Jerry is a neuropsychopharmacologist specializing in clinical and preclinical psychotherapeutic drug development. Since obtaining his Ph.D. in pharmacology at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, and a postdoctoral fellowship with Nobel Laureate, Arvid Carlsson, at the University of Göteborg, Sweden, he has had a variety of work experiences including: teaching medical school at the University of Ibadan in Nigeria; clinical and pharmacology/toxicology review for Investigational New Drugs at the FDA; and 8 years in the pharmaceutical industry in the U.S. and Sweden.  Jerry was Chief of the Psychopharmacology Research Program at the National Institute of Mental Health from 1991 until June 2000.   He was recently appointed Scientific Advisor to the Institute of Mental Health Research at the Royal Ottawa Hospital in Canada and is on the Advisory Board of the American Botanical Council and the Editorial Board of the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine and the Journal of American Herbals Guild.  He has been a member of the NIH Initial Review Group of the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM).   Jerry initiated the 1998 NIH workshop entitled  “Omega-3 fatty essential fatty acids and psychiatric disorders” and the NIH multicenter controlled clinical trials of St. John’s wort in major depression, Ginkgo biloba in senile dementia, and the Systematic Treatment Enhancement Program for Bipolar Disorder (STEP-BD).  His present interest is in the integration of mainstream psychiatry with nutritional and botanical interventions for the treatment of severe and chronic mental disorders.  He has written articles on the importance of essential fatty acids for mental health and during pregnancy and on the antidepressant effects of St. John's Wort. He is a member of the Bahá'í Faith, a world-wide religion that affirms the fundamental importance of nutritional and spiritual components of healing as well as conventional medicine in the treatment and prevention of disease.