February 26, 2008

Complementary health care conference rescheduled

by Andrea Hahn

CARBONDALE, Ill. — The Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University Carbondale announced a schedule change for its spring schedule.

A conference on complementary health care is set now for March 31, from 9 a.m. until 2 p.m. in the SIUC Student Center Ballrooms. Institute staff rescheduled the event in order to keep the keynote speaker, Dr. Tieraona Low Dog, who otherwise would have had to cancel.

Low Dog is a former member of the White House Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medicine. Currently, she is the director of education in the Program on Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona. An expert in herbal medicine, she is a former president of the American Herbalist Guild. She also studied to practice family medicine, earning her doctoral degree in medicine from the New Mexico School of Medicine. Among the many awards and committee appointments she has earned, Low Dog won the Innovator in Complementary and Alternative Medicine award from Time Magazine in 2001.

The conference examines the past and present of complementary health care, considers its future, and explores legal, regulatory and consumer protection. Organizers hope the program will foster interdisciplinary research by University faculty.