The Team at CancerChoices



Team

Our staff and advisors include many leaders in the field of integrative oncology and medicine.

Our staff

Meet the dedicated and experienced team behind CancerChoices.

Michael Lerner

Co-founder
Michael Lerner is president and co-founder of Commonweal, the parent organization of CancerChoices. He is co-founder of the Commonweal Cancer Help Program, Healing Circles, The New School at Commonweal, and CancerChoices.
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Christine Mineart, MPH

Program director
Christine has a dynamic background in the life sciences, public health, and program operations.
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Miki Scheidel

Co-founder and creative director
Miki Scheidel is co-founder and creative director of CancerChoices. She led the effort to transform Beyond Conventional Cancer Therapies, the prior version of CancerChoices, to its current form.
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Laura Pole, MSN, RN, OCNS

Senior clinical consultant
Laura Pole is an oncology clinical nurse specialist who has been providing integrative oncology clinical care, navigation, consultation, and education services for over 40 years.
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Mary Hardy, MD

Research and education director
Dr. Mary Hardy is board-certified in internal medicine and a specialist in botanical and integrative medicine
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Susan Yaguda, MSN, RN

Clinical consultant
Susan Yaguda, MSN, RN, has been a nurse for nearly 40 years, working in a variety of healthcare settings.
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Nancy Hepp, MS

Lead researcher
Nancy Hepp researches, writes, and reviews CancerChoices site content and overseeing technology issues.
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Melissa Oprish

Communications and outreach lead
Melissa Oprish brings several years of experience working in marketing, content creation, and writing with a focus on wellness, parenting, and food.
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Maria Williams

Research and communications consultant
Maria Williams is a research and communications consultant who brings over 15 years’ experience in research, consumer education, and science communication to CancerChoices.
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Andrew Jackson, ND

Research associate
Andrew Jackson, ND, teaches future naturopathic physicians the skills to read and evaluate biomedical literature for potential error or bias, assess whether results are meaningful, and apply the literature to their practices.
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Judi Hoffman

Copyeditor and website editor
Judi helps CancerChoices with editing and uploading content to the website.
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Volunteer staff

Lindsay McDonell

Volunteer guide and staff
Lindsay McDonell is a speaker, sought-after cancer coach, and celebrated author.
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Past contributors

Emily Ryan, ND, MSOM, LAc

Community outreach specialist
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Whitney You, MD

Maternal-fetal medicine physician
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Ruth Hennig

BCCT senior staff
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Petra Martin

BCCT design specialist
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In memoriam

Kozo Hattori

BCCT Research associate
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Our advisors

CancerChoices works with many integrative oncology and other cancer and wellness advisors to ensure the information we offer incorporates the highest levels of expertise and available evidence.

Integrative oncology advisors

Donald I. Abrams, MD

Professor emeritus of clinical medicine at the University of California San Francisco
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Lise Alschuler, ND, FABNO

Professor of clinical medicine at the University of Arizona School of Medicine and assistant director of the the Integrative Medicine Fellowship at the Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine
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Jennifer Bires, LICSW, OSW-C

Past executive director of the Smith Center for Healing and the Arts in Washington, DC
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Keith Block, MD

Medical-scientific director of the Block Center for Integrative Cancer Treatment and author of Life Over Cancer
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Brian Bouch, MD

Associate clinical professor, UCLA School of Medicine
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Janie Brown, RN, MSN, MA

Co-founder and executive director of the Callanish Society
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Linda E. Carlson, PhD, CPsych

Enbridge Research Chair in Psychosocial Oncology and professor in psychosocial oncology in the Department of Oncology, Cumming School of Medicine at the University of Calgary
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Lorenzo Cohen, PhD

Richard E. Haynes Distinguished Professor in Clinical Cancer Prevention, director of the Integrative Medicine Program at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center (Houston) and distinguished clinical professor at Fudan University Cancer Hospital in Shanghai, China
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Barry D. Elson, MD

Past medical director of Northampton Wellness Associates, adjunct faculty for Touro University College of Medicine, medical director at Commonweal, and professor of medicine at the Pacific College of Naturopathic Medicine
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Dr. Nina Fuller-Shavel 

Fellow of the College of Medicine and the vice chair for BSIO (British Society for Integrative Oncology) and director of Synthesis Clinic
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Jen Green, ND, FABNO

Naturopathic physician and cofounder/research director for Knowledge in Integrative Oncology Website
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Wayne B. Jonas, MD

Family physician and the executive director of Samueli Integrative Health Programs
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Gunver Sophia Kienle, MD

Co-founder of and senior research scientist at the Institute for Applied Epistemology and Medical Methodology at the University of Witten-Herdecke, Freiburg, Germany, and senior scientist at the University Centre for Complementary Medicine, University of Freiburg
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Judith Lacey, MBBS, FRACGP, FAChPM (RACP)

Head of Supportive Care and Integrative Oncology, Chris O’Brien Lifehouse Comprehensive Cancer Centre, NSW, Australia
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John Laird, MD

Founder of the Great Smokies Medical Center and Shafiyy Institute of Health and Healing and co-founded the Great Smokies Diagnostic Lab
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Dawn Lemanne, MD, MPH

Founder of Oregon Integrative Oncology and graduate of the University of Arizona’s two-year integrative medicine fellowship
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Leroy Lowe, PhD

President and co-founder of Getting to Know Cancer
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BJ Miller, MD

Practitioner at UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center and faculty at UCSF California
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Ralph Moss, PhD

Founder and director of The Moss Reports
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Dean Ornish, MD

President and founder of the Preventive Medicine Research Institute and clinical professor of medicine at the University of California San Francisco School of Medicine
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Santosh Rao, MD

Medical director of integrative oncology at University Hospitals Connor Whole Health and director of medical oncology for genitourinary cancer at University Hospitals Seidman Cancer Center
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Rachel Naomi Remen, MD

Clinical professor of Family and Community Medicine at UCSF School of Medicine and founder and director of the Remen Institute for the Study of Health and Illness
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Mark Renneker, MD

Assistant clinical professor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco
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Dugald Seely, ND, MSc

Founder and executive director of The Centre for Health Innovation (CHI) and executive director for research and clinical epidemiology at the Canadian College of Naturopathic Medicine
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Leanna J. Standish, PhD, ND, LAc, FABNO

Professor for the School of Naturopathic Medicine at Bastyr University, and clinical professor for the School of Public Health at the University of Washington
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Gwendolyn Stritter, MD

Anesthesiologist and past director of the Kaiser San Jose Pain Medicine Clinic
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Debu Tripathy, MD

Professor of medicine and chair of the Department of Breast Medical Oncology at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
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Andrew Weil, MD

Leader and pioneer in the field of integrative medicine and New York Times best-selling author
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Heather Wright, ND, FABNO

President of the Oncology Association of Naturopathic Physicians and co-research director for the KNOW project
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Cancer, health, and wellness advisors

yvonne charles 

Past executive director at Charlotte Maxwell Clinic
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Rob Feraru

Veteran of metastatic kidney cancer since 2000
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Steve Heilig, MPH

Associate executive director of Public Health and Education at the San Francisco Marin Medical Society and senior staff at the Collaborative on Health and the Environment
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Meg Cadoux Hirshberg 

Founder of the Anticancer Lifestyle Program
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Rebecca Katz, MS

Founder of the Healing Kitchens Institute and author of several health-promoting cookbooks
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Adam Lerner, MD

Professor of medicine, director of hematology training and acting chair of hematology-oncology at Boston University School of Medicine
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Diana Lindsay 

Co-founder of Healing Circles Langley and director of Training and Communications for Healing Circles Global
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Carole O’Toole, MS

Director of the Smith Center for Healing and the Arts Institute of Integrative Oncology Navigation
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Julia H. Rowland, PhD

Founding director of the Psycho-Oncology Program at Georgetown University and the Lombardi Cancer Center and past director of the National Cancer Institute Office of Cancer Survivorship
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Ted Schettler, MD, MPH

Author of The Ecology of Breast Cancer and science director of the Collaborative on Health and the Environment and the Science and Environmental Health Network
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Kelly Turner, PhD

Author of Radical Remission: Surviving Cancer Against All Odds
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In memoriam

Fredi Kronenberg, PhD

Founding advisor of BCCT/CancerChoices
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