Durk Pearson and Sandy Shaw; Dr. Julian M. Whitaker, MD; Dr. Joel D. Wallach, DVM, ND (American Longevity and Youngevity), Ray Hamel and Peter Hamel (Pure Encapsulations); Gretchen DuBeau (Alliance for Natural Health-
Because of these Champions of Free Speech, vital nutrient-
Durk Pearson and Sandy Shaw are scientists and authors. Pearson received his degree in Physics from MIT in 1965 after taking a triple major in physics, biology, and psychology, with a triple minor in electrical engineering, computer science, and chemistry. Shaw received her B.S. degree in chemistry from UCLA in 1966 after taking a double major in chemistry and biology and a minor in mathematics.
Pearson has patents in the areas of oil shale recovery, lasers, holography, and functional food. He worked on all the manned aerospace programs from Gemini to the Shuttle and won numerous awards, including an award from the International Society for Testing and Failure Analysis (a professional organization) for his penetrating quality control and safety analyses.* Shaw has a patent on a functional food product and her early work in the food industry included supervision of quality control of all food production at a major canned food company, as well as designing and implementing the company's first computerized quality control system.
Pearson and Shaw also received seven screen credits for Clint Eastwood’s 1982 film, Firefox. They served as scientific and technical advisors, and designed the special effects for all of the scenes after Eastwood entered the Firefox cockpit.
In 1990, Pearson and Shaw received the American Aging Association's Paul F. Glenn Award for "individuals who have made special contributions to biomedical aging research." The award was made "as an expression of our appreciation of the continuing advocacy by Durk Pearson & Sandy Shaw of the promise of biomedical aging research."
Pearson and Shaw have written three best-
*The award plaque reads: “Durk Pearson, an American Renaissance Man of Science whose positive achievements have extended beyond the laboratory to society in general, presented Oct. 28, 1980, Los Angeles, California.”
Durk Pearson & Sandy Shaw
Durk Pearson & Sandy Shaw
Julian M. Whitaker, M.D., is a graduate of Dartmouth College and Emory University Medical School. After postgraduate training in surgery at Emory, Dr. Whitaker worked with nutritional medicine pioneer Nathan Pritikin and opened the Whitaker Wellness Institute in 1979. To date, more than 50,000 patients have been treated at the clinic, located in Newport Beach, California, with diet, exercise, targeted nutritional supplements, and safe, noninvasive therapies.
Dr. Whitaker is the author of 14 books, including: Reversing Heart Disease, Reversing Diabetes, Reversing Hypertension, The Mini-
Founder of the Freedom of Health Foundation, Dr. Whitaker is a tireless crusader and passionate spokesman for freedom in the medical arena. He has been instrumental in raising awareness of the benefits of nutritional supplements and other safe, effective alternative therapies as well as the dangers of indiscriminate use of prescription drugs and conventional medical interventions. His contributions also include funding successful legal battles against the FDA, supporting physicians who have been unjustly persecuted by state medical boards, and fighting for patients’ access to the therapies of their choice. For these efforts, Dr. Whitaker has received numerous awards.
Julian M. Whitaker, M.D.
Joel D. Wallach, D.V.M., N.D., obtained a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture from the University of Missouri in 1962, with a major in Animal Husbandry (Nutrition) and a minor in Field Crops and Soils. In 1964, he was awarded a Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine (DVM), also from the University of Missouri. Thereafter, Dr. Wallach completed a three year (1965-
Dr. Wallach held key positions with leading zoos and universities in the United States and Africa, including Director of the Jacksonville Zoological Park in Jacksonville, Florida; Research Veterinarian for the South Africa National Parks Department; and Director of Research at the St. Louis Zoological Park in St. Louis, Missouri. He is one of the founders and a former editor of the Journal of Zoo Animal Medicine.
As a researcher at the Emory University Yerkes National Primate Center in Atlanta, Georgia in 1977, Dr. Wallach discovered the world’s first known case of non-
In 1997, Dr. Wallach and Dr. Ma Lan, M.D., M.S., founded American Longevity, the network marketing company known today as Youngevity. Within five years the company had an international network of distributors and preferred customers plus offices in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa, and Japan. Today Youngevity is a network marketing leader providing high quality, innovative, and unique products health conscious consumers.
Dr. Wallach currently dedicates his time to lecturing throughout the world on the therapeutic benefits of vitamins and minerals, and on lobbying the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on behalf of the dietary supplement industry. His tireless efforts and dedication to the public’s First Amendment rights to complete information on the therapeutic benefits of nutrition prompted the FDA to establish Qualified Health Claims for Selenium (“may reduce the risk of certain cancers”) and Omega-
Dr. Joel Wallach, DVM, ND
Cases: Pearson I, Pearson II, Pearson III, Whitaker v. Thompson, Whitaker I, CSPI, ANH I, and ANH II
Cases: Pearson II, Pearson III, Whitaker v. Thompson, Whitaker I, and CSPI
Cases: Whitaker I, CPSI, ANH I, and ANH II
Ray was a founder and former General Manager and Treasurer of Pure Encapsulations, Inc. Prior to that, he served an executive in the medical publishing industry, serving office based physicians and small clinics. He began his career as an accountant and CFO.
Ray, along with his brother, Peter and two naturopathic physicians, helped to create a new industry, "Clinical trial based, professionally dispensed hypo-
Following the sale of Pure Encapsulations in 2004, Ray has worked as treasurer for the campaigns of state and county candidates in Massachusetts. He is currently a mentor at the Boston College Carroll School of Management. He is also a business plan judge and mentor for the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship.
Ray is an avid pilot and golfer and enjoys spending more time with his wife, Helen and their three children.
Raymond Hamel, Jr.
Cases: Pearson II, Pearson III, Whitaker v. Thompson, and Whitaker I
Peter is a process and mechanical engineer, specializing in food and OTC encapsulated products. He was an early advocate of the "Full Disclosure" principle of supplement labeling.
Peter was also at the vanguard of the introduction of ultra high-
As a Founder of Pure Encapsulations, Inc., he was also a benefactor to a number of programs that benefitted residency programs for naturopathic physicians and other natural healers.
Following the sale of Pure to Aeterna-
Peter and his wife, Jayne, just celebrated their silver anniversary and are the parents of two children who also reside in Northern California.
Peter Hamel
Cases: Pearson II, Pearson III, Whitaker v. Thompson, and Whitaker I
Gretchen DuBeau joined the Alliance for Natural Health USA (formerly the American Association for Health Freedom) as Executive and Legal Director in 2008.
A lifelong environmentalist and devotee to natural health and healing, Gretchen has found the perfect culmination of her interests at ANH-
Gretchen also serves as Executive Director for Praktikos Institute and as Advocacy Coordinator for ANH-
She is an attorney and practiced environmental law and policy for five years before joining ANH to work on natural and sustainable health issues.
Gretchen holds a Masters Degree in Applied Healing Arts. She supports the Integrative Medicine Consortium (IMC) as the Public Affairs Chair and the Public Policy Co-
Gretchen DuBeau (Alliance for Natural Health-
Gretchen DuBeau
Cases: ANH I and ANH II, Pearson I, Pearson II, Pearson III, Whitaker v. Thompson, and Whitaker I
Alexander Schauss, PhD, FACN, is the Senior Research Director of Natural and Medicinal Products Research, and CEO at AIBMR Life Sciences, in Puyallup, Washington, USA, with offices in Bloomington, Indiana, Seattle, Washington, and Puyallup, Washington. He earned his undergraduate, graduate (summa cum laude), and doctoral degrees at the University of New Mexico at Albuquerque and, California Coast University in Santa Ana. Dr. Schauss has held a number of academic positions, including Clinical Professor of Natural Products Research and Adjunct Research Professor of Botanical Medicine at the National College of Natural Medicine in Portland, Oregon; Senior Director of the Southwest College Research Institute in Scottsdale, Arizona; Associate Professor of Research at the Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine and Health Sciences in Tempe, Arizona; Director, Institute for Biosocial Research, City University, Seattle; and, Lecturer in Biostatistics and Epidemiology at Bastyr University in Seattle.
He has been a member of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Office of Alternative Medicine (OAM) Advisory Council (AMPAC); a member of the Ad Hoc Developmental Planning Committee of the NIH Office of Dietary Supplements (ODS); a reviewer of botanical standards and information monographs for the U.S. Pharmacopoeia Convention (USP); and, a reviewer for the International Bibliographic Information on Dietary Supplements (IBIDS) database, maintained through an interagency partnership with the Food and Nutrition Information Center, National Agricultural Library, and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Currently, he serves on one of the expert panels of USP through 2015.
In 1985, Dr. Schauss was appointed to represent the United States as a voting member to the World Health Organization (WHO) Study Group on Health Promotion, based on the recommendation of the Director General of WHO, Dr. Hafdan Mahler, leading to his confirmation by the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Besides having chaired and served on numerous Generally Recognized As Safe (GRAS) self-
He was recently appointed Associate Editor of the Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine, along with John Hoffer, MD, PhD, FRCPC, at McGill University, Canada. From 1979 to 1992, Dr. Schauss served as Editor-
He is the author or co-
Dr. Alexander Schauss
Cases: Pearson I
Richard Kleinberger, PharmD., is a seasoned pharmacist with extensive experience in a multitude of pharmacy settings. Dr. Kleinberger received his Doctor of Pharmacy in 1991 from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, CA. After graduating from U.S.C., he worked with various healthcare professionals in a broad-
Dr. Kleinberger worked at Xcel from 1995 to 2004, a multifaceted corporation consisting of a healthcare division, a nutraceutical division, a homecare division, a pharmaceutical division and a research division. Xcel continuously makes an effort to develop cutting edge treatments to combat conditions that conventional treatments fail to cure or mitigate. Under Dr. Kleinberger’s guidance, Xcel participated in the Pearson v. Shalala litigation because it opposed FDA censorship of truthful health information and believed absence of such information in the market is harmful to patients.
Dr. Richard Kleinberger
Cases: Pearson II and Pearson III
Plaintiffs:
Pearson v. Shalala (“Pearson I”), 164 F.3d 650 (D.C. Cir. 1999)
Plaintiffs:
Pearson v. Shalala (“Pearson II”), 130 F.Supp. 2d 105 (D.D.C. 2001)
Plaintiffs:
Pearson v. Thompson (“Pearson III”), 141 F.Supp. 2d 105 (D.D.C. 2001)
Plaintiffs:
Whitaker v. Thompson, 1:00-
Plaintiffs:
Whitaker v. Thompson (“Whitaker I”), 248 F.Supp. 2d 1 (D.D.C. 2002)
Intervenors:
Center for Science in the Public Interest v. FDA, 2004 WL 2011467 (D.D.C. Aug. 6, 2004)
Plaintiffs:
Alliance for Natural Health U.S. v. Sebelius (“ANH I”), 714 F.Supp. 2d 48 (D.D.C. 2010)
Plaintiffs:
Alliance for Natural Health U.S. v. Sebelius (“ANH II”), 786 F.Supp. 2d 1 (D.D.C. 2011)
* This case was dismissed because the parties reached an agreement whereby FDA agreed to exercise its enforcement discretion to permit the plaintiffs to use a qualified health claim on the labels and in the labeling of their dietary supplements containing folic acid, vitamin B6, and vitamin B12.
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