Keynote Speaker

Christiane Wolf, MD, PhD
Dr. Wolf is a physician licensed to practice Ob/Gyn in Europe and holds a PhD in Psychosomatic Medicine from Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany. She is also a trained teacher of the Mindfulness Based Stress Redtion (MBSR) program of the University of Massachusetts, founded by Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn in 1979. She first encountered Mindfulness Meditation in 1988. In 2005, she co-founded Insight LA's MBSR program together with Trudy Goodman and functions as the programs director and the principle MBSR teacher.

Dr. Wolf has worked with different populations such as patients with chronic pain and disease, parents of children with developmental disabilities and low income, non-English speaking immigrants. She has taught mindfulness and MBSR classes for research studies for UCLA, Claremont Graduate University in Claremont, CA and the Westside Regional Center in Culver City, CA. 

Amy Smith
Amy Smith teaches Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) in Spanish for InsightLA, a non-profit organization that promotes mindfulness training.  Before becoming    an MBSR teacher, Amy was the Director of Operations at InsightLA.  Prior to that, she spent eight years in Peru working on sustainability projects in the rainforest with World Wildlife Fund and the non-profit organization PaTS.  She holds an M.A. in International Affairs from Columbia University and a B.A. in Political Science from Boston College.  Amy has been practicing Mindfulness (Vipassana) meditation daily since 2006 and regularly participates in mindfulness classes and retreats.  She is in the InsightLA teacher training program and completed the 2009 MBSR professional training retreat with Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn. 

Summit Faculty

Joseph Abrahams

Kara Barton, MSW
Clinical Instructor/Social Worker
USC Department of Neurology

Christine Bower Baca, MD
Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar
UCLA Seizure Disorder Center
Clinical Instructor Neurology

Sunita Dergalust, PharmD
Clinical Pharmacist of Neurology/Neurosurgery
West Los Angeles VA Healthcare Center

Leonard Dubin, Esq.*
Attorney, Santa Monica

Reyna Durón, MD

Dawn Eliashiv, MD
Medical Director, Epilepsy Program
Cedars-Sinai Medical Ctr

Bill Feeman, RN
Westside Regional Center

Ereida Galda
Westside Regional Center

Laurette Hayden M.A. MFTi
Marriage and Family Therapist,
Registered Intern
Personal Development Institute

Christianne N. Heck, MD,MMM
USC Comprehensive Epilepsy Program, Neurology
USC - Keck School of Medicine

Roger Huf, MD
Neurologist
UCLA & Huntington Memorial Medical Ctr

Laura Kalayjian, MD
Co-Director, Comprehensive Epilepsy Ctr
USC-Keck School of Medicine

Ann Kinkor
State Coordinator, Epilepsy California
Los Angeles County Office of Education (Retired)

David Y. Ko, MD
USC Comprehensive Epilepsy Program, Neurology
USC/Keck School of Medicine

Alice Lake
Meditation Teacher & Counselor
Active Meditation

Jason Lerner, MD
Pediatric Neurology, UCLA

Jesus Machado-Salas
Programme Epilepsia
Tijuana, Mexico

Lora Morn, RN
School Nurse & Nurse Educator
Santa Monica-Malibu School District

Arthur Partikian, MD
Department of Neurology
USC-Keck School Medicine

Anna Rivera
Associate
Martin & Martin, LLP

Eliot Samulon
Attorney

Raman Sankar, MD, PhD
Chief, Pediatric Neurology
David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA
UCLA Mattel Childrens Hospital

Maro Sasaki

Diane Stein, MD
Stein Life Child Neurology

John Stern, MD
Co-Director, Seizure Disorder Center
David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA

* Invited, yet to confirm