
George “Bud” Brainard, PhD
For more than 30 years, George Brainard, PhD, has studied the effects of light on the biology and behavior of animals and humans. His research has been widely supported by public, industrial, and private sources.
We look at the whole picture, the entire lived experience that influences health.
Our work examines health through many lenses that intersect, and it often helps people who are underserved or experiencing trauma — for example, veterans suffering from PTSD, children with serious illness, low-income residents grappling with systemic racism and neglect, and others.
The Nova Institute’s Scholars and Fellows are accomplished leaders and young trailblazers whose cutting-edge work promotes integrative approaches to health. They hail from esteemed institutions across the country and around the world. Our program gives them the freedom and resources to take their work in new, pioneering directions.
For more than 30 years, George Brainard, PhD, has studied the effects of light on the biology and behavior of animals and humans. His research has been widely supported by public, industrial, and private sources.
Dr. Paul Dieppe is among world’s preeminent osteoarthritis researchers and one of only 23 health researchers in the UK to hold the prestigious Emeritus Senior Investigator award from the National Institute for Health Research.
Rebecca S. Etz is a cultural anthropologist at Virginia Commonwealth University with expertise in qualitative research methods and design, primary care measures, practice transformation, and engaging stakeholders.
Frederick O. Foote, MD, a retired U.S. Navy physician, leads the Epidaurus Project, which aims to integrate whole-person care in hospitals and clinics throughout the U.S. Military Health System.
Dr. Hammerschlag, with a background in neurobiology, works primarily in acupuncture and biofield physiology research and serves as the executive director of The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine.
David Scott Jones, MD, is president emeritus and a member of the board of directors of The Institute for Functional Medicine (IFM), where he served as president and director of medical education from 2000 to 2013.
Professor George A. Kaplan, PhD, is a social epidemiologist whose work on the role of behavioral, social, psychological and socioeconomic factors in health and health inequalities has been cited more than 63,000 times. A major theme in his work is the complex linkage between “upstream” and “downstream” factors in maintaining health.
David John Lary, PhD, is an atmospheric scientist whose work focuses on using remote sensing from robotic aerial vehicles and satellites coupled with machine learning to facilitate scientific discovery and decision support.
Professor Susan Prescott, MD, PhD, is a pediatrician and an internationally acclaimed physician-scientist, well known for her cutting-edge research into the early environmental determinants of health and disease.
Judy Rollins, PhD, RN, brings 30 years of arts and healthcare experience in research, consulting, program development, and education. She is a registered nurse with a BFA in the visual arts, an MS in child development and family studies, and a PhD in health and community studies.
Kurt C. Stange, MD, PhD, is a family and public health physician, practicing at Neighborhood Family Practice, a federally-qualified community health center in Cleveland, Ohio. Dr. Stange examines the integration of relationship-centered care at the crossroads between person and population.
Sara L. Warber, MD is nationally and internationally recognized as a leader, researcher, educator and clinician in integrative healthcare, known for her work studying the use and measurement of integrative therapies, the phenomenon of healing, nature and health, and the effects of complex interventions on human well-being.
Dr. Witt is a physician, epidemiologist, and research methodologist focusing on the evaluation of non-pharmacological interventions in integrative medicine, as well as non-specific factors such as therapy outcomes.
Steven H. Woolf, MD, MPH, is Professor at the Department of Family Medicine and Population Health at Virginia Commonwealth University. Dr. Woolf researches the many social determinants of health and aims to establish a new model for communicating scientific evidence to decision-makers.
Dr. Ahn is a junior faculty member of both the Massachusetts General Hospital Martinos Center and the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Division of General Medicine and Primary Care. His research interest is in computational medicine and large-scale electrophysiological processes within the human body.
Kirstin Aschbacher, PhD, is a psychologist and psychoneuroimmunologist on the faculty of University of California, San Francisco. The overarching goal of Dr. Aschbacher’s research is to illuminate the psychobiological mechanisms by which chronic and traumatic stress contribute to cardiometabolic disease, in order to develop integrative interventions to restore health.
Valentina Morani works in Chinese Medicine and sound healing, and has a background in fine arts that she occasionally combines with her healing practices. She also explores the concept of wellness retreats and next generation healing centers.
Dr. Chris D’Adamo is an epidemiologist with research interests in the synergistic effects of healthy lifestyle practices and genetics on human health, as well as outcomes evaluations of multi-modality, whole-practice integrative health interventions and programs
Dr. Greeson is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Rowan University in New Jersey, where he directs the Mindfulness, Stress & Health Lab and is Co-Director of Research for the Center for Humanism at Cooper Medical School of Rowan University.
Heidi Gullett, MD, MPH, is an assistant professor in the Center for Community Health Integration at Case Western Reserve University. Dr. Gullett believes that it is vitally important to understand the root causes of the current fragmented system and to address the identified opportunities for integration of care to reduce the health effects of poverty.
Alan Logan, ND, is an award-winning author and historian of health sciences with nearly 100 publications in diverse scientific and medical journals. His work, which has more than 6,500 citations, explores the ways in which natural environments provide value to and impact human health and quality of life.
Carley Riley, MD, MPP, MHS, is an assistant professor in the Department of Pediatrics of the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine and an attending physician in the Division of Critical Care Medicine at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. Her work (with research partner Brita Roy) focuses on trends and geographic variation in well-being among US populations.
Brita Roy, MD, MPH, MHS is Clinical Associate Professor at the Department of Population Health, NYU Grossman School of Medicine, and Clinical Associate Professor at the Department of Medicine, NYU Grossman School of Medicine, as well as Director of Community Health and Clinical Outcomes — Beyond Bridges at NYU Langone Hospital.
Denise Shanté Brown, MA, is a designer and mental health advocate strategizing compassionate interventions for connection, well-being and social transformation.
Francesca Richardson, PhD is a licensed clinical social worker and qualitative researcher. A clinical social worker for over 25 years, she has extensive experience working in mental health, hospice, employee assistance programs and in private practice.
Nova Invited Faculty share their expertise and interdisciplinary knowledge to help “connect the dots” across different issue areas and themes.
Zinzi Bailey, ScD, MSPH, is a social epidemiologist and an Assistant Professor at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine and the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Dr. Mona El-Sherbini is an accomplished medical doctor and Associate Professor of Medical Parasitology at the Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University, Egypt.
Dr. Sue Ishaq, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Animal and Veterinary Sciences at the University of Maine.
Dr. Ariangela J. Kozik is currently a NHLBI PRIDE scholar and Research Investigator in Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at the University of Michigan.
David is an entrepreneur, polymath and dedicated generalist with a passion for connecting data, problems, people, and resources to emerging solutions.
Aterah Nusrat, MSc, DIC, serves as both Director of Programming in Integrative Medicine and Planetary Health and Senior Program Manager at the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
Dr. Aaron Schuh, MD, is a clinical fellow in the Division of Adolescent Medicine at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center.
Dr. Stephan van Vliet is a nutrition scientist with metabolomics expertise in the Center for Human Nutrition Studies at Utah State University.
A clinical conversation between Dr. Chris D’Adamo and Robert Rountree, Editor in Chief at Integrative and Complementary Therapies, on the topics of nutritional epidemiology, culinary medicine, and community-based health promotion.
We extend our heartfelt congratulations to Professor George A. Kaplan, our friend and Nova Institute’s Senior Advisor to the Scholars and Fellows Program, for receiving
Institute Scholar Dr. Steven Woolf‘s recent study revealed that between 2018-2020 U.S. life expectancy dropped by a huge margin and disproportionately impacted Black and Hispanic populations,
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RT @jonlevyBU: ICYMI, great article in @AMJPublicHealth about unequal environmental burdens on the LGBTQ+ community.... Read More
RT @DrSueIshaq: Apply by June 9: Postdoctoral Teaching Fellow in Animal + Veterinary Science, UMaine!... Read More
On #WorldEnvironmentDay, we look to #NatureConnection & the importance of natural systems for the flourishing... Read More
Over the past thirty years, we’ve been part of a movement to shift the primary approach to health from a focus on disease to a more complete approach. As reflected in our tagline, “For Health of People, Places, and Planet,” how we are building on “person health” and looking at the context of peoples’ lives and communities as well as the health of the planet we all share.
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Healing is facilitated through safety, persistence, and trust.
Resources support us as we heal. They include reframing, responsibility, and positivity. “Making connections enabled participants to acquire and refine resources and skills that were essential in their healing journey. People also brought their own personal strengths to the journey.”
“Connection to others was an essential part of all the healing journeys.” Humans are social creatures, and even the most introverted of us need close relationships. Friends and family add meaning and value to life and help support us, in good times and bad.
When we experience relational trauma, relationships can feel scary, but reestablishing safety and trust in relationships is where the healing happens. (To be clear, we do not mean reestablishing safety and trust with abusers, but rather finding other healing relationships.)
“When safety and trust had been established, people were able to connect with helpers. The nature of the behaviours of helpers that fostered healing ranged from small acts of kindness to unconditional love.”
Healing probably means different things to different people, but one definition that emerged from the study is: “The re-establishment of a sense of integrity and wholeness.”
Healing was an emergent property that resulted from each individuals’ complex healing journey, a result of bridged connections between resources and relationships. “…they gradually found relief from suffering and began to exhibit emergent characteristics: a sense of hope, self-acceptance, and a desire to help others—the immediate precursors to healing.”
In varying degrees, “they were able to transcend their suffering and in some sense to flourish.”
Suffering is the ongoing pain from wounding.
There is debate about whether or not one actually needs to experience suffering on the path to healing.
Wounding happens when we experience physical or emotional harm. It can stem from chronic illness or by physical or psychological trauma for which we do not have the tools to cope, or a combination of those factors.
“The degree and quality of suffering experienced by each individual is framed by contextual factors that include personal characteristics, timing of their initial or ongoing wounding in the developmental life cycle and prior and current relationships.”
Characteristics: How predisposed someone may be to wounding/how many tools and resources someone may have to deal with trauma/illness.
Lifestages: Developmental timing plays an important role in the impact of trauma — young children often do not have the same resources as older adults.
Relationships: Relationships can provide solace and support for those suffering, while lack of healthy relationships can prolong suffering.