External Advisory Committee

  • Dr. Elizabeth Palmarozzi

    Dr. Elizabeth Palmarozzi DO, FACOFP is the Chair of the External Advisory Committee (EAC) of the CIB-RHR. She is the Founding Campus Dean for the Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine, Montana campus (TouroCOM Montana) located in Great Falls, Montana. Dr. Palmarozzi began her career in a private solo rural family medicine practice. Throughout most of her academic career, she continued to actively care for her patients. Rising through academia, she was awarded the rank of Clinical Professor while at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, and Professor at VCOM.

    Dr. Palmarozzi is devoted to research development and opportunities for students on the Montana campus. Dr. Palmarozzi is Chair of the Advisory Board for the Center for Integrated Biomedical and Rural Health Research, an NIH Center of Excellence that brings together the strengths of the Montana campus, the McLaughlin Research Institute and partnering healthcare providers.

  • Dr. Kartick Pramanik

    Dr. Kartick Pramanik joined Touro University in 2022. He is currently the Assistant Pre-Clinical Dean and an Associate Professor in Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine (TouroCOM), Great Falls, Montana. He assists with coordination and assessment of the pilot project program.

    The primary research interest in Dr. Pramanik’s laboratory is to understand the molecular mechanisms that regulate chemo-resistance and metastasis in pancreatic and lung cancer. His research includes the role of oxidants and antioxidants in cancer progression, chemo-resistance, and metastasis; as well as medical education research and the success of DO education.

  • Dr. Jefferson Kinney

    Jefferson Kinney, Ph.D., is the Founding Chair of the Department of Brain Health and holds the Reg Grundy and Joy Chambers-Grundy Chair for Brain Health in the Department of Brain Health, School of Integrated Health Sciences, University of Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV). He is the Director of the Pam Quirk Brain Health and Biomarker Laboratory and the Cellular and Molecular Brain Research Laboratory in the Department of Brain Health.

    Jeff Kinney's research involves the investigation of cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying neurodegenerative disease. Research projects in Dr. Kinney's laboratory focus on the investigation of cellular and molecular mechanisms altered in pre-clinical models of Alzheimer’s disease, with particular emphasis on neuronal and glia interactions and the investigation of novel therapeutic targets. Additional translational research projects in the laboratory extend to the evaluation of clinical patient samples for novel biomarkers in Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and traumatic brain injury. These projects are part of the Translational Biomarker Unit being built to expand biobanking and biomarker discovery at UNLV and in Nevada. 

  • Dr. Suzanne Phelan

    Suzanne Phelan, PhD, is a professor in the Kinesiology and Public Health Department and director of the Center for Health Research. Dr. Phelan is also spearheading a new program: The Cal Poly Women and Infants’ Mobile Health Unit contains a medical clinic that travels to underserved populations, providing free access to health care and opportunities for Cal Poly students to get hands-on experience in clinical research. 

    Over the past decade, Phelan has secured National Institutes of Health funding of more than $12 million. Her research focuses on weight loss in low-income, postpartum mothers. Other research projects include gestational diabetes prevention, a couples-based approaches to weight management during pregnancy, understanding maternal and toddler feeding interactions, and identifying strategies among long-term weight loss maintainers.

  • Dr. Amy Wisnieski

    Dr. Wisnieski has extensive experience in training and overseeing personnel to conduct research in under-studied clinical populations. Her original research training at Johns Hopkins was in the area of hormones and human behavior. Since her postdoctoral fellowship training, she has worked in clinical centers that specialize in treating disorders of sexual development (DSD) patients. She has published on behavioral, medical and surgical outcomes of people affected by DSD.

  • Dr. Carrie Myers

    Dr. Myers serves as the external evaluator of the CIB-RHR. She is a Professor of Education at Montana State University in Bozeman, MT. Her research encompasses studies of (1) Higher education outcomes for diverse student populations in the K-20 circuit, especially in the area of STEM education; (2) The institutional context and determinants that influence faculty’s implementation of effective pedagogy in the postsecondary classroom; (3) The sociological and psychological underpinnings of graduate student socialization processes; and (4) Assessment and evaluation of higher education curriculum, pedagogy, and interventions.

Internal Advisory Committee

  • Dr. Tiffany Hensley-McBain

    Dr. Hensley-McBain (Tiffany) is a native of Great Falls, MT; she attended Montana State University for her undergraduate studies (in Cell Biology and Neurosciences (CBN)) and then went on to graduate and postdoctoral work in immunology at the University of Washington in Seattle. She joined the faculty of the MRI in August of 2021. Tiffany has recently “graduated” from the CIB-RHR CoBRE center with the acquisition of her first NIH R01 (independent investigator) award of >$3M on Alzheimer’s disease and the APOE4 genotype. Tiffany also directs Touro student research, is a course director for Immunology and directs the Clinical Research Center of the Weissman Hood Institute (formerly McLaughlin Research Institute).

  • Rose Pitstick, Director

    Rose is a Montana native who grew up in Central Montana and attended Carroll College in Helena earning a B.A. in Biology. A career with animals that wove through veterinary technician positions and a laboratory Research Assistant position at the McLaughlin Research Institute culminated in the appointment of Rose as the Director of Institute’s Animal Resource Center (ARC), in October 2021. Rose is continually focused on service to the research community while maintaining outstanding animal health and welfare. She strives to create an ARC that is animal-centered and provides calm, healthy, genetically-sound rodent models for human diseases. The ARC is a source of pride in the care of the facility, animals and provision of expert animal services.

  • Dr. Diane Lund

    Dr. S. Diane Lund is the Associate Chair of Basic Sciences and Professor of Developmental Biology at TouroCOM Montana in Great Falls, MT. She is also the Course Director for Medical Biochemistry and Medical Genetics. Dr. Lund received her BA in Biology from Carroll College (MT) and her PhD in Developmental Biology from the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. After three research stents in the areas of steroid hormone gene regulation, lipid transport, and neurodegenerative disease, she has spent the last 30 years teaching in the Basic and Health Sciences. Besides teaching, Dr. Lund has also been immersed in faculty, curriculum, program, and institutional assessment.

Innovation in healthcare research for Montana’s rural communities by virtue of our:

Outstanding advisors

Unique location

  Medical nonprofit structure

Community support

Unique clinical resources

Unique mission·  

Comprehensive pipeline of faculty and MSTP trainees

International team of supporters to our Institute

A non-traditional home for the CIB-RHR is our strength:  A nonprofit research institute, outside the traditional university system. Our Institute, with its strong partners (TouroCOM-MT and Benefis Health), provides the setting for unprecedented expansion of the research enterprise beyond current geographical boundaries and scientific themes in Montana. There are no other opportunities that match this one, in regard to distribution of the scientific research enterprise, in Montana and few of similar impact across rural communities in the United States.