Our program is taught by experts in the field of complimentary and integrative health.
Program Leadership
Hakima Amri, Ph.D.
Program Director Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Cellular & Molecular Biology, Division of Integrative Physiology Head, Division of Whole Person Health and Wellness Basic Science Building, Room 217 (202) 687-8594 amrih@georgetown.edu
Aviad Haramati, Ph.D.
Program Co-Director Professor, Department of Biochemistry and Cellular & Molecular Biology, Department of Medicine Basic Science Building, Room 213 (202) 687-1021 haramati@georgetown.edu
Dr. Amri is a professor in the department of Biochemistry and Cellular & Molecular Biology and the Division of Integrative Physiology. She holds a master and doctoral degree in reproductive physiology and steroid biochemistry from Pierre and Marie Curie University, Paris, France. As the co-founder of the CAM educational initiative at Georgetown University School of Medicine, Dr. Amri has led the CAM graduate program since its launch in 2003.
Dr. Amri’s research focuses on integrating evidence-based CAM and biomedical research. She is currently investigating the effects and molecular mechanisms of herbal products on prostate cancer, in a mouse model, and the mechanisms underlying the effects of acupuncture in reducing stress in the rat model. Her clinical research is centered on the use of fMRI to study the neuronal and physiological correlates of massage and acupuncture. Her other line of research is the introduction of a novel systems biology-based paradigm to cancer diagnosis, prognosis, treatment assessment, and biomarkers discovery using genomics, proteomics, and metabolomics data and parsimony phylogenetics (phylomics).
Dr. Haramati is a Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Cellular & Molecular Biology as well as the Department of Medicine. His research interests focused on two main areas: the regulation of renal and electrolyte physiology during growth; and the cardiovascular-renal-endocrine regulation of volume homeostasis in heart failure. For the past 10 years he has led the educational initiative in CAM at Georgetown as part of his focus on medical education and rethinking how health professionals are trained. He is particularly interested in the intersection of science, mind-body medicine and professionalism.
Dr. Haramati has published over 200 scientific papers, book chapters and abstracts and is a recognized leader in Integrative Medicine.
Angela Barr is the Reference & Digital Information Services Coordinator at Dahlgren Memorial Library at the Georgetown University Medical Center. She maintains the DML web site and provides library instruction and research support to the patrons of DML. She currently sits as a voting member (scientist) on the Georgetown-MedStar Biomedical IRB Committee AB and on the GUSoM Committee of Medical Education’s Subcommittee for Evaluation and Assessment. Prior to her career at Georgetown, Angela previously held positions as a school librarian for Kainalu Elementary School, a high school biology/chemistry/anatomy teacher, and an American Red Cross Instructor/Trainer. She obtained her Masters of Library and Information Science degree from the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa and received her Bachelor of Science from the University of Michigan.
Grant Connors is the Education Services Coordinator Librarian for Dahlgren Memorial Library at Georgetown University Medical Center. Previously Grant was a resources librarian and then Clinical Data Management Librarian (also at DML), the latter including going on clinical rounds at Georgetown University Hospital. In addition to his Masters of Library Science from the University of North Texas, Grant also holds a BA in Journalism from State University of New York New Paltz.
Scott Dorris is the Associate Director of Research Services at Dahlgren Memorial Library (DML) at Georgetown University Medical Center. Prior to this position, he was the Digital Information Services Librarian at DML from 2008 to 2017. He provides library instruction and research support for Georgetown University Medical Center and affiliates at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital. He holds a Master’s in Library and Information Science from the University of Pittsburgh and a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology from The Pennsylvania State University.
Anca Dragomir is an Associate Professor in the Department of Oncology, with a secondary appointment in the Department of Biostatistics, Bioinformatics and Biomathematics (BBB). Dr. Dragomir has a Ph.D. degree in Epidemiology from the Gillings School of Global Public Health, UNC at Chapel Hill. She also holds a graduate degree in Mathematics from University of Timisoara, Romania. She has been awarded both a predoctoral and a postdoctoral NIH Intramural Research Training Award fellowship. She served as the epidemiologist for the Breast and Colon Cancer Family Registries Project (BCCFR) a large NCI contract awarded to the Innovation Center for Biomedical Informatics (ICBI) at Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center. She has also served as the Director of the Clinical and Molecular Epidemiology Shared Resource at LCCC. Her current research focuses on the epidemiology of colorectal and other gastrointestinal cancers, and also environmental exposures related to childhood cancers. The publication record of Dr. Dragomir includes 20 peer-reviewed publications and more than 40 abstracts presented at national and international conferences. She has more than ten years of work experience as an epidemiologist, including subject recruitment, questionnaire design, data collection, biospecimen collection/storage, biomarker measurement and evaluation, epidemiological analyses, and manuscript preparation.
Dr. Giordano is Editor-in-Chief of the journal Philosophy, Ethics and Humanities in Medicine, Associate Editor for the international journal Neuroethics, neuroscience and ethics editor (and former Deputy Editor-in-Chief) for the journal Pain Physician, ethics and policy section editor of Practical Pain Management, neuroscience editor for the multi-lingual journal Research in Complementary and Integrative Medicine (Forschende Komplementärmedizin), and Editor-in-Chief of the book series Advances in Neurotechnology: Ethical, Legal and Social Issues (published by Taylor-Francis/CRC Press). The author of over 120 publications in neuroscience, pain, neurophilosophy, and neuroethics, his recent books include: Pain: Mind, Meaning, and Medicine (PPM-Publishers’ Press); Scientific and Philosophical Perspectives in Neuroethics (with Bert Gordijn, Cambridge University Press); and Pain Medicine: Philosophy, Ethics and Policy (with Mark Boswell; Linton Atlantic Books). His ongoing research addresses the role of neuroscience and technology in medicine, social, and national defense applications, and explores the neuroethics of pain, pain care, and implications for the treatment of human and non-human organisms. Dr. Giordano is the course director of the Bioethics and Assessing the Evidence in CAM courses.
Nancy Harazduk is Assistant Professor of Family Medicine and Director of the Mind-Body Medicine Program at Georgetown University Medical Center. Ms. Harazduk has trained over 800 health professionals in mind-body medicine. She has a Master’s degree in education and a second Master’s in social work and took additional training in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction with Jon Kabat-Zinn, and is certified in Interactive Guided Imagery by the Academy of Guided Imagery. Dr. Haramati and Ms. Harazduk direct the training of faculty facilitators for the Mind-Body Medicine Skills course and Ms. Harazduk directs the course and oversees the supervision of all facilitators.
Jessica Jones is an Associate Professor with the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular & Biology. She obtained her PhD in Biochemistry from Georgetown University. Her research focus is on V(D)J recombination in the rearrangement of gene segments to assemble intact immunoglobulin and T cell receptor coding regions. This process is absolutely required for development of the immune system in jawed vertebrates such as humans, although its dysregulation can lead to leukemia or lymphoma. Rearrangement is initiated by a recombinase comprising the RAG1 and RAG2 proteins, which cleaves the DNA adjacent to the V, D, and J gene segments. Ubiquitylation is dependent on an intact RAG1 RING finger motif and is best promoted by a specific ubiquitin conjugating enzyme, UbcH3/CDC34. The significance of this activity is underscored by the finding that full length RAG1 is ubiquitylated in intact cells during G1, the phase of the cell cycle during which V(D)J recombination occurs. Although the RING finger lies outside of the RAG1 “core” domain, which is absolutely required for DNA cleavage, mutations within the RING or truncation of the amino terminal regions are associated with severe immune deficiency in human patients.
Joanna Kitlinska is an Associate Professor at the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular & Cellular Biology. Her research interests include pediatric tumors, as well as the effect of stress on cancer development and progression. She is trained in Mind-Body Medicine Skills. Dr. Kitlinska is the course director of the CAM in Oncology elective and the former co-director of the Fundamentals of Human Physiology. In addition, she is a facilitator of the Mind-Body groups.
Harry Preuss, Ph.D., is Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Cellular and Molecular Biology. Harry Preuss is a Professor in the Departments of Medicine and Pathology. He is also a Fellow of the American College of Nutrition (FACN), a Certified Nutrition Specialist (CNS), and has served as Co-Chairman of the GUMC Internal Review Board. His specialty is in the area of nutrition. His research interests are minimum inhibitory concentrations of herbal essential oils and monolaurin for gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria. Dr. Preuss is a lecturer in the Clinical Nutrition, Botanicals, and Supplements course.
Pamela Saunders, Associate Professor in the Department of Neurology, is a researcher in the area of neuroscience. She studies communication, aging and Alzheimer’s disease and has authored several articles dealing with doctor/patient communication in the older patient population. In addition to her research interests, Dr. Saunders is working with medical students to improve their skills in communicating with older patients. She is the director of the Narrative Approaches to Conventional Medicine and CAM elective course.
Ming Tan is the Chair and Professor of Biostatistics & Bioinformatics at Georgetown University. Dr. Tan has extensive collaborative research experience in the design, conduct and analysis of clinical trials (in both multi-center and single institutional settings), laboratory investigations, biomarker evaluation, genomics and epidemiological research. His research areas spans from clinical trial designs and monitoring, statistical methods for multidrug combinations utilizing both experimental data and pathway/system information, innovative methods to optimally design and efficiently analyze pre-clinical drug combination therapies in cancer by integrating concepts in modern statistical and number-theoretic methods and pharmacology; and high dimensional genomics data analysis in Cancer Epidemiology, all funded by the NCI and NHLBI.
Robert Yasuda is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Physiology. He is interested in the pharmacology and physiology of the neuronal nicotinic cholinergic receptors (nAChRs) involved in addiction and learning & memory. These receptors are acetylcholine gated ion channels that are formed by 5 transmembrane spanning protein subunits. Current interests include the role of nAChR mutations play in nicotine and other addictions as well of the how the stoichiometry of nAChRs change the function and expression of concatemeric nicotinic receptors by the study of covalently coupled nAChR subunits.
Martha Brown-Menard, PhD, LMT, is an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Cellular and Molecular Biology, Division of Integrative Physiology, at GUSOM where she lectures in the Evidence-Based Medicine Course on research methodology. An award-winning educator and author of several publications and a book on Making Sense of Statistics, Dr. Menard is also a Licensed Massage Therapist.
Daniel Mintie is a cognitive-behavioral therapist, teacher and writer. The author of five books, he teaches integrative approaches to wellness at universities and training centers worldwide. Founder of the All Things CBT practice and co-founder of the Integrative Trauma Recovery Program.
Jonathan Missner joined the faculty as an Adjunct Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center in 2000. He obtained his B.A. from Johns Hopkins, M.B.A. from George Washington University, and J.D. from Georgetown University. Professor Missner devoted his first fifteen years of his career to cutting edge health care endeavors. He founded and helped run an early stage research and development based pharmaceutical company devoted to women’s health; ran marketing at one of the nation’s largest physician practice management companies devoted to Medicare HMOs; held a senior position at Kaiser Permanente; and was the Executive Vice President and early founder of AmericasDoctor.com. Professor Missner was also the Senior Vice President of Marketing, Sales, and Internet Development at Phillips Health and their thriving vitamin business, Doctors’ Preferred, Inc. He is currently the Managing Partner of Stein Mitchell Beato & Missner LLP. He is also Chair of the firm’s Global Practices and Corporate Strategy Groups.
Dr. Deirdre Orceyre is a board certified naturopathic physician and acupuncturist and adjunct faculty in the Department of Biochemistry and Cellular and Molecular Biology, Division of Integrative Physiology at Georgetown University. She teaches nutrition and supplement education in the CAM program. In addition, Dr. Orceyre is the Naturopathic Medical Director at the GW Center for Integrative Medicine in Washington DC as well as a clinical provider at the complementary clinic of the GW Comprehensive Breast Care Center. She is dedicated to the principle of “docere” (the latin root of the word “doctor”, meaning “to teach”) in both her roles as professor and clinician.
Dr. Staples is an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Cellular and Molecular Biology, Division of Integrative Physiology, at GUSOM where she teaches the Western Practice of Eastern Medicine course. Her background is in cellular biology and immunology. She is the Research Director at the Center for Mind-Body Medicine. Her research focuses on the effectiveness of mind-body modalities with an emphasis on war-related post-traumatic stress. Dr. Staples is the Board President of the Guru Ram Das Center for Medicine and Humanology, a non-profit organization that provides health education and professional training on the use of yoga for people with diabetes. She is also a certified Kundalini yoga instructor teaching classes and workshops.
Dr. Wisneski is Clinical Professor of Medicine at George Washington University Medical Center and Adjunct Faculty in the Department of Biochemistry and Cellular and Molecular Biology, Division of Integrative Physiology, at Georgetown University where he is a founding member of the Complementary and Alternative Medicine Curriculum Planning Committee. He was Vice Chairman of the NIH Consensus Panel on Acupuncture and is Chairman of the NIH Advisory Board on Frontier Sciences at the University of Connecticut. He holds fellowship positions in The American College of Physicians, The American College of Nutrition, and The American Institute of Stress. He served on the board of the American Holistic Medical Association and was President of the International Society for the Study of Subtle Energies and Energy Medicine. He published over 30 scientific articles and a textbook, “The Scientific Basis of Integrative Medicine.” He has been in the clinical practice of endocrinology and integrative medicine for over 25 years.
Distinguished Visiting Faculty
Guilherme Albieri, Ph.D. Vice President for Student Affairs, Chief Diversity Officer, Director of International Programs, Director of the Confucius Institute for Healthcare, SUNY State College of Optometry
Ann Berger, MSN, M.D. Chief, Pain and Palliative Care, Clinical Center, National Institutes of Health
Sian Cotton, Ph.D. Professor of Family Medicine, Director, Center for Integrative Health and Wellness, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati, OH
David Eisenberg, M.D. Past Director, Osher Center for Integrative Medicine, Harvard Medical School and currently Director of Culinary Medicine, Culinary Institute of America and T.H. Chan Harvard School of Public Health
Gary Kaplan, D.O. Founder and Director, Kaplan Center of Integrative Medicine
Adam Perlman, M.D. Executive Director, Duke Integrative Medicine, Duke University Medical Center.
Ali Safayan, M.D., L.Ac. Director, Restorative Health Org. Senior Lecturer, Medical Acupuncture Course for physicians.
Jay Shah, M.D. Medical Rehabilitation Training Program, Clinical Center, National Institutes of Health
Peter Wayne, Ph.D. Director, Osher Center of Integrative Medicine, Harvard Medical School
John Weeks Past Executive Director, Academic Consortium of Complementary and Alternative Health Care (ACCAHC)
Heather Zwickey, Ph.D. Department Chair, health sciences, Professor and Senior Research Investigator, Associate Dean of Admissions, Former Dean of Research, National College of Natural Medicine.
