Program Faculty
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Bevin Clare, M.S., RH (AHG)
Clinical Division Chair
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Bevin Clare is a clinical herbalist with a deep love of plants. Her clinical practice maintains a focus on women’s health, wellness and healthy eating, and infectious disease. Bevin’s studies of medicinal plants have taken her to more than 20 countries around the globe, where she has learned about the practice and tradition of herbal medicine in different cultures and societies. She received her undergraduate degree in Ethnobotany from Lesley University in Cambridge, MA, and her master’s of science in Infectious Disease from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, where she pursued her interest in the world of medicinal plants, humans, and microbes. Bevin completed her graduate research at the National Institutes on Aging at the National Institutes of Health investigating the role of Ganoderma lucidum in drug resistance.
Bevin serves on the governing council of the American Herbalists Guild and the board of directors of United Plant Savers, a group working to preserve the at-risk medicinal plants. She has been on the faculty of Tai Sophia since 2004, and also serves on the faculty of the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy in Boston, MA. Bevin's love for the plant world permeates her work and every facet of her life, and she seeks to share the gifts she has received from her interaction with the plant world with her clients and students.
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Dianne M. Connelly, Ph.D., M.Ac.
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A practitioner of traditional acupuncture since 1972 and cofounder and chancellor of the Institute, Dr. Connelly received her master's qualification from the College of Traditional Acupuncture (UK) in 1979. She obtained a Ph.D. in crosscultural 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 Home Sickness, and coauthor of Alive and Awake: Wisdom for Kids.She is the mother of Blaize, Jade, and Caeli, as well as grandmother to Tamar, Lennox and Rianna. |
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Robert M. Duggan, M.A., M.Ac. (UK), Dipl.Ac. (NCCA)
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Robert Duggan is president of the Institute and has practiced traditional acupuncture since 1972. He studied under Professor J. R. Worsley at the College of Traditional Acupuncture (UK), where he received his master's qualification in 1979. He received a master's degree in human relations and community studies from the School of Education of New York University in 1970, and a master's degree in moral theology from St. Joseph's Seminary and College in 1964. He has served as chair of the Maryland State Board of Acupuncture and as a commissioner of the Accreditation Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine. He is the author of Common Sense for the Healing Arts,published in 2004. |
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James Duke, Ph.D.
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James A. "Jim" Duke, Ph.D., served as an Economic Botanist with the USDA for 32 years. Now Jim spends time as a Distinguished Lecturer in the Master of Science in Herbal Medicine program at Tai Sophia Institute in Laurel, MD. In addition to teaching he continues his work of compiling data on medicinal plants and updating several of his books. He is refining his phytomedicinal database www.ars-grin.gov/duke/ still maintained at the USDA in Beltsville, Maryland.
Fluent in Spanish, Duke has studied and lectured widely, concentrating on tropical ecology, medical botany, and crop diversification. Widely traveled, Duke "cut his tropical eye teeth" in Panama, where he was resident from 1966-68. While working on an encyclopedia of economic plants, he collaborated with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Cancer Institute (NCI) on both their AIDS and cancer-screening programs and later their Designer Food Program (to prevent cancer). His data bases on the ecology, nutritional content, folk medicinal uses and chemical constituents of economic plants are being widely utilized.
Dr. Duke offers a unique and intimate view of ecology, herbalism and experience in working with the Shamanic cultures of the Amazon Rainforest. He has journeyed to this region over 40 times and has lectured to many groups who have traveled with him. Jim serves as a board member and advisor to many organizations that are involved in herbal medicines and the Amazon rainforest. Among the awards bestowed upon Dr. Duke over the years are his graduating Phi Eta Sigma and Phi Beta Kappa from the University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill) and his being elected distinguished alumnus some 50 years later, in 2001. In between he received the Rachael Carson Conservation Award for conservation via the Amazon Center for Environmental Education and Research (ACEER) in 1998, the American Herbalists Guild Lifetime Achievement Award, in August 1999, recognition in July 2000 by the Society of Economic Botany as a Distinguished Economic Botanist, and, in spring of 2001, he was inducted into the Natural Health Hall of Fame. In June of 2004, he received an Honorary Degree of Master of Science in Herbal Medicine from Tai Sophia Institute.
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Camille Freeman M.S. RH (AHG)
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An associate 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. Camille is currently finishing her MS 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
Founder |
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Simon Mills is a Cambridge University graduate in medical sciences who also completed the 4-year professional training provided in the UK by the 140 year-old National Institute of Medical Herbalists and has practiced as a medical herbalist since 1977. In 1987 he co-founded the Centre for Complementary Health Studies at the University of Exeter, probably the first university unit dedicated to studying therapeutic options outside the conventional medical curriculum. Since January 1997 he has been secretary of the European Scientific Cooperative on Phytotherapy (ESCOP), the major European body working to ensure quality, safety, and efficacy for herbal medicinal products in collaboration with European medicines regulators; he previously coordinated the first international research program on herbal medicines funded by the European Commission entitled "Determining European Standards for the Safe and Effective Use of Phytomedicines."
He is President of the British Herbal Medicine Association, the primary representative body at government negotiations for the supply of herbal medicines in the UK. For 8 years he was President of the National Institute of Medical Herbalists and later president of the College of Practitioners of Phytotherapy, a body of practitioners oriented toward a European orthodox professional and research agenda. He has published widely in the scientific literature including controlled clinical trials and other primary research, and lectures around the world. He has written many books, including two standard texts with Kerry Bone- in 2000, The Principles and Practice of Phytotherapy, and in 2005 The Essential Guide to Herbal Safety. He co-produced the 1996 edition of the authoritative British Herbal Pharmacopoeia and was co-author of reports on complementary medicine in the UK published in 1997 and 2000 for the UK Department of Health.
Since 1990 he has designed and directed a major international project to provide high quality information for health professionals and the public. Since May 2004 this has received a substantial grant routed through Tai Sophia so that this exciting new opportunity will soon be available. Further information is available on http://www.phytotherapy.info. In 1996 he was appointed by the Prince of Wales to chair the regulatory working group in his Foundation for Integrated Medicine. In 2000 he was special adviser to the House of Lords Select Committee on Complementary and Alternative Medicine.
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Kevin Spelman, RH (AHG), MCPP
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Kevin Spelman is a research scientist at University of North Carolina, Greensboro, core faculty in the department of herbal medicine 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 prestigious College of Practitioners of Phytotherapy in the United Kingdom. |
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Claudia Joy Wingo, B.S.N., DMH
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Claudia Wingo, a native Washingtonian, received diplomas in therapeutic massage and aromatherapy in 1979 from N.S.W. College of Natural Therapies. She received her bachelor's degree in nursing from the University of Sydney, with post-graduate studies in mental health and counseling. Soon after, she studied herbalism in a three-year professional program and received a Diploma of Herbal Medicine. She has been featured in programs for health professionals at Georgetown University and George Washington University hospitals, Walter Reed Medical Center, Marymount University, and as a guest speaker at the Smithsonian Institute and Morris Arboretum. She is a professional member of the Holistic Nursing Association of Australia and the American Herbalists Guild. |