Tom Balles, L.Ac. (U.K.), M.Ac., Dipl.Ac. (NCCAOM)
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Tom Balles has been a practicing acupuncturist for the past 25 years. He received a Licentiate in Acupuncture from the College of Traditional Chinese Acupuncture (U.K.) and a master’s degree in Acupuncture from Tai Sophia Institute. He is the author of Dancing with the Ten Thousand Things: Ways to Become a Powerful Healing Presence and “Cultivating Healing Presence Chart.“ Tom teaches in each of the graduate degree programs at Tai Sophia. His work focuses on how our ways of being, doing, and speaking influence each other and are the essential ingredients in creating lasting change. |
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Bevin Clare, M.S., RH (AHG)
Clinical Division Chair
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Bevin Clare is the Clinical Division chair of the Herbal Medicine program. She is a clinical herbalist and nutritionist with a deep love of plants. Bevin holds a M.S. in Infectious Disease from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, with her thesis research conducted at the NIA (National Institute on Aging) at the National Institutes of Health, and a B.S. in ethnobotany from Lesley University. Bevin has studied herbal medicine around the world and blends her knowledge of traditional uses of plants with modern science and contemporary healthcare strategies. Bevin also serves on the faculty of the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy, is on the board of directors of United Plant Savers, is codirector of the Herbal Clinic for All, and lectures nationally. Bevin is a professional member of the American Herbalists Guild and has served on their governing council since 2002. |
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Dianne M. Connelly, Ph.D., M.Ac. (UK), Dipl. Ac. (NCCAOM)
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A practitioner of traditional acupuncture since 1973 and cofounder and chancellor of the Institute, Dianne Connelly received her master’s qualification from the College of Traditional Acupuncture (UK) in 1979. She obtained a Ph.D. in cross-cultural medicine from Union Graduate School in 1975, an M.A. from New York University School of Education in 1970, and her B.A. from Le Moyne College in 1967. Chancellor of the Institute and an international lecturer (she lectures regularly in Italy and Germany), she is the author of Traditional Acupuncture: The Law of the Five Elements, All Sickness is Homesickness, Medicine Words: Language of Love for the Treatment Room of Life, and with Katharine Hancock Porter, Alive and Awake: Wisdom for Kids. She is the mother of Blaize, Jade, and Caeli, as well as grandmother to Tamar, Lennox, Rianna, Maxim, and Roman. |
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Robert M. Duggan, M.A., M.Ac. (UK), Dipl. Ac. (NCCAOM)
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Robert (Bob) Duggan, president and co-founder of Tai Sophia Institute, has practiced traditional acupuncture since 1972. He holds a master’s degree in human relations and community studies from New York University, as well as a master’s in moral theology from St. Joseph’s Seminary, and received his master’s certification in acupuncture from the
College of Traditional Chinese Acupuncture (UK). A national leader in the development of the acupuncture profession and the emerging healing arts community, he has served as a commissioner of the Accreditation Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine, on the board of trustees of the Horizon Foundation (a community wellness foundation in Howard County, Maryland, which, in 2008, honored him with its annual Leadership Award), and a panelist at meetings sponsored by the National Institutes of Health and the White House Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medicine. Bob lectures throughout the United States and abroad, and is author of Common Sense for the Healing Arts.
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Camille Freeman M.S., LDN, RH (AHG)
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A core faculty member, Camille received her bachelor’s degree from Rice University in 2000 and completed an apprenticeship in herbal studies with Desert Woman Botanicals in Gila, New Mexico, in 2001. She received her master’s in herbal medicine from the Tai Sophia Institute in 2004, and is a professional member of the American Herbalists Guild. She is certified as a nutrition specialist through the American College of Nutrition, and is a licensed nutritionist in the State of Maryland. In 2007, Camille completed an M.S. in physiology and biophysics from Georgetown University. Her primary clinical focus lies in reproductive health and endocrinology. Camille is passionate about promoting sustainability in healthcare and helping women of all ages deepen their understanding of the body’s many cycles. |
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Simon Mills, M.A., FNIMH, MCPP
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Founder, past program director, and a core faculty member of the Herbal Medicine program, Simon Mills has practiced as a medical herbalist since 1977. He holds a degree in medical sciences from Cambridge University, and also completed the four-year professional training provided by the National Institute of Medical Herbalists (UK). In 1987 he cofounded the Centre for Complementary Health Studies at the University of Exeter. In 1996 he was appointed by the Prince of Wales to chair the regulatory working group in the Prince’s Foundation for Integrated Medicine. Since 1997 Mills has been secretary of the European Scientific Cooperative on Phytotherapy, the major European body working to ensure quality, safety, and efficacy for herbal medicinal products in collaboration with European medicines regulators. In 2000 he became special adviser to the House of Lords Select Committee on Complementary and Alternative Medicine. In 2005 he was appointed a professional member of the new Herbal Medicines Advisory Committee charged with advising the government of the United Kingdom. He now heads up Plant Medicine CIC, a social enterprise company based in the UK to provide highest quality information on herbal medicine through an open-access website on www.plantmedicine.com. |
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Andrew Pengelly, Ph.D., RH (AHG), FNHAA
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Dr. Andrew Pengelly serves Tai Sophia in several roles. He is a core faculty member, director and manager of the herbal dispensary, and lead clinical researcher. He completed professional training programs in botanical medicine, naturopathy, and homoeopathy in 1983 at the Southern Cross Herbal School (Australia), and obtained his bachelor’s degree from the University of New England in 1997, and a Ph.D. in food science from the University of Newcastle in 2009. During this period, he practiced as a clinical herbalist, lectured widely in Australia, New Zealand, and the United States and was nominated a fellow of the National Herbalists Association of Australia. In 2002, he initiated a research project into the ethnopharmacology of Australian indigenous plants, submitting a doctoral thesis on the topic in 2008. Andrew has a deep love of nature and plants and how they have been utilized in traditional medicines around the world. |
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Kevin Spelman, Ph.D., RH (AHG), MCPP
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Kevin Spelman is a research scientist at University of North Carolina, Greensboro, core faculty in the Herbal Medicine program at the Tai Sophia Institute, and a doctoral student at the University of Exeter in the UK. He is currently using proteomics methodology to research the bioactivity of medicinal plants. Past international research has included the analysis of nutrient levels in women of early childbearing age in West Africa, and working with children with neurological disorders in Central America. Mr. Spelman has also practiced an eclectic blend of clinical herbal medicine for fifteen years, drawing on the medical sciences, Ayurveda, and western herbalism. Over the last decade he has provided higher education on botanical medicine to healthcare professionals and research scientists, and held a number of faculty positions at various institutions. Mr. Spelman was a founding faculty member of the first Bachelors of Science degree in botanical medicine in the U.S. and most recently of the first Masters of Science degree in clinical herbal medicine in the U.S. He is also a member of the College of Practitioners of Phytotherapy in the United Kingdom.
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Distinguished Lecturer
James A. “Jim” Duke, Ph.D.
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As an economic botanist with a Ph.D. in botany from the University of North Carolina, Jim Duke had a 32-year career with the United States Department of Agriculture. Today, in his Green Farmacy Garden, he serves as distinguished lecturer in the Master of Science in Herbal Medicine program. He continues to compile data on medicinal plants and to update several of his 30 published books. Fluent in Spanish, Dr. Duke leads ethnobotanical trips with Tai Sophia Institute to ecologically rich areas of the world. Dr. Duke is a Phi Eta Sigma and Phi Beta Kappa graduate of University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill), where he was elected distinguished alumnus some 50 years after his degree was conferred. |
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