Leadership

A Board of Directors is responsible for the overall stewardship of the Avera IHBG.

A Scientific Advisory Board is comprised of Dr. James Hudziak, and members of the Avera Behavioral Health Center medical staff, Manish Sheth, MD, PhD, and Gareth Davies, PhD, along with several other internationally-known researchers and clinicians who will be added to round off the board. Also providing guidance for the program is a Community Advisory Board.

Key personnel

Administrative Director: Ryan Hansen, director of the Avera Institute for Human Behavioral Genetics.

Director of Scientific Operations: Gareth Davies, PhD, assistant professor with the South Dakota State University College of Pharmacy. Dr. Davies holds a doctorate in molecular genetics.

Director of Clinical Operations: Manish Sheth, MD, PhD. He is a board-certified adult psychiatrist and received his doctorate in basic biomedical sciences.

Scientific Consultant: James J. Hudziak MD, professor in psychiatry, medicine and pediatrics, and director of Child Psychiatry and Behavioral Genetics at the University of Vermont. In addition he is professor, endowed chair, on Genetics of Childhood Behaviour Problems, Biological Psychology at Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, and adjunct professor psychiatry at Dartmouth College of Medicine, Hanover, N.H. He is well renowned in the field of genetics and has done extensive research relative to the psychiatric genetics of child psychiatric disorders. Dr. Hudziak takes an active role in driving the overall scientific scope of the IHBG and provides vital expertise in identifying and developing appropriate research projects for IHBG.

Senior Advisor: Paul Lavallee, who has extensive expertise in startup companies throughout the health care industry.