Commonweal Newsletters
Newsletter | Letter from Michael Lerner
December 2008 Commonweal Newsletter Contents:
Introduction by Michael LernerCharlotte Brody Moves to Green For All as Director of Programs
Susan Braun Named New Executive Director of Commonweal
The Collaborative on Health and the Environment
Eleni Sotos Steps Down; Elise Miller Named CHE Director
Green Choices Planned Parenthood Federation of America
Commonweal Cancer Help Program
Sharyle Patton and Davis Baltz Lead Commonweal's Work on Biomonitoring, California Chemicals Policy Reform, and Health Care Without Harm
Making Service Personal
The New School at Commonweal
News from Commonweal Garden and The Regenerative Design Institute
Juvenile Justice Program
With Gratitude
Download the original PDF of the December 2008 newsletter »
December 2008
Dear Commonweal Friends,
I write these words to you in mid-October, with no way of knowing where we will all be when you read them. What extraordinary times. The financial crisis, the election, the environment, and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. What seems very likely—as I have suggested in many letters to you over the past decade—is that we are now witnessing a true inflection point in the decline of American hegemonic power in the world. We are moving toward a multi-polar world. The next year promises to be one of the most dramatic periods in the reinvention of U.S. and global institutions since the end of World War II. And in the midst of all these global changes, we have experienced some major changes at Commonweal as well.
Charlotte Brody Moves to Green For All as Director of Programs
The big news at Commonweal is a major change in Commonweal leadership. Executive Director Charlotte Brody stepped down from her Commonweal position on October 1 to take a new position as Director of Programs with Van Jones at Green For All in Oakland. Charlotte's letter tells you more about her decision.
Charlotte leaves Commonweal with all our love and gratitude. She has done wonderful work here over the past four and a half years and leaves Commonweal much stronger than when she came.
Van Jones is one of the greatest advocates for social and environmental justice in America. Green For All offers Charlotte a far larger stage on which to fight for some of the most important social and environmental goals of our time.
Much of Commonweal's work focuses on healing. At the heart of healing is having the courage to follow our deepest intuitions about what we are here on this earth to do. As Charlotte writes to us in this Newsletter, when she turned 60 this year, she realized that for all her love of the work at Commonweal, she felt called by the moment and the opportunity that Green For All offered her. We rejoice in the tremendous opportunity to serve that Charlotte has found with Van Jones. Charlotte's letter to the Commonweal community is on page two.
Susan Braun Named New Executive Director of Commonweal
After a brief but intensive search by the Commonweal Board and senior staff, I am very pleased to announce that Susan Braun is Commonweal's new Executive Director.
Many of you know Susan from her work with the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation—now called Komen for the Cure—where she served as CEO from 1996 to 2005. During her nine years at Komen, Susan helped to transform the organization, greatly increasing its support for women with breast cancer everywhere.
One of the many innovations Susan introduced at Komen was an initiative to explore environmental contributors to breast cancer causation. Komen became the first major voluntary cancer organization to fund this important area. For the past two years, Susan has served as Executive Director of the ASCO Cancer Foundation, the foundation of the American Society for Clinical Oncology, in Alexandria, VA.
Susan has been involved in Commonweal for three years. She founded the Fund for Women's Health at Commonweal, co-convened a conference of organizations concerned with women's cancers, and has participated in the Commonweal Cancer Help Program. Susan has also become involved with our sister organization, Smith Farm Center for Healing and the Arts in Washington, D.C.
It is fair to ask why Susan, frequently recruited for CEO positions with some of the largest nonprofits in the country, would choose instead to join a small nonprofit at the edge of the Pacific Ocean in the midst of the worst financial storm since the Great Depression. This is a decision that requires considerable personal courage.
The answer is that Susan feels called to Commonweal. She has a passion for Commonweal's work. She sees both Commonweal's realized and unrealized potential. And, Susan says, she feels deeply at home here.
The Board and Senior Staff of Commonweal, who participated in the search process, feel a tremendous sense of hope and possibility about working with Susan. We are so pleased to have found a worthy successor to Charlotte Brody as Commonweal's Executive Director. Charlotte worked with Susan during her tenure at Commonweal and I know Charlotte shares our gratitude that Susan has come to take the helm.
Personally, I believe that Susan Braun will be a catalytic force in leading Commonweal through the challenging times we have entered. I look forward to working closely together for years to come. Susan Braun's letter to the Commonweal community is on page three.
-Michael Lerner
Charlotte Brody Moves to Green For All as Director of Programs
Dear Commonweal Friends,
By the time you all receive this newsletter, I will have left the extraordinary job of being the Executive Director of Commonweal to become the Director of Programs for Green For All. I have loved my four and a half years at Commonweal, including my biannual chance to write to all of you.
Not much could entice me to leave the staff and board of Commonweal and its office next to the Pacific Ocean. But I think we are on the edge of a time when dramatic economic and political change is possible and I want to do what I can to pull that change towards the light. At Green For All I will be joining Van Jones, Kristin Rothballer and the other terrific staff members of this brand new organization to build a new, green New Deal that re-kindles the economy with green job opportunities that fight pollution and poverty at the same time. Ambitious, yes. But for my 60th birthday, I am giving myself the gift of being that wild darkness, that long blue body of light.
You can learn more about Green For All at www.greenforall.org. Come see us in Oakland!
Love and thanks,
Charlotte
Kristen Rothballer of Green For All and Charlotte Brody at Charlotte's farewell party.
Susan Braun Named New Executive Director of Commonweal
Dear Commonweal Friends,
I am honored to be able to write to you as the new Executive Director of Commonweal. For many years before arriving here, I had known of Commonweal through its extraordinary work and stellar reputation. When I engaged those familiar with Commonweal, they spoke of its magic. I met Michael Lerner and was deeply touched by his vision, compassion, and dedication. In the ensuing years, I visited Commonweal many times, for planning meetings, conferences, retreats, and the Cancer Help Program. And with each visit, my love deepened-for the people, the programs, the place, the mission. What extraordinary tapped and untapped potential.
The journey to Commonweal was not direct, but neither was it profound. I wish I could tell you that I set out to be "x," did all that it took to get there, and that I now have arrived. That would be simpler. But in fact, many steps that I've taken have been toward a vision-toward an opportunity that I hoped would allow me, in some small way, to make this a better world.
Early in my career, in the traditional corporate world, I wasn't traditional. I helped to create a team and a budget to catalyze the formation and growth of patient advocacy organizations, always insisting that funds be given without strings attached. This was how I could be of service, to create something that had heretofore not existed. I volunteered, and among other things helped start Race for the Cure events in Princeton, New Jersey, and in Evansville, Indiana, communities in which I lived. I helped to grow the National Race in Washington. And, as life so often works out, the President of Komen worked with me on advocacy programs. When she left Komen, I asked for the job. I was fortunate enough to be chosen.
My time at Komen was a labor of love. It was nine years of growing, learning, and giving. I trained my management skills on a high-potential nonprofit with a huge heart, and helped to put in place business practices to allow the passion of the organization to grow and flourish, in accordance with their dreams. We were able to serve countless women and their families in their personal journeys with breast cancer, and we were able to promote public awareness and public policy that made care more accessible and outcomes less fatal.
Yet still nearly 40,000 women in the U.S. alone were dying of breast cancer each year. Despite opposition, I was able to bring some of the organization's focus toward the causes of cancer, including environmental toxins. It was during that time of exploration that a dear friend, Lucy Waletzky, introduced me to Michael, believing that he and Commonweal could be a trusted resource for me and for my colleagues as we explored how a mainstream organization could help to reshape the agenda. We made some strong inroads, some of which have survived at Komen.
In 2005, I believed I had done all that I knew how to do to help and lead Komen, and re-entered the path of amazing discovery. I took a trip to India to participate in a global peace congress. I expanded my 30-year practice of yoga and meditation. I helped my son as he made college choices and transitioned into adulthood. I listened and reflected, and sought the best way that I could serve. Although large organizations approached me about big jobs, through deep reflection I realized that I had done that at Komen, and I had loved it. I realized that it was the heart of an organization that drew me, not the size. Komen grew large while I was there, but it was small when I began.
As I was exploring the future, two close friends asked me if I would come to Virginia to help them structure and expand their Foundation at the American Society of Clinical Oncology. For the last two years, that is what I've done. They're good people who have been kind and generous colleagues. I've witnessed amazing volunteerism and deep, tireless caring for patients.
Yet, my personal and professional interest in women's health, in healing, and in diminishing human suffering was calling to me to reach further, and with each encounter with Michael and his brilliant work and the amazing community that is Commonweal, I felt more drawn. I am deeply impressed with the constellation of programs that comprise Commonweal. I believe strongly in what is at the core of each-to expand and enhance human and planetary healing.
I also believe that we do our very best when we're allowing others to tap our deepest resources and when we're doing work in which our hearts and minds can operate in tandem. And I see that throughout Commonweal. Commonweal is unique and is doing important, vital work in our world. I hope to help with that. To grow where growth is helpful. To strengthen what needs strength. To allow what currently is exceptional to continue to flourish. To share the inevitable bumps and sharp turns and to help navigate them. I am grateful for this opportunity. And I look forward to learning about you-the extended Commonweal Family-and to serving you as we together serve our world.
With kindest regards,
Susan
The Environment
By Elini Sotos
Many people ask us, "What does CHE actually do?" In response, a little science history is helpful. In the past 25 or so years, the prevailing paradigm in guaging the effects of contaminants on illness and disease was "the dose makes the poison." In other words, one would need to be exposed to large doses of chemicals before we could see the effects in the form of diseases or conditions. While that still may hold true for some chemicals, more advanced scientific tools of measurement and a more sophisticated understanding of biological processes have led to a new revolutionary scientific paradigm: low doses of chemicals-even very small doses can produce serious health effects not only on the studies' subjects, but on subsequent generations.
As you can imagine, this new paradigm that our health and the health of future generations can be hurt by low doses of chemicals that in the past were thought to be safe-is extremely important. CHE's job is to help give voice to the scientists doing this research, to make sure this new science is disseminated and discussed widely, and to create opportunities to engage more strategically so this science becomes the springboard by which advocates can fight for better legislation to protect our health, health professionals can better understand how environmental factors impact their patients, and scientists can continue to build on this growing body of research. CHE's working groups are the heart of much of this work. The areas they are focused on include fertility and early pregnancy compromise, learning and developmental disabilities, cancer, electromagnetic fields, science, integrative health, asthma and Parkinson's disease. Since its inception over six years ago, activities initiated within CHE working groups have led to extraordinary partnerships and the creation of both lay and scientific documents that may be of interest to you:
- The University of California San Francisco's Program on Reproductive Health and the Environment recently published a superb report entitled, Shaping Our Legacy: Reproductive Health and the Environment. It is available at www.prhe.ucsf.edu/prhe/ pubs/shapingourlegacy.html.
- An excellent new summary on hormone disrupting chemicals and women's reproductive health is available at www.healthandenvironment.org/ reprohealthworkshop. A report that translates the science on what we know about environmental factors on women's reproductive health will be available in November 2008.
- In collaboration with the University of Massachusetts' Lowell Center for Sustainable Production, the CHE Cancer and the Environment Working Group recently published a fact sheet, Industrial Carcinogens: A Cause for Concern. The fact sheet can be downloaded at http://www. healthandenvironment.org/working_groups/cancer.
- The CHE Parkinson's Disease and the Environment Working Group has published a consensus statement, fact sheet and report on Parkinson's Disease and the Environment. They are available at www.healthandenvironment. org/working_groups/parkinsons.
- CHE's Learning and Developmental Disabilities Initiative published Policy Implications Based on the Scienticic Consensus Statement on Environmental Agents Associated with Neurodevelopmental Disorders (available at http://www.iceh.org/LDDI.html). This statement, signed by almost 100 scientists, health professionals and advocates nationally and internationally, provides policy recommendations based on the latest science regarding environmental contaminants associated with neurodevelopmental disorders, such as learning disabilities, autism spectrum disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), intellectual disabilities and developmental delays.
- Colleagues from the CHE Cancer Working Group have launched a major initiative to engage the President's Cancer Panel, which this year will devote a series of four national public meetings to cancer and the environment. Each meeting explores a different set of environmental contributors to cancer causation, including: Industrial and Manufacturing Exposures; Agricultural Exposures; Indoor/Outdoor Air Pollution and Water Contamination; and Nuclear Fallout, Electromagnetic Fields, and Radiation Exposure.
- Through the efforts of members participating in the CHE EMF Working Group, we experienced a truly extraordinary breakthrough this year in our work on electromagnetic fields. CHE Partner Cindy Sage published the BioInitiative Report, a definitive science consensus report on electromagnetic fields and health that has had a major impact on European public policy. The most recent victory is that in July, the international controversy about health concerns related to cell phone use finally broke into the mainstream U.S. media.
- In collaboration with the Center for Environmental Health, the CHE website (www.healthandenvironment.org) features a section entitled Science and Community Action that provides national resources on utilizing science and research in community work.
These activities and resources represent only a portion of CHE's activities. To learn more about our work, you can always find us at www.healthandenvironment.org We would like to thank the Beldon Fund, the Cedar Tree Foundation, the John Merck Fund, the Johnson Family Foundation, the New York Community Trust, the Passport Foundation, The Heinz Endowments, the Turner Foundation, the Wallace Genetic Foundation, and several foundations that wish to remain anonymous, for their generous support of the Collaborative on Health and the Environment.
Eleni Sotos Steps Down; Elise Miller Named CHE Director
Michael Lerner writes
After four and a half years as CHE Program Director, Eleni Sotos is moving on from CHE to explore other career opportunities. Eleni has been a superb leader for CHE and has overseen the growth of CHE programs and member ship. We will miss her. We hope to find ways to continue to work with Eleni and deeply wish her well.
Elise Miller, MEd, Executive Director of the national Institute for Children's Environmental Health based in Freeland, Washington, will assume the new position of CHE Director as of January 2009. As CHE Director, Elise will fill a role that combines Eleni's position as National Director and my position as Managing Partner. I will continue to be very active in CHE work. Elise was a founding partner of CHE and heads the Learning and Developmental Disabilities Initiative, one of CHE's most successful programs. She is also past Executive Director of the Jenifer Altman Foundation.
"It is a real privilege to have the opportunity to build on Eleni's outstanding leadership and work even more closely with Michael on developing CHE," Elise said. "Given the extraordinary intelligence and expertise of those involved in CHE nationally and internationally, I believe the Collaborative is poised to play an even more pivotal and strategic role addressing environmental contributors to chronic disease and disability in the coming years. I greatly look forward to helping guide that process."
Green Choices
Planned Parenthood Federation of America
by Charlotte Brody
Here are a few highlights of recent Green Choices activities. The organizational names of Green Choices partners are in bold.
At the Association of Reproductive Health Professionals' (ARHP) September annual meeting, Ted Schettler, MD and Tracey Woodruff, PhD, MPH conducted a pre-conference work shop entitled, The Story Behind the Health History: Incorporating Reproductive Environmental Health Tools Into Practice, and Living Downstream author Sandra Steingraber delivered the annual Michael Burnhill lecture.
On September 12, 2008, the Breast Cancer Fund, Commonweal and the Women's Health and the Environment Initiative co-sponsored a standing room only Congressional briefing on endocrine disruptors and women's health with BCF's Janet Nudelman, the University of Florida's Lou Guillette, the University of California at San Francisco's Tracey Woodruff, and Commonweal's Charlotte Brody. Planned Parenthood of Minnesota, North and South Dakota and Planned Parenthood of Western Washington have joined the Minnesota and Washington state chemicals policy coalitions to work on chemicals policy issues in their respective state legislatures.
On September 16, 2008, the Reproductive Health Technologies Project (RHTP) hosted a luncheon in Washington, DC, for reproductive health advocates on the Kid's Safe Chemicals Act (KSCA). The briefing featured Ken Cook, President of Environmental Working Group (EWG) and Commonweal's Charlotte Brody.
Both Dori Gilels, Executive Director of Women's Voices for the Earth and Vanessa Cullins, Planned Parenthood Federation of America's (PPFA) Vice President for Medical Affairs, attended the first meeting of 20-25 experts from environmental justice, reproductive justice, and reproductive rights organizations at the SisterSong Environmental Justice/Reproductive Justice Project Advisory Group Meeting in Atlanta, GA. The aim was to have a discussion of gender and racial politics within the Environmental Justice and Reproductive Justice movements.
Sandra Steingraber, Dori Gilels, Charlotte Brody and Practice Green Health's Janet Brown were featured speakers at the Western Regional Meeting of Planned Parenthood Federation of America.
The UCSF National Center for Excellence in Women's Health Program on Reproductive Health and the Environment (PRHE) is developing an alliance called From Advancing Science To Ensuring Prevention: A Multi-Disciplinary Alliance to Foster Reproductive Environmental Health (FASTEP). The goal of FASTEP is to secure each and everyone's right to optimal reproductive health by fostering environments that prevent exposure to potential reproductive toxicants and provide the nutritive and social sustenance necessary for healthy pregnancies, children, adults and future generations. FASTEP will:
- Establish and nurture the Alliance;
- Create a science-based foundation for clinical care and policy change endorsed by key leaders;
- Harness the role of health care professionals across disciplines;
- Disseminate peer-reviewed white papers through established and newly emerging networks;
- Provide incentives for health professionals to utilize FASTEP white papers and related educational materials;
- Evaluate the impacts of FASTEP white papers and related education and outreach efforts by Alliance members on clinical practice and public health policy. Commonweal's involvement in Green Choices is supported by a grant from the Mary Wohlford Foundation.
Commonweal Cancer Help Program
By Michael Lerner
Kate Holcombe is doing a beautiful job coordinating the Cancer Help Program. I recently visited Kate's yoga center in the Marina District in San Francisco, right behind the Safeway on Buchanan Street for those of you who know the city. It is a beautiful space, filled with light and peace. Kate and I are deep in plans to expand our Cancer Help Program offerings for alumni and other cancer patients from Kate's urban space, which has become an outreach center for our work.
We also are working on developing some CHP retreats that will be entirely focused on women with breast cancer, since women with breast cancer are the most frequent applicants for the program. In that regard, I am hoping to work this Fall with our community of colleagues in the integrative cancer community on developing protocols for integrative breast cancer treatment that will answer some of the most common questions women with both primary and metastatic breast cancer have. We will keep you posted as that protocol comes into being.
One other piece of especially good news: Waz Thomas, as you all know, has stepped back from coordinating the Cancer Help Program, but he will continue his work as an advisor to the CHP and as General Manager on a half-time basis for some time to come. This will enable him to keep in touch with the CHP alumni community, which loves him so dearly, and to help the CHP and Commonweal in other ways.
Naturally, since the Cancer Help Program depends so fundamentally Kate Holcombe, new Director of the Cancer Help Program. on contributions from alumni, we are watching the contortions of the financial markets with some concern. But the work is so good-and the demand for the Cancer Help Program so strong-that I am convinced that somehow we will be able to continue to offer this extraordinary community healing experience.
We depend more than ever on your generosity and support for the Cancer Help Program.
Kate Holcombe writes:
It is such a joy to be doing this great work. I love working with Waz and the Commonweal community and enjoy meeting more and more of the CHP family every day. I am so grateful for everyone's support and patience through this transition and look forward to new opportunities to connect with each of you in the future, whether at Commonweal, in San Francisco or through some of the new interactive web tools we have been working on to support and help connect CHP alums with information, resources, and each other.
The Cancer Help Program is supported by a grant from the David L. Klein Jr. Foundation and contributions from many individuals.
Sharyle Patton and Davis Baltz Lead Commonweal's Work on Biomonitoring, California Chemicals Policy Reform, and Health Care Without Harm
By Michael Lerner
Sharyle Patton directs the Commonweal Biomonitoring Resource Center (CBRC). Its purpose is to support biomonitoring as a valuable and informative pubic health advocacy tool.
Sharyle writes:
"Internationally, we are working closely with the World Health Organization (WHO) as its breastmilk biomonitoring project unfolds in 30 countries in the Global South. The WHO project is part of the Effectiveness Evaluation Program of the Stockholm Convention, a global treaty that bans or severely restricts 12 of the worst persistent organic pollutants (POPs). CBRC has joined with Making Our Milk Safe (MOMs) and MOMs director Mary Brune in initiating the Moms and POPs Project (MaPP). MaPP will help inform the WHO project by exploring, with community groups, researchers and women's health organizations based in WHO project participating countries, a set of breastmilk monitoring protocol options to determine those that might be most sensitive to women's concerns and cultural traditions. Together MaPP partners are working on ideas about how best to tell the story of toxic chemicals in breastmilk in ways that encourage breastfeeding critically important in polluted environments while using biomonitoring data to lower the levels of toxic chemicals in all our bodies."
Nationally, Sharyle serves as a consultant to community groups across the country that are designing biomonitoring projects to test for the presence of chemicals of concern in vulnerable populations.
Sharyle writes:
"These projects will likely enter the implementation stage in early 2009. Given the enormous attention the Is It In Us? biomonitoring project (which tested 35 people in seven states for levels of bisphenol A, phthalates and PBDEs) was able to bring to the importance of legislative initiatives in several states, we are pleased to be part of these subsequent projects."
Please consult www.isitinus.org for more information about these chemicals and the Is It In Us? biomonitoring project.
Sharyle also co-chairs the Technical Working Group of the Chlorpyrifos Project, a project that will explore levels of human exposure to chlorpyrifos in Tulare County, where this pesticide is used on a variety of crops. The project is patterned on a previous program that combined air monitoring and human biomonitoring in Lindsay, California. This previous program resulted in restricted aerial spraying of pesticides near schools, health clinics and homes. Partners in the current Chlorpyrifos Project include Pesticide Action Network North America, El Quinto Sol, Center for Race, Poverty and the Environment, and the California Department of Health's Environmental Health Investigations Branch.
California's difficult fiscal crisis threatens the program's healthy growth and development. In fiscal year 2009, the program will receive base level funding, but this will be insufficient to keep the program on a trajectory to meet its statutory deadlines.
California Biomonitoring Program
Commonweal's Davis Baltz continues to monitor and advocate for California's state biomonitoring program, the only state program in the country.
Davis writes:
"Fiscal year 2009 will be its second full year of funding for the California biomonitoring program. Staff have been hired and laboratory equipment purchased. A technical assistance contract with the CDC is enabling the program to broaden its skill base, drawing on the extensive federal biomonitoring effort. An excellent Scientific Guidance Panel is meeting regularly to advise the program. Budgetary constraints, however, loom over the program. California's difficult fiscal crisis threatens the program's healthy growth and development. In fiscal year 2009, the program will receive base level funding, but this will be insufficient to keep the program on a trajectory to meet its statutory deadlines. A consistent and reliable funding mechanism for ongoing program development needs to be identified. The bill's author, former Senate pro Tem Don Perata, is termed out of the legislature, and another champion must be identified in Sacramento."
Chemicals Policy Reform in California
Davis Baltz is also Commonweal's lead staff member working on chemicals policy reform in California. Davis cochairs the Policy Workgroup for the coalition of California NGOs called Californians for a Healthy and Green Economy (CHANGE). CHANGE was formed to develop comprehensive chemicals policy reform proposals for California and to organize popular support.
Davis writes:
"CHANGE worked on several pieces of legislation during California's nowconcluded 2008 session, including restrictions on the use of the problematic chemicals bisphenol A, PFOA and toxic flame retardants. Two other bills, AB 1879 and SB 505, which passed the legislature, are groundbreaking in that they lay out for the first time a regulatory process for California to address the lack of a systematic plan to gather information about chemicals and to make informed decisions about whether they are appropriate for use. It will now be important for the public interest community to engage in the follow-up implementation of these bills, which are expected to be signed by the Governor. Beyond this, CHANGE has actively engaged in the stakeholder process to provide input to the state's nascent Green Chemistry Initiative."
Health Care Without Harm
Commonweal continues to contribute to the work of Health Care Without Harm (HCWH), the influential campaign to green the health care sector. HCWH was founded at Commonweal in 1996, and we have been active members ever since. In 2008, Davis Baltz serves as the facilitator of the campaign's Steering Committee and keeper of its agenda. In addition, Commonweal is the co-coordinator for HCWH's annual CleanMed conference, which has become one of the health care industry's key gatherings on environmental sustainability.
We are grateful to The New York Community Trust, the John Merck Fund, Coming Clean, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Watson Family Foundation, and several foundations that prefer anonymity, for their support for the work of CBRC.
We are grateful to the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund, the John Merck Fund, The San Francisco Foundation, Health Care Without Harm, and a foundation that prefers anonymity, for their support of chemicals policy reform, greening the healthcare industry and increasing the profile of biomonitoring and its contribution to public health.
Making Service Personal
By Rachel Naomi Remen
Just as the U.S. President takes an oath of service before stepping into the Oval Office, the first act of newly graduated doctors around the world is to swear an oath of service to their patients. The words are sometimes centuries old, such as the Hippocratic Oath, or the Oath of Maimonedes, or more modern in tone, as the Oath of Lasagna. These tenets set the gold standard of professionalism for the good physician.
But rarely are students and physicians themselves asked to reflect and find the words of commitment that capture their own sense of professionalism and the doctors they aspire to be. For 16 years, The Healer's Art has been enabling students and faculty across the country and around the world to write a personal mission statement, which they then read to their fellow students and faculty. Digging deep to find the personal words that express their highest values and aspirations, and then sharing them aloud, can serve as a foundation and touchstone for the work of a lifetime.
From ISHI's collection of thousands of medical student and faculty oaths, we have chosen the following selections to share. These few are typical of the many oaths we have received from Healer's Art students and faculty, written in English and several other birth languages, but expressing the same intention to serve. May they remind you that change is in progress...and there is hope for medicine as there is hope for our country.
Written by students in their first year of medical school
May I listen profoundly enough to find someone when they are truly in need.
Help me to be humble enough to love others and have them be unafraid to love me.
Give me strength to share my failings with my colleagues so that we can hold each
other up through the most difficult work.
Let me be unafraid of the truth and follow it.
Help me to be present and respectful in every patient encounter.
Help me to remember that a feeling of connection, being recognized and accepted,
may be the most profound kind of healing one person can offer another.
Help me to remember that not all problems can be solved,
but a person can always be honored.
Enlighten me so that I may see my patients clearly.
Strengthen me so that I may see myself clearly.
May I diminish the world's burden of suffering a little with each patient I encounter.
Written by students in their second year of medical school
Help me to put aside the flurry of the day and be present with my patients.
May I think clearly, listen openly and partner willingly.
Allow me the courage not to know and the strength to bear the consequences.
Help me to enjoy each interaction, live each moment fully and recognize that the
destination is here.
Let me know the right moment to act and the right moment to be still.
Help me to remember that everyone has a struggle, a fear, a longing, a need.
May I feel strength to find my voice to say what is most true for me.
May I find the calm space in me that knows that it is strong enough to help others.
May I always remember how much of a privilege it is to be given an opportunity to heal others.
Written by students in their third and fourth years of medical school
Help me to create the space to see and know the whole person.
Enable me to be surprised, touched, inspired-even when I am stretched thin and
worn by fatigue.
Let me be at peace so I may serve as a channel for comfort and hope to others.
Give me the courage and strength to walk with an open heart.
May I learn to draw peace towards me when there may not be peace around me.
Strengthen me to be still and listen generously when I might want to run away.
Remind me not to give too much authority to those above me,
nor deny power to those below me.
Help me to hold the tension that exists within me between spirit and science.
May I find my community.
Help me start each day with gratitude for the privilege of sharing the lives of my
patients and their families.
Give me the clarity to approach each patient interaction with an open heart and an
open mind.
Let me bring all of myself to each patient so that they can bring all of themselves to me.
Give me the strength to hold my values as central in the face of a high-speed and
technical world.
Written by Healer's Art faculty
Lead me through to right relationship.
Help me to speak my heart.
Teach me to learn and listen.
Empower me to serve.
Give me strength.
Allow me life energy.
Fill me with love.
May I bear witness to the strength and beauty of my students.
May I help them to know they are enough.
May my belief in them carry them across times of self doubt.
May my words shine for them in times of darkness.
May they know themselves to be a blessing and a friend to life.
Help me remember what brought me here in the first place.
Let me live in such a way that none of my career choices are financially motivated.
Help me not get lost in the expectations, goals, behaviors and values of those that
surround me.
Remind me that my love is as important as my knowledge.
May I pass what light I have forward.
Give me the patience to listen fully to my students.
Give me the wisdom to address their concerns in meaningful ways.
Allow me to appreciate the impact of my life on the lives of my students,
and the impact of their lives on me.
The Institute for the Study of Health and Illness is supported by grants from the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations and a foundation that prefers anonymity.
The New School at Commonweal
by Michael Lerner
The New School at Commonweal, Commonweal's newest project, is quietly moving from infancy to childhood. The focal concern of The New School is "ecology, culture and the inner life." Three recent New School gatherings were held with Jerry Mander, Paul Hawken and Shodo Harada Roshi:
- Jerry Mander, a longtime Bolinas resident, is the Director of the International Forum on Globalization, which has conducted one of the most searching critiques of globalization from the perspective of the Global South. He spoke on the crisis in globalization and what the future may hold. Jerry's books include Four Arguments for the Abolition of Television and In the Absence of the Sacred.
- Paul Hawken is the author of a half dozen best selling books including his most recent, Blessed Unrest, which argues that the global movement for a sustainable and just world is the greatest social movement in human history. He spoke on life lessons in sustainability and resilience.
- Shodo Harada Roshi is the Abbot of Sogenji Monastary in Japan and One Drop Zendo on Whidbey Island near Seattle. He has been coming to Commonweal each year for the past sixteen years to give dharma talks. His dharma talk this year was called "Where is wisdom found?"
Each of these three experiences was a wonderful exercise in collaborative learning, with people coming from 50 miles away and more to spend the afternoon with us. Likewise, our telephonic conversations, mounted on a growing number of websites and broadcast on our local community radio station, continue to blossom. Three recent conversations on sustainable finance were with Mark Finser of RSF Social Finance, Steve Viederman, past President of the Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation, and Jed Emerson, a noted scholar and consultant in the field.
Frieda Slavin, the New School Coordinator, has gone on maternity leave, and Jacquie Mallegni, Curator of the Commonweal Gallery, is ably standing in for her. Jacquie is also mounting a series of wonderful art exhibits in the Gallery. We began the year with Jessica Dunne's stunning paintings and prints, followed by an exhibition of paintings and sculpture by Richard Dunning. Our upcoming exhibition will present the ethereal sculpture of Carole Beadle throughout the winter. Also, Artship's theatrical performance of Burning of the Ancient Library of Alexandria came to the Gallery in October.
Our community partnerships are growing stronger. Steve Costa and his wife Kate Levinson at Point Reyes Books are using their beautiful independent bookstore to nourish a veritable cultural revolution in West Marin. Megan Matson, Arlene Allsman and their partners in Mainstreet Moms have created a vibrant West Marin alliance for local resilience and sustainability. Penny Livingston-Stark and James Stark offer the New School a wonderful partnership through the Commonweal Garden and Regenerative Design Institute.
The New School has connected Commonweal with friends locally and around the world in new and important ways, enriching the flow of experiences and ideas in and out of Commonweal.
We welcome you to the New School. To stay in touch, please email us at thenewschool@commonweal.org to add your name to our list of New School friends who want to know what is happening at Commonweal.
The New School at Commonweal is supported by grants from the Bet Lev Foundation, the Whitman Institute, and contributions from many individuals.
News from Commonweal Garden and The Regenerative Design Institute
by Penny Livingston-Stark and James Stark
The inter-connectivity of community co-created at the Commonweal Garden is growing, fruiting, and ready to harvest. At a time when the world hangs in the balance, teetering on the brink of an unpredictable future, here at the Garden hundreds of people come every year to reconnect with hope, heart and health. The garden is surrounded by the creativity and wealth of the natural world that is so generous and willing to share with us that which we are ready to experience. People come and put their hands in the soil, animals share with us all that they have, the plants are dancing as the fruit falls into foxes' paws and jaws. The trackers find plum pits and apple peels in the scat on the ridge this time of year. The bees and the goats are still following their original operating instructions, providing milk and honey to all who stay here.
In September, Commonweal Garden hosted a delegation of 50 people from the Slow Food Nation gathering in San Francisco. The tour included a feast of wood-fired pizza, wild foods, the garden salad, local beer and wine, and Commonweal Garden farmstead cheeses and homemade honey herbal and fruit sodas.
Our Regenerative Design and Nature Awareness graduates are making waves within their local communities including Bolinas. Ian Maclaird and Larissa Conte are not only participating in the updating of the Bolinas community plan but are also launching the Regenerative Youth Project this fall. Their program is designed to provide mentoring and support for the Bolinas youth. The Commonweal Garden is supported by a grant to Commonweal from the Muriel Murch Full Circle Endowment Fund and many other contributions to the Regenerative Design Institute.
Juvenile Justice Program
by David Steinhart
The California Wellness Foundation awards $250,000 for youth violence prevention
Since our last report, The California Wellness Foundation (TCWF) has awarded $250,000 to the Juvenile Justice Program to continue work on statewide policies and programs dedicated to the reduction of violence in California. For more than a decade now, Commonweal has collaborated closely with TCWF on statewide violence prevention policy objectives. In 2000, we played a key role in the development of the Schiff Cardenas Juvenile Justice Crime Prevention Act, which distributes more than $100 million per year to local youth crime and violence prevention programs. Under the renewal grant, we will continue to monitor and report on budget developments related to violence prevention, and we will renew policymaker education activities to reinforce the need to continue state support of effective violence prevention programs in future budget cycles.
The Juvenile Justice Program is supported by grants from the Annie E. Casey Foundation, The California Wellness Foundation, Haigh-Scatena Foundation, JEHT Foundation, Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation, van Loben Sels/ RembeRock Foundation and James Irvine Foundation.
With Gratitude
We express our deep gratitude to the following organizations that have supported Commonweal this year:
Gerald Abrams
Christine Adams
Donna and Tom Ambrogi
Evangeline Andarsio, MD
Lillie Anderson
Mark and Deanna Apfel
Rita Arditti
Janet E. Arnesty
Louise Atcheson
Justine Auchincloss
Paula Barber
Allison Barlow
Diana Lynn Barnes
Jeanne Battagin
Allison Danielle Behrstock
Jeffery Belden
Carl Bellini
Sally Little Berger
Alexander Binik
Diane Blacker and Ben Davis
Harriet Blacker and Henry
Spector
Penny and Keith Block, MD
Judith and Leon Bloomfield
Kathleen Bowings
Fadhilla Bradley
Barbara Bramble
Paula Braveman
Mary Jane Brinton
Alan Briskin
Steven Bromer
Elizabeth Bullard
Joseph C. Bunker
Tracy Burgess
Jody Bush
Maggi Butterfield-Brown
Mabrey Byrnes-Scott
Chris and Penny Camarata
Alison Carlson
Jay Chapman
Deborah A. Chiarucci
Elinor T. Christiansen
Catharine T. Clark-Sayles
Linda Hawes Clever, MD
Susan Cochrane
Gene David Cohen
John Colla-Negri
Neil and Judy Collier
Wendy Richardson Collins
Philip J. Collora
Claudia Cramer
Roxanne Cramer
Anjanette Cureton
Barry Custer
Dale C. Dallas, MD
Marcy Darnovsky
Art Davidson
Nancy Davis
William DeCarion
Thomas and Gun Denhart
Michael Dentinger
Michael Devlin
Jeanne Dillon
Mia Dodson
William Drayton
Carol Drucker
Jessica Dunne
Richard Eagan
Keith Echelmeyer
Barbara and Richard Edmonds Barry Elson, MD
Kathryn S. Evers
Hilarie Faberman
Dawn Fairbanks
Tawna Farmer
Don Fink
Cheryl A. Flynn
Pauline Flynn
Angela Ford
Marjorie Ford
Marilee R. Ford
Katherine Fulton
Howard Gardner
Matthew Gardner
Neil Gendel
Cynthia Gin Michael Goldstein, MD
Marilyn Goode
Amnon Goodman
Paula Gordon
Robert Gould, MD
Cynthia J. Graham
Lindy Rose Graham
Richard M. and Gretchen
D. Grant
Eileen and Paul Growald
Joan and David Grubin
Mary Guerrera
David S. Gullion, MD
Robert Gwyther
Harold T. Hahn
Jeanne Halpern
Susan and Charles Halpern
Cecelia Hard
Frank and Serena Hatch
Burr Heneman and Jan Visick
The Estate of Don
Heydendahl
Peter Higbee
Lin Ho, MD
Daniel B. Hogan
George and Ann Hogle
Ned Hoke
Polly Hoppin-Thomas
Harriet T. Huber
Rita Hurault
Janette Hurley
N.R. Hutchins
Raymond F. Irish
Jeffrey Jackson
Matthew Jacobs
Frank and Jeanne
Jemison, Jr.
Margaret Johnson
Marty Johnson, MFCC
Miki Kashtan
Rebecca Katz
Monica Kaufer
Linda Kaufman
Lakshmi Kaza
Bryce and Ann Kellams
Gary Kelson
Elizabeth Kershner
Cecily Kihn
Helen Kilzer
Gerlinde A. Klauser
Maxine Kraemer
Mary Kraft, MD
Marty and Pamela Krasney
Trish and Larry Kubal
Dave Kubiak
Robert Kuttner
Ellen Labelle
Alyse Laemmle
Christine V. Lassa
Maureen E. Lechwar
Lenore Lefer
Marsha LeGrand
Mary Lenox
Susan Lessin
Lenore Letterman
Iyana Christine Leveque
Madeline Littlefield
Diana B. Long
Julia Lunsford
Betty P. Lupton
Daniel B. Magraw, Jr.
Victoria H. Maizes
Betty Joan Maly
S. Jerome Mandel
Margie Mannering
Lotfollah and Marjorie
Mansouri
Joan Manuel
Lucille Marchand
Alexandria Marcus
George M. Marcus
William Marcus
Alan Margolis
Patricia Marina-Stewart
Ira M. Marks
Louis Martello
Joan Gilbert Martin
Terri L. Mason
Megan Matson
Elaine McCarthy
Thomas and Nancy McKlveen
Margaret McNamara
Michael R. McVay
Elizabeth J. Meehan
Joshua Mehlman
Margaret Mellon
Mark Mendelsohn
Woodson C. Merrell
Robert Merrill
Doris Meyer
Dolores M. Miller
Elise Miller
James Stewart Miller
Robin Miller
Sylvia Mitchell
Cherie Mohrfeld
George G. Montgomery, Jr.
Patricia Moran
Mary Moser
Deb Mosley
Fitzhugh Mullan, MD
Anne Firth Murray
Elizabeth Murray
Barbara Musser
Lewis T. Nerenberg
Marion Nestle
Kathryn B. Neustadter
Shirlee Jeanne Newman
Bill and Sandra Niman
Michael Nordin
Nancy Novack
Brigitte Olson
Judith Orr and Alexander Stephens
Molly Osborne
John H. Parks
Dean Parmelee
Margaret Partlow
Janet Perlman
Michael A. Petru
Julien Phillips
Vince Pitruzzella
Diana Pittman
Julie Ann Portelli
Natalie Compagni Portis
Marion Primomo
Howard Putter
James and Caren Quay
Michael D. Rabbino
Irving and Varda Rabin
James A. Ramenofsky
Sharon Malm Read
Judson Reaney
Barbara Recchia
Robert Rice
Norbert Riedy
Penelope Ries
Abraham Ringer
C. Stewart and Jeanette
Ritchie
Antoinette Rose
Ruth Rosen
Roger A. Rosenblatt
Diana and Don Rothman
Mary Russin
Sarah Schafer
Steve Schechter
Heather Schermerhorn
Elisa AKA Bambi Schwartz
Judith Bloom Shaw
Jordan D. Shields
William and Shira Shore
James Shropshire
Bernard S. Siegel
Linda Silver, MFT
Jay Simoneaux
Norval Sinclair
Eva H. Slinker
Donald Smith
Grace Smith
Mary Stephens Smith
Michael Smith
Shelley Sorenson
James D. Spiegel
Judith Aliyah Stein
Phyllis Kempner Stein
Patricia Stevens
William Stewart
Carole Strateman
Toby Symington
Lois Talkovsky
Henry Tang
Gregory Tarsy
Todd Tennyson
Barbara Towle
Mary Evelyn Tucker
Sabriga Turgon
David Underdown
Jim Vest
Bonita Vestal
Claudia Von Grunebaum
Murry and Marilyn Waldman
Lucy Waletzky
Carolyn Walker
Fong and Caroline Wang
Meriko Watanabe
Joan B. Webster
Wendy Weikel
Nancy Weinstein
Arnold Weiss
Ann Weissman
Jane Anne and Jasper Welch
Catherine and Peter
Whitehouse
Julie Winters
Cynthia Wood
Carol Wuebker
Francesca Zambello
Mary Ann Zetes
Sharon Ziegler
Lucinda Ziesing
Matthew B. Zwerling
and several anonymous donors.