About Us
Social Prescribing USA’s mission is to make social prescribing available to every American by 2035. Our team of volunteers and Community of Practice aims to act as the movement’s catalyst. We build practitioner communities, bridge sectors to collaborate, and support passionate healthcare leaders as they fundraise and implement social prescribing in their clinics, healthcare systems, and in the community. See our efforts covered in Time Magazine.
We’d love to connect with you!
Team
Dan Morse, Co-founder, Strategic Planning Advisory Group
Dan has been working to advance social prescribing (doctors prescribing community activities such as arts, nature, and volunteering) in the United States. Social prescribing is being scaled nationwide in the UK, and Dan has working closely with its originators to spearhead American adoption. His team of volunteers are coordinating a US grassroots physician movement, creating a network of 400+ experts, exploring a major prospective pilot study and inaugural US social prescribing conference in collaboration with Professors at Harvard, Stanford, University of Michigan, reps from hospitals, Cleveland Clinic, Mass General Hospital and more. He was the lead author on the Global Developments in Social Prescribing published by the British Medical Journal. He has transitioned into being a core Strategic Planning Advisor.
Alan Siegel, M.D. - Executive Director, Co-founder
Dr. Alan Siegel is a Co-founder for Social Prescribing USA and serves as its Executive Director. He is the U.S representative to the International Social Prescribing Collaborative. He is a Family Physician in the Bay Area at Kaiser Oakland and previously worked for 25 years at Contra Costa Health, where he has been a social prescriber for more than two decades. Alan has pioneered many new programs related to social prescribing, including a thriving Arts in Health program, and helped start a Health Leads Program to address social determinants of health. As a 2019 UCSF Champion Provider Fellow, he started a nature prescribing program, Walk with A Doc, He served as a founding board member of the National Organization for Arts in Health (NOAH) where he worked on bringing the arts to healthcare workers to address wellness. He is also an active musician.
Adam Hirschfelder, MA - Lead, Development, Outreach and Engagement
Adam is a public and civic engagement expert who authored one of the first academic articles in the U.S. on social prescribing, a call to action to integrate volunteerism prescriptions in the care of older adults. Earlier in his career, Adam worked in public affairs at the Corporation for National and Community Service (now AmeriCorps) promoting volunteerism nationwide, and in business development at two leading education companies.. Since 2007, he has created, organized, led and funded major civic engagement projects and public programs for the Koret Foundation, California Historical Society and the Commonwealth Club of California. He also covers popular television franchises for the popular culture website, Book and Film Globe.
Ivory Rose, OTD - Lead, Healthcare Engagement and Strategic Initiatives
Dr. Ivory Rose is an occupational therapist and poet who brings a unique blend of clinical expertise, academic achievement, and creative talent to Social Prescribing USA. She holds two degrees in occupational therapy: a Master’s from New York University where she received the Arch Award for excellence in service and a post-professional doctorate from Boston University, where she designed a prescribed volunteerism program for transitional age youth. Ivory utilizes her original poetry to advocate for social change, performing on international stages from Los Angeles to London, Paris, and Athens, where her poetry film was showcased at the International Poetry Film Festival. She is also a staunch advocate for fostering collaboration between occupational therapy and the social prescribing movement.
Jennifer Kuo, MPH, CHES® Lead, Programming and Education
With 20+ of experience, Jen brings an assorted spectrum of skills with her background working in health and wellness, community engagement, education, marketing, and event/program planning for corporations, non-profit organizations, and the public sector. Currently, she is developing arts and health initiatives as a consultant for Californians for the Arts and supports research work for the University of Florida Center for Arts in Medicine and the Jameel Arts & Health Lab. Jen is a certified yoga instructor, social emotional arts facilitator, and a member of the American Public Health Association, Society of Public Health Education, National Organization for Arts in Health, and the Arts Health Early Career Research Network.
Advisors
An incredible cross-disciplinary group of advisors are supporting the movement
Michael Dixon - Head of the UK Royal Medical Household
Michael has held numerous national leadership roles including: – The first Chair of NHS Alliance (1998-2016), President of NHS Clinical Commissioners and as a leader within the GP/clinical commissioning movement. He is currently Chair of the College of Medicine, Chair of The Institute for Social Prescription and Medical Advisor to HRH The Prince of Wales. He is Visiting Professor at University College London and at the University of Westminster, a Senior Fellow in Public Policy (University of Birmingham) and an Honorary Senior Lecturer (Peninsula Medical School Exeter). He is author of “Time to Heal” Unicorn Press Nov. 2020. He is also Head of the Royal Medical Household.
Jill Sonke - Associate Professor at University of Florida, Co-Director of the EpiArts Lab
With 27+ years of experience and leadership in the field of arts in health, Jill is active in research, teaching, and international cultural exchange. She is a mixed methods researcher with a current focus on population-level health outcomes associated with arts and cultural participation, arts in public health, and the arts in health communication. She is the recipient of a New Forms Florida Fellowship Award, a State of Florida Individual Artist Fellowship Award, an Excellence in Teaching Award from the National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development, a UF Internationalizing the Curriculum Award, a UF Most Outstanding Service Learning Faculty Award, a UF Public Health Champions award, a UF Cross-Campus Faculty Entrepreneur of the Year Award, and over 300 grants for her programs and research at the University of Florida.
Ardeshir Hashmi - Endowed Chair of Geriatric Innovation, Cleveland Clinic
Dr. Ardeshir Z. Hashmi MD, FACP is the Endowed Chair of Geriatric Innovation and Section Chief of the Center for Geriatric Medicine at Cleveland Clinic. He is Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Case Western Reserve University and the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine. Dr. Hashmi completed a two year postdoctoral research fellowship at Yale University. He completed his Internal Medicine residency at the Yale-Saint Mary’s Hospital in Connecticut, where he served as Chief Medical resident. He then trained at Massachusetts General Hospital, as a Clinical and Research Fellow in Geriatrics before becoming Faculty and then Medical Director of MGH Senior Health-Harvard Medicine. Dr. Hashmi subsequently transitioned to the Cleveland Clinic in 2017. He is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians, a graduate of the Clinical Process Improvement Leadership Program and the Value Based Healthcare Delivery via the Harvard Business School Institute of Strategy& Competitiveness. Dr. Hashmi is also certified as an Advanced Peer Coach through the Cleveland Clinic Center for Excellence in Coaching and Mentoring. He is Co-Chair of the national American Geriatrics Society (AGS) Patient Priorities Care American Geriatrics Society Special Interest Group (SIG) and member of the AGS Health Systems Leadership SIG. Dr. Hashmi is also member of the Association of Chiefs and Leaders in General Internal Medicine and serves on the Cleveland Clinic National Consultation Service. He has also been selected for the prestigious Tideswell Emerging Leaders in Aging (ELIA) program in conjunction with the American Geriatric Society and the University of California San Francisco. Under Dr. Hashmi’s leadership Cleveland Clinic Geriatrics has garnered the following milestones: Age Friendly Health Systems Committed to Care Excellence designation via the Institute for Healthcare Improvement; highest Geriatrics US News and World report national rankings in Cleveland Clinic history; national accreditation as a top tier Level 1 Geriatrics Emergency Department by the American College of Emergency Physicians. Dr. Hashmi’s niche area of interest is the intersection of affordable technology solutions and geriatric population health in the service our most vulnerable populations.
Bogdan Chiva Giurca - Clinical Champion Lead and Development Lead, Global Social Prescribing Alliance
DR BOGDAN CHIVA GIURCA is the Founder and Chair of the NHS Social Prescribing Champion Scheme (2016-2021) consisting of thousands of UK junior doctors and medical students. Over a four-year period, the scheme has delivered over 700 teaching sessions in all UK medical schools, as well as developing a National Consensus for Teaching Social Prescribing. As the founder of the world’s first International Social Prescribing Day, Bogdan has acted as an international champion, raising awareness of the subject globally. His work has influenced national healthcare policy and has driven key changes within the medical school curriculum, contributing to several peer-reviewed publications and policy documents, including the Global Social Prescribing Playbook (2021), NHS Long Term Plan (2019), Universal Personalised Care: Implementing the Comprehensive Model (2019), GP Partnership Review (2019), as well as authoring three books on medical education. Bogdan is currently working as a medical doctor within the London, South Thames Foundation School, Development Lead for the Global Social Prescribing Alliance and Clinical Champion Lead at the National Academy for Social Prescribing, as well as a Collaborator for the Harvard Global Health Institute.”
Tracy Paris-Benjamin - Director of Community Health and Health Equity, Horizon Blue Shield NJ
Tracy Parris-Benjamin is a master’s-level licensed Social Worker, integrator, and equity champion, who works to sustain support for advancing diversity, equity, accessibility and inclusion . Ms. Parris-Benjamin holds a distinguished record of health care innovation and transformation. With the primary goal of achieving equitable health for all, Ms. Parris-Benjamin works with Horizon’s extensive value-based network to lead the development of innovative health programs targeted toward marginalized populations. Ms. Parris-Benjamin’s experience demonstrates her work as an advocate for community-based programs and other health care initiatives. She leads several workgroups and discussions around increased awareness and stigma reduction of substance use disorders and has championed programs for HIV-positive pregnant teens and their families, survivors of domestic violence, individual and group counseling, parenting workshops to reunite families, and care coordination for underserved and chronically ill persons. She promotes the need for increased cognizance on the impact of health disparities and inequities in health care, for underserved populations and persons of color. In 2019, Ms. Parris-Benjamin received distinguished honors from Diversity MBA as a top leader under 50 and top 100 Women of Influence in 2020. She is a fellow of the New Jersey Health care Executives Leadership Academy. Ms. Parris-Benjamin has appeared in media leading discussions on trauma informed care, community engagement to mobilize health education, COVID-19 and access to resources in high-risk communities.
Eddie Garcia - Executive Director, Foundation for Social Connection
As Partner, Eddie offers clients thoughtful and expansive expertise in health and social policy development and advocacy for low-income and other vulnerable populations. Eddie’s 20 years working in government health and social services programs has made him knowledgeable in a multitude policy issue areas. Eddie serves as the lead Partner supporting our health plan portfolio and as well as our coalitions and non-profits focused on social isolation and loneliness and mental health. In addition, he brings a wealth of knowledge and passion for policy and program development to expand access to social determinants of health and health equity programs and services. Eddie is a sought-after speaker on issues of social isolation and loneliness and social health as showcased before the American Public Health Association, the World Health Organization, and the European Commission, and numerous national governments and organizations around the globe. Before joining the Healthsperien team, Eddie served as the Executive Director for Federal Affairs at CareSource, a government programs-focused health insurer. He oversaw the development of federal policy and advocacy across their multi-state health plans. His portfolio included policy development and advocacy on Medicaid, Medicare Advantage, Health Insurance Exchanges, dual-eligible coverage, and social determinants of health programs and financing. He led and was actively involved in numerous multi-stakeholder coalitions aimed at improving our nation’s health care delivery and financing systems, including the Root Cause Coalition and Aligning for Health. He similarly served on the Board of Directors for America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) and the Association of Community Affiliated Plans (ACAP). Before joining CareSource, Eddie served as Director of Federal Relations for the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association where he maintained a similar portfolio related to Administration advocacy and regulatory policy development. Prior to joining the private sector, Eddie held positions in both the Executive and Legislative branches. From 2007 – 2012, Eddie worked at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services where he oversaw the development and implementation of quality measurement strategies across all CMS quality programs. From 2012-2015, Eddie served the House Energy and Commerce committee as a professional staff member under Congressman Henry Waxman (D-CA) overseeing their Medicare finance and quality portfolios. Hailing from the great state of Ohio, Eddie received his B.A. in political science and comparative health politics from Boston University in 2004. In 2008, Eddie received his Master of Health Science in Public Health degree from The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and was inducted into the Delta Omega honors society as the valedictorian of his graduating class. Tracy Parris-Benjamin is a master’s-level licensed Social Worker, integrator, and equity champion, who works to sustain support for advancing diversity, equity, accessibility and inclusion . Ms. Parris-Benjamin holds a distinguished record of health care innovation and transformation. With the primary goal of achieving equitable health for all, Ms. Parris-Benjamin works with Horizon’s extensive value-based network to lead the development of innovative health programs targeted toward marginalized populations. Ms. Parris-Benjamin’s experience demonstrates her work as an advocate for community-based programs and other health care initiatives. She leads several workgroups and discussions around increased awareness and stigma reduction of substance use disorders and has championed programs for HIV-positive pregnant teens and their families, survivors of domestic violence, individual and group counseling, parenting workshops to reunite families, and care coordination for underserved and chronically ill persons. She promotes the need for increased cognizance on the impact of health disparities and inequities in health care, for underserved populations and persons of color. In 2019, Ms. Parris-Benjamin received distinguished honors from Diversity MBA as a top leader under 50 and top 100 Women of Influence in 2020. She is a fellow of the New Jersey Health care Executives Leadership Academy. Ms. Parris-Benjamin has appeared in media leading discussions on trauma informed care, community engagement to mobilize health education, COVID-19 and access to resources in high-risk communities.
Marie Polley - Cofounder, the Social Prescribing Network
Marie is a freelance research consultant, past Chair of the British Society for Integrative Oncology, trained as a biomedical scientist and has a PhD in molecular carcinogenesis. Marie led the team to write the first national guidance for social prescribing, the first economic overview of social prescribing on health service usage and recently mapped all outcomes associated with social prescribing to support discussion on inclusive ways of researching and evaluating this growing field. Marie provides advice to senior leaders, Members of Parliament and the House of Lords, key stakeholders, researchers and organisations in this field. For the past 14 years, Marie has researched and taught about approaches to integrating different paradigms of health and wellbeing, in her role as Senior Lecturer in Health Sciences and Research at the University of Westminster. Marie is also Co-Director of Meaningful Measures which licences the person-centred outcome measures MYMOP® and MYCaW® and supports many organisations to capture the full impact of their social prescribing and personalised care schemes. Marie is also a Usui Reiki Master, a voluntary youth worker for her local church, loves getting out in nature and when near the sea will willingly jump on a surfboard and (attempt to) catch some waves.
Phil Schermer - Founder and CEO, Project Healthy Minds
Phillip Schermer is the Founder and CEO of Project Healthy Minds, a millennial/Gen Z-driven non-profit startup focused on tackling one of the defining issues of our generation: the growing mental health crisis. Project Healthy Minds is building the world’s first digital mental health marketplace to democratize access to life-changing services, partnering with public figures to de-stigmatize mental health, and creating the first national standards for businesses to better support employee mental health. Project Healthy Minds has been spotlighted in numerous national media outlets such as Axios, NBC’s The TODAY Show, The Hollywood Reporter, PEOPLE Magazine, CNN Business, Variety, The Atlantic, WWD, AdAge, Yahoo!, and Morning Brew, among others. Phillip has been a featured speaker at leading public health conferences, industry summits, and universities, including the National Academy of Sciences Annual Colloquium, Milken Institute, Billboard Music Summit, Kennedy Forum, the University of Michigan School of Public Health, Duke Fuqua School of Business, Jewish Funders Network, NICSA (leading investment management industry trade association), PRWeek’s “PRDecoded” conference, and more. Phil also sits on a National Academy of Medicine Action Collaborative, and is an advisor to stigma researchers at Columbia University and Yale University. Prior to his current role, Phil worked at BlackRock — as the Chief of Staff to the Vice Chairman and then as Chief of Staff to the Global Chief Marketing Officer. During his time as Chief of Staff to the CMO, Phil focused on a range of initiatives relating to the future of stakeholder capitalism and purpose-driven business, digital product development and fintech investments, and various strategic growth priorities for BlackRock. As Chief of Staff to the Vice Chairman, Phil worked on BlackRock’s long-term growth strategy and evolving the firm’s advisory capabilities. In that role, he was part of a working group that created a new business unit that is now one of the fastest-growing businesses at BlackRock. During this time, he also invented a consumer technology product that won the firm’s global hackathon and became the technology basis of a joint venture with Microsoft. Before joining BlackRock, Phil worked in the Obama White House as an intern for the National Economic Council, for Warner Brothers Entertainment on the movie set of The Dark Knight Rises, for Summit Entertainment on the movie set of Perks of Being a Wallflower, and for Live Nation on U2’s 360 tour. While in college, Phil founded MUSIC Matters, a student-run non-profit at the University of Michigan that built one of the first social impact lifestyle festivals in the US. Today, Phil serves on the MUSIC Matters Board of Advisors. Phil graduated from the University of Michigan’s Honors Program with a B.A. in Politics, Philosophy, and Economics (PPE).
Sahil Sandhu - Medical Student, Harvard Medical School
Sahil Sandhu is pursuing an MD at Harvard Medical School. Sahil graduated from Duke University in 2020 with a self-designed bachelor’s degree in health innovation. He studied the use of evidence-based practice to design, implement, and evaluate new health innovations. He first became interested in healthcare after traveling to Western Kenya to help deliver an HIV prevention intervention. Since then, he has worked on various local and global health innovation research projects, ranging from artificial intelligence tools to new healthcare payment models. His research with the Duke-Margolis Center for Health Policy and the Duke Institute for Health Innovation has resulted in eight peer-reviewed publications. Sahil’s particular passion has been on the social determinants of health. While at Duke, he founded a student volunteer program to help patients connect to community resources for their unmet social needs such food insecurity and housing instability. Prior to HMS, Sahil completed his Master’s in Health Services Research at Newcastle University as a US-UK Fulbright Scholar, where he explored the UK’s innovative models to integrate health and social services. Sahil aspires to become a physician committed to building a stronger and more equitable healthcare system.
Dr Kate Mulligan - Faculty, University of Toronto Dalla Lana School of Public Health
Dr. Kate Mulligan is the founding director of the Canadian Institute for Social Prescribing and a senior advisor to the Canadian Red Cross on knowledge mobilization and determinants of health. A 2021 “pillar of the pandemic,” Kate is an Assistant Professor in Social and Behavioural Health Sciences at the University of Toronto’s Dalla Lana School of Public Health and School of Cities, where her research and teaching focus on scaling and spreading promising approaches to health equity, healthy public policy, and community leadership in health. Kate is a public member of the Toronto Board of Health and co-chairs the Global Social Prescribing Alliance. Find Kate on Twitter @KateMMulligan.
Robert Egger - Founder, LA Kitchen and DC Central Kitchen
Robert is the Founder and President of L.A. Kitchen, which recovers locally sourced, cosmetically imperfect fruits and vegetables to fuel a culinary arts job training program for men and women coming out of foster care and older men and women returning from incarceration. Founded in 2013, L.A. Kitchen is now located in a 20,000-square-foot, two–level processing kitchen, located in NE Los Angeles. L.A. Kitchen operates Strong Food, a wholly owned, for-profit subsidiary that hires training program graduates and competes for food service contracts, with an emphasis on opportunities to serve healthy senior meals. L.A. Kitchen’s founding partner is the AARP Foundation, which gave its first million-dollar grant to help establish the model. Robert pioneered this model during his 24-year tenure as the president of the DC Central Kitchen, the country’s first “community kitchen,” where food donated by hospitality businesses and farms is used to fuel its nationally recognized culinary arts job training program. Since opening in 1989, the kitchen (which is a $12-million-a-year, self-sustaining social enterprise) has produced over 35 million meals and helped 1,500 men and women gain full-time employment. The Kitchen operates its own revenue-generating business, Fresh Start Catering, as well as the Campus Kitchens Project, which coordinates similar recycling/meal programs in over 57 colleges or high school kitchens. In addition, Robert founded CForward, an advocacy organization that promoted the economic role that nonprofits play in every community. In Washington DC, Robert was the founding chair of both the Mayor’s Commission on Nutrition and Street Sense, Washington’s “homeless” newspaper. He was also the co-convener of the first Nonprofit Congress, held in Washington DC in 2006. Currently, Robert serves on the boards of: Kitchens for Good (San Diego) Chef Jose Andres’ World Central Kitchen #HashTagLunchBag Robert’s book on the nonprofit sector, Begging for Change: The Dollars and Sense of Making Nonprofits Responsive, Efficient and Rewarding for All, was released in 2004 by HarperCollins. It received the 2005 McAdam Book Award for “Best Nonprofit Management Book” by the Alliance for Nonprofit Management. L.A. Weekly named Robert one of its 2016 People of the Year, and in 2015, he was given the Conscious Leader of the Year award by Conscious Capitalism. He was included in The Non-Profit Times’ list of the “50 Most Powerful and Influential” nonprofit leaders from 2006-2009. He was the recipient of the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington’s 2007 “Lifetime Achievement” award and the 2004 James Beard Foundation “Humanitarian of the Year” award. Robert has also been named an Oprah Angel, a Washingtonian of the Year, a Point of Light, a Food Hero by Food Tank, a REAL Food Innovator by the US Healthful Food Council and one of the Ten Most Caring People in America by the Caring Institute. He is also a 15-gallon blood donor to the American Red Cross. Robert speaks throughout the country and internationally on the subjects of hunger, sustainability, nonprofit political engagement and social enterprise. He writes blogs and editorials to share his ideas about the nonprofit sector and the future of America.
Reena Shukla - Health Team Lead, USAID
Reena Shukla is a Builder Fellow at the Harvard D-Lab. She is a Foreign Service Officer and serves as a public health specialist with the United States Agency for Development (USAID). Reena has over 15 years of experience working to advance complex global health issues with long-term assignments in Brazil, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Washington, D.C., and Pakistan. She is passionate about harnessing multidisciplinary approaches to catalyze inclusive solutions to advance health and well-being across communities, organizations, and systems. Reena’s experiences working in global public health across 5 continents inspired her to explore how can design knowledge help organizations gain deeper insights across diverse contexts and develop integrative approaches that advance health and well-being. Given the rise of urban populations across the globe and its implications on people’s daily life, she became interested in exploring the intersection of design and public health in order to promote broader urban well-being. Reena graduated from the University of Michigan with a Bachelor of Arts and Master’s in Public Health focused on Health Policy and Management/Global Health. She is fluent in Spanish, Portuguese, Nepali, and Urdu. She is also actively engaged in arts and culture and serves on several national committees on building evidence on the intersection of arts and culture for public health and broader well-being.
Marcus Thygeson - Emeritus Chief Health Officer, Surest Health Insurance
Dr. Marcus Thygeson is an innovator to his core. His passion for innovative health solutions that improve health outcomes is central to his work at Surest, where he leads the Health team and oversees the redesign of health coverage that maps to high-value care by condition and provides consumer clarity. Marcus serves on the National Committee for Quality Assurance, the Performance Measurement Committee and the Board of Directors of the Quantum Leap Healthcare Collaborative. He received his BS summa cum laude from the University of California at Davis, his MD from Harvard Medical School and an MPH from the University of Minnesota. Marcus is board-certified in Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology.
Amy Bantham - Founder and CEO, Move to Live
Amy received her Doctor of Public Health from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in May 2020, with concentrations in Health Communication and Obesity Epidemiology & Prevention. Her doctoral research focused on physician exercise prescriptions/referrals and patient exercise behavior change. She is now the CEO and Founder of Move to Live More, a research and consulting firm working at the intersection of healthcare, health & fitness, and communities. Its mission is to help people live longer, healthier and more active lives. Prior to enrolling in the DrPH program, Amy grew and promoted the fitness industry helping 150 million people get physically active. As IHRSA’s Vice President of Health Promotion and Health Policy, she led advocacy initiatives to make physical activity more affordable and accessible. She oversaw the IHRSA Foundation’s ACCESS Health Initiative, which helps health clubs provide programming and services to people with chronic conditions, including people living with diabetes, cancer and disability. Visioning the fitness industry delivering evidence-based programs for chronic disease prevention and management, she worked to build bridges with the medical and public health communities. Amy also holds a Bachelor of Arts from Yale University, a Master in Public Policy from Harvard University and a Master of Science from Northeastern University.
Stephen Post - Author, Former Board Member of the John Templeton Foundation
Stephen G. Post, Ph.D., is internationally recognized for his work with deeply forgetful people, their families and allied organizations. His book The Moral Challenge of Alzheimer’s Disease: Ethical Issues from Diagnosis to Dying (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000) was designated a “medical classic of the century” by the British Medical Journal. His research on the dynamics of compassionate care in the lives of persons with dementia and their caregivers resulted in his being elected a member of the Medical and Scientific Advisory Board of Alzheimer’s Disease International. He is also one of only several recipients of the Alzheimer’s Association national distinguished service award “in recognition of personal and professional outreach to the Alzheimer’s Association Chapters on ethics issues important to people with Alzheimer’s and their families.” Post began his work with “deeply forgetful people” while in Cleveland where he served as a professor at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine (1988–2008). He has published widely on dignity, ethics, and spirituality of caregiving, and he has been quoted in more than 3000 international newspapers and magazines, including The New York Times, Parade Magazine, O, The Oprah Magazine, and many TV programs including The Daily Show. Post is the author of 300 articles in premier journals such as Science, the New England Journal of Medicine, Psychosomatic Medicine, Hospital Pediatrics, Journal of the American Academy of Religion, and the Journal of the American Medical Association. The author of several books including the bestselling Why Good Things Happen to Good People (Random House), Post’s most recent book, published by the Johns Hopkins University Press (2022) is Dignity for Deeply Forgetful People: How Caregivers Can Meet the Challenges of Alzheimer’s Disease. He offers insights and perspectives that encourage us all to recognize the continuing self-identity and dignity of affected individuals and their caregivers. A graduate of the University of Chicago with training in psychology, world religions, and ethics, Post is renowned for his work on compassionate care at the interface of science, ethics, spiritual thought, and behavioral medicine. He is the President of the Institute for Research on Unlimited Love, which he co-founded with philanthropist Sir John Templeton, who personally selected Post as President in 2001. He is also founding director of the Center for Medical Humanities, Compassionate Care, and Bioethics at Stony Brook University School of Medicine in New York (2008–present), where he also serves as Professor of Family, Population, and Preventative Medicine and Head of the Division of Medicine in Society. Post served as a co-chair of the United Nations Population Fund conference on spirituality and global transformation. He is an elected member of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia for “distinguished contributions to medicine,” the New York Academy of Medicine, and the Royal Society of Medicine, London. An opinion leader and public speaker, Post served on the Board of the John Templeton Foundation (2008–2014), which focuses on virtue and public life. A leader in research on the benefits of giving and on compassionate care in relation to improved patient outcomes and clinician well-being, Post addressed the U.S. Congress on volunteerism and health, receiving the Congressional Certificate of Special Recognition for Outstanding Achievement. Post was co-recipient (2012) with Edmund D. Pellegrino MD of the Pioneer Medal for Outstanding Leadership in HealthCare from the HealthCare Chaplaincy Network, and the Kama Book Award in Medical Humanities from World Literacy Canada (2008). Co-Recipient of the 2019 National Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society Professionalism Award for development of the Professional Identity Formation curriculum at the School of Medicine, at Stony Brook (2008–present), where his Center for Medical Humanities, Compassionate Care, and Bioethics, “a place where the human side of medicine is elevated, examined and revered,” was selected (2011) for special institutional excellence by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (AMA & AAMC accrediting body), the only humanities and ethics entity in American medical school history to receive this distinction. A recipient of the National Endowment for the Humanities “top public speaker” award, Post uses a highly engaging style with a mix of stories, clinical, and philosophical perspectives to inspire audiences. Dr. Post continues to travel the globe speaking about those with memory issues and sharing about the transformative benefits of kindness, volunteering, spirituality, forgiveness and purpose.
Julia Hotz is a solutions focused journalist based in New York.
Julia Hotz is a solutions focused journalist based in New York. Her stories have appeared in The New York Times, WIRED, Scientific American, The Boston Globe, Time, and more. She helps other journalists report on the big new ideas changing the world at the Solutions Journalism Network. For her work on THE CONNECTION CURE, she has been invited to deliver TEDx talks, keynote speeches, medical school lectures, healthcare panels, and to advise health and community organizations.