S
Suzanne Smith, NP
Nurse Practitioner, G. Oppenheimer Center for Neurobiology of Stress and Resilience, Vatche and Tamar Manoukian Division of Digestive Diseases, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA
Suzanne R Smith is a Nurse Practitioner in the Department of Medicine, Vatche and Tamar Manoukian Division of Digestive Diseases, at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. She has been involved in mind-brain-body research at the G. Oppenheimer Center for Neurobiology of Stress and Resilience at UCLA since 2005. She worked with critically ill children and their families for many years prior to joining the center. Her research interests include chronic pain, brain-gut interactions and mindfulness meditation as a modality for various pain disorders. She is also an Integrative Health Practitioner in the Digestive Health and Nutrition Clinic at UCLA. Her clinical expertise is in functional gastrointestinal disorders, offering tools to empower and restore a sense of ease and wellbeing.
She has a BA in East/West cross cultural studies, a BS in Nursing and in 2004 completed her graduate work in the Family Nurse Practitioner program at UCLA. She is a member of Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing and the California Association of Nurse Practitioners.
Jean Stains, RN
Nurse Coordinator, G Oppenheimer Center for Neurobiology of Stress and Resilience, Vatche and Tamar Manoukian Division of Digestive Diseases, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA
Jean has been with OCNSR for 20 years and has extensive experience in research, as well as many other areas of nursing. She has managed numerous human physiology studies for the Center. Her current focus is in brain imaging, looking for biomarkers in chronic pain syndromes such as IBS, extensive phenotyping of persons with chronic pain syndromes and studying the effects of behavioral therapies, such as MBSR (mindfulness based stress reduction training) to improve quality of life in these individuals.