Palmer Kippola

Founder, writer, speaker & autoimmune wellness advocate

Palmer worked in the corporate world for 25 years and held a variety of sales and marketing leadership roles in the high tech and telecommunications industries. She also founded a literacy program that serves children in local, underserved communities called Reading is Freedom, and she has served on several boards of organizations focused on women’s empowerment, education and world peace. Palmer is deeply grateful to have found her calling in helping people learn how to find new levels of healing from autoimmune conditions. She wishes she had had a resource like Beat Autoimmune as she faced a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis 30 years ago. It all started one summer day after her freshman year in college when she experienced tingling sensations that crept up her legs and stayed. That afternoon her parents took her to see a neurologist who pronounced with certainty that she had Multiple Sclerosis (MS). By evening her whole body was enshrouded in numbness that wouldn’t retreat for two months. Then began the long, slow path to healing.

Strategic Advisors

Aristo Vojdani, Ph.D., M.Sc., M.T.

CEO Immunosciences Lab Inc., & Chief Scientific Advisor, Cyrex Laboratories

Dr. Aristo Vojdani obtained his Ph.D. in the field of microbiology and clinical immunology with postdoctoral studies in tumor immunology at UCLA. Vojdani’s ongoing research, spanning a 40-year career, focuses on the role of environmental factors, such as toxic chemicals, infections and dietary proteins and peptides in complex diseases. An owner of 15 U.S. patents for laboratory assessments, he has published 150 peer-reviewed articles in scientific journals. Dr. Vojdani is CEO and technical director of Immunosciences Lab., Inc. in Los Angeles, CA, the Chief Scientific Advisor to Cyrex Laboratories, a member of the editorial board of four scientific journals, and a guest editor of six journals. In 2006, he was given the prestigious Herbert J. Rinkel Award by the American Academy of Environmental Medicine (AAEM) for excellence in teaching the techniques of environmental medicine. On November 7, 2009, he was given the Linus Pauling, PhD Award by the American College for Advancement in Medicine. And in October of 2012 he was given the F. R. Carrick Research Institute’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

Walter M. Bortz II, M.D.

Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine

Dr. Bortz has practiced medicine and taught at Stanford for over 40 years. He is recognized as one of America’s most distinguished scientific experts on aging and longevity and has written numerous books, including Next Medicine: The Science & Civics of Health and The Roadmap to 100: The Breakthrough Science of Living a Long and Healthy Life. He has written over 150 medical articles for such publications as JAMA, Annals of Internal Medicine, The New England Journal of Medicine, American Journal of Public Health, and Journal of Biological Chemistry. He is also a regular contributor to the Huffington Post. Dr. Bortz is a graduate of Williams College and the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.

Tom Kippola

Business Strategist & Managing Director, The Chasm Group

Tom is a co-founder of The Chasm Group, a market strategy consulting firm. For the past 25 years he has helped hundreds of technology companies and entrepreneurs bring new innovations to market, attain significant competitive advantage and achieve successful exits. Tom is especially passionate about working with health and wellness ventures that help move the needle from volume-based to outcome-based results. He is co-author of the Top 10 business bestseller, The Gorilla Game: Picking Winners In High Technology. Tom also serves as a mentor within Stanford University’s non-profit accelerator, StartX where he coaches top Stanford entrepreneurs. He graduated from The University of Michigan, where he studied electrical engineering and business.

Collaborators

Lauren Parvizi

Freelance writer & editor

Lauren worked for eight years in online media before becoming a freelance writer and editor. Her client list varies, but that’s part of freelancing’s charm. As long as she’s working with kind and passionate individuals, Lauren knows she’s on the right path—and Palmer’s passion for life and for helping others is infectious. Since working with Palmer, Lauren has received an invaluable education in both natural healing and creative collaboration. She is eager to see how Beat Autoimmune continues to evolve and is grateful to be part of the journey. Lauren has an MFA in Creative Writing from San Francisco State University, and she’s completed a Professional Sequence in Editing through UC Berkeley Extension. When she’s not working, you’ll find Lauren cooking, reading, writing, or catching up on the latest Masterpiece Theatre. She lives in San Francisco with her husband and son.

John Constantine

Web Designer

John is a web designer and musician living in Los Angeles whose work with Palmer quickly grew from “web designer and client” to “friends and teammates.” After absorbing the content Palmer was writing for the site, he realized how much value the information had for his own life. His grandmother was diagnosed with MS before he was born, and he spent most of his childhood watching her condition get worse as conventional doctors fell short of providing the family with true healing solutions. John has also suffered from severe anxiety throughout his life, and working with Palmer and Beat Autoimmune has allowed him to make a better connection between his body, mind and spirit. Now, more than ever, John has taken his mental and physical health into his own hands and is using Beat Autoimmune as an inspiring starting point to his own journey of healing.

Meet the Team