Health & Wellbeing Expert Witnesses: 6

Expertise: Ms. Wong is a media-experienced expert on intercultural issues and Feng Shui, an award-winning entrepreneur, a nationally-recognized authority on Asian and Asian-American business, as well as a best-selling author. In 1989 she founded her intercultural consulting and corporate training service and Pacific Heritage Books in 1992, both dedicated to "bridging cultures for better business." Since then she has created and secured a niche as a pioneer and an internationally recognized authority on the U.S. Asian market and feng shui.

Seminars: Through consulting, seminars, training, public speaking, writing, and publishing, Ms. Wong facilitates profitability between Asians and non-Asians globally. Her diverse and impressive clientele includes over 100 major residential and commercial developers nationwide as well as Universal Studios, Motorola, COTY, Nordstroms, Ford Motor Company, AT&T, Bank of America, New York Life Insurance, the Limited, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Home Savings of America, United Way, cities, retailers and school districts.

Media Appearances: Ms. Wong has appeared on OPRAH, LIVE Regis and Kelly (5/1/01), CBS Sunday Morning, CNN Headline News, Discovery & Learning Channels, TIME (7/3/00), NBC, FOX TV, featured in New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, John Naisbitt's Trend Letter, API, The Atlantic, Chicago Tribune, USA Today, Trade and Culture, Seattle Times, Asian Week, and over 300 print, Internet & broadcast features.

Publications: Best-selling Feng Shui Dos and Taboos, Feng Shui Dos & Taboos for Love, 2003 Feng Shui Page-a-Day Calendar, Night of the Red Moon (1994), a historical fiction based on the 1871 Los Angeles Chinatown massacre and favorably reviewed in Los Angeles Times, Asian Week, Seattle's International Examiner, and nominated for Beatty Award for children's literature.

The Baby Boomer's 4-Minute Bible: Enduring Values to Live By (1998).

Been There, Done That: 16 Secrets of Success for Entrepreneurs (1997).

The Wind-Water Wheel: A Feng Shui Tool for Transforming Your Life (1996).

The Practical Feng Shui Chart Kit (1992)

She has served as advisor to Random House and wrote the foreword for Feng Shui: Arranging Your Home to Change Your Life, contributed to the Feng Shui Anthology. Ms. Wong's landmark TARGET: The U.S. Asian Market, A Practical Guide to Doing Business, (1993) was the first book about designing, marketing, and selling to Asians in a culturally-sensitive way for profitability, and won 1995 Best Business Book of the Year Award from Bookdealers World.

Awards: A member of Rotary International and 2001-2002 President, Palos Verdes Sunset Rotary Club, she now holds a special appointment for Rotary Image and Protocol for the 46 clubs of Rotary District 5280 which will host the 2008 Rotary International Convention in Los Angeles. Ms. Wong has been honored as one of the "Outstanding L.A. Businesswomen of the Year" by the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO). Merrill Lynch and Ernst and Young cosponsored Ms. Wong for INC. magazine's prestigious Entrepreneur of the Year Award. She is also the winner of the IRWIN Award, So. Calif. Book Publicist of the Year and many other awards and recognition from numerous cities and organizations.

Dr. Ernst specializes in Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Competency/Capacity evaluations, Mitigation evaluations, and Employment Evaluations. He is an Assistant Clinical Professor in the UCSF Department of Psychiatry and one of fewer than 35 psychologists in California who have undergone the rigorous examination process necessary to obtain Board Certification in Forensic Psychology. As a trauma expert, Dr. Ernst chose to complete an additional year of fellowship training in PTSD at the San Francisco Veterans Hospital. 

Having completed over 350 forensic evaluations, Dr. Ernst is frequently retained to conduct a diverse range of civil and criminal evaluations including, but not limited to, mitigation evaluations (juvenile & adult), competency/capacity evaluations, personal injury evaluations, mental state at the time of the offense evaluations, violence risk assessment, and employment evaluations. He is currently a Qualified Medical Evaluator for the California Department of Industrial Relations and serves as a member of the Criminal Panel for Psychological and Psychiatric Experts for multiple Superior Courts. Dr. Ernst's past professional experiences including providing treatment and expert testimony as a member of the medical staff of Napa State Hospital and completing VA forensic evaluations on veteran's alleging psychiatric injury from military trauma. 

Areas of Expertise:

Assessment of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Personal Injury Evaluations Employment Evaluations Assessment of Civil and Criminal Competencies Violence Risk Assessment / Threat Assessment Mitigation Evaluations Capital Sentencing Evaluations MSO Evaluations Assessment of Neuropsychological Functioning Assessment of Malingering

Independent Medical Exams (IME) Trial Consultation Disability Evaluations Drug Abuse / Drug Addictions Anxiety Disorders Bipolar Disorder (Manic Depression) Depressive Disorders Panic Disorders Schizophrenia Assessments Violence Evaluations

Alameda Office 1402 Park St., Suite C Alameda, CA 94501 Telephone: 415-913-8096

View Dr. Ernst's Consulting Profile.

James Patrick Murphy, MD, MMM, FASAM, is a fellowship trained (Mayo Clinic) board certified Anesthesiologist with subspecialty board certifications in Pain Medicine and Addiction Medicine. Dr. Murphy has a Master of Medical Management degree (MMM) from the University of Southern California, Marshall School of Business.

Background Experience:  Dr. Murphy is the president and founder of a private practice in the specialties of Pain Medicine (since 1998) and Addiction Medicine (since 2004), and serves on the faculty in the Anesthesiology Department of the University of Louisville School of Medicine. He has served as a United States Naval Flight Surgeon, Anesthesiologist, Medical School faculty (Mayo Clinic and University of Louisville), Pain Medicine specialist (interventional pain procedures and medication management), and Addiction Medicine Specialist.

Dr. Murphy is a past president of the Greater Louisville Medical Society and is president elect of the Kentucky Society of Addiction Medicine. He currently serves as the American Society of Addiction Medicine's representative on the American Medical Association's Pain Care Task Force. Dr. Murphy is also on the board of the Kentucky Harm Reduction Coalition (i.e. Narcan distribution and training) and serves as a task force work group member of the Kentucky Department for Public Health's Displaced Opioid Patient Workgroup.

Litigation Support: Dr. Murphy provides expert witness services to attorneys representing both plaintiff and defendant. He is particularly adept at defining "legitimate medical purpose in the usual course of professional practice." His services include medical records review, thorough reporting, depositions, and trial testimony as needed.

Areas of Medicolegal Expertise: 

Anesthesiology Pain Management Interventional Pain Management / Epidurals Addiction Medicine Chronic Pain Pain Medicine Medication Assisted Treatment Opioids

Medical Standard of Care Substance Abuse Suboxone Negligent Prescription DEA MAT Controlled Substances Medical Board Regulations

View Dr. Murphy's Consulting Profile.

Michael Levittan, Ph.D. is an Expert Witness, Psychotherapist, Media Consultant, and Lecturer at UCLA Extension and California Graduate Institute. Dr. Levittan works as an expert witness on cases involving domestic violence, child abuse, post-traumatic stress, anger issues, child custody, school violence. He is director of a certified Domestic Violence/Anger Management program and has numerous articles published on violence and abuse.

Dr. Levittan presents at UCLA, National Alliance on Mental Illness, L.A. Superior Court, U.S. Marines, Hillsides Children's Home, Loyola Marymount Univ, International Conference on Violence, Abuse, Trauma, California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists, Grief & Loss Conference, The Maple Center, Womens Shelters.

Dr. Levittan's website: www.michaellevittan.com.

Hanny Lightfoot-Klein is an acknowledged expert on the topic of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), Forced Marriage and Honor Killing of women in Africa. She now devotes a considerable part of her time to making the knowledge and insights she has accumulated over the past 25 years of service as an Expert Witness in Immigration Court (in the United States and Europe.)

Ms. Lightfoot-Klein provides written affidavits, telephonic testimony and/or court appearance for asylum seekers threatened with removal back to their own countries, where they and/or their daughters may be subjected to:

Genital Mutilation (FGM)

Honor Killing

Forced Marriage

Rape and other forms of Physical Abuse

Ms. Lightfoot-Klein has published her research findings in four books an has won an award for "Outstanding Ethnographic Scholarship in Sexology" for her book entitled "Prisoners of Ritual". She was also a finalist for the "June Roth Memorial Book Award for Excellence in Writing on Health and Medicine", presented by the American Society of Journalists and Authors for A Woman's Odyssey into Africa.

Ms. Lightfoot-Klein received her Masters of Arts degree in Social Psychology from the American University in Washington, D.C. in 1959 and her Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from the George Washington University in Washington, D.C. in 1950.

Between 1979 and 1984, she spent a total of 32 months of self-motivated, concentrated field research in Sudan, Kenya, and Egypt, studying female genital mutilation (FGM). The geographic area of her most intensive research was northern and central Sudan, where the practices are particularly severe and ubiquitous. A considerable portion of this time was also devoted to researching the practices in Kenya.

Mark A. Smith, MD, MBA, FACS, FACHE, CPHQ, is an independent senior Healthcare Consultant and a Practicing Vascular Surgeon as a Clinical Assistant Professor of Surgery at the University of California, Irvine. Dr. Smith previously served as the Chief Medical Officer with Morrisey Associates Inc/ Morcare LLC for six years. He is a member of HG Healthcare Consultants LLC. Dr. Smith brings over 30 years of clinical practice and hospital management experiences to his work with physicians and hospitals across the United States. He is Board Certified in Vascular Surgery and is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, the American College of Healthcare Executives. He is a member of the American College of Physician Executives, the Society for Vascular Surgery and the Southern California Vascular Surgical Society. Litigation Support - Dr. Smith provides expert witness services to attorneys representing plaintiff and defendant. His decades of clinical practice as a surgeon and multiple roles in senior hospital administration to his work on peer review, credentialing, ED call, and other matters involving physicians and hospitals across the United States. He has testified several times in the past 5 years. Areas of Expertise:

Physician Credentialing Physician Peer Review Negligent Credentialing Negligent Peer Review Patient Safety Healthcare Quality

Performance Improvement Fair / Judicial Hearings Medical Staff Affairs Medical Conflicts of Interest Physician Integration / Alignment Physician Conduct

View Dr. Smith's Consulting Profile.