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JOHN D. POTTER, M.D., PhD
Director, International Research at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and Professor of Epidemiology University of Washington
Dr. Potter received his medical degree in 1971 and his Ph.D. in 1984 from the University of Queensland in Australia. He was on the faculty of the University of Minnesota’s Public Health for eight years before joining the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center as the head of Cancer Prevention Research and the University of Washington as a professor of epidemiology in 1994. In 2002, Dr. Potter was named the Director of the Hutchinson Center’s Division of Public Health Sciences, the largest program devoted to cancer-prevention research in any Cancer Center in the world. He is an internationally recognized expert on the connections between cancer and factors such as diet, lifestyle, and genetics. Between 1993 and 1997, Dr. Potter chaired an international panel that produced “Food, Nutrition, and the Prevention of Cancer: A Global Perspective,” a seminal report on the feasibility of reducing cancer incidence through diet and other environmental factors. Dr Potter’s major research interests are in the causes, prevention and early detection of colorectal and pancreas cancers. Along with Dr. Keun-Young Yoo of the National Cancer Center of Korea, Dr. Potter leads the Asia Cohort Consortium. This project, which will involve over 1million participants, will help scientists learn why certain individuals and populations have higher risks of some cancers. The findings will help generate new ways to prevent cancer and reduce cancer risks for all. He has won many national and international awards including the American Association for Cancer Research’s DeWitt Goodman Lectureship for international leadership in research in nutrition, cancer, and cancer prevention. Dr Potter is the author or co-author of over 400 scientific papers, chapters and books. Learn more about Dr. Potter here.

JAMES A. DUKE, PhD
Scientific Consultant, Author and Former Chief of the USDA Medicinal Plant Resouirces Laboratory
Dr. James Duke is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of North Carolina. Following a 2½-year tour of military duty, he took his Ph.D. in Botany at the University of North Carolina, moving on to postdoctoral activities at Washington University and the Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis, Missouri, where he assumed professor and curator duties, respectively. He worked for extended periods in Panama and Colombia on studies addressing crop diversification and medicinal plant utilization. Duke has served as a leader on over 20 programs to the Amazon rainforest since 1991. A popular lecturer, he has appeared on many radio and television programs. His publications are numerous. Some of his most recent include Handbook of Northeastern Indian Medicinal Plants, CRC Handbook of Agricultural Energy Potential for Developing Countries and The Amazonian Ethnobotanical Dictionary. His most recent publication is entitled The Green Pharmacy. In addition to a distinguished 30-year career with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Dr. Duke sits on the board of directors and advisory councils of numerous organizations involved in plant medicine and the rainforest. Dr. Duke was presented with the 2000 Distinguished Economic Botanist award from the Society for Economic Botany. Currently he is working on a second draft of his Amazing Amazon Food, featuring twenty Amazon herbs that can be exceedingly useful as “food farmacy.”

JONATHAN MAYER, PhD
Professor of Epidemiology and Geography, International Health, University of Washington
Dr. Mayer is a Professor of Epidemiology and Geography, a member of the International Health Program, and an Adjunct Professor of Medicine (Infectious Diseases), Family Medicine, and Health Services in Public Health at the University of Washington. He is also President of an NGO, the Health Improvement and Promotion Alliance (HIP-Ghana), working in the poorest slum in Accra, Ghana. Mayer's research includes the epidemiology and geography of infectious diseases in sub-Saharan Africa, the U.S., and globally, and the impact of global change and climate change on human health. He is a member of several NIH and National Academy of Sciences panels, including the former Institute of Medicine/NAS Panel on Climate, Ecosystems, Infectious Diseases, and Health, which evaluated the relationship between climate variability and infectious disease, and resulted in the National Academy's publication "Under the Weather." Mayer is currently co-Director of the University of Washington’s Undergraduate Program in Public Health.

LINGTAK-NEANDER CHAN, PharmD, BCNSP
Associate Professor, Department of Pharmacy, University of Washington
Dr. Chan has served on a number of committees in ASPEN, the American College of Clinical Pharmacy, and the American Thoracic Society. He is a reviewer for the Journal of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition, Clinical Nutrition, American Journal of Health-system Pharmacists, and Pharmacotherapy. He holds memberships in the American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition; American College of Clinical Pharmacy; American Society for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics; American Society for Bariatric Surgery and the European Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition. Dr. Chan has authored a number of research papers, review articles and book chapters in the areas of drug interactions, clinical pharmacology and clinical nutrition.

LINNEA SMITH, M.D.
Independent Physician in the Amazon Rainforest
Dr. Linnea Smith’s medical career has taken her from a successful group practice in Wisconsin to an independent practice in the Amazon rainforest. In 1990, she traveled to Peru from Wisconsin with a group from The Nature Conservancy. After this initial introduction to the Amazon rainforest, Linnea decided to leave her thriving practice in the Prairie du Sac, Wisconsin to serve the Yagua Indian communities in the Amazon. Her daily treatment of pathologies unique to the tropical environment without advanced technical support attests to her skills in internal medicine. For the past several years, she has worked with the local Yagua and Ribereño people of the upper Amazon Basin in the clinic built for her by Rotarians from the U.S. She is a 1984 graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Medical School and is Board-certified in Internal Medicine. In 1997 Dr. Smith was named a Fellow of the American College of Physicians (ACP) in recognition of her exceptional dedication and service; in 1999 she received the Rosenthal Award from the ACP for the delivery of innovative medical services. The clinic staff consists of five local residents whom she has trained: a medical assistant, Juvencio; a clinic manager, Edemita; and three clinic workers. Interim staffing has included Peruvian physicians and visiting physicians and dentists from the U.S. and other countries. Linnea has written a book about her experiences. It is titled La Doctora and has been published by University of Minnesota Press.

Although all of the faculty have committed to participate, unpredictable and unforeseen circumstances could preclude their participation.