The Faculty

Dr. Richard Weeder, M.D., FACS is founder and director of Aloha Cancer Education Institute. He is a cancer surgeon and cancer patient who has long been interested in complementary and alternative health care and “a panoramic view of cancer treatment.”  He has organized and run several cancer support groups in Hawaii under the auspices of the American Cancer Society (Hawaii Pacific Branch). He is also a professional author and public speaker. Dr Weeder is author of "Surgeon: the View from Behind The Mask" and he recently published "The Key to Cancer".

Ira Zunin, MD, MPH, MBA  Dr. Zunin is founder and medical director of Manakai O Malama Integrative Clinic and Rehabilitation Center, specializing in preventive and occupational health.  For the past twenty years, he has been actively engaged in crating a synthesis between complementary and conventional medicine from both a clinical and managerial standpoint.  Dr. Zunin lectures locally, nationally and internationally on a variety of aspects of health and wellness with a particular focus on integrative medicine.  He is President of the Hawaii State Consortium for Integrative Healthcare.

Anna Hollingsworth, RN, MPH, LMT has been a health care professional since 1977, and a teacher since she was 13, when she tutored elementary school students. Her professional background includes hospital and at-home bedside nursing as well as management/administration. She also served as senior editor for a health education publishing company, authored an award-winning patient education booklet, and led health education workshops nationally. Anna was licensed as a massage therapist in 1996. She has a private practice on Oahu, and is a faculty member at Hawaii Healing Arts College. In addition to doing and teaching massage therapy, her passions include jazz, learning, gym workouts and travel.

Gregory G.Y. Pai, Ph.D.   Gregory Pai began the study of meditation in the mid-seventies in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition.  In the early eighties he practiced in the Zen Buddhist tradition, and since the late eighties has been practicing in the Vipassana or Insight Meditation tradition practiced in the Southeast Asian countries of Burma, Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia.  His teachers include Sayadaw U Pandita, Sayadaw U Silananda, and Sayadaw U Kundala of Burma.  He currently teaches meditation for veterans at Tripler Hospital and at the Hawaii State Hospital in Kaneohe.  He also teaches a public meditation class every Saturday afternoon at 4:00 PM at the Broken Ridge Korean Temple located at the rear of Palolo Valley.  For more information he can be reached at 395-7749.

Charlotte Hanna Nuessle, RYT, B.Sc. Charlotte Nuessle has been a certified Yoga teacher since 1980. Charlotte offers Yoga as a tool of integration, to unfold the innate potential of body, mind and spirit that is expressed uniquely through each person. Her professional training includes certification in Viniyoga or Adaptive Yoga. This approach to Yoga respects the individual needs of the practitioner, making Yoga relevant and practical to the individual’s well being and lifestyle. Her undergraduate degree is in Gerontology from Thomas Edison State College. Website: www.hawaiiyogaandwellness.com

JoAnn  Tall   is a licensed acupuncturist and a Doctor of Oriental Medicine.  She has been practicing since 1979 and is the founder and President of the Santa Barbara College of Oriental Medicine, a Master's degree program in Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine.  Her college has been involved in many unique and innovative clinic projects, including one of the first free acupuncture HIV/AIDS clinics in the early eighties, as well as research with the Santa Barbara Regional Health Authority, Cottage Hospital and the Cancer Foundation.  Ms. Tall was instrumental in the start of Project Recovery, an acupuncture based detox/addiction program that is run by the National Council on Alcoholism in Santa Barbara.  www.sbucom.edu  Recently she has co-founded a non-profit called Healing Opportunities that dedicates itself to caregivers and promotes research,education and treatment in the area of Integrative Medicine.  www.healingopportunities.org

Ann Frost,   PT, has had a keen interest in holistic health and complimentary medicine for 25 years. She started an outpatient physical therapy clinic at the Queens Medical Center where she currently works. She is certified in the treatment of breast cancer related lymphedema, and is an advocate in the area of women's health issues.

Ian Okazaki,  Dr. Okazaki is a gaduate of the John A. Burns School of Medicine at the University Of Hawaii. He completed his internal medicine residency at UCLA/Wadsworth VA Medical Center and cliinical fellowship in Hematology/Oncology at the University of Minnesota. Dr. Okazaki spent 8 years at the National Institute of Health as a research fellow prior to returning to Minnesota to serve on the faculty in the Division of Hematology, Oncology and Transplantation. He returned to Hawaii 0n July 2003 and is a staff physician in the Department of Oncology/Hematology at Straub Clinic and Hospital.

Dr. John Westerdahl,  PhD, MPH, RD, is the Director of Wellness & Lifestyle Medicine at Castle Medical Center in Kailua. He is a nutritionist, a registered dietician and a health educator. He is founder of The Castle Center for Attitudinal Healing located at Castle's wellness center. The center is one of 150 Centers for Attitudinal Healing throughout the world. Over the past few years Dr. Westerdahl has worked closely in consultation with Gerald Jamplosky, MD, in providing Attitudinal Healing programs and services at Castle Medical Center. Dr. Westerdahl, whose main background is in the field of nutrition, co-hosts a weekly radio talk show "Nutition and You", and is a host of the daily TV program "Tasty & Meatless". He is also nutrition editor for "Veggie Life" Magazine.

Corinne E. Lederer Shulman,   Corinne Shulman has been a magazine publisher as well as a counselor and teacher of counseling. She has also been long interested in health issues, including psychology, mediation, meditation and Yoga. She has been honored in "Men and Women of Hawaii" as well as "Who's Who Among Women in America".

Click here to e-mail Dr. Weeder