Vimal R. Patel - RPh, CCN, CAd, DiHOM
Chairman of The Foundation for Living Medicine

Vimal R. Patel is the Founder and Director of Time4Health, headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona. Mr. Patel is a Registered Pharmacist, a Board Certified Clinical Nutritionist and a Certified Addictionologist. He also holds a diploma in Homeopathy with additional certifications from the Health Trust Alliance and the International American Association of Clinical Nutritionists.

Mr. Patel is a third-generation Asian Indian and was born in Zambia, Africa. He was educated in the United Kingdom and the United States and attended Ohio Northern University earning degrees in Pharmacy and Biology with distinction.

Mr. Patel’s specialization is in personalized, client-centered health care that is supportive and an adjuvant to current medical protocols. His unique approach lies in his ability to assess underlying issues with respect to restoring the complex balance of the body, mind and spirit.

As an innovator and sought-after consultant in pharmaceutical and nutraceutical compounding, Mr. Patel has been instrumental in developing ground-breaking products for these industries. He has also developed a line of his own, proprietary clinical grade supplements and protein shakes that are sold exclusively through health care professionals.

Gladys Taylor McGarey, MD, MD(H)
President of the Board

Dr. Gladys Taylor McGarey is internationally recognized as the Mother of Holistic Medicine. Dr. Gladys, as she is affectionately known, is board certified in Holistic and Integrated Medicine and has held a family practice for more than sixty years. She is the co-founder of the American Holistic Medical Association, as well as the co-founder of the Academy of Parapsychology and Medicine. She was the first to utilize acupuncture in the U.S. and trained other physicians how to use it.

Dr. Gladys is a pioneer. She has tirelessly pioneered work in holistic medicine, natural birthing, and the physician-patient partnership. Among Dr. Gladys' innovations for natural birthing was the Baby Buggy Program founded in 1978, featuring a fully-equipped paramedical and emergency transport vehicle for home deliveries. In 1970, she co-founded the A.R.E. Clinic in Phoenix, Arizona, where she and her former husband pioneered the integration of allopathic and holistic medical practices, laying the groundwork for the cultural shift of recent years that recognizes alternative and holistic medical modalities. Her efforts worldwide continue to receive international acclaim.

Betsy Bombeck

Betsy Bombeck is a well known community leader with considerable experience in diverse fields. One of her primary interests is in the field of substance abuse. Currently, she is the Program Supervisor for East Valley Access Point of Community Bridges, working with patients with substance abuse, mental health, and/or co-occurring diagnoses. She is a board member of South of the Salt Board guiding the functioning of 4848 AA Meeting facility. Betsy is also the owner of BOMBECK DESIGN GROUP, where she is Involved in all aspects of operating a contracting company, from initial customer consultations, design of home remodels, to successful completion of construction.

As a community leader and in addition to her tireless work in the field of substance abuse, she has served on a number of boards that address issues she is also passionate. She was a Triple R Behavioral Health Board Member from 2006-2011 and currently is a Community Housing Board Member. She was a board member of the Phoenix Women’s Sports Association from 2002-2009, served as its Vice-President from 2006-2008 and also was the Annual Dinner Chairperson twice.

She has been a Charter 100 Member since 2006 and was an Executive Committee Board Member in 2009, responsible for salon committee and yearly activity planning. She works to continue her mother’s legacy through her efforts with the National Kidney Foundation of AZ Organ Donor Project, working to promote organ donation since 1997.

Tony Banegas 

Tony Banegas  has served as Honorary Consul of Honduras in Arizona from March 2006 until March of 2016. He currently serves as member of the Executive Board of the Diplomatic Corps of Arizona. He is the Chief Executive Officer of Rebuilding Together whose mission is to Repair homes, Revitalize communities and to Rebuild lives. Prior to this role, he was the Executive Director of the Colibrí Center for Human Rights based in Tucson. Their Mission is to promote healing and change by working with families of disappeared migrants to identify and honor those who have died on the US-Mexico border.

Prior to this position he was a Philanthropic Advisor at the Arizona Community Foundation for almost 9 years. In this role, he was the Relationship Manager to 90 funds including Donor Advised funds, Family Foundations and nonprofit endowments; he also provided leadership on select special initiatives of the Foundation, including: The Funder’s Collaborative with Hispanic in Philanthropy, Latinos Unidos, The Latina Giving Circle, The Black Philanthropy Initiative, The African American Giving Circle, African American Male Giving Circle, the Arizona Asian Pacific Giving Circle, The Arizona Family Economic Success Initiative (AZFES) and Project SAM (Shared Asset Measurement), a Collective Impact initiative.

Susan Highsmith

Susan Highsmith is a counselor and educator residing in Tucson, Arizona. She holds a PhD in Prenatal & Perinatal Psychology and is certified in EMDR, PSYCH-K, and EFT. She instructs and mentors masters and doctoral candidates, lectures at universities and community colleges, and speaks at international congresses addressing consciousness in the womb and the long-lasting effects of our earliest experiences. She serves on the Association of Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology and Health (APPPAH) Advisory Board and is a mentor in the APPPAH Prenatal and Perinatal Education (PPNE) Program.

Susan has published an easy-to-read primer introducing prenatal and perinatal psychology to young audiences, "The Renaissance of Birth: Changing the Language of Childbirth," and “The First Fairy Tale,” books I, II, and III, the stories of conception, the awakening heart and the developing senses told as metaphors. Book IV, addressing a universal vision of birth, is being published in 2021. These stories are intended to be read to babies in the womb and then again after birth.

Susan has been writing the report of an in-depth study conducted in 2020: The Building & Enhancing Bonding & Attachment (BEBA) Retrospective Study Report. This was a mixed method study utilizing both quantitative and qualitative methods. She conducted qualitative interviews, analyzed transcripts, identified themes and reported results as part of the study. It is due to be published, first as an article in the winter issue of the APPPAH Journal in 2021. Since the demise of Dr. Raymond Castellino in December 2020, Susan has served as primary writer of the overall study report which reviews 27 years of work by founding director Dr. Castellino with children and families at the BEBA Clinic.

In addition to being an National Board Certified Counselor(NBCC), Susan holds a Doctorate of Divinity from the American Institute of Holistic Theology (AIHT) and seeks to balance psychological theory and practice with spiritual and holistic wisdom.

Judith Freilich MD

Dr. Freilich is a psychiatrist, who has been a physician for 45+ years.  She received her medical education at The Medical College of Pennsylvania, the same medical school that educated Dr. Gladys somewhat earlier.. She did several years of post-graduate training in OB/GYN and research in psychopharmacology before her residency training in psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania. She has been Board-certified in Psychiatry since 1991.

In 1977, she began to be curious about holistic approaches to healing and has had experience and training in several, which she subtly brought into her work as a psychiatrist. She worked for many years with seriously mentally ill people in community mental health centers.  Another area of interest is trauma, which led her to The Meadows in Wickenburg AZ, where for over a dozen years she treated patients with severe combinations of trauma, addictions and psychiatric illness.  

Now retired from clinical practice, she is re-purposing her heart and life-long sense of service by finding new voice as poet and writer.