Title:
“Reintegrating Medicine: Nurturing Connections between Personal and Planetary Health”
Presenters:
Peter Wayne, PhD, is a researcher, practitioner, and instructor of mind-body and integrative therapies. He is the Bernard Osher Associate Professor of Medicine in the Field of Complementary and Integrative Medical Therapies, Harvard Medical School (HMS) and Director for the Osher Center for Integrative Health, jointly based Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. The primary focus of Dr. Wayne’s research is evaluating how complementary and integrative therapies clinically impact aging and chronic health conditions and understanding the physiological and psychological mechanisms underlying observed therapeutic effects. He has served as a principal or co-investigator on more than 35 NIH-funded studies and has authored more than 200 peer-reviewed articles. Peter also has more than 40 years of training experience in Tai Chi and Qigong and is an internationally recognized teacher of these practices. Prior to his work in integrative health, Peter conducted research in the field of plant evoutionary biology and climate change, which inspires and informs his commitment to addressing planetary health issue.
Aterah Nusrat, MSc, is the Director of Programming in Integrative Medicine and Planetary Health at the Osher Center for Integrative Health at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. She received her Masters in Environmental Technology from Imperial College, London University, and has spent over 25 years delivering and supporting programs in the environmental sustainability and health and wellbeing sectors in the UK and United States. Supporting her professional pursuits, Ms. Nusrat is a seasoned meditation practitioner which she brings to her work in planetary health at the Osher Center. Ms. Nusrat is the founding and current Chair of the Osher Collaborative for Integrative Health Planetary Health Working Group, Invited Faculty of the Nova Institute for the Health of People, Places and Planet, and is on the board of directors for the Mind Body Ecology Institute.
Michael Ferguson, PhD, is an Instructor in Neurology at Harvard Medical School, a Lecturer on Neurospirituality at Harvard Divinity School, and a course co-instructor on the Cognitive Neuroscience of Meditation at Harvard College. He earned his PhD in bioengineering at the University of Utah where he studied religious experience using functional magnetic resonance imaging. Dr. Ferguson completed postdoctoral fellowships in Cognitive Neuroscience at Cornell University and in Cognitive Neurology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center before joining the Neurology faculty at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.