Mari Ricker, MD
Director of Integrative Medicine in Residency and Professor of Family and Community Medicine
Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine

Dr. Ricker graduated from the University of Virginia with a BA in Biology and from the University of Arizona with her degree in Medicine. She completed her Family Medicine Residency at Oregon Health and Science University, in Portland Oregon. After residency, Dr. Ricker served as Chief Resident and Faculty Development Fellow. During this fellowship year Dr. Ricker also completed the Fellowship in Integrative Medicine though the Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine and is certified as a diplomate of the ABOIM.

Dr. Ricker is a Professor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine. She practices outpatient Family Medicine. She is the Director for the Integrative Medicine in Residency Program at the Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine.

Amita Nathwani
Ayurvedic Medicine Practitioner

Amita Nathwani is an Ayurvedic Medicine Practitioner, educator, and integrative health thought leader with over 25 years of clinical experience. She currently has a private practice where she provides patient-centered, root-cause care. Her unique ability to bridge Eastern and Western paradigms has made her a sought-after teacher and mentor in the field of Integrative Medicine.

Amita is the author of three books, including titles on Ayurvedic cooking, classical medical principles, and spiritual healing, and her work has been featured in both academic and community health settings.

As a fellowship faculty member at the Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine, Amita brings a rigorous, yet deeply intuitive understanding of Ayurveda, grounded in its classical texts and enhanced by modern clinical insight. She is especially known for her ability to communicate Ayurvedic principles using a shared medical lexicon, translating traditional concepts while fiercely preserving the integrity, lineage, and systemic intelligence of this ancient science.

Her mentorship has empowered hundreds of practitioners to integrate Ayurveda into modern clinical practice without reducing it to a set of tools, and her commitment to equity, evidence-informed care, and cultural competence continues to shape the future of integrative medicine education.

Sairam Parthasarathy, MD
Chief of the Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine
University of Arizona

Sairam Parthasarathy, MD, is Professor of Medicine, Chief of the Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine, and the Murray and Clara Walker Endowed Chair at the University of Arizona. He is the founding director of the University of Arizona Health Sciences Center for Sleep, Circadian and Neurosciences Research and an internationally recognized physician-scientist in sleep apnea, respiratory failure, health-services research, and patient-centered implementation science. His research program includes major NIH- and PCORI-funded studies focused on improving sleep-disordered breathing care, advancing precision therapeutics, and understanding recovery from Long COVID.

Drew Ramsey, MD
Brain Food Clinic and Spruce Mental Health

Drew Ramsey, MD is a board-certified psychiatrist, author, and leading voice in Nutritional Psychiatry and integrative mental health. He is a Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and the founder of the Brain Food Clinic and Spruce Mental Health. For twenty years, he served as an assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at Columbia University, where he taught and supervised psychotherapy and nutritional psychiatry. Dr. Ramsey has authored five books, including Healing the Modern Brain and three e-courses.

Nutritional Psychiatry
Thursday, March 11, 2027
9:15 am – 10:00 am

Pamela Kryskow, MD
Roots to Thrive

Dr. Pamela Kryskow is a medical doctor and the medical lead of the Non Profit Roots To Thrive Psychedelic Assisted Therapy Programs that treats people with PTSD, depression, anxiety, substance use challenges, disordered eating and people with end of life distress with the medicines psilocybin, MDMA and ketamine. She is a founding board member of the Psychedelic Association of Canada and the Medical Chair of the Vancouver Island University Post Graduate Certificate in Psychedelic Medicine Assisted Therapy. She is an assistant clinical professor at University of British Columbia. She has peer-reviewed published research including: Psilocybin, MDMA, Ketamine, microdosing psychedelics, front line health care workers and first responders mental wellness. Prior to studying medicine she was a City of Coquitlam Firefighter for 8 years and provincial forestry firefighter for 4 seasons.

Psychedelic Therapies for First Responders and Frontline Health Care Providers
Friday, March 12, 2027
4:15 pm – 5:00 pm

Susan Sparks, Reverend (Rev.)
Madison Avenue Baptist Church

Susan Sparks is a trial lawyer turned standup comedian and pastor of the historic Madison Avenue Baptist Church in NYC. She received her BA from the University of North Carolina, her law degree from Wake Forest University, and her Master of Divinity from Union Theological Seminary in New York City. An award-winning nationally syndicated columnist and a best-selling author, Susan is also a professional comedian and storyteller. Her work has been featured in the Oprah Magazine, the New York Times, and on such networks as ABC, CNN, and CBS.

The Serious Business of Laughter
Thursday, March 11, 2027
4:15 pm – 5:00 pm

Rajita Patil, MD
UCLA Health

Dr. Rajita Patil is an Associate Clinical Professor at UCLA, board-certified OB/GYN, Complex Family Planning subspecialist, and Menopause Society Certified Practitioner. She is the Founder and Director of UCLA's Comprehensive Menopause Program, where she leads interdisciplinary efforts to advance evidence-based, personalized menopause care. Dr. Patil developed an innovative menopause decision-support system that integrates genetic, health, hormonal, lifestyle and psychosocial factors to support whole-person individualized treatment and improve patient outcomes. As an educator, researcher, and advocate, she is dedicated to closing the menopause knowledge gap and advancing access to high-quality menopause care through clinical innovation, workforce and trainee education, research, and policy initiatives.

Hormone Therapy for Prevention of Cardiovascular and Cognitive Health
Friday, March 12, 2027
10:00 am – 10:45 am

Selena Ahmed, PhD, FAHA

Selena Ahmed, PhD, FAHA, serves as Global Executive Director of The Periodic Table of Food Initiative (PTFI) and Dean of Food EDU at the American Heart Association, where she leads a global effort to make food quality measurable, actionable, and health-promoting at scale for people and planet. Trained as a biologist and ethnobotanist, Selena brings transdisciplinary laboratory and international field experience, working alongside rural communities and smallholder farmers to understand and strengthen food systems from soil to human health. She has authored more than 100 publications, co-founded mission-driven enterprises including Shoots & Roots Bitters and Food Systems Analysts, and co-authored the books Botany at the Bar and Tea Horse Road: China's Ancient Trade Road to Tibet.

The Relationship Biology of Food: Bridging Diverse Ways of Knowing Health
Thursday, March 11, 2027
10:00 AM – 10:45 AM

Michael Grandner, PhD
Banner University Medical Center

Dr. Grandner is a licensed clinical psychologist, Director of the Sleep and Health Research Program at the University of Arizona, Professor of Psychiatry, and Director of the Behavioral Sleep Medicine Clinic at the Banner--University Medical Center in Tucson. His research examines the relationship between sleep and obesity, diabetes, heart disease, daytime functioning, and longevity. He is an internationally recognized expert in sleep health, has over 300 academic publications, and frequently consults with health, technology, athletics, and nutritional companies and organizations regarding sleep, health, and performance.

Integrative Sleep
Friday, March 12, 2027
11:15 AM – 12:00 PM

Geeta Maker-Clark, MD
Banner University Medical Center

Dr. Geeta Maker-Clark MD, ABOIM is a nationally recognized leader, speaker, educator, and advocate in the field of Integrative Medicine. She is the Director of Integrative Nutrition and Advocacy at Endeavor Health, Clinical Assistant Professor and Co-Director of the Culinary Medicine program at the University of Chicago, Pritzker School of Medicine. Geeta has spent two decades studying integrative medicine, nutritional science, botanical medicine, mind-body medicine, and natural childbirth in health clinics all over the world. She started the Food is Power program on the South Side of Chicago in Chicago Public Schools to empower youth with health literacy, through a curriculum that focuses on decolonized food education, food justice and sovereignty. Geeta was recognized as a national leader in food justice activism with a Castanea Fellowship from 2019-2022 and the Michael Pollan Fellowship in Food Journalism in 2021. She has been awarded by the American Nutrition Association, Health and Medicine Policy Research Group, and Integrative Health Symposium as a leader in health justice.

Culinary Medicine
Thursday March 11, 2027
1:30 - 2:30 pm & 3:00 - 4:00 pm