People

Integrative Physicians
Robert Saper, MD MPH is the Director of Integrative Medicine in the Boston Medical Center Department of Family Medicine and an Associate Professor at the Boston University School of Medicine and Boston University School of Public Health. Dr. Saper has taken a leadership role in building research, educational, and clinical programs in integrative medicine for the urban underserved. He has over 25 years of experience integrating the complementary therapies such as yoga, massage and relaxation techniques with conventional medicine. Dr. Saper attended Brandeis University for his undergraduate education. As a Harvard medical student, he traveled to the Findhorn Center in Scotland to study holistic healing and took a year off to live and study yoga at the Kripalu Center in Lenox, Massachusetts. After graduating Harvard Medical School in 1988, he completed a family medicine residency and chief residency at UCSF from 1988-92 and was in private practice for 8 years in the San Francisco Bay area. From 2001 to 2004, he completed a three year Complementary Medicine Research Fellowship at Harvard which included an MPH from the Harvard School of Public Health. Soon after arriving at Boston Medical Center, he received a five year Academic Career Development Award from the National Institutes of Health National Center for Complementary Alternative Medicine (NCCAM). In 2010 Dr. Saper received another NCCAM grant to conduct a comparative effectiveness randomized controlled trial of hatha yoga, physical therapy, and education for chronic low back pain in low income minority populations. Other major areas of research include the safety and efficacy of traditional Indian herbometallic medicines.Dr. Saper is the Boston University Steering Committee Representative to the Consortium of Academic Health Centers for Integrative Medicine and also serves on the Consortium’s Executive Committee. Dr. Saper has numerous publications in journals such as JAMA, American Family Physician, and Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine. He has given over 100 lectures about integrative medicine both nationally and internationally.
Paula Gardiner, MD MPH is the Assistant Director of Integrative Medicine in the Boston Medical Center Department of Family Medicine and an Assistant Professor at the Boston University School of Medicine. She has over 10 years of experience integrating the complementary therapies such as herbs and dietary supplements, yoga, massage and relaxation techniques with conventional medicine. Dr. Gardiner attended Tufts University Medical School for her medical education and residency. From 2004 to 2007, she completed a three year Complementary Medicine Research Fellowship at Harvard which included an MPH from the Harvard School of Public Health. Soon after arriving at Boston Medical Center, she received a five year Academic Career Development Award from the National Institutes of Health National Center for Complementary Alternative Medicine (NCCAM).She has consulted on several NIH grants focusing online dietary supplement curriculum for health care professionals. Additionally, she consulted on CAM education for trainees and faculty on two NIH R25 training grants, first for the Tufts Evidenced-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine project (EBCAM) (http://www.tufts.edu/med/ebcam), then for the Children’s Hospital’s Center for Pediatric Integrative Medical Education. She is the former Director of Integrative Medicine at the Tufts Family Medicine Residency, as well as an adjunct professor at the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences (MCPHS) where she lectured to pharmacists, physician assistants, and medical and nursing students about dietary supplements.She has published over thirty peer reviewed papers in herbal medicine and dietary supplements. Her expertise is in herbal safety and maternal child health and drug herb interactions. Dr. Gardiner has numerous publications in journals such as Archives of Internal Medicine, Pediatrics, American Family Physician, and Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine. She has given over 100 lectures about integrative medicine and herbs and dietary supplements both nationally and internationally.Paula has completed training in Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR). She is board certified by the American Board of Holistic and Integrative Medicine. She is also a registered herbalist. Her primary interests are herbs and dietary supplements, nutrition, mindfulness- based stress reduction, women’s health, preconception care, and pediatric care.
Dr. Katherine Gergen Barnett, M.D. is the Director of Clinical Services for the Integrative Medicine Program. Katherine joined the ACC Family Medicine Practice team in 2009 after completing her Family Medicine Residency Program and her Chief Residency at Boston University. Originally from Washington, D.C. Katherine attended Yale University School of Medicine. While at Yale, Katherine worked at the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine a the NIH (NCCAM) , studied holistic medicine with Dr. Andrew Weil, lived on a Pueblo Reservation, created a course for medical students on spirituality and medicine, and completed a fellowship studying a model of group prenatal care for underserved women. While at BUMC, she implemented this successful model of group prenatal care within the residency (Centering Pregnancy), served as Chief Resident, received the AAFP Award for Excellence in Graduate Medical Education, was published by STFM’s poetry and prose contest, and was awarded the Family Medicine Resident Award for Scholarship. In 2008, Katherine completed Jon Kabat-Zinn’s intensive Mindfulness- Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) training at UMass Worcester. At the ACC, Dr. Katherine serves as a primary care clinician, an integrative medicine consultant, and the Director of Integrative Medicine Clinical Services. Her primary interests are preventive medicine, nutrition, mindfulness- based stress reduction, women’s health, and group care. She has been asked to speak locally and nationally and has publised several papers in peer-reviewed journals. In her free time, Dr.Katherine enjoys running, reading, writing, spending time with friends, and being with her husband and two young children.

Michael Grodin, M.D., Professor of Family Medicine, Psychiatry, Bioethics, and Human Rights; Director, Project on Medicine and the Holocaust at the Elie Wiesel Center for Judaic Studies; Co-Founder, Boston Center for Refugee Health and Human Rights; Medical Ethicist Boston Medical CenterDr. Grodin is a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and completed postdoctoral and fellowship training at UCLA and Harvard, and has been on the faculty of Boston University for the past 32 years. He has received advanced training in Psychoanalysis, Psychodynamic Psychotherapy, Trauma Therapy, Hypnotherapy, EMDR, Behavioral Medicine, Supportive Therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Psychotherapy, Positive Psychology, Mind Body Medicine, Sensori-Motor Psychotherapy, Internal Energy Arts, Tai Chi, Qi Gong, Acupuncture, and Traditional Chinese Medicine. He has received 20 teaching awards including the Norman A. Scotch Award for Excellence in Teaching. He is a member of numerous national and international ethics and human rights committees and editorial boards. An international expert on the Holocaust, he has received a special citation from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in recognition of his “profound contributions – through original and creative research – to the cause of Holocaust education and remembrance.” Dr. Grodin was the 2000 Julius Silberger Scholar and is an elected member of the Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute and the American Psychoanalytic Association. Three times named one of America’s Top Physicians, he has received 4 national Humanism in Medicine and Humanitarian Awards for “integrity, clinical excellence and compassion”, “outstanding humanism in medicine and integrity as a faulty member” and “compassion, empathy, respect and cultural sensitivity in the delivery of care to patients and their families.” Dr. Grodin has delivered over 300 invited national and international addresses, written more than 200 scholarly papers, and edited or co-edited 5 books: The Nazi Doctors and the Nuremberg Code: Human Rights in Human Experimentation , Children as Research Subjects: Science, Ethics and Law, Meta-Medical Ethics: The Philosophical Foundations of Bioethics, Health and Human Rights: A Reader, selected as 2^nd of the top 10 humanitarian books of 1999, Perspectives on Health and Human Rights. He is presently working on two books, Medical Ethics in the Shadow of the Holocaust and After the Shoah: Rebuilding the Lives of Holocaust Survivors. Dr. Grodin’s primary areas of interest include: trauma and resiliency, survivors of torture and refugee trauma, medicine and the holocaust, bioethics, and integrative medicine.

Winnie Suen MD, MSc is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM). She is a graduate of the BUSM Geriatrics fellowship, BU School of Public Health Masters of Science in Health Services program, and the Harvard Dana Farber/MGH Palliative Care Fellowship. She is board certified in Internal Medicine, Geriatrics, and Hospice and Palliative Medicine. She is also a massage therapist and medical acupuncturist. She has completed the University of Arizona Associate Fellowship in Integrative Medicine, UCLA Joe Helms Acupuncture course, and is a graduate of the Cortiva School of Massage Therapy. Her interests are in integrating complementary therapies into the care of geriatrics and palliative care patients.

Yen Lin Loh, MD is an Assistant Professor in the Boston Medical Center Department of Family Medicine. She did her residency in family medicine at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. She then completed a clinical fellowship in acupuncture, which included participating in the Medical Acupuncture course for Physicians sponsored by the Helms Medical Institute. She also traveled to China during that time learning acupuncture at the Wuhan Number One Hospital in Wuhan and Guang An Men Hospital in Beijing. Since then, she has participated in various research projects involving acupuncture including preventing post-dates induction in labor and establishing an acupuncture clinic in a university hospital setting. While in North Carolina, Yen participated in the local Finding Meaning in Medicine group, which led to her becoming a Healer’s Art instructor in Boston. Her primary clinic is at the Dorchester House Multi-Service Center where she does both acupuncture and primary care for the underserved.

Integrative Medicine Clinical Services Coordinator Danielle Dresner, MPH is the Integrative Medicine Clinical Services Coordinator at Boston Medical Center. Originally from Southern Indiana, Danielle graduated from Vanderbilt University in 2009 with a degree in Human and Organizational Development and French. Danielle recently completed a Masters of Public Health at Boston University. She works full-time in the Family Medicine clinic overseeing Integrative Medicine services as well as the Integrative Medicine Group Visits program.

Licensed Acupuncturist
Ellen Highlfield, LAc has been practicing acupuncture more than twenty-five years since graduating from the New England School of Acupuncture. Ellen was instrumental in the establishment of the NESA-BMC partnership that sponsors the Free-Care Acupuncture Clinic, and served as the supervisor for three years. She has recently co-designed and implemented a Clinical Rotation in Acupuncture for Medical Acupuncturists, and will be able to offer more opportunities for patients to access Free-Care acupuncture through this new clinic.
Licensed Massage Therapist
Paula Nesoff, LMT, MSW is a graduate of Cortiva Institute, School of Massage Therapy, where she had an intensive education in Anatomy, Physiology, Pathology, Kinesiology, Ethics, Business, and various treatment modalities including Swedish Massage, Deep Tissue, Neuromuscular Therapy, Myofascial Release and Chair Massage. As a Reiki practitioner she utilizes in-depth relaxation energy work to facilitate clients’ capacities for healing. Paula brings her passion to helping clients find their optimum sense of health and wellness through effective application of massage techniques specially designed to meet individual needs. Her background in social work, education, meditation, dance, Tai Chi and movement enables her to provide clients with individualized treatment plans that will enhance their sense of well-being. She is a volunteer in the Brigham and Women’s Hospital Reiki Program and with Old Colony Hospice. Paula also facilitates creative dance classes, stress reduction workshops and meditation groups. She holds a Massachusetts state license in massage, is a member in good standing with the American Massage Therapy Association and has a Masters of Social Work from the City University of New York. Paula is a Professor Emeritus of Human Services at LaGuardia Community College, City University of New York.
Certified Yoga Instructor
Anna Dunwell, ERYT-200 is the Yoga Team Leader and Clinical Instructor at Boston University Medical School where she teaches yoga for Boston Medical Center employees and doctor referred patients in the Moakley Building on Tuesdays and Thursdays. She was Assistant and then Lead Instructor in the Yoga for Chronic Low Back Pain Pilot Study, and now leads the Yoga Team in the yoga portion of the current larger study and controlled trial for chronic low back pain in low income minority populations. Her other areas of work at BMC have included a Kripalu-funded grant project using yoga with recently diagnosed women with cancer at the Cancer Care Center at BMC. Ms. Duwell has also designed a yoga curriculum for torture survivors for the Center for Health and Human Rights at BMC. She was certified as a Yoga Instructor at Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health in 2003 after completing her Master’s Degree of Fine Art and Teacher’s Certification Degree at Boston University. Anna has taught yoga to women and children in Boston-area shelters, created health education programs with the Boston Black Women’s Health Initiative, and consulted with community health centers on supporting diversity. She is a member of Kripalu’s Yoga Teacher’s Association, the International Association of Black Yoga Teachers, and the International Association of Yoga Therapists. Anna owns Soul Sanctuary yoga studio, where she leads yoga and meditation retreats, teacher training programs, and teaches yoga to private and doctor-referred clients.