John Licciardone, DO, MS, MBA, FACPM, is professor and executive director of The Osteopathic Research Center, where he also holds the position of Osteopathic Heritage clinical research chair. In addition to his roles in leading the ORC, Dr. Licciardone serves as the associate dean for clinical research for the Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine at the University of North Texas Health Science Center. He also serves as the Osteopathic Heritage Foundation Richards-Cohen distinguished chair in clinical research. Dr. Licciardone was recently appointed to a four-year term as a member of the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine at the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Licciardone has been active in scientific publishing for more than two decades, during which time he served as the founding editor of Osteopathic Medicine and Primary Care, an independent open-access journal in conjunction with BioMed Central through December 2010. He is also on several journal editorial boards. Dr. Licciardone is the first osteopathic physician to have received a Midcareer Investigator Award from the National Institutes of Health. He serves as principal investigator for the OSTEOPATHIC Trial (OSTEOPAThic Health outcomes In Chronic low back pain Trial), a five-year study that randomized 455 subjects, making it the largest clinical trial ever undertaken on osteopathic manipulative treatment. His research currently focuses on applying evidence-based medicine concepts to osteopathic manipulative treatment and somatic dysfunction. He has authored numerous papers in this area, and is a frequent speaker at national and international conferences on osteopathic research. He has received both the Louisa Burns Memorial Lecture Award and the Gutensohn-Denslow Research Award from the American Osteopathic Foundation, as well as the J.O. Watson Award from the Ohio Osteopathic Association. Dr. Licciardone received his DO degree from the Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine. He completed a rotating internship at the Tulsa Regional Medical Center. He also completed a residency in family practice at the Kennedy Memorial Hospital system in Saddle Brook, New Jersey, and a public health and preventive medicine residency at The Ohio State University College of Medicine, where he concurrently received a MS degree in preventive medicine. He later received an MBA degree in management from Texas Christian University. He is certified by the American Osteopathic Board of Family Physicians, the American Osteopathic Board of Preventive Medicine, and the American Board of Preventive Medicine. He is a fellow of the American College of Preventive Medicine. He has been a member of the faculty of the University of North Texas Health Science Center for over 20 years.

Cathleen Kearns, BA, serves as the administrative director of The Osteopathic Research Center (ORC) where she is responsible for spearheading communications initiatives and for managing the day-to-day administrative matters of the ORC. She also serves as the ORC's medical writer and editor, and as the main conference/event planner. Ms. Kearns has worked full-time for the osteopathic profession since 1996, and is a strong proponent of advancing osteopathic manipulative medicine research. Prior to joining the ORC staff, Ms. Kearns served as the vice president for communications and member services for the American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine (AACOM) where she worked closely with the ORC and with the osteopathic manipulative medicine department chairs from osteopathic medical schools across the United States on a number of key projects including the development of a web-based clinical research database and on the inclusion of uniquely osteopathic terms in the meta-thesaurus at the National Library of Medicine and in SNOMED CT©. Ms. Kearns also served as the public relations director at the Michigan State University College of Osteopathic Medicine prior to assuming the position at AACOM. She earned her bachelor's degree in mass communication from St. Bonaventure University. Ms. Kearns holds certificates in medical writing and editing and medical public relations, marketing and advertising from the American Medical Writers Association. She has worked as a newspaper reporter and editor, a medical writer and editor, and a public relations official prior to working full-time for osteopathic medical organizations.

Lisa M. Hodge, PhD, is the Osteopathic Heritage basic science research chair. Dr. Hodge received her PhD in microbiology and immunology at the University of North Texas Health Science Center, where her research focused on the differences between immune responses generated in the upper and lower respiratory tract during respiratory immunization and infection. During her postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, she focused on novel immune therapies for the treatment and prevention of cancer. Currently, she dedicates 80 percent of her time to the ORC, where collaboration with osteopathic physicians has allowed her to evaluate the effectiveness of osteopathic manipulative techniques at modulating the immune response against a variety of infectious and inflammatory diseases. Dr. Hodge's research is funded by the National Institutes of Health Centers for Complementary and Alternative Medicine and the American Osteopathic Association. She received her first R01 in November 2008.

Dennis E. Minotti, DO, provides osteopathic manipulative medicine treatments for human subjects in clinical research studies at the ORC, consults with Lisa Hodge, PhD, on mechanism of action studies, and assists with developing protocols for ORC grant applications. Dr. Minotti is a 2005 graduate of the Ohio University College of Osteopathic Medicine. He completed his neuromusculoskeletal medicine residency at Plaza Medical Center/University of North Texas Health Science Center in July 2008. During his residency training, Dr. Minotti worked with the ORC to treat research subjects in the low back pain and carpal tunnel syndrome studies.

Karan P. Singh, PhD, is the director of biostatistics for the ORC. He devotes 20 percent of his time to the Center. He works with medical students and residents in the definition of variables for their research projects, identification of data sources, data definition, data collection and analysis. Dr. Singh has over 22 years of experience working in inter-disciplinary and translational research. He has worked as biostatistician or chief biostatistician at research centers at several major research universities. His research interests include longitudinal data analysis, statistical computing, survival methodology, clinical trails and health services methodological research. Dr. Singh is an elected member of International Statistical Institute and a fellow of the Modeling and Simulation Society of Australia and New Zealand. He is on editorial boards of several scientific journals and serves as chair or member on study review panels/special emphasis panels of funding agencies including NCI, NIH, CDC, HRSA, DOD, NIDRR and Susan G. Komen Cancer Foundation. Dr. Singh has a doctorate in statistics, a MSc in applied statistics and a MS in statistics.

Fernando Wilson, PhD, is the director of health services and policy for the ORC. An assistant professor in the UNTHSC School of Public Health's Department of Health Management and Policy, Dr. Wilson provides expertise in cost effectiveness, cost analysis and other health policy and services issues. He is currently working with Dr. Licciardone on an AOA-funded grant using the Medical Expenditure Survey Panel to assess the cost-effectiveness of osteopathic medicine. He earned his bachelor of arts in economics from the University of Texas at Austin, and his doctorate degree in economics from the University of Chicago. In addition to the research he conducts with the ORC, Dr. Wilson's other research interests include immigration an the demand for health care, labor economics, economics of the family, and transportation economics.

Robert J. Gatchel, PhD, ABPP, is the director of biopsychosocial research for the ORC. Dr. Gatchel works for the ORC part-time. He serves as the chair of the psychology department at the University of Texas in Arlington, and is one of the pioneers of cognitive behavioral therapy. He will be working with ORC leaders to expand the biopsychosocial aspects of low back pain research, and to develop grant applications and scientific publications. Dr. Gatchel has published more than 400 scientific articles, and is an expert on the treatment of acute low back pain.