Public Health

Justin Laube, MD, is a board-certified integrative and internal medicine physician, a teacher, and a consultant with extensive expertise in integrative health, medical education, and trauma healing.

He graduated with a bachelor's in biology from the University of Wisconsin and a medical degree from the University of Minnesota Medical School. During medical school, he completed a graduate certificate in integrative therapies and healing practices through the Earl E. Bakken Center for Spirituality & Healing. He completed his three-year residency training in internal medicine at the University of California in Los Angeles on the primary care track and a two-year fellowship in integrative East-West primary care at the UCLA Health Center for East-West Medicine.

He is currently taking a multiyear personal and professional sabbatical to explore the relationship between childhood trauma, disease, and the processes of healing. He is developing a clinical practice for patients with complex trauma, as well as for others going through significant life transitions. He is working on a book distilling the insights from his sabbatical, teaching, and leading retreats on trauma, integrative health, mindfulness, and well-being for health professionals, students, and the community.

Previously, Dr. Laube was an assistant clinical professor at the UCLA Health Center for East-West Medicine and the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, where he provided primary care and integrative East-West medical consultations. As part of the faculty, he completed a medical education fellowship and received a certificate in innovation in curriculum design and evaluation. He was the fellowship director at the Center for East-West Medicine and led courses for physician fellows, residents, and medical students.

Allison Buttarazzi, MD, is board-certified in internal medicine and lifestyle medicine, and is a certified health and well-being coach. In her primary care practice, Dr. Buttarazzi focuses on lifestyle medicine to help her patients improve their health and longevity, and her passion is helping patients prevent and reverse chronic diseases (like heart disease, high blood pressure, and diabetes) by improving their lifestyle habits.

She is a graduate of Tufts University School of Medicine and completed a residency at Maine Medical Center. Diagnosed with celiac disease during medical school, she realized the power of improving one's health through diet and lifestyle habits, which she later incorporated into her practice.

Elizabeth V. Simpson, DMD, is an associate dentist with Meridian Health Services in Indiana and adjunct faculty at the Indiana University School of Dentistry in Indianapolis. The bulk of her practice has been in the public health setting.

She attended the University of Notre Dame, where she earned a bachelor's degree in preprofessional studies. After college, she worked in the Indianapolis public schools as a bilingual teaching assistant, which is where she decided to become a dentist. She graduated from Tufts University School of Dental Medicine in 2010 and did a general practice residency at Meharry Medical College School of Dentistry.

Dr. Simpson has completed three leadership programs. In one for the Indiana Dental Association, she started a mentoring program pairing high school students from underrepresented groups who were interested in pursuing dentistry with dental students from underrepresented groups from the Indiana University School of Dentistry. In an American Dental Association program, she started a toothbrushing program at an elementary school in Indianapolis. And finally, she participated in the NextGen Leadership Program as former full-time faculty at Indiana University at the  Indianapolis campus.

Simpson has written numerous blogs for the American Dental Association and has participated as a speaker and panelist at several conferences, including for the Christian Dental Association, American Student Dental Association, National Network for Oral Health Access, and American Association of Women Dentists, as well as for the American Dental Association's SmileCon.

She was a member of the American Dental Association's Council on Advocacy for Access and Prevention from 2020 to 2024, leading the council as chair from 2023 to 2024.

She is fluent in Spanish and speaks conversational French and Portuguese.

Grant Chu, MD, is an associate clinical professor at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. Dr. Chu is also associate director of inpatient East-West consult services at the UCLA Health hospitals.

He's board-certified in internal medicine by the American Board of Internal Medicine and is a diplomate of the National Certification Board for Acupuncture and Herbal Medicine (formerly the National Certification Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine).

He received a bachelor's degree in neuroscience from Brown University, where he also earned his medical degree. He has a master's in acupuncture and oriental medicine from South Baylo University and a master's in business administration from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

He completed his residency in internal medicine at the University of California in Los Angeles and a fellowship at the Center for East-West Medicine at UCLA. He has held academic appointments at the University of California in Irvine and the University of Queensland in Australia.

David Mannino, MD, is the chief medical officer at the COPD Foundation. He has a long history of research and engagement in respiratory health.

After completing medical training as a pulmonary care specialist, Dr. Mannino joined the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Air Pollution and Respiratory Health Branch. While at CDC, he helped to develop the National Asthma Program and led efforts on the Surveillance Reports that described the U.S. burden of asthma (1998) and COPD (2002).

After his retirement from CDC in 2004, Mannino joined the faculty at the University of Kentucky, where he was involved both clinically in the College of Medicine and as a teacher, researcher, and administrator in the College of Public Health. He served as professor and chair in the department of preventive medicine and environmental health from 2012 to 2017, with a joint appointment in the department of epidemiology.

In 2004, Mannino helped to launch the COPD Foundation, where he served as a board member from 2004 through 2015, chairman of the Medical and Scientific Advisory Committee from 2010 through 2015, and chief scientific officer from 2015 to 2017.

Mannino has over 350 publications and serves as an associate editor or editorial board member for the following journals: American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, Chest, Thorax, European Respiratory Journal, and the Journal of the COPD Foundation. He was also a coauthor of the Surgeon General’s Report on Tobacco in 2008 and 2014.