National College of Natural Medicine Elects New Board Members and Chair

PORTLAND, Ore. (Feb. 17, 2014) — National College of Natural Medicine today announced the appointment of two new members to the medical college’s board of directors, bringing the board’s size to 10 members. The college also announced the election of Ellen Goldsmith as board chair. Chair Emeritus Nancy Wastcoat Garbett of Utah recently stepped down from the role after serving for 10 years.

New to NCNM’s board are Brian Camastral, formerly global president of Mars Food, presently the owner of RiverSong Organic Farm & Forest Sanctuary in Hood River, Ore.; and Jo Smith, former managing consultant and global project director of Drake Beam Morin, a strategic human resources services firm.

Goldsmith, a licensed acupuncturist in private practice in Portland, graduated with a Master of Science in Oriental Medicine from NCNM in 1999. She is a recognized educator, health advocate and practitioner in the field of Chinese medicine, and holistic and integrative health care. Goldsmith has served on NCNM’s board since 2004. She is also a member of the adjunct faculty for NCNM’s School of Classical Chinese Medicine and a former member of the Acupuncture Advisory Committee to the Board of Medical Examiners for the State of Oregon.

“Our board members bring to NCNM wide experience in natural and Western medicine, real estate, strategic development and planning, brand strategy and finance,” noted NCNM President David J. Schleich. “We welcome Mr. Camastral and Ms. Smith, who will contribute to the effective governance of our rapidly evolving college. They bring skills in sustainable business practices and human resource development. We are delighted to have them join us.”

Other members of NCNM’s board of directors include:

  • Willow Moore, DC, ND, board vice chair, a naturopathic physician and chiropractor, has a private practice in Vancouver, Wash. Moore, a 1983 graduate of NCNM, is a member of the American Association of Naturopathic Physicians (AANP).She has served on the board of AANP, and the American College of Naturopathic Obstetricians and the Montana Board of Alternative Medicine.
  • Patricia Kramer, PhD, board secretary, is a professor in the Department of Neurology at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU). Over the past 30 years she has participated in efforts to map genes for a number of neurodegenerative and eye-related disorders, including Alzheimer’s disease, dystonia and adult-onset glaucoma. Her current efforts are focused on identifying genetic and environmental correlates of healthy brain aging.
  • Don Drake, board treasurer, is vice president of Melvin Mark Brokerage Company and has over 25 years of experience in the real estate industry in general commercial real estate brokerage and advisory services. Mr. Drake has been an advisory board member to Multnomah County and served on an advisory committee for the Portland Development Commission. He is a founding member of the Commercial Association of Realtors and was its president in 1997.
  • Lori Blankinship, ND, graduated from NCNM in 2004 and has an extensive corporate background in the areas of executive administration and human resource training and development. She received most of her clinical training providing low-cost medical care to the homeless and disadvantaged of Portland, Ore. In addition to her private practice based in Overland Park, Kansas, Blankinship is CEO of Village Medicine, which specializes in health and wellness education. She serves on the board for the Campaign to End AIDS and previously served on the Fibromyalgia Coalition International board. She received a fellowship from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation for leadership training in community-based medicine.
  • Richard E. Jones, PhD, is an associate professor in the Department of Neurology at OHSU and a research scientist for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Portland. Jones conducted research sponsored by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and other agencies investigating mechanisms of disease progression and hematopoietic and immune determinants of central nervous system inflammation. He serves as principal investigator within an NIH-sponsored research program conducted at the Oregon Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine at OHSU, the Portland VA Medical Center, and NCNM’s Helfgott Research Institute investigating behavioral neural-immune interactions involved in therapeutic responses. He has served on several federal and state grant review boards for NIH, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and the Oregon Partnership for Alzheimer’s Research.
  • Anupam Narayan most recently served as president and CEO of Red Lion Hotels Corporation. He has held leadership positions at both public and private hotel and real estate companies, including Doubletree Corporation and Holiday Inns, Inc. He has significant accomplishments in franchising, business turnaround, finance, brand strategy, planning, international operations, IPOs, debt financing, mergers and acquisitions, and development. Narayan served on the board for the International Hotel & Restaurant Association based in Paris, France. He has also served on the CEO Council and the Governmental Affairs Committee of the American Hotel & Lodging Association. Narayan received his MBA from the University of Florida.
  • Andrea P. Wolcott served as group vice president and senior officer of the Salt Lake City branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco from 1991 until 2010. Wolcott was responsible for branch strategic and tactical planning, product and service delivery, and policy development. For the eight years prior to her retirement from the Fed, she was responsible for development and implementation of a comprehensive commercial bank relations initiative covering the nine western states and over 600 banks. Wolcott earned a bachelor’s degree in Foreign Service at Georgetown University, a master’s degree in human resource management from the University of Utah, and a master’s-level equivalent degree from Pacific Coast Banking School in Seattle.

ABOUT NCNM
Founded in Portland in 1956, NCNM is the oldest naturopathic medical school in North America and an educational leader in classical Chinese medicine and CAM research. NCNM offers three accredited four-year graduate medical degree programs in naturopathic and classical Chinese medicine, as well as a Master of Science degree in Integrative Medicine Research and a Master of Science degree in Nutrition. NCNM practitioners and students attend to approximately 40,000 patient visits per year at the campus-based NCNM Clinic and numerous low-cost community clinics located throughout the Portland area. Until July 2006, NCNM was known as the National College of Naturopathic Medicine. The name change reflects the diversity of the college’s programmatic degree offerings.