Hal Blatman is the founder and medical director of the Blatman Pain Clinic, and a globally recognized specialist in myofascial pain. He is board certified in Pain Management and Occupational and environmental Medicine.

After receiving his medical degree from the Medical College of Pennsylvania in 1980, Dr. Blatman completed two years of training in orthopedic surgery. He later studied ergonomics during his residency in Occupational and Environmental Medicine at the University of Cincinnati Hospital. For several years, Dr. Blatman practiced family medicine while managing a chain of urgent care facilities.

During Dr. Blatman’s tenure in general medicine, he recognized western medicine’s difficulty treating and managing chronic and myofascial pain. Consequently, he studied with the late Janet Travell, M.D., then recognized as the world’s leading expert in treating myofascial pain disorders.

In 1988, Dr. Blatman established Cincinnati’s first clinic specifically dedicated to providing traditional and holistic pain treatment solutions. He currently serves on the Board of Advisors of the American Academy of Pain Management, and is also Chairman of the Committee on Technology and Integrative Medicine.

J. David Forbes, MD, ABHM is the founder and director of Nashville Integrated Medicine and has been a member of the AHMA for over 15 years. He attended medical school at the University of Tennessee, is board certified in Internal Medicine from Bowman Gray/Wake Forest, has ten years full-time experience in Emergency Medicine, and is a Founding Diplomate of the American Board of Holistic Medicine.

His current practice focuses on combining standard western medicine with gentler and more natural approaches to healing, with a particular passion and emphasis on PEER therapy (Primary Emotional Energy Recovery), a process that provides a completely safe and unconditionally loving environment for the healing of our deeper emotional wounds. He has trained in PEER for the past thirteen years under the tutelage of its founders, Dan Jones and John Lee.

Dr. Forbes' work also encompasses energy work and meditation training, development of intuitive skills, and cultivation of our internal spiritual energy as a guide in the healing process. Nashville Integrated Medicine also provides massage, chiropractic and acupuncture services.

Dr. Forbes regularly writes, lectures and leads workshops on PEER therapy and other aspects of holistic medicine.

Robert G. Wickiewicz is a diagnostic radiologist with over 30 years of clinical experience. He is a graduate of Cornell Medical College and did his internship and residency at UCLA and New York Hospital. He is the chair of the Ethics committee at Columbia Memorial Hospital where he was, until recently, an attending physician. He is a PhD candidate in philosophy and religious studies with the University for Integrative Learning. His interest is the evolution of consciousness and systems of knowledge.

“Wick” is a published author and has lectured on philosophy and religion and is a consultant at Sanctuary in Albany, NY. He resides in Stuyvesant, NY, a small town 20 miles south of Albany and is employed by Valatie Medical Imaging. He grew up it the New York City area.

Henri is a practicing physician whose philosophy of healing combines the best of both allopathic traditions and complementary traditions.

He is a Diplomat of both the American Academy of Family Practice and the American Board of Holistic Medicine. He serves on the Louisiana State Board of Medical Examiners Complementary and Alternative Medicine Advisory Board. He founded and was first Section Chief for the Section of Integrated Medicine at LSU. Currently, Henri is the Medical Director for the Greenwich Hospital Center for Integrated Medicine in Greenwich, Connecticut.

He began his training as a healer in 1982 in botanical medicine and mind/body medicine. Later he received training in massage therapy, energy healing, acupuncture, and somatoemotional release. Dr. Roca completed his medical education at LSU, New Orleans, LA and his residency at Marshall University, WV.

Henri is the Founder of the Wholistic Wellness Network - a national non-profit designed to empower communities toward wellness and has served the AHMA as a HARPS representative for three years. He is an avid traveler and especially enjoys navigating both the seen and unseen components of sacred space as well as their internal reflections.

After graduation cum laude from Duke University, Dr. Benda received his medical degree from the University of Miami School of Medicine at Jackson Memorial Hospital. Following his residency in Emergency Medicine at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, he remained as director of Emergency Medical Services and Assistant Clinical Professor of Medicine at UCLA. He also served as flight surgeon for the County of Los Angeles Fire Department. Dr. Benda has been actively involved in the instruction of medical students and residents and has lectured at numerous professional conferences. He maintains memberships in the American Academy of Emergency Medicine as well as various organizations promoting human rights and medical care in developing countries. In 1994 he served as teh sole physician in Eastern Rwanda during the genocide and subsequent cholera epidemic.

Upon his return Dr. Benda served as Medical Director of the Big Sur Health Center while continuing to staff local emergency departments. Continual personalinquiry and a desire for the return of health to his own profession led to a two-year fellowship in the Program in Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona under Dr. Andrew Weil. During his tenure he presented this new concept of health care delivery extensively at various academic and corporate symposia. His research and clinical work focused on patients with breast cancer, animal-assisted therapy, and physician health and well-being. He has served as a principle investigator through the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine of the NIH. Dr. Benda also co-created a non-profit organization, the National Integrative Medicine Council, and served as Director of Medical and Public Affairs.

Currently Dr. Benda's focus is his ongoin research in the realm of equine-assisted therapy as applied to children with physical and emotional disabilities, his consulting work with academic and clinical institutions, and his publications. He serves as editor, contributor, and medical advisory board member for several conventional and alternative journals. Dr. Benda's concept of integration moves beyond clinical therapies to the realm of academic and political collaboration among all healthcare professions. He is the first medical doctor to be elected to the Board of Directors of the American Association of Naturopathic Physicians.

Tanya Edwards, MD, is Medical Director of the Cleveland Clinic's Center for Integrative Medicine, where she provides consultations focusing on mind, body and spirit needs of patients. She has been practicing holistic medicine for more than ten years, is a national speaker on many topics related to health and wellness, and serves as Board President of a Ohio nonprofit called Mind-Body-Spirit Connection (MBSC). The organization encourages a holistic approach to life as they provide education regarding Complementary and Alternative Medicine and assist physicians who wish to provide integrative medicine.

Dr. Edwards earned her Bachelor of Science Degree from Michigan State University in 1982 and her medical degree from the University of Michigan in 1987. She has been Associate Professor, Family Medicine, at Case Western Reserve University.

Kjersten Gmeiner, MD, Family Practice, Founding Diplomat ABHM

Kjersten practices full-spectrum family medicine at Group Health Cooperative in Seattle, WA. Interested in chronic disease management, she enjoys developing group visits in multiple forms. She practices botanical, nutritional and behavioral medicine as part of a holistic approach to lifestyle transformation.

Kjersten has been organizing for holistic medicine since her first year at U of MN medical school in 1992. From 1993 to 1995 she was national chair of the Humanistic Health Committee of the American Medical Student Association. In 1994 she won the AHMA national student award. After her second year of medical school she took time off to complete the first half of the four-year naturopathic medical degree. She passed the ABHM boards while in residency.

She currently serves as the Holistic Area Reference Person (HARP) for Western Washington State.

In her free time she enjoys gardening, reading, Qi Gong, and raising her 16-month-old niece Alicia Hope.

Dr. John Laird received his medical degree from Dartmouth in 1976. For 25 years he provided complementary medical care to over 12,000 families, specializing in nutritional and natural therapies, mind/body medicine, and spiritual healing.

In the early 1990’s Dr. Laird led a landmark campaign in North Carolina by lobbying successfully for the rights of physicians to practice alternative medicine without risk of license revocation. He serves on Dr.Dan Benor’s Council for Healing. John is a founder of the Great Smokies Medical Center , the Great Smokies Diagnostic Lab, an out-of-hospital birthing center, and the Jaffe Institute of Spiritual and Medical Healing.

Currently, Dr. Laird directs the Institute’s Healing School which guides 300 students through a very challenging three-year program of deep spiritual transformation and healing. The curriculum is based on classical Sufism and modern energetic understandings of health and disease. Dr. Laird actively investigates how love, faith, and spiritual healing contribute to optimal well-being.

His 35-year marriage to Nura has brought many blessings (and lessons!) including two extraordinary daughters. Sailing and hiking are two of his current passions.

David Riley received his undergraduate degree in Music and Psychology from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill in 1976. Prior to attending medical school he worked as a musician and chef in Europe and the United States. He has worked and traveled extensively in North, Central and South American, Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia.

He graduated from the University of Utah medical school, is board certified in Internal Medicine, and has received post-graduate training in a variety of complementary therapies including homeopathy, yoga, cranial osteopathy, nutrition, and herbal medicine. He is a clinical associate professor at the University of New Mexico medical school, written chapters for a variety of medical textbooks, worked as an editor for the WHO from 2003 - 2007, and been the editor-in-chief of two leading indexed medical journals in Integrative Medicine, Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine and EXPLORE - The Journal of Science and Healing from 1995 through 2007.

His primary interest throughout his career in medicine has been to improve patient care through the implementation of Integrative Medicine - combining the best of conventional and complementary medicine.

Dr. Riley has conducted or managed more than 50 clinical trials since 1992 ranging from international practice-based research networks to randomized controlled clinical trials to homeopathic drug provings. He has been a member of the CONSORT group and worked on systematic reviews with the Chalmer’s Research Group in Ottawa, Canada. In 1998 Dr. Riley founded Southwest Health Options, an independent practice association (IPA) managing the delivery of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) for insured patients where he developed credentialing standards, managed peer review and coordinated service utilization. He has also worked on the development of coding solutions for Integrative Medicine.

Dr. Riley has consulted with regulatory agencies and international agencies in the United States and Europe including the FDA and the BfArM, ECHAMP, the WHO, and DHCC. He is a board member of the Homeopathic Pharmacopoeia of the United States, a technical advisory body to the FDA. Dr. Riley is a member of the Complementary and Alternative Medicine Advisory Council for Dubai Healthcare City and led a steering committee that developed guidelines for licensure of twelve groups of complementary and alternative medicine providers. He has been on the scientific advisory boards of numerous academic centers, healthcare agencies and corporations.

Dr. Riley lectures and consults internationally on a range of healthcare issues including healthcare policy and regulation, education and research, and issues surrounding integrative medicine. He is married and currently lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Molly Roberts is the Co-Director of LightHearted Medicine in Tucson, Arizona and also works as a holistic physician at Canyon Ranch Health Resort.

Her specialty is Mind/Body/Spirit Medicine and her interests have been wide-ranging, reflecting a passion for learning along with the recognition that "it is all connected." She is triply Board Certified in Family Medicine, Holistic Medicine, and Nutritional Medicine. Dr. Molly is also a psychotherapist and an ordained Shamanic Minister. Women's Health, Nutritional/Herbal Medicine, Family/Organizational Conflict Resolution, Couple/Sexuality counseling, and Spiritual counseling are other portions of her practice. She is on the National Board of Advisors for both Kaplan Higher Education and the Venus Rising Institute for Shamanic Healing Arts.

Molly Roberts has been dedicated to medical education for many years by doing talks, attending student retreats, running med school courses on mind/body skills, and mentoring medical students and residents.

She has published two books, one on CAM techniques (Blackwell Complementary and Alternative Medicine: Fast Facts for Medical Practice) and the other on the interpretation of Nutritional testing (The ION Handbook).

Dr. Molly is the AHMA's Forum Moderator and we invite you to participate in the discussions going on there.

Jacob Sands recently graduated from University of Cincinnati Medical School and is currently doing his residency in internal medicine at University of California-Davis.

Jacob has a long history of interest in and exposure to complementary therapies starting with meeting with a shaman at his village in Costa Rica. Back in Cincinnati, Jacob worked with Drs. Steve and Sandi Amoils assisting in the set-up of the Alliance Institute for Integrative Medicine, specifically helping to organize the library as well as other various tasks. At that time, he observed many practitioners including acupuncturists, chiropractors, energy workers, and others. For over ten years, Jacob has studied energetics with Jeanne Kabenji. He did an internship with Vivien Schapera in energy healing, including the use of crystals. Through medical school, he was president of the complementary medicine club organizing numerous lectures and workshops.

Jacob is currently planning to complete fellowships in both Hematology/Oncology and CAM, with the goal of starting an integrative oncology center.

916-844-8750

Hila Citrin was born and raised in Israel and moved to Chicago at the age of 9 years. She pursued the study of art and religion at DePaul University , and then transferred to University of Chicago where she received her B.A. in Psychology.

After graduating, she volunteered for a grass-roots organization in Belize called the Cornerstone Foundation for 5 months, apprenticed to a Mayan Midwife, Ms. Beatrice Waight, and taught yoga and life skills to children in San Ignacio. After finishing her post-baccalaureate studies at Bryn Mawr College , she spent a year working as a Doula and teaching yoga in Chicago.

Currently she is a second year medical student at Rush University , as well as the student director of EDCAM LTP (Education in Complementary and Alternative Medicine Leadership Training Program). Hila is also the chair of the Humanistic Medicine Group at Rush. She recently coordinated a conference for all of the Chicago area Medical students on Integrative Medicine and is very passionate about learning and teaching mind-body, holistic medicine.

312-335-1342

Donna Nowak, CH, CRT is AHMA's Executive Director and CEO. She has 20+ years of business management experience, with a specialization in start-ups and the transformation/turnaround of organizations in need of a change. She has assisted many for-profit and nonprofit corporations in organizational restructuring and revitalization.

Before joining AHMA, Donna served as Executive Director of a nonprofit she founded in Cleveland, Ohio, in 2002. Known as MBSC (short for Mind-Body-Spirit Connection), the organization has been successfully bringing together the holistic community in northeastern Ohio, increasing awareness of complementary and alternative medicine and an integrative approach to healthcare. She is well-known for her collaboration with hospitals, educational institutions and other nonprofits interested in helping transform conventional medicine to a holistic model.

Her 30+ years of nonprofit volunteer service ranges from founding board member of the Lake County Sexual Assault Center, to Outstanding Account Executive for United Way, and founding president of the Ohio Turnaround Management Association. She is a life member of the Association for Research & Enlightenment and International Association for Regression Research & Therapies. She is also a member of the National Guild of Hypnotists, National Association of Transpersonal Hypnotherapists, and American Association of Professional Hypnotists (AAPH).

Donna is delighted that her business experience and passion for a holistic approach to life come together in her leadership role for the AHMA.

Shakirra is the administrative assistant for the AHMA. With years of experience working with non-profit organizations, and her passion to assist in the foundation of our organization, she is an excellent team player in support of our mission.

Education/Background

• 10 years of Office Administration
• Outstanding student award, Warrensville Sr. High 1988
• Named to the Dean’s List, Cuyahoga Community College 1992
• 2006 Creative Leadership Training
• 2006-2007 Excellence in Excel Training