“We are deeply grateful and honored to include these good friends and colleagues in the ABC advisory board," said Mark Blumenthal, ABC founder and executive director. “In many ways, the appointment of these herb experts to the ABC advisory board reflects an already strong cooperative relationship that has existed for many years.
“The naming of many of these respected individuals and leaders is a public recognition of their long-term support for and contributions to ABC’s nonprofit educational mission,” added Blumenthal.
ABC’s advisory board assists with the content and editorial development of various ABC publications such as HerbalGram, HerbalEGram, HerbClip, etc.
New board members include:
- Kerry Bone: A longtime herbalist, professor, researcher and author. He is known for helping to develop the herbal community throughout Australia and New Zealand. Bone currently serves as the director of research and development at MediHerb, an international herbal products company that he cofounded in 1986.
- Thomas Brendler: An ethnobotanist and expert on African, Pacific, and Balkan herbs. Brendler serves as a consultant for numerous government and industry herbal medicine-related projects, including registering herbal products under the European Union’s Traditional Herbal Medicines Directive. Brendler also works through PlantaPhile, a consulting company he founded in 1997
- Subhuti Dharmananda, PhD: An expert on TCM, is the founder and director of the Institute for Traditional Medicine and Preventative Health Care Inc., a nonprofit organization that was founded in 1979 and now operates two traditional medicine clinics in addition to providing education about traditional medicine systems.
- Patricia Gerbarg, MD: An assistant clinical professor in psychiatry at New York Medical College.
- Mindy Green, MS: A consultant with 35 years experience in the natural products and healthcare industries. Her specialty is aromatherapy and cosmetics
- De-An Guo, PhD: Professor at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Shanghai. He also serves as director of the National Engineering Laboratory for the Standardization of TCM Technology and as director of the Research Center for Modernization of Traditional Chinese Medicine.
- Ameenah Gurib-Fakim, PhD: Managing director of the Centre for Phytotherapy Research and a professor of organic chemistry at the University of Mauritius.
- Joe-Ann McCoy, PhD: A botanist and the founder and director of Bent Creek Germplasm Repository at The North Carolina Arboretum.
- Aviva Romm, MD: An expert in midwifery, women’s health and herbalism, as well as the author of numerous popular books. She currently serves as medical director of the American Herbal Pharmacopoeia, executive editor of the Journal of the American Herbalists Guild and a resident in family medicine at Tufts/Cambridge Health Alliance.