Staff
Natasha Smikles
Director of Impact & OperationsNatasha is an experienced mental health clinician with nearly two decades of expertise in the field. She co-founded DBT Winnipeg and the Mental Health Collective, initiatives dedicated to providing mental health treatment and fostering collaboration among professionals. Natasha holds a Master of Science in Psychology and Neuroscience of Mental Health from King's College London and a Bachelor of Science in Psychiatric Nursing from Brandon University. In recent years, Natasha has specialized in metabolic therapies for mental health. After successfully using ketogenic metabolic therapy to manage her own ADHD, she has integrated these innovative strategies to enhance client outcomes. As a passionate advocate in the field, Natasha is excited to contribute her knowledge and expertise by joining the Metabolic Collective.
Robyn Dobbins
Community CoordinatorRobyn joins Metabolic Collective with personal experience in managing bipolar disorder, depression, and OCD through a low-carb, ketogenic diet. As the owner of Harbinger of Health, LLC, she supports others on their unique metabolic healing journeys, emphasizing the importance of community and connection for lasting change. She is certified by the Nutrition Network and trained in Ketogenic Diets for Mental Health by Dr. Georgia Ede. In addition, she is the host of Ketobiography—a podcast dedicated to sharing stories of hope and healing through metabolic therapy. Robyn is a member of the Society of Metabolic Health Practitioners and continues to expand her knowledge and expertise, striving to empower others toward better health.
Emily Harari
Community CoordinatorEmily is a clinical operations professional with experience scaling research for biotechnology startups. She's also an executive board member at the Patient Centric Sampling Interest Group (PCSIG), where she's making at-home biomarker testing more accessible. After her grandparents were diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, Emily discovered metabolic psychiatry and neurology, using the same approaches to reverse her pre-diabetes. These lifestyle interventions also supported her through medication tapering. Emily is passionate about empowering patients and encourages them to join scientific research through her blog, The Patient Scientist (www.emilyharari.com).
Clinical & Science Advisors
Christopher M. Palmer, MD
Dr. Palmer is a Harvard psychiatrist and researcher working at the interface of metabolism and mental health. He is the Founder and Director of the Metabolic and Mental Health Program at McLean Hospital and Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. For 30 years, he has held administrative, educational, research, and clinical roles in psychiatry. He has been pioneering the use of the medical ketogenic diet in the treatment of psychiatric disorders. In his book, Brain Energy, he proposes that mental disorders can be understood as metabolic disorders affecting the brain, which has received international recognition.
Matthew CL Phillips, FRACP
Dr. Phillips is a neurologist and the current Director of Neurology at Waikato Hospital, Hamilton, New Zealand. His foremost passion is to explore the potential feasibility, safety, and efficacy of metabolic strategies, particularly fasting and ketogenic diet protocols, in creating alternate metabolic states that may benefit people with a variety of neurological disorders. His team conducted the world’s first randomized trials of a ketogenic diet in people with Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s, and published the first application of metabolic strategies in people with Huntington’s and ALS. He is also investigating the impact of intensive, multimodal ketogenic metabolic therapy programs in people with glioblastoma.
Martin Picard, PhD
Dr. Picard's life is dedicated to empowering individuals to achieve their full health potential. Through his research at Columbia University, he has bridged mitochondrial biology, bioenergetics, and aging science with psychosocial sciences, contemplative practices, and mitochondrial medicine, creating a rigorous interdisciplinary research program. Building on the field of mitochondrial psychobiology he has pioneered, Dr. Picard now leads the emerging discipline of Healing Science. He is the author of the forthcoming book ENERGY (2027). Partnering with visionary leaders and domain experts, he develops large-scale, socio-scientific initiatives that drive cultural and scientific transformation toward a more inspiring, compassionate, and healthier world.
Nirosha J. Murugan, PhD
Dr. Murugan is a biophysicist and Canada Research Chair at Wilfrid Laurier University, where she leverages the fundamentals of physics to reshape our understanding of health, resilience, and disease. As co-founder and CEO of HelioFlux Inc., she builds light-based technologies for ultra-early detection of cancer and changes in brain health, revealing new ways to monitor our body’s energetic landscape. Her vision is to translate the physics of life into a shared understanding, through education and accessible applied tools that empower people and communities to approach their health with clarity, confidence, and agency.
Nicole Laurent, LMHC
Nicole is a Washington-licensed mental health counselor whose work focuses on supporting individuals using ketogenic metabolic therapy for mental health. She operates Mental Health Keto, where she provides an online program delivering ketogenic and metabolic lifestyle interventions supporting psychiatric recovery. Nicole is also the founder of Brain Fog Recovery Source, a nonprofit dedicated to reducing wait times and improving access to ketogenic-based support for people with serious mental illness. She is actively engaged in research, education, and public advocacy to expand safe, equitable access to metabolic approaches in mental health care.
Iain Campbell, PhD
"A bipolar mind, researching the bipolar mind." Dr. Campbell is the Baszucki Research Fellow in Metabolic Psychiatry at the University of Edinburgh where he completed his PhD in Global Health. He lives with bipolar II disorder, which informs his work from lived experience. Dr. Campbell's research investigates bipolar disorder from a new perspective, as a possible dysregulation of metabolism and energy in the brain. He was a co-principal investigator on a pilot study of a ketogenic diet for bipolar disorder and is a workstream lead on the UKRI Medical Research Council Hub for Metabolic Psychiatry.
Gwenaëlle Thomas, PhD
Dr. Thomas holds a PhD in neurobiology from Duke University, specializing in neuropsychopharmacology. As a program officer, educator, and science communicator, she is dedicated to elevating lived-experience perspectives and expanding access to metabolism-informed mental health care. A long-time believer in holistic nutritional approaches, she entered metabolic psychiatry after joining Baszucki Group, where she helps guide research, partnerships, and clinical impact.
Board of Directors
Hannah Warren
President of the BoardHannah is the Mental Health Communications and Advocacy Manager for Baszucki Group and Metabolic Mind. After putting her bipolar I disorder into remission with metabolic therapies, she committed her career to advancing metabolic psychiatry. Hannah began this journey as a volunteer for Dr. Christopher Palmer in 2022, supporting efforts to promote his brain energy theory. With extensive experience in nonprofit marketing and development, she combines professional expertise with a passion for transforming how mental and neurological conditions are understood and treated.
Eddie Rodriguez
Vice President of the BoardEddie is the founder and host of BrainHeal(th), an educational YouTube channel dedicated to sharing what he and his family have learned and are learning in caregiving for his father, diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease. He is an advocate for Metabolic Neurology, Metabolic Psychiatry and Cognitive Health strategies like the Bredesen Protocol for the prevention and treatment of neurological and psychiatric disorders. With extensive experience in commercial financing, corporate and sales process consulting and leadership development, he combines his professional expertise with a passion for transforming how mental and neurological conditions are framed and treated going forward.
Janet Ebos
Board Member, Community & Operations LiaisonJanet joins Metabolic Collective with a background in education and nutrition. Her interest in neurology was sparked 15 years ago when her mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Over the years, her focus on brain health broadened to include metabolic psychiatry as she sought ways to support a loved one with bipolar disorder. As a Registered Holistic Nutritionist (www.purelyjanet.ca), she has specialized training in ketogenic therapy under the guidance of Dr. Georgia Ede and Nicole Laurent. Janet is thrilled to be part of Metabolic Collective’s mission and looks forward to connecting and collaborating with future advocates.
Wes Braden
Secretary of the BoardWesley is a digital marketer at Virta Health. He's used metabolic therapies to improve his quality of life as he lives with OCD and bipolar II disorder. He's committed to using his background in the startup world to create and grow a movement focused on increasing the awareness and accessibility of metabolic therapies for physical and mental illnesses.
Ann Al-Bahish
Board MemberWith her experience as an attorney, community leader, and public health advocate, Ann assists Metabolic Collective with strategy, organizational development, and governance. She earned her J.D. from Harvard University and her PhD in Public Health from the University of Texas Health Science Center. She has worked as corporate counsel, been a partner in AMLAW 100 and 200 firms, and a shareholder in a high-stakes boutique firm. Ann has long been interested in improving the lives of people with chronic illness and advancing the case for preventative health. She is also a trained spiritual care volunteer who visits residents in memory care and hospice settings weekly.
Garrison Grant
Board MemberGarrison is a mental health advocate, speaker, and Director of Marketing and Executive Operations at MH², a clinic founded by metabolic psychiatry pioneer Dr. Christopher Palmer. After a synthetic-marijuana-induced psychosis at age 19, he used lifestyle medicine and metabolic strategies to sustain recovery. He holds a Master’s in Public Health from George Washington University and a Bachelor’s in Marketing from Siena College, and served as Lead Behavioral Health Specialist in Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s acute psychosis unit. Through his platform Let’s Chat About It and his work at MH², he creates content that integrates lived experience, science, and public health to reduce stigma and advance metabolic and mental health.
Volunteers
Steven T.
Community Platform LeadSteven is a metabolic mental health advocate, coach, and content creator who uses a ketogenic diet to manage and reverse symptoms of neurometabolic brain dysfunction, diagnosed as bipolar disorder. He shares his family’s powerful journey using metabolic therapies to support both his own healing and his daughter Samantha’s recovery from ADHD and OCD. Through interviews, educational content, and high-accountability coaching communities, Steven empowers others to reclaim their mental and physical health using food and lifestyle interventions—including fasting, meditation, breathwork, movement, and sleep optimization. His mission is to spark hope, build discipline, and help others transform their lives through the power of fat-fueled nutrition. You can find his YouTube channel at youtube.com/@MT4MH.
Benjimin Boyd
Community Platform LeadBenjiman is a passionate advocate for metabolic health and a graduate student dedicated to exploring the intersection of diet and neurometabolism. With over seven years of personal experience successfully managing ADHD and depression through a ketogenic diet, Benjiman brings a unique blend of personal insight and academic rigor to the understanding of brain health. Currently, his graduate studies and thesis work focus on ketone metabolism and the potential therapeutic benefits of the ketogenic diet for Borderline Personality Disorder. This is in hopes of gaining both scientific insight and certification in ketogenic metabolic therapy after clinical licensure.
Steven Magaña-Zook
Volunteer TechnologistSteven is a Computer Scientist with over 14 years of software development experience. He was diagnosed with bipolar II disorder in September of 2016 and has tried traditional psychiatric strategies to manage symptoms. He is now implementing metabolic therapies like the ketogenic diet to achieve stability and put his Bipolar Disorder into remission. Steven is the creator of the MetaMood mobile app, which is an innovative one-of-a-kind platform that combines metabolic interventions (Ketones, Sleep, Exercise, Fasting) with traditional strategies for maintaining stability (Mood logging, Daily Gratitude, Appointment Planning, Medication Management). You can download the app from https://www.metamood.app
Grace Johnson
Finance and Accounting AdvisorWith 30 years of experience in finance, Grace provides Metabolic Collective finance and accounting support. She holds a CPA license and an MBA from UC Berkeley. Her career began at Deloitte and progressed through roles in Silicon Valley's high-tech sector. Grace has served as a finance consultant at Google for the past eight years and is also fluent in three languages. As a mother navigating her family's mental health challenges, Grace has been deeply inspired by ketogenic and other metabolic therapies. Witnessing their positive impact on her family, she is committed to empowering others and driving awareness through her involvement with Metabolic Collective.
Sangeet Saurabh
Data and Product AdvisorSangeet joins Metabolic Collective to support CRM and qualitative analysis, driven by his passion for leveraging data, technology, and medical science to transform chronic disease management. Sangeet's journey began in the high-tech industry, where he successfully led product initiatives at companies like Webex and Replicon, making them market leaders. Transitioning to healthcare, he developed algorithms and data-driven wearable products to improve outcomes for obesity, COPD, digestive, diabetes, and mental health patients. He is excited to support Metabolic Collective's mission to advance mental and neurological health through metabolic improvements.
Kristina Cook
Volunteer CoordinatorKristina became passionate about metabolic therapies and the power of nutrition as both prevention and treatment for chronic illnesses and psychiatric conditions after witnessing her daughter achieve rapid remission from bipolar disorder through a whole foods ketogenic diet. Her family’s remarkable health transformation using food as medicine inspired her to pursue further education in nutrition and metabolic health. As a dedicated advocate for these life-changing therapies, Kristina is committed to raising awareness, expanding access, and empowering others to take charge of their physical and mental well-being through dietary and lifestyle strategies.
Stacey Schott
Volunteer CoordinatorStacey is a former attorney and functional medicine nutritionist with a Master’s degree in Functional Medicine and Nutrition. In 2023, after her oldest son was diagnosed with severe OCD, they both adopted a ketogenic diet. The healing they experienced was profound and deeply personal, inspiring Stacey to begin researching mitochondrial dysfunction. She is passionate about advancing the field and hopes to see metabolic therapies embraced as a first-line treatment—accessible to anyone seeking healing from mental health conditions. You can learn more about her work on her website healingthrunutrition.com.