Administrative Faculty

Steven Bolling, MD, Director, CoPI-QiPERCS

The PI/Center Director, Steven F. Bolling, MD, is an accomplished cardiac surgeon, who has lectured and operated extensively around the world and has developed new techniques, particularly in the area of mitral valve reconstruction. Dr. Bolling is a professor in the Division of Cardiac Surgery and a well-established and supported investigator, not only in the clinical realm, but in the area of myocellular metabolism during myocardial ischemia and transplant immunology. His molecular research has focused on cardiac cell signal transduction as it relates to bioenergetics and myocardial preservation during cardiac surgery. Dr. Bolling has also had a long interest in Oriental medicine and has had a relationship since 1979 with Chinese cardiac surgeons and scholars, who have collaborated with Dr. Bolling in his laboratory, resulting in numerous publications. This relationship with Oriental investigators continues to date and has included 2 recent trips to the Far East this year. Dr. Bolling has studied the molecular mode of action and pharmacology of Chinese Herbs for the many years.

Sara Warber, MD, Co-Director, PI-QiPERCS

Dr. Sara L. Warber received her medical degree from Michigan State University, and completed her Internship and Residency with the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Michigan. She completed a Fellowship in the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program at the University of Michigan and is currently a Lecturer for UM Family Medicine. Dr. Warber studied herbalism and spiritual healing for 14 years with a Native American Healer. As the Co-Director of the University of Michigan Complementary and Alternative Medicine Research Center, Dr. Warber has been awarded the administration of one of 12 National Institutes of Health funded national centers dedicated to research and education in the practice of integrative medicine. The University of Michigan CAMRC is currently engaged in 3 clinical research trials, sponsors two monthly educational series, and co-sponsors many other educational events in the community. Dr. Warber has been instrumental to the current process of designing an Integrative Medicine Clinic at the University of Michigan Health System, and to the development of a complementary and alternative medicine curriculum with the UM medical school.

Dr. Warber's research interests include the use of herbs, energy healing, environmental healing, and the therapeutic relationship. She is an accomplished public speaker in the area of Complementary and Alternative Medicine. She is co-author of two books: Natural Products from Plants and Creating a Sustainable Future: Living in Harmony with the Earth. She is on the Steering Committee of the Consortium of Academic Health Centers for Integrative Medicine and on the Board of Directors for the American Board of Holistic Medicine.

Brenda Gillespie, PhD, Director, Data Management and Statistical Analysis Core (DMSA)

Dr. Gillespie is Associate Director of the Center for Statistical Consultation and Research at the University of Michigan, and Assistant Professor of Biostatistics at the University of Michigan's School of Public Health. She has more than 20 years of experience in statistical analysis in collaboration with medical and other researchers. Dr. Gillespie received her PhD in Statistics from Temple University in 1989.

Dr. Gillespie has worked with a variety of medical research designs, including clinical trials, epidemiological studies, and laboratory experiments. She also has expertise in research ethics and was an invited participant at the Teaching Research Ethics workshop at Indiana University in 1997. Dr. Gillespie has taught courses in survival analysis, discrete survival analysis, clinical trials, design of experiments, and regression, as well as other topics to both University of Michigan researchers and to statisticians at Parke-Davis Research Laboratories.

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Associated Researchers

Martin J. Stevens, MD, PI, Reiki Project

Dr. Martin Stevens is an Associate Professor in the Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism. He received his medical training in the United Kingdom and came to the University of Michigan in 1991 to pursue a career as a Physician Scientist. His comprehensive research interests extend from the elucidation of the mechanisms underlying the development of diabetic complications and the identification of potential drug targets, to the design and execution of clinical trials to assess the efficacy of new therapeutic interventions. Recently Dr. Stevens has received support from the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) to study the role of oxidative stress in the development of chronic diabetic complications. He is co-director of the JDRF Center of Excellence at the University of Michigan Medical Center. Dr Stevens is also actively involved in clinical trials aimed at the development of new treatments for type 2 diabetes and to assess the efficacy of therapeutic interventions designed to halt or reverse the progression of chronic diabetic complications. He is the Director of the Clinical Trials Center of the Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism. Within the CAMRC, Dr. Stevens is the Principal Investigator on a study to evaluate the effects of a biofield energy technique in the treatment of painful neuropathy complicating diabetes called: "Chronic Diabetic Painful Neuropathy and Cardiovascular Risk Factors in NIDDM: An Alternative Approach".

Elena Gillespie, BS, Co-PI, Reiki Project

Elena Gillespie is a co-investigator on the NIH funded project "Chronic Diabetic Painful Neuropathy and Cardiovascular Risk Factors in NIDDM: An Alternative Approach. She is a Reiki master and medical intuitive who has been in private practice since 1988. Ms. Gillespie has worked in diabetes research in the Department of Endocrinology with Martin Stevens MD since 1993, where she developed a real-time measurement of nitric oxide in aortic endothelial cells. She is interested in bio-energy measurement, death and dying from an energetic perspective that involves medical intuition. She is currently writing a book for patients and medical professionals on the death process and designing a class on intuition for medical students.

Keith Aaronson, MD, MS, PI, Hawthorn Project

Dr. Keith Aaronson is Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Cardiology Division, Department of Medicine, University of Michigan Medical School and Medical Director of the Cardiac Transplant Program at the University of Michigan Medical Center. He is actively engaged both in clinical practice and clinical research in the areas of heart failure and heart transplantation, working within the methodological areas of clinical epidemiology, clinical trials, and decision analysis/cost-effectiveness analysis. Dr. Aaronson has developed the only prospectively validated survival model for patients with advanced heart failure, and is continuing efforts to refine it further. Another focus of Dr. Aaronson's research has involved psychosocial aspects of the care of patients with heart failure. Dr. Aaronson is now investigating how individuals with advanced heart failure value quality and quantity of life, and the extent to which they would sacrifice one to improve the other. At the CAMRC, Dr. Aaronson is the Principal Investigator of a project investigating the use of an herb, Hawthorn, in patients with congestive heart failure.

Suzanna Zick, ND, MPH, Co-PI, Hawthorn Project

Dr. Suzanna Zick received her bachelor degree in biology and anthropology from Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. She then pursued a master's degree in medical anthropology from Michigan State University before moving to Portland, Oregon where she received her naturopathic degree from the National College of Naturopathic Medicine. Dr. Zick also has received her Masters of Public Health in epidemiology from the University of Michigan. She started practicing naturopathy in Ann Arbor in 1997 and helped to found the Complementary and Alternative Medicine Research Center (CAMRC) at the University of Michigan. Dr. Zick presently helps to oversee a trial examining the effects of hawthorn for individuals with congestive heart failure, and has a small private practice where she specializes in the use of herbs by women.

Amy L. Ai, PhD, Co-PI, QiPERCS Project

Amy L. Ai, Hartford Geriatric Scholar and Associate Professor, is an interdisciplinary researcher who received three Master Degrees, joint-Ph.D. degree, and an NIA-Postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Michigan in the 1990s. In 1996, her dissertation research with Steven Bolling, MD, on Health Care Practices and Psychological Adjustment Following the Coronary Artery Bypass Graft Surgery (CABG) won the Distinguished Dissertation Award at the University of Michigan. Previously, she had been trained and practiced as a physician in internal medicine and rehabilitation in China where she also learned Chinese Traditional Medicine (i.e., herb, acupuncture, and Qigong). She is a licensed acupuncturist in the U.S. and is a member of the American Association of Oriental Medicine and Acupuncture, the American Psychological Association, and the Gerontological Society of America, and the American Public Health Association. Dr. Ai is the designer and original Principle Investigator of the Qigong project for the CAMRC. She has moved to her tenure track position one year after the center grant was funded but have remained as a Co-PI there. Dr. Ai has been a grant reviewer for the U.S. Department of State, The Economic and Social Research Council, United Kingdom (UK) (the leading funder for social scientific studies of UK), and The John Templeton Foundation/The Institute for Research on Unlimited Love. With a broad training background, her research interests include: medical depression and other cormorbidity, psychosocial and biophysical mechanisms of the effect of spirituality and other character strength on health/mental health outcomes; positive psychology; gerontology; complementary medicine and cardiovascular diseases; interdisciplinary study of health-related well-being of patients with chronic conditions; and the psychosocial process of healing and coping.

Christopher Peterson, PhD, Co-PI, QiPERCS Project

Christopher Peterson has been at the University of Michigan since 1986, where he is presently Professor of Psychology and former Director of Clinical Training. He also holds an appointment as an Arthur F. Thurnau Professor, in recognition of his contributions to undergraduate teaching. His original doctoral training (1972-1976) was in Social and Personality Psychology at the University of Colorado, where he became interested in individual differences in cognitive characteristics. He maintained this interest during his postdoctoral retraining in clinical psychology (1979-1981) at the University of Pennsylvania, where he began to use the perspective of the learned helplessness model to investigate psychopathology, specifically depression, and physical well-being. He is the author or co-author of more than 175 publications, two of which have been deemed citation classics by Current Contents. His work falls most broadly within a stress and coping framework, with an emphasis on health applications. He is currently turning his attention to positive psychology and is spending three years at the University of Pennsylvania working with Martin Seligman on a project funded by the Mayerson Foundation.

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