Our Commissioners

ACHENA Commissioners bring various work experience and peer leadership skills that are essential to ACHENA’s operations including homeopathy, education, public policy, finance, management, fundraising, outreach and communications. The board is broadly represented by homeopathy school administrators, faculty, students and practitioners, along with administrators or practitioners from various fields, like integrative healthcare or higher education, and public members who support homeopathy. ACHENA aims for equal board representatives from ACHENA-accredited and non-accredited homeopathy schools. Terms of service are three years, with an option to serve two, consecutive terms.

ACHENA has developed and promotes firm neutrality and equity in all deliberations with its board, the schools it serves and community participants. Homeopathy schools depend on ACHENA to help them achieve the voluntary self-study assessments of their educational training program. To help schools succeed in this process, the ACHENA board and its participants must mutually adopt broad and flexible checks and balances in the formulation of all school accreditation policies.

ACHENA Commissioners invite you into this partnership of growth, opportunity and leadership to help sustain the growth of professional homeopathy education. Please review ways to Get Involved!

All set to join ACHENA’s team of volunteers and receive training? Complete the ACHENA Volunteer Application and Disclosures and submit with your CV to [email protected]

President (2025, 1st Term)

President (2025, 1st Term)

Karen Allen, CCH

Karen Allen CCH is an experienced integrative healthcare practitioner, nationally certified in classical homeopathy. A dramatic family health circumstance prompted her to change careers from software development to health care. After completing the homeopathic program at Pacific Academy of Homeopathic Medicine in San Francisco, she began practicing in 1994. She received her national board certification in homeopathy from the Council for Homeopathic Certification in 1996. For the past decade, her work has been primarily focused on endocrine, reproductive and fertility issues. In 2018 she began the development of Trinity Health Hub as a resource for supporting and expanding homeopathy as an effective and widely available therapeutic option. She maintains a small private practice which is closed to new clients.

She is a recognized and nationally awarded thought leader, whose leadership and teaching has been influential for a generation of homeopaths. In 2015, she received the Henry L Williams Professional Service award from the National Center for Homeopathy. For more detail, read this interview from National Center for Homeopathy 2017. 

As an educator, Karen’s training offers a strong emphasis in clinical efficacy, using homeopathy and other integrative therapeutics to broaden practitioner skills.

As an advocate for credentialing within integrative healthcare, Karen served as a board member and past president of the Council for Homeopathic Certification (CHC). In 2013, she was awarded the distinctive Defining Our Profession award from the board of the CHC for contributions to the profession.

From 2012 through 2015, she served as Education Director for Homeopaths without Borders (NA) focusing on establishment of a self sustaining homeopathic profession in Haiti. During 4 trips to Haiti in 2012, she developed and taught the foundational materials for a text that develops the skill set of Homeopathe Communitaire for Haitians.

From 2013 through 2015, Karen served on the Board of Directors for the Integrative Health Policy Consortium( IHPC) as a representative for the National Center for Homeopathy as a Partner for Health. She currently is a member of the IHPC’s biofield committee.

Vice President (2024, 1st term)

Vice President (2024, 1st term)

Paul Saunders, PhD, ND

Paul Richard Saunders, PhD, ND, graduated from Duke University with a PhD, an ND from Canadian College, and completed a second ND and Homeopathic Medicine Residency at National College in Portland, Oregon over 30 years ago. He uses the full range of naturopathic therapies, enjoys helping patients with unusual cases, and has found homeopathic medicine to be a powerful treatment. Quality academic education and clinical experience are essential to good patient care.

Treasurer (2024, 1st term)

Treasurer (2024, 1st term)

Deb Fox, CCH, RCST, BCPP

Deb is a Classical Certified Homeopath with the Council for Homeopathic Certification, Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapist, and Board-Certified Polarity Therapist. She combines homeopathy, polarity therapy and biodynamic craniosacral therapy to provide a comprehensive model of holistic care to her clients. She is passionate about helping others live meaningful and healthy lives  and inspires her clients and students to take control of their health through education.  As a former CPA, she has experience with all facets of financial accounting and tax preparation.

Secretary (2026, 1st term)

Secretary (2026, 1st term)

Martha DeMarco CCH, RS Hom (NA), TFT (Adv)

Martha has enjoyed a private practice in homeopathy since 2012.  In addition to classical homeopathic services, Martha employs the use of Polarity Analysis and offers gemmotherapy, Bach flower remedies, and TFT as adjunct therapies. She graduated with honors from the Professional Homeopathic Healer Program at the Teleosis Homeopathic Collaborative in Massachusetts.  Prior to studying homeopathy, Martha had careers in public relations and human resources.  She holds a BA in English from Skidmore College.  Martha served on the Board of Directors for the Council for Homeopathic Certification from 2015 – 2018, and is looking forward to serving as a Commissioner at ACHENA. Martha is passionate about homeopathy and supporting its infrastructure and future sustainability.  She was raised with a solid foundation in energy healing, as her father, Dr. Roger Callahan, founded thought field therapy (TFT) in the 1970s.  When she decided to embark on a new career after her daughters were grown, homeopathy was a natural fit.

Commissioner (2026, 1st term)

Commissioner (2026, 1st term)

Anna Balazy, Phd, CCH

Anna is a board certified homeopath. She received her certification from the Council for Homeopathic Certification (CCH) in 2022. She is a graduate of Homeopathy School International. Anna has a PhD in Chemical Engineering from Warsaw University of Technology, Poland and she worked for 10 years as a Research Engineer. She became intrigued by homeopathy after one of her family members experienced a remarkable health improvement as a result of homeopathic treatment. Anna’s dream is that many more people discover the benefits of homeopathy and have access to qualified homeopaths.

Commissioner (2026, 1st term)

Commissioner (2026, 1st term)

Dor Remsen

Dor Remsen currently serves as Secretary and Used Book Manager on the Board of the Florida Homeopathic Society.  She leads the Lake County Homeopathic Study Group, which meets monthly in Mt Dora, Florida, as well as a second study group that meets twice a month in Clermont where she lives. In 1993, she founded the study group in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania. Dor attended the National Center for Homeopathy Summer School, taking almost every course offered during a five-year period.  She has written articles for Homeopathy Today and continues to review books for NCH’s quarterly publication. Dor is a retired Managing Editor.  In 1998 she wrote and edited the 300-page Leader’s Handbook used by internationally accredited breastfeeding counselors of La Leche League International (LLLI).  From 1994 to 1998, she wrote, edited and managed the layout of Leaven, LLLI’s monthly, later quarterly, journal.  In 2012, she retired from her Advancement Research and editing position at Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania.

Commissioner (2025, 1st term)

Commissioner (2025, 1st term)

Deanndra Dawn

Deanndra attended school in Calgary at the Western College of Homeopathic Medicine and has been a Certified Classical Homeopath with the CHC since 2020. She operates a private practice in Southern Alberta which implements Holistic Nutrition, Meditation and Yoga along with Homeopathy to offer her patients a range of alternative health modalities. Deanndra is an eternal student who is passionate about advocating for, and advancing,            the Homeopathic profession.

 

 

Commissioner (2025, 1st term)

Commissioner (2025, 1st term)

Maryann Ivons (Retired)

Dr. Ivons started her medical career as an emergency room and intensive care nurse before becoming a naturopathic physician in 1987. She has been practicing homeopathy since, while also lecturing at Bastyr University and the Seattle School of Homeopathy and serving as Dean of Academic Affairs for the American Medical College of Homeopathy. Maryann is the author of Homeopathy for Nurses and a contributor to Vogel and Krucoff’s Integrative Cardiology.

Office Manager

Office Manager

Meg Whiston, PhD, CCH, R.S. Hom (NA)

Meg’s passion for homeopathy and higher education has deep roots.  She has been an active CCH holder and member of the North American Society of Homeopaths since graduating from the Northwestern Academy of Homeopathy in 2000. She graduated from the Dynamis School of Advanced Homeopathic Studies in 2007. Meg has also worked in Higher Education serving students in several different capacities including Associate Director of Campus Life, Academic Dean, Student Support Services, and faculty.  Meg sees the confluence of higher education and homeopathy as an opportunity for engaging in life-long learning which encompasses all aspects of an individual.  Ever ready for an adventure, she keenly participates in long-distance cycling and has worked on many Earthwatch Institute research projects collecting data on endangered species.

Advisors

Anna Vakil, Accreditation Advisor

Tosin Abari, Technology Advisor

Venkatesh Venkataramanujam, Technology Advisor

Sue Roe

Conflicts of Interest Policies

Self-regulatory oversight is the norm for virtually all professional education in the US, including homeopathy education, and this necessarily involves an inherent Conflict of Interest (COI) for school administrators and faculty who serve on accrediting agencies like
ACHENA. This being the case, ACHENA, like all accrediting agencies, has strong COI policies in place that are strictly implemented and
measured against best practices articulated by the Association of Specialized and Professional Accreditors (ASPA) and the US Department of Education. The ACHENA Board has always been comprised of homeopathy school leaders and educators along with
students, practitioners, and public members.

The following Policies and Disclosures are implemented for all ACHENA Commissioners, Volunteers, Advisors, and staff:

ACHENA Member Conflicts of Interest Disclosure

ACHENA Whistleblower Policy

Conflicts of Interest Policy

ACHENA Commitment Form

CPD Newsletters:

Coming Soon!

ACHENA’s current short-term projects include:

  1. Improved procedures for schools granting advanced placement to students with prior learning
  2. Updated resources for member schools
  3. Expanding pool of qualified peer reviewers

Support ACHENA

Please partner with ACHENA and give generously to help homeopathic education prosper and continue to grow stronger. Your tax-deductible donation supports our mission to improve the quality of homeopathic education programs and improve consumer protection.




Resources

Looking for forms, links or other information? Check out our Resources Page and find what you need!

Thank you for supporting ACHENA by getting involved!

Please partner with ACHENA and give generously to help homeopathic education prosper and continue to grow stronger. Your tax-deductible donation supports our mission to improve the quality of homeopathic education programs and improve consumer protection.

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