Board of Advisors

Board of Advisors

Kaplan

Gary P. Kaplan, M.D., Ph.D.
Dr. Kaplan is a neurologist and clinical associate professor of neurology at Hofstra University School of Medicine. Dr. Kaplan received the Albert H. Douglas Award from the Medical Society of the State of New York for outstanding achievements as a clinical teacher interested in promoting and improving the medical education of physicians.

Stixrud

William R. Stixrud, Ph.D.
Dr. Stixrud is a clinical neuropsychologist and director of William Stixrud and Associates in Silver Spring, Maryland, a group practice specializing in the neuropsychological assessment of children, adolescents and adults with learning, attentional/executive and/or emotional disorders. Dr. Stixrud is also a member of the clinical supervisory faculty of the Children’s National Medical Center and holds an appointment in the Department of Psychiatry at George Washington University School of Medicine.

Staggers

Frank Staggers, Jr., M.D.
Dr. Staggers is a practitioner of addiction medicine and general medicine and the senior drug detoxification specialist at the Haight Ashbury Free Clinic’s Drug Rehabilitation Program. He is also the former director of the alcohol, drug and methadone programs at the West Oakland Health Center. Dr. Staggers has been an investigator on multiple federal research grants, including research on the effects of the Transcendental Meditation® program on cardiovascular disease.

Molina

César Molina, M.D., F.A.C.C.P.
Dr. Molina is an interventional cardiologist in the Palo Alto area. He is a graduate of the Yale University School of Medicine and completed his fellowship in the Department of Cardiology at the Stanford University School of Medicine. Dr. Molina also serves as a medical consultant on the health benefits of the Transcendental Meditation program for adults and children.

Rutherford

Dr. George H. Rutherford, II
Dr. Rutherford was the principal and chief operating officer of the Fletcher-Johnson Educational Center in Washington, D.C., for 30 years. He is currently principal of the Ideal Academy Public Charter School in the District. Dr. Rutherford introduced the Transcendental Meditation technique to hundreds of students and faculty at Fletcher-Johnson in 1994.

N’Namdi

Carmen N’Namdi
Ms. N’Namdi is chair of the Board of the National Charter School Institute; and member of the Board of the Michigan Association of Public School Academies.

Wolff

Ralph Wolff
Ralph A. Wolff is the founder and president of The Quality Assurance Commons for Higher and Postsecondary Education, created in 2016 to assure that graduates of academic and certificate programs have the requisite Essential Employability Qualities (EEQs) needed for the 21st Century workplace. The QA Commons has served over 70 programs at 40 institutions in the United States and Mexico, and is currently working with the state higher education systems of Kentucky and Connecticut.

Previously, Wolff served as president of the Accrediting Commission for Senior Colleges and Universities of the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) from 1996–2013. There he was a leading innovator while also advocating for greater transparency and accountability in the accrediting process.

He is a founding member of the University Quality Assurance Institutional Board (UQAIB) in Dubai, which reviews all universities operating in the Free Zones, and is a founding member of the Advisory Board for the Transnational Education quality assurance process of NARIC. Recently he has served as a member of the US National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity (NACIQI), which reviews accrediting agencies for federal recognition, and as a member of the University Council of United States International University – Africa in Nairobi, Kenya and the Board of Trustees of Palo Alto University, California.

Mr. Wolff earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Tufts University and a Juris Doctor degree, with high honors, from the National Law Center of the George Washington University. He received an honorary doctorate from Loma Linda University in 2013.

Deans

Ashley Deans, Ph.D.
Dr. Deans is a quantum physicist and lifelong educator who has served for 15 years as the director of the award-winning Maharishi School of the Age of Enlightenment in Fairfield, Iowa. Maharishi School is affiliated with Ideal Girls School and Maharishi University of Management—model Consciousness-Based educational institutions in the world.

Handy

Linda Handy, Ph.D.
Dr. Handy is the principal of the Waldorf School in Silver Spring, Maryland, and the former academic director of the Chelsea School, a private school in Silver Spring, which specializes in children with language-based learning disabilities, and where research was conducted on the effects of the TM program on attention deficit–hyperactivity disorders (ADHD).

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