Swiss International Conference on Naturopathic Research

Jon Wardle is Professor of Public Health, Maurice Blackmore Chair of Naturopathic Medicine and Foundation Director of the National Centre for Naturopathic Medicine (NCNM) at Southern Cross University, Australia. In addition to clinical qualifications in nursing and naturopathic medicine, Jon has postgraduate qualifications in public health, law and health economics and holds visiting positions at Boston University, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Oxford University and University of Technology Sydney. Jon has published over 250 scientific research publications, convenes the traditional medicine special interest group of the Public Health Association of Australia, and serves as Deputy Chair of the Australian government’s National Health and Medical Research Council Natural Therapies Working Group. Jon leads several World Federation of Public Health Associations initiatives and has consulted on numerous World Health Organization initiatives in traditional, complementary and integrative medicine, health policy, primary health care and developing health research capacity in developing countries. Jon believes that the best patient outcomes are achieved through combining the best of traditional knowledge with scientific evidence, and works on traditional and Indigenous medicine, public health and primary health care policy with numerous governments, non-government organizations and international bodies.

Amie Steel (ND PhD) is Associate Professor of Public Health, as well as Co-Director of the Australian Research Consortium in Complementary and Integrative Medicine (ARCCIM), School of Public Health, Faculty of Health, University of Technology Sydney (UTS), Australia. ARCCIM is the world-leading public health research group focused on the crucial need for investigation into the use and practice of traditional, complementary and integrative medicine (TCIM) in Australia and globally. Amie has attracted ~$1M in research funding in the last 2 years and holds editorial appointments for a number of journals. She has authored over 140 journal articles, contributed to over 30 book chapters, and edited two special journal issues and three research books. Her methodological interests encompass women’s reproductive and sexual health, mixed methods research, implementation science, knowledge mobilization, applied health services research, and practice-based (pragmatic) clinical research. She is also one of the lead editors for the Health Technology Assessment on Naturopathy titled “Naturopathy : Practice, Effectiveness, Utility, Economics & Safety” which was published in December 2021.

Dr. Colleen Fogarty Draper PhD, RD is the Co-Founder and CEO of PhenomX Health. Dr. Draper is an entrepreneur and clinical dietitian with a PhD in nutrition systems biology and metabolic health with an emphasis in women’s health and gender dimorphism. She has 30 years experience in personalized nutrition and clinical practice; including 9 years working in large food multinationals, start-ups, academic universities and teaching hospitals. In her quest to be a good mother and emulate the self-care she would like to see in her daughters, Dr. Draper was amazed at the limited options available to manage their hormonal health naturally, consistently and with limited side effects. Realizing she faced these same limitations in her clinical practice years ago and reflecting on her own clinical and scientific research experiences in systems’ nutrition and women's health, she decided it was time to make a difference. As a perimenopausal mother of 3 teenage girls, Colleen Fogarty Draper MS, RD, PhD founded and created PhenomX Health; a femtech pioneer in perimenopausal health and nutrition. She also created a world-class nutrition science translation consultancy, NutraUHealth. Dr. Draper is very passionate about connecting new technologies to improve human health and improve real world digital health research.

Since Septembre 2020, Anne Gimalac, MSc MBA, has been responsible for creating and developing the Navi - Research in Integrative Health, at the Centre André Henzelin (cAH). She also teaches, supervises research interns, and actively contributes to various cross-functional strategic projects at cAH. The common thread of her contributions is to capture and catalyze the collective intelligence in integrative health, that which brings together, rather than divides, medicines, people and knowledge. As a French-Swiss citizen living and working in international ecosystems, Anne attaches great importance to collaborative projects, notably with the World Naturopathic Federation (WNF) community. She is a WNF Research Committee member and WNF European Support Committee member. Anne trained in cellular and molecular biology, genomics, biology of human aging, nutrition for health promotion and disease prevention, as well as in entrepreneurship and innovation applied to healthcare. Having held various roles from academia and start-ups to multinationals, she brings an interdisciplinary profile and a wealth of experience from the genomics revolution of the 1990s to the rise of epigenetics and integrative medicine today.

Tina Hausser, Heilpraktiker (HP), Naturopath with Diploma, did her professional diploma at state recognized college for naturopathy “Berufsfachschule für Naturheilweisen Josef Angerer” in Munich in 1994 and passed the German state exam for Naturopaths in 1995 (Heilpraktiker). Tina graduated in Traditional European Naturopathy (TEN) and Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). Tina specializes in the combination of TEN and TCM, practicing in Munich and Spain at the Naturopathic Clinica Natural that she founded in 1996. She has been teaching these disciplines since 1997 in the college for naturopathy “Berufsfachschule für Naturheilweisen Josef Angerer”, at the Bavarian Academy for Naturopathy in Munich, in Naturopathic school SAEKA Slovenia, at CEAN Academy and NATURACLASS in Spain.

Regularly speaking at international naturopathic congresses since 1997 is part of Tina’s teaching activities. Tina has published 3 German text books, is co-author of the Health Technology Assessment on Naturopathy and has published articles in German, Spanish and North American naturopathic journals. Tina is the 2nd Vice President of the Spanish Naturopathic Organization OCN FENACO, responsible for international relationships and ambassador of the Spanish naturopathic workforce and has been 1st Vice President of the WNF for 7 years. She was involved in establishing the federation from its beginning and is active in different committees and working groups. She has been honored with several professional awards.

Simon Becker, MSc, Naturheilpraktiker TCM mit eidg. Diplome (Naturopath with Swiss federal diploma), has been the director of the Chiway Academy for Acupuncture and Asian Medicine (Winterthur (ZU), Switzerland) since 2012, as well as the deputy head of the Chinese Medicine Polyclinic at the Hospital in Horgen (ZU) since 2013. He specializes in the treatment of children and supportive treatment of cancer patients. He is the author of various articles and books on Chinese medicine. He served as the president for the Swiss Professional Association of TCM from 2003 until 2009. Simon Becker also holds a diploma in Traditional Chinese Medicine from the Florida Institute of TCM (US) and a MSc from the University of Westminster (UK).

Ludivine Colas is a clinical psychologist (MSc at University of Lausanne, Switzerland) and a naturopath in Traditional European Medicine (TEM) who graduated at the Ecole Professionnelle Supérieure de Naturopathie (EPSN) in Lausanne in 2020. She is currently continuing her training to obtain the Swiss Federal Diploma in TEM. Since the beginning of her naturopathic studies in 2016, she has carried out various projects for the cAH, becoming instrumental in setting up the Navi research internship framework in 2021 as well as in creating the cAH consultation framework in 2022. As a Research Associate at Navi since 2021, Ludivine has focused on innovative naturopathic research methodologies, and currently leads the “Hippocrates & Science” project. She also teaches and supervises research interns. In addition, Ludivine runs her private clinical practice, working in particular with single-parent families in the canton of Vaud. She is also the creator of a French exhibition called "Les Arbres, médecins des Hommes" (“Trees, doctors of mankind”), which raises awareness of the virtues and medicinal uses of European trees.

Nora Eberli is a naturopath in Traditional European Medicine (TEM) who graduated at the Ecole Professionnelle Supérieure de Naturopathie (EPSN) in Lausanne, Switzerland in 2021. She is currently continuing her training to obtain the Swiss Federal Diploma in TEM. Her research internship at Navi in 2022 led her to write a narrative review dedicated to chrononutrition in TEM, which will be presented in September 2023 at the 1st Swiss International Conference on Naturopathic Research (Lausanne, Switzerland) and at the 2nd World Congress for Integrative Medicine and Health (Rome, Italy). At EPSN, she teaches classes, translates TEM texts, and leads the project “Rosetta Stone of TEM”. She is also an active member of the IG-TEN, the association who organizes the official Swiss Federal Diploma modular exams. In addition to that, Nora helps coordinate Swiss naturopathic education standards between the German and French-speaking part of the country. Finally, Nora runs her private clinical practice in Lausanne (VD) and Solothurn (SO). Her area of expertise lies in cardiometabolic and ophthalmic health.

A graduate of the Faculty of Pharmacy of the University of Geneva, Shima Sazegari, homeopath & nutritionist, has worked as a pharmacist and consultant in integrative medicine for more than 25 years in Geneva. During all these years, she was interested and committed to the development of natural medicine in Switzerland and in Europe. Her areas of expertise come from her years of practice and continuing education with internationally recognized experts in fields such as functional medicine, homeopathy based on the vital sensation method, herbal medicine in its extended pharmaceutical application in in particular orchid essences – LTOE and the application of the Therapeutic Energy Kinesiology-TEK. Benefiting from her vast experience, she now offers in her therapeutic practice, individualized solutions adapted to each of her patients.

Dr. Iva Lloyd (BScH, RPP, ND) was president of the World Naturopathic Federation from 2014 until 2023 and is now the CEO. She has participated in 7 WHO Working Groups and the Global Conference for Primary Health Care. Dr. Lloyd is founder and Editor-in-Chief of ND Health Facts, the wiki of the Naturopathic Medicine Profession, and was editor of the Canadian Association of Naturopathic Doctors Journal (CANDJ) for 13 years. She graduated from the Canadian College of Naturopathic Medicine (CCNM) in 2002 where she teaches periodically. Dr. Lloyd has maintained a full-time naturopathic practice since 2002 in Markham, Ontario, Canada. Dr. Lloyd has written over 80 articles and has done various seminars both nationally and internationally on naturopathic and energetic medicine. She is the author of 4 books, including, “Messages From The Body – a guide to the energetics of health”, “The Energetics of Health, a naturopathic assessment” and “The History of Naturopathic Medicine, a Canadian perspective” and she wrote the chapter on Naturopathy, Homeopathy and Natural Medicine in “Holistic Healing, Theories, Practices and Social Change”. She was also one of the lead editors for the Health Technology Assessment on Naturopathy titled “Naturopathy : Practice, Effectiveness, Utility, Economics & Safety” which was published in December 2021.

Dr Joanna Harnett is an accredited naturopath and holds a Bachelor and Master of Health Science (Complementary Medicine). She completed her PhD in 2013 in the field of nutritional pharmacology. Her PhD research explored the association between the gastrointestinal microbiome and coeliac disease. Joanna is a senior lecturer (complementary medicines) within the Faculty of Medicine Health at the University of Sydney’s Pharmacy School. Her teaching and research activity include: the appropriate and safe use of complementary medicine products, integrative medicine education and communication, and gastrointestinal health and the microbiome. Joanna supervises higher degree research students in these three areas. Her teaching role includes the development and delivery of evidence-based complementary medicine education for undergraduate and postgraduate pharmacy students. Prior to her academic career, she practiced as a Naturopath for 15 years in an integrative medical practice. She currently serves on the board of the International Society for Traditional, Complementary, Integrative Medicine Research. She is a member of the Australian TGA Advisory Committee for Complementary Medicines.

Susan Arentz PhD is a naturopath with over 25 years’ experience in women’s health. She is a clinician at a multidisciplinary gynecology and obstetrics practice, an Adjunct Fellow at Western Sydney University, Editor of the Australian Journal of Herbal and Naturopathic Medicine (AJHNM), elected board-member of the Australasian Integrative Medicine Association (AIMA) and Fellow of the Naturopaths and Herbalists Association of Australia (NHAA). Dr Arentz’s PhD and early research focussed on the clinical role of naturopaths in management of polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) and chronic pelvic pain. More recently she has collaborated with Australian and international experts to embed traditional, complementary and integrative medicine recommendations in evidence-based clinical practice guidelines, developed an interprofessional communication program for naturopaths, co-written the Masters in Integrative Medicine, and published evidence synthesis of zinc and honey for use in COVID-19.

Catherine Smith is Program Director for the Bachelor of Health Science - Naturopathy and Western Herbal Medicine programs at Torrens University Australia. Catherine holds qualifications in Naturopathy, Health Science, Nutrition, Complementary Medicine and Education. For 10 years, Catherine worked in various professional environments including general complementary medicine and integrative practice. During her educational career, Catherine led the academic team to transition the Naturopathic and Western Herbal Medicine courses from vocational standard to Bachelor level delivery. As Program Director, Catherine oversees curriculum, compliance, students’ and academics. During the pandemic Catherine led the academic team to rapidly implement an innovative home-based Telehealth as a reasonable adjustment to in-person student-led clinical practicum.