Mark Rhodes, Ph.D. is a consulting scientist and pioneer in Natural Functional Medicine and has been training doctors and consulting with patients directly for over 25 years.During this time he has trained more than 8,000 practitioners and helped morethan50,000 patients.

Having grown up with naturalist parents, Dr. Rhodes and his two siblings all became biologists. From high school on, he was not only a diligent student but also a musicianand an athlete. He left his mark in his western Oregon highschool by being the valedictorian, a concert band member, and an all-state baseball shortstop and pitcher with the state’s top batting average. By the time he was sixteen, he was being scouted by both colleges and pros for a baseball career. He received college scholarships in all three fields.

College did not dampen Dr. Rhodes’ eclectic interests as he continued to be an award-winning athlete and musician, but he began to concentrate on what he found most rewarding in light of a career. His interest in biology heightened, and he came out of George Fox College (today George Fox University) with a biology degree and recruitment from Oregon State University to their M.S. program in Fisheries and Wildlife.While applying himself to his M.S. degree, he spent his summers fighting wildfires for the Forest Service. He worked in the marine geology core lab and was recruited by the dean of OSU School of Oceanography for a Ph.D., which he declined in favor of the wildlife biology program at the University of Missouri. He became the first ecologist hailing from George Fox College to go on to earn a Ph.D. While at Missouri, he won the Outstanding Graduate Student Achievement Award.

During Dr. Rhodes’ doctoral pursuit, his research included field work and computer modeling. Coupling these skills with his strength in statistics and computer programming, he developed his first commercial software. This led him to starting a software consulting business in 1986. He fulfilled multiple software contracts and was recruited for five federal contracts, the Park Service, the Forest Service, and the USDA.Finally, he became the vice president for a commercial software business, Pro Works.He went on to teach at four different colleges in six different departments.

Shortly thereafter, Dr. Rhodes was approached by and became the co-founder of Diagnos-Techs, the first salivary hormone lab in the world.He pulled on his vast experience in the disciplines of research, biology, teaching, and programming to take a deep dive into the world of hormones and health. Since several of his immediate family members struggled with significant chronic health issues, Dr. Rhodes was already feeling his focus shift away from being an ecologist/biologist and toward delving into alternative health modalities.This is where his true passion culminated in the combining of his unique skill set with his desire to assist people in their journey to health. He began consulting for practitioners and patients in 1997.