{Lectures}



Healthy Bodies, Healthy Minds


In a collaborative effort between Emerald Physicians Services and NovaCare Rehabilitation Services, we are pleased to present our educational lecture series.  A large part of our garden's mission is taking a stance against childhood obesity.  Through learning about healthy dietary choices and exercise, we hope to encourage the development of beneficial lifelong habits.


Free of Charge
Open to All Community Members
The remainder of the lectures for both the Adult and Pediatric Lecture series are currently being arranged.  Stay tuned for an update.


Speaker Biographies

Dr. Kumara Sidhartha~

Dr.Kumara Sidhartha grew up in Salem, South India. He graduated from medical school at GMK Medical College in Salem, India in 1995. He moved to the United States when he got accepted for a MD training program. In 2002, he completed the medical residency training at Lincoln Hospital- affiliated with Cornell University, NY. He was ranked in the top 10 percentile in the United States when he got certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine in 2003. His Swiss medical training in 2008 and 2009 made him a diplomat of European Biological Medicine, a nutrition-centered natural therapeutic philosophy practiced at Paracelsus Klinik in Switzerland. He is certified in Plant-Based Nutrition by Cornell University in NY. Dr.Sidhartha is currently studying Master of Public Health Nutrition, with the distance learning program at University of Massachusetts in Amherst. He is currently in practice as a primary care physician in Cape Cod with special focus on Nutrition. For the past eight years, his patients have benefited from his guidance in changing their diets to prevent and treat chronic diseases. Dr.Sidhartha also teaches Nutrition, Anatomy and Physiology at the Kind Yoga Teacher Training School, a nationally certified institute in Cape Cod. He is the founder and president of the Institute for Inter-Connected Communities in India, a non-profit organization with a vision to create role-model communities which are healthy, resilient, sustainable and self-reliant. He is a member of the American College of Preventive Medicine. He is a member of the American Professional Speakers Association and the World Speakers Association. He does regular public lectures and seminars on nutrition topics in Cape Cod and Boston area in the US and in South India.


D.R. Sherman, PT, MPT, CEAS, VRT~

Dean Sherman, PT, MPT, COMT, CEAS, VRT, CCCE/CI, a Cape Cod native, was raised in a family of runners and outdoor enthusiasts, engaging in free running, orienteering, rock climbing, lacrosse, rugby, volleyball, kayaking, and snowshoeing. He was accepted into the University of New England’s prestigious Physical Therapy program, graduating with specialties in manual orthopaedics, pediatrics, and gait rehabilitation. He continued in post doctoral work in the area of differential medicine and manual therapy. Dean then worked with Olympic hopefuls, professional athletes, and Elite Runners alike at Kennebunk Physical Therapy on the Maine Coast. He then joined the world renowned staff at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston, where he specialized in restoring gait and rehabilitating children with everything from congenital disorders to amputations.

In 2004, he returned to Cape Cod and began running a prominent Novacare Rehabilitation clinic in South Dennis, where he rejoined his local community, developing injury prevention programs for runners, contact sports, and weekend warriors alike. He developed new flexibility approaches for sport specific conditioning, and has become a consultant for multiple companies, municipalities, professionals, and sports leagues. Dean Sherman also has constructed an injury prevention and emergency sports medicine program for the Cape Cod Challenge Cup Soccer Tournament, now for the fifth year providing a wide range of services to over two hundred soccer teams. This program covers multiple sites, serving over 5,000 athletes, utilizing clinicians and equipment along with Novacare Rehabilitation’s and Select Physical Therapy’s Mobile Sports Medicine Clinic.

Dean is currently developing new programs and specialties for Novacare Rehabilitation as well as providing training to Physical Therapists as the clinical leader for the Cape and Islands. His clinic, one of 947 nation wide, provides specialized Physical Therapy, injury recovery, and post surgical rehabilitation; covering sports therapy, balance/agility/power rehab, work conditioning, vestibular rehabilitation, maxillofacial rehab, post-oncology therapy, pediatrics, women’s health, and geriatric rehabilitation. He has become an ergonomic specialist, holding a certification from the Back School of Atlanta, as well as being a member of the Orthopaedic and Sports specialty sections of the American Physical Therapy Association and National Sports & Conditioning Association. He is a Certified Ergonomic Assessment Specialist recognized by OSHA/DOL and a physical tactics instructor. He is also undergoing expansion of his clinic and continues to train Physical Therapists, consults and lectures often, and provides educational series to surgeons, companies, organizations, schools, and physician groups.

Dean has lately been creating activity-specific injury prevention and conditioning programming for the Dennis-Yarmouth High School Athletic Department, local Police and Fire Services, and Cape Cod businesses and factories. He continues to provide ergonomics, renovation, and productivity/retasking consulting to individuals and companies across New England. He has recently completed an Orthopaedic Manual Therapy degree program from the Ola Grimsby Institute of Norway to become a Credentialed Orthopaedic Manual Therapist and specialist in Scientific Therapeutic Exercise Prescription. He resides in Yarmouthport, Cape Cod, Massachusetts with his loving wife Shannon, a Medical-Surgical RN.


Past Lectures

June 1, 2011~ 6:30 pm
Introduction to Healthy Eating Habits for Adults
presented by Dr. Kumara Sidhartha of Emerald Physicians Services


Photo courtesy of Food Network