Michael Akong
Michael Akong received his bachelor’s degree in biochemistry and cell biology at the University of California, San Diego. He later received his master’s in public health from San Diego State University and continues to work at many clinics that serve the poor in San Diego, Mexico, Peru, India, and Africa. He has over 25 scientific publications and five U.S. patents from biomedical research. A graduate of Pacific College of Oriental Medicine, Akong has investigated many applications of Oriental Medicine working with some of the best Oriental Medicine physicians in the world, including Professor Ming Qing Zhu and Toshikatsu Yamamoto. Akong runs three clinics for the treatment of spinal cord injury, stroke, and general/internal medicine. He had medical staff privileges at UCSD for research into acupuncture and is also the first practicing physician of Oriental Medicine for Paradise Valley Hospital in San Diego.
Belinda "Beau" Anderson, PhD, LAc
Dr. Anderson earned her PhD in molecular biology from the University of Sydney (Australia), and her master’s degree in Chinese and Japanese acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine from the New England School of Acupuncture (NESA, Boston, MA). Anderson has over 20 years of teaching, academic administrative, and research experience. Her recent research positions were at the Sloan Kettering Institute and at NESA in collaboration with the Osher Institute at Harvard Medical School. Anderson’s current research interests include the mechanism of acupuncture, and acupuncture concerning IVF. She is widely published, serves as an editor for several complementary and alternative medical journals, and regularly participates on National Institute of Health (NIH) National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) expert panels to determine research-funding allocation. Anderson is currently the Academic Dean at Pacific College of Oriental Medicine in NY, and practices as an acupuncturist and Chinese herbalist in New York City.
Eric Brand, L.Ac. Eric Brand is a graduate of the Pacific College of Oriental Medicine. Prior to his coursework at Pacific College, he studied Chinese language, religion, history, and cultural studies at the University of Colorado and the National Chengchi University in Taiwan. A long-term resident of Taiwan, Brand completed a prolonged clinical internship in the Department of Chinese Medicine at Chang Gung Memorial Hospital in Taipei. Beyond his internship in the departments of gynecology, pediatrics, internal medicine, and acupuncture at the hospital, he studied Chinese language and medicine with Dr. Nigel Wiseman and Dr. Feng Ye. To complement his clinical training in mainstream Chinese medical environments, Brand has a cultivated interest in Chinese herbal pharmacy, which he has pursued through an extended apprenticeship with a lineage-trained pharmacist and extensive travel and research of herbal quality discernment in Mainland China.
Lillian Pearl Bridges
Lillian Pearl Bridges is an internationally renowned author and lecturer. Best known for being the world’s foremost authority on Face Reading, she is credited for bringing the subject back to the field of Chinese medicine, and introducing it to Western medicine. She instructs complimentary and allopathic health practitioners how to utilize Facial Diagnosis in the clinic, and teaches Face Reading to business people to enhance their interpersonal communication skills. Lillian learned her skills from a long line of Chinese practitioners in her family. She is the founder of the Lotus Institute, Inc., trains students in her apprenticeship program, teaches continuing education courses at universities and colleges, and is a featured speaker at conferences and symposiums around the world.
Misha Ruth Cohen, OMD, L.Ac.
Misha Cohen is recognized internationally as a practitioner, lecturer, researcher, and leader in the field of traditional Chinese medicine. She has practiced Asian medicine for more than 32 years. She is the author of The Chinese Way to Healing: Many Paths to Wholeness, The HIV Wellness Sourcebook, and The Hepatitis C Help Book. She is Clinical Director of Chicken Soup Chinese Medicine, Research and Education Chair of Quan Yin Healing Arts Center, Research Specialist at the UCSF Institute for Health and Aging, and Research Consultant to the UCSF School of Medicine Cancer Research Institute, all in San Francisco. She is a principle investigator in herbal studies for viral-related cancers and cancer prevention in HPV, HIV, and hepatitis C.
Bob Flaws
Bob Flaws began his study of acupuncture and Chinese medicine in 1978 at the Boulder College of Massage Therapy in Boulder, Colorado. In 1979, he studied acupuncture and moxibustion with the late Eric (Xi-yu) Tao of Denver. Flaws studied at the Shanghai College (now University) of Chinese Medicine in 1982 (acupuncture-moxibustion), 1983 (tuina), and 1985 (Chinese herbal medicine). He founded Blue Poppy Press in 1982. Flaws began studying medical Chinese in 1986. He is now devoted to translation, writing, teaching, and other non-Chinese medical pursuits.
Richard Gold, Ph.D, L.Ac.
Richard Gold is a psychologist and California Licensed Acupuncturist. He graduated from the New England School of Acupuncture in 1978 and simultaneously graduated from the California Acupuncture College in 1983, earning a doctorate in psychology from the University of Humanistic Studies in San Diego. Gold is a co-founder and board member of the Pacific College of Oriental Medicine (PCOM) in San Diego. Gold is a past President and current Chairman of the Board of the International Professional School of Bodywork (IPSB), also located in San Diego. Gold frequently travels to Asia for advanced studies of Chinese medicine and traditional Oriental body therapies. He is one of the earliest pioneers of Thai massage therapy in the United States, and currently represents expertise in Thai massage as a National Advisory Board Member of the American Organization of Body Therapies of Asia (AOBTA). Gold has written books on Thai massage and is considered an authority in the field.
Bill Helm
Bill Helm is an ordained Taoist priest, and has been studying Chinese martial and healing arts since 1965. He specializes in tai ji quan, tui na, Chinese bodywork, qi gong, and herbal
medicine. Helm is a 20th-generation inner disciple of Grandmaster Chen Xiaowan. He studied traditional Chinese medicine in China at the Shanghai College of Medicine and the Beijing Olympic Training Center. Helm’s studies in the United States continued with Taoist Master Share K. Lew and Dr. Yu Da Fang. Helm is the director of the Taoist Sanctuary of San Diego, and the Dean of Allied Arts at Pacific College of Oriental Medicine, San Diego.
Lonny S. Jarrett, M.Ac., M.S., FNAAOM
Lonny Jarrett is an internationally recognized author, practitioner, and teacher of Chinese medicine. He has been active in the field of Chinese medicine since 1980, teaching and publishing in leading professional journals. He holds master’s degrees in both acupuncture and neurobiology. A founding board member of the Acupuncture Society of Massachusetts, in 1993 he was elected as a Fellow of the National Academy of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine. He is a graduate of the Traditional Acupuncture Institute and studied pulse diagnosis intensively with Dr. Leon Hammer from 1987 through 1995. Additionally, Jarrett has achieved the rank of fourth degree black belt in the Korean martial art, Tae Kwon Do. His work in the field of neuroscience and cell biology has been published in leading scientific journals, and in 1993 one of his electron micrographs of DNA was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Jarrett maintains his full-time practice of acupuncture and herbal medicine in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.
Ted Kaptchuk
Ted Kaptchuck is an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. He is serving his sixth year as a member of the National Advisory Council for NCCAM and has just completed a four-year position as an expert panelist at the FDA. He is a long time associate of Pacific College of Oriental Medicine.
Mark Kastner
Mark was raised in San Diego, and attended UCSD as an undergraduate. Attracted to alternative medicine in his early twenties, he began studying with Bernard Jensen and Ran Das. In 1983, Mark entered the California Acupuncture College, and was able to perform his clinic internship in Beijing at Guan An Men Hospital. He has been in practice now for over 20 years, specializing in sports medicine. Currently, he is treating a number of professional athletes including members of the LA Lakers, and former members of the San Diego Padres and San Diego Chargers.
Giovanni Maciocia
Giovanni Maciocia has practiced acupuncture in England since 1974, and has presented at numerous workshops at the post-graduate level for colleges of Chinese medicine in the U.S., England, Australia, and Europe. He is also a practicing Chinese herbalist, having studied with Dr. Ted Kaptchuk. Maciocia has been a regular contributor to the Journal of Chinese Medicine, and also authored several Chinese medicine textbooks. In 2006, the Nanjing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine in China appointed Maciocia as honorary professor.
Kiiko Matsumoto
Kiiko Matsumoto is internationally known for her scholarly work on acupuncture, and the interpretation of Chinese classic texts. She has published three fundamental texts on acupuncture in the United States, and has another in press. Matsumoto regularly publishes articles in the Ido-No-Nippon acupuncture magazine in Japan, and has made two video series for the company. She is best known for her ability to integrate the work of very important Japanese Masters such as Master Nagano, Master Kawai, and Dr. Manaka, into a coherent and clinically effective style. Matsumoto routinely teaches acupuncturists around the world, including the United States.
Yoshito Mukaino, M. D.
Yoshito Mukaino graduated from Kyushu University School of Medicine in 1971. Mukaino was licensed as a medical doctor in Japan in 1977. In 1979, he went to China to study at the Acupuncture Department of the Shanghai School of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Three years later, Mukaino began teaching at the Fukuoka University School of Medicine. In 1989, he became a professor in the Physical Education Department of the Fukuoka University (now the Department of Sports and Health Science). He studied at the Pathophysiology Department of Göttingen University School of Medicine in 1991 for one year. In 2002, Mukaino went to England to study Complementary Medicine at the Peninsula Medical School, and the Universities of Exeter and Phymouth. In 2006, he became the Director of Oriental Medicine Clinic, Fukuoka University Hospital.
Robert Nations
Robert Nations began his study of self-cultivation, herbs, and energetic healing in 1983 under the tutelage of Warren Gold. He furthered his education at the Taoist Sanctuary of San Diego, where he earned his tui na massage certificate, and was trained in the philosophy and practices of Taoism. This included learning from Grand Master Abraham Liu (Yang Style Tai ji quan), Grand Master Chen Xiao Want (Chen Family Tai ji quan), Taoist Priest Sifu Share K Lew (Taoist Elixir System), and Ted Kardash, Ph.D., MFT. In 1995, Nations received the honorable title of Tao Shi. He currently teaches at Pacific College, is a member of the National Qi Gong Association, and maintains a private practice in San Diego.
Alex Tiberi
Alex Tiberi has been a student of traditional Asian philosophy, arts, and sciences since he was a teenager. He has now been in clinical practice for 30 years. Tiberi is a founder and vice-president of Pacific College of Oriental Medicine, and is also on the faculty of the Qing Bai College of Chinese Medicine in the Netherlands. He lectures internationally on various aspects of traditional Chinese medicine including pediatrics, nourishing life (Yang Sheng), orthopedics, treatment during pregnancy, and Korean acupuncture. He regularly leads study groups to China to participate in the “Master’s Classical Studies Program,” and also co-founded the Traditional Chinese Medicine Literature Research and Translation Academy.
Sharon Weizenbaum, L.Ac
Sharon Weizenbaum graduated from the New England School of Acupuncture in 1983 and has been practicing Chinese medicine for over 25 years. Her first gynaecology teacher was Dr. Zhu Shu-rong from Shang Hai. In 1990, she travelled to Hang Zhou where she studied herbal gynaecology with Dr. Qiu Xiao-mei, as well as Chinese language. She continued her language study at Mt. Holyoke College, and translates much of her own teaching materials. In 2007, she travelled back to China to study classic formulas with Dr. Huang Huang, who continues to be one of her teachers. Weizenbaum is the director of White Pine Healing Arts clinic and educational facility. She teaches the Graduate Mentorship Program and Integrative Mandala Acupuncture nationally as well as shorter courses. Her articles have been published in The Lantern and in the North American Journal of Oriental Medicine.
Jeffrey C. Yuen
Jeffrey Yuen comes from two Taoist lineages: the Complete Reality and Jade Purity traditions.
He trained at an early age under his grandfather, Taoist Master Yu Wen, in all aspects of Taoism. Mr. Yuen is recognized internationally as a master of classical Chinese medicine, Taoism, acupuncture, Chinese herbology, tai ji chuan, and qi gong. Mr. Yuen has served as a guest lecturer at various colleges and universities, and is the only non-M.D. acupuncturist on the faculty for the American Association of Acupuncture Physicians. He founded the acupuncture program at Swedish Institute’s School of Acupuncture and Oriental Studies, and is currently directing and teaching the Classical Chinese Medicine master’s degree program at Pacific College of Oriental Medicine.
Dr. Janet Zand, OMD, L.Ac.
Janet Zand has over 25 years of clinical experience in acupuncture, botanical medicine, nutrition, and homeopathy. Zand has taught TCM to physicians, acupuncturists, and various health care professionals since 1985. She was the Chairman of the Board and co-founder and formulator for Zand Herbal Formulas from 1978-2002. This company was one of the first companies in the United States to popularize both Western and Asian herbs. She is the author of Smart Medicine for a Healthier Child, A Parent’s Guide to Medical Emergencies, and Smart Medicine for Healthier Living. Zand is a nationally respected author, lecturer, and clinical practitioner of natural medicine. Her credentials include a doctorate of Oriental medicine, herbologist, naturopath, and certified acupuncturist.
