Ian D Coulter, PhD received a PhD in sociology from the London School of Economics & Political Science and a Diploma in Educational Management from the Institute of Educational Management, Harvard University. After immigrating to Canada in 1969, Dr. Coulter joined the Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto. He served as President of the Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College from 1982 to 1991. During 1991, he was a Pew Fellow at the RAND/UCLA Center for Health Policy Study. He is currently a full Professor in the UCLA School of Dentistry, holds the positions of Senior Health Policy Researcher, RAND and Research Professor at the Southern California University of Health Sciences. He currently holds the RAND/Samueli Chair in Integrative Medicine at RAND. Dr. Coulter is a prolific researcher and writer, who has devoted his career to innovations in the fields of health care research, education and health policy, and CAM research.

Richard Hammerschlag, PhD received his BS in chemistry from MIT and his PhD in biochemistry from Brandeis University. Following a 25-year career in neurobiology research based mainly at the City of Hope National Medical Center, he created and taught a course in Biomedical Understanding of Acupuncture at Yo San University of Traditional Chinese Medicine where in 1995, he became academic dean. He moved to Portland in 1999, when he created the research department at Oregon College of Oriental Medicine. His national acupuncture activities include a presentation on Methodological and Ethical Issues in Acupuncture Research at the 1997 NIH Consensus Development Conference on Acupuncture. In addition, he served as co-president of the Society for Acupuncture Research from 1997-2003 and currently serves as Senior Editor for the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine. 

Mary Jo Kreitzer, PhD, RN, FAAN is the founder and director of the Center for Spirituality and Healing at the University of Minnesota, an interdisciplinary center coordinates integrative health and medicine programs and initiatives in the Medical School, School of Nursing, College of Pharmacy and other units throughout the Academic Health Center. She was the principal investigator of a five-year $1.6 million National Institutes of Health (NCCAM) education grant. She is currently the co-PI on several grants including a five-year $2.1 million NIH (NINR) clinical trial of mindfulness meditation with solid organ transplant patients, a clinical trial funded by BlueCross/Blue Shield of Minnesota on the impact of an integrated residential treatment program on women with eating disorders, a grant evaluating the use of mindfulness meditation to treat chronic insomnia and an NIH (NCCAM) funded clinical trial on the use of mindfulness meditation with caregivers of Alzheimer’s patients. She is also the co-program director of an NIH funded clinical research fellowship program. In addition to her administrative responsibilities in the Center for Spirituality and Healing, she teaches courses in research and optimal healing environments in the graduate minor in complementary therapies and healing practices, and is a tenured professor in the School of Nursing. She earned her doctoral degree in health services research and her masters and bachelor’s degrees in nursing. She serves as the vice-chair of the Consortium of Academic Health Centers for Integrative Medicine.

Helene M. Langevin, MD, LAc received her MD degree from McGill University, followed by a post doctoral research fellowship at the MRC Neurochemical Pharmacology Unit, Cambridge, England, and an Internal Medicine residency and Endocrinology/Metabolism fellowship at Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, Maryland. She studied acupuncture at Tristate Institute of Acupuncture and at Worsley College of Classical Chinese Acupuncture. She currently is a Research Associate Professor of Neurology, Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation at the University of Vermont and is the Principal Investigator of two NIH-funded studies investigating the mechanism of action of acupuncture and the effects of acupuncture on connective tissue in low back pain. She also is a founding partner of Stromatec, Inc., a company dedicated to the development of technology for the investigation of acupuncture and connective tissue dysfunction.

Beverly Rubik, PhD received her PhD in biophysics in 1979 from the University of California, Berkeley. In 1996, Dr. Rubik founded a nonprofit corporation, the Institute for Frontier Science, which was subsequently awarded an NIH Center Grant for frontier medicine on biofield science in consortium with the University of Arizona. She is currently an adjunct professor in Integrative Health Studies at California Institute for Integral Studies and at Saybrook Graduate School, both in San Francisco, as well as a core professor in the doctoral program in Interdisciplinary Studies at Union Institute and University, Cincinnati, OH. Her main research focus has been the subtle energetics of living systems, including the human energy field and the body-mind in health and healing. Dr. Rubik is currently conducting research in psychophysiology, examining EEG (brain wave) patterns in relation to health and higher states of consciousness.

Peter Wayne, PhD is an Assistant Professor in Medicine and Director of Tai Chi and Mind-Body Research Programs in Harvard Medical School’s Division for Research and Education in Complementary and Integrative Medical Therapies. He founded and served as director of the Oriental medicine research program at the New England School of Acupuncture (NESA) from 2000 to 2006.  His current research evaluates how Tai Chi, Qigong and related mind-body practices clinically impact a variety of health conditions (osteoporosis, balance impairment, heart failure, pulmonary disease), and seeks to understand the physiological, mechanical and psychological mechanisms underlying the therapeutic effects of mind-body practices. Peter also has more than 30 years of training experience in Tai Chi and Qigong, is the founding director of the Tree of Life Tai Chi Center in Boston, and is an internationally recognized teacher of these practices.