Advisors

Dr. Allan Young

Dr. Young is the Chair of Mood Disorders in the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, and also currently serves as the Vice-Dean and Head of School of Academic Psychiatry, at King’s College London, UK. Dr. Young’s research interests focus on the cause and treatments for severe psychiatric illnesses, particularly mood disorders. Dr. Young has held academic appointments at Oxford University; Newcastle University (latterly holding the Chair of General Psychiatry at Newcastle), University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, where he held the Leading Edge Endowment Fund Endowed Chair in Research in the Department of Psychiatry and was also the Director of the Institute of Mental Health and Imperial College London, where he held the Chair of Psychiatry and was Director of the Centre for Mental Health Dr Young has has received research grant funding from the UK Medical Research Council, the Wellcome Trust, the Stanley Medical Research Institute, the Canadian Institutes for Heath Research (CIHR), the National Institutes of Health (USA), and numerous other funding agencies. Dr. Young has published over 600 peer-reviewed publications and several books about psychopharmacology and affective disorders. Dr. Young was recently ranked as one of the world’s leading scientific minds in the field of psychiatry and psychology, according to the Thomson Reuters Highly Cited Researchers list. In all of science, a total of just over 3,000 researchers worldwide earned this distinction, and the academics listed rank among the top one percent most cited for their subject field and year of publication, a mark of exceptional impact.

Dr. Pierre Chue

Dr. Chue has extensive experience in clinical psychopharmacology. Dr. Chue’s experience includes acting as the Director of the Clinical Trials and Research Program, Alberta Health Services, and has been involved in over 50 national and international clinical trials in areas including depression, anxiety disorders and addiction. Dr. Chue is a researcher with the Integrative Health Institute, Centre of Excellence for Real World Clinical Outcomes and Campus Alberta Neuroscience (University of Alberta). Dr. Chue completed his medical degree (MBBCh) and psychiatric specialization (MRCPsych) in the UK before moving to Canada in 1991 where he subsequently obtained Canadian medical (LMCC) and specialist qualifications (FRCPC) as well as American Boards Certification in Psychiatry and Neurology (DABPN) and an MSc in Psychiatry at the University of Alberta. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists (FRCPsych) in the UK in 2004.

Dr. Hannah Pazderka

Dr. Pazderka has a long background of working in clinical research and project management within the field of psychiatry for over 20 years. Dr. Pazderka has been involved in multiple studies and project management of a variety of mental health initiatives. Dr. Hannah Pazderka received her PhD in Neuroscience from the University of Alberta in 2004, looking at indices of drug and alcohol craving. Since then, she has worked in a number of roles, including creation of public policy, research, and advocacy. Her primary research interests are in the regulation of impulsive and risk taking behaviour via the frontal lobes and subcortical reward structures. She has worked with a number of different methodologies, including structural equation modeling, electrophysiology (ERPs and skin conductance), neuropsychological assessment, and epidemiology.

Krystal Davidson

Dr. Pazderka has a long background of working in clinical research and project management within the field of psychiatry for over 20 years. Dr. Pazderka has been involved in multiple studies and project management of a variety of mental health initiatives. Dr. Hannah Pazderka received her PhD in Neuroscience from the University of Alberta in 2004, looking at indices of drug and alcohol craving. Since then, she has worked in a number of roles, including creation of public policy, research, and advocacy. Her primary research interests are in the regulation of impulsive and risk taking behaviour via the frontal lobes and subcortical reward structures. She has worked with a number of different methodologies, including structural equation modeling, electrophysiology (ERPs and skin conductance), neuropsychological assessment, and epidemiology.

Dr. Matthew Brown

Dr. Brown is a leading researcher in aspects of digital mental health, AI, and the brain including leading publications in Nature over the past few years. Dr. Brown has a strong background in psychopharmacology, project management of clinical studies, brain imaging techniques and computational psychiatry (using AI in mental health). He is also an associate of the world leading AI group at the University of Alberta, AMII (Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute, AMII). Dr. Brown is also the co founder of Retain Labs Medical Incorporated. Dr. Brown is a scientific reviewer for Frontiers in Systems in Neuroscience, NeuroImage and Experimental Brain Research. He received his PhD in neuroscience from the University of Western Ontario. Dr Brown has been a research fellow in the Department of Psychiatry and is currently an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Computing Science at the University of Alberta.

Robert Rogers

Mr. Rogers has built, over five decades, a renowned international reputation for the education and promotion of medical mushrooms. Mr. Rogers has been a ethnomycologist and clinical herbalist for nearly 50 years and is presently a Clinical Professor in family medicine at the University of Alberta, and Adjunct Professor in graduate studies at York University. Mr. Rogers has published over 50 books on plant and mushroom medicine, including ‘The Fungal Pharmacy: The Complete Guide to Medicinal Mushrooms and Lichens of North America’; and in 2020 he published ‘Medicinal Mushrooms: The Human Clinical Trials’. Over the past 30 years, Mr. Rogers has taught plant and mushroom medicine at various post-secondary institutions and has formulated many mushroom-based supplements in the natural health products industry. Mr. Rogers previously chaired the Alberta Natural Health Agricultural Network, and Capital Health Community Health Council, and served on the editorial board of the International Journal of Medicinal Mushrooms.