May 10, 2001

CIIS Welcomes New Institutional Advancement Administrators

Frederick Peck

The Institute is very pleased to welcome Frederick Peck as vice president for institutional advancement and Nancy Ross as director of public relations and communications. As vice president, Fred is responsible for CIIS's development, marketing, and communications operations, which include fund raising, donor relations, alumni affairs, public relations, lifelong learning, publications, and web management. He says, "I look forward to leading a team that brings all of the Institute's extraordinary ideas and activities before a wider public. I'm confident that when we do, our alumni will be reawakened to the valuable gifts they received here, that the larger funding community will see the tremendous benefit CIIS brings to the Bay Area, and the general public will become more aware of the Institute as a unique asset." Fred was drawn to CIIS because of its mission to integrate the traditions of East and West and is impressed by its steadfastness in carrying out this mission. He says, "It's very important in this country today that an institution of higher education with intellectually rigorous standards can say publicly, in a spirit of openness and inclusiveness, that it affirms the unitary vision of body, mind, and spirit."

Fred previously served as vice president for development and marketing at Oregon Graduate Institute of Science and Technology and as president and CEO of an Oregon foundation for medical research, education, and technology. He has also been president of a foundation for vision research affiliated with the University of California, San Francisco; director of academic endowment campaigns at the University of California, Berkeley; and a professor and administrator at Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley. Fred holds a Ph.D. in education and planning from Cornell University and a master's degree from Virginia Theological Seminary. He is married to Kim-Lien Peck and they have three grown children.

Nancy Ross

Nancy Ross, director of public relations and communications, will be working directly with Fred Peck. Since 1994, Nancy has been public relations director at the New York Botanical Garden, an internationally renowned botanical science research, horticultural, and educational facility. She says, "I'm so excited about coming to CIIS. I have been drawn to the Bay Area for years, and stepping into this position not only brings my family to a whole new life and lifestyle, but also brings me into a stimulating intellectual field that fascinates me."

Many people today are yearning for greater understanding and discernment in their lives. Nancy believes that this puts CIIS not only in a mainstream position, but also right on the pulse of what is timely in the media. She has many ideas about how to present CIIS to the public, to donors, and to prospective students. She comments, "The incredible depth of this institution creates tremendous public relations potential."

Prior to working with the New York Botanical Garden, Nancy did public relations and marketing at the American Red Cross and at an opera house, and served as an arts administrator and publicist. She received the M.F.A from the State University of New York at Purchase.

Moving Toward Diversity
Admissions Staff Volunteers Time

Many administrators and staff members at CIIS are helping to make changes not only through their work at the Institute, but also by volunteering in their communities. To help increase diversity in higher education, Henry Villareal, dean of enrollment management, and Greg Canada, senior admissions officer, volunteered to read applications from Hispanic students applying for the Gates Millennium Scholarships. This fund will provide one billion dollars over twenty years to be targeted toward ethnic minorities pursuing college degrees. Groups that will benefit include African Americans, Native Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Asian Americans. Henry is intimately acquainted with the effort to increase minority enrollment, both in his capacity at CIIS, and in his work with the National Society of Hispanic MBAs (NSHMBA), of which he is Chair Emeritus.

Henry and Greg, along with more than 40 other volunteers, read hundreds of applications from all over the country. Criteria included community service, leadership potential, and the ability to navigate social systems. Both Henry and Greg were impressed by the applicants and affected by the experience. Henry says, "It was very inspiring to see how far they've come in such a short period of time, in spite of the obstacles they've had to overcome, and then to excel academically. I could relate to what these young people have gone through. It was heart wrenching to read some of the essays. You come out feeling exhausted, overwhelmed, and exhilarated."

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Message from President Subbiondo

Dear Colleagues,

We began the 2000-2001 academic year preparing for an accreditation visit; I believe that the visiting team's report will reflect the full spectrum of improvements that we have made since the past visit. As the chair of the WASC team indicated, the Institute is well poised to reach its aspirations.

We would have preferred to devote ourselves to strategic planning and budgeting early in the fall, but we had to focus our attention on the WASC visit. Not until the end of the visit in February could our work on strategic planning and zero-based budgeting begin. I am very grateful to Annabel Beerel, vice president of finance and planning, who has been leading us through an intensive planning and budgeting process. Many of you have indicated how impressed you have been with the detailed data that Annabel and her staff are producing for the Institute.

I appreciate the work that so many of you have put into planning and budgeting in such a short time frame. Thank you for participating and helping to move the Institute forward. Not only are we developing a comprehensive planning and budgeting process, but also we are strengthening governance as more people are fully participating in decision making.

Finally, a special welcome to Frederick Peck and Nancy Ross, our new vice president for advancement and director of public relations and communications respectively. I believe that they will help us increase fundraising and visibility for CIIS—critical agenda items for the 2001-2002 year. (See article above to learn more about Fred and Nancy.)

Gratefully,

 

Joseph L. Subbiondo

Secrets of the Stacks
What's New at the Laurance S. Rockefeller Library
by Olive James, Library Director

67,000 Dreams and E-books
The Laurance S. Rockefeller Library has acquired three historic videos. The first is "The Story of Carl Gustav Jung," a series from the archives of the BBC. The titles of the three parts are "In Search of the Soul," "67,000 Dreams," and "Mystery that Heals." They are available for circulation now, while the library continues to seek ways for opening a small AV facility. Also, the library has added nearly two thousand electronic books to the collection.

Library Director Retiring
After three and one-half years at the Institute, library director Olive James is retiring at the end of May. Systems librarian John Syphrit will serve as acting director during the month of June. Reference coordinator Lee Olivier will handle this responsibility in July. A search, chaired by dean of enrollment services Henry Villareal, has begun. We anticipate having a new director on board by August 1.

Summer Hours and Online Access
Summer session hours in the library, May 29 through August 7, will be: Monday through Friday, 10:00am-7:00pm; closed weekends. Intersession hours, before and after the summer session, will be: Monday through Friday, 10:00am-5:00pm. Regular hours, including Saturdays, will resume on Monday, August 20.

The library's resources continue to be available online during the summer; simply go to the library's website at http://library.ciis.edu. Our many other services, such as interlibrary loan and reference tutorials, remain available.

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On the Page and On the Stage
Publications & Presentations

Professionally Speaking

Faculty
Judye Hess, Integral Counseling Psychology
Presenting a workshop entitled "Interpersonal Gestalt," Northern California Group Psychotherapy Society Annual Institute, Asilomar Conference Grounds, Pacific Grove, California, June 8-10, 2001. (For more information, contact Judye at judyeh@ciis.edu 415-575-6228.)

Constance Jones, Transformative Learning and Change
"New Religions and Traditionalist Thought," International Association for the Study of New Religions at the London School of Economics, London, England, April 22, 2001.

Joan Marler, Women's Spirituality
Keynote address, "The Body of Woman as Sacred Metaphor," Il mito e il culto della Grande Dea, Bologna, Italy, November 2000.

Kaisa Puhakka, Psy.D.
Plenary speaker, "Transpersonal psychology: Promises and Pitfalls for a Transformative Journey," International Conference on Spirituality, Healing, and Health, Tucson, Arizona, May 6-9, 2001.

Sophia Reinders, East-West Psychology
"Breath: Song of the Body, Song of the Soul," Conference on Nondual Wisdom and Psychotherapy, Berkeley, California, June 22-24, 2001.

Brian Swimme, Philosophy, Cosmology & Consciousness
Keynote Speaker, EarthSpirit Rising 2001 Conference, Louisville, KY,
June 15-17, 2001. (513-921-5124: email imago@one.net)

____ "The Art of Living in the 21st Century: Building Communities of Cooperation to Create a Sustainable Future" MasterPeace 2001, a five day conference at Stanford University, August 22-26, 2001. (650-960-1767: email nkruse@pacbell.net)

Alumni
Stu Sovatsky '84, Psychology
"Consciousness, Kundalini and Body Development," International Conference on Consciousness and Neuroscience, Chennai, India, March 9-10. (Made possible by a grant from the Infinity Foundation.)

Graduating Students
Susan Carter, '01, Ph.D., Women's Spirituality
"Amaterasu-o-mi-kami: The Great Ancestor of the Emperor and Mother of the Japanese Nation," American Academy of Religion Conference, November 17-20, 2001, Denver, Colorado.

Marguerite Rigoglioso, '01, M.A., Women's Spirituality
"The Rape of the Lake: A Study of the Spiritual and Environmental History of Lake Pergusa, Sicily," American Academy of Religion Conference, November 17-20, 2001, Denver, Colorado.

In Print

Faculty
Renee Emunah, Drama Therapy
"The Integrative Five-phase Model of Drama Therapy," in Current Approaches to Drama Therapy, edited by Dr. R. Johnson and P. Lewis, Springfield: IL: Charles C. Thomas, 2001.

Administrators
Joseph L. Subbiondo
"John Wilkins," in Concise Encyclopedia of Language and Religion, edited by John F. A. Sawyer and J.M.Y Simpson, Amsterdam: Pergamon, 2001.

Alumni
Simcha Steven Paull Raphael '86, Clinical Psychology
"Jewish Pastoral Care for Grief and Bereavement," in Jewish Pastoral Care: A Practical Handbook from Traditional and Contemporary Sources, edited by Dayle A. Friedman, Jewish Lights Press, 2001.

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Reclaiming Cultural Wealth
Faculty Heads Cultural Conservancy
by Joan Cullinane

If you can't find her in a CIIS classroom teaching a course for the Institute's Social and Cultural Anthropology Program, Professor Melissa Nelson is likely to be found in her office in the cusp of green and ocean known as the Presidio of San Francisco. Melissa is executive director of The Cultural Conservancy, whose mission is "to preserve the traditional cultures of indigenous peoples, empowering them in direct applications of their traditional beliefs and practices on their ancestral lands." The Conservancy creates space and opens conduits for the passage of information through the media, public talks and performances.

For this mission to be successful, Melissa believes, we must take a systemic approach in changing consciousness. And it is by reclaiming the knowledge of our indigenous roots that this shift in consciousness can take place. She says, "Cultural conservation is for everyone. We all have indigenous roots somewhere on the earth." She laments, "Middle America is poor in cultural wealth; this is one of the greatest poverties there is. In cultural and spiritual wealth we have something valuable and unique."

The Cultural Conservancy serves indigenous peoples from Turtle Island, Hawaii, Polynesia, and Tibet. Recently, eight Tibetan elders who had lived in a free Tibet were hosted by the Conservancy in order to share their indigenous knowledge with exiles and other in the Bay Area. The Presidio's small chapel, once home to military weddings and funerals now hosts The Throat Singers of Tuva in its sacred space, thanks to the Conservancy's efforts.

Melissa herself has mixed-blood ancestry. In an article she has written, "Becoming Metis," she speaks of her cultural challenge "to find my authentic voice as a mixed-blood person who has both Native American and European ancestry. I am Metis, or "mischief," as they call us at my home reservation at the Turtle Mountain Chippewa Community in North Dakota."

This summer Melissa and ecopsychologist Leslie Gray of Woodfish Institute will teach a course for CIIS entitled "Transformation and Extinction: Ecopsychology from The Roots." In the spirit of encouraging cultural diversity at CIIS, the course will be open to the general public for its first weekend session. It makes sense that this course will be taught for CIIS, where the integration of ecological studies with the field of psychology is a lively endeavor. It also makes sense that it will be taught at The Cultural Conservatory, in the heart of The Presidio, where indigenous plants have been restored and the ocean breeze smells like life itself.