Curiosity Invited

Drs. Peter Schnall and Marnie Dobson speak about the ways in which work can have long-term disastrous consequences on the immediate and long term wellbeing of workers, organizations, and our economic system. Their research shows the scientifically verified effects of many work environments and what can be done about it.

Marnie Dobson, Ph.D. is currently the Director of the Healthy Work Campaign and the Associate Director of the Center for Social Epidemiology, a non-profit organization and sponsor of the HWC. The Healthy Work Campaign is a public health campaign focused on raising awareness in the U.S. about the impacts of work stress on mental and physical health. For over 17 years she has been a researcher in occupational health and work stress research and was an Assistant Adjunct Professor at the University of California, Irvine, Center for Occupational and Environmental Health. She developed the Healthy Work Survey in collaboration with a team of university researchers, as well as intervention tools to guide organizations in preventing occupational diseases caused by stress and designing healthier work.

Peter Schnall, MD, MPH has been studying the effects work environments can have on the wellbeing of workers as well as the quality of work for nearly 50 years. The Founder and Director of the Center of Epidemiology, Peter's work is widely respected for his understanding of the effects of our modern way of life on individual and community wellbeing.


https://healthywork.org
https://unhealthywork.org/
https://unhealthywork.org/healthy-wor...
https://www.linkedin.com/in/peter-sch...
https://twitter.com/pschnall

A Message From the Elders - Wisdom Weavers of the World

It all began with a vision.

In 2017, as the Earth's temperature continued to rise, Ilarion Merculieff, “Kuuyux,” Alaskan Unangan traditional and environmental leader, received a message from spirit to gather 13 Elders from all four directions around the world to council on two questions: "How do you see the current state of the Earth...and what do we need to do?"

Through four sacred days and nights on the fertile island of Kauai, diverse ancient teachings collided. Daily councils, ceremonies, and discussions revealed the presence of outstanding overlapping themes amongst every cultural heritage… and yet, profoundly, each Elder held a different piece of the puzzle.

And like the emergence of light after a long, dark night of the soul, a unified message for humanity was born….Drop into your heart.

This is the message of the Wisdom Weavers of the World. Journey with us to uncover the meaning for yourself and add your voice to our ever-evolving collective story.

Ilarion “Larry” Kuuyux Merculieff is the visionary behind Wisdom Weavers, the project founder, and ongoing key speaker. Raised in a traditional Unangan (Aleut) way and received his Unangan name “Kuuyux” at age 4. The name is given to one person in each lifetime amongst his people. Kuuyux means an arm extending out from the body, a carrier of ancient knowledge into modern times, a messenger. Today he is living the legacy of his name.

George Pletnikoff, Unangan elder, has a degree in biology and a deep connection to spirit in both Indigenous and Christian ways. (George was an active orthodox priest for 12 years.

Shay Sloan Clarke - Executive Director, Global Center for Indigenous Leadership & Lifeways (GCILL) - has many years of experience in Indigenous Cultures, both  from her training in Rites of Passage work and years of experience doing cultural conservation work.  A community steward committed to nurturing communities and communities of practice, Shay is practitioner of rites of passage, circle practices, inquiry/emergence, and a fierce advocate for cultural reclamation and renewal for collective liberation. A life-long learner, Shay has especially learned from Indigenous Peoples, people of color and white people committed to healing and reimagining social fields. She is co-editor of the book Protecting Wild Nature on Native Lands and co-author of the report “Cross-Cultural Protocols in Rites of Passage: Guiding Principles, Themes and Inquiry.” Most recently, she served as co-director of The Ojai Foundation, stewarding the organization through fire recovery, evolving communal practices and reimagining its future. After hours, Shay can be found enjoying wild waters or playing with her son, Kian.

--
Shay Sloan Clarke
Executive Director, Global Center for Indigenous Leadership & Lifeways (GCILL)Shay was invited to serve as the Interim Executive Director of Wisdom Weavers of the World. Shay is a community steward committed to nurturing communities and communities of practice.

https://www.wisdomweavers.world/

#wisdomweavers  #IlarionMerculieff #Indigenous culture

Lina Acosta Sandaal, MA, LMFT is a psychotherapist, development expert, writer, and founder of Stop Parenting Alone, a parenting education and consulting program in Miami, FL. She is a writer on social emotional learning for Macmillan Education, a human development expert for Telemundo’s national broadcasts and consultant for MomsRising an advocacy group for family rights in our nation’s capital. Her mission is for all parents to fall in love with their parenting journey!

https://stopparentingalone.com/
https://twitter.com/parentingrelief?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor
https://www.instagram.com/parentingexpert/?hl=en
https://www.linkedin.com/in/lina-acosta-sandaal-9680a684/
https://www.facebook.com/Stop-Parenting-Alone-411686985524693

Paul Irving is a corporate and nonprofit director and advisor to leaders in business, investment, philanthropy, and academia. Author/editor of “The Upside of Aging: How Long Life Is Changing the World of Health, Work, Innovation, Policy, and Purpose,” Wall Street Journal expert panelist,  and a contributor to the Harvard Business Review, PBS NextAvenue, and Forbes Pau  l speaks and writes about health, finance, and the future of retirement; innovation in the longevity economy; and the changing culture of aging in America and the world. 

Irving is a distinguished scholar-in-residence at the University of Southern California Leonard Davis School of Gerontology and senior advisor at the Milken Institute. He previously served as the Institute’s president and founding chair of its Center for the Future of Aging, an advanced leadership fellow at Harvard University, and chair, CEO, and head of the financial services group of Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP, a national law and consulting firm.  

Irving is a director and chair of the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee of East West Bancorp, Inc. and a member of the International Strategic Committee of the Quadrivio Group Silver Economy Fund. Chair emeritus and a member of the board of CoGenerate (previously, Encore.org), Irving serves on the Global Advisory Council of the Stanford University Distinguished Careers Institute, the Board of Councilors of the USC Leonard Davis School, and the Advisory Board of WorkingNation. Irving has served on the National Academy of Medicine Global Commission on Healthy Longevity, the Bipartisan Policy Center Senior Health and Housing Task Force, and as a participant in the 2015 White House Conference on Aging. 

Named an “Influencer” by PBS NextAvenue, Irving was recognized with the Affordable Living for the Aging Janet L. Witkin Humanitarian Award, the Stanford University Distinguished Careers Institute Life Journey Inspiration Award, the Center for Workforce Inclusion Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Loyola Law School, Los Angeles Board of Governors Award. 

In three decades as a corporate lawyer, Irving represented public and private companies and prominent investors in complex merger, acquisition, and capital markets transactions, and in a wide range of business, governance, and regulatory matters. Throughout his legal career, Irving was actively involved in pro bono services and charitable leadership in organizations including Operation Hope, Human Rights First, Bet Tzedek Legal Services, Center Theater Group, and New Roads School.

Dr. Sofia Vergara  has been a Spanish teacher at New Roads School for the last 17 years and served as Curriculum Coordinator and now Chair for the Spanish division of her department. She is an alumnus of the school and decided to go back and work there after graduating from UC Berkeley with a degree in Political Science and minors in both Spanish and Disability Studies. She also earned a Masters degree in Secondary Education  and Doctorate degree in Educational Leadership for Social Justice both from Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles.

In 2017, Dr. Vergara was asked to join LMU’s School of Education as a lecturer where she has taught undergraduate and graduate courses focusing on disability and multiculturalism in special education, specifically in the areas of educational supports for students with disabilities (FBAs, IEPs 504 plans), IDEA, Universal Design for Learning, and transitional planning. Sofia also served as a member and chair of the Board of Directors of the Westside Regional Center, whose mission it is to empower people with developmental disabilities and their families to choose and access community services. These educational and professional experiences, as well as her passion for advocacy and inclusion of individuals with disabilities, are also the essential driving forces behind why, in 2020, Dr Vergara and a colleague co-founded Bridges to Inclusion, a company that provides training and support to educational institutions, organizations, families, and individuals with disabilities.

https://www.bridgestoinclusion.org/
https://linkedin.com/in/sofia-vergara...
[email protected]

I so enjoyed my conversation with author, lawyer, legislator, minister, Rodger McDaniel about his  latest book  - Profiles in Courage: Standing Against the  Wyoming Wind.

McDaniel was a Wyoming state legislator from 1971-1981 and the Democratic Party nominee for the United States Senate in 1982. He received a law degree from the University of Wyoming in 1980. After practicing law for 20 years, he received a Master of Divinity degree from the Iliff School of Theology in Denver and was ordained in 1999. 

He was a 2000 Fellow at the College of Preachers, National Cathedral, Washington, DC, now Cathedral College of Faith and Culture. While there he studied what it means for Christians to worship God on land stolen from Indigenous Peoples. 

He was Director of the Wyoming Department of Family Services and headed the state’s mental health and substance abuse programs from 2003-2011. He is currently the pastor at Highlands Presbyterian Church in Cheyenne. 

Rodger has written five books. His most recent - Profiles in Courage: Standing Against the Wyoming Wind - is a collection of stories of 13 individuals and groups who are either marginalized people or their advocates who stood against the prevailing culture. 

Rodger’s first book  - Dying for Joe McCarthy’s Sins-The Suicide of Wyoming Senator Lester Hunt -  was named the best nonfiction book of 2013 by the Wyoming State Historical Society. The Sagebrush Gospel was published in 2014. A fourth book is entitled “Howard Zinn and Lois Mottonen Fistfight in the Equality State.” 

“The Man in the Arena-The Life and Times of US Senator Gale McGee,” was published in September 2018 by Potomac Books/University of Nebraska Press and was named the Wyoming State Historical Society best nonfiction book of 2013. In his review of the book, Don Ritchie, the Historian Emeritus of the United States Senate, wrote “Rodger McDaniel is a fine writer and a thorough researcher. His account of the U.S. Senate in the 1960s and 1970s is solid and convincing. He has produced a study that should appeal to anyone interested in Congress's role in American foreign policy, the Vietnam War, and twentieth-century American politics."

What a delightful time I had speaking with Aura Sunada Newlin of the Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation. And my visit to The Heart Mountain Interpretive Center was deeply moving and inspiring. My time at the Center and spent in conversation with Aura left me feeling quite certain that we are living at a time when lessons that were unlearned in the 1940's remain some of the most pressing lessons needed in our time.

Aura Sunada Newlin is a fourth-generation Wyomingite, fourth-generation Japanese American, and Executive Director for the Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation (HMWF). Her heritage involves intertwined stories of imprisonment at Heart Mountain and Tule Lake; segregated military service; and hardships suffered by railroaders who were fired because of their Japanese ancestry. Aura was elected to the HMWF board of directors in 2013 and served as board secretary for eight years. She is also on the board of directors for the National Consortium on Racial and Ethnic Fairness in the Courts and was a founding member of the National Steering Committee for Tsuru for Solidarity. She previously taught Asian American Studies courses at the University of Wyoming and was a tenured faculty member in sociology and anthropology at Wyoming’s Northwest College.

Aura earned a BA in ethnomusicology from the University of Wyoming and an MA in medical anthropology from Case Western Reserve University. Now focusing on the anthropology of law, she is a PhD candidate at Case Western Reserve University. Aura’s work has been profiled by the Women in Wyoming podcast and gallery exhibit; the University of Wyoming’s Featured Alumni series; and Wyoming PBS. She was named statewide Faculty Member of the Year by the Wyoming Association of Community College Trustees in 2018 and received the Community Member Award of the Shepard Symposium on Social Justice in 2021.

Website: www.HeartMountain.org
Facebook: facebook.com/HeartMountainWY
Twitter: twitter.com/HeartMountainWY
YouTube: youtube.com/HeartMountainWyomingFoundation


Listeners can contact HMWF at [email protected]
You can support HMWF by becoming a member: https://www.heartmountain.org/join-and-give/become-a-member/

Robert Ochs, MS, LCSW, has worked in the criminal justice system since 1979, at the local, state, and federal levels

For many years, his work was predominantly in forensic mental health. He trained at an LA County Probation Camp, worked in juvenile delinquency at the California Youth Authority, became a licensed clinician in 1983, and began a private practice. Bob’s forensic mental health work also included evaluating insanity acquitees, mentally-disordered offenders, and sex-offenders for appropriateness of hospital release, and directing programs for these offenders. Bob also directed the Adult Division of a large Community Mental Health Center in Los Angeles (Didi Hirsch) Bob transitioned into the world of County Probation and served as Sonoma County’s chief probation officer from 2005 to 2016, following 4 years as deputy chief. After retiring from Sonoma County, he served as the Mendocino County interim Chief probation officer for several months in 2017/2018. Bob was a Chief Justice appointment to the Judicial Council’s “Task Force on Criminal Justice Collaboration on Mental Health Issues”. He has served on other similar panels, e.g., describing “Best Practices in Competency Restoration”, and “Mental Health in the Juvenile Justice System". In 2017, Bob received the Christine M. West Award from the Forensic Mental Health Association of California for significant contributions to the field of forensic mental health. Bob currently consults and speaks on issues at the intersection of the criminal justice and mental health systems. Finally, more than 20 years in Sonoma County can’t overcome a lifetime in Southern California – Bob remains a proud Dodger fan.

An athlete and trainer, and trainers trainer, Simon Gowen has spent a lifetime developing pathways to improves peoples' wellbeing. A certified Wim Hof Breathing instructor. Drawing from his years of experience with  cold exposure, breath work, and movement, Simon developed what he calls the SG Way to greater wellbeing.

#simongowen# #wimhofmethod #sgway

thesgway.net 

linkedin.com/in/simon-gowen-0a06788

Erin Whalen seems young to have accomplished as much as he has... but he has, and he is just getting started. Erin and Da Vinci RISE High School's co-founder Kari Croft designed their  school for those who are least served by traditional education in conventional settings.  With profound insight into the needs of the homeless, the transient, and foster children populations, the RISE model is quickly becoming a model that can be replicated  appropriately. 

Listening to this young school and community leader will give you hope for a tomorrow that can so often be difficult to find.

Erin Whalen, born and raised in Santa Monica, California is co-founder and Executive Director of Da Vinci RISE High School. At a young age, Erin found himself enticed by education’s power to provide people with a sense of self that could be leveraged as a powerful force in the world. After graduating from New Roads High School, Erin moved away to study Anthropology at Grinnell College in Iowa and at the University of Cape Town in South Africa. Throughout the years Erin and Kari Croft, co-founder, worked together with students, families and partners to develop concepts for RISE High. In 2016, Whalen and Kari Croft applied for and won a highly competitive $10 million grant from XQ: The Super School Project, funded by Laurene Powell Jobs and Russlynn Ali. Opening in 2017, RISE now has three locations around Los Angeles County serving upwards of 210 students. Erin received his master’s degree at the LMU School of Education’s Institute of School Leadership and Administration (ISLA) in 2020 and an honorary doctorate from Grinnell College in 2022.

Erin Whalen M.Ed, D.S.Sc
[email protected]

#Erin Whalen #education #podcast #DaVinci RISE #davincischools