MEET THE TEAM
LAB DIRECTOR
Working to create more equitable, accessible, and culturally sensitive healthcare through research, teaching, and advocacy
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Isabel is an Assistant Professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Nursing, where her research focuses on identifying effective implementation strategies to promote access to evidence-based complementary and integrative health practices among diverse populations. In 2024, she was awarded the National Institutes of Health’s HEAL Award for Community Partnership. She was a Research Assistant Professor at the UNC School of Medicine’s Program on Integrative Medicine from 2021-2024. In 2021, she completed a T32 Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Complementary and Integrative Health funded by the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health. She is the Immediate Past Chair of the Integrative, Complementary, and Traditional Health Practices Section of the American Public Health Association. She was awarded the Academic Consortium for Integrative Medicine and Health’s Young Investigator Award in 2018.
Previously, she was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Texas Health Science Center School of Public Health (UTHealth), with Dr. Vanessa Schick. In December 2017, Isabel graduated from the UTHealth School of Public Health with Doctorate in Public Health (DrPH). As a student, graduate assistant, and teaching assistant in the Community Health Practice program, she worked with professors and students throughout the Department of Management, Policy, and Community Health. In 2013, Isabel graduated from Georgetown University with a Master's of Science degree in Physiology, Biophysics, and Complementary and Alternative Medicine. Previously, she taught 7th grade Life Science in Oakland, CA as a Teach for America Corps Member.
Isabel graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from Oberlin College, where she studied Dance and Neuroscience and graduated with Highest Honors.
DIRECTOR OF PRACTICE IMPLEMENTATION
Passionate about evidence-based practice and practice-based evidence
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I bring broad experience in clinical, administrative, academic, and research settings to the role of Social-Clinical Research Specialist under Dr. Roth.
My path to the MAGIC Implementation Lab began with an interest in holistic and traditional health practices from a young age. This led me to the study of bodywork, nutrition and botanical medicine, traditional and indigenous medical systems, yoga and mind-body practices, and ultimately licensed massage therapy and certification as a holistic health practitioner.
At the same time I studied cognitive neuroscience, human development, nursing practice and management, health systems and finance, health policy, quality improvement, and program implementation and evaluation. Through this time I completed ADN, BA, MSN, and DNP degrees and became licensed as a registered nurse.
I bolstered my academic experience with a range of professional roles including direct patient care in safety-net primary care and orthopedic surgery, administration and supervision in ambulatory surgery and public health, nursing education as academic and clinical faculty in a pre-licensure nursing program, and owner/operator of massage therapy and healthcare consulting practices.
My belief in community service brought me to India and Vietnam as a medical volunteer, and current roles on several professional boards and committees including the Integrative, Complementary, and Traditional Health Practices section of the American Public Health Association, the Public Health Nursing section of the Michigan Public Health Association, my local Public Education Foundation, and the Integrated Center for Group Medical Visits conference committee.
My passion for increasing equitable access to integrative and integrated healthcare brought me to Dr. Roth’s lab where I can apply my diverse skill set to the study of strategic implementation and evaluation of evidence-based integrative health practices.
Frequent Collaborators
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Jessica Barnhill MD, MPH
Assistant Professor Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Dr. Barnhill is a family medicine physician who provides integrative medicine consults and co-facilitates integrative medical group visits at UNC. She researches whole health approaches to improving wellbeing for patients and healthcare professionals.
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Paula Gardiner
Dr. Gardiner is an Associate Professor in the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. She is also the Associate Director of Research and the director of the Group Visits Program in the Center for Integrated Primary Care. Recently, she has joined the Center for Mindfulness and Compassion at Cambridge Health Alliance as their Director of Primary Care Implementation Research. She will also be assisting with their medical group visits.
Her research focuses on group based interventions, health equity, chronic pain, and evidenced-based integrative medicine access in low-income patients. Current research is focused on the adaptive role of an Integrative Medical Group Visit (IMGV) which combines the principles of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction and a Medical Group Visit to support health behavior change and reducing pain and stress. Her research also focuses on innovative technologies such as Embodied Conversational Agents and Our Whole Lives; a holistic e-health toolkit, an online platform that teaches mind-body techniques. Dr. Gardiner lectures nationally and internationally. She has published over 90 reviewed papers on medical group visits, chronic pain, technology, dietary supplements, pregnancy, preconception care, stress, and integrative medicine in underserved patients. She is very passionate about creating curriculum and training for group visits to find out more about her online longitudinal training or research click here.
ORCID
LinkedIn -
Ariana Thompson-Lastad, PhD
Assistant Professor, UCSF Department of Family and Community Medicine and UCSF Osher Center for Integrative Health
Ariana Thompson-Lastad, PhD, is an Assistant Professor at the UCSF Osher Center for Integrative Health and the Department of Family and Community Medicine. Dr. Thompson-Lastad is trained as a medical sociologist and conducts qualitative and community-engaged research focused on the role of integrative healthcare in advancing health equity. Her work primarily examines innovative approaches to primary care, including integrative group medical visits implemented in US community health centers. She also conducts research on the community midwifery model of care, with a focus on postpartum support. Dr. Thompson-Lastad is a leadership team member of the Structural Competency Working Group and a former board member of Integrative Medicine for the Underserved. She is an affiliated faculty member with the UCSF Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health and the UC Berkeley Center for Social Medicine. Prior to becoming a researcher, Dr. Thompson-Lastad worked in a community health center as a diabetes care coordinator and group medical visit facilitator.
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Lisa J. Taylor-Swanson, PhD, LAc, Dipl OM (NCCAOM)
Lisa Taylor-Swanson, PhD, LAc, is a women's health researcher and licensed acupuncturist focused on improving midlife women's health through equitable, evidence-based care. As an Assistant Professor in the University of Utah’s College of Nursing, she integrates evidence-based conventional and integrative healthcare approaches to address the menopausal transition. Dr. Taylor-Swanson’s research emphasizes behavioral health, with a focus on creating inclusive care models like MENOGAP, tailored for underserved populations. She collaborates with community members to culturally adapt MENOGAP: [1] with Latina Community Health Workers to develop Mujeres en Menopausia, and [2] with American Indian/Alaska Native women to develop Waning Moon. Her work has earned her the UU’s 2023 Leadership in Inclusive Excellence Award and recognition for advancing diversity in healthcare.
Research Fellows & Mentees
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Bernice Asante-Nketiah, MPH, RN
Born in Ghana and having followed a global journey through the UK and now the U.S., in pursuit of academic and professional development. I convey an unrelenting passion for health equity and the well-being of underserved communities. My clinical and public health experiences revealed how chronic pain and health disparities disproportionately affect marginalized and underserved communities. These insights shaped my passion for driving systemic change through research, advocacy, and culturally responsive care.
Currently, I am a PhD Nursing student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, committed to addressing chronic pain management, health equity, and care disparities across historically excluded populations. At UNC, I served as a Research Coordinator within the Department of Anesthesiology, supporting several multisite clinical trials and pilot studies focused on advancing precision medicine approaches to pain care. These projects spanning immune, neurological, and psychosocial mechanisms — collectively aimed to improve how we understand, predict, and personalize treatments for chronic pain.
Prior to UNC, I completed a Master of Public Health in the UK, where my dissertation focused on the prevalence and associated factors of Tramadol misuse among Ghanaian youth — an experience that deepened my interest in substance use, cultural health behaviors, and ethical, community-anchored research.
My foundation in public health, nursing, and international research experiences have molded my focus on developing integrative, patient-centered strategies that reduce opioid reliance while expanding access to equitable and culturally responsive care. Through research, education, and advocacy, I aim to help reimagine pain care systems that leave no one behind.
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Melissa Luna De La Garza
Melissa is a physician born and raised in northern Mexico, where she completed her medical training and a year of social service in rural communities. During her year of social service, she was motivated by the challenges of limited access to care, particularly for children, which sparked her passion for public health and health equity. In that role, she also saw the importance of traditions and how people integrated local beliefs into their health, an experience that deepened her appreciation for culturally grounded approaches to care. She went on to earn a Master of Public Health in Maternal and Child Health at the Gillings School of Global Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She now holds research positions that allow her to strengthen and apply the skills she developed during graduate school.
Her academic and professional interests focus on pediatric health equity, with an emphasis on expanding access to care for children living with chronic and malignant conditions. Melissa aspires to pursue a residency in pediatrics, integrating her public health training into clinical practice to advance evidence-based, culturally responsive strategies that reduce disparities in child health outcomes. She is also deeply interested in clinical and translational research that bridges public health and pediatric medicine, ensuring that insights from population health inform compassionate, patient-centered care. Additionally, she is interested in integrative medicine and incorporating cultural traditions into symptom relief, recognizing the value of holistic and culturally grounded approaches in improving the well-being of children and their families.
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Moriah Fender, BSN, RN
PhD Student at UNC-Chapel Hill
Hillman Scholar in Nursing Innovation
“Give someone the shirt off your back,” was an adage I heard often growing up in Appalachia. It was the embodiment of a community truth, that helping one another is as inherent to Appalachian culture as the mountains themselves. With this value as my guiding principle, it wasn’t long before I found a home in medicine — passionate about providing compassionate healthcare for all people. After witnessing my grandmother’s experience with Alzheimer’s, I learned firsthand what equitable care should be and narrowed my focus to rural geriatric health. As such, nursing was the natural progression of turning passion into practice.
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Donya Abosaba, BSPH
MPH Data Science Student at UNC Gillings
Research Assistant in Peds-Hematology/Oncology
Hi, my name is Donya and I am MPH Data Science student at UNC Gillings. My previous research is in injury and violence prevention as well as college campus psychological services. In my free time, I enjoy surfing and going on walks with my dog! -
Mary Jackson, OTR/L, OTD
Mary is an occupational therapist with several years of clinical experience in neurological rehabilitation. Motivated by a desire to improve patient outcomes through evidence-based practice, she transitioned into research and is now a T-32 postdoctoral fellow in the Program on Integrative Medicine within the Department of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation at UNC. She is also pursuing a Master’s degree in Clinical Research to further strengthen her research skills. Her research interests include the role mindfulness-based practices and pacing in the treatment and management of long-COVID, dysautonomia and other fatigue syndromes and chronic conditions. She is also interested in clinical, translational, and implementation research to support the uptake of evidence-based practices in occupational therapy and rehabilitation settings to drive positive changes in healthcare systems. Additionally, she is interested in the integration of mindfulness-based practices into standard clinical care in inpatient and outpatient settings for patients, caregivers, and clinical staff.
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Victoria Yunez Behm, MS, MTS, CNS, RYT
Victoria Yunez Behm, M.S., M.T.S., C.N.S., R.Y.T., is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Nutrition at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health and a Pre-Doctoral Fellow in the Program on Integrative Medicine through the UNC School of Medicine’s Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. Victoria holds dual master’s degrees in Nutrition and Integrative Health from the Maryland University of Integrative Health (MS) and Theological Studies with a concentration in Ethics from Duke Divinity School (MTS).
Prior to enrolling as a PhD student in Fall 2024, Victoria practiced as an integrative nutritionist and taught master’s-level clinical nutrition courses at the Maryland University of Integrative Health. Additionally, she led the scientific and clinical education initiatives at a national professional organization for clinical nutritionists. Her research focuses on integrative nutrition, food and ethics, clinician education, and health equity for at-risk marginalized populations. Victoria seeks to bridge gaps in healthcare and clinical training to advance equitable and effective care for the whole person with nutrition as a central component. She is particularly interested in:
· Food and nutrition as mediators of social connection, identity-formation, and meaning-making,
· Investigating how community-defined values and traditions enhance the effectiveness and adoption of nutrition interventions among at-risk populations,
· Expanding community-based integrative nutrition education and services, and
· Addressing gaps in clinical and ethical training for healthcare providers to meet the growing demand for culturally relevant nutrition interventions.