Scientific Advisory Board

NHRI’s Scientific Advisory Board Members

Yalda Shokooh, PharmD, Ph.D.

Dr. Yalda Shokooh, the Natural Health Research Institute Executive Director, has more than 20 years of experience in natural products. She conducted research on botanicals for two decades and published more than 100 peer-reviewed articles. She is a Pharm D as well as having a doctorate in Pharmacognosy. She had two fellowships in “Phytochemistry” and “Medicinal plants analysis”. Most recently, she was a full professor at Sonoran University of Health Sciences, where she researched herbs and taught Pharmacology. She is also the Director of Science and Nutrition at NOW Health Group. Dr. Shokooh has been in leadership roles for the last 11 years and has a passion for natural products.

Richard Cantrill, Ph.D.

Dr. Richard Cantrill is chief science officer and technical director of AOCS, an association that provides resources for sharing scientific information and knowledge. He is responsible for all Technical Services activities including methods development and maintenance, laboratory proficiency, and accreditation. His special emphasis is on horizontal method development of food standards and special liaison with governmental and nongovernmental organizations. Cantrill earned a B.Sc in biochemistry with special honors and a Ph.D. in brain lipid synthesis from the University of Sheffield (UK). He is a member of the Food Ingredients Expert Committee of the Food Chemicals Codex, a member of the Joint Expert Committee on Food Additives and Contaminants of the United Nations’ Food and Agricultural Organization and World Health Organization, and represents AOCS on a number of International Organization for Standardization and other international committees.

Russell M. Jaffe, Ph.D., M.D., CCN

Dr. Jaffe is a Fellow, Health Studies Collegium, and Founder of PERQUE LLC, a firm producing items for practitioners. In the past, he has been an official at the National Institutes of Health and Clinical Center in Bethesda, the US Public Health Service, and on the editorial board of The New Physician. For the past four years he has been selected as one of America’s Top Physicians, and selected as International Scientist of the Year in 2003 at Oxford. His published research includes over 400 papers in the areas of clinical and nutritional immunology, toxic minerals, hormones, and chemical disruptors, and autoimmune disease.

Patrick Massey, M.D., Ph.D.

Dr. Massey is the past Medical Director of Complementary and Alternative Medicine for the Alexian Brothers Hospital Network and currently has an active medical practice, ALT-MED Medical and Physical Therapy Program, in Elk Grove Village IL.  Dr. Massey is board certified in both internal medicine and integrative medicine.  As a graduate of the first class at the Dr. Andrew Weil Program in Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona, Dr. Massey has specialty training in integrative medicine and has been a leader in clinical integrative medicine for over 25 years.  Dr. Massey lectures locally and nationally on various integrative medicine topics and is a reviewer for several medical journals. He is published in peer reviewed journals in both basic and clinical science.  For the past fifteen years Dr. Massey writes a biweekly columnist on alternative medicine for the Daily Herald, the largest Chicago suburban newspaper and is the author of  “Miracles or I Have No More Boils.”

Richard B. van Breemen, Ph.D.

Dr. Richard van Breemen received his Ph.D. in Pharmacology and Experimental  Therapeutics from Johns Hopkins University and B.A. in Chemistry with honors from  Oberlin College. He was Editor-in-Chief of Combinatorial Chemistry & High Throughput Screening and is currently on the editorial boards of Biomedical Chromatography and Assay and Drug Development Technologies.  He received a University Scholar Faculty Award from the University of Illinois, a 2010 Expert Methods Panel Award from the AOAC International for his work on analytical methods for dietary supplements, and the 2008 Harvey W. Wiley Award from the AOAC International. In 2020, he was named by the editors of Analytical Scientist to their Power List as one of the 10 top analytical science experts in North America. The research of Dr. van Breemen concerns the discovery and development of natural products as chemoprevention agents and the investigation of botanical dietary supplements as alternatives to traditional estrogen replacement therapy.