Neurological Disorders

Dr. Michael Yang is a neurologist and headache specialist at Emplify Health, and an adjunct professor of neurology at the University of Wisconsin Madison School of Medicine.

He completed his residency in neurology at University Hospitals Case Medical Center in Cleveland, and went on to complete a headache fellowship at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center in New Hampshire. He is certified in headache medicine by the United Council for Neurologic Subspecialties.

Justin Laube, MD, is a board-certified integrative and internal medicine physician, a teacher, and a consultant with extensive expertise in integrative health, medical education, and trauma healing.

He graduated with a bachelor's in biology from the University of Wisconsin and a medical degree from the University of Minnesota Medical School. During medical school, he completed a graduate certificate in integrative therapies and healing practices through the Earl E. Bakken Center for Spirituality & Healing. He completed his three-year residency training in internal medicine at the University of California in Los Angeles on the primary care track and a two-year fellowship in integrative East-West primary care at the UCLA Health Center for East-West Medicine.

He is currently taking a multiyear personal and professional sabbatical to explore the relationship between childhood trauma, disease, and the processes of healing. He is developing a clinical practice for patients with complex trauma, as well as for others going through significant life transitions. He is working on a book distilling the insights from his sabbatical, teaching, and leading retreats on trauma, integrative health, mindfulness, and well-being for health professionals, students, and the community.

Previously, Dr. Laube was an assistant clinical professor at the UCLA Health Center for East-West Medicine and the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, where he provided primary care and integrative East-West medical consultations. As part of the faculty, he completed a medical education fellowship and received a certificate in innovation in curriculum design and evaluation. He was the fellowship director at the Center for East-West Medicine and led courses for physician fellows, residents, and medical students.

Allison Buttarazzi, MD, is board-certified in internal medicine and lifestyle medicine, and is a certified health and well-being coach. In her primary care practice, Dr. Buttarazzi focuses on lifestyle medicine to help her patients improve their health and longevity, and her passion is helping patients prevent and reverse chronic diseases (like heart disease, high blood pressure, and diabetes) by improving their lifestyle habits.

She is a graduate of Tufts University School of Medicine and completed a residency at Maine Medical Center. Diagnosed with celiac disease during medical school, she realized the power of improving one's health through diet and lifestyle habits, which she later incorporated into her practice.

David Weisman, MD, is the director of the Clinical Trial Center at Abington Neurological Associates in Pennsylvania, where he has conducted numerous clinical trials into mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s disease to develop disease-modifying drugs.

Dr. Weisman has dedicated his research career toward advancing new therapies for Alzheimer’s disease, focusing on clinical trials for the prevention and treatment of Alzheimer’s disease, mild cognitive impairment, and other dementias, and he devotes his clinical practice to memory and cognitive problems.

He received a bachelor's degree in philosophy from Franklin and Marshall College, then an MD from Penn State College of Medicine. After an internship at St. Mary’s Hospital in San Francisco, he completed his neurology residency at Yale, where he served as chief resident. He then went to the University California in San Diego for fellowship training in Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias.

Weisman has published papers and studies in journals such as Neurology, JAMA Neurology, Stroke, and The New England Journal of Medicine, among others.

Jason Chua, MD, PhD, is an assistant professor in the Department of Neurology and Division of Movement Disorders at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. He received his training at the University of Michigan, where he obtained medical and graduate degrees, then completed a residency in neurology and a combined clinical/research fellowship in movement disorders and neurodegeneration.

Dr. Chua’s primary research interests are in neurodegenerative disease, with a special focus on the cellular housekeeping pathway of autophagy and its impact on disease development in diseases such as Parkinson disease. His work has been supported by multiple research training and career development grants from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke and the American Academy of Neurology. He is the primary or coauthor of 14 peer-reviewed scientific publications and two peer-reviewed online learning modules from the American Academy of Neurology. He is also a contributing author to The Little Black Book of Neurology by Osama Zaldat, MD and Alan Lerner, MD, and has peer reviewed for the scientific journals Autophagy, eLife, and Neurobiology of Disease.

Michael R. Yochelson, MD, MBA, is the chief medical officer at the Shepherd Center in Atlanta, where he was instrumental in starting its first fellowship in brain injury medicine. He is also an adjunct professor of clinical rehabilitation medicine at Emory University in Atlanta. He continues to work in the field of brain injury medicine, and he is board-certified in physical medicine and rehabilitation, neurology, and brain injury medicine.

He co-wrote and co-edited a book for patients and caregivers, Managing Brain Injury: A Guide to Living Well With Brain Injury. He has been an invited reviewer for peer-reviewed articles in Clinical Neurology & Neurosurgery, the Journal of Rehabilitation Research & Development, and Neurosurgery.

Dr. Yochelson was previously the vice president of medical affairs and chief medical officer at MedStar National Rehabilitation Hospital and the vice chair of clinical affairs for the department of rehabilitation medicine at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital, both in Washington, DC. He served as a physician in the U.S. Navy for over 11 years. From 2004 to 2006, he co-directed the mild traumatic brain injury clinical team at the National Naval Medical Center. In 2006, he took a position at MedStar National Rehabilitation Hospital as the medical director for the brain injury programs. During his tenure, he started a fellowship program in brain injury medicine, subsequently training seven physicians in the field.

He has served in several roles for the American Academy of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation and currently sits on the Inclusion and Engagement Committee. He was appointed by Congress to serve from 2014 to 2020 on the federal Advisory Committee on Prosthetics and Special Disability Programs, chairing the committee for five years. He coauthored the chapter on stroke rehabilitation in Braddom’s Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Sixth Edition.

Reyna Franco, RDN, is a New York City–based dietitian-nutritionist, certified specialist in sports dietetics, and certified personal trainer. She is a diplomate of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine and has a master's degree in nutrition and exercise physiology from Columbia University.

In her private practice, she provides medical nutrition therapy for weight management, sports nutrition, diabetes, cardiac disease, renal disease, gastrointestinal disorders, cancer, food allergies, eating disorders, and childhood nutrition. To serve her diverse patients, she demonstrates cultural sensitivity and knowledge of customary food practices. She applies the tenets of lifestyle medicine to reduce the risk of chronic disease and improve health outcomes for her patients.

Franco is also a corporate wellness consultant who conducts wellness counseling and seminars for organizations of every size. She taught sports nutrition to medical students at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, taught life cycle nutrition and nutrition counseling to undergraduate students at LaGuardia Community College, and precepts nutrition students and interns. She created the sports nutrition rotation for the New York Distance Dietetic Internship program.

She is the chair of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine's Registered Dietitian-Nutritionist Member Interest Group. She is also the treasurer and secretary of the New York State Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, having previously served in many other leadership roles for the organization, including as past president, awards committee chair, and grant committee chair, among others. She is active in the local Greater New York Dietetic Association and Long Island Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, too.

Alexa Meara, MD, is an assistant professor of immunology and rheumatology at The Ohio State University. She maintains a multidisciplinary vasculitis clinic and supervises a longitudinal registry of lupus nephritis and vasculitis patients. Her clinical research is in improving patient–physician communication. She is involved in the medical school and the Lead-Serve-Inspire (LSI) curriculum and serves on the medical school admissions committee; she also teaches multiple aspects of the Part One curriculum. Her interests in medical-education research include remediation and work with struggling learners.

Dr. Meara received her medical degree from Georgetown University School of Medicine in Washington, DC.  She completed her internal medicine training at East Carolina University (ECU) at Vidant Medical Center in Greenville, North Carolina, then spent two more years at ECU, first as chief resident in internal medicine, then as the associate training program director for internal medicine. She pursued further training in rheumatology at The Ohio State University in Columbus, completing a four-year clinical and research fellowship there in 2015.