Peter Hiestand

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Biography

The following is autobiographical by Peter F. Hiestand, and like all stories, tells and leaves out much.

I was born on 12 Jul 1951 in Oak Ridge, Anderson County, Tennessee ^[1] and spent my early years living in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. My parents, Orris Sidney Hiestand, Jr. and Frances Emily Watkins, had moved to Oak Ridge a few years before due to my father accepting a position as an attorney with the then called Atomic Energy Commission. Subsequently, my father Orris Sidney Hiestand, Jr. received a promotion that required our family to move the Washington, D.C. region. My parents bought a home circa 1963 at 7828 Hampden Lane, Bethesda, Maryland, where we lived, and they both resided until their deaths in 2008.

Upon completion of high school, I accepted a commission in the U.S. Air Force Academy ^[2] and began basic training in late June 1969 and the standard academics that fall. However, by late fall 1969 I realized that a military career was not really my life's ambition, and so I resigned my commission in January 1970. I returned home to Bethesda, and attended classes at American University, Washington D.C. while submitting college applications elsewhere. I was accepted to Duke University and attended 1 academic year (i.e., fall 1970 - spring 1971). However, my heart & mind weren't focused on academics and I left Duke University. For the next couple of years I worked various jobs and traveled the country, mostly hitchhiking which was then relatively safe. I became interested in yoga and meditation and sampled a variety of approaches before focusing on a complete lifestyle that had at its heart kundalini yoga. I subsequently lived in a number of these yoga communities for the next two decades.

In 1974, I was living in a yoga community in Montague, Massachusetts, attending the Univ. of Massachusetts, Amherst, and I met Laura Mayo (aka Ravi Kaur Khalsa. In summer 1975, Ravi and I got married at a religious ceremony conducted in Espanola, New Mexico. ^[3]

Circa 1976-1977, I legally changed my name from Peter F. Hiestand to my spiritual/religious name: Partap Singh Khalsa, as I had embraced the Sikh religion, and decided that I should use my Sikh name as my legal name.

In 1976, Ravi and I moved to the Los Angeles, California area for me to attend chiropractic school (Los Angeles College of Chiropractic), from which I graduated in December 1979. We moved back to Massachusetts in 1980, and I started a private practice of chiropractic located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and eventually hired a couple of associate chiropractic doctors, and then opened a 2nd office in Millis, Massachusetts where Ravi and I were living, as part of the Millis, Massachusetts sangat.

In the summer of 1984, Ravi and I were asked to temporarily act as parents for two young children, Sahib Singh Khalsa and Siri Hari Kaur Khalsa. This was a turning point in our lives, as by 1988 we became legal guardians for them, and we have considered them our children ever since. I have learned more about life and being human from our children than from any other venue.

In 1989, I decided to pursue a change from clinical practice to biomedical science. I enrolled in a master's degree program (M.S. in biomedical engineering at Boston University, which I received in 1992; mentorship of Solomon Eisenberg, Ph.D.). From there I pursued a Ph.D. (1995) in biomedical sciences in a joint program between Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) and University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA, under the mentorship of Peter Grigg, Ph.D. Subsequently. I obtained a post-doctoral fellowship at Yale University Medical School in the laboratory of Robert H. LaMotte, PhD. I then obtained a tenure-track faculty position (1997) as an assistant professor at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. A few years later, Ravi and I decided to separate, and subsequently divorced.

At Stony Brook University, I was promoted with tenure to associate professor, and I became the Vice-Chair and Graduate Program Director of the Department of Biomedical Engineering. In 2006, I started a position at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) as a program director in the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH). I subsequently became the Deputy Director for the Division of Extramural Research (NCCIH) and eventually was promoted to the Director of the Division of Extramural Activities (NCCIH).

In 2008, I met my current wife M. Jeannine Marzella and in 2010 we began cohabiting in our home in Oakton, VA. We married on 26 March 2020 ^[4] and by this marriage, our family has grown with my step-daughter Melissa (Siri Om) Trosper and her family.

In fall 2023, I legally restored my name to my birth name, Peter Foster Hiestand.

Scientific Biography

My professional/scientific biography, which includes my academic & scientific positions, and my published scientific articles (all published under the name of Partap S. Khalsa), can be found via the ORCHID website: ORCHID for Partap Khalsa. For a listing of all my scientific articles via the PubMed website: PubMed for Partap Khalsa.

Sources

1. ↑ Certified certificate of live birth in possession of Peter F. Hiestand
2. ↑ U. S. Air Force Academy
3. ↑ Certified marriage license & certificate for Peter Foster Hiestand and Ravi Kaur Mayo. License dated 7 July 1975; certificate dated 6 August 1975; Santa Fe County, New Mexico. Certified copy of license & certificate in possession of Ravi (Mayo) Khalsa, and digital version emailed to & in possession of Peter F. Hiestand, aka Partap Khalsa circa March 2021.
4. ↑ Certified copy of the marriage license and certificate in the possession of Partap Khalsa, aka Peter F. Hiestand,

To Do

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