Leadership & Staff

Advisory Board

The distinguished members of our Advisory Board provide expertise and guidance for advancing our work, and we’re so grateful to them for taking the time to help us fulfill our mission.

Datis Kharrazian

DHSc, DC, MS, MNeuroSci, FAACP, DACBN, DABCN, DIBAK, CNS

Datis Kharrazian is the author of Why Do I Still Have Thyroid Symptoms?, Why Isn’t My Brain Working?, and Leaky Gut, Autoimmunity, and Gluten Sensitivity.

He has spent more than a decade teaching non-pharmaceutical applications for chronic illnesses, autoimmune disorders, and complex neurological disorders to health care providers.…

Datis Kharrazian is the author of Why Do I Still Have Thyroid Symptoms?, Why Isn’t My Brain Working?, and Leaky Gut, Autoimmunity, and Gluten Sensitivity.

He has spent more than a decade teaching non-pharmaceutical applications for chronic illnesses, autoimmune disorders, and complex neurological disorders to health care providers. Patients from all over the world fly to his practice in San Diego. He is an adjunct faculty member for Bastyr University California, on the education advisory committee for the Institute for Functional Medicine, and on the editorial board of the Journal of Functional Neurology, Rehabilitation, and Ergonomics.

Kharrazian is a clinical scholar in Harvard Medical School’s Global Clinical Scholars Research Training Program, and a teacher of postgraduate courses for University of Bridgeport and the functional medicine program at Loma Linda University School of Medicine. He is also researching and publishing with renowned immunologist Aristo Vojdani, PhD.

Shannon Garrett

BS, RN, CHLC, CNN

Shannon is a registered nurse, thyroid & autoimmune wellness specialist, holistic wellness consultant and certified nurse-nutritionist. She has degrees in human development, psychology and nursing in addition to certifications in environmental toxins and holistic stress & anxiety management. She is a Hashimoto’s survivor and has devoted her career to working with women who have been diagnosed with autoimmune thyroid disease. She is the author of the eBook Hashimoto’s: Finding Joy in the Journey, and companion guide Thyroid Happy: Tips and Strategies for Abundant Living. Shannon is the founder and CEO of Shannon Garrett Wellness, Inc. and lives in Nashville, TN with her husband and their two toy poodles “Willy” and “Alfred.”

Natasha Fallahi DC, BS

Creative Director/Brand Management

Dr. Natasha Fallahi, DC is a Doctor, Designer, Speaker and Artist. She specializes in healing autoimmunity through integrative chiropractic, functional neurology, functional medicine, nutrition, homeopathy and narrative medicine. She is founder of The KANARI Project (www.KANARIproject.com) a narrative approach that offers natural, holistic care for autoimmunity and co-founder of KOBA Family Wellness Center (www.helloKOBA.com) a private practice in Berkeley, CA.…

Like many of the people she provides care for, Dr. Natasha Fallahi also struggled for many years with “unexplainable” health issues: chronic fatigue, vague pain, low energy, hormonal imbalance, acne, anxiety and depression. Unbeknownst to her, she was experiencing the all-to-common story of mismanaged autoimmunity. She fell into the dark and confusing waters of navigating her symptoms through conventional medicine.

After her own health was transformed by natural medicine, she dedicated her life and career to helping offers suffering from autoimmunity and thyroid disorder. She is passionate about helping adults and children achieve their highest potential in health and wellness – physical, metabolic, emotional and energetic.

Board of Directors

Our board is made up of a mix of experts in the field of healing Hashimoto’s and individuals who have struggled with a Hashimoto’s diagnosis. In many cases, our board members have been on both sides of the table, and understand not only what it’s like to treat Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis but also what it’s like to be treated.

Pearl Thomas

Founder

I know what it’s like to hit bottom. From the outside my life looked perfect but the truth was things were bad. And they weren’t getting better. Physically I felt awful, emotionally I felt drained, and I had no idea why, and all in all, I was killing myself without even realizing what I was doing. It wasn’t until my Hashi diagnosis that I really looked at how I was living – and what I saw wasn’t great. Right away, I stopped going out, I stopped drinking, and I started sleeping more. The post-autoimmune diagnosis me was determined to make health a priority.

The only problem? At the time, Hashimoto’s was considered a rare disease, and there wasn’t a lot of information. I didn’t let that stop me, though! I read everything I could find, and I took every recommendation to heart. That meant cutting out gluten, dairy, soy, and alcohol – which wasn’t fun or easy (especially at first) but in six weeks my levels had dropped by 50% and my symptoms had disappeared. Just like that! Some might call that magic. Others commitment to health. And in six months, I was in remission!

My doctor literally told me he had never seen anyone recover so quickly. And at that moment I realized that if my own doctor thought it impossible to recover that fast and I did it, other people could do it, too. That’s the big idea behind HeyHashi. I want you to have these resources and the support FOR LIFE. I know that healing is possible, and I want to make sure it never seems impossible to you or anyone ever again.

Fabienne Heymans

Founder

I arrived in NYC as a young model and actress at the age of 21. I soon began experiencing adrenal exhaustion, food allergies, head fogginess, and terrible indigestion.

For the next 28 years, I tried to overcome these symptoms through education. I studied alternative medicine, including Chinese medicine, holistic nutrition, therapeutic massage, acupuncture, and energy work. My explorations eventually led to a teaching position at the Barbara Brennan School of Healing, and I taught for 9 years while also working as an Integrative Energy Healer at my own private practice in NYC.

Through it all, my symptoms persisted and even became worse. Yet my lab tests were always normal! Then in 2012, I had surgery on my para-thyroid and almost died that very day. My body was simply exhausted. I was diagnosed with Hashimoto’s by accident that same week — and I discovered that I had been misdiagnosed for most of my life!

I like to say that day in surgery was the worst and best day of my life! Miraculously, I recovered, and slowly found my way to remission. Since then, I have dedicated my life to empowering others who struggle with Hashimoto’s and to sharing what I learned about living a productive and active life with the disorder.

Together with Pearl Thomas, I co-founded Hashimoto’s Awareness in 2014, known today as HeyHashi — a non-profit organization providing a hub of daily connections, monthly webinars and yearly summits for people with Hashimoto’s around the world who are seeking wellness in an era of epidemic autoimmunity.

Stacey Robbins

Coach/Speaker/Author

Stacey Robbins is an Integrated Wellness Coach, Speaker and Award-Winning Author of ‘You’re Not Crazy and You’re Not Alone: Losing the Victim, Finding Your Sense of Humor and Learning to Love Yourself through Hashimoto’s.’

With nearly 20 years of experience with a Hashimoto’s diagnosis, Stacey’s situation prompted her to not only uncover the physical dynamics of this condition, but to dive into the mind/body/spirit connection as well. As she traveled across the country researching information, and spoke with women all over the globe, she found that there were common challenges women with Hashimoto’s faced: issues of self-rejection, guilt, perfectionism, and control — as well as common relationship patterns and common past experiences.

All roads pointed toward needing that all-important Vitamin ‘Self-Love’. This became a vital part in Stacey’s healing journey and the one she invites every woman with this autoimmune dis-ease to take as well.

As Stacey says, “Hashimoto’s is not my master, but it is my teacher — it is not my prison, but it is my path.”

Mickey Trescott

Nutritionist/Author

Mickey Trescott is the writer and photographer behind the blog Autoimmune Paleo (http://www.autoimmune-paleo.com) and the author of the best-selling cookbook, The Autoimmune Paleo Cookbook, a recipe and guidebook for the Autoimmune Protocol.

She holds a BA from Westmont College and is a Nutritional Therapy Practitioner (NTP™) certified by the Nutritional Therapy Association.…

She holds a BA from Westmont College and is a Nutritional Therapy Practitioner (NTP™) certified by the Nutritional Therapy Association. After recovering from her own struggle with Hashimoto’s and Celiac disease, she started blogging to share her story as well as recipes and resources for those on a similar path. As a former private chef, she is passionate about teaching the public about real food, nutrition, and cooking and spends much of her time sharing information about how to live better despite autoimmunity. She lives with her husband, Noah and cat, Savannah on their homestead in Oregon.

Sachin Patel

Sachin Patel is a guardian of truth and a warrior of light. His superpower is taking complex ideas and distilling them down to their essence with easy to understand analogies. Sachin uses this gift to help transform the lives of thousands of people around the world through his organization, The Living Proof Institute…. Read More

Sachin founded The Living Proof Institute as part of his own personal transformation. When he couldn’t find answers through conventional medicine he began to explore functional and lifestyle medicine and it dramatically changed his life.

Sachin is most notably a father, husband, philanthropist, functional medicine practice success coach, international speaker, and author. His philosophy is that “The doctor of the future is the patient” and he is actively doing whatever it takes to keep people out of the medical system and empower them through education, self-care, and remapping their mindset.

Sachin has delivered hundreds of community workshops and his videos have been viewed by hundreds of thousands of people and his online posts have reached millions all over the world. He is an advocate for changing the healthcare paradigm and has devoted his life for the betterment of humanity.

Sachin leads by example and motivates others to take ownership over their own health. He is a passionate visionary that serves as both a teacher and a guide to help people create their best life and bring out their inner healer.

Staff Members

We couldn’t do all we do without the ongoing efforts of our dedicated staff. The individuals below bring their talent and expertise to the day-to-day operations of HeyHashi, formerly Hashimoto’s Awareness.

Natasha Fallahi DC, BS

Creative Director/Brand Management

Christa Terry

Marketing Director

Christa Terry is a brand messaging consultant with a focus on helping non-profit organizations meet their outreach goals. She's also one of the founders of Hello Mamas, an app that helps local moms meet, communications director of Graham’s Foundation, and mom to two small but incredibly loud humans.…

Christa Terry is a brand messaging consultant with a focus on helping non-profit organizations meet their outreach goals. She’s also one of the founders of Hello Mamas, an app that helps local moms meet, communications director of Graham’s Foundation, and mom to two small but incredibly loud humans. Her background include social management, fundraising, and communications strategy development.

Past achievements include writing and editing a full-length non-fiction book – iDo – for Simon & Schuster in less than two months, hosting Twitter parties that launched targeted brand hashtags onto the trending topics list, creating widely-read link building content for brands like T-Mobile, creating and executing on custom marketing packages for brands like GB International (the largest baby product manufacturer in the world), and editing the memoir Four Before Their Time. Her articles have appeared in Boston Magazine, Parenting Magazine online, Blogher, ScaryMommy, XOJane, and elsewhere. She lives and works in Beverly, Ma.

Volunteers

Our volunteers are so vital to making what we do possible! Without them, we wouldn’t be helping as many people as we are today!

Kristen Lynch

Kristen lives in Ann Arbor Michigan, where she teaches yoga and studies at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business. After being diagnosed with Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis at 16 years old, she began a personal healing journey to recover from Hashimoto’s. Since then, she has become passionate about sharing her health journey with others and joined the Hashimoto’s Awareness team as Social Media Coordinator.…

Dana O’Neal

Dana lives in Shreveport, Louisiana with her husband and two children. She was diagnosed with Hashimoto's in 2014 shortly after the birth of her daughter and was told that she would be on medication for the rest of her life with little to no instruction on how to take care of her body moving forward.…

Dana lives in Shreveport, Louisiana with her husband and two children. She was diagnosed with Hashimoto’s in 2014 shortly after the birth of her daughter and was told that she would be on medication for the rest of her life with little to no instruction on how to take care of her body moving forward. She did her own research and completely changed her diet as well as implemented supportive changes to her lifestyle that led to her coming off medication within three and half months of diagnosis. She has since dedicated the majority of her time to researching the vital role that nutrition plays in preventing and managing chronic diseases as well as rewriting her family’s rich southern recipes to fit her gluten free diet. Her passion lies in helping others by volunteering her time, promoting health and nutrition, and encouraging others to be their best self. She has several years of experience being a leader and representative of other nonprofit organizations, specializing in writing mass communications, creating and organizing events to increase member participation, promoting and managing fundraising contributions, and public speaking. She hopes that her past nonprofit work experiences blended with her personal experience living with Hashimoto’s will help to build a foundation that brings a beacon of hope to others in the Hashimoto’s community.

Join our Team

We continuously look for volunteers to support our team with various tasks, both for the organization and events we hold. Please contact us about volunteer opportunities! Learn More

Leadership & Staff

Advisory Board

Datis Kharrazian

DHSc, DC, MS, MNeuroSci, FAACP, DACBN, DABCN, DIBAK, CNS

Shannon Garrett

BS, RN, CHLC, CNN

Natasha Fallahi DC, BS

Creative Director/Brand Management

Board of Directors

Pearl Thomas

Founder

Fabienne Heymans

Founder

Stacey Robbins

Coach/Speaker/Author

Mickey Trescott

Nutritionist/Author

Sachin Patel

Staff Members

Natasha Fallahi DC, BS

Creative Director/Brand Management

Christa Terry

Marketing Director

Volunteers

Kristen Lynch

Dana O’Neal

Join our Team

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A Special ‘Thank You’ to our Partners