Medical Team
Meet Our Medical Team
At Supportiv, our board-certified medical professionals are dedicated to providing you with the highest standard of care. With extensive experience and a commitment to excellence, our team ensures that every treatment and service is tailored to meet your unique health needs.
Dr. Thomas Lavin
Board Certified Surgeon
Tom Lavin, MD, FACS, FASMBS has dedicated his professional career to helping people achieve long-term weight loss and optimal health through minimally invasive surgery and incisionless procedures. Dr. Lavin is a board certified surgeon. He founded Surgical Specialists of Louisiana in 2000 developing it to become one of the leading surgical weight loss programs in the U.S. as well as a medical-tourism destination for patients worldwide. He is also the founder of Supportiv Wellness and Aesthetics and one of the leading experts in the development and use of NAD+ for functional wellness. His passion is helping patients understand the extraordinary benefits of nutrition, functional and integrative medicine.
Dr. Luis Arencibia
Assistant Medical Director
Dr. Luis R. Arencibia is a board-certified Family Practitioner, and has served the greater New Orleans region for 20 years. He is originally from Miami, Florida. He trained at the Tulane East Jefferson Family Medicine Residency. He also has a subspecialty in wound care and hyperbaric medicine. In 2015 he started a Direct Primary Care practice which is modeled as a consumer based primary care clinic. The clinic focused on providing affordable access to primary care while offering advanced alternative and holistic treatments. In 2023, he joined Tulane with his direct primary care model. Apart from primary care services, Dr. Arencibia has had interests in regenerative medicine and advanced weight loss modalities. Dr. Arencibia, additionally, is an intermittent federal employee under Homeland Security in the Arkansas 1 Disaster Medical Assistance Team.
He is married and has 2 children. In his spare time he likes to play music and coach baseball. Dr. Arencibia is passionate about the latest technology and treatments in medicine. He believes that the recent surge in peptide and genetic therapy will usher in a new golden age of medicine.
Samantha Spansel
PA-C
Samantha is a long time resident of Mandeville, Louisiana. She attended Louisiana State University and graduated in 2014 with a Bachelors degree in Kinesiology. She received her Masters degree in Physician Assistant Studies at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center in Shreveport where she was Valedictorian of her class.
Her professional career began at Ochsner where she practiced Advanced Heart Failure and Heart Transplant Cardiology for four years. There, she was involved with the Wound Care Committee and also spent some of her free time working at Ochsner Urgent Care. She is ACLS, BLS, PALS, and AMET certified.
Samantha is passionate about general health, wellness, healthy lifestyle choices and their relationship to patient centered medicine. Samantha states, “I am very excited to work with patients and tailor their care to prevent illness to improve their overall health and wellbeing.”
Caroline Brennan
Nurse Practitioner
Caroline graduated with her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from LSUHSC School of Nursing in 2015. As a nurse, she cared for patients in the ICU and PACU. During that time, she quickly realized she wanted to do more for her patients so she returned to school to obtain her Master’s of Science in Nursing at Southeastern Louisiana University. She worked at an urgent care in New Orleans for several years as a Family Nurse Practitioner before coming to Supportiv. She also has experience with aesthetics, anti-aging medicine, and hormone replacement therapy. Her goal is to make her patients not only look good, but feel good too.
Caroline was born and raised in New Orleans. In her free time, she loves fishing in Grand Isle, taking her children, Beau and Cole, to the Children’s Museum, and playing card games like “Pedro” with her big Cajun family.
Alison Nolan
Nurse Practitioner
Ali graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center School of Nursing in 1997. She worked as a Charge Nurse in the Emergency Department and Cardiac and Surgical Intensive Care Units. She returned to LSU and graduated with honors with a Master of Science in Nursing as a Family Nurse Practitioner in 2004. Over the last twenty years, Ali has practiced in clinics focusing on Primary Care, Cardiology and Bariatric and General Surgery. She has extensive experience in medical and surgical weight loss and has been working alongside Dr. Tom Lavin helping patients successfully complete their weight loss journey for the last fifteen years.