Alumni Panel - Psychedelic-Assisted Therapies & Research Certificate

Ask our alumni!

Want to know about the benefits of the certificate training and career opportunities? Join our panels to meet several accomplished graduates of the Center for Psychedelic Therapies and Research to learn about their work in the field after earning the certificate. These two events are open to everyone.

Panelists:

Robert Koffman, MD, MPH, is a Retired Navy Captain and the Senior Medical Adviser for Warrior Canine Connection. He currently serves as a board member of Wesana Health, is on the VETS’ Academic Advisory Board, the SEAL Future Foundation, and is the current Chair of the newly formed Board of Psychedelic Medicine and Therapies. As a board-certified psychiatrist, psychiatric epidemiologist, and preventive medicine physician, he obtained his doctorate from the University of Santo Tomas, and his MPH from the Harvard School of Public Health. Among his many clinical, operational, and leadership positions, he was Chief of Clinical Operations at the National Intrepid Center of Excellence (NICoE) aboard the Walter Reed campus in Bethesda, Maryland, and he was appointed as the Navy’s first head of Combat and Operational Stress Control (COSC). A disabled veteran himself, Koffman has dedicated himself to improving the delivery of mental health care in operational settings and is a passionate advocate for increasing access of non-stigmatizing psychological services. He is also a seasoned medical acupuncturist and recognized expert in Animal Assisted Therapies. Robert graduated from the 2020 CIIS CPTR program and is currently conducting research on treating depression in cancer patients with psilocybin, and is slated to soon begin MDMA-Assisted Therapy under FDA Expanded Access at the Bill Richards’ Center for Healing at the Aquilino Cancer Center. With passion, purpose, and commitment, Koffman hopes to champion these essential, healing modalities and medicines for service members and veterans.

Arlene Samen, APRN, in 1997, after 35 years as a nurse practitioner specializing in maternal and fetal medicine, at the request of the Dalai Lama, founded One Heart Worldwide and developed the “Network of Safety” model to save lives of mothers and their newborns in Tibet. In 2009, One Heart World extended the model to remote villages in Nepal and the Copper Canyon of Mexico. Arlene is a 2016 grad of CPTR and has been a TA and mentor over the past three years and is now studying Palliative Care and volunteering at Novamind in Salt Lake City, Utah.

About the Program
The CIIS Psychedelic-Assisted Therapies and Research Certificate Program serves a growing need for the training of skilled therapist researchers who will ideally seek advanced training for future FDA-approved psychedelic-assisted and entactogen-assisted psychotherapy research as well as therapeutic work during expanded access clinic research programs. Enrollees are from specific licensed professions in mental health and medicine.

For more information, see our Certificate Program page on our website.

Please register for this free Alumni Panel.

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Host or Publisher CIIS Center for Psychedelic Therapies and Research