President
Hilary Garivaltis
Florida, MA
It has been my privilege to have served this board since I came as a committee volunteer in 2004 and as a board member since 2006. I continue to be inspired by the Ayurvedic community and all the sincere and hard work that people are doing in their own little corners of the country.
I have been a student myself since 1997, an Ayurvedic Lifestyle Consultant since 2001 and an Ayurvedic school administrator since 2004. I feel as though I have stepped into all the streams of Ayurveda as it has begun to expand in the United States. My enthusiasm and love of this sacred science seems to multiply through all my experiences.
As a Dean and administrator I have had the opportunity to interact directly with students of Ayurveda, teachers from all over the world and with the public. Through my connection with Kripalu Center in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, I am also in a position to observe trends in wellness and healing first hand through our 25,000 guests that pass through our doors on a yearly basis. I feel uniquely qualified to continue to serve this community with a variety of perspectives and skills.
Secretary
Cynthia Copple, CMT
Capitola, CA
As a founding Board Member and Past President of NAMA I have been involved in every aspect of the development of this national organization, from the legal aspect, management and financial aspect to participating in nearly every committee. I am passionately involved in increasing Ayurvedic education, training Ayurvedic Practitioners and bringing the wisdom of Ayurveda to the public awareness. I am a 29-year Ayurvedic Practitioner, Director of Lotus Holistic Health Institute, and Dean of the Mount Madonna Institute College of Ayurveda. I bring many skills as well as my passion for Ayurveda to NAMA.
Since 1984 I have taught classes in Ayurveda, including at UCSF Medical School and UC Davis Medical schools and Acupuncture schools in an effort to bring Ayurveda to a wider audience of professionals. When I started practicing Ayurveda in 1982 it was virtually unknown in the U.S.
I believe Ayurveda must be licensed in order for the profession to grow. This will help the public as the profession will then be regulated, and it will help the profession as it will create a wider acceptance and understanding of the value of Ayurveda. I have an aim of working to license Ayurveda in my state, California. In addition, I feel it is important for NAMA to support the creation of state chapters of NAMA who can work together towards our common goals, including licensing.
Treasurer
Wynn Werner
Albuquerque, NM
My life is dedicated to supporting the re-emergence of Ayurveda as a guide for daily living and a critical component of modern integrated healthcare. I believe my experience and activities can be used by NAMA to further its Mission and Goals. My skills have been acquired over 30 years as a principal in partnerships and corporations, and include the ability to organize and manage diverse amounts of information, data, and people.
I work well with many different people and am able to facilitate group interactions. I am action and results oriented. I have a good understanding of and competency in computer: hardware, software, websites, email, etc. I have considerable experience in legal issues, accounting and tax preparation and have been relied upon to provide NAMA with this expertise. I am a founding Board Member of NAMA and helped draft the Articles of Incorporation and By-Laws in the two years prior to its incorporation in 2000.
I am actively involved in several committees and continue to work for the Mission and Goals of NAMA, its growth and recognition in the healthcare community and serve its members.
Vaijayanti (Jay) Apte, BAMS, MS
Foster City, CA
I have been involved in the Ayurvedic field for more than 30 years and I have seen how Ayurveda has grown. My objectives as a Board member will be to help unify and standardize Ayurvedic education throughout the country and offer in depth seminars and workshops to educate students to take them to a higher level.
Dhaval Dhru, MD
Federal Way, WA
Dr. Dhru is a retired ENT Surgeon with more than twenty years of clinical experience. He was previously in private practice in Federal Way, Washington. He is currently practicing as a consultant and educator of Ayurveda and Yoga at Federal Way Ayurveda and Yoga in Washington State.
He conducts Ayurvedic retreats/workshops and teaches Ayurvedic seminars at various locations both throughout the United States as well as internationally, including teaching assignments at The Ayurvedic Institute in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Pacific Northwest Ayurveda in Seattle, Washington. Dr. Dhru studied Ayurveda with Dr. Vasant Lad, the world renowned Ayurvedic educator, practitioner, author, and founder of The Ayurvedic Institute, Albuquerque NM.
Dr. Dhru is a certified Yoga teacher approved by Yoga Alliance, having undergone yoga teacher?s training at the White Lotus Foundation in Santa Barbara, CA, and also at The Ayurvedic Institute, Albuquerque NM.
He teaches Yoga at Three Trees Yoga in Federal Way, Washington. He also provides individual and private Ayurvedic yoga therapy sessions, incorporating Ayurvedic principles so as to determine an appropriate yoga practice for an individual.
Suhas Kshirsagar BAMS, M.D. (Ayurveda)
Santa Cruz, CA
Dr. Suhas Kshirsagar is a world-renown Ayurvedic physician & educator from India, born of a traditional Rig-Vedic family. He holds a M.D. in Ayurvedic Medicine, with a Gold Medal from the prestigious Pune University in India.
Dr. Suhas is one of the most academically accomplished Ayurvedic physicians in U.S. He has traveled worldwide popularizing Ayurvedic Medicine, setting up clinics, offering courses for both medical professional and laypersons, and providing Ayurvedic consultations for thousands of patients.
He is an internationally acclaimed motivational speaker and a faculty member of various Ayurvedic schools worldwide. Dr. Suhas has been featured in numerous radio and television shows. He is an experienced clinician and an insightful medical astrologer.
Dr. Suhas is an internationally acclaimed researcher, formulator and consultant to various nutraceutical companies. He is the lead formulator of several proprietary Ayurvedic health drinks and products. He is currently the Director of Ayurvedic Healing, an integrative wellness clinic in Santa Cruz, California.
Alakananda Ma
Boulder, CO
Alakananda Ma, MB, BS graduated as a physician from St. Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College, London University in 1976, graduating in the top 5% of her year. In 1980 she embarked on a five year spiritual pilgrimage in India, meeting her Ayurveda teacher, Dr Vasant Lad and studying Ayurveda, yoga, meditation and local herbs. One of the first Western physicians to dedicate her life to Ayurveda, Ma has been practicing Ayurveda since 1989 and is the principal teacher of Alandi Ayurveda Gurukula. She is internationally known for her pulse reading skills and insightful Ayurvedic articles. Alakananda Ma also serves as a board member of Colorado Ayurvedic Medical Association and of Alandi Ashram. She is the author of “Pilgrimage to the Mother: A Women's Journey to the Source of the Ganges”, “The Rainbow Bridge: Prophetic Encounters with the Mother's Path of Unity”, and “From my Heart to Yours”- a volume of original devotional poetry.
Anne (Sharada) Meneghetti, MD
San Francisco Bay Area, CA
Dr. Meneghetti specializes in health communications through online, mobile, radio, and print media for consumers and healthcare professionals. She received her medical degree at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School before Internal Medicine internship and residency training at the University of Michigan Medical Center. Following Pulmonary and Critical Care Fellowships at Boston University Medical Center, she obtained board certifications in three medical specialties. To complement her conventional training, she obtained a Doctorate in Integrative Medicine. She then explored Ayurveda through the Ayurvedic Institute studies programs in the U.S. and India.
Her focus is promoting integration between modern medicine and natural healing traditions to restore mind, body, and spirit. Dr. Meneghetti serves as an editor for mobile medical reference software used by over a million healthcare professionals in the U.S. Through blogs and satellite radio messaging, she shares health and wellness tips from Ayurveda and other traditions. She has been honored for nutrition and smoking cessation initiatives and for achievements in her former role as an executive at Massachusetts' largest health plan. Dr. Meneghetti currently serves on the Board of Advisors for Kripalu School of Ayurveda. She continues to study the vedic sampradaya upon which the modern practice of Ayurveda is founded.
Devi Mueller, CAS
Seal Beach, CA
Ayurveda carries into the modern world all of the necessary elements for health; not only for individuals in body, mind, and spirit, but on a larger communal level. Ayurveda's potential for healing on all levels has become central to my life. I have been involved with NAMA since 2002 when I first joined as a student member. As the Conference Manager for the 2004 annual NAMA Conference held at the Queen Mary in Long Beach, California, I became actively involved with the Board of Directors as well as with the membership. As a member of the Board, I participate actively on the Membership Committee and the Conference Committees.
My experience has given me an opportunity to be a part of the inner workings of the NAMA Board. At this juncture in my life it is time to offer my extensive organizational and developmental skills to assist in the success of the mission of NAMA. As Ayurveda grows more visible in the U.S., it will require those whose backgrounds carry the experience and know-how to advocate for, represent and present to diverse organizations the benefits and goals supported by the association. As a member of the Board, I offer this expertise.
Hema Patankar
Walnut Creek, CA
It is my good fortune to be able to bring my service on the NAMA Board a lifetime of study, practice and service to the Vedic, Yogic, philosophical and cultural traditions with which Ayurveda has been interwoven for millennia. From the age of 20, I lived in the gurukula style ashrams of Swami Muktananda and Gurumayi Chidvilasananda where the daily lifestyle and teachings were infused with principles and practices of Ayurveda, which Muktananda Swami had studied in the Gurukula tradition during his sadhana days.
In recent years I have been able to pursue further the love for Ayurveda I developed at that time by studying Ayurveda in the gurukula tradition and helping traditional Ayurveda practitioner and teacher Shunya Pratichi Mathur to found a Gurukula style Ayurveda institute in the SF Bay Area. In the intervening years, I worked with an international group of scholars on projects documenting India's philosophical and yogic heritage, including the development of an online library of Sanskrit texts, video documentation of ancient Vedic rituals and recitation, and the development of a Vedic gurukula that preserves a rare branch of the Vedas. I found the resonance of Ayurveda in all these branches and practitioners of traditional knowledge, and developed a passion for seeing Ayurveda more widely known and followed in the US. For this I believe education is the key.
The development of Ayurvedic education and practice in the US has reached a threshold of opportunity, a ripe time to contribute to the shaping and promotion of this invaluable science in the US context, so the empowering wisdom of Ayurveda can become accessible, well understood and skillfully practiced in the US. To this end, I am delighted to offer my service to NAMA.
Premal Patel, MD
Houston, TX
Premal serves as Wellness Director for Banyan Botanicals, a role that allows her to fulfill her desire to provide people with both education and personal empowerment. Board certified in Family Practice, she attended medical school at the University of Texas at San Antonio and completed her residency at the Waco Family Practice program, serving as chief resident in her final year. Subsequently she studied at the Ayurvedic Institute, completing the Level 1 and 2 Ayurvedic Studies Programs, as well as the Pune Gurukula program. In addition to having served on the faculty for the Ayurvedic Institute, she continues to facilitate the Ayurvedic module for the University of Arizona Integrative Medicine fellowship, and she has also conducted Ayurvedic lectures for adults and teens. Her enjoyment of the creative process takes form in the chapter that she authored on Ayurveda and Women's Health in the book, Integrative Women's Health, published as a part of the Andrew Weil Integrative Medicine Library. She works to have Ayurveda blossom in the West in an impactful and relevant way. As an instructor, practitioner, writer, and perpetual student, she combines a passion for an integrative approach to wellness with a love for teaching and a playful enthusiasm for life.
Felicia M. Tomasko, BA, RN
Santa Barbara, CA
Felicia Marie Tomasko RN, E-RYT 500, has been studying and practicing Ayurveda since 1993, and teaching yoga since 1997. She is a registered nurse in California and has studied in the Ayurvedic practitioner, yoga therapy and Ayurveda, pancha karma therapist and Ayurvedic educator programs at the Rocky Mountain Institute of Yoga and Ayurveda and at Alandi Ashram. In addition to her work in yoga and Ayurveda, Felicia has degrees in nursing and environmental biology and has worked in cognitive neuropsychology and plant biochemistry research at the University of Colorado at Boulder.
Her passion is the integration of yoga and Ayurveda with modern medicine and daily life. Felicia She has edited and contributed to numerous books and articles in health, yoga and Ayurveda and medicine and currently writes regular health columns in newspapers and magazine in California as well as an Ayurveda blog. Since 2002, Felicia has worked at LA YOGA Ayurveda and Health magazine where she is currently the editor in chief. Felicia is on the editorial board of Light on Ayurveda Journal, on the board of directors of the California Association of Ayurvedic Medicine, maintains a private Ayurveda and Yoga therapy practice in Los Angeles and Santa Barbara, California and teaches Ayurveda and yoga therapy in teacher training programs across the U.S.
