Plenary Speakers


Keynote Plenary: Mind-Body Movement and Whole Person Health

Helene Langevin

Helene Langevin

Director, National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH)
National Institutes of Health (NIH)
United States

Helene Langevin


Helene M. Langevin, M.D., is director of the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH). As NCCIH director, Dr. Langevin oversees the U.S. Federal government’s lead agency for research on the fundamental science, usefulness, and safety of complementary and integrative health approaches and their roles in improving health and health care. With an annual budget of approximately $170 million, NCCIH funds and conducts research to help answer important scientific and public health questions within the context of whole person health. The Center also coordinates and collaborates with other research institutes and Federal programs on research into complementary and integrative health. She is currently the chair of the Interagency Pain Research Coordinating Committee. Prior to coming to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in 2018, Dr. Langevin was the Director of the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine, jointly based at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston and professor-in-residence of medicine at Harvard Medical School from 2012 to 2018. She also previously served as professor of neurological sciences at the University of Vermont Larner College of Medicine, Burlington, Vermont. Over her career, Dr. Langevin’s research interests have centered around the role of connective tissue in chronic musculoskeletal pain and the mechanisms of acupuncture, manual, and movement-based therapies. Her more recent work has focused on the effects of stretching on inflammation resolution mechanisms within connective tissue. She is a fellow of the American College of Physicians. Dr. Langevin received an M.D. degree from McGill University, Montreal. She completed a postdoctoral research fellowship in neurochemistry at the MRC Neurochemical Pharmacology Unit in Cambridge, England, and a residency in internal medicine and fellowship in endocrinology and metabolism at The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland.

Plenary Panel 1: Whole Person Science Across the Systems

 
Brad Manor

Brad Manor

Associate Scientist
Marcus Institute, Hebrew SeniorLife
United States

Brad Manor


Brad Manor is the Director of the Mobility and Falls Research Center at Hebrew SeniorLife's Hinda and Arthur Marcus Institute for Aging Research. He is also an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Dr. Manor’s research goal is to alleviate the burden of balance decline that often accompanies biological aging into senescence. He works to achieve this goal by identifying links between brain function, balance, and falls in older adults, and designing interventions to improve balance by optimizing brain function and exploiting its adaptive properties.
Ahmed Tawakol

Ahmed Tawakol

Co-Director Cardiovascular Imaging Research Center
Mass General Hospital /Harvard Medical School
United States

Ahmed Tawakol


Ahmed Tawakol is Director of Nuclear Cardiology and Co-Director of the Cardiovascular Imaging Research Center at the MGH. He is Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He obtained his medical degree from Stanford Medical School, then trained at Brigham and Women’s Hospital for Internal Medicine, Cardiology, and MGH for Nuclear Cardiology. Dr. Tawakol pioneered PET/CT methods for imaging atherosclerotic plaques ; his group developed and validated molecular imaging as a tool to assess atherosclerotic plaque inflammation in humans. Using that approach, his group is assessing novel treatments directed against atherosclerotic inflammation in humans and is studying disease mechanisms that trigger cardiovascular disease events. Notably, Dr Tawakol’s research includes a focus on multi-organ mechanisms by which stress and depression cause cardiovascular diseases. His team provided the first in-human observation linking stress-associated neural activity to subsequent CVD events, thus providing mechanistic insights into how psychosocial stress promotes CVD. He is principal investigator on multiple studies funded by the NIH, industrial sponsors, and foundations.
Evan Thompson

Evan Thompson

Professor of Philosophy
University of British Columbia
United States

Evan Thompson


Evan Thompson, PhD is Professor of Philosophy at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver and an Associate Member of the Department of Asian Studies and the Department of Psychology (Cognitive Science Group). He is the author of Mind in Life: Biology, Phenomenology and the Sciences of Mind; Waking, Dreaming, Being: Self and Consciousness in Neuroscience, Meditation, and Philosophy; and co-author of The Embodied Mind: Cognitive Science and Human Experience.

Plenary Panel 2: State of the Science in Tai Chi & Qigong Research #1

 
Jian Kong

Jian Kong

Professor
Massachusetts General Hospital
United States

Jian Kong


Jian Kong is a Professor at Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), Harvard Medical School. He is an editorial board member of several journals, and an ad hoc reviewer for more than 100 journals. His research interests focus on pain perception and modulation; placebo and nocebo effects, the brain pathophysiology of chronic pain, depression, cognitive decline and autism; and how alternative medicine (such as acupuncture, mind-body interventions and imagery) and neuromodulation methods can modulate brain circuitry in these disorders using multidisciplinary brain imaging tools. He has published about 183 peer-reviewed articles and 6 book chapters in the related field (H index = 67).
Helen Lavretsky

Helen Lavretsky

Professor In-Residence in the Department of Psychiatry
UCLA
United States

Helen Lavretsky


Dr. Helen Lavretsky is a Professor In-Residence in the Department of Psychiatry at UCLA and a geriatric integrative psychiatrist with federally funded research program in geriatric depression and integrative mental health using mind-body interventions. She is a recipient of the Career Development award from NIMH and the NCCIH, and other prestigious research awards. Her current research studies include investigations of psychopharmacological treatment of geriatric depression, mild cognitive impairment and the use of Tai Chi for treatment and prevention of late-life mood and cognitive disorders. She is the Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, American association for Geriatric Psychiatry, and the Fellow of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, and the recipient of the Distinguished Investigator awards for research in geriatric psychiatry from the American College of Psychiatrists and the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry. She is the Director of research for the UCLA Integrative Medicine Collaborative and the Director of Integrative Psychiatry program She is the President of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry.
Fuzhong Li

Fuzhong Li

United States

Fuzhong Li


Coming Soon!
 
 
William Tsang

William Tsang

Professor
Department of Physiotherapy, Hong Kong Metropolitan University
China

William Tsang


William has broad clinical experience in various sectors of physiotherapy with expertise in geriatric rehabilitation. He is now the Associate Dean of School of Nursing and Health Studies and head of Department of Physiotherapy, Hong Kong Metropolitan University. William now serves as the Chairman of the Hong Kong Physiotherapy Registration Committee and member of the Physiotherapists Board, Hong Kong. William’s research interest is in area of postural control and preventative exercise including Tai Chi, qigong and Western exercises. He has publication on postural and balance control and improvement through exercise, working particularly with older adults with mild cognitive impairment, stroke and cancer survivors.
Albert Yeung

Albert Yeung

Dr.
Harvard Medical School
United States

Albert Yeung


Dr. Albert Yeung is Director of Primary Care Research at the Depression Clinical and Research Program at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Yeung obtained his medical degree from National Taiwan University. He also obtained a master degree and a Doctor of Science degree with a major in epidemiology from Harvard School of Public Health. He completed his psychiatry residency training at MGH. Dr. Yeung's major research interests include integrating primary care and mental health services to improve treatment of depression, mental health issues of underserved populations, and the use of complementary and alternative methods including acupuncture, tai chi, qigong, and mind body group intervention in treating anxiety and depressive disorders. He has authored or co-authored over 150 original articles, numerous book chapters, a book on self-management of depression, and a book on the science of stress.

Plenary Panel 3: Implementation of Mind-Body Practices in Contemporary Healthcare

 
Dan Seitz

Dan Seitz

United States

Dan Seitz


Coming Soon!
John Weeks

John Weeks

Retired Editor
Retired Editor - The Integrator/JACM
United States

John Weeks


John Weeks has been involved in the integrative health field for 38 years as writer, executive, consultant, editor, and speaker. His services on integrative initiatives have been utilized by the NIH, Washington State Office of the Insurance Commissioner, WHO, PAHO, India's NITI Aayog, and multiple academic, professional and industry stakeholders. He recently served 5-years as Editor-in-Chief of JACM where he continues as Contributing Editor, Special Projects and Collaborations. Urging whole person research has been a through-line in his work. He grew up camping in the glorious forests of the Olympics and Cascades and regularly bathes in them now.
Alison Whitehead

Alison Whitehead

United States

Alison Whitehead


Coming Soon!

Plenary Panel 4: State of the Science in Tai Chi & Qigong Research #2

Michael  Irwin

Michael Irwin

Norman Cousins Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences
University of California, Los Angeles
United States

Michael Irwin


Michael R. Irwin, M.D. is Norman Cousins Distinguished Professor in Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Science at the UCLA Geffen School of Medicine, Director of the Norman Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology, and Director of the Mindful Awareness Research Center. He has made pioneering contributions to understanding to the role of Tai Chi and mindfulness interventions to boost antiviral immunity, reverse inflammation, and to treat insomnia in older adults. In 2003, his research showed that Tai Chi boosted vaccine responses to varicella zoster virus, which was cited among the top 10 “research highlights” by NCCAM. He first demonstrated that Tai Chi was effective and non-inferior to cognitive behavioral treatment of insomnia (CBT-I), the “gold standard”, in the durable treatment of insomnia in older adults and cancer survivors, with additional benefits in reversing systemic, cellular, and transcriptional markers of inflammation. Finally, he has found that Tai chi is an effective approach to reduce central obesity in older adults. His broader research has provided foundational understanding of the role of sleep in the regulation of immunity, the impact of insomnia and inflammation on depression, and the efficacy of insomnia treatment to prevent incident and recurrent major depressive disorder in older adults.
Wolf Mehling

Wolf Mehling

MD
University of California, San Francisco
United States

Wolf Mehling


Trained in Germany as a Family Physician with board certifications for Manual Medicine and Psychotherapy, Dr. Mehling moved with his family to the U.S. and completed a second residency and a Clinical Research Fellowship. He is on faculty at the University of California, San Francisco in the Department of Family and Community Medicine and the Osher Center for Integrative Health. Doing research on mind-body interventions for low back pain, PTSD, and cognitive impairment, Dr. Mehling is particularly interested in the role of interoceptive bodily awareness in contemplative practice and health. Dr. Mehling led a team that developed the Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness.
Byeongsang Oh

Byeongsang Oh

Associate Professor
Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Sydney
Australia

Byeongsang Oh


Associate Professor Byeongsang Oh, Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Sydney, and visiting Professor, University of Kansas Medical School, USA, is an integrative oncology practitioner (evidence-based complementary and lifestyle medicine) with clinical and research interests in Medical Tai Chi/Qigong mind-body medicine and lifestyle medicine including the microbiome. He introduced integrative medicine services at the Royal North Shore Hospital (RNSH), GenesisCare, and the Mater Hospital in Sydney, Australia, and specializes in integrative oncology. Dr Oh has research and clinical experience at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI) and Harvard Medical School (HMS), USA, and has collaborated in integrative oncology research projects with DFCI, HMS, Arizona State University, and the University of Kansas Medical School. Dr Oh is one of the founding members and current president of the International Medical Tai Chi Qigong Association (iMTQA).
Chenchen Wang

Chenchen Wang

Professor of Medicine
Tufts Medicine
United States

Chenchen Wang


Dr. Chenchen Wang is a Professor of Medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine and Director of the Center for Integrative Medicine at Tufts Medical Center. Her work is focused on Integrative Medicine treatment strategies to promote health and healing in patients with chronic medical conditions. As principal investigator, Dr. Wang has been awarded numerous US National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants to test the health benefits of mind-body therapies. She is also the privileged recipient of a 10-year NIH Mid-career Investigator Award in Patient-Oriented Research and currently provides significant mentorship to global researchers in clinical and translational integrative medicine with a multi-disciplinary team of trained scientists. These projects have provided the opportunity to define the role of integrative mind-body medicine in the management of chronic medical conditions. Dr. Wang's mentoring efforts have resulted in the production of over 150 peer-reviewed publications by her trainees from 2000-2022 in the field.

Plenary Panel 5: New Frontiers in Energy Medicine and Biofields

 
Andrew Ahn

Andrew Ahn

Chief Medical Offier & Osher Affiliate Faculty
Labfront + Osher Research Center
United States

Andrew Ahn


Andrew Ahn is Chief Medical/Science Officer at Labfront - a physiological research platform - and an affiliate faculty at BWH Osher Research for Integrative Medicine. He is a physician-scientist with an interest in marrying high-tech with healing art with the ultimate goal of advancing health and wellness.
Richard Hammerschlag

Richard Hammerschlag

Consciousness & Healing Initiative
United States

Richard Hammerschlag


Richard Hammerschlag PhD, has had several research careers: 25 years in neurobiology, mainly at the City of Hope National Medical Center, Duarte CA (where he served as Associate Chair, Division of Neurosciences); the next 10 years in acupuncture and Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM), based at the Oregon College of Oriental Medicine in Portland, OR (where he was the founding Director of Research). During this latter decade, his research projects included NIH-funded studies on conventional medicine/CAM collaborations, whole systems research and research education. He also served as co-president of the Society for Acupuncture Research and as an Executive Editor of the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine. At present, in his ‘retirement’, Richard is engaged in defining the emerging area of Biofield Physiology, as an Institute Scholar with The Nova Institute for Health, Baltimore, MD and as Co-Director of Research & Innovation for the Consciousness and Healing Initiative, La Jolla, CA.
Mike Levin

Mike Levin

United States

Mike Levin


Coming Soon!