Your ARPF is delighted to have an amazing team of world-renowned brain specialists. We are pleased to introduce you to the #BLTT20 trainers
Dharma Singh Khalsa, M.D., ARPF President & Medical Director
Dr. Khalsa is a graduate of the University of California, Los Angeles Medical Acupuncture for Physicians Program, and has studied mind/body medicine at Harvard Medical School’s Mind/Body Medical Institute. Dr. Khalsa is board certified in anesthesiology and pain management, and he is a diplomat of the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine. He established the first holistic pain program in the Southwestern United States at Lovelace Medical Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico. In 1990, he was recruited to become the founding director of the Acupuncture, Stress Medicine, and Chronic Pain Program at the University of Arizona, College of Medicine’s teaching hospital in Phoenix. After founding ARPF in 1993, he became the first physician to advocate a lifestyle approach to the prevention and treatment of memory loss, including Alzheimer’s. He is among the world’s leading authorities on integrative medicine, and has written extensively on a wide range of health and healing issues.
Chris Walling, Psy.D, MBA, C-IAYT
Dr. Walling’s work integrates the developmental, biological, and somatic aspects of the lifespan. His career in academic medicine has included the administration of multidisciplinary leadership teams in hematology-oncology, physical medicine and rehabilitation, and geriatric psychiatry. He serves as the President of the US Association of Body Psychotherapy, is a certified yoga therapist through the International Association of Yoga Therapists, and a Certified Yoga and Meditation instructor through Yoga Alliance. Dr. Walling’s clinical focus in the behavioral sciences has examined the intersections of neuropsychotherapy, affect regulation, and body psychology. He has trained with some of the leading experts in contemporary psychotherapy.
Dale Atkins, Ph.D.
Dr. Atkins is a licensed psychologist who has more than forty years of experience as a relationship expert, focusing on families, couples, parenting, aging well, caregiving, managing stress and maintaining harmony in one’s life. Dr. Atkins consults and lectures domestically and internationally. She conducts seminars and retreats for executives and employees of major corporations, government agencies, and health and educational institutions in matters related to the fields of psychology, sociology, education, and communication. She is the author of seven books, most recently The Kindness Advantage: Cultivating Compassionate and Connected Children, as well as many articles and journals for popular and professional audiences.
Elissa Epel, Ph.D.
Professor, and Vice Chair, in the Department of Psychiatry, at University of California, San Francisco. Her research aims to elucidate mechanisms of healthy aging, and to apply this basic science to scalable interventions that can reach vulnerable populations. She is the Director of the Aging, Metabolism, and Emotions Center, and the Consortium for Obesity Assessment, Study, & Treatment, (COAST), and Associate Director of the Center for Health and Community. She studies psychological, social, and behavioral pathways underlying chronic psychological stress and stress resilience that impact cellular aging. She also studies the interconnections between stress, addiction, eating, and metabolic health. With her collaborators, she is conducting clinical trials to examine the effect of self regulation and mindfulness training programs on cellular aging, weight, diet, and glucose control.
Lori Rubenstein Fazzio, DPT, PT, MAppSc, C-IAYT
Dr. Rubenstein founded Mosaic Physical Therapy in 2003, dedicated to providing quality health care. She was the lead investigator in a Harvard/LMU mindfulness study and was an invited guest on “Good Morning America” to discuss her thesis findings on “Backpacks and Schoolchildren.” Lori has been recognized in publications across the country and has authored articles in several professional journals. She was one of the few elite physical therapists qualified to be a Fellow in the American Academy of Orthopedic Manual Physical Therapists from 1999-2009. Dr. Rubenstein is on faculty at Loyola Marymount University where she teaches Yoga Therapy and Health Sciences in their Master of Arts Degree in Yoga Studies. She is the Clinical Director of Yoga Therapy Rx.
Annie Fenn, M.D.
Dr. Fenn graduated from the Chicago Medical School/Finch University of Health Sciences. During the last six years of practice, she focused primarily on helping patients as the only certified menopausal health expert in the state of Wyoming. She began teaching brain healthy cooking classes in 2015 as part of Brain Works, an 8-week dementia prevention course from the Cognitive Health Institute of St. John’s Medical Center in Jackson, Wyoming. Brain Works participants learn to incorporate healthy habits into their daily routines based on the latest Alzheimer’s prevention research. Besides cooking with brain healthy foods, students learn how to avoid cognitive decline with movement, mindfulness, meditation, brain games and good sleep hygiene. Dr. Fenn teaches Brain Health Kitchen workshops in the US, Mexico and Italy.
Christian Habeck, Ph.D
Dr. Habeck specializes in multivariate data analysis of PET and fMRI brain imaging data for the purposes of basic research and early detection of Alzheimer’s disease. His general interests concern robustness and replication of empirical inference in neuroimaging. Originally trained as a Particle Physicist, Dr. Habeck became interested in the Neurosciences, leading him to move to the Neurosciences Institute in San Diego where he pursued large-scale neural networks models of the cat thalamocortical system as a Postdoctoral Fellow. Dr. Habeck is currently Associate Professor of Neuroimaging (in Neurology and the Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer’s Disease and the Aging Brain) at Columbia University Medical Center.
Carol Hahn, MSN, RN, RYT, CPT, CDP
Carol Hahn is a Registered Nurse with over 35 years of varied health experience in hospitals, nursing homes, assisted living facilities, home care, and adult day programs. In addition, she has taught in several university nursing programs and worked at the Alzheimer’s Association. Carol is a Registered Yoga Teacher and a Certified Personal Trainer with her own business as a Wellness and Fitness Nurse. Working with people over the age of 50, she uses a holistic approach to improve balance, flexibility, strength, and quality of life. She coaches clients in the community, helping them meet their goals through an integrated and holistic perspective of nursing, yoga, and personal training. Carol has a Master’s of Science degree in Nursing, with a clinical focus in Gerontology. She earned a certificate in Alzheimer’s disease Management and is a Certified Dementia Professional through the National Council of Certified Dementia Practitioners.
Kim Innes, MSPH, Ph.D
As an epidemiologist and clinical researcher, Dr. Innes’ work focuses on the etiology, prevention, and management of chronic, age-related disorders linked to stress, sympathetic activation, and metabolic dysregulation. Her current research includes clinical trials to investigate the potential utility of yoga in the prevention and management of chronic insulin resistance conditions, funded by grants from the NIH National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine and the Office of Research on Women’s Health, as well as research initiatives regarding the benefits of mind-body interventions in adults with early stage Alzheimer’s disease (and their caregivers), Parkinson’s disease, restless legs syndrome, and osteoarthritis.
Miia Kivipelto, M.D., Ph.D
Dr. Kivipelto is a Professor of Clinical Geriatric Epidemiology at Karolinska Institute and Deputy Head of the Aging Research Center in Stockholm, Sweden. Her research focuses on prevention, early diagnosis and treatment of cognitive impairment, dementia and Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Through epidemiological studies she has identified midlife vascular and lifestyle risk factors for later dementia/AD and aims to build on these observations to improve knowledge transfer and public awareness. She designs intervention trials to mitigate these factors including lifestyle manipulations, such as exercise interventions. Dr. Kivipelto is principal investigator for the population-based study Cardiovascular Risk Factors, Aging and Dementia (CAIDE) and the Finnish Geriatric Intervention Study to Prevent Cognitive Impairment and Disability (FINGER), one of the first multi-domain intervention studies in the world aimed at preventing or postponing dementia.
Arti Prasad, M.D., FACP
Dr. Prasad began her residency training in Internal Medicine at SUNY Health Science Center in Syracuse before moving to the University of New Mexico to finish her training. She completed a fellowship in Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona Medical Center and a leadership training called Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine at Drexel University. While at the University of New Mexico as a faculty member, she developed the Center for Life, a center for patient care, learning, and community education. The Center for Life has received national recognition for its patient-centered clinical care and outcomes, innovative teaching programs, and wellness initiatives. She is currently the Chief of Medicine at the Hennepin Medical Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
If you have any questions, please email Chelsea Pyne, BLTT Assistant, at chelsea@alzheimersprevention.org.
