Our Team

Dr. Shelley Segal is a licensed clinical psychologist in California since 2004. She received her PsyD from Pepperdine University and completed an internship at the Wright Institute Los Angeles. Her postdoctoral training was at UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine and Neuropsychiatric Institute and Hospital. While at UCLA she worked with medical and nursing staff providing psychological treatment for inpatients and their families in the Department of Neurorehabilitation. At the Revlon Breast Center, she received training in assessment, interviewing and making treatment recommendations for breast cancer patients in an integrative treatment program. Upon completion of her postdoctoral training, Dr. Segal was invited to be a member of the UCLA Pediatric Pain Program. In 2009 this multidisciplinary program received a national award for Clinical Centers of Excellence from the American Pain Society (APS). She continues to collaborate with this integrative team of healthcare professionals at Whole Child LA (WCLA)… “ one of the country's premier providers of integrative mind-body treatment for children suffering pain, stress, and many common disabling conditions which can be arrested and treated before they become chronic lifelong struggles.” Dr. Segal has provided clinical supervision for Masters level students at Pepperdine University and Postdoctoral Fellows at UCLA. She is a voluntary clinical instructor Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine. She is also on staff at UCLA Resnick Neuropsychiatric Institute and Ronald Reagan Medical Center. At her private practice office in Calabasas, California, Dr. Segal specializes in treating adolescents and adults who suffer from chronic pain with goals to help a person live a better quality of life that is not consumed or controlled by pain. Through psychotherapy, a patient learns techniques for coping with the many issues that arise related to having chronic pain as well as learning to understand and manage long-term issues that interfere with well-being. It’s known that chronic pain not only impacts the individual but also family members who are living with and supporting someone in pain. Her other focuses of psychotherapy include treating mood and anxiety disorders, self-esteem issues and life and relationship problems as well as medical and neurological disorders. In her free time, Dr. Segal enjoys hiking and traveling, spending time at the beach and being with family and friends.

Dr. Neil Schechter is presently the Director of the Chronic Pain Clinic at Boston Children’s Hospital, Senior Associate in Pain Medicine in the Department of Anesthesiology, Critical Care and Pain Medicine at Boston Children’s Hospital and Associate Professor of Anesthesiology at Harvard Medical School. He was previously the Chief of Pain Medicine at Connecticut Children’s Medical Center and Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine. Dr. Schechter is also the founder and Chief Executive Officer of ChildKind International (www.childkindinternational.org), a non-profit organization which emerged from the Special Interest Group on Pain in Childhood of the International Association for the Study of Pain and is now endorsed by 12 other professional societies.

ChildKind recognizes hospitals that have made an institutional commitment to providing excellent pain care to the children that they serve. ChildKind provides technical assistance to institutions trying to improve the quality of comfort care that they offer. Dr. Schechter received his medical degree from the University of Connecticut School of Medicine where he also trained in pediatrics. He did fellowships in developmental and behavioral pediatrics as well as psychosomatic pediatrics at Boston Children’s Hospital and the Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Schechter has authored over 100 research papers, books, and chapters on pediatric pain. He is the senior author of Pain in Infants, Children, and Adolescents, the dominant text in the field. His main research focus has been on documenting disparities in pain treatment and subsequently the recognition and treatment of common pain problems such as needle pain and chronic pain.

Recently, his work has focused on institutional change and advocacy around pain. Dr. Schechter has served on or chaired many of the major national and international consensus committees that have addressed pediatric pain including the World Health Organization Expert Committee on Cancer Pain in Children, the Chronic Pain Task Force of the American Pain Society, the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research Acute Pain Guidelines, the Cochrane Review Committee on Antidepressant and Anticonvulsant Use for Chronic Pain in Children, the National Institute of Medicine Committee on Palliative Care, the Rome Foundation Committee on Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders in Children and currently serves on the Lancet Commission on Paediatric Pain.

Recently, he served on the National Institutes of Health Inter-agency Committee on the Transition from Acute to Chronic Pain whose deliberations were published in Nature Neuroscience. He has lectured all over the world and has given numerous named lectureships.

For his work, Dr. Schechter has received numerous awards including the Jeffrey Lawson Award of the American Pain Society for advocacy in pediatric pain, the major US award in the field. His organization, ChildKind, has received the Robert Addison Award of the American Academy of Pain Medicine for advocacy and international collaboration in pain medicine.

Dr. Tonya Palermo is a pediatric psychologist and Professor of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine at University of Washington with adjunct appointments in Pediatrics and Psychiatry. She holds the Hughes M. and Katherine Blake Endowed Professorship in Health Psychology. Dr. Palermo serves as Associate Director of the Center for Child Health, Behavior and Development at Seattle Children’s Research Institute. She directs the Pediatric Pain & Sleep Innovations Lab that aims to improve the lives of children with pain and their families. Her long-standing NIH funded research investigates behavioral, psychosocial and family factors that affect pain experiences, and development and evaluation of innovative psychological treatments that can be delivered at low cost. Currently, Dr. Palermo serves as Editor-in-Chief for the Journal of Pain. Dr. Palermo has developed and evaluated several internet and mobile applications to deliver cognitive-behavioral interventions for chronic pain to children and adolescents and has published two books on cognitive-behavioral therapy. Find out more about her research here: https://www.seattlechildrens.org/research/centers-programs/child-health-behavior-and-development/labs/pediatric-pain-and-sleep-innovations-lab/

Dr. Groenewald is Associate Professor of Anesthesiology, Perioperative, and Pain Medicine at Stanford University. He conducts clinical research that crosses several areas related to pediatric pain, including epidemiology, health services research, sleep, and opioid use behaviors. His research is funded by the National Institutes of Health, International Association for the Study of Pain, and the Society for Pediatric Anesthesiology. His work on pediatric pain has been published in JAMA Pediatrics, Pediatrics, PAIN, Journal of Pain, SLEEP, and JAMA Psychiatry. Dr. Groenewald holds national leadership positions in the United States Association for the Study of Pain, including being elected as inaugural Chair of the Pediatric Special Interest Group in 2020 and co-chair of the Advocacy committee in 2022. He serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Pain and Pediatric Anesthesiology.

Dr. Anya Griffin is a pediatric psychologist and Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Anesthesiology, Pain, and Perioperative Medicine at the Stanford University School of Medicine. She is the Director of the Stanford Children’s Health Pediatric Rehabilitation Program (PReP), an intensive pain rehabilitation program for pediatric chronic pain with an interdisciplinary treatment team of occupational therapists, physical therapists, pain medicine providers, and pain psychologists. She has trained and worked in the field of pediatric psychology primarily with children and adolescents diagnosed with chronic pain, Sickle Cell Disease, and cancer. Dr. Griffin's research interests include pediatric chronic pain, mind-body interventions for pediatric pain management, oncology, sickle cell disease, and improving the process of transition from pediatric to adult care. She is also a board certified Dance/Movement Therapist and completed her graduate training at UCLA. She was awarded a grant in 2015 from the Stanford Medicine and Muse for her project “Capturing Pain: Photographic storytelling of youth with chronic pain.”

I am a research psychologist with expertise in developmental and health psychology. My research centers around empowering people to better manage their health. I develop and evaluate psychosocial interventions delivered using technology. Most of these programs have focused on helping people learn the skills to better manage their pain. I also use qualitative research methods to document patients’ experiences in their own voices. I have been an investigator on grants from the National Institutes of Health, Agency for Healthcare Research & Quality and the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute and have published the results of my research in a range of peer-reviewed journals.

Dr. Rachael Coakley is pediatric pain psychologist in the Department of Department of Anesthesia, Critical Care and Pain Medicine at Boston Children’s Hospital, where she serves as the Director of Clinical Innovation and Outreach in Pain Medicine and the Associate Director of Psychological Services. Additionally, she is Founder and Director of “The Comfort Ability,” an internationally disseminated program that teaches evidence-based pain management skills to adolescents with chronic pain and their parents. Dr. Coakley is an Assistant Professor of Psychology, Harvard Medical School and holds national and international leadership positions. Dr. Coakley completed her undergraduate work at The University of Pennsylvania and her doctoral studies at Loyola University in Chicago. She completed fellowship at Boston Children’s Hospital and joined the Consultation Liaison Service for one year prior to beginning her current position in the Pain Treatment Service in 2006. Dr. Coakley’s career focuses on translational research of evidence-based psychological intervention for pediatric pain management. Her program, “The Comfort Ability,” is currently licensed by children’s hospitals throughout the US, Canada and Australia. She has also developed a video-based intervention for sickle cell pain that is also widely disseminated. For her work in program development and for enhancing access to clinical care for patients with chronic pain, she was honored with the 2020 Carolyn Schroeder Award, a national recognition from the American Psychological Association for outstanding clinical practice. Outside her work in program development, Dr. Coakley enjoys writing and lecturing to help educate parents and providers about chronic pain. Her 2016 book, "When Your Child Hurts: Effective Strategies to Increase Comfort, Reduce Stress and Break the Cycle of Chronic Pain"(Yale University Press), won a national book award for best parenting book (NAPPA). Her writing is also featured in her ongoing Psychology Today column, the Washington Post, and numerous other publications. Rachael’s creative healing includes: meditation, yoga, writing, reading, painting, drawing, and hiking

Dr. Sarah Martin is a licensed clinical psychologist and a postdoctoral fellow in the UCLA Pediatric Pain and Palliative Care Program. Sarah received her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Georgia State University and completed her clinical internship at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University. As a doctoral student in the Child Health and Medical Pain Lab, Sarah was interested in how psychological and social factors affect pain experiences in youth. Sarah completed most of her clinical training in pediatric and hospital settings, providing cognitive-behavioral interventions to children and young adults with medical conditions. She also received focused supervision on the needs of underrepresented pediatric patients with hematology and oncology conditions. Currently, Sarah's research – funded by the National Institutes of Health – examines effects of self-hypnosis and social factors on physiological pain responses in adolescents with sickle cell disease. She has multiple publications in peer-reviewed journals and presents her research at national and international conferences. On a community level, Sarah serves as a board member for a non-profit organization – Responsibility – that provides education to children living in trash dump communities in Mexico and Nicaragua. When not in the research lab or clinic, Sarah enjoys live music, the beach, snowboarding, traveling, and running with (or after) her very energetic dog. Sarah’s professional experiences continue to foster her appreciation for the power of mind-body interventions and social connection for youth with pain conditions.

Dr van Tilburg is the Research Director at Cape Fear Valley Medical Center in North Carolina. She also holds Professor positions at the University of North Carolina, Marshall University, University of Washington, and Campbell University. Dr van Tilburg is an expert in gastropsychology. She develops and tests Brain-Gut treatments for gastrointestinal diseases particularly for children.

Dr van Tilburg has over 200 publications in her name and has received >$10M in grant funding. She is has advised the FDA, EMA, NIH, and Center for Medicaid/Medicare. Dr van Tilburg was appointed to the Rome IV and Rome V committee which established diagnostic criteria for pediatric Disorders of Gut Brain Interaction including Functional Abdominal Pain Disorders. She is a previous elected council member for the American Neurogastroenterology and Motility Association and a current elected  council member of the North American Society For Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology & Nutrition.

Emeran A Mayer is a Gastroenterologist, Neuroscientist and Distinguished Research Professor in the Department of Medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, the Executive Director of the G. Oppenheimer Center for Neurobiology of Stress and Resilience and Founding Director of the Goodman Luskin Microbiome Center at UCLA. He is one of the pioneers and leading researchers in the bidirectional communication within the brain gut microbiome system with wide-ranging applications in intestinal and brain disorders. He has published 415 scientific papers, co edited three books and has an h-index of 125. He published the best selling books The Mind Gut Connection in 2016, the Gut Immune Connection in June 2021, and the recipe book Interconnected Plates in 2023. He is currently working on a MasterClass and a PBS documentary about the mind gut immune connection. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the 2016 David McLean award from the American Psychosomatic Society and the 2017 Ismar Boas Medal from the German Society of Gastroenterology and Metabolic Disease.

Deirdre Logan, Ph.D. ABPP, is Director of Psychology Services in the Division of Pain Medicine, Department of Anesthesiology, Critical Care & Pain Medicine at Boston Children’s Hospital (BCH) and Associate Professor of psychology, Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School. Dr. Logan received her PhD in Clinical Psychology at the University of Michigan and completed postdoctoral training at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, where she subsequently served on faculty in the Department of Anesthesia. She has led the pain psychology program at BCH since 2007. She also directs the postdoctoral fellowship program in pediatric pain psychology and is a member of the ACGME pain fellow training committee at BCH. Dr. Logan’s research focuses on psychological aspects of pediatric chronic pain, with emphasis on the roles of school and family systems in the child’s pain experience. An additional area of focus is on implementation and evaluation of care innovations in intensive interdisciplinary pediatric pain rehabilitation. She has published over 80 peer reviewed papers. Currently Dr. Logan is working on ways to use digital health technology, particularly augmented and virtual reality interventions, to advance the treatment of pediatric chronic pain conditions.

Dr. Zempsky is the Francine L. and Robert B. Goldfarb-William T. Zempsky, MD Endowed Chair for Pain and Palliative Medicine at Connecticut Children’s Medical Center and the Associate Chair for Research and Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine. Dr. Zempsky received his undergraduate degree from Cornell University. He graduated from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and completed a pediatric residency on the Harriet Lane Service at Johns Hopkins Hospital. He also completed a fellowship at the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. In 2012, he received a Masters in Public Health from the University of Massachusetts. Dr. Zempsky is an international expert on the pediatric pain management. He has published numerous research papers and holds several ongoing NIH grants regarding pain in youth with sickle cell disease, obesity, fibromyalgia, neurofibromatosis, postoperative pain and pain-related stigma. Dr. Zempsky has received major awards including the prestigious Donaghue Investigator Award, as well as the Mayday Pain and Society Fellowship to enhance his abilities in pain advocacy. Dr. Zempsky is a co-editor of the Oxford Textbook of Pediatric Pain the leading text in the field, the 2nd edition was published in 2021. His division was designated a Center of Clinical Excellence by the American Pain Society in 2014 and is also one of the first 3 programs in the world to receive the ChildKind certification focused on improving pain management for all children. Dr. Zempsky was elected as Chair of the Pediatric Special Interest Group of the American Pain Society in 2015. He was appointed as the pediatric representative to the Physicians Medical Marijuana Board for the State of Connecticut in 2016. In 2017 Dr. Zempsky received the M1mentoring grant from the University of Connecticut. Dr. Zempsky is on the Board of Directors for ChildKind and on the advisory board of the Meg Foundation.

Sara Ahola Kohut is a clinical health psychologist and researcher at the Hospital for Sick Children. She holds appointments within the SickKids Research Institute as well as both the Department of Psychiatry and Institutes for Medical Science at the University of Toronto. Clinically, Dr. Ahola Kohut works exclusively with children and adolescents living with chronic disease and their families. Her program of research focuses on building resilience in youth with chronic disease and covers two main foci: 1. building meaningful peer and social supports and 2. mindfulness-based approaches to living with chronic disease (exploring both mechanisms and interventions). Dr. Ahola Kohut’s work also capitalizes on innovative approaches via the Internet to improve access to resources and interventions.

Diane graduated with her Bachelor of Science in Health Science and her Certificate in Physical Therapy from California State University, Northridge. She has since completed her clinical doctorate degree with a specialization in musculoskeletal physical therapy practice from Evidence in Motion Institute of Health Studies. She is currently Board Certified by the American Physical Therapy Association in Orthopedic Physical Therapy. She initially worked at Northridge Hospital Medical Center, where she became certified through the Biofeedback Society of California to utilize biofeedback with patients with chronic pain. She joined Progressive Physical Therapy family in 1985 and became a member of the Pediatric Pain Management Team at UCLA in 2001, providing biofeedback and physical therapy services to children with chronic pain in. She is currently a member of Whole Child Los Angeles and a member of Creative Healing for Youth in Pain. Diane is currently a member of the American Physical Therapy Association and the American Academy of Orthopedic Manual Therapists.

Dr. Levy has a longstanding and productive research record in the investigation of the psychosocial aspects of health, especially chronic pain in children. Her research in this area has spanned from observational studies of familial genetic and behavioral patterns to intervention studies designed to reduce the impact of these conditions. She has received funding from NIH for several large studies, and has numerous publications on the psychological aspects of interventions for adults and children suffering from chronic abdominal pain. She has been elected to Fellow status in many professional organizations, and also serves as the Chair of the Psychosocial Committee for the Rome V Committee for Disorders of Gut Brain Interactions.

Dr. Windsor is a pain and headache physician specializing in the treatment of complex pain and headache conditions affecting children, adolescents and young adults in the Carolinas. He is Director/Chief of the Division of Pediatric Pain & Headache Medicine and Medical Director of the Pediatric Concussion Program at the Children's Hospital of Prisma Health Upstate. He is a Clinical Associate Professor of Pediatrics with the University of South Carolina School of Medicine Greenville and adjunct faculty in Anesthesiology and Psychiatry.

He leads a multidisciplinary group of pain specialists from the fields of medicine, nursing, psychology, and physical therapies, and is the first comprehensive program like it in the Carolinas. Dr. Windsor is a graduate of the pediatric pain fellowship at Boston Children's Hospital with Harvard Medical School and completed a residency in Pediatrics with the Boston Combined Residency Program with Harvard Medical School and Boston University. He completed his medical degree at Mercer University School of Medicine in Savannah, GA. He is board certified in Pediatrics, Medical Acupuncture, and Headache Medicine by the United Council of Neurologic Subspecialties.

He and his team lead a busy program that performs complex pain evaluations for refractory or prolonged pain and headache. The team engages in a multidisciplinary approach using tools such as non-addictive medications, interventional procedures, coping and self-regulatory strategies, physical and functional rehabilitation, medical acupuncture and other integrative treatments. The goal is a comprehensive approach to complex medical diagnoses and symptoms that results in a comprehensive treatment plan to meet children and their families where they are, and help them escape the cycle of pain.

Cindy Steinberg is the Director of Policy and Advocacy for the U.S. Pain Foundation and Policy Council Chair for the Massachusetts Pain Initiative. She is a nationally prominent and articulate spokesperson for the needs of people living with pain. Ms. Steinberg has won numerous awards for her pain policy accomplishments. Her dedication to pain advocacy was sparked when she sustained a severe crush injury that left her with daily back pain. In 2015, she was appointed by Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker to serve on his Opioid Working Group and subsequently as a Commissioner on the Massachusetts Drug Formulary Commission. At the federal level, she has served on the Interagency Pain Research Coordinating Committee (IPRCC), a high-ranking pain policy oversight committee managed by the National Institutes of Health. In 2018, Ms. Steinberg was appointed by the US Secretary of Health and Human Services, Alex Azar, to serve on the Pain Management Best Practices Inter-Agency Task Force created by Congress and was the only patient and pain advocate appointed to the panel. In February of 2019, Ms. Steinberg was invited to testify before the US Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee at a hearing on “Managing Pain During the Opioid Crisis”.

Melanie Noel, PhD, RPsych is an Associate Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Calgary and a Full Member of the Alberta Children's Hospital Research Institute and the Hotchkiss Brain Institute. She directs the PEAK (Pain Education, Advocacy, Knowledge) Research Laboratory within the Vi Riddell Pain & Rehabilitation Centre at the Alberta Children’s Hospital in Canada. Dr. Noel’s expertise is on children’s memories for pain and co-occurring mental health issues and pediatric chronic pain. She published guiding conceptual models of children’s pain memory development, co-occurring PTSD and chronic pain, and fear-avoidance. In recognition of her contributions to advancing knowledge of the psychological aspects of children’s pain, Dr. Noel received early career awards from the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP), the Canadian Pain Society, the American Pain Society, the Canadian Psychological Association, and the Society of Pediatric Psychology. She was named Avenue Magazine Calgary’s Top 40 Under 40 (Class of 2017), a Killam Emerging Research Leader (2020), and the Killam Memorial Leader Chair (2021).

Dr. Weisman is the Medical Director and Jane B. Pettit Chair in Pain Management at Children’s Wisconsin and Professor of Anesthesiology and Pediatrics at the Medical College of Wisconsin. Dr. Weisman is quadruple board certified in Pediatrics, Pediatric Hematology/Oncology, Anesthesiology and Pediatric Anesthesiology. He has served on multiple pain guideline panels which have established pain management standards.  In addition, he served on an expert panel for the National Academy of Science, Engineering and Medicine to establish priorities for opioid prescribing. He is the past chair of the American Pain Society Special Interest Group on Pain in Infants, Children and Adolescents. He has served He is a founding and Executive Committee member of PRN-Pain (Pediatric Research Network-Pain). He has been honored as a recipient of the Jeffrey Lawson Award for Advocacy in Children’s Pain Relief, American Pain Society. The Pain and Headache Center at Children’s Wisconsin provides a full range of pain-related services for children, including an intensive pain rehabilitation, the Integrated Healing Program, for children with functional disability due to pain or functional neurologic disorders.

GARY A. WALCO, PhD is a Professor of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine (adjunct Pediatrics and Psychiatry) at the University of Washington School of Medicine and the Director of Pain Medicine at Seattle Children’s Hospital. He has conducted multiple studies on pain treatment and assessment in children. Dr. Walco was the founder of the American Pain Society’s first special interest group, focusing on Pain in Infants, Children, and Adolescents, and received their Jeffrey Lawson Award for Advocacy in Children’s Pain Relief (2003) and their Distinguished Service Award (2019). Dr. Walco is a past chair of the Pain Committee for the Children’s Arthritis and Rheumatology Research Alliance and served on the core committee for Palliative Care in the Children’s Oncology Group. He was the president elect of the American Pain Society and is a past president of the special interest group on Pain in Childhood of the International Association for the Study of Pain. Dr. Walco currently sits on editorial boards for Pain, the Journal of Pain, the Clinical Journal of Pain (past associate editor), and did so formerly for the Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics and the Journal of Pediatric Psychology. Dr. Walco is a founding member and currently on the Board of Directors for ChildKind International. He has consulted on analgesic trials for children and served on the FDA’s Analgesic and Anesthetic Drug Products Advisory Committee.

Samantha Levy, Ph.D. is a clinical psychologist who received her Ph.D. from Georgia State University in the Child and Family specialty track. During her clinical, child centered internship at UCLA, she became involved with the Pediatric Pain Program. Subsequently, she obtained her postdoctoral training there. Depending on the specific situation, Dr. Levy works either with whole families, individual children/teens, or parents. She employs an array of psychological orientations (e.g. CBT, play therapy, mindfulness, hypnotherapy, ACT, IFS), to help the children/teens with their pain and any accompanying emotional issues. She helps the families understand the connection between the physical pain and emotional difficulties (mind/body connection). She teaches parenting skills and helps parents facilitate their child’s difficult, courageous journey back to functioning more fully in the world again. Dr. Levy runs the chyp monthly open parent group and the CHYP small group parent groups. She is also a contributor to the CHYP parent blog.

Sabine is a Physical Therapist with 29 years of experience. She has also trained in Osteopathy and Sophrology for over 20 years and is a Certified Cranio Sacral Therapist. Additionally, she has started a Certification in Visceral Manipulation. 

Sabine is also a trained TMJ (Temporomandibular Joint Dysfunction) Specialist, having completed her training at the largest Dental Medicine department in Paris. Having moved to the United States with her family in 2004, Sabine is a double board-certified Physical Therapist in both France and the US. She received her certification in Sports Physical Therapy at INSEP (the French National Sports Institute) and spent time at the Sports Clinic of Paris, working closely with world-renowned orthopedic surgeons.

As a mother of three children, Sabine developed a special interest in pediatrics and worked for several years in a pediatric clinic after obtaining her US Physical Therapy license. She has been part of the pediatrics chronic pain team since 2017 and uses Osteopathy, Sophrology, and Physical Therapy techniques in an integrative way to address chronic pain in youth.

Ka-Kit Hui, MD, FACP, is the Wallis Annenberg Chair in Integrative East-West Medicine, Professor, Founder and Director of the Center for East-West Medicine at the Department of Medicine of the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. Dr. Hui, a Fellow of the American College of Physicians, is an internationally acclaimed educator and researcher and is board-certified in Internal Medicine and Clinical Pharmacology, with an expertise in Geriatrics. He is a recognized authority on Chinese Medicine and integrative medicine, and is bilingual in Chinese and English. Since 1990s, Dr. Hui has served as an advisor to the World Health Organization (WHO) in different areas, including Standard Terminology in Traditional Chinese Medicine, Appropriate Integration of Traditional and Complementary Medicine (T&CM) into Health Systems and Health Care Services, and Quality of Academic Education in Traditional Medicine. He has also provided consultation to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), National Institutes of Health (NIH), health insurance companies, drug companies and the media, and has held visiting and honorary professorships in various universities throughout the world.

 In December 1993, Dr. Hui founded the UCLA Center for East-West Medicine, which is one of the first integrative medicine centers in the United States. He has developed a model system of comprehensive care that is a patient-centered, problem-solving approach emphasizing health promotion, disease prevention, treatment, and is safe, effective, affordable and accessible to all. The Center’s clinical program receives referrals from more than 500 physicians within UCLA for refractory problems, including many pain conditions, and continues to expand to meet the demand for a holistic patient care model at UCLA and beyond.

Dr. Genevieve D’Souza is a Board Certified Pediatric Anesthesiologist and a Pediatric Pain Physician at Stanford Health Care, a Clinical Associate Professor in Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine at Stanford University, She is the Director of the Pediatric Anesthesia Resource center and Medical Director of the Pediatric Pain Management Team.

She is the Senior Editor for the Visual Pearl Series for the Society of Pediatric Pain Medicine and is on the Board of Directors for Society of Pediatric Pain Medicine.  

Dr. Hannah Shapiro is a board-certified child neurologist and headache specialist. She is an assistant professor of neurology at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) School of Medicine and an attending physician in child neurology at UCSF Benioff’s Children’s Hospital. She is the Director of the upcoming Pediatric Headache Wellness Center at UCSF Benioff’s Children’s Hospital Walnut Creek. 

Dr. Amanda Feinstein (she/her) is Clinical Psychologist residing in Atlanta Georgia, licensed in both Georgia and California. She currently works part-time as a Pediatric Pain Psychologist at the Center for Pain Relief at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. Additionally, she maintains a telehealth private practice where she treats adolescents and young adults (AYAs) with chronic pain and those coping with medical conditions utilizing Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Acceptance- and Mindfulness-Based approaches, and Self-Hypnosis. Additionally, she works with AYAs with medical trauma utilizing Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) Therapy, which she has found to be a powerful tool for working with trauma.

Prior to moving to Atlanta, GA in June 2023, she spent 9 years in Northern California. Dr. Feinstein was on faculty as an attending psychologist in the Pediatric Pain Management Clinic at Stanford University School of Medicine for 6 years and completed 3 years of postdoctoral fellowship, also at Stanford in the Pediatric Pain Management Clinic. Her research has historically focused on resilience factors in pediatric chronic pain. Dr. Feinstein’s current research is centered on unique challenges faced by AYAs with chronic pain and the healthcare transition for this populations.

Dr. Raffi Tachdjian is an Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics in the Division of Allergy and Clinical Immunology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where he is in charge of the Fellows Teaching Clinic in the Ronald Reagan Medical Center clinics. He is a Fellow of the American Academy as well as the American College of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology.

He received his medical degree from Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia, followed by an internship and residency in Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School’s Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, and then completed a fellowship and Board Certification in Adult and Pediatric Allergy, Immunology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. Soon after fellowship, Dr. Tachdjian was medical director of the Pediatric Pain Program at UCLA, where he worked with Dr. Lonnie Zeltzer in maintaining a team of Complementary and Alternative Medicine specialists to address patients within a biopsychosocial model of treatment. 

Prior to his career in medicine, Dr. Tachdjian received a Masters in Public Health, followed by 3 years at the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, where he led outbreak investigations on Pertussis that led to booster dosing to overcome waning immunity of the vaccine.

 Dr. Tachdjian’s research focuses on severe asthma, hereditary angioedema, and allergic inflammation, and he has served as primary or co-investigator of over 30 NIH and other grant-funded research studies and over 35 peer reviewed publications. 

Lastly, Dr. Tachdjian is founder and president of Children's Music Fund, a charitable organization that helps bring Music Therapy to children and young adults with chronic or life-altering illness (theCMF.org).

Dr. Thomas is a licensed clinical health psychologist and specialist in pediatric medical illness and trauma. She is an internationally known expert in pediatric pain, a sought-after speaker and writer, and has trained medical professionals around the world. As the founder and CEO of the nonprofit Meg Foundation, she leads a team of world experts in pain, technology, and design on their mission to empower kids and families to manage pain and medical anxiety. As a health care consultant, she helps organizations improve their patient care and outcomes for both patients and providers. Before starting the Foundation, she was an Assistant Professor at the Stanford University School of Medicine and the founding Clinical Director of the Packard Pediatric Pain Rehabilitation Center at Stanford. Though now living in Denver, CO she remains on an adjunct faculty of the School of Medicine supervising and teaching. An expert in medical hypnosis, she is also core faculty and Co-Directer of Curriculum for the National Pediatric Hypnosis Training Institute, and the creator of ImaginAction, a self hypnosis web based app produced with Stanford Children’s Health. Her work has been featured in academic textbooks, the mainstream media, and on the American Academy of Pediatrics and US Center for Disease Control websites. She was recently honored to be part of a collaboration with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as a Trusted Messenger of the We Can Do This Campaign and was invited to speak at press events alongside the Surgeon General of the United States.

Vanya Green Assuied is a Board Certified Music Therapist and Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor who specializes in working with people coping with stress, pain, and disease. She works with individuals and groups in private practice as well as teaches, performs and facilitates workshops in the community. She integrates strengths-based interventions into sessions, helping people tap into their innate creativity to promote relaxation and emotional expression.

She helped establish the inaugural music therapy program at UCLA Medical Center and has been a member of the UCLA Pediatric Pain Program since 2007. She has a Master’s Degree from New York University in Music Therapy and a Bachelor’s degree from Brandeis University in Neuro- anthropology and Latin American Studies. She has received various honors for her scholarship, research and musicianship including a Fulbright Fellowship, Susan Eliakim Siman Grant, New York University Scholarship, Justice Louis D. Brandeis Scholarship and American Friends of Flamenco Scholarship.

She has presented workshops and authored publications on music therapy and the neurobiological processes involved in pain, music perception and emotions in the United States and internationally. She speaks English and Spanish and has a working knowledge of French and Hebrew. In addition to her clinical work as a therapist, she performs world music and facilitates community music sessions blending sacred, traditional and contemporary global music.