Claire M. Cassidy

About Dr. Claire Cassidy

Dr. Claire Cassidy smiling

Claire Monod Cassidy, PhD, LAc, NCCAOM is an independent scholar working on a book called Six Medicines, Six Gifts: Steps to a Plural Medicine. She is a medical anthropologist and a professional licensed acupuncturist (retired).

Claire’s mother was from France, and her father from Jamaica. As researchers and teachers, they inspired her curiosity. Claire married John Rosine in 1975. They adopted their daughter Julie, in 1983.

She has a PhD in Human Biology from the University of Wisconsin. She was trained as an acupuncturist at the Maryland Institute of Traditional Chinese Medicine.

Academic Honors

Phi Beta Kappa

Phi Kappa Phi

Sigma Xi

Clubs

Culinary Historians of the Washington D.C. region (CHoW)

Mount Vernon Miniatures Club

Eistophos, Women’s Science Club

Interests

Icon of a human walking

Walking

Icon of a hand holding a plant growing

Gardening

Icon of a house partially filled in with bricks

Building miniature dioramas

Icon of a human head thinking about science

Exploring ideas: science as fun

In this miniature diorama is a scene of mermaid family life underwater. Two mer-children play. The mom mermaid is swimming with long blonde hair and a yellow/orange spotted tail. There are different kinds of shells and seaweeds that make the miniature feel like an underwater room in a home.
A miniature created by Dr. Cassidy in 2023 of a mermaid home underwater. The Papa merman is “bringing home the bacon.”

Explore Dr. Claire Cassidy’s work

  • Editorial Board: Journal of Integrative and Complementary Medicine

    formerly the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine

    1994-present

  • Editor, Author of Contemporary Chinese Medicine and Acupuncture (Churchill-Livingstone)

    2002

  • Maryland Institute of Traditional Chinese Medicine

    Trained and licensed. Held private office as a professional acupuncturist until 2010.

    1998-2001

  • Research Director: Traditional Acupuncture Institute in Columbia, Maryland

    Led the 1st national survey of patient experiences and attitudes to practitioners

    1991-1997

  • Member, Editorial Board for the conference summary of the National Institutes of Health (N.I.H.) Chantilly Conference on Alternative Medicine

    1995

  • Workshop leader with Wayne Jonas, MD at the National Institutes of Health (N.I.H.) Chantilly Conference on Alternative Medicine

    1991

  • Consulting medical and nutritional anthropologist

  • University professor at the University of Maryland Anthropology Department, then Department of Agricultural Economics

    • Taught Comparative Medicine
    • Division of Agriculture Title IX efforts to get more women scholars abroad
    • 5-person in-country study ‘dambala‘ (winged bean) as a high protein potential plant transfer to Equatorial Africa

  • Postdoc at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine

    History of Medicine and Skeletal Biology

    1978-1979

  • Postdoc at Smithsonian Institution

    Skeletal Biology

    1976-1978

  • University professor at the University of Minnesota

    • Taught courses on physical anthropology and comparative medicine
    • Field work in Belize on nutrition and health

    1972-1976

  • PhD in Human Biology from the University of Wisconsin

    Dissertation: Health and Nutrition in Prehistoric Amerindian Skeletal Populations, Hunter-Gatherers and Agriculturalists

    1972

  • BA in Anthropology from the University of Wisconsin

    • Graduated Summa Cum Laude
    • Elected Phi Beta Kappa

    1965

Claire wears athletic clothes and hiking boots. She is sitting on top of a mini volcano in the Massif-Centrale region of France overlooking a view of beautiful mountains and blue skies with some wispy clouds.