Plants, People & Health

OUR ADVISORS

Dr. Joe Rodricks

- Ph.D, DABT, Expert Toxicologist

Joseph Rodricks is a founding Principal of ENVIRON, and an internationally recognized expert in toxicology and risk analysis. He has consulted for hundreds of manufacturers, government agencies and for the World Health Organization in the evaluation of health risks associated with human exposure to chemical substances of all types. Joseph came to consulting after a 15-year career as a scientist at the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). In his last four years at the FDA, he served as Associate Commissioner for Health Affairs. His experience extends from pharmaceuticals, medical devices, consumer products and foods, to occupational chemicals and environmental contaminants. He has served on the National Research Council’s Board on Environmental Studies and Toxicology, and on 30 boards and committees of the National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine, including the committees that produced the seminal works Risk Assessment in the Federal Government: Managing the Process (1983), and Science and Decisions–Advancing Risk Assessment (2009). He has nearly 150 scientific publications and has received honorary awards from three professional societies for his contributions to toxicology and risk analysis. He is author of the widely-used text, Calculated Risks, now in its second edition, published by Cambridge University Pres

Mark Blumenthal

- American Botanical Council

Mark Blumenthal is the Founder and Executive Director of the American Botanical Council (ABC), an independent, nonprofit research and education organization dedicated to providing education using science based and traditional information to promote responsible use of herbal medicine and related preparations from beneficial plants and fungi . He is the Editor - in - Chief and Publisher of HerbalGram , an award - winning international, peer - reviewed quarterly journal, the contents of which reflect the educational goals of ABC. For six years he was an Adjunct AssociateProfessor of Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Texas at Austin, College of Pharmacy, teaching a course on herbal p roducts in today�s pharmacy. Mark served as Co - Founder and former Vice - President of the Herb Research Foundation (HRF) , a nonprofit research organization. When he was formerly in the herb industry over 25 years ago, he was President of the Herb Trade Assoc iation, the former organization that represented the interest of the herb industry in the 1970s and was a founding board member of the American Herbal Products Association (AHPA).

He is the senior editor of the English translation of The Complete German C ommissionE Monographs � Therapeutic Guide to Herbal Medicines , a rational system for evaluating the safety and efficacy of herbal medicines. This publication was ranked second of the medical books published in 1998. Mark is also the senior editor of The ABC Clinical Guide to Herbs , a reference book and former continuing education module , and co - author of ABC�s forthcoming reference book on solvents used in botanical extracts. He is also the Director of the ABC - AHP - NCNPR Botanical Adulterants Program, an inte rnational consortium of industry, analytical laboratories, nonprofit research societies, trade associations et al. that are dedicated to educating industry about the problems associated with accidental and intentional adulteration of botanical ra material s, extracts, and essential oils.

Mark has appeared on over 600 radio and television shows and has written over 700 articles, reviews and book chapters for many major publications. He has been a leader in the concern for more rational regulations of herbal and natural product manufacturing, and education on p lant - based medicines for over 40 years

www.daviswade.com

Wade Davis

- Ph.D

Wade Davis is perhaps the most articulate and influential western advocate for the world's indigenous cultures. A National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence, he has been described as �a rare combination of scientist, scholar, poet and passionate defender of all of life�s diversity.� Trained in anthropology and botany at Harvard, he travels the globe to live alongside indigenous people, and document their cultural practices in books, photographs, and film. His stunning photographs and evocative stories capture the viewer's imagination. As a speaker, he parlays that sense of wonder into passionate concern over the rate at which cultures and languages are disappearing -- 50 percent of the world's 7,000 languages, he says, are no longer taught to children. He argues, in the most beautiful terms, that language is much more than vocabulary and grammatical rules. Every language is an old-growth forest of the mind.

Indigenous cultures are not failed attempts at modernity, let alone failed attempts to be us. They are unique expressions of the human imagination and heart, unique answers to a fundamental question: What does it mean to be human and alive? When asked this question, the peoples of the world respond in 7,000 different voices, and these collectively comprise our human repertoire for dealing with all the challenges that will confront us as a species over the coming centuries.

Davis is the author of 15 books including The Serpent and the Rainbow, One River, and The Wayfinders. His many film credits include Light at the Edge of the World, an eight-hour documentary series produced for the National Geographic. In 2009 he received the Gold Medal from the Royal Canadian Geographical Society for his contributions to anthropology and conservation, and he is the 2011 recipient of the Explorers Medal, the highest award of the Explorers� Club, and the 2012 recipient of the Fairchild Medal for Plant Exploration. His latest books are Into the Silence: The Great War, Mallory and the Conquest of Everest and The Sacred Headwaters: the Fight to Save the Stikine, Skeena and the Nass.

Dennis Mckenna

- Ph.D

Dennis McKenna currently holds an appointment as an adjunct Assistant Professor in the Center for Spirituality and Healing in the Academic Health Center at the University of Minnesota. Dr. McKenna received his Master's Degree in Botany from the University of Hawaii in 1979, and his Ph.D. in Botanical Sciences from the University of British Columbia in 1984. His doctoral research focused on phytochemical and pharmacological investigation of Amazonian ethnomedical plants. He received post-doctoral research fellowships in the Laboratory of Clinical Pharmacology, National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), and in the Department of Neurology, Stanford University School of Medicine. Dr. McKenna serves on the Advisory Board of the American Botanical Council, and on the Editorial Board of Phytomedicine, International Journal of Phytotherapy and Phytopharmacology. He is a founding board member of the Heffter Research Institute (www.heffter.org) a non-profit research and educational institution focused on investigations of the therapeutic applications of psychedelic medicines. He has conducted extensive ethnobotanical fieldwork in the Peruvian, Colombian, and Brasilian Amazon. He was PI on a project funded by the Stanley Medical Research Institute, to investigate Amazonian ethnomedicines for potential applications in the treatment of cognitive deficits. McKenna is author or co-author on over 40 scientific papers in peer-reviewed journals. His publications have appeared in the Journal of Ethnopharmacology, European Journal of Pharmacology, Brain Research, Journal of Neuroscience, Journal of Neurochemistry, Economic Botany, Alternative and Complementary Therapies, and elsewhere. Dr. McKenna and two colleagues are co-authors of a widely recognized reference work on herbal medicines, Botanical Medicines: the Desk Reference for Major Herbal Supplements (Haworth Herbal Press, 2002)

Rick Doblin

- Ph.D

Rick Doblin, Ph.D., is the founder and executive director of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS). He received his doctorate in Public Policy from Harvard�s Kennedy School of Government, where he wrote his dissertation on the regulation of the medical uses of psychedelics and marijuana and his Master's thesis on a survey of oncologists about smoked marijuana vs. the oral THC pill in nausea control for cancer patients. His undergraduate thesis at New College of Florida was a 25-year follow-up to the classic Good Friday Experiment, which evaluated the potential of psychedelic drugs to catalyze religious experiences. He also conducted a thirty-four year follow-up study to Timothy Leary�s Concord Prison Experiment. Rick studied with Dr. Stanislav Grof and was among the first to be certified as a Holotropic Breathwork practitioner. His professional goal is to help develop legal contexts for the beneficial uses of psychedelics and marijuana, primarily as prescription medicines but also for personal growth for otherwise healthy people, and eventually to become a legally licensed psychedelic therapist. He founded MAPS in 1986, and currently resides in Boston with his wife and three children.

Paula Brown

- Ph.D

Dr. Paula Brown is the Director of the BC Institute of Technology's Natural Health and Food Products Research Group (NRG), where they have been actively supporting the NHP industry for over a decade through APPLIED research activities including product development, establishment of quality standards and regulatory compliance. By providing fundamental investigations on product quality, safety and efficacy, BCIT supports industry through the entire continuum, from grower to manufacturer, ensuring product integrity is maintained. Dr. Brown has spoken at numerous conferences over the last decade on product quality standards, analytical method validation and is currently the �Quality Focus� columnist for Nutraceuticals World. An active volunteer, Dr. Brown sits on various Boards, Committees and Working Groups including the DIETARY SUPPLEMENT Joint Committee (NSF) and the Analytical Laboratories and Botanical Raw Material Committees (American Herbal Products Association). She is currently a Director for the Investment Agriculture Foundation of BC which strategically invests federal and provincial funds in support of innovative projects to benefit the agri-food industry. In 2003 she was a founding Director of the NHP Research Society of Canada, dedicated to supporting and promoting scientifically rigorous NHP research and education and most recently she joined the Advisory Board of the American Botanical Council. Dr. Brown serves on two grant review committees for National Center for Complementary & ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE, NIH and is a reviewer for numerous peer-reviewed Journals in the field of analytical chemistry and natural products. A Fellow of the AOAC International (2009), she served as Referee for the DIETARY SUPPLEMENT Methods Committee from 2004-2009, is a current member of the Dietary Supplement Task Force (2003-present), and has participated on seven Expert Review Panels for AOAC. In addition she has directed three full collaborative studies; Goldenseal (Official Methods SM 2008.04), Ginseng (SM 2008.05) and Echinacea (in review). Dr. Brown is currently a member of the Natural Health Products Program Advisory Committee (PAC), and Chair of it�s Product Testing Working Group, convened to make recommendations on policy related to standards of evidence for quality. The mandate of the PAC is to provide the NHP Program Directorates ( Natural Health Products Directorate, MARKETED Health Products Directorate and Health Products and Food Branch Inspectorate ) with advice and recommendations on current and emerging issues relevant to the Canadian regulatory framework for natural health products.