Conference Faculty

• Jennifer Armstrong, BSc, MD, D.I.B.E.M is an ILADS member who did her medical training at the University of Toronto. She has served both as the president of the Human Ecology Foundation of Canada, the American Academy of Environmental Medicine, and Canadian Society for Environmental Medicine. She has also service on the Board of the Environmental Health Associations of both Quebec and Ontario. She is currently the Medical Director and CEO of the Ottawa Environmental Health Clinic.
• Dr. G. P. Blaney, MD practices medicine in Vancouver, British Columbia. He earned his medical degree at the University of Ottawa in Ontario. He is in private practice in Biological & Biomechanical Medicine. He is a trained acupuncturist and completed a course in Germany on Homotoxicology.
• Dr. C. Benjamin Boucher, B.Sc., M.D. is Director of the Wellness Centre, Port Hawkesbury, Nova Scotia. He is the author of The Body's Owners Manuals published in 1998 which emphasizes Health Promotion, Illness/Injury Prevention. Dr. Boucher received his medical degree at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia.
• Robert C. Bransfield, MD, DLPAPA is a graduate of Rutgers College and the George Washington University School of Medicine. He completed his psychiatric residency training at Sheppard and Enoch Pratt Hospital. He is board certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology in Psychiatry, is certified in Clinical Psychopharmacology by the American Society of Clinical Psychopharmacology and is Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association.
  

  Dr. Bransfield's primary activity is an office based private practice of psychiatry. In addition, Dr. Bransfield is the Associate Director of Psychiatry and Chairman of Psychiatric Quality Assurance at Riverview Medical Center in Red Bank, NJ, the President of the International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society, President of the New Jersey Psychiatric Association. He has held a number of administrative positions for various organizations involved with a number of health, mental health and community related activities.

• Steven Bock, M.D. has been practicing complementary and progressive medicine for over 30 years. He attended New York medical College and received his M.D. in 1971. He is Board Certified in Family Practice and certified in acupuncture. Dr. Bock is co-Founder and Co-Director of the Rhinebeck health Center.
  

  Dr. Bock is a clinical instructor of Family Medicine at Albany medical college and the New York Medical College, where he teaches integrative medicine to medical students.

  He is a Diplomate of the American Board of Family practice, a Diplomate of the American academy of Medical Acupuncture and a Diplomate of the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine. He is a CLIA certified laboratory director for the lab at Rhinebeck Health Center. He supervises the bioenergetic department, which for the past eight years has been using a pulse electromagnetic biofeedback therapy called Ondamed.

• Sarah Buchman is a third year medical student at Georgetown University in Washington, DC. Back in 2009 she wrote a thesis based on her research on the Economic Implications of Lyme disease. She will be presenting a summary of the results of that work.
• Joseph J. Burrascano Jr. MD is a well recognized specialist in the diagnosis and treatment of Lyme and associated complex infectious diseases, and the chronic illnesses that accompany them. With over two decades of experience and research in this field, he has appeared in and on virtually every form of media, has advised the CDC and NIH, testified before the U.S. Senate, an armed services joint subcommittee, and at various governor’s councils. A founding member of ILADS, he currently is an active Board Member of the International Lyme and Associated Diseases Educational Foundation.
  

  His current areas of interest include his ongoing project, ?The Lyme and Associated Diseases RegistryTM which follows each selected patient from the beginning to the end of their illness, to try to divine out what the various symptoms mean, which tests are worthwhile, to identify the medications and treatments that have the highest likelihood of curing the illness, and to uncover any possible drawbacks to treatment. In addition, he is actively involved in study of the newly discovered retrovirus, HGV, thought to be associated with chronic neuroimmune diseases, including chronic Lyme. Finally, his lifelong interest in nutrition has come to bear with his present consultative work with various nutritional supplement suppliers.

  No longer in clinical practice, Dr. Burrascano works full time in the biotech arena to further medical research in tick-borne and other chronic illnesses.

• Daniel Cameron, MD graduated from the University of Minnesota followed by residencies at Beth Israel Medical Center and Mt. Sinai School of Medicine in New York. Dr. Cameron is widely recognized for conducting epidemiologic research while practicing medicine. He has been viewed as a pioneer in Lyme disease as an author of practice guidelines, analytic reviews, and clinical trials. He has published 9 peer reviewed articles based on his research in the past 5 years.
  

  Dr. Cameron has led ILADS, the International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society, to new heights as its president from 2007 to 2009. He has testified as an expert on Lyme disease for legislation in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania for physician’s rights to diagnose Lyme disease using clinical judgment without state interference. He has been interviewed as an expert on the NBC today show, Good Morning America, Fox News, Sirius radio and in newspapers.

  He currently sees patients in his private practice in Mt. Kisco, New York while continuing his research and writing. He maintains the website www.LymeProject.com.

• George Chaconas, PhD obtained his Ph.D. in the Division of Medical Biochemistry at the University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada in 1978. After completing his Ph.D., postdoctoral fellowships from the Medical Research Council of Canada and subsequently from the U.S. National Institutes of Health enabled him to go undergo further training at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York. In 1981 Dr. Chaconas returned to Canada to take up a position as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Western Ontario, where he progressed through the ranks to Professor. In 2002 he took a position in the Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology and the Department of Microbiology & Infectious Diseases at the University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada.
  

  In the 1999-2000 year Dr. Chaconas spent a sabbatical year in the laboratory of Dr. Patricia Rosa at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Rocky Mountain Labs in Hamilton, Montana, USA. This sabbatical, funded by a Guggenheim Fellowship, was the start of a new research interest on the Lyme disease spirochete. Dr. Chaconas’ lab is now involved in full time studies in several areas on the Lyme disease agent Borrelia burgdorferi, including the mechanism of “antigenic variation�, whereby B. burgdorferi can avoid being killed by the immune system in the infected organism. His lab has also pioneered the development of live imaging of fluorescent Borrelia spirochetes in a living murine host in a collaboration with the lab of Dr. Paul Kubes. Work in the Chaconas his lab will help in our understanding of the complex processes at work in a very unusual disease causing organism, and may also reveal useful steps for drug development to either block or treat infection.

  Dr. Chaconas is currently holds the Canada Research Chair in the Molecular Biology of Lyme Borreliosis and is a Scientist of Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research.

• Marcus A. Conant, MD is an honored and respected physician and out-spoken advocate for people with HIV and AIDS. Among the first physicians to identify AIDS in 1981, he helped create one of the largest private AIDS clinics, was a founder of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, and his work contributed to development of some of today's life-saving HIV medications. Dr. Conant continues his strong, passionate and uncompromising effort to give hope to all people with HIV/AIDS through state of the art treatment and the assurance they can live with dignity and respect.
  

  In 1989, Dr. Conant created the Conant Foundation, a non-profit education entity, providing patients, their caregivers and the community with educational tools and information regarding diagnosis, treatment, and management of HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases. Dr. Conant and the Foundation have conducted over 75 clinical trials over the last two decades.

  And The Band Played On, the best selling book and HBO film by Randy Shilts, chronicled many of Dr. Conant’s efforts in his battle against HIV.

  Dr. Conant was a founder of the Kaposi’s Research and Education Fund, what today is the San Francisco AIDS Foundation.

  In 1983, working with then Assembly Speaker, Willie L. Brown, Jr., Dr. Conant obtained the first funds for AIDS research at the University of California, San Francisco.

  In 1987, Dr. Conant served as Co-Chair of the California AIDS Leadership Committee, drafting the first state policies to fight HIV in California. In 1999, he helped the State of Nevada develop an AIDS-response plan for indigent patients. That same year, he was named Co-Chair of the Mayor's Summit on AIDS in San Francisco. In 2001, Dr. Conant and the Conant Foundation worked with Senator John Vasconcellos to successfully pass legislation for investment in development of an AIDS vaccine, as well as the protection of those who volunteered to participate in HIV vaccine clinical research, known at AB 1287, a law that stands today. Dr. Conant was victorious when, on October 29, 2002, the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that the US Government couldn’t punish physicians for voicing their professional opinions including recommendation of medical marijuana, and in 2007, a Conant Foundation forum detailed a recent clinical trial, headed by Donald Abrams, M.D., at UCSF, proving medical marijuana effective.

  Dr. Conant has received numerous awards, including the 1987 Chancellor’s Award for Public Service from the Chancellor of the University of California, the San Francisco AIDS Foundation Leadership Award, and the 1996 Practitioner of the Year Award from the American Academy of Dermatology.

• Andrea Gaito, MD is a rheumatologist specializing in the treatment of Lyme disease. She is Board certified in internal medicine and rheumatology. She is one of the original founders of the International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society, and was the president from 1999-2003. She is currently on the Board of Directors and is the Chairman of the Ethics Committee. Dr. Gaito is in private practice in Basking Ridge, NJ.
• Christine Green, MD is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Reed College in Biology and Ecology, an appropriate choice for a doctor treating tick borne diseases. She completed her medical training at UC San Diego and then went on to her family practice residency at Stanford University. Dr. Green works at Green Oaks Medical Center in Los Altos, CA. She is the Chair of the ILADS Medical Education Committee.
• Richard I. Horowitz, M.D., is a Board Certified Internist and Director of the Hudson Valley Healing Arts Center, in Hyde Park, New York, USA. He is a founding member of ILADS, and is President of the International Lyme and Associated Disease Educational Foundation (ILADEF), an organization dedicated to the education of health professionals in the diagnosis and treatment of tick-borne disorders. Dr. Horowitz has treated over 11,000 chronic Lyme disease patients in the last 20 years, and has researched and published on the role of co-infections in patients with persistent symptoms. He was awarded the Humanitarian of the Year award by the Turn the Corner Foundation in 2007, for his ongoing work with chronic Lyme disease.
• Joseph G. Jemsek, MD, FACP is Board Certified in Infectious Diseases. He began his clinical practice in Charlotte, NC where he diagnosed the first case of AIDS in NC in 1983, and subsequently devoted his practice to HIV care until 2006, establishing one of the largest private practices in the country while lecturing and publishing widely. For almost a decade in his early career, he also functioned as the first hospital epidemiologist in a private institution and was the designated infectious disease consultant for the Carolinas Medical Center heart transplant program. Dr. Jemsek is the namesake for the destination practice, the Jemsek Specialty Clinic, which operates out of Washington, DC and is exclusively devoted to the care of patients with Lyme Borreliosis Complex. For more information on the career and interests of Dr. Jemsek, please consult his website at www.jemsekspecialty.com.
• Lorraine Johnson, JD, MBA is an attorney advocate on issues related to the medico-legal and ethical aspects of Lyme disease and has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals on this topic. She earned her JD from Loyola University and an MBA from USC. She is a director and an officer of the International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society and the Chief Executive Officer of the California Lyme Disease Association. She is also a member of the Cochrane Consumer Network for Cochrane evidence-based reviews (CCNET) and serves on the steering committee of Consumers United for Evidence-Based Medicine (CUE). She has served as a consumer peer reviewer for Cochrane Collaboration protocols and reviews.
  

  She has spoken before state legislatures, the US Centers for Diseases Control, at the Canadian government consensus hearings on Lyme disease, before medical societies, at the IDSA guideline review hearing and at the Cochrane Collaboration (CCNET). On behalf of ILADS and patient advocacy groups, she played a pivotal role in the effort with the Connecticut Attorney General that resulted in the IDSA antitrust investigation and the settlement mandated review of those guidelines.

• Charles Ray Jones, MD graduated from New York Medical College, interned in pediatrics at St. Luke?s Medical Center in Manhattan and became chief resident there. He went on to become attending physician at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. Dr. Jones moved to Hamden CT to practice pediatrics in the late 1960s. Within a few months after arriving, he noticed clusters of patients diagnosed with Juvenille Rheumatoid Arthritis, who really had Lyme disease. Since then, Dr. Jones has treated more than 10,000 children for Lyme disease from virtually every state, and from around the world
• Sirid Kellermann, PhD, MBA is Executive Vice President at NeuroScience, Inc. Prior to joining the company, she spent twelve years in the San Francisco Bay Area biotechnology industry, in both R&D and Marketing. Her background provides her with an appreciation for systems biology and the complex interplay of the neurological, immunological, and endocrine systems that forms the basis for NeuroScience, Inc.'s philosophy regarding testing and treatment of human disorders.
  

  Sirid earned her Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities where she studied cellular and molecular immunology, and an MBA in sustainable business management from the Presidio School of Management (San Francisco). She is passionate about applying a customer-oriented perspective to improving human health effectively, safely, and affordably.

• Ahmed Kilani, PhD holds a Bachelor degree in Medical Technology, a Masters in Clinical Science (San Francisco State University) a Ph.D. in Infectious Diseases and Immunity (University of California at Berkeley, 1999) and he completed his postdoctoral fellowship School – Microbiology and Immunology program.
  

  He is also board certified nationally (American Society of Clinical Pathologists - ASCP) and in California (Clinical Laboratory Scientist CLS/MT). Dr. Kilani has extensive expe Molecular and Cell Biology. He founded Clongen Laboratoriesin 1999 in Mountain View, California. The current facility, located in Germantown, MD was established in 2004. company consists of two main divisions: Diseases with a main focus on tick Research division that works private and public institutions on custom research projects and lot release testing national licenses in laboratory medicine (CLIA under Good Laboratory Practices (GLP) conditions ongoing research projects aimed at improving assay detection limits for infections that proved hard to detect.

• Daniel A. Kinderlehrer, M.D. is a nationally recognized holistic physician with expertise in the fields of nutrition, allergy, environmental medicine, Lyme disease and the healing of mind-body-spirit as a unified whole. Dr. Kinderlehrer co-founded The New England Center for Holistic Medicine in Newbury MA, and has taught extensively, including practitioner training courses at the National Institute of Behavioral Medicine and The Omega Institute. He coauthored The Antioxidant Save-Your-Life Cookbook and is the author of several review articles in medical journals and the Lyme Times. His integrated medical practice in Boulder, CO focuses on the diagnosis and treatment of tick-borne disease.
• Cheryl Koopman, PhD is Research Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University. Her research focuses on persons enduring serious illness or other stressful life events. Also, Dr. Koopman does research in the psychology of political decision-making and on the effects of media on political views. She is a former President of the International Society of Political Psychology and is Principal Investigator or Co-Investigator on studies focused on Lyme disease, HIV/AIDS, and breast cancer. Dr. Koopman has over 200 co-authored publications, predominantly peer-reviewed. In addition to doing research, Dr. Koopman teaches courses at Stanford University on advanced statistics and research methods, traumatic stress, and on preparing the dissertation.
• Judith G. Leventhal, PhD is a New York State Licensed Psychologist with specialties in Clinical Psychology, Neuropsychology and Family Therapy. She devotes much of her time to exploring the neuropsychological manifestations of Lyme and associated tick borne diseases in children and adolescents, and the impact on academic and social functioning. Dr. Leventhal has presented her work at numerous professional conferences. She serves on the Board of Directors of the International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society and is on the Medical Advisory Board of the Lyme Induced Autism Foundation. She has held positions in the neurology departments of several teaching hospitals and maintains a private practice in New York City.
• Elizabeth Maloney, MD is a family physician from Wyoming, MN. She graduated from the University of MN Medical School and completed her residency in family medicine at the University; she has been a family physician for 21 years.
  

  Dr. Maloney has authored accredited, evidence-based CME courses on Lyme disease for primary care physicians. She is a member of the American Academy of Family Practice, the Minnesota Academy of Family Practice and the International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society (ILADS).

• Susan McCamish, ND is a Certified Traditional Naturopath practicing in the state of California and certified by the American Naturopathic Certification Board (ANCB). She is also a Board Certified Naturopath with the American Naturopathic Medical and Accreditation Board (ANMAB), and a Certified Nutritional Consultant with The American Association of Nutritional Consultants.
  

  She has over twenty years of experience in alternative medicine. She has been involved in the research and development of numerous products to support the body in tackling complicated health issues. She has given numerous lectures on cancer treatments, tick borne illnesses and related topics.

• Maureen McShane, MD is a Board certified family practice physician in Plattsburgh, NY, near Montreal, Quebec. She has chosen to treat primarily the underserved Canadian Lyme patients. Dr. McShane is a graduate the University of Missouri Medical School and also of the ILADS' physicians training program. She is also a member of ILADS.
• Marianne Middelveen is a microbiologist in Calgary, Alberta, currently working in the field of Veterinary Microbiology and specializing in bovine mastitis. She received post-graduate degrees in Microbial and Biochemical Science and in Environmental Science from Georgia State University and University of Calgary, respectively. She has been involved in research projects at the Centro Amazonico para Investigacion y Control de Enfermedades Tropicales, Puerto Ayacucho, Territorio Federal Amazonas (Edo. Amazonas), Venezuela; Instituto de Medicina Tropical, Universidad Central de Caracas, Caracas, Venezuela; Georgia State University, Atlanta, Georgia; Centers for Disease Control, Atlanta, Gerogia; University of Calgary, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, Calgary, Alberta. She became interested in Lyme disease after discovering she had the disease in 2011. As a volunteer, she has been involved in research related to Lyme disease on behalf of the Canadian Lyme Disease Foundation.
• Ernie Murakami, MD became involved in Lyme Disease while in his practice based in the rural community of Hope, British Columbia.
  

  Through his practice, he developed two new methods of tick removal, one which was the Blister Method; the injection of a pre-measured mixture of Xylocaine and Adrenaline directly beneath the jaw of the tick.

  Dr. Murakami became intrigued with the disease as to the epidemiology with his first case of confirmed Lyme Disease in Agassiz, BC at the Federal Penitentiary.

  He soon found himself to be a rare physician; willing to acknowledge, diagnose and treat the symptoms of Lyme disease in British Columbia. This was a stand very few other doctors were willing to make.

  Since that time, Dr. Murakami has offered his personal experiences as a physician treating Lyme patients to others in the medical field by speaking at seminars and conferences. His lectures are met with both interest and disbelief and the center of much controversy. Today, Dr. Murakami is retired from his regular practice. His keen interest and his willingness to explore a very controversial topic has surrounded him with much media attention and discord among the medical community.

• Lisa Lavine Nagy MD graduated Magna Cum Laude from The University of Pennsylvania and then from Cornell Medical College in 1986. After a surgical internship she completed Emergency Medicine residency at Metropolitan Hospital in NYC and practiced in Los Angeles until becoming severely ill (Addison’s Disease, Mitochondrial Myopathy, Dysautonomia) –as a result of a complex medical condition known as Chemical Sensitivity or Environmental Illness.
  

  She is now president of Preventive and Environmental Health Alliance which is a group focused on educating medical students, doctors, the AMA, congress and the public and assists patients to find help nationwide. Listening to physicians and other people who have developed severe Environmental Illness is the first step towards helping the 75 million people in the country with various health issues, including autoimmunity, related to their environments. Someone is listening - she was appointed as a delegate to the Massachusetts Medical Society and to the CDC’s National Conversation on Chemicals and Public Health.

  She was recently named to the National Institutes of Health Roundtable on Building and Health. At this meeting she speaks to the need for recognition of Environmental Illness in patients who may also have Lyme Disease - often both related to previous exposure to indoor mold in a home or workplace.

• Dr. Carsten Nicolaus, MD, PhD. After finishing his academic education at two German Universities (Regensburg and Munich) and medical training, Dr. Nicolaus opened a GP practice in the South of Germany. After a few weeks as a GP, he was first confronted with the issues of tick-borne diseases, particularly Lyme disease.
  

  During the 17 years of his career as a GP, tick-borne diseases became of great and increasing importance for himself and his patients. In 2006, he opened the first German treatment facility for tick-borne diseases in the Augsburg, South of Germany, together with his colleague, Dr. Armin Schwarzbach. The treatment centre is specialised in diagnostics, treatment and rehabilitation of tick-borne diseases. Dr. Nicolaus has been an active member of the German Borreliosis Society and ILADS for many years.

• Professor Garth L. Nicolson is the President, Chief Scientific Officer and Research Professor at the Institute for Molecular Medicine in Huntington Beach, California. Born in 1943 in Los Angeles, Dr. Nicolson received his B.S. in Chemistry from University of California at Los Angeles in 1965 and his Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Cell Biology from the University of California at San Diego in 1970. He is also a Conjoint Professor at the University of Newcastle (Australia). He was formally the David Bruton Jr. Chair in Cancer Research and Professor and Chairman of the Department of Tumor Biology at the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, and he was Professor of Internal Medicine and Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the University of Texas Medical School at Houston.
  

  He was also Professor of Comparative Pathology at Texas A & M University. Professor Nicolson has published approximately 600 medical and scientific papers (including 3 Current Contents Citation Classics), edited 15 books, served on the Editorial Boards of 30 medical and scientific journals. Professor Nicolson has won many awards, such as the Burroughs Wellcome Medal of the Royal Society of Medicine (United Kingdom), Stephen Paget Award of the Metastasis Research Society, the U. S. National Cancer Institute Outstanding Investigator Award, and the Innovative Medicine Award of Canada. He is also a Colonel (Honorary) of the U. S. Army Special Forces and a U. S. Navy SEAL (Honorary) for his work on Armed Forces and veterans’ illnesses.

• Tom O'Connor, PhD is a Research Fellow in the Immunoassay R&D Department at IDEXX Laboratories, Inc. in Westbrook, Maine. He has been employed at IDEXX Laboratories for 24 years and has worked on many of the in-office rapid assays and microtiter plate-format assays developed at IDEXX Laboratories. Dr. O'Connor received a BS in Biochemistry from Michigan State University, a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Kansas State University and was a postdoctoral fellow in the Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry Department at Yale University.
• William V. Padula, OD, FAAO, FNORA is a graduate of Pennsylvania College of Optometry and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Optometry and a Fellow and Founding President of the Neuro-Optometric Rehabilitation Association. He is the Treasurer of the National Academy of Practice in Optometry and Founding Chairperson of the American Optometric Association Low Vision Section. Dr. Padula has been a consultant to the National Academy of Sciences Committee of Vision. Research has been conducted by Dr. Padula discovering Post Trauma Vision Syndrome (PTVS) and Visual Midline Shift Syndrome (VMSS). Dr. Padula also served as the National Consultant in Low Vision Services for the American Foundation for the Blind and Director of Vision Research to the Gesell Institute of Human Development. He has also consulted and developed a low vision clinic named in his honor at the Zhongshan Eye Research Hospital in Canton, China and regularly consults with the Centro de Aprendizaje de Cuernavaca, Mexico. He is on staff at the Hospital for Special Care in New Britain, CT and at Gaylord Hospital in Wallingford, CT and consults with many programs for head-injured persons throughout the United States.
  

  Dr. Padula has written numerous publications including a book titled Neuro-Optometric Rehabilitation and has developed three award winning professional video tapes about vision, Post Trauma Vision Syndrome and Visual Midline Shift Syndrome. He is the primary author of a chapter on vision in Brain Injury Medicine. He has also been awarded four U.S. Patents and is currently in private practice in Guilford, Connecticut.

• Bernard D. Raxlen, MD became interested in Tick Borne Disease in 1988 because of the chronic undiagnosed symptoms of his patients. Previously, he had spent a decade in private practice pioneering nutritional and integrative psychiatry and medicine. Dr. Raxlen is currently in private practice in New York City. He has been a featured speaker in more than 60 workshops and on television networks like ABC, NBC, and FOX over the years on topics including psychiatry, psychoneuroimmunology and Tick-Borne Disease. He has been featured on the Discovery Channel show Mystery DIagnosis and more recently, in the documentary, Under Our Skin.
• Hanna Rhee, MD is a primary care physician in California and Hawai'i. She attended the University of South Florida College of Medicine and residency at the University of Colorado, Denver. Dr. Rhee is also clinical instructor at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine Free Clinic as well as the University of California, Irvine School of Biological Sciences Mentorship Program. Through her interest in the neuropsychiatric sequalae of arthritic conditions and upcoming book publication Our Road Back, Dr. Rhee has developed a special interest in the growing field of immunoneuropsychiatry. As a graduate of the ILADS training program, Dr. Rhee collaborated with Daniel Cameron, MD to publish "Lyme disease and Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorders Associated with Streptococcus infection (PANDAS): An Overview" in the International Journal of General Medicine.
• Eva Sapi PhD is an Associate Professor of Biology and Environmental Science at the University of New Haven, where she combines teaching with research, leading graduate students in developing a higher level of understanding of Lyme disease. In her research, Dr. Sapi investigates the presence of different formations (spirochete, round bodies and biofilm) of Borrelia burgdorferi, the Lyme disease bacteria. She also studies resistance of these different forms to antibiotics and natural agents. She organized four national Lyme disease conferences in the last several years.-
• Ginger Savely, DNP, FNP is a certified family nurse practitioner with a doctorate degree in nursing practice. She has specialized in treating Lyme and other tick borne diseases for the past 10 years. She is currently considered the leading authority on a rare, newly emerging skin disease known as Morgellons disease. Dr. Savely did her doctoral research on Morgellons disease and has treated about 400 of these patients in her practice. She has four published peer-reviewed articles on the topic of Morgellons disease, four published commentaries and numerous other published articles about tick-borne diseases. She speaks frequently at State and National conferences.
• Dr. Armin Schwarzbach, MD, PhD is a specialist in laboratory medicine from the Borreliose Centrum Augsburg/ Germany. He began by studying biochemistry at Hoechst AG, Frankfurt/Germany where he worked as a medical assistant in internal medicine and infectiology. By 1993 he had started specializing in laboratory medicine. Dr. Schwarzbach is the Chair of the laboratory test, international and international membership committees of ILADS. His friends call him the ?German Lyme Fighter.
• John D. Scott, BSc (Agr.), MSc, When I was diagnosed with Lyme disease in 1990, I wondered where I contracted this mysterious infection. I had not been to an endemic area. Since I was raised on a dairy farm where hard work and problem-solving never ended, I was determined to find some answers. With encouragement of the late Dr. P.T. Williams, Ajax, Ontario, my wife and I co-founded the Lyme Disease Association of Ontario in 1990. He also encouraged us to get ticks. In 1991, I collected my first tick in a local farmer's meadow. As well, I started reading the literature, sought research help, used my university science background, and dusted off my stereoscopic microscope. From there, I started a 10-year, tick study getting specimens from veterinarians across Ontario and, then, identified each tick to species and life stage. Even though I was often herxing from Lyme disease treatment, I was able, on good days, to study several tick populations along Lake Erie. Since I was constantly reading information on the epidemiology and ecology of Lyme disease, I had a brain-wave to get ticks from songbirds. In 1996, I phoned bird banders and wildlife rehabilitators nationwide, and got their cooperation. To date, I have received 18 different bird-feeding tick species, of which 6 species have tested positive for the Lyme disease spirochete, Borrelia burgdorferi. Explicitly, songbirds widely disperse Lyme-carrying ticks countrywide, especially during spring migration. Ultimately, I have solved my mystery: because songbirds release millions of Lyme disease vector ticks across Canada, people do not have to visit an endemic area to contract Lyme disease. Overall, I have written and, with co-authors, published 14 peer-reviewed scientific articles on ticks and Lyme disease.
• Leo J. Shea III, PhD is Clinical Assistant Professor of Rehabilitation Medicine at Rusk Institute, a division of the New York University Langone Medical Center. Prior to his present work with tick-borne and immunological disorders, he was Assistant Director of the NYU Brain Injury Day Treatment Program. Apart from his academic and clinical responsibilities at NYU Langone Medical Center, Dr. Shea is also President of Neuropsychological Evaluation and Treatment Services, P.C. with offices in New York City and Quincy, Massachusetts. His practice focuses on tick-borne diseases, traumatic brain injury, chronic illness, trauma and disaster management and provides cognitive remediation and psychotherapy to individuals and families. Dr. Shea has served as an organizational consultant to national and international corporations on human resources, administrative and executive training and development, trauma response and health care issues. His clients have included both political and public institutions such as the United Nations Development Program.
• Samuel Shor, MD, FACP; Associate Clinical Professor, George Washington University Health Care Sciences. Selected four times by his peers as a Washingtonian TOP DOCTOR, Dr. Shor has also been selected by Best Doctors.com and Washington Consumer's Checkbook as a top Primary Care Physician. Dr. Shor developed his long standing interest in chronic fatigue in the late 1980s. He subsequently developed an interest in managing associated conditions such as fibromyalgia and ultimately led to his interest in Lyme disease. A congressional presentation of Lyme disease on Capitol Hill 9/24/08, an interview on the nationally syndicated Diane Rehm Show [4/20/09] and an invitation to participate in the 2010 Virginia Governor's Task Force on Lyme disease are examples of Dr Shor's strong interest in educating the public. He continues to be actively involved in patient care while pursuing his interests in clinical research and publishing in the peer review literature. Further information about Dr. Shor can be viewed at his web site: www.intmednova.com
• Sheila M. Statlender, PhD, ILADS member, is a clinical psychologist who practice in Newton and Cambridge, MA. She provides supportive counseling and assistance with healthcare advocacy to patients and their families who struggle with chronic illness. At the Harvard Law School for sixteen years, she developed programming which addressed issues of gender and diversity, and also served as a member of the Boston Bar Association Task Force on Work-Life Balance. Among her Lyme presentations, Dr. Statlender has examined the role of the psychotherapist on the patient’s treatment team, the appropriate differential diagnosis for psychotherapy patients with multisystemic symptoms, and creative educational approaches for students with chronic illness.
• Raphael Stricker, MD received his medical degree and training in Internal Medicine at Columbia University in New York. He did subspecialty training in Hematology/Oncology at the University of California San Francisco, and supplemental training in Immunology and Immunotherapy at California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco. He is currently Medical Director of Union Square Medical Associates, a multispecialty practice in San Francisco.
  

  Dr. Stricker is Past President of the International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society (ILADS). He is also a member of the American Society of Hematology (ASH), the Federation of Clinical Immunology Societies (FOCIS), the American Federation for Medical Research (AFMR) and the American Society for Reproductive Immunology (ASRI).

  He is a recipient of the American Medical Association Award for Physician Excellence and an Outstanding Reviewer Award from the Annals of Internal Medicine. He has authored over 200 medical journal articles and abstracts. Areas of special interest include coagulation disorders, emerging infectious diseases, immunodeficiency, immunologic infertility, and tick-borne diseases.

• Aparna Taylor, ND is an alumni of the ILADS Physician Training Program and has treated patients across Canada for Lyme and associated infections. Conventionally trained in the sciences, she completed her graduate studies at the University of Calgary prior to receiving her Doctorate in Naturopathic Medicine in Toronto. She has devoted much of her practice to treating tick borne illnesses and incorporates the principles of Eastern and Western medicine, yoga, mind-body medicine, and patient centred care to individualize regimens for each patient. As a licensed Naturopathic Doctor in Alberta and British Columbia, she is able to use both natural and prescription medications to find suitable medicines to help patients achieve their optimal health.
• Morton M. Teich, MD received his medical degree from Dalhousie Medical School in Halifax, N.S. He then completed a pediatric residency at Kings County and Malmonides Hospitals in Brooklyn, NY, was Chief of Pediatrics at George Air Force Base and subsequently did a fellowship in Allergy and Immunology at Kaiser Foundation Hospital in San Francisco under the tutelage of Dr. Ben Feingold.
  

  About ten years ago Dr. Teich's interest in behavoral spectrum disorders and candida related illness extrapolated into chronic Lyme disease when he was referred several chronic resistant Lyme patients who dramatically improved when he correctly addressed candida and/or food problems as a part of their total load.

  Dr. Teich is Board Certified in Pediatrics, Allergy and Immunology, and Environmental Medicine. He is at present Clinical instructor at the Mt. Sinai Medical School and in private practice in New York City.

• Elizabeth Valentine-Thon, Ph.D. is the General Manager of Health Diagnostics and Research Institute in New Jersey. Her research work has spanned the fields of immunology, virology, molecular biology, and infectious disease diagnostics. In 2004 she developed an in vitro test for detecting active Lyme disease based on the cellular immune response to Borrelia-specific recombinant antigens. She has published over 60 peer reviewed scientific articles.
• Douglas Wilson, MD, FCFP Professor Emeritus, McMaster University is a recently retired Professor of Family Medicine at McMaster University, Hamilton Ontario. As well as teaching medical students, residents, community physicians, and nurse practitioners, he has been principle investigator of several funded research studies. He has published in JAMA and several other scientific journals.
• Jeffrey Wulfman, MD is an Integrative Family Physician and an Assistant Clinical Professor of Family Medicine with the University of Vermont. He has a full-spectrum family practice with additional special interests in the integrative evaluation and treatment of chronic illness in adults and children including Lyme Borreliosis, chronic infections and the bio-medical treatment of Autism Spectrum Disorders. He has lectured and written nationally on these topics.