient surgery center that specialized in sports medicine and orthopedic procedures provided invaluable training in the skills needed to become a leader in the emerging field of regenerative medicine. Currently, Dr. Cook is President and Founder of BioReset™ Medical and BioReset™ International. His practice provides treatments for conditions ranging from pain and complex illness to anti-aging and wellness. Dr. Cook’s approach is to use the most non-invasive, natural and integrative treatment methods possible.
Laura Lagano MS, RDN, CDN, AFMCP
Board Member
Nutrition
Registered Dietitian Nutritionist Laura Lagano is the author of The CBD Oil Miracle (St. Martin’s Press, 2019) and co-founder and education director of the Holistic Cannabis Academy. Laura’s journey to cannabis was led by her dissatisfaction with what conventional healthcare had to offer her daughter Isabella Speranza. As one of a handful of RDNs who has completed the prestigious Institute of Functional Medicine program, Laura integrates her expertise in nutrition, functional medicine, and the endocannabinoid system in her private practice Laura Lagano Wellness. She speaks frequently at conferences about plant medicine, consults with cannabis-related companies, and advises several cannabis companies. One of the first dietitians to work in the media, Laura writes for The Fresh Toast, Kitchen Toke, and Holistic Primary Care magazines, and has written for or been quoted in the New York Times, Forbes, HuffPost, Stitcher, MerryJane, The Daily Beast, and numerous other media outlets. She was awarded an Ozy Rising Star award for her pioneering work shining a light on the endocannabinoid system and the healing benefits of the cannabis plant. Laura’s core value system is about nurturing relationships though collaboration to eliminate the global stigma around cannabis and plant medicines.
Dr. Ben Kelmendi MD
Board Member
Psychiatry
Ben is a psychiatrist and an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the Yale University School of Medicine. His primary clinical expertise is in PTSD, Depression, OCD, and the endocannabinoid system. He is the co-founder of the Yale Psychedelic Science Group. He leads a research program focused on the therapeutic potential of psychedelic medicines, across a range of psychiatric diagnosis. He is currently investigating the effects of psilocybin on the neurocircuitry implicated in the development, maintenance, and treatment of patients with OCD. He is also exploring the effects of MDMA on brain activation and neural network organization in PTSD to understand the relationship between MDMA-induced neural changes and the acute cognitive and behavioral effects of the drug.
Dr. Nathaniel Weathington MD, PhD
Board Member
Pulmonary Critical Care
Dr. Weathington is a physician scientist specializing in Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine. His laboratory studies the biology of inflammation and pharmacology at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, where he is an Assistant Professor in the Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, and Critical Care Medicine. His research is funded by grants from foundations and the National Institutes of Health to investigate the chemical signals, molecular pathways, cellular responses, and drug actions that contribute to acute and chronic inflammatory diseases. He has authored over 30 articles in journals including Nature Medicine, Science Translational Medicine, the Journal of Clinical Investigation, and many others.
Dr. Arisha Patel, MD, MBA
Board Member
Medical Oncology & Hematology
Dr. Arisha Patel MD, MBA is a board-certified Medical Oncologist and Hematologist, physician-scientist, clinical data strategist, and entrepreneur in advancements in cancer care. Dr. Patel is committed to enhancing the patient experience throughout the continuum of their clinical journey through the use of novel technology solutions and multimodality wellness-based approaches to optimize healing.
Dr. Patel is an adjunct clinical instructor in the Division of Oncology at Stanford University School of Medicine. She completed her medical education and received a Master’s in Healthcare Administration and Management from Chicago Medical School, followed by medical training in Internal Medicine and Hematology/Oncology at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, a comprehensive NCI-designated Cancer Center. Dr. Patel earned a Master’s of Business Administration with a focus in Biomedical Entrepreneurship from the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University.
Her postdoctoral NIH research focused on applications of artificial intelligence and machine learning in clinical outcomes research by incorporating predictive analytics into clinical trial design. Dr. Patel’s commitment to improving clinical research through novel technology platforms in cancer care led her to biotech, where she served as Senior Medical Director of Personalized Healthcare-Precision Oncology at Genentech, a member of the Roche group. She was a recognized clinical data expert in precision oncology and conducted novel tumor-agnostic clinical trials. She has initiated multiple critical efforts in drug development, real-world data, and personalized medicine, which have been published in peer-reviewed journals. Dr. Patel is a pioneer in accelerating cancer therapy through cutting-edge approaches to improve patient selection and clinical outcomes. Dr. Patel is also the founder of Sanare Oncology, a technology-based wellness and survivorship practice.
Dr. Steven D. Factor MD
Board Member
Neurology
Dr. Steven Factor is a graduate of Northwestern University, where he completed a double major in Philosophy and Economics. After a very brief stint with the bulls and bears of Chicago’s finance markets, he earned a medical degree from Loyola Stritch School of Medicine in Chicago. He then completed an internship and neurological residency at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, followed by a fellowship in Clinical Neurophysiology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center where his clinical research activities included multiple investigational protocols into epilepsy treatment.
Dr. Factor is currently triple-board certified in Neurology, Clinical Neurophysiology, and Epilepsy. He is also experienced in the fields of intraoperative monitoring and headache treatment, and always strives to match plant-based medicinal options to symptomatology when such alternatives match patient goals. His passions outside of the clinical setting include classical guitar performance and composition, running, and meditation.
Major General T. S. Jones
Board Advisor
Veteran & Military Health
Ret. Major General Jones entered the Marine Corps through the Officer Candidate Program following his graduation from Eastern Illinois University. An infantry officer, he served in each of the three active Marine Divisions and commanded at all ranks from 2/Lt to Major General. His final assignment in the Marine Corps was that of Commanding General of Training and Education Command in Quantico, Virginia. MGen Jones founded Outdoor Odyssey, a non-profit Leadership Academy, oriented on impacting youth through team building and mentoring. Jones, his staff at Outdoor Odyssey and a strong cadre of volunteers, in conjunction with the Semper Fi Fund, have hosted 74 weeklong sessions of Semper Fi Odyssey for wounded, ill and injured warriors, helping them make a successful transition into the civilian sector.
Mr. Brian T. McConnell
Board Advisor
Elite Athletics
Mr. Brian McConnell has served as the Vice President of the NFL Alumni Association since 2010. After earning All-Big Ten Honors and graduating from Michigan State, he played professional football for several years for the Buffalo Bills, Houston Oilers, and Miami Dolphins. Following his time with the Dolphins, Mr. McConnell retired from professional football and received an MBA from Stanford.
Since entering the business world, Mr. McConnell has become an accomplished senior executive seasoned in corporate environments, with an emphasis on software engineering, information technology, data and telecommunications. Mr. McConnell is an expert in start-up, pre-IPO, mergers and acquisitions and has successfully launched global marketing programs in a multitude of markets and disciplines.
Notably, Mr. McConnell is one of only four NFL players to ever have a liver transplant after beating liver cancer. Mr. McConnell’s dedication to recovery is unparalleled as he survived 45 surgeries, was exposed to nearly every pain medicine available, and still managed to avoid opioids and their long-term complications. Like his colleagues on The Board of Medicine, Mr. McConnell’s story is a true testament to the power of will. In his spare time, Mr. McConnell facilitates the development of technology to help NFL alumni and players who are suffering negative consequences as a result of multiple concussions.
Mr. Paul Robbins
Board Advisor
Elite Athletics
As VP of Sports Performance at Kinexon, a leader in RFID sports tracking, Paul oversees performance consulting for professional teams and athletes. Clients include the NBA, NFL, USTA as well as German leagues in soccer, handball and basketball. Previously, Paul was Director of Performance for STATS and oversaw the development of the NBA sports performance game data. He is now taking the performance data metrics into these additional sports and leagues.
Paul has an extensive background in tracking technology and its impact on athlete recovery and conditioning. Much of this came from working for over 10 years with EXOS (formerly known as Athletes Performance) as the metabolic specialist developing energy system programs and assessment. Since then, he has been involved with the USTA Sports Science and NHL Combine Committees and sits on advisory boards for Plantiga, Kenzen and Bimin. Paul works directly with various wearable and recovery treatment companies to develop hardware for live data tracking, performance training based on energy systems demands and recovery protocols.
Paul received his Bachelor's degree in Physical Education, with an emphasis in exercise science, from the State University of New York, Cortland. He has a Master’s in Exercise Physiology from California University of Pennsylvania.
Dr. Darowan Akajagbor PharmD, BCCCP
Board Advisor
Clinical Pharmacy
Darowan Akajagbor is a clinical pharmacy specialist. She earned her Pharm.D. degree from University at Buffalo School of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences in June 2009. She completed a Pharmacy practice residency at Kingsbrook Jewish Medical Center in Brooklyn New York, and a critical care pharmacy residency at the University of Maryland Medical Center, in Baltimore Maryland.
Following her training, she practiced as a clinical pharmacy specialist in the medical intensive care unit (MICU) at Upstate Medical Center in Syracuse, New York. During that time, she also held a full-time clinical assistant professor faculty appointment at D’Youville College School of Pharmacy and adjunct professor at Upstate Medical University.
She subsequently relocated to Houston Texas where she worked as a clinical pharmacist at Houston Methodist Willowbrook Hospital. She was the clinical pharmacy specialist for the medical-surgery and inpatient chemotherapy unit.
Dr. Akajagbor’s professional interests include promoting the safe and effective use of medications and the identification and mitigation of drug-related problems. She is a life-long learner and is currently interested in topics on plant medicines, adaptogens, functional nutrition, health coaching, wellness, and well-being practices.
Dr. Rachael Grazioplene PhD
Board Advisor
Psychology
Dr. Grazioplene is a researcher in the Department of Psychiatry at Yale University. She received her Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Minnesota in the Personality, Individual Differences, and Behavioral Genetics Program. Her research examines how variations in neural structure and function relate to human personality and psychopathology. She is currently collaborating on two systematic research studies that address the potential of psychedelic-assisted therapies in the treatment of severe mental illnesses. Dr. Grazioplene has published several peer-reviewed articles and book chapters on diverse topics in psychology and neuroscience including personality structure, the neurobiology of creativity, psychosis risk, and intelligence.
Dr. Adam S. Howe MD, FAAP
Board Advisor
Urology
Dr. Howe attended Union College where he majored in biochemistry. After volunteering with the local hospice and working as a research technician in an infectious disease laboratory, he went on to receive his medical degree at Albany Medical College. He then specialized in General Surgery at the University of Louisville. Dr. Howe then sub-specialized in Urology at The Ohio State University, followed by a fellowship in Pediatric Urology at Cohen Children's Medical Center of New York. He lives in upstate New York and currently holds a position as an assistant professor of surgery at Albany Medical College and pediatric urologist at Albany Medical Center in Albany, NY. Dr. Howe is board-certified in urology and has multiple published peer-reviewed manuscripts. Dr. Howe’s work has included investigations of minimally-invasive treatments such as the use of transcutaneous electric nerve stimulation (TENS) for children with nocturnal enuresis, and he started the Pediatric Onco-Fertility program at Albany Medical Center.
Dr. Myro Figura MD
Board Advisor
Anesthesia
Dr. Figura is an entrepreneur, researcher, and an academic faculty Anesthesiologist at UCLA.
Dr. Figura has co-founded a number of ventures ranging from emergency university medical services, to a consumer devices startup, to a nutraceutical supplements company. He is a published researcher with a number of articles and book chapters on various topics in anesthesiology, pain management, and medical innovation. He is also a frequent lecturer for medical students and a clinical educator for resident physicians at UCLA.
Dr. Figura has deep research and innovation experience at several powerhouse research institutions, has designed and run clinical trials, and has been a part of the development team for a novel intraoperative nasal CPAP device, which he has extensively studied and presented nationally.
Dr. Figura is also a co-founder of HealFast, Inc., an innovative physician-led company that develops clinical-grade evidence-based nutraceutical products for healthcare and consumer use. Dr. Figura brings deep industry experience on supplement development from ideation to product, research, sourcing, manufacturing, certifications, and all aspects of commercialization.