Our Board Members

Patrick Hesselmann spent a successful career as a manufacturing engineer in the computer and avionics industries in Phoenix, Arizona, where, apart from working with the development and implementation of electronics assembly processes, he became best known for helping people work together. During the last fifteen years of his career, he studied homeopathy as an avocation, focusing on Hahnemann’s Organon, developing a good feel for its depth, wisdom and importance in the understanding and practice of homeopathy. He has lectured at the Desert Institute School of Classical Homeopathy on philosophy and history for all classes except the one in which he was a student. After graduating from the Desert Institute School in 2006, he has started a part-time practice of homeopathy at the American Medical College of Homeopathy. He served on the board of the Phoenix Homeopathy Study Group for many years, as President, Treasurer or Secretary. Other significant interests include listening to classical music and learning T’ai Chi.

Patrick emigrated from South Africa to the United States, via England, where he met and married Lesley. They have two grown children, Andrew and Flower.

Return to Top

Sonny Cave, Vice-Chair

Sonny Cave’s professional career spans 20 years of broad legal and business experience, including working for more than 10 years within the semiconductor industry. Mr. Cave currently serves as the Senior Vice President, General Counsel, Secretary and Chief Compliance and Ethics Officer of ON Semiconductor Corporation headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona. ON Semiconductor (NASDAQ:ONNN) is a leading global supplier of advanced semiconductors for sophisticated electronics application within the portable, wireless, computing, consumer, networking, automotive, and industrial end-product markets. It has major sales and operations in the Americas, Europe and Asia-Pacific regions. Mr. Cave earned his Juris Doctorate degree from the University of Colorado Law School in 1985. He also holds a Master of Science degree in Botany from Arizona State University (1982) and a Bachelor of Science degree in Botany, cum laude, from Duke University (1979).

Return to Top

Lesley Hesselmann, DHM - Secretary

Lesley Hesselmann spent the first half of her career as a secretary at Honeywell ending with five years as Executive Secretary to the CEO. She then took a series of supervisory assignments within the organization. For the last six years, she has worked as a technical writer, writing technical user manuals for our proprietary computer systems. She became interested in homeopathy in 1991 when the National Center for Homeopathy started an affiliated Study Group, the Phoenix Homeopathy Study Group (PHSG). She joined the PHSG board as secretary, and served in that position for many years. She became the National Center for Homeopathy (NCH) Regional Coordinator for the southwest region in about 1995 and held that position until this year. She has served on the advisory boards of both the Desert Institute and the Desert Institute School of Classical Homeopathy. She is the past president of the Desert Institute Development Group.

Return to Top

Harry F. Swope, MBA, ND, DHANP, CCH - Treasurer

Dr. Swope graduated from the National College of Naturopathic Medicine in Portland, Oregon in 1989. In 2005, he was one of the initial group to receive a Naturopathic Doctor's license in California. Prior to that, he held an Arizona license as a naturopathic physician. For over fifteen years he participated in efforts to license ND’s in California, serving for several years during the final phase as a board member and Treasurer of the California Naturopathic Doctors Association. With the invaluable support of Durr Elmore, DC, ND, DHANP and others, he founded the Council for Homeopathic Certification in 1991. He has remained on that board to support the organization’s goal of creating a unified and respected homeopathic profession based on shared standards of training, competency, and ethical behavior. In 2005 he was recognized by the National Center for Homeopathy with the Henry Williams Professional Service Award, in large part for the contribution that the Council for Homeopathic Certification has made. He is a past board member and Vice President of the American Association of Naturopathic Physicians. He was one of the founders of the Institute for Natural Medicine. He is a past board member and Vice President of the National Center for Homeopathy. He has recently accepted an invitation to be a member of the advisory board and the Treasurer for the American Medical College of Homeopathy which is being established in Arizona. Prior to entering the health-care field, Dr. Swope had a sixteen-year career in corporate finance and computer systems. At the height of that career he was Director of Corporate Systems in two "Fortune 500" companies. His career in New York City included work for two major pharmaceutical companies and a partnership in a company providing specialized financial consulting to most of the major hospitals in the US. He holds an MBA from the Darden School of the University of Virginia and a BA, “with distinction”, in economics from the University of Virginia. As opportunities arose, he has sought to apply his business and organizational skills to strengthening the infrastructure of the homeopathic and naturopathic professions. He continues to envision a world where safe and cost-effective forms of natural medicine become the first choice of the public and healthcare providers alike.

Return to Top

Darlene K. Atteberry, MS Ed

Ms. Atteberry built her background in learning theory and child/adolescent development at Ohio State University and Seattle University. Upon completing her education, she developed and taught various curricula in public schools and universities for 16 years before starting her own educational technology business. She has authored computer software for children, published educational curricula and has been a presenter at numerous state, national and international educational conferences. Her company's works can be found in museum kiosks, classrooms and on the web. An avid enthusiast of robotics, Darlene hopes her background with computer controlled devices will lead to having a robotic assistant to help finish writing her science fiction novel while it is still fictional! Darlene is a sensible and sensitive educator who has a tremendous sense of humor and a keen interest in helping others.

Return to Top

Jeff Baker ND, DHANP, CCH

Jeff Baker, ND, DHANP, CCH is the founder and co-director of the Maui Academy of Homeopathy. Jeff practices homeopathy on the island of Maui, in Hawaii. He began studying homeopathy in the 1970’s while a student attending National College of Naturopathic Medicine in Portland, Oregon. Since earning his naturopathic degree in 1982, Jeff has been practicing homeopathy full time. In the last 14 years he has been organizing clinical seminars and courses, first in Hawaii (1991-1998), then from 1998 until the present at venues throughout North America. His mission has been to help homeopathic practitioners ”improve in both perception and practice, so that they may be able to help more of their patients, more often.” Jeff is a skilled and dedicated homeopathic practitioner, teacher and administrator.

Return to Top

Iris Bell MD, PhD, MD(H)

Dr. Bell graduated with an AB degree in biology from Harvard University, magna cum laude. She then received her PhD in Neuro- and Biobehavioral Sciences and her MD from Stanford University. After completing her psychiatry residency at the University of California - San Francisco, Dr. Bell served as a faculty member at the University of California - San Francisco and, later, at Harvard Medical School. She is board-certified in psychiatry, with added qualification in geriatric psychiatry. She has published over 100 peer-reviewed articles, as well as over a dozen book chapters, and a monograph on environmental chemical sensitivity. She has received grant funding from the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and numerous private foundations on topics ranging from nutrition in dementia and depression to the neurobiology of environmental illness to individual difference predictors of excellent outcomes during classical homeopathic treatment. Dr. Bell is currently Professor of Psychiatry, Psychology, Medicine, Family & Community Medicine, and Public Health as well as Director of Research for the Program in Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona College of Medicine. She also directs an NIH-funded T32 Complementary and Alternative Medicine Research Training Grant for predoctoral and postdoctoral fellows.

Return to Top

Joie Rowles PhD, HMA, CCH

Dr. Joie Rowles earned a PhD in Pharmacology from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School Dallas, Texas and has over 20 years experience in biomedical research. She has been involved with homeopathy since 1994 and graduated from the Desert Institute School of Classical Homeopathy in 2002. She is the director of homeopathic research for AMCH and serves on the AMCH Board of Directors. In addition to her teaching at DISCH, she is on faculty at Midwestern University in Glendale, AZ.

Return to Top

Website Designer: Cheryl Feng ND
Webmaster: Marcus Yong, Webmaster for Hire at www.Webmaster4Hire.biz