Leading healthcare transformation through education, research, advocacy, standard-setting, and clinical care.

Dr. John Scaringe, President of SCU, is an educator, author, and tireless advocate for healthcare transformation. Under his leadership, SCU developed and launched a framework for becoming the world’s first Whole Health University—an institution that not only teaches whole health but actively nurtures it within its students, faculty, and staff. In 2022, he received the prestigious Visionary Award from the Academy of Integrative Health & Medicine, an award recognizing interprofessional collaborators and unifiers who are helping to establish a new paradigm of healthcare for humanity and the planet.

Dr. Tracy Gaudet, Executive Director of SCU’s Doctor of Whole Health Leadership program, was one of the architects of the VA’s seminal Whole Health initiative and is a catalyst for change on countless fronts—from media appearances and publishing to industry speaking and leadership roles. She is former Executive Director of both the Whole Health Institute and Duke Integrative Medicine, and co-founder of Cornerstone Collaboration for Societal Change, a leading organization in Whole Health transformation

Lauri Phillips, Founding Program Director of our Doctor of Whole Health Leadership program, is a national leader in operationalizing whole health in the real world. From leading standard-setting and credentialing processes at the Whole Health Institute to spearheading design and implementation of Whole Health at the largest integrated health care system in the nation (the Veterans Administration), she is a recognized leader in making change a reality.

Kelly Howard is a leader in Whole Health education and practice. She developed and directed the VA’s Whole Health Education program from 2012 to 2022, training more than 250,000 VA personnel nationwide. An Executive Member of the Cornerstone Collaborative for Societal Change and adjunct professor in SCU’s Doctor of Whole Health Leadership program, she also serves as a Colonel in the U.S. Army Reserves, advancing yoga and mindfulness across the force. With nearly 20 years as a yoga instructor and certifications spanning integrative health disciplines, Howard brings over two decades of experience integrating holistic health, leadership, and service into education and practice at both national and institutional levels.

Dr. Steffany Moonaz is Research Director at Southern California University of Health Sciences and an internationally recognized leader in yoga and integrative health research. She holds a PhD in public health from Johns Hopkins University, and her work—funded by the NIH, Arthritis Foundation, and others—has produced more than 40 peer-reviewed publications. She has held leadership roles with the Academic Collaborative for Integrative Health and currently serves as inaugural chair for the Traditional World Medicines/Emerging Professions Council of the Academy for Integrative Health and Medicine.

Dr. Russ Greenfield is a physician specializing in integrative and whole health approaches, among the first physicians trained in integrative medicine under Dr. Andrew Weiss at the University of Arizona, and is Director of Greenfield Integrative Healthcare and President of Greenfield Consulting. He completed emergency medicine training at Harbor/UCLA Medical Center before shifting his career toward integrative health, consulting on national complementary and alternative therapy guidelines, co-authoring Healthy Child, Whole Child, founding and leading Carolinas Integrative Health, and maintaining a private practice while advising organizations on wellness initiatives that blend conventional care with lifestyle and complementary strategies.

Dr. Harrison Ndetan is a professor and Capstone Coordinator in the Doctor of Whole Health Leadership program at Southern California University of Health Sciences, with an interdisciplinary background spanning physics, biostatistics, epidemiology, medicine, and public health, and extensive experience mentoring research and serving on scientific advisory boards; his current scholarship focuses on community-based and translational research addressing substance use disorders, adverse childhood experiences, and health outcomes, and he has held academic and administrative roles in research, public health, and clinical education while engaging in community health initiatives and ministries.

Dr. Anupama Kizhakkeveettil, Program Director of SCU’s Ayurvedic Medicine Department, serves as Chair of the Integrative, Complementary, and Traditional Health Practices Section of the American Public Health Association and has made innumerable contributions as a researcher, speaker, and advisor. She served as an expert in developing benchmarks for Ayurveda practice for the World Health Organization, serves on the Research Working Group of the Academic Collaborative for Integrative Health, and more.

Dr. Jenny Yu, Dean of Eastern Medicine at SCU, has played a leading role in integrating Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) into mainstream U.S. healthcare. Under her leadership, SCU became the very first entry-level doctoral degrees in TCM to be recognized in California, and one of the first two to be ACAHM-accredited in the United States—and our institution has become a hub for global collaboration with China’s most prestigious universities.

Kevin Ergil is an anthropologist and experienced clinical acupuncturist who teaches in the Doctor of Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine and related programs at Southern California University of Health Sciences; he has held leadership roles including President of the American College of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Founding Dean and Director of the Pacific College of Oriental Medicine’s New York campus, Director of Research at the New York College of Health Professions, and Acupuncture Clinical Lead at the Canandaigua VA, and his work spans developing integrative acupuncture services in clinical settings, research on Tibetan medicine and herbal safety and efficacy, teaching internationally, and publishing textbooks and studies in complementary and alternative therapies.

Dr. David Rychner is a faculty member at Southern California University of Health Sciences with decades of leadership in whole health and integrative care education, having directed patient-centered care training for the Veterans Health Administration, co-developed and taught integrative health coaching programs including at Duke University Integrative Medicine, contributed to Navy health behavior prevention efforts, and served in integrative medicine roles at the University of Arizona under Dr. Andrew Weil; he continues to consult in whole health education and brings this lifelong commitment to person-centered practice into his teaching and scholarship.

Samantha Simmons, SCU Board Member, has devoted her career to removing barriers to interprofessional, whole-person care for all. She is the former President of the Oregon Collaborative for Integrative Medicine, current CEO of the Academic Consortium for Integrative Medicine & Health, and creator of the Whole Health in the States Initiative (WHITS), a national framework outlining scalable approaches for bringing whole person care to underserved populations.

Dr. Ian Coulter, Associated Faculty with SCU Clinical and Health Services Research, is Co-Director of the RAND Center for Collaborative Research in Complementary and Integrative Health. He has more than 40 years of experience conducting both qualitative and quantitative research on complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) and integrative medicine (IM), and has published more than 200 articles and books on the subject.

Dr. Margaret A. Chesney, visiting Professor with SCU Clinical and Health Services Research, is a clinical psychologist whose impactful career in integrative health has included serving as Deputy and Acting Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Center for Complementary and Integrative Health as well as extensive research (and more than 350 scientific publications) on the relationship between behavior and chronic disease.