About Us (AlterMed Research Foundation)                                                                                                

Vision for Complementary and Alternative Medicine CAM (or Integrative Medicine) Research and Education  

In areas where conventional medicine is at its limits and complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) shows promise, patients are confident that their conventional physicians and allied health professionals are armed with knowledge of proven integrative medicine and patient navigation backed by mainstream healthcare industry support.  As a result, patients themselves no longer have to be on their own to research and/or to pay out-of-pocket due to insurance exclusion of integrative therapies.  More referrals to CAM practitioners become possible to meet unique patient needs. 

New Medicine: Medicine and diagnostics have embraced more etiology (root cause study), holism, psychoneuroimmunology, and prevention than today's medicine.  Everyone enjoys good health.  Healthy living is commonly practiced.

Objective

To tap and direct new sources of private funding for integrative medicine research to achieve this vision. 

Differentiation

Steward of private and public funding - promoting integrative medicine research and education meeting gold scientific research standards whenever possible with an open mind and conventional skepticism. 

Board of Directors 

Lisa Corbin, MD,  AlterMed Board President

Dr. Corbin received her medical degree with honors and distinction from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she was a member of AOA National Honor Medical Society. She is board certified in Internal Medicine. Dr. Corbin joined the University Health Sciences Center faculty before her current post as the Medical Director of The Center for Integrative Medicine (TCIM) at the University of Colorado Hospital. She was instrumental in the creation of TCIM in 2001. Dr. Corbin counsels patients interested in complementary/alternative medicine (CAM), provides course direction for CAM electives for medical residents and students, lectures on herbal medicine in the School of Medicine, speaks to physicians and patient groups on CAM, and is actively involved in campus CAM research. She has published original research, scholarly reviews, CME materials and book chapters on CAM. 

Mark L. Laudenslager, Ph.D. is a Professor of Psychiatry, University Of Colorado Denver School Of Medicine, and the director of the Behavioral Immunology and Endocrinology Laboratory and the Developmental Psychobiology Research Group.  His National Institute of Cancer funded randomized control trial focuses on interventions for chronically distressed populations such as caregivers of blood or marrow transplant recipients as well as breast cancer survivors and their spouse or partner.  These interventions include the use of biofeedback for promotion of stress management and relaxation in the study participants.  The overarching theme of his work is that healthy families improve patient behavioral and medical outcome.  Recently his attention has been directed toward complementary approaches for distress associated with chronic illness in children.  His early research explored behavior immune interactions at a time when psychoneuroimmunology was not widely accepted.  He was central in the organization and founding of the Psychoneuroimmunology Research Society, a group which has provided some of the critical evidence base for the role of complementary approaches to health and well being.

Rob Phillips, JD, General Counsel, Director

Rob Phillips received his law degree from the University of Nebraska and is a Colorado licensed attorney with over a decade of experience in corporate and regulatory law.  His law firm, the RMBA Group, focuses on managing transactions and negotiating commercial agreements in the fields of healthcare and life sciences, information technology and energy law as well as licensing and protecting intellectual property.  Mr. Phillips has gained experience in the law firm environment, as in-house corporate counsel and as a solo practitioner.  He has counseled clients on ensuring compliance with a wide range of federal and state regulations, corporate governance, business formation, planning and development and dispute resolution.  He has a BS in psychology from Colorado State where he also enrolled in a broad array of classes in biological sciences.  His interest in the life sciences started at a young age and was influenced by extensive exposure to veterinary medicine and studies in physiology and nutrition.

His memberships include:

Jill Rickards, CPA, Director

Jill Rickards earned her degree in accounting from Metropolitan State College in Denver and participated in Colorado State University’s Graduate Program in Taxation. She has over 25 years of experience in accounting and is the Founder of Rickards & Co, LLP. Jill enjoys working with small and medium growth enterprises and their shareholders helping them grow and succeed. “I love people and care about helping them fulfill their dreams,” says Jill. She works with clients in all aspects of accounting including business consulting, income tax, and auditing. Additionally she has extensive experience working with nonprofit entities. Outside of the firm she enjoys golfing, traveling, skiing, boating and spending time with family.   She is interested in advancing Complementary and Alternative Medicine. 

Her memberships and associations include:

Scott Shannon, MD, Director

Dr. Scott Shannon is the Founder and holisitic child/adolescent psychiatrist at Wholeness Center in Fort Collins, Colorado.  His practice includes acupuncture, herbs and nutritional medicine.  Dr. Shannon serves as the President of American Board of Integrative and Holistic Medicine (2011-2013). He is the author of “Please Do Not Label My Child” snf Editor/Author of "Handbook of Complementary and Alternative Therapies in Mental Health" published by Academic Press in 2002.  Dr. Shannon lectures nationally and internationally to professionals on the holistic treatment of psychiatric problems.

John Diamant, Co-Founder and Director

Co-Founder of AlterMed Research Foundation, Distinguished Technologist (technical leadership role) at a fortune 50 company, alternative medicine skeptic but open to proven research through sound scientific methods. His engineering education (BS in computer engineering, MS in computer science) grounds him in Western standards of evidence.  Mr. Diamant would like to accelerate the advancement of medicine, having seen a higher rate of advancement in other areas of science and technology.  Applying rigorous scientific study to promising (especially those that already have some scientific evidence) alternative medicine is likely to yield more frequent successes than conventional sources in areas where conventional medicine has not been successful.

Kerri Diamant, Founder and Executive Director

Kerri Diamant has over 15 years of experience in the management of sciences, technology, and business.  She also has five years of non-profit founder and executive director experience.  She is experienced in bio-sciences research, engineering/root cause analysis, fund-raising, event planning, networking/organizational collaboration, grant-writing, marketing, organizational start-up formation, and project/people management.  Ms. Diamant has a BA in Biology, a minor in Biochemistry, and a BS in Electrical Engineering.  Her life being saved by alternative medicine at a young age when conventional medicine had given up hope and her exposure to healthcare from both Taiwan and the United States ignited her passion to enable more research and education of complementary & alternative medicine.  Thus, the proven ones can be integrated into conventional treatment to increase health options in preventing and managing difficult health issues like cancer and chronic illness.  Kerri Diamant partners and leverages the expertise and resources of the health care industry, volunteers/staff, corporate/individual donors, and the government for AlterMed Research Foundation to achieve its mission and vision by bridging evidence-based complementary and alternative medicine to conventional medicine.