ABC adds 12 members to advisory, peer review board

The American Botanical Council announced that addition of 12 new members to its advisory board. The new board members’ expertise includes pharmacognosy, analytical testing and Chinese medicine.

ABC said its board members act as peer reviewers for articles that appear in HerbalGram, HerbalEGram, HerbClip, and various other peer-reviewed ABC publications. Additionally, ABC said its management and HerbalGram editors seek feedback and advice from Advisory Board members on research questions, article ideas, ABC policies, and book reviews, among many other topics.

Of the 12 new members, about half are based outside of the United States — in Australia, Canada, Iran, and Hong Kong — which broadens the international scope of the Advisory Board and helps ABC expand its educational impact. They join ABC’s 126 current Advisory Board members, including 32 international experts.

The new board members are:

  •  Hamid-Reza Adhami, PhD, PharmD, is an assistant professor in the department of pharmacognosy at Tehran University of Medical Sciences in Tehran, Iran. 
  • Lori L. Bestervelt, PhD, who currently holds dual positions with NSF International as executive vice president and chief technical officer. 
  • Jeffrey B. Blumberg, PhD, FASN, FACN, CNS-S, is a professor in the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy in Boston, Massachusetts, and also serves as the senior scientist of the Antioxidants Research Laboratory at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University in Boston. 
  • Heather Boon, BScPhm, PhD, is the dean of the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy at the University of Toronto in Ontario, Canada,
  • Robert G. Chapman, PhD,  the principal research officer of the National Research Council Canada’s Aquatic and Crop Resource Development Portfolio.
  • Holly E. Johnson, PhD, laboratory director at Alkemist Labs.
  • James Neal-Kababick founder and director of Flora Research Laboratories, LLC.
  • John McPartland, DO, an osteopathic physician who has worked at Vermont Alternative Medicine, Inc., a private practice in Middlebury, Vermont, since 1993.
  • Jerome Sarris, PhD, who is scheduled to Western Sydney University in early 2017.
  • Natascha Techen, PhD, a senior research scientist at the National Center for Natural Products Research at the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss) in Oxford, Mississippi.
  • Michael Tims, PhD, academic director of herbal programs at the Maryland University of Integrative Health since 2012.
  • Zhongzhen Zhao, PhD, MH, associate dean and chair professor of the Teaching and Research Division at Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU).