Dr. Kent E. Vrana is the Elliot S. Vesell Professor and Chair of Pharmacology at the Penn State College of Medicine. He received his B.S. with honors in Biochemistry from the University of Iowa, and his Ph.D. in Biochemistry (Pharmacology minor) from Louisiana State University Medical Center in New Orleans. His post-doctoral fellowship training was in embryology and molecular biology at the Carnegie Institution of Washington in Baltimore, MD (on the Johns Hopkins University campus).

Dr. Vrana joined the Department of Biochemistry at the West Virginia University Health Sciences Center as an assistant professor and then moved to the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology at the Wake Forest University School of Medicine where he rose through the ranks to full professor. In 2004, Dr. Vrana assumed the position of Professor and Chair of Pharmacology at the Penn State University College of Medicine.

Dr. Vrana is a member of the editorial boards of several scientific journals (Associate Editor for Pharmacology (Karger Press), the Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics (an ASPET journal) and Medical Cannabis and Cannabinoids (Karger Press)). He has served as chair (30 times) and/or a member of over 110 scientific review panel meetings for the federal government and non-profit organizations. He has co-authored more than 190 scientific articles, book chapters, and monographs (including two textbooks). In 2009, he was named an honorary professor of the School of Medicine of the Peruvian University of Applied Science in Lima, Peru, and was inducted into the Society of Distinguished Educators at the Penn State College of Medicine. In 2015, he was elected a Fellow of the American Association for Advancement of Science (AAAS). He currently serves the immediate past president of the Association of Medical School Pharmacology Chairs (AMSPC).

Feusner’s research program seeks to understand perceptual and emotional processing phenotypes across conditions involving body image and obsessions/compulsions, including body dysmorphic disorder (BDD), eating disorders, and OCD. He also studies gender identity, own body perception, and the effects of hormone treatments in individuals with gender dysphoria. He published the first functional neuroimaging studies in BDD and the first studies to directly compare the neurobiology of BDD to anorexia nervosa. He has also investigated neurometabolites and brain connectivity in OCD, including predictors of acute and long-term treatment response to cognitive-behavioral therapy. Feusner’s neuroscience research utilizes functional (fMRI and EEG), structural neuroimaging (sMRI and DTI), and psychophysical testing to understand the brain. He has also created novel digital applications to assess and quantify perceptual distortions of appearance, and affective and interoceptive experiences, to be used across mobile and other platforms for research and clinical purposes.

Dr. Fugen Neziroglu is a board certified behavior and cognitive psychologist, and leading researcher on anxiety disorders. She is the co-founder and executive director of the Bio Behavioral Institute in Great Neck NY, a clinic specializing in anxiety and obsessive compulsive related disorders. Dr. Neziroglu is Adjunct Full Professor at Hofstra University, Department of Psychology and at The Hofstra School of Medicine. Dr. Neziroglu has presented and published over 175 papers in scientific journals, including the American Journal of Psychiatry, Behavior Research and Therapy, and the Journal of Anxiety Disorders. Additionally, she is the author and co-author of fifteen books on obsessive compulsive spectrum disorders, including, most recently Treatment of Body Dysmorphic Disorder: Advances in Psychotherapy, Overcoming Body Dysmorphic Disorder, Children of Hoarders, Overcoming Compulsive Hoarding. Her books have been translated into several different languages, including German, Italian, Spanish and even Korean. Dr. Neziroglu has appeared numerous times on the TLC television series Hoarders, CNN, the Today Show, Good Morning America etc. She received her Ph.D. in clinical, school-community psychology from Hofstra University and completed her post-graduate work in behavior and cognitive therapy at Temple University School of Medicine in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She is Board Certified in Cognitive and Behavior Therapy from the American Board of Behavioral Psychology (ABBP) and in Clinical Psychology from the American Board of Professional Psychology (ABPP). She is a Fellow of ABBP’s Academy. Dr. Neziroglu is also a member of many national and international societies and is on the Scientific Advisory Board of the International Obsessive Compulsive Foundation (IOCDF), Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA), and President of OCDNY. In 2016 she received the lifetime achievement award from the IOCDF for her extensive contribution to the field of OCD.

Eva is a communication faculty member at Colorado State University Global. She received her PhD from Colorado State University in 2016. She has presented her research at the National Communication Association conventions. Eva has also recovered from body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) and written a book based on her dissertation research, titled The BDD Family: Coping with Body Dysmorphic Disorder in a Peer Support Group.

Eva is a member of the International OCD Foundation BDD Special Interest Group and has authored multiple articles about coping with and recovery from BDD. She is a professional communication consultant and founder of Fear to Courage, LLC. Eva empowers her clients to overcome their communication challenges to achieve business, career, and personal success.

Shaun Thein is a Specialist Registrar in Respiratory Medicine and Clinical Research Fellow in the Institute of Inflammation and Ageing, currently completing a PhD in Neutrophil Function in COVID-19.

Shaun is currently completing clinical training in Respiratory Medicine in the West Midlands. He is finishing a PhD investigating the effect of COVID-19 on neutrophil function.

In addition to research, Shaun also has an interest in teaching, and is aiming to complete a Masters in Medical Education. He currently teaches regularly at Christ Church, Oxford as well as ward based teaching for clinical medical students at the University of Birmingham.

I am an Associate Professor in Respiratory Science, within the Institute of Inflammation and Ageing at the University of Birmingham. My research focuses in respiratory inflammation mainly in the chronic setting (COPD, IPF) and particularly in smoking related disease. Recently my work has examined the impact of e-cigarettes on the innate immune response within the lung to determine how this differs from the effects of smoking and further, what the acute effects can help us determine about the long term consequences of vaping.

Associate Prof Mark Yates is a consultant physician in geriatric medicine. He has clinical roles in the Grampians Region Cognitive Dementia and Memory Service (CDAMS) and as a Geriatrician to the Ballarat Health Services Sub-Acute Service.

Dr David Yeo is an Upper GI Surgeon based in Sydney, NSW. As well as upper gastrointestinal surgery, he specialises in hepatobiliary surgery (liver, pancreas, gallbladder and bile duct), transplant and bariatric surgery. He has a broad special interest and expertise in cancerous and non-cancerous conditions, including liver tumours, biliary/gallbladder and pancreatic tumours. He also offers a full range of surgical treatments including laparoscopic (keyhole) surgery for gallstones, hernias, and bariatric/obesity surgery as well as endoscopy and ERCPs.