Dr. Suppes is the Director of Exploratory Therapeutics and Professor at Stanford University in the School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. At the VA Palo Alto Health Care System, she is Director of the CSP NODES and is the Founder of the Bipolar and Depression Research Program. Dr. Suppes is a recognized expert on the biology and treatment of bipolar disorder, and mood disorders generally. Her areas of expertise include long-term treatment strategies for bipolar disorder, identification and treatment of bipolar II disorder, treatment of those with bipolar disorders and co-morbid conditions and use of complementary medicine. She has recently launched a new initiative to explore the use of psychedelics for mood disorders and PTSD in Veterans. Dr. Suppes has been integrally involved in numerous initiatives to improve evidence-based treatment for bipolar disorders. Dr. Suppes participated as a member of the DSM-5 Mood Disorders committee on updating the APA DMS-5 criteria for Mood Disorders and was chair of the APA DSM-5 Bipolar Disorder subcommittee. Her past studies include use of the internet as a tool to support individuals with bipolar disorder and appropriate management of treatment-resistant major depression.  She was the past President of the International Society of Bipolar Disorders and is the immediate past Treasurer of the American Society of Clinical Psychopharmacology.

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Dr. Ostacher is Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University School of Medicine and Staff Psychatrist at the VA Palo Alto Health Care System, where he is the Director of the Bipolar and Depression Research Program and the Director of Advanced Fellowship Training in Psychiatry for the VISN 21 MIRECC. A graduate of Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, the Harvard School of Public Health, and Harvard Medical School, he completed his training at The Cambridge Health Alliance at Harvard Medical School in Adult Psychiatry, Public Psychiatry, and Geriatric Psychiatry, and is currently board certified in Psychiatry, Addiction Psychiatry, and Addiction Medicine. He is the Digital Content Editor for the journal Evidence-Based Mental Health and is on the editorial boards of Bipolar Disorders, the International Journal of Bipolar Disorders, the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, Current Psychiatry, and Psychiatric Annals. He is the Co-Chair of the Bipolar Disorder Task Group of the National Network of Depression Centers. He is on the Executive Committee and is a Site PI for CSP 590, a VA-wide 29-site multicenter study of lithium for suicide prevention in bipolar disorder, and an investigator for PRIME-VA, a 21-site study of Pharmacogenomics in the treatment of major depressive disorder. With funding from NIDA, he studies, along with Jaimee Heffner, Ph.D. at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, smoking cessation in people with bipolar disorder using a novel online psychotherapy derived from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. He designed and led the first trial of a capnometric device in the treatment of PTSD, leading Freespira to FDA-clearance for that indication.  His primary research interest is in large clinical trials in mental illness and the implementation of evidence-based mental health practices.

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Shannon Wiltsey Stirman is a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford and a Psychologist at the National Center for PTSD's Dissemination and Training Division. In the Exploratory Therapeutics Lab, she serves as co-Principal Investigator for MDMA-assisted therapy vs Cognitive Processing Therapy for Veterans with Severe PTSD. Her areas of research emphasis include implementation science (particularly training, fidelity, adaptation and sustainment), evidence-based treatment for PTSD, depression, and suicide prevention, and use of technology to support access to evidence-based mental health interventions. As a co-lead of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science's Mental Health Innovation and Technology Hub, she worked with a team at Stanford to develop Pause a Moment, a digital wellbeing program for healthcare workers who experience COVID-10 stressors (pam.stanford.edu). Most recently, she has been working on the use of Large Language Models to support evidence-based mental health interventions. She is the co-author of Getting Unstuck from PTSD: Using Cognitive Processing Therapy to Guide Your Recovery. She served on the Board of Directors for the American Psychological Association and as the Chair of the Established Network of Expertise for the Society for Implementation Research Collaboration. She was awarded the Association of Behavior and Cognitive Therapy's Mid-Career Innovator award in 2018. Her research has been funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, VA QUERI, private foundations, and the Canadian Institute for Health Research.

Dr. Boris Heifets, MD, PhD, is a board certified anesthesiologist who specializes in providing anesthesia for neurological surgery. He has practiced at Stanford since 2010.  After completing residency training at Stanford, Dr. Heifets completed fellowship training in neuroanesthesiology, also at Stanford. In addition to treating patients, Dr. Heifets also directs both clinical research and basic neuroscience. His research group studies how new rapid acting psychiatric therapies, like ketamine, MDMA and psilocybin, produce lasting changes in nervous system function, behavior, and therapeutic outcomes.

Dr. Peter van Roessel is a board-certified psychiatrist and Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University. He completed undergraduate and graduate degrees in neuroscience and developmental neurobiology at Yale University, the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology in Tübingen, Germany, and at Cambridge University, UK, before completing his medical training at Stanford University and residency training in Psychiatry at at Columbia University and the New York-Presbyterian Hospital in New York City. At Stanford, Dr. van Roessel sees adult mood and anxiety disorders outpatients and participates in resident education as director of a general outpatient psychiatry clinic, as a supervisor in psychodynamic psychotherapy, and as a coordinator of resident teaching in psychopathology and psychopharmacology. He was an Advanced Fellow in Mental Illness Treatment and Research via the Sierra Pacific Mental Illness Research, Education, and Clinical Center of the Palo Alto VA. Dr van Roessel leads clinical neuroscience studies pioneering rapid-acting interventions in OCD, PTSD, and other anxiety disorders, with clinically motivated research interests including the nature and neural correlates of metacognitive ‘awareness’ (insight) in psychiatric illness, and particularly the relationship between awareness and mechanisms of attentional control.

Wendy Feng, MD is a staff psychiatrist with the Veterans' Affairs Palo Alto Healthcare System and clinician-educator at Stanford University School of Medicine.  She earned the Certificate in Psychedelic-Assisted Therapies and Research from the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) and trained in Ketamine-Assisted Therapy with the KRIYA Institute.  Hailing from the Hudson River Valley in Upstate New York, she is descended from first-generation immigrants from Taiwan, whose families arrived there from China following the Chinese Civil War. She is hopeful for the potential of psychedelic medicines to facilitate healthy interconnectedness and healing of both the individual and the collective, particularly for those with marginalized identities and those who have suffered the traumas of war.  She is a member of the MDMA-Assisted Psychotherapy team at the Luminous Healing Center and will serve as a Co-Investigator for studies at the Exploratory Therapeutics Laboratory.

Dr. Laura Hack is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Director of Novel & Precision Neurotherapeutics at the Stanford Center for Precision Mental Health and Wellness, and a practicing psychiatrist at Stanford and the VA Palo Alto. Dr. Hack completed a combined MD/PhD program at VCU, a general psychiatry residency within the Research Track at Emory, and fellowship training in advanced psychiatry at the VA and Stanford. Dr. Hack's translational research program focuses on identifying bioclinical subtypes of depression and testing mechanistically-guided treatments for these subtypes. These treatments span repurposed medications, neuromodulation, ketamine, and psychedelics.  The ultimate goal of her research is to improve upon our trial-and-error approach to depression treatment and help relieve some of the suffering that accompanies it.

Anna joined the Exploratory Therapeutics Lab as a Clinical Research Coordinator in 2023. She is working on the study MDMA-assisted therapy versus Cognitive Processing Therapy for Veterans with Severe PTSD. Before joining the ET Lab, Anna worked at the Massachusetts Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center at Mass. General Hospital in Boston, conducting cognitive assessments, and coordinating a longitudinal cohort study of neurodegeneration and healthy aging. Originally from Connecticut, she graduated from Northeastern University with a BS in Health Science in 2021.

Catherine recently completed her master's in Psychology (with a concentration in Neuroscience) from Harvard University. A Bay Area native, Catherine completed her BA in English Literature at UC Berkeley, and later earned an AA in Psychology from Foothill College. Before her graduate studies, she developed a robust skill set in programming and data analysis through her roles at Google, Lyft, and Delivery Hero. Catherine's research interests are centered around the neurobiological underpinnings of PTSD and depression, with a particular focus on the use of novel therapeutic interventions, such as psychedelics. She has been involved with the Exploratory Therapeutics Laboratory since 2023, where she has assisted with psilocybin and MDMA studies. She also collaborates with the Laboratory for Neuroimaging & Integrative Physiology at Massachusetts General Hospital, where she worked on autonomic and fronto-cortical correlates of PTSD during wake and sleep, and developed experimental paradigms for NASA. Catherine is passionate about contributing to the broader scientific understanding of mood- and trauma-related disorders to foster more effective and personalized treatments.

Betsy Conlan is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, who joined Stanford’s Neuroscience Health Center in 2015 as a Clinical Social worker. She recently transitioned to be the Behavioral Health Clinician in a Primary Care clinic, providing short term therapy, mental health assessments and mental health care coordination as part of a collaborative care model. Betsy has worked in a variety of mental health settings, including inpatient, intensive outpatient, and individual therapy.  She is completing a 7-month Certificate in Psychedelic-Assisted Therapies and Research through the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) and is trained in psilocybin assisted psychotherapy. She will be serving as a therapist for the study on Safety and Efficacy of Psilocybin in Veterans with Severe Treatment-Resistant Depression. Betsy received her BA from Scripps College and her MSW from Smith College School for Social Work.

Gianni Glick is a Clinical Assistant Professor at Stanford with a long-standing interest in psychedelic-assisted therapy. At Stanford he organizes the Stanford Psychedelic Science Group and teaches an "Intro to Psychedelic Medicine" course at the university and medical school.  He has a particular interest in psychotherapy and mechanisms of change facilitated by psilocybin and MDMA experiences.

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Garrett is a graduate student in the PGSP-Stanford PsyD consortium working to earn his doctorate to practice as a clinical psychologist. Originally from Los Angeles, Garrett attended the University of Minnesota Twin Cities and graduated in 2019 with a BS in Developmental Psychology and a minor in Neuroscience. Before graduate school, Garrett worked at Yale University and was primarily involved in fMRI cognitive neuroscience research examining normative longitudinal associations between the brain and behavior/ cognition. He then worked full-time as a clinical associate in an intensive outpatient mental health treatment center for adults presenting with a wide array of psychopathologies. Garrett has been involved with the Exploratory Therapeutics Laboratory since September 2022 and is assisting in data management for a study of psilocybin for treatment-resistant depression in veterans and helping to prepare for a study of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for PTSD in veterans. Garrett hopes to implement psychedelic science in his clinical practice and is particularly interested in trauma related psychopathologies and bipolar disorders. He hopes that psychedelics may become a useful tool in his therapist toolbox. Garrett is expected to receive his PsyD in 2027.

Sara is currently a Clinical Psychology PhD student at The Ohio State University. Prior to starting her PhD program, she was the Lab Manager and Lead Clinical Research Coordinator, leading studies on psilocybin for treatment-resistant depression and MDMA-assisted therapy for severe PTSD. With over 9 years of research experience, she is passionate about contributing to emergent research on psychedelic-assisted therapies for mental health disorders. Specifically, she is interested in improving treatment outcomes of psychedelic-assisted therapies by examining their mechanisms of action, predictors of response, and considerations for implementation. She also has social policy and implementation research experience, including managing studies that evaluated interventions, policies, and programs aimed at improving the quality of life for currently and formerly incarcerated individuals. Sara hopes to bridge the gap between clinical research, policy, and implementation efforts surrounding psychedelic-assisted therapies. She graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a bachelor’s degree in psychology in 2018.

Maxwell Kelly is a medical student from Northwestern University who is participating in an Independent Study year with the Exploratory Therapeutics Laboratory. Prior to attending medical school, Max graduated from Cornell University with a bachelor’s in life science and agricultural biology and worked as a clinical research coordinator at a plastic surgery center in New York City. During medical school, he has focused his research on opioid and cannabis public policy and its impact on the emergency healthcare system. He has been involved with the Exploratory Therapeutics Lab since May 2024 and will work on projects such as the use of psilocybin for treatment-resistant depression and the use of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for PTSD in veterans. He is anticipated to graduate medical school in May 2026.