The Simms/Mann Institute develops and implements innovative programs and resources to address the complex challenges of today. The Institute seeks to empower professionals and individuals alike to make informed decisions and personalized choices within the lens of addressing the whole person; mind, body, spirit. The Institute promotes the exploration, cross-fertilization, and dissemination of cutting-edge research and best practices in the fields of education and medicine.
The Simms/Mann Family Foundation was founded in 1984 and has been at the forefront of innovative funding in the fields of medicine and education since that time.
Dr. Victoria Simms is a nationally recognized child development specialist and philanthropist. As the President of The Simms/Mann Family Foundation and Simms/Mann Institute, she is the architect of all the initiatives and programs the Foundation and Institute is currently funding and implementing. In 2011, Dr. Simms founded the Simms/Mann Institute for Education and Community Development. With a mission to develop, implement and support groundbreaking initiatives that offer authentic solutions to the complex issues facing individuals, families, and communities in the 21st Century, the Simms/Mann Institute is in the forefront of philanthropy in Education, Health, Wellness, Art and Culture.
Rachel Barchie serves as the Director of the Simms/Mann Family Foundation and Institute. Prior to joining the philanthropy sector, Rachel practiced litigation and employment law for a decade at a Los Angeles law firm and served as board chair for a national nonprofit organization that focuses on healthy relationships for teens. Rachel received her BA in Foreign Languages from Scripps College, and her JD from the UCLA School of Law.
Dr. Victoria Simms is a nationally recognized child development specialist and philanthropist. As the President of The Simms/Mann Family Foundation and Simms/Mann Institute, she is the architect of all the initiatives and programs the Foundation and Institute is currently funding and implementing. In 2011, Dr. Simms founded the Simms/Mann Institute for Education and Community Development. With a mission to develop, implement and support groundbreaking initiatives that offer authentic solutions to the complex issues facing individuals, families, and communities in the 21st Century, the Simms/Mann Institute is in the forefront of philanthropy in Education, Health, Wellness, Art and Culture.
Rachel Barchie serves as the Director of the Simms/Mann Family Foundation and Institute. Prior to joining the philanthropy sector, Rachel practiced litigation and employment law for a decade at a Los Angeles law firm and served as board chair for a national nonprofit organization that focuses on healthy relationships for teens. Rachel received her BA in Foreign Languages from Scripps College, and her JD from the UCLA School of Law.
Dr. Victoria Simms is a nationally recognized child development specialist and philanthropist. As the President of The Simms/Mann Family Foundation and Simms/Mann Institute, she is the architect of all the initiatives and programs the Foundation and Institute is currently funding and implementing. In 2011, Dr. Simms founded the Simms/Mann Institute for Education and Community Development. With a mission to develop, implement and support groundbreaking initiatives that offer authentic solutions to the complex issues facing individuals, families, and communities in the 21st Century, the Simms/Mann Institute is in the forefront of philanthropy in Education, Health, Wellness, Art and Culture.
Dr. Victoria Simms has developed several integrative medicine programs that are used in the United States and abroad, including the Simms/Mann-UCLA Center for Integrative Oncology, as well as the first integrative medicine treatment program in the world to be offered at a free clinic—the Simms/Mann Health and Wellness Center at the Venice Family Clinic. The Foundation has also endowed a 275-seat theater in honor of Ted Mann at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, which is set to open in 2018.
Dr. Simms practiced clinical psychology for more than 25 years in a variety of settings, including schools, parenting centers, clinics, and office-based private practice. In addition, she founded and served as the Director of the Mann Center for Education and Family Development, which specialized in psychological and educational assessment and treatment of children and adults. She has an M.A. in early childhood development from Pacific Oaks College in Pasadena, Calif., and a Ph.D. from the Graduate Center for Child Development and Psychotherapy in Los Angeles, Calif. She received her training in infant psychiatry at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.
Dr. Simms currently serves on the Board of Visitors for the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. Additionally, she is a board member of the Aspen Music Festival and School, the Geffen Playhouse, and Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA).
As an early child-development specialist, parent, and grandparent of young children, she is passionate about identifying solutions that are sustainable in child development, with a focus on ages 0-3.
Ruth Feldman, PhD, is the Simms-Mann professor of developmental social neuroscience and director of the Center for Developmental, Social, and Relationship Neuroscience at the Interdisciplinary Center, Herzlia with a joint appointment at Yale University Child Study Center. She is also director of the Irving B. Harris community-based clinic and internship program for young children and their families. Her research focuses on the biological basis of social affiliation, processes of biobehavioral synchrony, longitudinal follow-up of infants at high risk stemming from biological (e.g., prematurity), maternal (e.g., postpartum depression), and contextual (e.g., war-related trauma) risk conditions, the neuroscience of empathy, and the effects of touch-based interventions. Her studies on the role of oxytocin in health and psychopathology have been instrumental for understanding the biological basis of social collaboration in humans. Her research on the maternal and paternal brain, human bond formation, the long-term effects of Kangaroo-Care on premature infants, the brain basis of conflict resolution, and the effects of maternal postpartum depression on children’s brain and behavior received substantial empirical and media attention. Dr. Feldman is a fellow of the Association for Psychological Science, has been on the editorial board of several high-impact journals, and has published over 300 articles in scientific journals and book chapters.
Along with two sisters, Ben Danielson was raised by an amazing single mom who instilled in him an appreciation for the value of education and a desire to be a contributing member of the community. In college, he decided that being a doctor was a good way to meld his scientific and human-service interests. Since finishing his undergraduate studies in Boston, Dr. Danielson has spent his medical education, residency, and career in Seattle.
Bob Adler, MD, serves as senior advisor to the chair of the Department of Pediatrics, chief medical officer of the CHLA Pediatric Health Network and sits on the Finance Committee for the Board of Trustees at CHLA. He is also a professor of Pediatrics and former vice chair of the Department of Pediatrics at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California. Dr. Adler was the first CHLA faculty member on the Residency Review Committee, which develops national training guidelines and policies and accredits all pediatric training programs in the U.S.
Born to a poor immigrant family in New York City, Richard Carmona experienced homelessness, hunger, and health disparities during his youth. The experiences greatly sensitized him to the relationships among culture, health, education and economic status and ultimately shaped his future. After dropping out of high school, Dr. Carmona enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1967 where he received a GED. By the time he left active duty, he was a Special Forces, combat-decorated Vietnam veteran. He then pursued a college degree and entered medical school at the University of California – San Francisco where he won the prestigious Gold Cane award as the top graduate.
Dr. Patricia K. Kuhl is the Bezos Family Foundation Endowed Chair for Early Childhood Learning, Co-Director of the UW Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences, Director of the NSF-funded Science of Learning Center, and Professor of Speech and Hearing Sciences. She is internationally recognized for her research on early language and brain development, and studies that show how young children learn. Dr. Kuhl's work has played a major role in demonstrating how early exposure to language alters the brain. It has implications for critical periods in development, for bilingual education and reading readiness, for developmental disabilities involving language, and for research on computer understanding of speech.
Dr. Nathan Fox is the Lab Director at the Child Development Lab at the University of Maryland. Their research focuses on multiple facets of socio-emotional development. They study cognitive, social and emotional processes and are interested in the observation and measurement of attention, memory, as well as emotion expression and social experience. The Child Development Lab specializes in linking these psychological processes to neural activity through brain imaging methods such as EEG, ERP and functional neuro-imaging.
Dr. Suzanne Gilberg-Lenz is involved in women’s empowerment and public education, and appears frequently as an expert in women’s and integrative health on TV, online and in print. Dr. Suzanne completed her undergraduate education at Wesleyan University and post-baccalaureate pre-medical studies at Mills College. She earned her medical degree in 1996 from the University of Southern California School of Medicine, completed her residency in obstetrics and gynecology at Cedars Sinai Medical Center and has been in private practice of obstetrics and gynecology in Beverly Hills, CA since 2000. After many years of a personal yoga and meditation practice, she completed her Clinical Ayurvedic Specialist degree at California College of Ayurveda in 2010 and was board certified in Integrative and Holistic medicine in 2008.
Board-certified in cardiovascular disease, internal medicine, nuclear medicine, integrative holistic medicine, Mimi Guarneri, MD, FACC, ABIHM is President of the Academy of Integrative Health and Medicine (AIHM) and the Past President of the American Board of Integrative Holistic Medicine (ABIHM) and serves as Senior Advisor to the Atlantic Health System for the Chambers Center for Well Being and Integrative Medicine. Dr. Guarneri currently serves on the Founding Board of the American Board Physician Specialties in Integrative Medicine, and is a Clinical Associate Professor at University of California, San Diego (UCSD).
Dr. Levitt is the Simms/Mann Chair in Developmental Neurogenetics at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and the WM Keck Provost Professor of Neurogenetics at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California. He also serves as the Director of the USC Neuroscience Graduate Program. Dr. Levitt has held chair and institute directorships at the University of Southern California, Vanderbilt University and the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Levitt has been a MERIT awardee from the National Institute of Mental Health and served as a member of the National Advisory Mental Health Council for the National Institute of Mental Health. He is an elected member of the Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives, an Elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), and an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine.
Ruth Feldman, PhD, is the Simms-Mann professor of developmental social neuroscience and director of the Center for Developmental, Social, and Relationship Neuroscience at the Interdisciplinary Center, Herzlia with a joint appointment at Yale University Child Study Center. She is also director of the Irving B. Harris community-based clinic and internship program for young children and their families. Her research focuses on the biological basis of social affiliation, processes of biobehavioral synchrony, longitudinal follow-up of infants at high risk stemming from biological (e.g., prematurity), maternal (e.g., postpartum depression), and contextual (e.g., war-related trauma) risk conditions, the neuroscience of empathy, and the effects of touch-based interventions. Her studies on the role of oxytocin in health and psychopathology have been instrumental for understanding the biological basis of social collaboration in humans. Her research on the maternal and paternal brain, human bond formation, the long-term effects of Kangaroo-Care on premature infants, the brain basis of conflict resolution, and the effects of maternal postpartum depression on children’s brain and behavior received substantial empirical and media attention. Dr. Feldman is a fellow of the Association for Psychological Science, has been on the editorial board of several high-impact journals, and has published over 300 articles in scientific journals and book chapters.
Along with two sisters, Ben Danielson was raised by an amazing single mom who instilled in him an appreciation for the value of education and a desire to be a contributing member of the community. In college, he decided that being a doctor was a good way to meld his scientific and human-service interests. Since finishing his undergraduate studies in Boston, Dr. Danielson has spent his medical education, residency, and career in Seattle.
Bob Adler, MD, serves as senior advisor to the chair of the Department of Pediatrics, chief medical officer of the CHLA Pediatric Health Network and sits on the Finance Committee for the Board of Trustees at CHLA. He is also a professor of Pediatrics and former vice chair of the Department of Pediatrics at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California. Dr. Adler was the first CHLA faculty member on the Residency Review Committee, which develops national training guidelines and policies and accredits all pediatric training programs in the U.S.
Born to a poor immigrant family in New York City, Richard Carmona experienced homelessness, hunger, and health disparities during his youth. The experiences greatly sensitized him to the relationships among culture, health, education and economic status and ultimately shaped his future. After dropping out of high school, Dr. Carmona enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1967 where he received a GED. By the time he left active duty, he was a Special Forces, combat-decorated Vietnam veteran. He then pursued a college degree and entered medical school at the University of California – San Francisco where he won the prestigious Gold Cane award as the top graduate.
Dr. Patricia K. Kuhl is the Bezos Family Foundation Endowed Chair for Early Childhood Learning, Co-Director of the UW Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences, Director of the NSF-funded Science of Learning Center, and Professor of Speech and Hearing Sciences. She is internationally recognized for her research on early language and brain development, and studies that show how young children learn. Dr. Kuhl's work has played a major role in demonstrating how early exposure to language alters the brain. It has implications for critical periods in development, for bilingual education and reading readiness, for developmental disabilities involving language, and for research on computer understanding of speech.
Dr. Nathan Fox is the Lab Director at the Child Development Lab at the University of Maryland. Their research focuses on multiple facets of socio-emotional development. They study cognitive, social and emotional processes and are interested in the observation and measurement of attention, memory, as well as emotion expression and social experience. The Child Development Lab specializes in linking these psychological processes to neural activity through brain imaging methods such as EEG, ERP and functional neuro-imaging.
Dr. Suzanne Gilberg-Lenz is involved in women’s empowerment and public education, and appears frequently as an expert in women’s and integrative health on TV, online and in print. Dr. Suzanne completed her undergraduate education at Wesleyan University and post-baccalaureate pre-medical studies at Mills College. She earned her medical degree in 1996 from the University of Southern California School of Medicine, completed her residency in obstetrics and gynecology at Cedars Sinai Medical Center and has been in private practice of obstetrics and gynecology in Beverly Hills, CA since 2000. After many years of a personal yoga and meditation practice, she completed her Clinical Ayurvedic Specialist degree at California College of Ayurveda in 2010 and was board certified in Integrative and Holistic medicine in 2008.
Board-certified in cardiovascular disease, internal medicine, nuclear medicine, integrative holistic medicine, Mimi Guarneri, MD, FACC, ABIHM is President of the Academy of Integrative Health and Medicine (AIHM) and the Past President of the American Board of Integrative Holistic Medicine (ABIHM) and serves as Senior Advisor to the Atlantic Health System for the Chambers Center for Well Being and Integrative Medicine. Dr. Guarneri currently serves on the Founding Board of the American Board Physician Specialties in Integrative Medicine, and is a Clinical Associate Professor at University of California, San Diego (UCSD).
Dr. Levitt is the Simms/Mann Chair in Developmental Neurogenetics at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and the WM Keck Provost Professor of Neurogenetics at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California. He also serves as the Director of the USC Neuroscience Graduate Program. Dr. Levitt has held chair and institute directorships at the University of Southern California, Vanderbilt University and the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Levitt has been a MERIT awardee from the National Institute of Mental Health and served as a member of the National Advisory Mental Health Council for the National Institute of Mental Health. He is an elected member of the Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives, an Elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), and an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine.
John Mattison is Chief Medical Information Officer and Assistant Medical Director for Kaiser Permanente, SCAL. John focuses on transforming care delivery with information technology, through exponential technologies and data liquidity. He led the design and implementation of the largest integrated electronic health record in the US, and is the founder of the international XML standard for health record interoperability known as CDA, CCD and CCDA. He has led various national innovation programs including virtual care, sponsored or led numerous digital health projects implemented at scale, is senior advisor to the Tricorder X-Prize, and mentors many digital health startups.
Dr. Andrew N. Meltzoff holds the Job and Gertrud Tamaki Endowed Chair and is the Co-Director of the University of Washington Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences. A graduate of Harvard University, with a PhD from Oxford University, he is an internationally renowned expert on infant and child development. His discoveries about infant imitation have revolutionized our understanding of early cognition, personality, and brain development. His research on social-emotional development and children’s understanding of other people has helped shape policy and practice.
Dr. Nelken’s major areas of research include pelvic organ prolapse, urinary incontinence and medical education. She has published extensively in peer reviewed journals, and authored book chapters on various subjects related to women’s pelvic health. She is an active member of the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and the American Urogynecologic Society. After graduating from Columbia College, Columbia University, in New York with a BA in history, Dr. Nelken earned her medical degree from the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California (USC). She went on to perform an internship and residency in obstetrics and gynecology and a fellowship in female pelvic medicine and reconstructive surgery, all at USC.
Dr. Nelson joined the VCU faculty in fall 2016. She is a general pediatrician and child health services researcher with an interest in early childhood development, screening for developmental and behavioral concerns, and promoting healthy development for children living in vulnerable circumstances. Dr. Nelson is a graduate of Wellesley College, Harvard Medical School, and the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program at UCLA. Prior to medical school she was a bilingual school teacher in New York City, and after medical school completed training in pediatrics in the inaugural year of UCSF’s Pediatric Leadership for the Underserved (PLUS) residency program. Dr. Nelson is a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Academic Pediatrics Association.
Arthur J. Rolnick is a Senior Fellow and Co-Director of the Human Capital Research Collaborative at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs, the University of Minnesota. Rolnick is working to advance multidisciplinary research on child development and social policy. He previously served at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis as a senior vice president and director of research and as an associate economist with the Federal Open Market Committee—the monetary policymaking body for the Federal Reserve System. Rolnick’s essays on public policy issues have gained national attention; his research interests include banking and financial economics, monetary policy, monetary history, the economics of federalism, and the economics of education. His work on early childhood development has garnered numerous awards, including those from the George Lucas Educational Foundation and the Minnesota Department of Health, both in 2007; he was also named 2005 Minnesotan of the Year by Minnesota Monthly magazine.
Dr. Wendy Slusser is Associate Vice Provost of the Healthy Campus Initiative, HS Clinical Professor of Pediatrics in the School of Medicine and Public Health, and Co-Founder and Medical Director of the UCLA Fit for Healthy Weight program. She graduated Cum Laude from Princeton University, received her Medical and Masters Degree in Nutrition from the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University. She completed her internship and residency in Pediatrics at Babies Hospital, Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in New York City. Dr. Slusser joined the UCLA faculty in 1996 and since then has been a leader in community, school, clinic, and family based programs related to health promotion, infant and child nutrition and physical fitness. Dr. Slusser is Board Certified in Pediatrics, a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics and teaches UCLA Pediatric Residents and Public Health Students.
Dr. Philip Werthman is the most recognized vasectomy reversal surgeon and male fertility specialist in the world. His expertise and skill have been acknowledged by scholars, his colleagues and in the media. An Assistant Clinical Professor of Urology at the University of Southern California School of Medicine, Dr. Werthman is also the author of two definitive textbooks on the subject of male fertility. Past President of the Los Angeles Urologic Society, Dr. Werthman is a recipient of the American Fertility Association’s Illuminations Award, given yearly to the outstanding fertility doctor in the nation. In addition to performing the first-ever network-televised vasectomy reversal surgery on ABC’s Extreme Makeover, he’s been a featured consultant to every news service, from CNN to NBC.
Dr. Yogman has been in pediatric practice in Cambridge, Massachusetts for 20 years after several years working full time at Boston Children’s Hospital with Dr T Berry Brazelton. He is Assistant Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School where he teaches and does research on the father-child relationship, developmental interventions,and nutrition and behavior. He has been a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics since 1973 and was board certified in Developmental Behavioral pediatrics when it first became a subspecialty in 2002.
John Mattison is Chief Medical Information Officer and Assistant Medical Director for Kaiser Permanente, SCAL. John focuses on transforming care delivery with information technology, through exponential technologies and data liquidity. He led the design and implementation of the largest integrated electronic health record in the US, and is the founder of the international XML standard for health record interoperability known as CDA, CCD and CCDA. He has led various national innovation programs including virtual care, sponsored or led numerous digital health projects implemented at scale, is senior advisor to the Tricorder X-Prize, and mentors many digital health startups.
Dr. Andrew N. Meltzoff holds the Job and Gertrud Tamaki Endowed Chair and is the Co-Director of the University of Washington Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences. A graduate of Harvard University, with a PhD from Oxford University, he is an internationally renowned expert on infant and child development. His discoveries about infant imitation have revolutionized our understanding of early cognition, personality, and brain development. His research on social-emotional development and children’s understanding of other people has helped shape policy and practice.
Dr. Nelken’s major areas of research include pelvic organ prolapse, urinary incontinence and medical education. She has published extensively in peer reviewed journals, and authored book chapters on various subjects related to women’s pelvic health. She is an active member of the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and the American Urogynecologic Society. After graduating from Columbia College, Columbia University, in New York with a BA in history, Dr. Nelken earned her medical degree from the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California (USC). She went on to perform an internship and residency in obstetrics and gynecology and a fellowship in female pelvic medicine and reconstructive surgery, all at USC.
Dr. Nelson joined the VCU faculty in fall 2016. She is a general pediatrician and child health services researcher with an interest in early childhood development, screening for developmental and behavioral concerns, and promoting healthy development for children living in vulnerable circumstances. Dr. Nelson is a graduate of Wellesley College, Harvard Medical School, and the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program at UCLA. Prior to medical school she was a bilingual school teacher in New York City, and after medical school completed training in pediatrics in the inaugural year of UCSF’s Pediatric Leadership for the Underserved (PLUS) residency program. Dr. Nelson is a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Academic Pediatrics Association.
Arthur J. Rolnick is a Senior Fellow and Co-Director of the Human Capital Research Collaborative at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs, the University of Minnesota. Rolnick is working to advance multidisciplinary research on child development and social policy. He previously served at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis as a senior vice president and director of research and as an associate economist with the Federal Open Market Committee—the monetary policymaking body for the Federal Reserve System. Rolnick’s essays on public policy issues have gained national attention; his research interests include banking and financial economics, monetary policy, monetary history, the economics of federalism, and the economics of education. His work on early childhood development has garnered numerous awards, including those from the George Lucas Educational Foundation and the Minnesota Department of Health, both in 2007; he was also named 2005 Minnesotan of the Year by Minnesota Monthly magazine.
Dr. Wendy Slusser is Associate Vice Provost of the Healthy Campus Initiative, HS Clinical Professor of Pediatrics in the School of Medicine and Public Health, and Co-Founder and Medical Director of the UCLA Fit for Healthy Weight program. She graduated Cum Laude from Princeton University, received her Medical and Masters Degree in Nutrition from the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University. She completed her internship and residency in Pediatrics at Babies Hospital, Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in New York City. Dr. Slusser joined the UCLA faculty in 1996 and since then has been a leader in community, school, clinic, and family based programs related to health promotion, infant and child nutrition and physical fitness. Dr. Slusser is Board Certified in Pediatrics, a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics and teaches UCLA Pediatric Residents and Public Health Students.
Dr. Philip Werthman is the most recognized vasectomy reversal surgeon and male fertility specialist in the world. His expertise and skill have been acknowledged by scholars, his colleagues and in the media. An Assistant Clinical Professor of Urology at the University of Southern California School of Medicine, Dr. Werthman is also the author of two definitive textbooks on the subject of male fertility. Past President of the Los Angeles Urologic Society, Dr. Werthman is a recipient of the American Fertility Association’s Illuminations Award, given yearly to the outstanding fertility doctor in the nation. In addition to performing the first-ever network-televised vasectomy reversal surgery on ABC’s Extreme Makeover, he’s been a featured consultant to every news service, from CNN to NBC.
Dr. Yogman has been in pediatric practice in Cambridge, Massachusetts for 20 years after several years working full time at Boston Children’s Hospital with Dr T Berry Brazelton. He is Assistant Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School where he teaches and does research on the father-child relationship, developmental interventions,and nutrition and behavior. He has been a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics since 1973 and was board certified in Developmental Behavioral pediatrics when it first became a subspecialty in 2002.
Along with two sisters, Ben Danielson was raised by an amazing single mom who instilled in him an appreciation for the value of education and a desire to be a contributing member of the community. In college, he decided that being a doctor was a good way to meld his scientific and human-service interests. Since finishing his undergraduate studies in Boston, Dr. Danielson has spent his medical education, residency, and career in Seattle.
Dr. Danielson has been the Medical Director of the Odessa Brown Children’s Clinic since 1999. He works alongside dedicated, talented staff who strive to uphold the clinic’s enduring tradition of growing wellness through quality care with dignity and community engagement, honoring culture, and sustaining trust. He also works on the inpatient service at Seattle Children’s Hospital. He is on the King County Board of Health, the Washington Health Benefit Exchange Board, and boards of various philanthropic organizations including the United Way of King County, The College Success Foundation, The Center for Children and Youth Justice, the Foundation for Healthy Generations. He also works with several community groups and coalitions dedicated to improving children’s health.
In addition to clinic based practice, Dr Danielson is an inpatient attending physician at Seattle Children’s Hospital. He also teaches and mentors through the University of Washington School of Medicine and Seattle Children’s Hospital’s Pediatric Residency Program.
Dr. Danielson believes that an opportunity to serve an individual or a community is a cherished privilege. He also subscribes to the truism that health is more than healthcare and that any healthcare provider who strives to improve health must be active beyond the realm of his or her medical practice.
Bob Adler, MD, serves as senior advisor to the chair of the Department of Pediatrics, chief medical officer of the CHLA Pediatric Health Network and sits on the Finance Committee for the Board of Trustees at CHLA. He is also a professor of Pediatrics and former vice chair of the Department of Pediatrics at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California. Dr. Adler was the first CHLA faculty member on the Residency Review Committee, which develops national training guidelines and policies and accredits all pediatric training programs in the U.S.
Previously serving as head of the Division of General Pediatrics, Dr. Adler was involved in primary care and served as acting head of the Divisions of Emergency Medicine, Genetics, Neurology and Critical Care as the need arose. A recipient of numerous teaching awards, Dr. Adler has served on the board of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and on the National Task Force on the Future of Pediatric Education. Dr. Adler has been listed in “Best Doctors in America,” “Who’s Who in Medicine and Healthcare,” “America’s Top Pediatricians” and “Who’s Who in Science and Engineering.” He serves on the Medical Advisory Board of The Painted Turtle Camp, a camp for children with chronic pediatric illnesses. He was the recipient of the Los Angeles Business Journal “Healthcare Executive” award in 2013, the Robert M. McAllister Award for faculty mentoring and the USC Mellon Mentoring Award. He was the inaugural recipient of the CHLA Alumni Recognition Award and in 2015 he was the first physician to receive the prestigious DAISY Award which is typically bestowed upon exceptional nurses by leadership and their peers for compassionate care at the bedside of sick and injured children.
Dr. Adler received a medical degree from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1973 and a master’s degree in medical education from the University of Southern California in 1986. He and his wife, Agi, have three children and thirteen grandchildren, with one expected in May 2016, and live in Los Angeles.
Richard H. Carmona, M.D., M.P.H., FACS
17th Surgeon General of the United States
Distinguished Professor, University of Arizona
Born to a poor immigrant family in New York City, Richard Carmona experienced homelessness, hunger, and health disparities during his youth. The experiences greatly sensitized him to the relationships among culture, health, education and economic status and ultimately shaped his future.
After dropping out of high school, Dr. Carmona enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1967 where he received a GED. By the time he left active duty, he was a Special Forces, combat-decorated Vietnam veteran. He then pursued a college degree and entered medical school at the University of California – San Francisco where he won the prestigious Gold Cane award as the top graduate.
Dr. Carmona became a surgeon with a sub-specialty in trauma, burns and critical care and was recruited to Tucson to establish the first trauma system in southern Arizona which he did successfully. Later, while working full time as a hospital and health system CEO, he earned a master’s degree in public health policy and administration at the University of Arizona. As an academic leader, Dr. Carmona has also published extensively in basic science and clinical research.
Dr. Carmona has also served for over 30 years with the Pima County Sheriff’s Department in Tucson, including as deputy sheriff, detective, SWAT team leader and department surgeon. He is one of the most highly decorated police officers in Arizona, and his numerous awards include the National Top Cop Award, the National SWAT Officer of the Year, and the National Tactical EMS Award. Dr. Carmona is a nationally recognized SWAT expert and has published extensively on SWAT training and tactics, forensics, and tactical emergency medical support. Dr. Carmona has also served as a medical director of police and fire departments and is a fully qualified peace officer with expertise in special operations and emergency preparedness, including weapons of mass destruction.
In 2002 Dr. Carmona was nominated by the president and unanimously confirmed by the United States Senate to become the 17th Surgeon General of the United States. After completing his statutory four-year term as Surgeon General in 2006, Dr. Carmona joined Tucson-based Canyon Ranch as vice chairman. He is president of the non-profit Canyon Ranch Institute, Distinguished Professor at the University of Arizona and Distinguished Professor at The Ohio State University. He also serves on several corporate boards and works with private equity and venture capital firms to identify emerging science and technology to translate to market for economic and public benefit.
Dr. Patricia K. Kuhl is the Bezos Family Foundation Endowed Chair for Early Childhood Learning, Co-Director of the UW Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences, Director of the NSF-funded Science of Learning Center, and Professor of Speech and Hearing Sciences. She is internationally recognized for her research on early language and brain development, and studies that show how young children learn. Dr. Kuhl’s work has played a major role in demonstrating how early exposure to language alters the brain. It has implications for critical periods in development, for bilingual education and reading readiness, for developmental disabilities involving language, and for research on computer understanding of speech.
Dr. Kuhl is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the Rodin Academy, and the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters. She was awarded the Silver Medal of the Acoustical Society of America in 1997, and in 2005, the Kenneth Craik Research Award from Cambridge University. She received the University of Washington’s Faculty Lectureship Award in 1998, and in the 2007, Dr. Kuhl was awarded the University of Minnesota’s Outstanding Achievement Award. Dr. Kuhl is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Acoustical Society of America, the Cognitive Science Society and the American Psychological Society. In 2008 Dr. Kuhl was awarded the Gold Medal from Acoustical Society of America for her work on learning and the brain. In 2011 in Paris, she was awarded the IPSEN Fondation’s Jean-Louis Signoret Neuropsychology Prize.
Dr. Kuhl was one of six scientists invited to the White House in 1997 to make a presentation at President and Mrs. Clinton’s Conference on “Early Learning and the Brain.” In 2001, she was invited to make a presentation at President and Mrs. Bush’s White House Summit on “Early Cognitive Development: Ready to Read, Ready to Learn.” In 2000, she co-authored The Scientist in the Crib: Minds, Brains, and How Children Learn (Morrow Press).
Dr. Kuhl’s work has been widely covered by the media. She has appeared in the Discovery television series “The Baby Human”; the NOVA series “The Mind”; the “The Power of Ideas” on PBS; and “The Secret Life of the Brain,” also on PBS. She has discussed her research findings on early learning and the brain at NBC’s Education Nation, and on The Today Show, Good Morning America, CBS Evening News, NBC Nightly News, NHK, CNN, and in The New York Times, Time, and Newsweek.
Dr. Nathan Fox is the Lab Director at the Child Development Lab at the University of Maryland. Their research focuses on multiple facets of socio-emotional development. They study cognitive, social and emotional processes and are interested in the observation and measurement of attention, memory, as well as emotion expression and social experience. The Child Development Lab specializes in linking these psychological processes to neural activity through brain imaging methods such as EEG, ERP and functional neuro-imaging.
Dr. Fox has completed research on the biological bases of social and emotional behavior, developing methods for assessing brain activity in infants and young children during tasks designed to elicit a range of emotions. His work is funded by the National Institutes of Health where he was awarded a MERIT award for excellence of his research program examining social and emotional development of young children. He is one of three Principal Investigators on the Bucharest Early Intervention Project.
Dr. Fox has served as Associate Editor of the journals Developmental Psychology and Psychophysiology and as Editor of the journal Infant Behavior and Development. He is currently Associate Editor of the International Journal of Behavioral Development.
Dr. Fox was awarded the Distinguished Scientific Investigator Award from the National Association for Research in Schizophrenia and Depression (NARSAD) and was appointed a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2008. He is a member of the Executive Committee of the NIH Toolbox Project and of the National Scientific Council for the Developing Child.
Dr. Suzanne Gilberg-Lenz is involved in women’s empowerment and public education, and appears frequently as an expert in women’s and integrative health on TV, online and in print. Dr. Suzanne completed her undergraduate education at Wesleyan University and post-baccalaureate pre-medical studies at Mills College. She earned her medical degree in 1996 from the University of Southern California School of Medicine, completed her residency in obstetrics and gynecology at Cedars Sinai Medical Center and has been in private practice of obstetrics and gynecology in Beverly Hills, CA since 2000. After many years of a personal yoga and meditation practice, she completed her Clinical Ayurvedic Specialist degree at California College of Ayurveda in 2010 and was board certified in Integrative and Holistic medicine in 2008.
Dr. Suzanne’ s diverse background includes research experience combining Ayurveda and conventional medicine, an exploration of the relationship between psychosocial risk factors in pregnant urban teens and participation on a MacArthur Foundation funded team at University of California at San Francisco. She has worked at San Francisco’s famed Haight Ashbury Free Clinic and supervised midwives and residents at an inner city hospital in Los Angeles, California. Dr. Suzanne has taught at Cedars Sinai Medical Center, The National Ayurvedic Medical Association, Yoga Studios and Childbirth conferences and appeared on TV shows such as The Today Show, Dr. Oz, Headline News and The O’Reilly’ Factor, The Talk, The Steve Harvey Show, Dr. Drew’s Lifechangers and The Tyra Banks Show
Dr. Suzanne is co-founder of Cedars Sinai Medical Center’s Green Committee, a 2014-2015 Doximity Medical Social Media Fellow, and is deeply committed to the promotion of healing that involves individuals, families, communities and the planet. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and two children in a “green” renovated home with a sustainable native plants garden and organic urban mini-farm.
Board-certified in cardiovascular disease, internal medicine, nuclear medicine, integrative holistic medicine, Mimi Guarneri, MD, FACC, ABIHM is President of the Academy of Integrative Health and Medicine (AIHM) and the Past President of the American Board of Integrative Holistic Medicine (ABIHM) and serves as Senior Advisor to the Atlantic Health System for the Chambers Center for Well Being and Integrative Medicine. Dr. Guarneri currently serves on the Founding Board of the American Board Physician Specialties in Integrative Medicine, and is a Clinical Associate Professor at University of California, San Diego (UCSD).
Dr. Guarneri is founder and director of Guarneri Integrative Health, Inc. at Pacific Pearl La Jolla in La Jolla, California, U.S.A. She was an English Literature major as an undergraduate at New York University. Her medical degree is from SUNY Medical Center in New York, where she graduated number one in her class. Dr. Guarneri served her internship and residency at Cornell Medical Center, where she later became chief medical resident. She served cardiology fellowships at both New York University Medical Center and Scripps Clinic. She is a fellow member of the American College of Cardiology, Alpha Omega Alpha, and the American Medical Women’s Association.
Dr. Guarneri founded the Scripps Center for Integrative Medicine and served as Medical Director for 15 years. She began her career at Scripps Clinic as an attending in interventional cardiology, where she placed thousands of coronary stents. Recognizing the need for a more comprehensive and more holistic approach to cardiovascular disease, she pioneered the Scripps Center for Integrative Medicine where state-of-the-art cardiac imaging technology and lifestyle change programs are used to aggressively diagnose, prevent and treat cardiovascular disease.
Dr. Guarneri is the author of” The Heart Speaks.” Her work has been featured on television with NBC Today and PBS. She is co-author of the book, “Total Engagement: The Healthcare Practitioner’s Guide to Heal Yourself, Your Patients & Your Practice,” published in 2014. Her next book, “108 Steps to Health, Healing, and Longevity: A Cardiologist Reveals Your Road Map to Health,” will be published by Hay House in 2016. She also is the Professor of The Great Courses series, “The Science of Natural Healing.”
Dr. Guarneri has been recognized for her national leadership in Integrative Medicine by the Bravewell Collaborative and has served as chair of the Bravewell Clinical Network for Integrative Medicine. In 2009, Dr. Guarneri was honored as the ARCS scientist of the year. In 2011, Dr. Guarneri was the winner of the Bravewell Leadership Award which honors a physician leader who has made significant contributions to the transformation of the U.S. healthcare system. Most recently, she received the 2012 Linus Pauling Functional Medicine Lifetime Achievement Award from the Institute for Functional Medicine and the Grace A. Goldsmith award from the American College of Nutrition.
Dr. Levitt is the Simms/Mann Chair in Developmental Neurogenetics at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and the WM Keck Provost Professor of Neurogenetics at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California. He also serves as the Director of the USC Neuroscience Graduate Program. Dr. Levitt has held chair and institute directorships at the University of Southern California, Vanderbilt University and the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Levitt has been a MERIT awardee from the National Institute of Mental Health and served as a member of the National Advisory Mental Health Council for the National Institute of Mental Health. He is an elected member of the Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives, an Elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), and an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine.
Dr. Levitt is a Senior Fellow at the Center for the Developing Child at Harvard University, and serves as Scientific Director of the National Scientific Council on the Developing Child, a policy council that brings the best research from child development and neuroscience to assist state and federal policy makers and private sector business leaders in making wise decisions regarding program investment. He has spoken on this topic in over 30 states.
Dr. Levitt’s research focuses on the development of circuitry that controls learning, emotional and social behavior. The laboratory performs studies on genetic and environment factors that influence circuit formation and the underlying influence of individual differences (heterogeneity) in complex behaviors. Studies also identify factors that increase risk for neurodevelopmental and neuropsychiatric disorders. His clinical research addresses disorder heterogeneity by studying children with neurodevelopmental disorders who also have co-occurring medical conditions, and children exposed to toxic stress (neglect, abuse) early in life that may impact mental and physical health short- and long-term. The studies have a goal of developing better diagnostic criteria and personalized treatments. He has published over 265 scientific papers.
John Mattison is Chief Medical Information Officer and Assistant Medical Director for Kaiser Permanente, SCAL. John focuses on transforming care delivery with information technology, through exponential technologies and data liquidity. He led the design and implementation of the largest integrated electronic health record in the US, and is the founder of the international XML standard for health record interoperability known as CDA, CCD and CCDA. He has led various national innovation programs including virtual care, sponsored or led numerous digital health projects implemented at scale, is senior advisor to the Tricorder X-Prize, and mentors many digital health startups. He chairs the eHealth Workgroup of the Global Alliance for Genomics and Health (GA4GH), and is a board member of Open mHealth and the NIH funded ‘Policy and Ethics in Precision Medicine’, teaches at multiple Universities including Exponential Medicine at Singularity University, and has published widely on IOT, global genomics, policy, privacy, security, international research collaboration models, interoperability, mobile health, Community Health, mindfulness and resilience, and healthcare transformation. He has published in Nature, JAMIA, JAMA, has been quoted in WSJ, Forbes, Fast Company, Modern Healthcare, Modern Physician, Mobile Health News, Sloan Management Review, and has authored chapters for four books. He keynotes and hosts many national and international conferences and consults globally. He is an active participant on several global initiatives to bring internet services to underserved communities providing access to both jobs and healthcare. His contributions to healthcare have been recognized by various national awards. His current work focuses on leveraging a Motivational Formulary across the Healthcare Plecosystem to restore ancient wisdom, mindfulness and resilience while creating a “Behavioral Symphony of Wellness”
Dr. Andrew N. Meltzoff holds the Job and Gertrud Tamaki Endowed Chair and is the Co-Director of the University of Washington Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences. A graduate of Harvard University, with a PhD from Oxford University, he is an internationally renowned expert on infant and child development. His discoveries about infant imitation have revolutionized our understanding of early cognition, personality, and brain development. His research on social-emotional development and children’s understanding of other people has helped shape policy and practice.
Dr. Meltzoff’s 20 years of research on young children has had far-reaching implications for cognitive science, especially for ideas about memory and its development; for brain science, especially for ideas about common coding and shared neural circuits for perception and action; and for early education and parenting, particularly for ideas about the importance of role models, both adults and peers, in child development.
He is the co-author of two books about early learning and the brain: The Scientist in the Crib: What Early Learning Tells Us about the Mind (Morrow Press, 2000) and Words, Thoughts and Theories (MIT Press, 1997). He is also co-editor of The Imitative Mind: Development, Evolution and Brain Bases (Cambridge University Press, 2002), a unique, multidisciplinary volume combining brain science, evolutionary theory, and developmental psychology.
Dr. Meltzoff is the recipient of a MERIT Award from the National Institutes of Health. In 2005, he was the recipient of an award for outstanding research from the Society for Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics and the Kenneth Craik Award in Psychology, Cambridge University, England. Dr. Meltzoff is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Psychological Association, and the American Psychological Society. He has been inducted into the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters and is the recipient of the James McKeen Cattell Sabbatical Award.
Dr. Meltzoff is active in volunteer work concerning children, having served on the board of directors of the Foundation for Early Learning, the board of directors of the University Child Development School, the National Advisory Committee for Grants of the March of Dimes Foundation, and the national advisory board of Parents Magazine.
Dr. Meltzoff has appeared on the PBS programs Scientific American Frontiers and NOVA, on ABC’s World News Now, NBC’s Today Show, the CBC Discovery series, and in numerous other media outlets. He is married to Dr. Patricia K. Kuhl, and they have one daughter.
Dr. Rebecca Nelken is a pelvic and reconstructive surgeon. She is one of the few physicians to be board certified in both OB/GYN and Female Pelvic Medicine and Reconstructive Surgery. She has two practice locations, Beverly Hills and Santa Monica. Dr. Nelken is also an Assistant Professor of Clinical Obstetrics & Gynecology and Resident Education Specialist at the USC Keck School of Medicine.
Dr. Nelken’s major areas of research include pelvic organ prolapse, urinary incontinence and medical education. She has published extensively in peer reviewed journals, and authored book chapters on various subjects related to women’s pelvic health.
She is an active member of the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and the American Urogynecologic Society. After graduating from Columbia College, Columbia University, in New York with a BA in history, Dr. Nelken earned her medical degree from the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California (USC). She went on to perform an internship and residency in obstetrics and gynecology and a fellowship in female pelvic medicine and reconstructive surgery, all at USC.
Dr. Nelken lives in Beverly Hills with her husband and 2 sons. She is fluent in French and Spanish. In her free time she enjoys hiking and reading. Dr. Nelken looks forward to meeting you, making you feel at ease and answering your pelvic health questions.
Arthur J. Rolnick is a Senior Fellow and Co-Director of the Human Capital Research Collaborative at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs, the University of Minnesota. Rolnick is working to advance multidisciplinary research on child development and social policy. He previously served at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis as a senior vice president and director of research and as an associate economist with the Federal Open Market Committee—the monetary policymaking body for the Federal Reserve System. Rolnick’s essays on public policy issues have gained national attention; his research interests include banking and financial economics, monetary policy, monetary history, the economics of federalism, and the economics of education. His work on early childhood development has garnered numerous awards, including those from the George Lucas Educational Foundation and the Minnesota Department of Health, both in 2007; he was also named 2005 Minnesotan of the Year by Minnesota Monthly magazine.
Rolnick has been a visiting professor of economics at Boston College, the University of Chicago, and the University of Minnesota. Most recently he was an adjunct professor of economics, MBA program, Lingnan College, Guangzhou, China and the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management. He is past president of the Minnesota Economic Association. He serves on several nonprofit boards including the Minnesota Early Learning Foundation, Greater Twin Cities United Way, and Ready 4 K, an advocacy organization for early childhood development.
A native of Michigan, Rolnick has a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and a master’s degree in economics from Wayne State University, Detroit; and a doctorate in economics from the University of Minnesota.
Dr. Philip Werthman is the most recognized vasectomy reversal surgeon and male fertility specialist in the world. His expertise and skill have been acknowledged by scholars, his colleagues and in the media.
An Assistant Clinical Professor of Urology at the University of Southern California School of Medicine, Dr. Werthman is also the author of two definitive textbooks on the subject of male fertility. Past President of the Los Angeles Urologic Society, Dr. Werthman is a recipient of the American Fertility Association’s Illuminations Award, given yearly to the outstanding fertility doctor in the nation. In addition to performing the first-ever network-televised vasectomy reversal surgery on ABC’s Extreme Makeover, he’s been a featured consultant to every news service, from CNN to NBC.
But the accolades that Dr. Werthman treasures most are those from his patients: the walls of his office are filled with photos and cards expressing the heartfelt gratitude of hundreds of former patients – who are now new parents.
Dr. Yogman has been in pediatric practice in Cambridge, Massachusetts for 20 years after several years working full time at Boston Children’s Hospital with Dr T Berry Brazelton. He is Assistant Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School where he teaches and does research on the father-child relationship, developmental interventions,and nutrition and behavior. He has been a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics since 1973 and was board certified in Developmental Behavioral pediatrics when it first became a subspecialty in 2002.
Previously, he has been Associate Chief of the Division of Child Development and Director of the Infant Health and Development Program at Children’s Hospital. He is the editor of several books (In Support of Families, published by Harvard University Press; Affective Development in Infancy; and a biennial series Theory and Research in Behavioral Pediatrics) and author of numerous articles and chapters on the father-infant relationship, infant diet and sleep, and parent-infant play. He gave the introductory testimony to hearings of the U.S. House Select Committee on Children, Youth and Families on fathers and children in support of paternity leave in the early 1980’s. He was a member of the Harvard Working Group on Child Health Policy and the Children’s Initiative, a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics, Society for Pediatric Research, Society for Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics and Society for Research in Child Development. He has been a consultant to the Congressional Select Panel on Child Health, NIH Advisory Committee on Physical Growth and the Massachusetts Daycare Committee. He has served on the Editorial Board of Child Development and Infant Mental Health and the Advisory Board of Nickleodeon Jr. Magazine, the Yearbook on Health and Medicine and the Fatherhood Project. He has been a trustee of the Boston Children’s Museum since 2000 , and advises the national collaboration of Children’s Museums Go Kids initiative to combat obesity. He has served on the Executive Board of the Massachusetts Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics since 2002 , has been a member of the MCAAP pediatric council since 1999, and the Obesity Committee since 2004. He consulted to the AAP task Force on the Family on the father’s role in childhood in October of 2001. He was recently appointed to the National AAP Committee on Psychosocial Aspects of Child and Family Health and to the Massachusetts Special Commission Relative to Postpartum Depression. .Currently, he is Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Boston Children’s Museum and Chair of the Massachusetts Child Mental Health Task Force.
Dr. Yogman received his undergraduate degree from Williams College and his medical degree from Yale University. He holds a M. Sc. degree in Maternal and Child Health from Harvard School of Public Health. He is married to Dr Elizabeth Ascher, a cardiologist and has two daughters Madeline and Alexandra ,and three dogs Clementine and Winston,both dachshunds and Maisy Brown a chocolate Lab.
