Acupuncture & Oriental Studies
Faculty Biographies

Francesca Biryukov, M.S., L.Ac. (NCCAOM Dipl. C.H., Dipl. Ac.), L.M.T.
Dean for the Acupuncture Program

Francesca Biryukov 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 supervised clinics. 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 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.
Chief Academic Officer

Sheila George, M.D., is Chief Academic Officer 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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Jeffrey C. Yuen, B.S., Dipl. C.H.
Dean for Academic Affairs

Jeffrey C. Yuen was instrumental in founding the Acupuncture 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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