Venugopal Damerla MD ABoIM
Director | Co-Founder
Dr. Venugopal Damerla was born and educated in Hyderabad, India and holds board certifications in Internal Medicine, Integrative Medicine and is fellowship trained in Oncology. Inspired by ancient paradigms, that consciousness as a fundamental property of reality, his interest is reconciling Eastern and Western paradigms of healing and prevention. He is the author of several publications and a text book chapter in peer reviewed Oncology journals and currently practices in Golden, Colorado. He graduated from Gandhi Medical College Hyderabad, India in 1995 and also obtained MD post-graduate training in Radiation Oncology in 1999. He underwent training in premier institutions in India and USA. During his fellowship training, he developed a vision that the current model of health can be of greater service to humanity when it treats the person, symptoms, and disease as a unit. This led him to form the Prabhupada Research Institute for Integrative Medicine. He strives to provide a person centered platform by cross-pollinating ancient and current systems of knowledge. Dr. Damerla is an avid skier and loves cooking. He received U.S. Best of Medicine Award- American Health Council, in January 2018 and the ICARE Medal of Excellence in Patient Advocacy-conferred by the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Ananda Goldstein, M.Ed.
Co-Director | Co-Founder
As the Co-founder and Co-director of the PRIIMe, Ananda Goldstein offers a clear, creative and integrated approach to a healing, whole and balanced life. She is a visionary that gathers strategic solutions based on informed, holistic and big systems thinking. She grew up with Kundalini Yoga and as a seeker, has studied seriously with meditation masters over the last 30 years among many traditions, including Tibetan Buddhist, Vipassana, Sufi, Classical Yoga, Vaishnava Mantra Meditation as well as a new form- intersubjective meditation.
Her training includes: Psychobiology, Certified Health Coach, Psychotherapist, Somatic Trauma Therapist, Breathworker, Conscious Communications/Authentic Relating Trainer, Bodyworker, Kundalini and Classical Yoga teacher (500 hours), Life Coach through the Satvatove and Empowerment Institutes and Bhakti-Sastri Degree.
Dr.Priyal Matreja
Research Scientist
Dr. Priyal is a dental surgeon by training and is currently a master’s of science in Epidemiology final semester candidate at the prestigious Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. She is a detail oriented public health researcher with experience in data management, analysis, and reporting using statistical software like SAS, R and MS Excel. She has a strong interest in cancer, clinical, pharmacoepidemiology and integrative medicine.
She has worked independently as a yoga teacher conducting group and individual sessions for adults as well as children and is a certified yoga teacher (200 hours) by a Yoga Alliance registered school, level 1 yoga instructor (Quality Council of India) and Reiki I certified practitioner. She has previously led a team of oral healthcare professionals and organized multiple oral health camps in remote areas of central India providing oral health education, tobacco cessation counseling and dental treatment for underprivileged communities. Having more than half a decade of experience in healthcare, she is a medical researcher who has been on the clinical side and is determined to solve some of the most challenging public health issues by utilizing her diverse set of skills and training. A yogi and inquisitive person at heart, Priyal tries her best to live a balanced life every day.
Carolyn Williams–Orlando
Carolyn Williams-Orlando PhD (Dr. Willow) is a humanistic and transpersonal psychologist, Colorado Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC), and Hawaii Licensed Mental Health Counselor (LMHC). Her doctorate on Patient Beliefs of Children’s ADHD was awarded current and critical CAM research at the Pangea Conference for Pediatric Wellness in 2008.
She has worked for Wholeness Center, Samasati Nature Retreat, Natural Standard Research Collaboration, University of the Sciences in Philadelphia, the WHEEL Council, American Botanical Council, Herb Research Foundation, Center for Disease Control, Yavapai College, Prescott College, Harvard Medical School of Public Health, and McArdle Labs for Cancer Research.
Her publications include: Spirituality in Integrative Medicine, Lovingkindness Meditation in Psychology. Wholistic- and Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction for Parents, Teaching Meditation to Children in Psychotherapy, and Yoga Therapy for Anxiety, See more at www.mountainvoicehealth.com
Radha Krishnan Pillai
Program Director
Radha Krishnan Pillai was born in Kerala, India and from age three grew up in Malaysia. In 1970 he travelled to the UK, where he resided for over 30 years.
Prior to emigrating to the USA in 2002, he worked as a psychiatric social worker and a regional manager for Advance Housing and Support Ltd. in Leicester, U.K.
He has 45 years of experience in mantra chanting practice and he is passionate about expanding scientific inquiry into this form of meditation.
He retired in 2014 from his position as a program director for a non profit agency that provided residential services for adults with developmental disabilities and other cognitive disabilities in Boulder, Broomfield, Weld and Jefferson counties in Colorado.
He has also helped organize fundraising bike rides in India for environmental projects in Vrindavan, UP, in conjunction with the Worldwide Fund for Nature in 1996 & 1997.
He currently lives in Boulder with his wife and enjoys writing, meditation, biking, hiking and travel.
Dr. David Wolf
Consultant
Dr. David Wolf has been teaching transformative communication for more than thirty years. He has been featured as a communication expert on numerous media sources, including Fox News and CNN News. David developed the spiritually-based transformational programs of Satvatove Institute, which have become an emerging presence in the world of personal development. He has decades of experience in social and mental health services, including counselor training, children and family counseling, and medical social work.
In 1998 he established the international child protection organization, The Association for the Protection of Children, and served as its Director for more than six years. David created the Vedic Personality Inventory, a personality assessment tool based on guna psychology, and has been widely published in top social science journals in fields such as child protection, speciesism, and the effects of meditation on mental health and life satisfaction. His doctoral dissertation included research on the effects of chanting ancient mantras on alleviating stress and depression, and increasing life satisfaction. Also, David is the founder of the Satvatove Institute School of Transformative Coaching, and is a Master Certified Coach (MCC) with the International Coach Federation (ICF). Dr. Wolf has practiced bhakti-yoga since the early 1980s. He is the author of Relationships That Work: The Power of Conscious Living, How Transformative Communication Can Change Your Life.
David Lee McCluskey, PhD
Research Assistant
David Lee McCluskey earned his PhD in clinical psychology from West Virginia University and is a staff Psychologist and Researcher at San Antonio Veterans Affairs Medical Center.
Dr. McCluskey has three major clinical and research interests: 1) Understanding the function of avoidance within the context of comorbid PTSD and substance misuse in combat veterans, 2) The use of behavioral economic, operant, and classical conditioning approaches to understand said functional relations, and 3) The examination/utilization of TAPS (Treating Avoidance in PTSD and Substance use disorder) as a means of addressing said functional relations.
Tyler Nesbit
Program Instructor and Data Manager
Tyler Nesbit is a first-year PhD student at the University of Florida. He is studying Youth Development and Family Science in the Department of Family, Youth, and Community Sciences. His primary research interest is mindfulness and its role in preventing adverse outcomes in adolescents and healthcare settings. He also has a strong interest in communication, dialogue, and anti-racism work. He currently serves as a graduate assistant for two projects in his department. He works with Dr. Larry Forthun to coordinate the Rural Youth Fellowship, a program designed to provide experiential training for undergraduate students in planning and implementing community projects in rural areas.
He also collaborates with Dr. Tracy Irani and the Southeastern Coastal Center for Agricultural Health and Safety to study the perceptions of agricultural stakeholders on the barriers and enablers of occupational health and safety. As a volunteer in the Parent-Based Prevention of Bullying (PB2) Lab with Dr. Jen Doty, he explores the relationships of parental mediation of technology, adolescent cyberbullying, and depression. He is a former program instructor, staff mentor, and data manager for the UF/IFAS SMART Couples program. He recently collaborated with a doctoral student from the College of Public Health and Health Professions to develop a team proposal to participate as trainees in the Clinical and Translational Science Institutes, National Institute of Health funded TL1 training program.
Their project is entitled “Establishing Steps towards Reconciliation and Trust among Black Women toward Reproductive Health Providers” and seeks to develop a mindfulness and compassionate communication training for reproductive healthcare providers to reduce health disparities for Black women. This experience has provided a unique opportunity to collaborate across disciplines, refine and extend his dissertation goals, develop valuable grant-writing skills, and gain access to an expanded network of researchers and advisors in the arena of translation science and public health.
Nidra (Nancy) Patterson
Consultant
Nidra (Nancy) Patterson has been practicing Yoga and meditation since the late 1960’s. Her education in International Affairs (BA; George Washington University, Washington DC) and Teaching Certificate from McGill University (Montreal, Canada) has been utilized to teach Mantra Yoga as interpreted by the translations of her spiritual master’s books (A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada), specifically his Bhagavad Gita As It Is and Srimad Bhagavatam.
Nidra has dedicated her life to the dissemination of knowledge of the Self and means to awaken it through a self-directed spiritual practice.
Krishna Madhavan, Ph.D
Consultant and Grant Writer
PhD Research Scientist – Pediatric Oncology at Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora, Colorado.
