Board of Advisors

Dr. Jag Khalsa is the Chief of the Medical Consequences (MC) Branch, with the Division of Pharmacotherapies and Medical Consequences of Drug Abuse, National Institute on Drug Abuse, a sub-division of the U.S. National Institutes of Health. He is trained in neuropharmacology, toxicology and epidemiology. The MC Branch is responsible for supporting domestic and international research on health and medical consequences of drug abuse and co-occurring infections including HIV, hepatitis, STDs, TB, and other opportunistic infections. The research programs include diseases/disorders of the heart, liver, and immune system; metabolic, endocrine and gastrointestinal disorders; pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic drug-drug interactions among drugs of abuse, and pharmacotherapeutic agents used in the treatment of infections (HIV, HCV) and drug addiction; and misuse of prescription drugs. He has authored several publications in the field of pharmacology, toxicology, epidemiology and medicine. He received numerous awards of merit including ones from the FDA Commissioner, Director of FDA’s Bureau of Foods, NIDA Director’s Awards of Merit (3 in a row), NIH Director’s Award, and a citation from the United States Congress.

Dr. Walter Royal is an Associate Professor of Neurology at the University Of Maryland School Of Medicine. He is also the Research Associate Director for the VA Multiple Sclerosis Center, East and for the Maryland Center for Multiple Sclerosis. Dr. Royal has a laboratory which is researching the mechanisms by which members of a family of nuclear receptors are able to modulate proinflammatory immune responses in MS and in HIV-1 infection. Among the members of this receptor family are those that bind Vitamin A and Vitamin D. His research in HIV infection focuses on the interactions between retinoids and opioids in the modulation of immune responses and in the regulation of HIV-1 gene expression.

Dr. Grant is Professor and Executive Vice-Chair of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine. He is Director of the HIV Neurobehavioral Research Center (HNRC), the California NeuroAIDS Tissue Network (CNTN), the University of California Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research (CMCR), the CNS HIV Antiretroviral Therapy Effects Research (CHARTER) and the NIDA-funded program project "NeuroAIDS: Effects of Methamphetamine" Dr. Grant is the founding Editor of the Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society and founding co-editor of the journal AIDS and Behavior.

Having served at the prestigious All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi and he subsequently became the Dean, Professor & Head Of the Dept of Pathology at the Nizams Institute of Medical Sciences, Hyderabad,India, Dr. Ratnakar is currently the Chairman of the Global Medical Education and Research Center and the Chief of Laboratory Medicine of Global Hospitals, Hyderabad. Dr. Ratnakar was the Professor of Pathology, Arabian Gulf University, Bahrain, training the university students on Problem Based Learning. While he has a great passion for teaching, he was concerned with creativity in medical sciences and carried out research in the field of Malnutrition, Ociular Pathology, Stem cells etc. He was a visiting Professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, University of Pittsburg and at Tufts University, Boston. He received the Guest of Honor of Vehoeff Society, USA. With over 200 scientific publications, equal number of presentations, over 15 awards, two books, several chapters in Pathology text books, he has keen interest in scientific publications. Dr/ Ratnakar has served as the Editor of the Indian Journal of Pathology and Senior Associate Editor of Bahrain Medical Bulletin and several other academic journals.

Dr. Kenny Anthony is the head of the St Lucia labor party and the current Prime Minister of St Lucia. Dr. Anthony obtained various undergraduate and graduate degrees in History, Government and Law from the University of West Indies, all the while teaching and serving as an Advisor to the Ministry of Education and Culture. He also obtained a PhD in Law from the University of Birmingham and was appointed as the Minister of Education in 1980. In 1993 he was appointed as the Director of the Caribbean Justice Improvement Project at the University of the West Indies - Faculty of Law in Barbados. He then served as General Counsel to the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretariat until he was nominated as the leader of the Labor Party in 1996. The following year he was sworn in as Prime Minister of St Lucia; with the Labor Party winning 16 out of 17 electoral constituencies. Dr. Anthony has over two decades of expertise as an Educator, Attorney of Law, Policy Maker and a Visionary.