Acupuncture & Oriental Studies
Faculty Biographies

John Barber, M.S., L.Ac. (NCCAOM Dipl. C.H., Dipl. Ac.)

John Barber is Department Chair for Clinical Skills in the Acupuncture Program. He is NCCAOM Board Certified in both Acupuncture and Chinese Herbology. As Chair for Clinical Skills he oversees all practical application classes, including those covering Tui Na, point location, tongue and pulse diagnosis, needle techniques, adjunctive therapies, auricular acupuncture and communication skills. He teaches Diagnostic and Clinical Skills of Acupuncture I, Diagnostic and Clinical Skills of Acupuncture III, TCM Assessment and Treatment and is a Clinic Supervisor.

His private practice in Staten Island focuses on rheumatology and neurology. Barber was on the faculty of Pacific College, where he supervised needling labs and taught Clinical Assistant Diagnosis and Evaluation. He is CCAOM certified to administer the Clean Needle Technique (CNT) exam, part of the licensing process for acupuncturists.

He is a graduate of Pacific College of Oriental Medicine in New York, and was in its first class to receive an M.S. in Oriental Medicine. His post-graduate studies include several seminars with Matt Callison, L.Ac. who has an upcoming book on sports medicine acupuncture. He has also studied with Philippe Sionneau and has been studying with Jeffrey Yuen since joining the Swedish Institute faculty. While attending San Diego State University for an undergraduate degree in physical education, he began his studies of Eastern healing disciplines at one of the first schools in the country to teach the internal martial arts. Before deciding to attend acupuncture school, he learned Shiatsu at Ohashi Institute and was a private student of the well-known Alexander teacher Anne Hammel.

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Francesca Biryukov, M.S., L.Ac. (NCCAOM Dipl. C.H., Dipl. Ac.), L.M.T.

Francesca Biryukov is Clinical Director of the Acupuncture Program. She helped develop the Off-site Clinical Internship Program, which has or has had student clinics at The Wellness Center at The Riverside Church, September Space in Manhattan and the Cancer Support Network in the Bronx. She has taught Diagnostic and Clinical Skills classes at the Swedish Institute and currently does on-site and off-site clinical supervision. Her past teaching experiences includes training programs for practitioners of Oriental medicine in Italy and Mexico. (She is fluent in Spanish, as well as German.) She became an NCCAOM Diplomate in Acupuncture after taking its first acupuncture exam in 1985. She is also certified in Chinese herbology.

For over two decades she has maintained a private practice in Greenwich Village, where she incorporates acupuncture, electrotherapy, herbs and Tui Na. Her work focuses primarily on women’s’ health issues, general health issues, and facial rejuvenation using and essential oils and techniques of Oriental medicine. Also active on the political front, she lobbied to pass the current legislation which provides for the licensing of acupuncturists in New York State.

She received her diploma from Tri-State School of Acupuncture in New York as a member of that program's first graduating class. She later returned there for additional credits and earned a Master of Science degree in Acupuncture. She received her massage therapy diploma from the Swedish Institute and is a licensed massage therapist as well as a licensed acupuncturist.

Her continuing education courses include completion of Jeffrey Yuen’s two-year program in Chinese herbology and herbal studies with Ted Kaptchuck. She also completed a course of study in Oriental medicine and HIV with Misha Cohen.

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Sheila George, M.D., C.A.
Dean of the Acupuncture Program

Sheila George, M.D., is Dean of the Acupuncture Program at the Swedish Institute. In 1996, Dr. George worked with Jeffrey C. Yuen to co-develop the Acupuncture Program and was the program´s first dean.

Once the Acupuncture Program achieved New York State and national accreditation, Dr. George left to begin a private practice in Chinese medicine, seeing children and adults. The modalities she uses include acupuncture, Chinese herbs, and nutritional and dietary therapy. She became one of the first acupuncturists to work at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center’s Integrative Medicine Center. She also became an associate of Jeffrey Yuen.

She has also worked at the Institute of Urban Family Health at the Sidney Hillman Health Center, where her focus was on woman’s health and people who were HIV+. Dr. George practiced both conventional and Chinese medicine at the Hillman Center. In the evenings she studied Classical Chinese Medicine (CCM ) with Jeffrey Yuen. She was then asked to help establish the acupuncture program at the Swedish Institute, based on his teachings

Dr. George attended Howard University School of Medicine in Washington, D.C. She completed a three-year Family Practice Residency and a one-year fellowship in Urban Family practice at Montefiore Medical Center in New York. She completed a three-year acupuncture program at the New York Institute of Traditional Chinese Medicine and a two-year program in Chinese Herbal Pharmacology with Ted Kaptchuk, O.M.D.

Dr. George is a member of the New York State Board of Acupuncture and is a faculty member in the Ph.D. program in Classical Chinese Medicine at American University of Complementary Medicine in California.

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Elizabeth Rice, M.S., L.Ac. (NCCAOM Dipl. Ac.), L.M.T.

Elizabeth Rice is Chair of the Acupuncture and Oriental Studies Department. She has taught a wide variety of subjects and regularly teaches Oriental Medicine Energetics I.

She has a private practice on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Most of her clients are women exploring the relationship between physical symptoms they are experiencing and the emotional holdings in their lives. She has found that the use of the Secondary Vessels, in particular the Luo Vessels, Divergents and 8 Extra Channels, can have a profound impact on changing destructive, negative thoughts and behaviors. With the help of acupuncture needles and flower essences from Green Hope Farm, her clients are able to move toward greater self-awareness and self-appreciation.

She earned her Masters of Science degree from the Acupuncture Program of the Swedish Institute. She is a Diplomate in Acupuncture from the NCCAOM. Her post-graduate studies include animal acupuncture at the Traditional Acupuncture Institute in Maryland. Unfortunately, New York State allows only veterinarians to do acupuncture on animals. She hopes this will change, and in the meantime is focusing her care for animals on the ethics of testing herbs on animals. She continues to study the principles of classical Chinese medicine with Jeffrey C. Yuen. Prior to her acupuncture career, she practiced barefoot shiatsu for fifteen years, after graduating from the Swedish Institute’s Massage Therapy Program.

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Susan M. Sachs, M.S., L.Ac. (NCCAOM Dipl. Ac. and CH)

Susan teaches or has taught Diagnostic and Clinical Skills I, Diagnostic and Clinical Skills II, Clinical Observation, Advanced Auricular Acupuncture, Scalp Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine Energetics II. 

A Diplomate in both Acupuncture and Chinese Herbology from NCCAOM, Sachs has a private practice in Queens, with a focus on gynecology and endocrinology. She has worked with HIV+ patients at the Addabbo Family Health Center. Her hope is to set up a holistic multidisciplinary health center in the Rockaways, her Queens neighborhood. 

Sachs received her Masters of Science degree in 1997 from the Pacific College of Oriental Medicine, in New York City. She has completed both Jeffrey C. Yuen’s two-year certification program in Chinese Herbology, and his one-year course in Essential Oils. She has also continued her education with a variety of symposia and seminars on working with women and children. Currently, she is enrolled in the Classical Chinese Medicine Ph.D. program at the American University of Complementary Medicine, in Los Angeles, CA. Her fields of study are gynecology and pediatrics. 

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Jeffrey C. Yuen, B.S., Dipl. C.H.

Jeffrey C. Yuen is the Dean for Academic Affairs for the Acupuncture Program. He was instrumental in founding the program at the Swedish Institute in 1996. He shaped the depth and breadth of the curriculum, which has a focus on Classical Chinese Medicine (CCM) and includes classes in the medical classics, secondary vessels and cultivational skills for practitioners.

In addition to his work at the Swedish Institute, he was a key figure in the development of the first Ph.D. program in the field of Classical Chinese Medicine, now offered at the American University of Complementary Medicine in Los Angeles. He has speaking engagements around the world every year and lectures regularly at the New England School of Acupuncture, Mt. Sinai School of Medicine in New York and the Sociea Italiana de Cinese Agopunctura in Italy.

He is president of the International Tai Chi Institute of New York City. He maintains a private practice in New York City as an herbalist, with a special focus on helping people with cancer.

He is the author of two books, Materia Medica of Essential Oils – a Chinese Medical Perspective, published by the International Tai Chi Institute in 2002, and the TCM Treatment of Western Diseases, published by the Swedish Institute in 1998.

His awards include the first Oriental Medicine Educator of the Year award given by the American Association of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine (AAAOM) in 1995, Clinician Award in Physical Education, presented by the American Association of Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance (AAHPERD) in 1994 for his work with children and the elderly, and Award of Outstanding Contribution to the Field of Oriental Medicine presented by the New Jersey Acupuncture Association in 1991.

He apprenticed for more than 20 years in Classical Chinese Medicine and other Taoist healing arts with Master Yu Wen, who transmitted his lineage to Mr. Yuen before the former's death at the age of 108. He also studied under the direct tutelage of Lu Xin-Zu, a Taoist priest of the Long Men tradition.

He is an 88th generation Taoist priest of the Jade Purity School, Lao Tzu sect and a 26th generation Taoist of the Complete Reality School, Dragon Gate Sect. He is recognized internationally as a master of acupuncture, Classical Chinese Medicine, Taoism, Chinese herbology, Tai Chi Chuan and Qi Gong. He emphasizes the importance of Taoism in cultivating one's life and spirit to prevent sickness, and the use of Chinese Medicine for understanding and treating illness.

He has a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics from Columbia University.

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