VALOR Advisory Board

Christopher Nicholas, Ph.D. is Associate Professor at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health (UWSMPH). Dr. Nicholas’ research focuses on the clinical efficacy and therapeutic mechanisms of psychedelics for PTSD, addiction, and depression. He is currently investigating psilocybin-assisted therapy for methamphetamine and opioid use disorders, ketamine-assisted therapy for adolescent PTSD, and the therapeutic role of memory salience and neuroplasticity with serotonergic psychedelics. He previously served as a site-PI for the Phase 3 Trials of MDMA-assisted therapy for PTSD and his lab often serves as a clinical trial site for sponsored multi-site clinical trials. In addition to research, Dr. Nicholas is faculty UW Master’s Program in Psychoactive Pharmaceutical Investigation and provides consultation on psychedelic facilitation, implementation, and harm reduction. He is also director of the UW Pain Psychology Recovery Service for patients with comorbid addiction and chronic pain. Dr. Nicholas earned his Ph.D. in clinical psychology and neuroscience at the University of Tennessee; and completed his post-doctoral fellowship in multi-modal neuroimaging at the William S. Middelton VA and served as a research psychologist with the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center at the Minneapolis VA.

Psychiatrist and Director of Training and Education at the Center for Neuroscience of Psychedelics (Mass General Hospital); Instructor in Psychiatry (Harvard Medical School)

Dr. King completed residency in psychiatry at MGH/McLean followed by a fellowship in Consult-Liaison (CL) Psychiatry at MGH and a research fellowship at the MGH Cardiac Psychiatry Research Program. His areas of research include optimization of therapy paradigms within psychedelic research as well as the use of psychedelic-assisted therapies in disorders at the mind-body interface. Dr. King is currently the Principal Investigator in a pilot study exploring the feasibility of psilocybin-assisted therapy for irritable bowel syndrome, Co-PI for a collaboration with Fireside Project, a national psychedelic harm reduction organization, and is the study psychiatrist for a neuroimaging study examining

Jennifer Mitchell is a Professor in the UCSF Departments of Neurology and Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and is Associate Chief of Staff for Research at the San Francisco VA. She holds an affiliate appointment at UC Berkeley within the Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics (BCSP), and serves the State of California DOJ as the Chair of the Research Advisory Panel (RAP-C). Her research focuses on identifying and developing novel therapeutics for drug and alcohol abuse, PTSD, stress, anxiety, and depression and understanding the neural mechanisms responsible for these disorders. She has extensive experience with human and animal pharmacology, hypothesis-driven neuroscience, and clinical trials. For a number of years, her work has centered around the development of psychedelic medicines for a broad range of mental health conditions, including depression, anxiety, and PTSD.

Dr. Lynnette A. Averill is the daughter of a US Marine who died by suicide after years of struggling with ineffective treatments. His life – and subsequent death – shaped Dr. Averill personally and professionally. She grew up very aware of the effects of stress and trauma, including war and combat, not only on the individual who experiences those things firsthand, but also the ripple effects into the family, friends, and communities that experience so much in parallel. Since the mid-80s when he died, there have been great strides in understanding and treatment of trauma-related concerns; however, available treatments fall significantly short and do not work for many individuals. The focus of Dr. Averill’s work is on studying and supporting novel, rapid-acting interventions with potential to save lives. She is a expert in the psychoneurobiology of chronic stress pathology – namely posttraumatic stress, suicidality and rapid-acting interventions. Her research focuses on the fine-grained understanding of mechanisms underlying psychedelic medicines, the effects of chronic stress and trauma, and treatment response with hope of supporting rapid-acting interventions with potential to support people in getting from ‘tolerating existance’ to building lives they truly want to live. She has co-authored multiple recent manuscripts reporting positive outcomes of ibogaine and 5-MeO-DMT treatment among Special Operations Forces Veterans and has published widely on studies of ketamine for stress- and trauma-related concerns. She has received honors and funding for her work from premier organizations including the Fulbright Association/US Department of State, Dept. of Veterans Affairs, Brain and Behavior Foundation (BBRF), the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP), American College for Neuropsychopharmacology (ACNP), Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA), International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies (ISTSS), and the International Society for Clinical Trials and Methodology (ISCTM). Dr. Averill is an Associate Professor in the Neuropsychiatry and Psychology Divisions of the Menninger Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Baylor College Baylor College of Medicine where she C0-Directs the Ethical and Legal Implications of Psychedelics in Society (ELIPSIS) Program in collaboration with the Department of Biomedical Ethics and also Directs the Emerge Research Program. She is a Clinical Research Psychologist at the Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center in Houston, maintains a faculty appointment at Yale School of Medicine and is owner, clinician, and innovation expert advisor at NPSYT, PLLC. She is a founding board member for Source Research Foundation, non-profit focused on supporting early career investigators with interest in psychedelic medicine. Dr. Averill is also a C0-Founder and serves as Chief Science Officer for Reason for Hope, a non-profit focused on mental health and suicide prevention broadly and on supporting thoughtful policy for safe, equitable and ethical use of psychedelic medicines specifically. Dr. Averill also is a Co-Founder of the Veterans Mental Health Leadership Coalition. She served as subject matter expert for TX House Bill 1802 that passed with near unanimous bipartisan support and funds a clinical trial of psilocybin for Veterans with PTSD, which Dr. Averill now leads. She has served as a subject matter expert for Connecticut’s Psilocybin Work Group, the Illinois Veteran Suicide Prevention through Emerging Therapies Task Force, the Texas Ibogaine Initiative, as well as testifying in numerous special briefings at the state and federal level in the US and Canada on matters relating to thoughtful legislation around psychedelic medicine and assisted therapies.

Nolan Williams, M.D. is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University and Director of the Stanford Brain Stimulation Lab. The long-term goals of his research program are to develop innovative technologies and therapeutics capable of modulating the neural circuitry disrupted in mood disorders, OCD, and other neuropsychiatric conditions. His team has been developing neuroimaging-based approaches to precisely target therapeutic delivery and predict treatment responses to therapeutic neuromodulation and psychedelics. Dr. Williams earned his M.D. and completed his dual residencies in neurology and psychiatry at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC). Triple board-certified in general neurology, general psychiatry, as well as behavioral neurology and neuropsychiatry, Dr. Williams brings a comprehensive background in clinical neuroscience to his role as a clinically active neuropsychiatrist. His expertise extends to the development and implementation of novel therapeutics, including devices and novel compounds, for central nervous system illnesses.

Over the past decade, Dr. Williams’ laboratory alongside collaborators at Stanford University have pioneered multiple novel therapeutic and human neuroscience approaches. Dr. Williams has an expertise in psychedelic medicines for neuropsychiatric illness and is the first investigator to conduct mechanistic clinical trials exploring the neurobiological effects of ibogaine. His research accomplishments have garnered international recognition, earning prestigious awards from the Pritzker Neuropsychiatric Disorders Consortium, One Mind Institute, Wellcome Leap Foundation, International Brain Stimulation Conference, National Institute of Mental Health (Biobehavioral Research Award for Innovative New Scientists), Society of Biological Psychiatry (A. E. Bennett Award), along with multiple awards from the Brain Behavior Research Foundation (most notably the Gerald L. Klerman Award and Colvin Prize). His work has been featured in Scientific American, The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Today, CBS Sunday Morning, and the TODAY Show.

Rachel Yehuda, PhD, is an Endowed Professor of Psychiatry and Neuroscience of Trauma. She is also Director of Mental Health at the James J. Peters Veterans Affairs Medical Center. She is a recognized leader in the field of traumatic stress studies, PTSD, and intergenerational trauma. In 2020, Dr. Yehuda established and now directs The Parsons Research Center for Psychedelic Healing.

Robin became the Ralph Metzner Distinguished Professorship in Neurology and Psychiatry at University of California, San Francisco in 2021 and founded the Carhart-Harris Lab in 2023. He moved to Imperial College London in 2008 after obtaining a PhD in Psychopharmacology from the University of Bristol. Robin and his colleagues have completed multimodal human functional neuroimaging studies with LSD, psilocybin, MDMA and DMT, and clinical trials of psilocybin therapy for various disorders, including three trials in depression, - plus trials in anorexia and fibromyalgia syndrome. Robin is currently ranked #2 in the world in ‘Psychopharmacology’ for his publications and citations in the past 5 years and #4 in ‘Brain and Cognitive Sciences’ (ScholarGPS). He has published in The New England Journal of Medicine (x4), Nature, Nature Medicine, Nature Neuroscience, Cell, Lancet Psychiatry, Science Advances, JAMA Psychiatry, American Journal of Psychiatry, and more. He founded the Centre for Psychedelic Research at Imperial College London in April 2019, the first such ‘Centre’ in the world. Robin spoke at the World Economic Forum in 2019, was named among the top 31 medical scientists by The Times newspaper in 2020, was listed in TIME magazine’s ‘100 Next’ in 2021, was voted psychedelic researcher of the year in 2021, and was listed in Vox Magazine’s ‘Future 50’ in 2023 - a list of positive change makers. Robin signed a book deal with Ebury Publishing and Scribner Books in 2023. The book will be published in 2025. His current research at UCSF focuses on the mechanisms of action of psilocybin and psilocybin-therapy.