The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) welcomes six new members to the National Advisory Council for Complementary and Alternative Medicine. The council serves as the principal advisory body to NCCAM, the lead federal agency for research on complementary medicine, and a component of the National Institutes of Health.
The highly distinguished NCCAM council — composed of physicians, scientists, complementary health practitioners, and members of the public — represents a broad range of science and practice. Members serve a four year term and meet three times per year to provide second level peer review, as well as other advice and recommendations on the prioritization of complementary and integrative health research.
New council members include:
Catherine Bushnell, Ph.D., is the Harold Griffith professor of anesthesia and professor in dentistry and neurology at McGill University, Montreal. Previously, she was the director of McGill University's Alan Edwards Centre for Research on Pain. In addition, Dr. Bushnell won the Frederick Kerr Award for Basic Research in Pain from the American Pain Society and received the Distinguished Career Award from the Canadian Pain Society. She is president of the Canadian Pain Society and treasurer of the International Association for the Study of Pain. Her research projects focus on using brain imaging techniques to study how pain is processed by the nervous system in humans.
Jane Guiltinan, N.D., is the dean of the School of Naturopathic Medicine at Bastyr University, Seattle. Dr. Guiltinan has also served as a clinical professor, medical director, and dean of clinical affairs at Bastyr. She was the co-medical director for the King County Natural Medicine Clinic, the first publicly funded integrated health clinic in the United States. Dr. Guiltinan is principal investigator on an NCCAM grant to increase the teaching and practice of evidence-based medicine within the naturopathic medical school curriculum at Bastyr. Dr. Guiltinan's practice is focused on women's health, disease prevention, and wellness promotion.
Scott Haldeman, D.C., M.D., Ph.D., is adjunct professor in the Department of Epidemiology at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is also a clinical professor in the Department of Neurology at the University of California, Irvine, and visiting professor at the Southern California University of Health Sciences. He is past-president of the North American Spine Society, the American Back Society, the North American Academy of Manipulative Medicine, and the Orange County Neurological Society. He is chairman of the Research Council of the World Federation of Chiropractic and serves as president of World Spine Care, a non-profit organization which helps people who suffer from spinal disorders in underserved regions of the world.
Frances C. Henderson, R.N., Ed.D., is a clinical professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson. Throughout her career, Dr. Henderson has been recognized for her work in promoting health in adolescents, minority elderly, and rural individuals. She is special assistant to the principal investigator of the Jackson Heart Study, the largest population-based study of heart and related diseases in African-Americans. Previously, Dr. Henderson was dean of the School of Nursing at Alcorn State University, Claiborne, Miss. She received the Cultural Diversity Award from the Board of Trustees of State Institutions of Higher Learning, State of Mississippi and was invited by the National League for Nursing to serve on a think tank focused on expanding diversity in the nurse-educator workforce.
John Licciardone, D.O., is associate dean for clinical research and executive director of the Osteopathic Research Center at the University of North Texas Health Science Center, Fort Worth. He has served as a consulting expert on osteopathy to the World Health Organization, as a panelist on the NCCAM Workshop on Deconstructing Back Pain, and as a reviewer of NCCAM grant applications. He is a member of the American Osteopathic Association's Mentor Hall of Fame, having mentored students and beginning clinician investigators in osteopathic
medicine, biomedical sciences, and public health. He serves as principal investigator for the OSTEOPAThic Health outcomes In Chronic low back pain Trial, a 5-year study partially funded by NCCAM that examines the effectiveness of osteopathic manipulative therapies on chronic low back pain.
Lynda H. Powell, Ph.D., is the Charles J. and Margaret Roberts professor and chairman of the Department of Preventative Medicine at Rush University Medical Center, Chicago. Her research interests include women's psychosocial and cardiovascular health as well as lifestyle interventions aimed at reducing the risk for developing type-2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. She is the principal investigator at the Chicago site for the NIH-funded Obesity Reduction Black Intervention Trial where she is developing a behavioral intervention to prevent menopause-related increase in abdominal fat in pre-menopausal women. Dr. Powell is a licensed clinical psychologist, cardiovascular epidemiologist, and co-director and founding faculty member of the NIH Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Summer Institute for Behavioral Randomized Trials.
The mission of the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) is to define, through rigorous scientific investigation, the usefulness and safety of complementary and alternative medicine interventions and their roles in improving health and health care. For additional information, call NCCAM's Clearinghouse toll free at 1-888-644-6226, or visit the NCCAM Web site at nccam.nih.gov.
SOURCE