The Jury

Dr. Mary Ann Richardson is pioneer researcher of complementary and alternative therapies and an experienced independent investigator and program director at academic, government, for-profit, and non-profit organization levels, with an international scope. She has worked with industry, regulatory agencies, and clinical research sites to develop and conduct evaluations of botanicals, pharmacologics, and bioelectromagnetic therapies with grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Department of Defense (DOD), and other non-profit agencies. She is founder of Alycon Associates, a consulting group whose mission is to build collaborative networks among manufacturers/inventors, clinicians/ research scientists, and visionary non-profit, and for profit organizations to advance novel therapeutics through the application of scientific rigor with strategic investigational approaches.

She holds a Masters and Doctorate degree in Public Health, focused on epidemiologic and statistical methods, from The University of Texas-Houston School of Public Health (UT-SPH), where she was Assistant Professor and Director of The UT – Center for Alternative Medicine Research. The center was the first funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the only one cofounded by the National Cancer Institute to evaluate complementary/alternative (CAM) therapies for cancer.

She is a former Health Science Administrator, National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) at NIH where she managed a large oncology portfolio and developed new research initiatives; Director of Research/Vice President, National Foundation for Alternative Medicine (NFAM), where she directed programs to identify and evaluate innovative therapies for chronic conditions; Principal Investigator, Complementary and Alternative Medicine for the Military (MIL-CAM): Epidemiological Documentation Service (EDS), funded by the Department of Defense through the Samueli Institute, to identify and evaluate CAM with relevance for the military.

Dr. Richardson is a Founding Member of the American Society of Complex Therapeutics and an Advisory Board member of the Cochrane Collaboration CAM Field Group. She is former Executive Secretary for the NIH Cancer Advisory Panel for CAM, member of the National Cancer Institute Adult Treatment Editorial Board for Physicians Data Query (PDQ) and Editorial Board, American Cancer Society CAM committee member, and Cancer Coalition advisory board member.

Research interests include complex therapeutics, phytomedicines, bioelectromagnetic and frequency therapies, and non-toxic, non invasive, and low cost treatments for chronic conditions including cancer, cardiovascular, HIV/AIDS, neurologic disease, and toxic and environmental exposures.