Symposium Presenter Bios

Dr. Belinda Anderson is the Founding Director of the Institute for Health and Wellness at Monmouth University, and a Clinical Associate Professor at Albert Einstein College of Medicine (Bronx, NY). She earned her PhD in Molecular Biology from the University of Sydney (Australia), her Masters in Higher Education from Teachers College Columbia University, and her Masters in Acupuncture from Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences. Dr. Anderson is a member of the NIH National Advisory Council for Complementary and Integrative Health, is an associate editor for Explore: The Journal of Science and Healing, and co-chair of the Research Working Group of the Academic Collaborative for Integrative Health. Her federally-funded research is in the field of integrative health and medicine and includes clinical trials for pain treatment in the underserved, and designing and assessing learning outcomes associated with evidence-based medicine training. From 2009-2018 she was in private practice at New York University Fertility Center and is an internationally recognized expert in the use of acupuncture to improve assisted reproductive outcomes.

Alice Bell is on staff as a senior payment specialist in the Public Affairs Unit of the American Physical Therapy Association. Prior to joining APTA in November 2017, Alice was actively involved in CMMI demonstration projects focused on alternative payment models and integrated care delivery models. She received a bachelor’s degree in physical therapy from Northeastern University in Boston, MA and a doctor of physical therapy degree from the University of Montana. A board-certified clinical specialist in geriatric physical therapy, she has lectured and written many articles on topics related to physical therapy and the older adult. She has practiced in a variety of settings and has 37 years of experience as a physical therapist. Dr. Bell has presented at many national conferences. Her professional activities include serving as a member of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Technical Expert Panel for Skilled Nursing Alternative Payment Systems, APTA staff representative for the CPT Editorial Panel, APTA appointee to the NDHI Opioid Crisis Workgroup, APTA appointee to the National Quality Partnership Opioid Stewardship Action Team, member of the National Quality Partnership Opioid Stewardship Steering Committee, and member of the National Quality Partnership Leadership Consortium.

Daniel Blaney-Koen is a senior legislative attorney with the American Medical Association Advocacy Resource Center (ARC). Koen has held several roles at the AMA, including serving as a public information officer, policy analyst and speechwriter.

Currently, his focus is on state legislation and policy, including the nation’s opioid epidemic, treatment and prevention, health care costs, and private payers and market reforms. Prior to joining the AMA in 1999, Koen earned his Master of Fine Arts in Poetry from Colorado State University, his Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Arizona, and his law degree from the Loyola University Chicago School of Law.

Maggie Buckley serves as AACIPM’s Fiscal Sponsor Liaison (The Pain Community). She has been a patient advocate for more than 25 years while living with the chronic pain condition Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. Maggie has served on the boards of several non-profit patient and professional organizations. She has testified at local, state and federal policy hearings, written articles and coached hundreds of people to self-advocate for better care. Maggie has an M.B.A. in accounting with experience in banking and business management. In 2019, she became a Board-Certified Patient Advocate.

Gerard W. Clum, DC, a 1973 Palmer College of Chiropractic graduate has been a faculty member at Palmer College of Chiropractic, a founding faculty member at Life Chiropractic College (now Life University) and first president of Life Chiropractic College West holding office from January 1981 through January 2011. Dr. Clum served on the board of directors or as an officer of the Association of Chiropractic Colleges (ACC), the Council on Chiropractic Education (CCE), the International Chiropractors Association (ICA), the Foundation for Chiropractic Progress (F4CP), the Chiropractic Summit and the World Federation of Chiropractic (WFC).

Since retiring from the presidency of Life West he accepted an appointment as Presidential Liaison for External Affairs at Life University. He has also been appointed the director of The Octagon, a think-tank sponsored by Life University. In addition, he serves as a consultant and expert witness in matters related to chiropractic practice/care. He has been recognized as “Chiropractor of the Year” by ICA, “Man of the Year” by Dynamic Chiropractic and as one of the top five leaders of the chiropractic profession in a Dynamic Chiropractic readers’ poll. He has lectured throughout the world and has been recognized and honored for his efforts over the years by international, national, state and local groups.

Heather Collins, MLS, AHIP serves as the Portfolio Manager in the Continuing Professional Development Division of the American Academy of Family Physicians. Heather’s background is in health sciences education and at the AAFP she is leading an initiative to incorporate patient engagement across the portfolio. Heather developed an expertise in educational design and digital curriculum development while working in academic health sciences librarianship as an academic medical library administrator and research instructor. She has been active in interprofessional collaboration and education through scholarship, grants and program development. She applies her experience collaborating with clinicians, faculty, and students to the continuing professional development environment.

Penney Cowan is the founder and chief executive officer of the American Chronic Pain Association (ACPA). She herself is a person with chronic pain and established the ACPA in 1980 to help others living with the condition. The ACPA provides peer support and education in pain management skills to people with pain and their families. The ACPA also works to build awareness about chronic pain among professionals, decision makers and the general public.

Since 1980, Cowan has been an advocate and consumer representative for pain issues. She was awarded the Jefferson Medal for Outstanding Citizen by the Institute for Public Service, Washington, and is listed in Who’s Who in America, 24th Edition. The American Pain Society awarded her the 2005 John and Emma Bonica Public Service Award, Presidential Commendation, American Academy of Pain Medicine, 2013 and the Elizabeth Narcessian Award for Outstanding Educational Achievements, from the American Pain Society, 2013.

She served as: Consumer Representative for the FDA/CDER Anesthetic and Analgesic Drug Products Advisory Committee (AADPAC) for 2012 and was appointed to Interagency Pain Research Coordinating Committee of the National Insitute of Health from 2013 to 2015.

Cowan began the Partners for Understanding Pain campaign in 2002 in an attempt to raise awareness about the need to better understand, assess, and treat pain. There are more than 80 partner organizations. The campaign, under the direction of the ACPA, successfully established September as Pain Awareness Month.

David Elton serves as Chief Strategy Officer for UHG Ventures Orthology. Previously he served in several leadership roles at Optum.

David has and continues to serve on advisory boards and working groups focusing on patient care and pain management, including the United Health Group Opioid Task Force and Pain Management Work Group, Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

He has delivered several presentations on pain including before the American Physical Therapy Association and National Academy of Sciences.  Elton received his B.S., Doctor of Chiropractic degree from Northwestern Health Sciences University, Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Cara Feldman-Hunt has been involved in the field of integrative health care since 2008. As Administrative Director of UVM Integrative Health, Cara works with leadership in the College of Nursing and Health Sciences, the Larner College of Medicine and the University of Vermont Medical Center to develop a sustainable program with clinical, education and research activities. Cara’s background is in organizational development and she has worked in large corporate settings, small start-ups, non-profits and educational institutions. Prior to joining the University of Vermont, Cara served as Executive Director of the Laura Mann Center for Integrative Health, a 501c3 that promoted the benefits of integrative health care by bridging the gap between community members and health practitioners from all disciplines. Cara is currently enrolled in the Functional Medicine Coaching Academy.

Kevin Galloway is currently the Deputy Director, Strategic Communications and Policy at the Defense & Veterans Center for Integrative Pain Management (DVCIPM), the pain management advisory organization for the Military Health System. Prior to joining DVCIPM in 2014, Kevin completed a 27-year career in the U.S. Army Nurse Corps where he retired at the rank of Colonel. His last assignment was in the Office of the Army Surgeon General where he served as the Director of the Army Pain Management Program and Chief of Staff for the Department of Defense’s Pain Management Task Force. He graduated from The Catholic University of America with a Bachelor’s of Science in Nursing, and later from Baylor University with Masters in Health Care Administration. His military career included a variety of clinical and administrative assignments in both fixed facility and military field hospitals. His military deployments include Operation Desert Storm in Saudi Arabia, Operation Provide Promise in Zagreb, Croatia, and Operation Iraqi Freedom in Baghdad, Iraq. His military awards included the Legion of Merit, Bronze Star Medal, five Meritorious Service Medals, six Army Commendation Medals, the Joint Service Achievement Medal and six Army Achievement Medals. He is a recipient of the Order of Military Merit and the Army Surgeon General’s “A” Proficiency designator, an award used to recognize the accomplishments of senior medical leaders who have made significant contributions to the Army Medical Department. He was a recipient of the American Academy of Pain Medicine’s 2011 Presidential Commendation and 2017 Presidential Excellence in Education Award.

Dr. Paula Gardiner is an Associate Professor in the Department of Family Medicine at Boston University School of Medicine. Her passion is studying and teaching clinicians how to facilitate and implement medical group visits or shared medical appointments She completed a three year Clinical Research Fellowship in Complementary and Alternative Medicine Research and Faculty Development at Harvard Medical School. She received her MPH from Harvard School of Public Health. Additionally, she has been awarded a five year NIH K award grant focusing on CAM use, stress, and dietary supplement in the inner city under served medical patients. Her research concentration is patient-oriented research regarding chronic pain and evidenced based integrative medicine access in low income patients. Current research is focused on the adaptive role of an Integrative Medicine Group Visit (IMGV) which combines Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction and a Medical Group Visit to support health behavior change and reducing pain and stress. With funding by Patient Centered Outcome Research Institute (PCORI), she is the primary investigator on a comparative effectiveness randomized controlled trial of IMGV compared to a primary care visit in Boston for participants with chronic pain (N=124). Her research focuses on innovative technologies such as Embodied Conversational Agents and Our Whole Lives; a Holistic online toolkit that teaches mind body techniques. Dr. Gardiner lectures nationally and internationally. She has published over 90 review and original papers on technology (embodied conversational agents, virtual worlds, apps), chronic pain, technology, dietary supplements, stress, and integrative medicine in under served patients. She is a certified meditation and mindful self compassion teacher.

Tracy Gaudet, M.D. led a vast, system-wide change to provide personalized, proactive, patient-centered health care to America’s veterans as the immediate past Executive Director of the Veterans Health Administration’s National Office of Patient Centered Care and Cultural Transformation. She is the former Executive Director of Duke Integrative Medicine and a founding Executive Director of the University of Arizona’s Program in Integrative Medicine.

Denise Giambalvo joined the Midwest Business Group on Health in 2018 as Vice President and manages the coordination and marketing of monthly educational programs, social media, newsletters and employer benchmarking surveys. In addition, Denise leads various sponsor and grant-funded projects including the National Employer Initiative on Specialty Drugs and oversees financial related activities and annual audits. Prior to joining MBGH, Denise served as executive director for the Employers’ Health Coalition in Fort Smith, AR, a sister coalition to MBGH. In this role, she was directly involved in contract negotiations for the PBM, Employers’ Choice Rx. Committed to carrying out the Coalition’s mission to “…enhance the general health of the community”, Denise oversaw EHC’s launch of the National Diabetes Prevention Program and negotiated a discounted group rate for employer-sponsored financial well-being programs. Denise has team-collaborated with stakeholders on research and pilot programs including limited-fill, site-of-service, mental and behavioral health, and data analysis. Educational activities have focused on population health management, value-based benefit design, pain management, and analytics. She currently serves on the Management and Implementation Committee for the Institute of Medicine of Chicago. Denise received her master’s degree in human resource management in 2012.

Dr. Christine Goertz is a Professor in Musculoskeletal Research at the Duke Clinical Research Institute and Director of System Development and Coordination for Spine Health in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at Duke University. She is also the Chief Executive Officer of the Spine Institute for Quality and Adjunct Professor in the Department of Epidemiology, College of Public Health at the University of Iowa.

Dr. Goertz’s 25-year research career has focused on working with multi-disciplinary teams to design and implement clinical and health services research studies designed to increase knowledge regarding the effectiveness and cost of complementary and integrative healthcare delivery. She has received nearly $32M in federal funding and has authored or co-authored nearly 100 peer-reviewed papers. Dr. Goertz currently serves on the Board of Governors for the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), recently appointed in September 2019 as Chairperson of the PCORI Board of Governors by the Comptroller General of the United States.

Amy Goldstein serves as AACIPM’s Director. She founded Healthcare Collaboratives, LLC in 2019 to continue her passion for promoting person-centered health care through alliance building and strategic collaboration—always the foundation behind her work. Amy was previously the Director of State Pain Policy Advocacy Network and later Alliance Development Director for the Academy of Integrative Pain Management (AIPM). In that role, she was responsible for the creation, growth and sustainability of this national state-based and federal network to improve person-centered pain policy. Amy has been in the healthcare field for 25 years, advocating for people living with kidney failure, cancer, chronic pain, substance use disorder, mental health issues, and multiple sclerosis.

Dr. Patricia Herman, serves as a Senior Behavioral Scientist at the RAND Corporation, specializing in health economics, innovative care models, and the overall impact of health on individuals’ lives. Dr. Herman is an NIH/NCCIH-supported methodologist, resource economist, and licensed naturopathic doctor. In 2003, Dr. Herman received her degree in Naturopathic Medicine from Bastyr University and she practiced for 5 years at an inpatient facility that treated addiction and chronic pain.

Among Dr. Herman’s many published works and presentations, she has published three systematic reviews of economic evaluations of complementary and integrative medicine, and co-authored a commissioned paper on the economics of integrative medicine for the Institute of Medicine’s 2009 Summit on Integrative Medicine and the Health of the Public.

Dr. Janet R. Kahn is currently a Research Assistant Professor at the University of Vermont’s College of Medicine, a position she has held since 2002. Since 2000, Dr. Kahn has been a Faculty Preceptor in the Fellowship Program in Complementary, Alternative, and General Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Kahn helped found the Integrated Health Policy Consortium in 2002, where she was on the Steering Committee until 2005, thereafter serving as Executive Director until 2011. In addition, Dr. Kahn was the Director of Integrated Health Care of the Community Health Center of Burlington from 2008 to 2010, the Director of Research of the Massage Therapy Research Consortium from 2003 to 2008, and a Senior Research Scientist at the Wellesley College Center for Research on Women from 1997 to 2000. Dr. Kahn’s research focuses on equitable and affordable health care delivery models, the importance of massage therapy for the treatment of chronic pain, and supporting the well-being of veterans. Dr. Kahn has served on a number of boards, including the National Advisory Council for Complementary and Alternative Medicine at the National Institutes of Health since 2009. On October 7, 2011, President Obama announced the appointment of Dr. Kahn to serve as a member of the Advisory Group on Prevention, Health Promotion, and Integrative and Public Health. Dr. Kahn holds a BA from Antioch College, an EdM from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and a PhD from Brandeis University.

Rebecca Kirch is Executive Vice President of Healthcare Quality and Value for the National Patient Advocate Foundation (NPAF), providing strategic focus and leadership in bringing the millions of patient and family voices to the forefront of national health care quality improvement efforts.

Prior to her current role, Kirch served 15 years with the American Cancer Society and its advocacy affiliate, the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN), as the Society’s first Director of Quality of Life and Survivorship. She serves in several advisory capacities, and has also authored numerous articles and book chapters, including publications in the New England Journal of Medicine, Health Affairs, and other professional journals. She has a law degree from Boston College Law School and an undergraduate degree in Biology from Wells College.

Dr. Ben Kligler is the Acting Executive Director of the Office of Patient-Centered Care and Cultural Transformation, Veterans Health Administration.  He was formerly Co-Director of the Beth Israel Fellowship Program in Integrative Medicine, which accepted its first fellows for training in January 2002, and teaches in the Beth Israel Residency Program in Urban Family Practice. He is former Chair of the Consortium of Academic Health Centers for Integrative Medicine. Dr. Kligler is the author of Curriculum in Complementary Therapies: A Guide for the Medical Educator, and co-editor of Integrative Medicine: Principles for Practice, a textbook published by McGraw-Hill in 2004. He is also Co-Editor-in-Chief of the peer-reviewed journal EXPLORE: The Journal of Science and Healing. Dr. Kligler is certified in Ericksonian Hypnotherapy and acupuncture.

Courtney Kominek completed her Doctor of Pharmacy at the University of Pittsburgh, School of Pharmacy. She completed a PGY-1 Pharmacy Practice Residency at the Dayton Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Dayton, OH, and a PGY-2 Pain Management and Palliative Care Pharmacy Residency at the West Palm Beach Veterans Affairs Medical Center in West Palm Beach, FL. Currently, Dr. Kominek is a Clinical Pharmacy Specialist in Pain Management at the Harry S. Truman Memorial Veterans’ Hospital in Columbia, Missouri. She is also a Certified Pain Educator.
She has received honoraria for her presentations at PAINWeekEND

Cindy Leyland serves as AACIPM’s Patient Engagement Coordinator. She is the Director of Program Operations at the Center for Practical Bioethics, overseeing the Center’s administrative, financial, and operational systems. Cindy currently leads the PAINS-KC Citizen Leadership Group and in the past led the Center’s Pediatric Palliative Care and Aging in Community projects. As a person living with pain, Cindy understands the day-to-day challenges that pain patients face and is committed to helping others find the best ways to manage their pain. She is a graduate of Benedictine College’s Executive MBA program and currently serves on the Board of The Pain Community.

Dr. Shari M. Ling is currently the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), Acting Chief Medical Officer serving in the Center for Clinical Standards and Quality (CCSQ), responsible for assisting the CMS Chief Medical Officer in the Agency’s pursuit of higher quality health care, healthier populations, and lower cost through quality improvement. Dr. Ling’s long-standing focus is on the achievement of meaningful health outcomes through delivery of high quality beneficiary-centered care across all care settings, with a special interest in the care of persons with multiple chronic conditions and functional limitations, and reducing health disparities.

Dr. Ling has served as the lead coordinator and facilitator of the CCSQ Measures Forum. Dr. Ling represents CMS on the Health and Human Services (HHS) Multiple Chronic Conditions workgroup, and the National Quality Forum Measures Application Partnership Post-acute Care/Long-term Care workgroup, and chairs the Measures and Data sources sub-workgroup for the HHS Action Plan for Healthcare Associated Infection (HAI) Prevention in Long-term Care facilities. Dr. Ling also serves as the clinical sub-group lead for the HHS National Alzheimer’s Project Act.

Dr. Ling is a Geriatrician and Rheumatologist who received her medical training at Georgetown University School of Medicine where she graduated as a member of the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Society. Dr. Ling received her clinical training in Internal Medicine and Rheumatology at Georgetown University Medical Center, and completing Geriatric Medicine studies at Johns Hopkins University., remaining on faculty at Johns Hopkins for 5 years, after which she joined the Intramural Research Program of the National Institutes of Health at the National Institute on Aging as a Staff Clinician for 8 years studying human aging and age-associated chronic diseases with attention to musculoskeletal conditions and mobility function.

Dr. Ling continues to serve as a part-time faculty member in the Division of Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and in the Division of Rheumatology, Allergy and Clinical Immunology at the University of Mary-land. Dr. Ling volunteers at the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Baltimore. She is a Gerontologist who received her training in Direct Service from the Ethel Percy Andrus Gerontology Center, at the University of Southern California, and served as the co-director of the Andrus Older Adult Counseling Center.

Clay Marsh, MD, is West Virginia University’s chief health officer, and serves as a member of President E. Gordon Gee’s leadership team. As WVU’s vice president for health sciences, he oversees five health sciences schools and three health campuses, and serves on the governing boards that determine policy and priorities for WVU Medicine and its component organizations. In addition, as executive dean, he is the leader of the WVU School of Medicine.

Considered a national leader in personalized and academic medicine, Dr. Marsh has acquired more than $20 million in National Institutes of Health funding as principal investigator, co-PI, co-investigator and mentor. He has published more than 140 papers in peer-reviewed journals. His clinical interest is in determining how to help individuals stay healthy and defining a person’s biological age using genetic approaches.

Marsh holds more than 20 patents or patent disclosures. He has mentored more than 50 MD, MD/PhD and PhD doctoral students, post-doctoral researchers and junior faculty, being honored numerous times with faculty teaching awards.

He is a two-time graduate of West Virginia University, earning an undergraduate degree in biology in 1981 and a medical degree in 1985.

Prior to his appointment to the WVU leadership team in 2014, he served as senior associate vice president, chief innovation officer and the leader in personalized medicine at The Ohio State University’s Wexner Medical Center. Dr. Marsh served as both vice dean for research and vice dean for Innovation in the College of Medicine, where he founded the IDEA Studio in healthcare application and design.

Dr. Marsh serves on several national scientific advisory committees and on the scientific advisory committee for Caris Life Sciences. He is a Fellow in the American College of Physicians and an elected member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation.

Douglas Nelson began his career in massage therapy in 1977 and he maintains a very active clinical practice. His particular interest has been the role of soft tissue in performance, serving as a neuromuscular consultant to teams in the NBA and NFL, dance companies, and high level musicians. He is the President of BodyWork Associates, a massage therapy clinic in Champaign, IL. Established in 1982, the clinic has three locations and a staff of more than twenty therapists. His teaching institute, NMT MidWest, Inc., provides about one hundred trainings annually in Precision Neuromuscular Therapy™ across the USA; he has personally taught more than 13,000 hours of continuing education. He is also the author of three books- Table Lessons: Insights in the practice of Massage Therapy (two volumes) and The Mystery of Pain. Doug has been the recipient of numerous awards in his field, most recently the 2013 Massage Therapy Educator of the Year and the 2015 Pioneer Award from the Illinois Chapter of the American Massage Therapy Association and was inducted into the Massage Therapy Hall of Fame in 2018.

Kate Nicholson is a civil rights attorney, writer, speaker and advocate on the treatment of pain and addiction in the context of the opioid crisis. Nicholson is a former attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, and graduate of Harvard Law School. She is widely published on the challenges of pain and addiction, including the American Journal of Law and Medicine, The Washington Post and The Los Angeles Times.

Nicholson has also delivered several keynote speeches including the CATO Institute and the National Academy of Medicine, as well as media interviews on National Public Radio, Fox News and Harvard Business Journal.

Dr. Andrey Ostrovsky is the former Chief Medical Officer of the US Medicaid program. He is now the Managing Partner at Social Innovation Ventures where he invests in and advises companies and non-profits dedicated to eliminating disparities. He also advises federal and state regulators on how to incorporate human centered design into policy making. He previously operated a series of methadone clinics in Baltimore, Maryland. Prior to working on the front line of the opioid use disorder crisis, he served as the Chief Medical Officer for the Center for Medicaid and CHIP Services, the nation’s largest health insurer, where he advocated to protect the program against several legislative efforts to significantly dismantle the program. He also led efforts to streamline Medicaid and make it more customer-centric. Before leading the Medicaid program, he co-founded the software company, Care at Hand, an evidence-based predictive analytics platform that used insights of non-medical staff to prevent aging people from being hospitalized. Care at Hand was acquired in 2016 by Mindoula Health. Before Care at Hand, Dr. Ostrovsky led teams at the World Health Organization, United States Senate, and San Francisco Health Department toward health system strengthening. Dr. Ostrovsky has served on several boards and committees dedicated to behavioral health, interoperability standards, quality measurement, and home and community based services including the National Academies of Medicine, National Quality Forum, Institute for Healthcare Improvement, and the Commonwealth Fund.

Andrey holds a Medical Doctorate and undergraduate degrees in Chemistry and Psychology Magna cum Laude from Boston University and is a member of Phi Beta Kappa. Andrey completed his pediatrics residency training in the Boston Combined Residency Program at Boston Medical Center and Boston Children’s Hospital where he was a clinical instructor at Harvard Medical School. He is currently teaching faculty and attending physician at Children’s National Medical Center.

Dania Palanker is an Assistant Research Professor at the Center on Health Insurance Reforms (CHIR) at Georgetown’s Health Policy Institute. She analyzes state and federal health insurance market reforms, including implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), with an emphasis on insurance benefit design, access to health care, and coverage for chronic health conditions. Before joining CHIR, Ms. Palanker was Senior Counsel for Health and Reproductive Rights at the National Women’s Law Center (NWLC), where she worked on private insurance policy, including access to maternity coverage, preventive services, and treatment for chronic health conditions through the individual insurance market and employer-sponsored coverage. Prior to joining NWLC, she worked for 10 years with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). During her time at SEIU, Ms. Palanker worked on federal health policy as Associate Director of Health Policy after serving as Deputy Administrator of health benefit funds providing health insurance to low wage workers and their families. Ms. Palanker holds a J.D. from Georgetown University and an M.P.P. from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. She received her B.A. from Middlebury College. She is a member of the New York Bar. She lives in Washington, D.C. with her husband and daughter.

Jason Parrott is Senior Manager of Global Healthcare & Well Being Strategy of The Boeing Company. Jason oversees the healthcare strategic direction of the Chicago-based $101 billion aerospace company. With roughly 161,000 employees across the United States and in more than 65 countries, Boeing is the world’s largest aerospace company and top U.S. exporter. It is the leading manufacturer of commercial airplanes, military aircraft, and space and security systems, and a provider of global services; it supports airlines, U.S. and allied government customers in more than 150 nations.
Jason joined Boeing in 2012. Before that, Jason joined AT&T in 1994, and held progressive roles over 18 years in Human Resources. He is Chairman of the Board for Midwest Business Group on Health, and a board member of Employer Health Innovation Roundtable, Integrated Benefits Institute, and Pharmacy Benefit Management Institute. Jason earned an M.B.A. and M.S. in Management and Organizational Behavior from Benedictine University, and Bachelor of Science degree from Illinois State University.

Dr. Joshua Plavin brings years of clinical experience and people-focused strategies to the leadership of Blue Cross. His belief in a “whole-person” approach to medicine imbues Blue Cross with groundbreaking, human-focused care programs like our integrated care management program. This program helps to improve the health outcomes and overall wellbeing of our members regardless of their diagnosis, age, or background. Furthermore, Dr. Plavin sits at the juncture of medical science and management science – this vantage point provides a unique point of view, one that effects real change and helps improve peoples’ lives.

Dr. Plavin received his MD and MPH degrees from New York Medical College and completed his MBA degree through Brandeis University in 2017. He is Board Certified in both Internal Medicine and Pediatrics, having completed his clinical training through the University of Michigan Health System in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

In his free time, Dr. Plavin enjoys teaching students at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, volunteering at the People’s Health and Wellness Clinic and spending time with his family and their two, four-legged friends hiking through the woods.

Dr. Jon Porter is Founding Medical Director of the Comprehensive Pain Program at the University of Vermont Medical Center. He is a graduate of the University of Washington Medical School in Seattle and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Vermont Larner College of Medicine.

Dr. Ravi Prasad is a psychologist by training and recently joined the University of California, Davis School of Medicine as the director of behavioral health services and clinical professor in the department of anesthesiology and pain medicine. Prior to joining the UC system, Dr. Prasad was an associate chief in the division of pain medicine at Stanford University. During his time at Stanford, he played a critical role in significantly expanding their clinical pain psychology services and served as the program director for the Stanford Comprehensive Interdisciplinary Pain Program, one of only a handful of academic inpatient pain programs in the nation. He established a pain psychology fellowship training program that is now fully accredited by the American Psychological Association and also played an active role in the pain medicine fellowship program. Beyond the realm of pain, Dr. Prasad has a strong interest in clinician wellness: he was the co-director for the Stanford anesthesia resident wellness program and created the pain medicine division’s first wellness program specifically for fellows.

Dr. Robert Saunders is Research Director, Payment and Delivery Reform at Duke-Margolis. In this role, he directs a portfolio of payment and delivery reform initiatives, which focus on ACOs, alternative payment models for specialty care, new payment and delivery approaches for serious illness care, and translating evidence to policy-relevant options. Prior to joining Duke-Margolis, Dr. Saunders was a Senior Director and then Senior Advisor to the President of the National Quality Forum, where he managed a large federally-funded project that provided recommendations on quality measures for 20 different federal programs and directed special projects on topics including data, payment reform, systems engineering, and the future of healthcare quality measurement. He was previously Senior Program Officer at the Institute of Medicine and managed health care legislative affairs for Representative Rush D. Holt.

Dr. Eric Schoomaker served in active duty for 32 years achieving the ranks of Lieutenant General, U.S. Army (Retired) 42nd U.S. Army Surgeon General and Former Commanding General of the U.S. Army Medical Command. Dr. Schoomaker committed his military career to meeting the health needs of soldiers, their families and veterans, focusing on soldier medical readiness, enhancing battlefield care, establishing a comprehensive behavioral health system of care, fostering a culture of trust, advancing comprehensive pain management, and promoting health by preventing combat wounds, injury and illness. He recently retired as Professor and Vice-Chair for Leadership, Centers and Programs in the Department of Military & Emergency Medicine at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU) in Bethesda, MD. Dr. Schoomaker is the recipient of numerous military awards, including the 2012 Dr. Nathan Davis Award from the American Medical Association for outstanding government service, and the Philipp M. Lippe Award from the American Academy of Pain Medicine for outstanding contributions to the social and political aspect of Pain Medicine.

Dr. Adam Seidner, is the Chief Medical Officer for The Hartford insurance, leading strategy and policy across all lines of business with a particular focus on workers’ compensation and disability management. Prior to his current role, Dr. Seidner was Global Medical Director for Travelers Insurance.

He earned a Doctor of Medicine degree from SUNY Health Science Center, a Master’s degree in public health from the University of Connecticut, and an A.B. in Anthropology from Hamilton College. He is also board-certified by the American Board of Preventative Medicine: Occupational and Environmental Medicine and American Board of Family Medicine.

Dr. Vanila Singh is an American physician, educator, policy maker, and patient advocate dedicated to public health and currently tackling one of the nation’s most widespread, expensive, and devastating epidemics of our time: the opioid and greater drug epidemic. She is an expert in treating and understanding the underlying mechanisms of complex acute and chronic pain. In 2017, Dr. Singh was appointed by the White House administration to serve as the Chief Medical Officer of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health (OASH). She was later concurrently appointed by the Assistant Secretary for Health as the Acting Regional Director for Region 9 (CA, NV, AZ, HI, and the Pacific Islands) and served dual leadership roles through her HHS tenure. Dr. Singh is double-board certified Stanford physician in both anesthesiology and pain medicine with a background in molecular and cell biology, and economics. She is widely published in various news journals including Time Magazine, Modern Healthcare, and Medscape. Dr. Singh has also received awards for Visionary Leadership Award, Lifetime Achievement award, and Presidential Commendation Award from various organizations.

Julianne completed her Bachelor of Science degree in Exercise Science and studied Behavioral Neuroscience from Chatham University (2013) as well as competed as a NCAA D3 volleyball and basketball athlete. Today, in her spare time, she continues her passion for sports as the head of the volleyball program at Carmichaels Area High School (PA) and coaching travel league programs year round for the past 10 years.

Prior to joining WVU Medicine-CIPM, she worked and shadowed as a Rehabilitation and Fitness Advisor for 8 years at King Physical Therapy & Fitness (PA). During her time at King PT, she went on to achieve her Master of Science degree in Exercise Science and Health Promotion: Rehabilitation from California University of Pennsylvania (2017). In 2018, Julianne joined the Center for Integrative Pain Management where she administers Movement Therapy, runs the CIPM staff 2020 Wellness initiative, and is a Project ECHO-Chronic Pain Hub Member.

Dr. Steven Stanos currently serves as Medical Director of Swedish Health System Pain Medicine and Services in Seattle, Washington and leads Swedish’s comprehensive pain center, Swedish Pain Services. The center provides interventional pain management, medical management, addiction treatment, and comprehensive interdisciplinary pain services. Prior to joining Swedish, he served as medical director of the Center for Pain Management at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago (RIC) from 2002-2014. At RIC he was an Assistant Professor at Northwestern University Medical School Feinberg School of Medicine and co-chair of the multidisciplinary pain fellowship.

He is board certified in physical medicine and rehabilitation and pain medicine by the American Board of Pain Medicine and by the American Board of Anesthesia.

Dr. Stanos is the Immediate Past President of the American Academy of Pain Medicine. Dr Stanos served as a panel member on the Service Delivery and Reimbursement work group for the National Pain Strategy and as invited consultant for the CDC Opioid Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain. He currently serves on the American Medical Association (AMA) Opioid Task Force.

Dr. Stanos’ work includes ongoing educational initiatives for primary care, pain medicine, and physical medicine specialists around the United States and abroad. Dr. Stanos has published numerous scientific articles and book chapters related to pain management. Steven has been involved in the development and publication of treatment guidelines related to rehabilitation approaches for chronic pain and low back pain conditions and serves on the editorial board for the journal Pain Medicine.

A Mayday Foundation Advocacy fellow in 2013, his advocacy continues to focus on increasing awareness and access for interdisciplinary biopsychosocially-based pain care for patients suffering with chronic pain. He has appeared on CNN, National Public Radio, Fox News, regional print and television news on topics related to pain medicine and rehabilitation.

In 2015, she was appointed by Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker to serve on his Opioid Working Group and subsequently as a Commissioner on the Massachusetts Drug Formulary Commission. At the federal level, she has served on the Interagency Pain Research Coordinating Committee (IPRCC), the highest-ranking pain policy oversight committee in the United States. In 2018, Ms. Steinberg was appointed by the US Secretary of Health and Human Services, Alex Azar, to serve on the Pain Management Best Practices Inter-Agency Task Force created by Congress and was the only patient and pain advocate appointed to the panel. In February of 2019, Ms. Steinberg was invited to testify before the US Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee at a hearing on “Managing Pain During the Opioid Crisis”.

Matthew Taylor has been leading integrative rehabilitation for 39 years and is the editor of the graduate textbook, “Fostering Creativity in Rehabilitation.” He is past-president of the board of directors of the International Association of Yoga Therapists (IAYT), is on planning committee for their annual Symposium on Yoga Therapy and Research, and teaches nationally on business development for yoga therapists. Matt is on the IAYT PubMed-indexed International Journal of Yoga Therapy editorial board. He represents yoga therapy in integrative pain care and addiction policy development on national interprofessional taskforces, as well as IAYT’s interprofessional collaboration business development projects. He’s also authored a book for yoga professionals titled, “Yoga Therapy as a Creative Response to Pain.” He is presently engaged in a joint venture with a major health insurance company to integrate yoga therapy into healthcare. As a veteran, he’s especially excited about initiating interaction with the VA assisting in facilitating how yoga therapists can be safely integrated into their initiatives.

The former executive director of the Academy of Integrative Pain Management (AIPM), Dr. Bob Twillman has led national policy and advocacy efforts for the pain management community for 15 years. He maintains a volunteer faculty appointment as clinical associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the University of Kansas School of Medicine in Kansas City and served for seven years as chair of the Prescription Monitoring Program Advisory Committee for the Kansas Board of Pharmacy. Dr. Twillman is currently employed as a pain management psychologist at St. Luke’s Health System in Kansas City, MO.

Prior to working for AIPM, Dr. Twillman was a full-time faculty member at the University of Kansas Medical Center, where he founded and directed the inpatient pain management program and was a co-founder of the hospital’s palliative care team.

Dr. Twillman has joined the PPM Editorial Advisory Board as of January 1, 2020.

Dr. Richard Vaglienti, is the Director of WVU Medicine Center for Integrative Pain Management, and an Anesthesiologist for the School of Medicine at West Virginia University; who specializes in Chronic Pain Management. He attained his Doctor of Medicine from WVU School of Medicine in 1986 and completed his Anesthesiology residency from 1986-90, which included specialty training in Pain Medicine, Cardiovascular and Thoracic Anesthesia. Certified by both the American Board of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine. He was appointed in 1997 to the faculty of Anesthesiology and is presently an Associate Professor; with a secondary appointment in Behavioral Medicine and Psychiatry and Neurosciences. He has been awarded several honors throughout his career, including Best Doctors in America from 2001-18. Vaglienti directs the Chronic Pain Rotation for residents of various specialties and fourth year medical students; provides regular neurosurgery, psychiatry, and anesthesiology didactic lectures as assigned; and helped develop the opioid prescribing curriculum required for WV state licensure renewal. He has been an invited lecturer at the national, regional, and university levels. Presently involved in several Institutional, State, and National Committees; he Chairs the Medical Staff Affairs Pain Management Committee creating uniform pain treatment policies and programs to decrease opioid use, and promoting alternative therapies throughout the Health System. Also, involved in several Integrative Pain Management clinical studies, such as being the first site to launch the testing of a non-opioid micro pellet implant for chronic pain. Dr. Vaglienti is married to Christine S. Vaglienti, who is Assistant Vice President and Senior Litigation Counsel for the WVU United Health System, and they have three grown children.