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ISP Faculty Profiles
ANATOMY & PHYSIOLOGY
Samir Ayad, MD joined the Southern California University of Health Sciences (SCUHS) Los Angeles College of Chiropractic (LACC) faculty in 1996. He is both the lecture instructor for Anatomy and Physiology with the Integrated Science Program (ISP).
He holds concurrent responsibilities at LACC and School of Professional Studies (SPS).
At LACC, Dr. Ayad is an Assistant Professor and lead Instructor for Community Health, General and Neuromusculoskeletal Pathology and Clinical Microbiology Lab. He also teaches labs for General Anatomy, Functional Anatomy and Biomechanics, Neuroscience, Systemic Physiology, General and Systemic Histology.
Prior to joining SCUHS-LACC, Dr. Ayad was a medical instructor at Allied Health Careers in New Jersey. He is an avid researcher, always seeking new technologies and tools to achieve teaching excellence. In 2008, he was invited to act as a member of the National Board of Chiropractic Examiners.
Dr. Ayad obtained his MD degree from College of Medicine, Alexandria University, Egypt. He was a resident and chief resident in Pediatrics at El-Anfoushy Pediatric Hospital in Alexandria and general practitioner at Mother and Child Care Center.
Dr. Ayad has published in The Journal of Chiropractic Education and presented White Papers at the Association of Chiropractic Colleges (ACC)-The Research Agenda Conference (RAC) annual meetings.
Dr. Ayad is a member of the American Public Health Association and the Association of Physicians and Surgeons in Egypt.
Anton Hawatmeh, MD graduated from the Aristotle's University of Thessaloniki (the oldest medical university in the world,) in Greece with high honors as a medical doctor. He was a resident in internal medicine and general surgery at AXEPA (Aristotle's National Hospital of Thessaloniki, Greece). He was also a two year resident in psychiatry and neurophysiology in Athens, Greece. After pursuing his medical degree, he returned to his native Jordan as a doctor and lecturer at the National Hospital of Zarka, Jordan.
Since he came to the United States, Dr. Hawatmeh has received the E.C.F.M.G. (Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates) Certificate, FLEX (Federation License Exam of California) Certificate, a recognition award from Galaxy Medical College, as well as many other recognition awards from known hospitals in Southern California. Dr. Hawatmeh is fluent in three languages (English, Arabic and Greek), as well as a member of the American Medical Association and Los Angeles Medical Association. He is also a voracious reader of medical textbooks as well as an active follower of modern day medical technologies and advancements. He has years of experience in teaching and lecturing high school students, medical students, MCAT students, as well as pharmacy and medical assistants. Dr. Hawatmeh is also a very active participant in different hospital programs and clinics, learning and teaching up-to-date medical subjects, as well as being a firm believer in the philosophy that knowledge and education should be passed to the generations to come to the fullest extent.
Dr. Hawatmeh currently teaches Anatomy and Physiology in the Integrated Science Program at SCUHS (Southern California University of Health Sciences)
Masoud Azizi, received his BS in Physiological Sciences from UCLA in 2009. He is a nationally certified health and fitness instructor with the American College of Sports Medicine, the National Strength and Conditioning Association, and the International Sports Sciences Association. He is also a graduate of the UCLA Fitness Leadership Program. Currently, Masoud is pursuing advanced coursework relating to physiology, molecular biology, and human disease at UCLA and Harvard University. He is a research associate at the UCLA Center for Human Nutrition in Professor Catherine Carpenter’s lab, where he is helping develop protocols that optimize body composition and attenuate disease risk.
His personal research interests include the molecular physiology of the aging process and age-related disease, on which he is developing theories, experiments, and clinical trials. As an avid writer, he has two books pending publication: Slowing Down Your Biological Clock: A Guide to Increasing Your Lifespan and 57 Ways to Lose Fat Permanently. Masoud works as a clinical exercise physiologist and nutritionist at Rejuvalife Vitality Institute, a high profile, anti-aging medical establishment in Beverly Hills. He is also the founding CEO of the California Institute of Health and Fitness, a nonprofit organization, where he oversees the instruction of more than 600 participants in his free health and fitness programs in underserved areas. Masoud plans to complete medical school and continue work as an effective practitioner and educator of science. Masoud is the Anatomy and Physiology Laboratory Instructor in the Integrated Science Program at the Southern California University of Health Sciences.
BIOLOGY
Catherine Carpenter, PhD is currently on the faculty at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) and a lecturer for ISP. At UCLA, Dr. Carpenter teaches in the Schools of Nursing, Medicine, and Public Health. She has experience in lecture-based and problem-based methods of teaching. Dr. Carpenter is currently conducting research in obesity and breast cancer and the role of nutritional factors in lung cancer. She has published over 30 papers in the field of medicine, including seven that were principally authored. She has written three chapters, two of which are in Nutritional Oncology and one in the Encyclopedia of Cancer. Dr. Carpenter has a BA and an MPH both from the University of California at Berkeley. She completed a PhD in Epidemiology from UCLA and a postdoctoral fellowship from the University of Southern California (USC) School of Medicine.
Jeré Annette Wilson M.S, is an ISP laboratory instructor in microbiology and human biology. She is a graduate of California State Polytechnic University with a B.S in Biology and a M.S from California State, Los Angeles in Biology, with an emphasis in microbiology. Jeré has a strong laboratory research background in molecular and microbiology. She also has research experience in immunology at University California, Irvine where she studied herpes simplex virus (HSVI and HSVII) and is currently researching bacterial essential genes as targets for multi-drug resistant pathogens at Cal State University Los Angeles (CSULA). Jeré has tutored chemistry courses at the college level. She is very passionate about teaching and wishes to have a positive impact on her students' lives. Jeré plans to pursue her MPH and DrPH in public health.
GENERAL CHEMISTRY
Dr Randy Meirowitz is a graduate of Boston University with a B.A. and Ph.D. in Chemistry with an emphasis in the area of Physical Organometallic Chemistry. He is inventor, or author of over two dozen patents and publications, part of the team receiving the R&D 100 Award 1999 - for "One of the 100 most technically significant new products of the year", and the team receiving the UCSD Connect Award - "Most Innovative New Product of 1998". He is a Fellow of the American Institute of Chemistry (FAIC), Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC), Chartered Chemist (CChem) and Chartered Scientist (CSci), as well as a senior member of the American Association of Textile Chemists and Colorists (AATCC), member the American Chemical Society (ACS), and the Association of Consulting Chemists and Chemical Engineers (ACC&CE).
Dr. Meirowitz has over 20 years of experience in technology development and management of technical organizations with special emphasis on surface properties of materials. He is the president of RnD Technical Solutions Inc. a consulting firm. Â Dr. Meirowitz is the ISP general chemistry instructor.
Valerie Baggett is an ISP lecture instructor for General Chemistry. Valerie earned a BS degree in Chemistry from California State University at Fullerton, and a MA in Chemistry from the University of California at Irvine. Valerie has an extensive background in scientific instrumentation, as she worked for Beckman Instruments developing and marketing UV-Visible Spectrophotometers, pH meters, and Liquid Scintillation Counters. Her expertise in instrumentation gave her the opportunity to travel though out Europe, Asia, Mexico and Canada, giving seminars and supporting the instrumentation. Valerie also worked as a consultant writing technical manuals for scientific instrumentation, and also editing graduate theses. More recently, Valerie has been teaching chemistry at El Camino College, Santa Monica College, and California State University at Dominguez Hills. When Valerie is not teaching chemistry, she enjoys teaching sailing, kayaking, windsurfing and skiing.
Elano Galvez graduated from Far Eastern University (The Philippines) with a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry. In addition to gaining his degree, Mr. Gavlez took the initiative to further his knowledge in his chosen field, by attending graduate courses in chemistry at the University of Santo Tomas (The Philippines). His teaching career began as a chemistry instructor first at the University of the East (The Philippines), followed by a time at Colegio de San Juan de Letran (The Philippines).
Mr. Galvez chose to leave the teaching profession for a time in order to gain valuable experience in the petroleum industry. He was able to achieve this goal while working as a research chemist for Saudi Arabian American Oil Company, in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Also, during his time in the Middle East, he was employed as a chemistry staff at Sultan Qaboos University (Sultanate of Oman) from 1986 to 1996.
Currently, Mr. Galvez is employed as a Senior Chemist for the California Department Public Health (Los Angeles, California). His foremost passion has always been to be an educator. He seeks to provide his students with a solid foundation in chemistry, so that they may use this knowledge to achieve whatever goals they so desire. He is currently able to accomplish this goal while working as an Instructional Assistant in the Chemistry Department of Los Angeles Community College (Culver City, California) and as a general chemistry lab instructor at the Integrated Science Program (ISP).
MICROBIOLOGY
George W Agak Ph.D, is currently a Postdoctoral research fellow at the Children Hospital Oakland Research Institute (CHORI), Center for Immunobiology and Vaccine development. He holds a Ph.D in Immunology from the University of Lausanne (Switzerland) and an MS in Immunology of Infectious diseases from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine- University of London.
Dr. Agak is actively involved in multidisciplinary research programme encompassing parasitology, bacteriology, immunology, protein chemistry and epidemiology. He is a scientist with drive to apply experimental and modeling methods to an understanding of pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of novel drugs, monoclonal antibodies and vaccine candidates. Through 'Reverse vaccinology' coupled with bioinformatics, he and others recently identified novel vaccine antigens targeting the malaria parasite. These antigens are currently undergoing clinical trials prior to licensure. His current research is aimed at developing a vaccine targeting Bacterial Meningitis serogroup B. He has several scientific publications in peer-reviewed journals.
Dr. Agak has taught cell and molecular biology, Immunology and Microbiology units at both the University and college level. He currently teaches Medical Microbiology at West LA College and Cypress Colleges in California. Dr. agak is a member of the British and American Societies of Immunology. He is the ISP Microbiology course lecture instructor.
Jeré Annette Wilson M.S, is an ISP laboratory instructor in microbiology and human biology. She is a graduate of California State Polytechnic University with a B.S in Biology and a M.S from California State, Los Angeles in Biology, with an emphasis in microbiology. Jeré has a strong laboratory research background in molecular and microbiology. She also has research experience in immunology at University California, Irvine where she studied herpes simplex virus (HSVI and HSVII) and is currently researching bacterial essential genes as targets for multi-drug resistant pathogens at Cal State University Los Angeles (CSULA). Jeré has tutored chemistry courses at the college level. She is very passionate about teaching and wishes to have a positive impact on her student’s lives. Jeré plans to pursue her MPH and DrPH in public health.
ORGANIC CHEMISTRY
Samuel Biggers is the ISP lecture instructor for Organic Chemistry. Sam earned a BS degree in biochemistry in 1984 from the University of California at Berkeley (UCB). He was a student peer tutor for general and organic chemistry at the UCB Student Learning Center during the academic year. During summer hiatus he continued to work with colleagues at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) Southwest Regional Epilepsy Center where he had worked for many years. After graduating from UCB, Sam continued this epilepsy research until it was concluded. After this, he returned to UCB and resumed teaching at the UCB Student Learning Center. He also began teaching general and organic chemistry in the Science Institute in 1988. Concurrent to this teaching position, Sam also taught organic chemistry for The Berkeley Review, a California-based company specializing in medical college admissions test preparation. He continued this work for about fifteen years. Sam is currently training for his National Registry for Emergency Medical Certification
Sam is also a professional musician and has played for a regionally acclaimed band called, "Alphabet Soup", as well as a jazz/hip-hop band. His musical performances include: backing the '70's group War and opening for Carlos Santana, Ice-T, The Roots and De La Soul. He also played at the Monterey, Berkeley, San Francisco and Seattle Jazz Festivals.
Xiao Jia, became interested in chemistry after witnessing a demonstration in which silly putty was produced. Since then he has been interested in gooey and flammable chemical reactions. After high school, he obtained a BS in chemistry from North Dakota State University (NDSU) in Fargo, ND. During his four year stay at NDSU, he was part of the chemistry club, where members conducted meaningless but fun experiments such as playing with liquid nitrogen and finding out what things taste like frozen at 77K. At NDSU he worked under Prof. Sanku Mallik, researching a novel way of designing inhibitors for carbonic anhydrase.
Continuing his chemistry education, he recently graduated from University of California, Irvine with a Masters degree in Organic Chemistry. At UCI, he worked under Prof. David Van Vranken studying palladium catalyzed reactions. While at UCI, he taught multiple years of organic chemistry lab and led discussion sections.
Xiao lives in Irvine with his wife and works at an analytical company during the week. On the weekend, Xiao is the ISP Orgainc Chemistry laboratory instructor.
PHYSICS
Asma W. Said, MA has a Masters degree in Physics from Kuwait University, and a B.Sc.in Physics and Applied Physics. During her first year in college one of her professors changed her life by directing her into studying physics. Asma is both the physics lecture and laboratory instructor for ISP. She plans to pursue a Ph.D. in biophysics.
Asma believes that she can make a difference in her students' lives through her lectures and experimental analysis in labs. She convinces her students that physics is not just equations and numbers but that physics is related to all activities in their lives.
Jason Wiedenmann, MS has a bachelor's degree in chemistry from Park College and a master's degree in atmospheric sciences from the University of Missouri-Columbia, with an emphasis in global climatology and interannual variability. He is continuing his graduate studies in environmental engineering in the Viterbi School of Engineering at the University of Southern California. His interests are alternative and renewable energy sources.
Jason has over six years experience teaching at the college level having served as a physics and organic chemistry instructor before coming to the ISP, where he is the physics lab instructor.
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