Susan Samueli
was born and raised in Los Angeles, CA and received her B.A. in Mathematics from
UC Berkeley in 1972. From 1972 to 1985 she was with IBM Corporation where she
worked initially in the Federal Systems Division, Westlake Village, CA, as a
Staff Programmer on various military software projects, and subsequently as a
Systems Engineer in the National Marketing Division, Los Angeles, CA, providing
technical marketing and sales support for IBM's mid-range computer systems. In
1985 she left IBM and focused her energy on raising her children at which time
she developed a keen interest in alternative health care. She developed an
active consulting practice in the areas of nutrition, homeopathy, and Chinese
herbs and subsequently received a Ph.D. in nutrition from the American Holistic
College of Nutrition in 1993 and a Diploma in Homeopathy from the British
Institute of Homeopathy in 1994. Susan enjoys golfing, exercise and fitness
training, swimming and snorkeling, reading, music and dancing.
Henry Samueli was born in Buffalo, NY and grew up in Los Angeles, CA. His
parents (both deceased) were born and raised in Poland and moved to the United
States in 1950 after surviving the Holocaust. Henry received his B.S., M.S. and
Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from UCLA in 1975, 1976, and 1980,
respectively. From 1980-1985, he worked in the defense industry and held
various engineering and management positions in the Electronics and Technology
Division of TRW, Inc., Redondo Beach, CA. From 1985-1995 he was a professor in
the Electrical Engineering Department at UCLA where he supervised advanced
research programs in broadband communications circuits and published over 100
papers on the subject. In 1988 he co-founded PairGain Technologies, a
telecommunications equipment manufacturer, and served as Chief Scientist of the
company until 1994. In 1991 he co-founded Broadcom Corporation where he
currently serves as Chairman of the Board and Chief Technical Officer. He is
responsible for driving the vision of Broadcom's research and development
activities as well as helping coordinate corporate-wide engineering development
strategies. Broadcom is a global leader in providing semiconductor solutions
that enable broadband communications and networking of high-speed data,
high-definition video, voice and audio, at home, in the office and on the go.
Broadcom had revenues of $2.4 billion in 2004 and employed 3,400 people
worldwide at year end. Henry is an avid skier and enjoys music, playing guitar,
basketball, exercise and fitness training and hiking.
Since relocating to Orange County, CA in 1995, Susan and Henry have become very
active in the community. Susan is on the boards of Opera Pacific, Temple Beth
El, Orangewood Children's Foundation and the Susan Samueli Center for
Integrative Medicine at UC Irvine’s College of Medicine. Henry serves on the UC
President’s Board on Science and Innovation, the UCLA Chancellor’s
Competitiveness Council, the Board of Trustees of the UC Irvine Foundation, the
UC Irvine Chief Executive Roundtable, and the Industrial Advisory Boards of the
Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science at UCLA and the Henry
Samueli School of Engineering at UC Irvine. In 2000 he was awarded the
University of California Presidential Medal, the UC Irvine Medal, and the UCLA
School of Engineering and Applied Science Alumnus of the Year. He was elected a
Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) in 2000,
a member of the National Academy of Engineering in 2003, and a Fellow of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2004. In 2005 he was awarded an
Honorary Doctorate of Science degree from the Technion-Israel Institute of
Technology and was named UCLA Alumnus of the Year.
The success of Broadcom Corporation has provided
Susan and Henry the opportunity to support many worthwhile organizations. Since
Broadcom’s public offering in 1998 they have committed over $180 million in
grants and pledges to charitable causes and in 2003 and 2004 they were listed
among BusinessWeek’s 50 Most Generous Philanthropists in the nation. The Samueli
Foundation (www.samueli.org)
provides grants to nonprofit organizations in five major program areas:
Education, Health, Social Services, Spirituality & Interfaith, and The Arts.
Some of their more important philanthropic gifts have been to:
·
The Henry Samueli School of Engineering and
Applied Science at UCLA
·
The Henry Samueli School of Engineering at
UC Irvine
·
The Susan Samueli Center for Integrative
Medicine at UC Irvine
·
The Samueli Institute for Information
Biology (www.siib.org)
supporting medical research in the Biology of Healing
·
The Samueli Jewish Campus, Irvine, CA – 30
acre campus housing the Orange County Jewish Community Center, Jewish
Federation, Jewish Family Service, Bureau of Jewish Education, Hillel, B’nai Brith Youth Organization, and Tarbut V’ Torah K-12 Community Day School
·
Temple Beth El, The Samueli Center for
Progressive Judaism, Aliso Viejo, CA
·
Kehilat Ra’anan, The Samueli Center for
Progressive Judaism, Ra’anana, Israel
·
The Sala and Aron Samueli Holocaust Memorial
Library at Chapman University, Orange, CA
·
The Samueli Theater of the Orange County
Performing Arts Center
·
The Ocean Institute, Dana Point, CA
expansion project
·
Opera Pacific, Orange County’s opera company
·
Orangewood Children’s Foundation, providing
shelter and care for abused and neglected children in Orange County
Key Staff and Consultants
Wayne B. Jonas, M.D., is the founding Director of
the Samueli Institute for Information Biology™ (SIIB). Wayne has a long and
distinguished career as a student, practitioner, and researcher of complementary
and alternative medical (CAM) practices. His broad and authoritative knowledge
of CAM topics have led to positions as an organization administrator,
international conference chairman, speaker and panel moderator, and peer
reviewer and author of books and articles on CAM topics. In addition to his
position as Director of the Samueli Institute, he is currently an Associate
Professor of Family Medicine at the Uniformed Services University of Health
Sciences (USUHS) in Bethesda, Maryland, where he co-founded a CAM curriculum.
Wayne served as Director of the Office of Alternative Medicine (OAM) at the
National Institutes of Health (NIH) from 1995 until 1999 and prior to that was
Director of the Medical Research Fellowship at Walter Reed Army Institute of
Research, Washington, D.C. There he taught research methodology and conducted
laboratory research in immunology and toxicology. A retired Lieutenant Colonel
in the U.S. Army, he was formerly Commander and Clinic Director of the 130th
General Hospital in Dexheim, Germany. He also worked for two years as a
consultant in health promotion policy for the Office of the Surgeon General of
the Army.
A graduate of Davidson College and Bowman Gray School of Medicine in North
Carolina, Dr. Jonas completed both his Internship and Residency at DeWitt Army
Hospital and a Medical Research Fellowship at the Walter Reed Army Institute of
Research in Washington, DC. In addition to his conventional medical education,
he is trained in homeopathy, bioenergy therapy, diet and nutritional therapy,
mind/body methods, spiritual healing, electro-acupuncture diagnostics, and
clinical pastoral education. He has conducted research, as well as written about
a variety of research approaches, including clinical trials, laboratory methods,
outcomes research, practice-based research, systematic reviews, and
meta-analysis. His current research interests include projects on Information
Biology™, toxicology, stroke, cancer, the biological effects of low level
exposures (BELLE) and homeopathy, spiritual and "energy" healing, placebo, and
the effects of research methodology on outcomes.
He is certified by the American Board of Family Practice, the American Board of
Homeotherapeutics, and the National Board of Medical Examiners.
E-mail:Wjonas@siib.org
Christine Goertz, D.C., Ph.D. is the Deputy
Director for the Samueli Institute. She received her
Doctor of Chiropractic (D.C.) degree from Northwestern Health Sciences
University and her Ph.D. in Health Services Research and Policy from the
University of Minnesota. She is also certified as a chemical
dependency/addiction counselor and in the practice of acupuncture.
Christine's current research is focused on Complementary and
Alternative Medicine within the military health care setting and Traditional
Medicine for HIV/AIDS and cancer. Before joining the Institute, she spent
three years as a Program Officer at the National Center for Complementary and
Alternative Medicine (NCCAM), National Institutes of Health (NIH), managing a
portfolio focused on musculoskeletal disease, pain, alcohol/addiction and health
services research. Prior to the NIH, she was Vice-President of Research
and Policy at the American Chiropractic Association and an NIH-funded
post-doctoral fellow at the University of Minnesota. Her research
interests have focused on CAM treatments for cardiovascular disease and acute
pain syndromes, the potential impact of belief systems on treatment outcomes and
quality of care issues.
Christine has formerly served as President of the Bethesda
Chapter Board of the Association for Women in Science (AWIS), Chair of the
Chiropractic Health Section of the American Public Health Association (APHA) a
Member of the APHA Action Board, Chair of the Minnesota Chiropractic
Association's Legislative and National Health Policy Committees and as a
provider-alternate to the Minnesota Health Care Commission.
E-mail: Cgoertz@siib.org
John A. Ives, Ph.D. is the Director of
Basic Science for the Samueli Institute.
Research efforts under his direction include the proteomics of homeopathic
neuroprotection, anti-cancer effects of homeopathy, low and ultra-low dose
protection from chemical and biological weapons, as well as the modification of
immunological response through low and ultra-low dose pretreatment. John
is also directing an effort to establish a biochemical assay for homeopathic
remedies and is directing vigorous research into the underlying mechanisms of
homeopathic action in general. Other projects under his direction include
laboratory research into human bioenergy.
Before coming to work at the Institute, John was Co-Founder and President of a
company specializing in the design and engineering of natural solutions to
wastewater treatment and recycling. While running his company John designed
innovative natural treatment systems for residential use and published peer
reviewed papers on these systems. He also successfully competed for a Small
Business Initiative Research Grant from the Department of Defense to apply this
technology on military installations. The company has grown since John’s
departure and continues to prosper.
John received his Ph.D. in Biology from Georgetown University where he went on
to hold a position as Associate Research Professor. Under an
Intergovernmental Personnel Act award, John established and managed the
Biophysics Laboratory at the Naval Medical Research Institute (NMRI) in
Bethesda, Maryland from 1986 - 1989. While at NMRI, John studied the electrophysiology of rat
pineal gland and cellular mechanisms underlying biorhythm regulation. He also
has published work on the neuroimmunological regulation of the human immune
system cells.
E-mail: Jives@siib.org
Harald Walach, Ph.D., is the head of the European
branch of the Samueli Institute™ (SIIB). He is looking
back on a long career of the study, research and teaching of CAM research
methods, philosophy of science, clinical psychology and transpersonal
psychology. Harald is considered as one of the most distinguished European
researchers in the field of CAM, his main interest focused on the importance of
non-specific and placebo effects.
In 1990 he obtained a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology at the University of Bale
with a homeopathic remedy proving, followed in 1995 by a further Ph.D. thesis in
Philosophy and History of Science at the University of Vienna on “Notitia
Experimentalis Dei – Experiential Knowledge of God. Studies of Hugh of Balmas
Text ‘Viae Sion lugent’”. In 1998 Harald obtained habilitation at Freiburg
University with his thesis on the importance of non-specific effects of therapy
at the example of homeopathy.
He is also the editor of the CAM research journal Forschende
Komplementärmedizin und Klassische Naturheilkunde – Research in Complementary
and Classical Natural Medicine.
E-mail: harald.walach@northampton.ac.uk
William “Mac” Beckner, MIS is the Director of
Information Technology and Communications for the Samueli Institute. Technology
efforts under his direction include development, implementation and management
of SIIB Electronic Data Capture capabilities and SIIB website, extranet,
intranet, and virtual workplaces. Prior to joining SIIB he served as the
Director of Information at the Center for Integrative Medicine (CIM) at the
University of Maryland School of Medicine. While at CIM he was active in the
Cochrane Collaboration Complementary Medicine Field, an NIH funded international
program aimed at collecting, evaluating and disseminating research in CAM. Mac
received his MIS and his BS from the University of Maryland. He is the
author of the book, Complementary Therapies on the Internet: A Guide for
Healthcare Professionals, Churchill Livingston, London. January 2003.
E-mail:Wbeckner@siib.org
Tory Carper, MPA is the Director of Grants
and Contract Administration and the Executive Officer for Administrative
Operations for the Samueli Institute. She is responsible for the management of
proposal submission and the administration of awards, grants and contracts.
Tory has spent the last 20 years in the administration of National Institutes of
Health award management, supervision, and policy coordination. Prior to joining
the Institute, she held positions as the Assistant Grants Compliance Officer for
the Office of Policy for Extramural Research Administration (NIH Office of the
Director), the Chief Grants Management Officer for the National Center for
Complementary and Alternative Medicine where she served as the first Grants
Management Officer, and Section Chief for Grants Management Branch of the
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. She holds a MPA from
American University, Washington, DC, and a BS in Social Work from James Madison
University, VA.
E-mail:Tcarper@siib.org
Joan Walter, P.A-C, J.D is the Senior Clinical Research Associate. She is responsible
for the program management including clinical research in the military, writing
grants, developing research agreements, establishing clinical research
protocols, and preparing scientific papers for publication. She holds a J.D.
degree from Rutgers University and a B S, Physician’s Assistant, from Touro
College/SUNY-Stony Brook. Her work experience includes positions held at both
civilian and military facilities. Before coming to SIIB, Joan was the
Scientific Director and Site Program Manager at National Naval Medical Center
for the Comprehensive Neuroscience Program as an employee of the Henry M.
Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine. She also served
earlier as the Assistant Director for Clinical Services as a Physician’s
Assistant for the Brain Injury Center at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
Email:jwalter@siib.org
Barbara Findlay is the
Director of Optimal Healing Environments (OHE) at the Samueli Institute. Prior
to joining the Institute Barb was the Nursing Practice Leader for the BC
NurseLine, Executive Director of the Tzu Chi Institute for Complementary and
Alternative Medicine, and Corporate Educator at the Richmond Hospital (Richmond,
BC). She has also worked as an independent consultant in the area of
integrative health care, and is an Adjunct Professor at the University of
British Columbia School of Nursing. As a researcher she has authored 7
peer-reviewed manuscripts, authored abstracts, grants, and reports, and
presented at meetings both nationally and internationally. She holds a Bachelor
of Science in Nursing from the University of British Columbia and is currently
earning her graduate degree from Simon Fraser University.
Email: bfindlay@siib.org
Leda Maria Cummings, Ph.D. is
the Senior Scientist for Basic Science and Lab Chief at the SIIB Laboratory of
Basic Sciences. Dr. Cummings has a Ph.D. in Microbiology and Immunology from
Sao Paulo School of Medicine, Sao Paulo Federal University, Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Before coming to SIIB Dr. Cummings worked at the National Institute of General
Medical Sciences, Center for Scientific Review and National Center for
Biotechnology Information. Prior to these assignments, Dr. Cummings was a
senior investigator at The Institute for Genomic Research working on the malaria
genome. She has published this work in Nature and Science. Dr. Cummings
is also a founding member of the National Human Genome Research Institute, where
she did a post-doctoral training. With expertise in Genomics, Proteomics,
Bioinformatics, and her experience with NIH extramural research management and
administration, Dr. Cummings is the Lab Chief of the SIIB Laboratory of Basic
Sciences in a newly developed facility in Germantown, Maryland.
E-mail:Lcummings@siib.org
Mathew J. Fritts,
M.P.H. is a Research Associate for clinical research projects at the Samueli
Institute with responsibilities for grant writing and contract development to
build research capacity for projects and programs. Prior to joining the
Institute, he was a Presidential Management Intern and then Program Analyst for
the National Cancer Institute (NCI), National Institutes of Health (NIH), where
he analyzed, coordinated and worked to advance research on tobacco and nicotine
addiction across the NCI, NIH, and Department of Health and Human Services. He
has also worked with Dr. Dean Ornish on implementation of and adherence to his
comprehensive lifestyle modification program for CAD patients. Matt received
his M.P.H. in Epidemiology and Biostatistics at The George Washington University
School of Public Health and Health Services, Washington, D.C., and his Bachelor
of Arts from the University of Virginia.
E-mail:Mfritts@siib.org
Stefan Schmidt, PhD, is a research fellow at evaluation group for
complementary medicine at the University Hospital, Freiburg. He has studied
Psychology at the Universities of Constance and Freiburg and earned a Masters
degree in 1996 with a thesis on a dowsing experiment. He was a research fellow
at the Institute for Frontier Sciences in Freiburg, Germany. In 2002 he obtained
a PhD in Psychology for a thesis on the effects of distant intentions. He has
conducted experiments and meta-analyses on distant intention studies with
psychophysiological parameters. His major research interests are
Psychophysiology, Parapsychology, Mindfulness Meditation, Healing Studies, CAM
research, placebo research and methodological questions such as e.g.
meta-analyses or the notion of replication within science. Currently he is
conducting amongst other a three armed randomized clinical study on the effect
of mindfulness meditation for patients suffering from fibromyalgia.
Stefan has also training as a systemic counselor and as a systemic supervisor
with a longstanding experience in marital counseling, family counseling, play
therapy and supervision.
E-mail:Sschmidt@sun11uki.uni-freiburg.de
Rainer Schneider, Ph.D is Research Manager and proxy to Harald Walach at the
European Office of the Samueli Institute and the Section of Research Evaluation
of Complementary Medicine at the University Hospital Freiburg. Rainer studied
psychology and sports sciences with a special focus on clinical psychology,
diagnostics, psychophysiology, psychosomatic psychology, developmental
psychology, and counseling psychology. He earned his Psychology Diploma degree
in 1995 on Personal Optimism, and received his Ph.D in 2001 on the experimental
investigation of self-regulatory mechanisms in a parapsychological context from
a functional-analytic approach.
Rainer’s active research interests are in placebo effects, non-local (acausal)
interaction phenomena (DMILS, distant healing), self-regulation, personality,
motivation, complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), as well as
experimental and theoretical psychology. Part of his assignment furthermore
involves the evaluation and supervision of CAM and psychological research (e.g.,
homeopathic remedy provings, placebo and expectancy effects, self-regulation and
human resources in normal and deviant behavior).
Rainer is trained in counseling and coaching on enhancement of motivation,
goal-attainment, and personal resources in a special process-oriented
personality approach. He is also a certified and licensed personal fitness and
bodybuilding trainer.
E-mail: Rainer.schneider@uniklink-freiburg.de
Cindy Crawford, BA is an investigator at the Samueli Institute for Information
Biology™ (SIIB) in Alexandria, VA and the Uniformed Services University of the
Health Sciences, Bethesda, MD. She has been a research assistant to the director
of SIIB for six years and has been involved in many projects having to do with
spiritual healing, energy medicine, and intentionality research. She is
currently involved in conducting systematic reviews on topics that relate
directly to SIIB research agenda and mission. She has received training in the
Cochrane Review methods and is proficient in SPSS. She has experience with
writing manuscripts, formatting manuscripts for publication
.
E-mail:Ccrawford@siib.org
Damara Cockfield, MPA is a Project
Coordinator for Military Programs with the responsibility of coordinating
various clinical trials at military medical treatment facilities in the
Washington, DC area. Prior to coming to the Samueli Institute she worked
for the Department of Health and Human Services researching, analyzing, and
conducting a program evaluation of the U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services (HHS) HIV/AIDS grant programs for FY 2003. She also held positions
as a Corporate Legal Assistant at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP in NYC, and
as an Academic Specialist at the University of Connecticut. She has a
Master of Public Administration degree from the University of Connecticut
Department of Public Policy and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Dartmouth
College.
E-mail:Dcockfield@siib.org