tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-90958990615625788202024-03-12T19:22:15.153-05:00Inspiring Houston WomenA celebration of the inspiring women of Houston, Texas.Caroline Leechhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00577580003627430304noreply@blogger.comBlogger28125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9095899061562578820.post-69507375784698558012015-05-13T11:50:00.000-05:002015-05-13T11:50:55.472-05:00Dorothy Gibbons<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Dorothy Gibbons is the CEO and Co-Founder of
The Rose, a medical non-profit that provides high quality breast healthcare to
women regardless of their ability to pay. The first of its kind, Dorothy
founded The Rose with Dr. Dixie Melillo in 1986. Each year, The Rose treats over
35,000 women, many of whom cannot afford to pay even $150 for a mammogram, let
alone the thousands of dollars needed to pay for breast cancer treatment.
Dorothy lives in Houston with her husband, Pat.</span></i></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">What’s your story, Dorothy?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">I think if I were going to say something about myself, it
would be that I am a great fan of women. I tell my employees that I am a feminist.
It's not that I don't love men – I love my husband and my son, but I think if
you're a feminist, you truly understand the value of a woman. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">People ask me what it is about The Rose that keeps me here. Am
I a survivor? Do I have a family member who is a survivor? And the answer is no
to both. Breast cancer is, of course, the focus of The Rose and has been for thirty
years, but it's the women that we are serving, and the stories of those women, that
keep me so passionate about this organization. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">I grew up in an environment where there was nothing but women
around. My father left when I was young. We were very poor and living off
relatives. Looking back, I see now what a strong woman my mother was, but as a
child, you don't always see that. My mother died when I was twenty two years old
from cervical cancer. The irony is that the Pap smear was out and available, but
my mother didn’t have health insurance, and she didn’t know where to go even
though she knew something was wrong. I remember her telling me that when she finally
went to see a doctor, she had a douche that morning because the smell was so bad.
Since I've been at The Rose, I’ve learned that smell was the smell of cancer,
and that's a smell that you can't ever wash away. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dr. Dixie Melillo, <br />Co-Founder and General Surgeon <br />of The Rose</td></tr>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Back in the 1970s, I was in Public Relations at Bayshore
Medical Center. It was the tenth largest hospital in the city, but it had only
one female physician on its active staff, </span><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Dr. Dixie Melillo. S<span style="background: white;">he was a surgeon too, which was even rarer. One of the things that Dixie
was so passionate about was breast cancer, and she campaigned for the hospital
to have a dedicated unit. Back then they were still doing mammograms with a
standard x-ray unit, the kind used for broken arms, and insurance didn't cover
screening mammograms, something which just doesn’t seem possible now. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">So Dixie
and I <span style="background: white;">started going to talk to women in the
area, at civic clubs and so on, to promote the Bayshore Breast Center which
offered a dedicated mammogram unit. We also
went to the International Breast Cancer Conference in Miami and met Rose
Kushner, who was there as a speaker. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Rose was a journalist for the Baltimore Sun and when she
found a lump in her breast, her doctor told her that if they found anything
during her biopsy operation, they would tell her husband and immediately do a
mastectomy without waking her up. They didn't have a two-stage procedure; they
didn’t wake the woman up and tell her she had breast cancer, they just went
ahead and did her mastectomy. Imagine the psychological impact on those women
who woke up without a breast, it was horrendous. Well, Rose was not going to let
that happen to her, but it took her sixteen doctors before she would find
someone who would wake her first.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">I had already read Rose’s book which set out what you need to
know about breast cancer for lay-people like you and me. </span><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">At the conference,
Dixie and I managed to have dinner with Rose and told her what we were doing to
<span style="background: white;">educate women in Houston, and we talked about
how terrible it was to see these women who were coming in with late-stage
cancer, and had no insurance to cover treatment. Rose looked at us and said, “Well,
just quit your moaning, get off your ass, and go start yourselves a non-profit!”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">After that, Rose would call me every Friday to ask what we
had done about the non-profit, about calling our congressman, about getting
Medicare to cover screening mammograms. Finally, we got our 501(c) non-profit
status, and Dixie and I decided to call it The Rose as a living tribute to Rose
Kushner. We also wanted to have a name
that women would feel welcomed them when they walked in the door. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;">The
Rose’s Mobile Mammography </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;">Outreach Program </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">operates </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;">a fleet of vans to reach </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">thousands </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;">more women in outlying
counties.</span><i><o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Now at The Rose, we can offer women a mammogram, ultrasound
and biopsy, and we can also help them get access to treatment. We have Patient
Navigators who guide them to a treatment program somewhere. Usually we can get them
into Breast and Cervical Cancer Services, which is a state program, but the
problem is that BCCS doesn't have a lot of money. It’s currently being reviewed
in The Senate, which could mean that next year we get even less money. Sadly,
because it’s all about women's health – and we all know the way our Texas legislature
feels about women's health – we have a battle on our hands. I was in Austin
four times last month, sharing our women’s stories and hoping that someone would
listen. Thank goodness that State Representative Sarah Davis, herself a breast
cancer survivor, is working in the House to protect BCCS, so perhaps we won’t have
to face that next year.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">But the BCCS is just one program. Last year we diagnosed 350
women, and 260 of those were uninsured. Almost 150 of those went through BCCS,
around fifty went through Harris County, and we have a few that could get into
Methodist Hospital. In our outlying counties, sometimes we just have to work
with the Physicians Network, with doctors who have agreed to help take care of
these women <i>pro bono</i>. They won’t get
care for every health issue, but at least they will get chemotherapy or surgery.</span><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Why do you do what you do?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">When I was the PR person at the hospital, I was also the
photographer, taking pictures of tumors and things like that. When I stood
outside one of Dixie’s examination rooms, I knew what I was about to see was
something that no one should ever see, and I could smell that smell that I had
smelled on my mother. In the first year of The Rose, Dixie had something like thirteen
women whose tumors had grown so big they had exploded through the skin, and
were still getting bigger and bigger. I kept thinking, how could you live with
something like this and not share it with your husband or family? It's got to
be on your mind the whole time. How could these women have waited this long,
because these women are not dumb. It's all about access to care, and they just
don’t know there is anywhere they can go for help.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">And let’s be clear exactly who the uninsured are. I know
people think it’s only homeless people who live under the bridge or in the
park, but no. The uninsured are people like my sister, a single mother who
couldn’t take a 25c an hour raise at her job because it would have meant that
her diabetic son would have lost his Medicaid coverage. It’s people like the
substitute school teacher that only works one day a week or the mother who
can’t possibly justify spending $150 on a mammogram when she’s not sure she can
afford to feed her children that night. So let's get real clear about who the
uninsured are. And now we coming up against the myth that everybody has
insurance because of the Affordable Care Act. Wrong. Because Texas did not
expand Medicaid, half of the women that we sponsored over the last three years
still have nothing.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">We also see a lot of young women who have invariably been misdiagnosed.
They’re told it’s just a rash, or asked if they changed washing powder or
deodorant, but actually it will be inflammatory breast cancer and it's very
aggressive. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijPW5oXM8Iy7B86CxV3XWJ5bJ3t9isdfBdEdaKamj0I_okP_XeN2jocs6t7sDRx3C_P529BLWeDkYjBkp9iHkOEy1HWKpjNfqS7KoQxzIn_iUVv6iR2aYMfv0R9KNes3xSPYvq_YLjubxh/s1600/Bikers+poster.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijPW5oXM8Iy7B86CxV3XWJ5bJ3t9isdfBdEdaKamj0I_okP_XeN2jocs6t7sDRx3C_P529BLWeDkYjBkp9iHkOEy1HWKpjNfqS7KoQxzIn_iUVv6iR2aYMfv0R9KNes3xSPYvq_YLjubxh/s320/Bikers+poster.JPG" width="251" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Rose inspires all kinds of people to<br />raise funding to help women <br />with breast cancer<br /></td></tr>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Every year we have to raise about $3 million to take care of nine
thousand women who walk through these doors without insurance. We take care of
women with insurance as well, and those insured women give us a base so that we
can open our doors and take care of the uninsured. We still have to raise money
but they offset some of the cost. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">For every three insured women who come through our doors for
a mammogram we can take care of one uninsured woman. We could do more free
screenings, if one diagnostic exam was all that was needed, but by the time they
come to us, many of these uninsured women are also certain to need ultrasound
and biopsy too. I always tell my staff that until we don't see women with late
stage cancer anymore, our job isn't done.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">What is your Houston story?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">I've been in Houston 64 of my almost 66 years, but you know,
you can't claim to be a Texan if you're not! I was born in California, but my
folks were from Texas and they moved back here. They had gone out there during
the war, my father was older, so he didn't have to serve. He was working a
lumber yard, then I came along and my sister came along, and we move back here
to be close to my mother’s folks.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">I married young, but you know, it takes two to make a
marriage and two to break a marriage. I’d been without any kind of true love
for a long, long time, but I was sure in my heart that love still existed. So
after I’d been divorced a little while, I decided that I was going to find my
beloved, and I did. I manifested the perfect man for me straight out of the
universe.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">First of all, I had to quit male bashing and putting men down.
I also had to quit listening to my girlfriends and to all the women who were so
tired of supporting men. Once I decided that I didn't want to live the rest of
my life without loving someone and having them love me, I started off a ritual
that I did every Friday. I started writing down scenarios about what it would
be like to meet the perfect man for me. I opened my heart to love and to possibilities,
and I made room in my life for another person. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Before long, I started chatting online with a man in Canada,
in a non-profit grant application forum. We talked over about eighteen months,
just in friendship, we never even exchanged a picture. Then he called to say
that he had a friend in Houston and he was coming to see this friend over
Memorial Day weekend, and would I like to meet up? You know, I fell in love
with Pat that weekend, and a few weeks ago, we celebrated twelve years married.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Who or what has been the greatest influence on
your life?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Books. As a kid, I was always able to imagine something
different, and I think that came from reading so much. No matter how hard
things were, I was always able to go find a book and be somewhere else. You
know, I get teased about having a PhD in Self-Help because I've read so many of
those books, but still, I know that it is those books that can move you
forward. It is those books that you can hold onto it when people let you down.
The books are always there. I also know that I had teachers that pushed me to
read beyond where I thought I could, to challenge myself.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">What advice would you give to someone new to the
non-profit sector?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">I love to tell Rose’s story, because if you have something
that you feel strongly about, and if there's a Rose in your life, it can make
all the difference in the world. You have to find someone who's going to push
you and who’s going to believe in you. And you have to believe in yourself.
When I look back I know there was a lot of times we wished for a sugar daddy, or
for some wonderful institution to come in and just give us all the funding we
needed to go on. But do you think I would have the stories I have now if we'd
had that happen? We sure would not be the same organization.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">I would also tell them that even though they run a non-profit,
and it’s their life’s work, it must still be run as a <i>business</i>. If you have a year in deficit, you don't get grants
because people don't want to take a chance on you, so you have to be a successful
business to a certain level, though not too successful. It's like you're always
walking this little tightrope. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">How do you find, or seek to find, balance in
your life?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">I journal every morning, though I think this life/work
balance is a bunch of hokey. I don't think you can find that as long as you're
working. Yes, I would like to have more balance, but most of the time, when
it's your passion, it doesn't feel like working. But when I do need a break, I
go off to the country and work in my garden.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">What does Houston mean to you?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">I love Houston. We now have a little country place, but for
years I couldn't imagine living anywhere else but here. I love concrete and
steel. I even love the traffic. It's that excitement and bustle, and folks
don't realize how convenient it is to travel around the world from here. I can
be in and out in no time from the airport, but I’m always happy to come home. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">I also love the diversity. I got to be part of the American Leadership
Forum in Houston which is wonderful program. It changed my life, because as a
senior leader with a few years behind her, it was easy to get caught up in always
doing things the same way. But at ALF, you get thrown in with all these people
who are business savvy, and you build relationships with them in a whole
different way. You don't even realize
that you've lost that skill over the years, but it can be hard for us as adults
to create new relationships with other adults after we get so settled in our
lives. I would seriously encourage anyone to do it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Where is your happy place in Houston?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">It's really my own backyard – and I mean that literally, with
a spade in my hand – because if you can’t find happiness in your own backyard,
then where can you find it?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">What's your favorite place to
eat or drink?</span></b><b><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />
</span></b><span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">There's a wonderful restaurant at this end of the world
called Cullen’s and I love that place. When we go into town, I love Seasons 52
on Westheimer. I love Indian food too, and we like to go to little bitty places,
but I'm also very lucky that my husband cooks. I think he would prefer to eat
at home anytime.</span><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />
<br />
<b>What is your Houston secret?<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">I've been part of the Mary Magdalene community since 2005.
This coming July at Christ Church Cathedral, we are having the Magdalene
Festival, organized with Brigid’s Place. We are inviting artists to come and re-image
Mary Magdalene. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Myths were created in the Middle Ages that Mary Magdalene was
a prostitute, the penitent whore, but that was a total lie. So we are inviting
artists to bring us a new Mary – Mary who was a teacher and Mary who was the
apostle to the apostles. After all, Mary was probably the reason why Jesus’s
community could function, and without Mary Magdalene we wouldn't have Easter.
She was the sole eye-witness who watched him be put on the cross, taken down again,
and who followed the body to the tomb and stayed there all night. Her name was
the first name spoken by the resurrected Jesus. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">But I don’t think that this sort of event could happen in
many places except Houston. Believe me, there's a lot of people who think we
shouldn’t even be talking like this, but that’s what is so wonderful. This is a
city that will allow this idea to be discussed, that has a church that's open
to hosting it, and that has a strong artistic community to draw on. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">If you could change one thing about Houston…<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Billboards. Our buildings are so beautiful, but the
billboards just get in the way. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Who would be your own Inspiring Houston Woman?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEE56K6sy6AQNxlOXsw3iseSoaN6AIK3df_DfYAXrCTs86G-yJSIpcDrlxsUFH9IibYVoGua9jNPJ9qjZG3NPp0oT8086LekLjtLY9KAcMoSSuk8Eh3r8biXLN-p7xYvRXpDcbCqq-X-EH/s1600/jump+logo.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEE56K6sy6AQNxlOXsw3iseSoaN6AIK3df_DfYAXrCTs86G-yJSIpcDrlxsUFH9IibYVoGua9jNPJ9qjZG3NPp0oT8086LekLjtLY9KAcMoSSuk8Eh3r8biXLN-p7xYvRXpDcbCqq-X-EH/s1600/jump+logo.png" /></a></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Marian Sparks is a sky-diver who does an annual event – <i>Jump for The Rose</i> – to raise funds for us.
But she is so much more than that. Marian was one of our sponsored women. She
was divorced and as a result, she didn't have health insurance anymore. She got
a mammogram </span><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">paid
for <span style="background: white;">through the American Cancer Society, and when
it came back with a problem, she came here to have her ultrasound and biopsy,
and we got her into treatment. Since then, she has done her skydiving event
once a year and so far she's raised more than $85,000 for us. I even
tandem-jumped with her one year!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Marian’s life has been so full of challenges, but still she
has this event for us so that we can take care of others. She is a very special
woman, but her circumstances are typical of the women we see at The Rose. A
woman lets her career slide when she has children, but then loses her health
insurance because of a divorce. It’s tragic. We just never know what is going
to change our lives in the blink of an eye.</span><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br />
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<i><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">For more information on Dorothy’s work at The
Rose, or to make a donation, visit the <a href="http://www.the-rose.org/">website here</a>.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">For more information on The Many Faces of Mary Magdalene art event, visit the Brigid's Place <a href="http://www.brigidsplace.org/marymagdalene.html" target="_blank">website here</a>.</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><i>If you would like to join in the Jump for the Rose, visit the <a href="http://www.jumpfortherose.org/#" target="_blank">website here</a>.</i></span></div>
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Caroline Leechhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00577580003627430304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9095899061562578820.post-33094132022165924082015-04-08T11:00:00.000-05:002015-04-08T12:07:52.291-05:00Chris Cander<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_zq0Ol3aGD3bdsAcIkP2kpe90beylnfFuMdk32jsq4NgzywIJg7cAPcY5tgEENLHRMu2CShkaJzBJjW29vOkSUnKu_tuQEIshiYYXz2RbMl-YMpLEQGhFYrZqIy0Ix3olAUJxNecVqcfU/s1600/Chris+Cander+-+main+portrai.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_zq0Ol3aGD3bdsAcIkP2kpe90beylnfFuMdk32jsq4NgzywIJg7cAPcY5tgEENLHRMu2CShkaJzBJjW29vOkSUnKu_tuQEIshiYYXz2RbMl-YMpLEQGhFYrZqIy0Ix3olAUJxNecVqcfU/s1600/Chris+Cander+-+main+portrai.jpg" height="266" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Chris
Cander’s novel, </span></i><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Whisper
Hollow<i>, has just been published by Other
Press. Her other published work includes the <span style="background: white;">award-winning
novel </span></i><span style="background: white;">11 Stories<i>, and her picture book, </i>The Word Burglar<i>. She co-wrote the screenplay for an animated feature film, </i>Germs!<i>, currently in pre-production, and she has
written hundreds of articles for magazines and newspapers on health and fitness
and parenting. She teaches creative writing to elementary school students as
part of Writers in the Schools. </i></span><i>A
former fire-fighter, fitness competitor and model, Chris has a 2<sup>nd</sup>
degree black belt in tae kwon do and is a certified women’s self-defense instructor.
She lives in West University with her husband, Harris, and her children, Sasha
and Josh.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">
<b>What’s your story, Chris?<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">I’ve loved to write my whole life. It's always been a passion
for me. I'm an introvert, and although I have become socially comfortable as an
adult and have plenty of friends, growing up, I was always very comfortable
being alone. I liked to read, I liked to think, I liked to write, and I liked
to draw and take pictures. I also chose individual sports like swimming and
martial arts, relishing the pursuit of personal challenges rather than competition
against other people. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">All my life I have I wanted to develop my strengths both
literally and figuratively, and that has helped give me the impetus to do
things that I had always wanted to do. One of these was to become a firefighter,
which I did. <b><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUgSKn0ekCH9A1wz-MmShyphenhypheny7eKW5BBKbHr70gtAyYxCexDRAZH5AN4WCggSaHEt3Cb1tfN2n6YdQh0seAOSXtdJLE_Wwz12IyFb6QJf8RNEG0OLFpu_X8b3x8c-tCvMBPUo7xUur6dX2l0/s1600/Chris+Cander+baywatch+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUgSKn0ekCH9A1wz-MmShyphenhypheny7eKW5BBKbHr70gtAyYxCexDRAZH5AN4WCggSaHEt3Cb1tfN2n6YdQh0seAOSXtdJLE_Wwz12IyFb6QJf8RNEG0OLFpu_X8b3x8c-tCvMBPUo7xUur6dX2l0/s1600/Chris+Cander+baywatch+1.jpg" height="242" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Chris Cander was a featured bodybuilder on an<br />
episode of NBC's <i>Baywatch</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">I'm pretty small to be a firefighter, and so I got interested
in weightlifting and strength training. Around that time I met my husband,
Harris, and we actually did much of our courtship working out together at the
gym. He taught me the basics of strength training, and I started to see results
really quickly. Given my nature to want to compete, not with others but with
myself, I took it as a challenge to get into the kind of shape that would allow
me to be competitive as a bodybuilder. I entered a fitness competition called
the Galaxy, which was 50% athletic, and 50% swimwear, and I did well. In fact,
through my involvement in the Galaxy, I was featured as a guest on an episode
of <i>Baywatch</i>. It was so much fun, and
I’ve just bought the DVD of that episode to show my kids.</span><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">
<span style="background: white;">After that, I continued to compete but I shifted
format to bodybuilding. I'm very dense and I weigh a lot for my size, so I was
always competing as a heavyweight but the upper end of heavyweight was
limitless. I was up against these enormous, incredibly muscular women, and although
I did as well as I could, I soon realized I could not – and didn’t want to – compete
with that. But all that experience gave me a start in writing about fitness and
nutrition. I became a contributing editor for <i>Oxygen</i>, <i>Maximum Fitness</i>
and <i>Clean Eating</i>, and I wrote for many
other magazines too. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">For several years I combined my freelance writing with a job
in software marketing. Though I published some essays in a local newspaper, I
didn't really get into fiction until I was laid off from my last position
during maternity leave. They reorganized while I was gone, and it turned out to
be the best thing for me. I was forced to re-evaluate what I wanted to do, and
so I decided to be at home full-time. I continued to write, but it was only
when Josh was born that I realized I was ready to start trying longer form
fiction, and I started my first novel when he was just a few months old.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />
<span style="background: white;">That one was called <i>One Last Time Forever</i>, and though it got me my agent, Jane Gelfman
of Gelfman Schneider Literary Agents, she wasn't able to sell it. The story is
literary with some metaphysical twists, and at that time, editors weren’t sure
how to position it, whether it was commercial, literary or something else that
didn't have a clear shelf on the library or bookstore. Of course, I was
disappointed, but I think of it now as the book through which I learned how to
write books. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Once <span style="background: white;">I had finished <i>One
Last Time Forever</i>, I started to write <i>Telling
Ghost Stories</i>, which eventually became <i>Whisper
Hollow</i>, although my first draft was very different from the book that is
coming out now.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<i><span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Whisper Hollow</span></i><span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">, as
it is now, follows the lives of three women through the first half of the last
century in a coal mining town in West Virginia. It’s geographically remote, but
culturally very diverse, full of immigrant families from Poland, Germany, Italy
and other European countries. The people there have a hard life, literally scrabbling
to carve out a life and a community for themselves and their families in this
new country. I called the town Verra, based on the Latin root for truth,
because the book is very much about the truths which these women and the people
around them have, those truths that are revealed and those that they choose to
bury. Those buried secrets drive so much of what happens to them, and between
them, throughout the story. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEZh8r2OYNahkMG-oZ8yPJ9g5RHWrVVzpPcSJ10sqST98GhkdLnUxDNUg4u_SipTSXhWbxMBOiaNhpQ3rwInkkRyW7FGUzYezCpn5smPPCpDGiaMPRzWPoyT6ygCi1IaP0m9T5MNK4bH5h/s1600/11+stories.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEZh8r2OYNahkMG-oZ8yPJ9g5RHWrVVzpPcSJ10sqST98GhkdLnUxDNUg4u_SipTSXhWbxMBOiaNhpQ3rwInkkRyW7FGUzYezCpn5smPPCpDGiaMPRzWPoyT6ygCi1IaP0m9T5MNK4bH5h/s1600/11+stories.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">My other novel, <i>11
Stories</i>, came about in a very different way. Once my agent started trying
to sell the latest redraft of <i>Telling Ghost
Stories</i> and publishing houses were not sure, yet again, how it might fit
into their lists, I got impatient. So I decided to write something completely
commercial. What came out is <i>11 Stories</i></span><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">. A<span style="background: white;">pparently I'm not able to do something completely
commercial! I wrote it pretty quickly, in only about eight months, and though it
was a real labor of love, I simply fell in love with my characters,
particularly Roscoe, the superintendent of the Chicago apartment block which
has, of course, eleven stories. Once it was finished, I sent it to my agent.
She liked it a lot, but since she was working hard on selling my other
manuscript<i>,</i> she didn't want to try to
sell <i>11 Stories</i> at the same time. So
she encouraged me to publish it on my own.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">It wasn't an easy thing to do. I wanted to print
it, not just publish it online, so some friends and I created our own
publishing company. It took a tremendous amount of research to find out how to
go about it. To be honest, I wanted to mask the fact that it was author-published,
and in the end, I was really pleased with the appearance of quality and I've
had an amazingly positive response.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<i><span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">11 Stories</span></i><span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> came
out in 2013, and that year was also the year that my picture book, <i>The Word Burglar</i> came out. Since my
daughter Sasha was tiny, she has wanted an original story from me every night. Wow,
it's a lengthy process to put that kid to bed! When she was nine, she went to
sleep-away camp for the first time, so I had the idea that every morning I
would get up, make a pot of coffee, and give myself 45 minutes to write her an
original story. The camp staff said that if I got it to them by 10am, they
would print it out and put it on her bed for her to have at bedtime.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYTe9vlncBQ2hGTkko-TMvaEjYLlfDe98ocyaHhhF0frxySX2wUhnhMdYjSR8s-CkiTd_pC5epsqxyrepp13V2emp3EHMRhB3aMHgdcREKs8vJe2UfdtmjdIWg5PhyphenhyphenCPpAlZ9JenOlNvLv/s1600/word+burglar+cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYTe9vlncBQ2hGTkko-TMvaEjYLlfDe98ocyaHhhF0frxySX2wUhnhMdYjSR8s-CkiTd_pC5epsqxyrepp13V2emp3EHMRhB3aMHgdcREKs8vJe2UfdtmjdIWg5PhyphenhyphenCPpAlZ9JenOlNvLv/s1600/word+burglar+cover.jpg" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">The Word Burglar</span></i><span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"> was one
of twenty-one stories that I wrote during those three weeks. I started posting
them on Facebook and they were getting a following. This story was passed to
Lucy Herring Chambers at Bright Sky Press by a friend, and Lucy decided to buy
it. She also gave me the opportunity to have one of my very dearest friends,
Katherine Tramonte, as the illustrator. Katherine is a very talented artist,
and would send me sketches at five o'clock in the morning. It was so neat to watch
her put the book together over the process of about a year. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">In the meantime, Jane was working with the latest draft of
what had now become <i>Whisper Hollow</i>
and when she showed it to the editors at Other Press, they loved it and bought
it. Even before publication, <i>Whisper
Hollow</i> was getting some incredible interest. I am so blown away. The American
Booksellers Association named it one of the Indie Next Picks for April out of
the hundreds they could have chosen. And now I'm heading off on a multi-state
book tour.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">And
looking to the future? Well, I’ve just sent my next novel manuscript to my
agent, and I’m also working on my first movie. It’s an animated feature called <i>Germs!</i>, and I wrote the screenplay with
some great friends. <span style="background: white;">Sarah Blutt, David Eagleman and
Tobey Forney. We worked on it every week for about four years. It placed well
in a couple of screenplay competitions, and I am so excited that we have recently
signed an attachment agreement with Cinesite and Comic Animations. So we have a
producer and they are finishing putting together the funding and hiring a director.
We’ve even put together a list of our dream cast voices. It’s just amazing to
think that all this could actually happen. It's a really fun story for us to
tell, and as a foursome, we have become even better friends over the years as a
result of doing this.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />
<b>Why do you do what you do?<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Because I'm passionate about it. My son, Josh, asked me the
other day, “Mom, if you weren't a writer what would you do?” and I said “I'd be
a writer. There's nothing else that I would rather do.” I can legitimately say
that I am doing exactly what I want to be doing and I passionately love the way
I get to spend my days. I'm incredibly lucky to be able to say that, I know. I
really am doing my favorite thing. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKN1dChZjtWEHwKJGJ-hvrrrueAGZNgGnCLbTVrEO_rvhRSqeB3U3umoQyv-QXl_EV1Is9wOXnC24fKHwxlQFVux4fmR-fc2niRJRrgSOgWxaAY7aMyGVuOe1dMfsz7dTjoUToo4TNaenr/s1600/Chris+Cander+Wits+-+presbyterian+school.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKN1dChZjtWEHwKJGJ-hvrrrueAGZNgGnCLbTVrEO_rvhRSqeB3U3umoQyv-QXl_EV1Is9wOXnC24fKHwxlQFVux4fmR-fc2niRJRrgSOgWxaAY7aMyGVuOe1dMfsz7dTjoUToo4TNaenr/s1600/Chris+Cander+Wits+-+presbyterian+school.jpg" height="227" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">I also teach children to write through Writers in the Schools
and, although I didn't think I was going to, I love teaching those kids. Before
I began, I worried that I wouldn’t know how to break down what I had learned in
a way that would make sense to someone else. How could I teach these kids anything
meaningful about writing? But then I realized that if teaching the craft steps of
writing is not my strength, then perhaps my strength lies in encouraging people
to be fearless when they write. So I created a mantra, “I am a fearless writer!”
We say that at the beginning of every writing session throughout the whole year.
I hope, if nothing else, they'll remember that, so that when they are
confronted by a blank page, they will be able to tap into that fearlessness. I
have two classes of third graders at Presbyterian School, and I love it there.
I have such great support from the administration and the teachers, so I'll keep
going back as long as they’ll have me.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">What is your Houston story?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">I got here as fast as I could. My dad was a commercial
airline pilot and he was stationed in Atlanta when I was born, but my parents
moved here when I was three months old. I've been here almost since the
beginning, so I consider myself native. My mom’s side of the family was from West
Virginia, but my dad’s side was all Texas, so I have a lot of family here. My
sister’s here, and my parents, and there's lots of cousins and extended family
around.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">My Texan roots are deep, but I do feel a strong link to West
Virginia too because of my grandmother. She lived there for ninety years and
that’s what drew me to set <i>Whisper Hollow</i>
there. It is such a distinctive place in her history and my childhood, so I
wanted to honor that. She lived in the northern part of the state and I set my
fictional town in the southern part, somewhere in Raleigh County, where there
is a long history of coal mining. Even though I had to move it geographically
to be relevant to the occupation in the story, my sense of connection to the
setting remains strong.</span><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />
<br />
<b>Who or what has been the greatest
influence on your life?<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">This is such a difficult question because I'm almost 46 years
old and I've had incredible influences all along the way, in family, friends, teachers
and other writers, but I think it would have to be my children. I had to be a
better version of myself to do justice to raising them. They have given me so
much, they have taught me how to see the world with wonder again. When we, as
adults, see something we automatically filter it through our own histories,
without stopping and really trying to wonder about it. So I have loved looking
at the world again through a child's eyes. What we writers do is observe and
talk about our observations, so for me to be able to slow down and see things
stripped of my prejudices and my knowledge and my experiences has been
wonderful.</span><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">What advice would you give to <span style="background: white;">a young person who wants to become a writer?</span></span></b><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />
<span style="background: white;">Be patient. Write as much as you can, and read
even more than that – but also, have a life and create experiences that you can
draw from. You must meet people, travel, and taste the world before writing
convincingly about it all.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">How do you find, or seek to find, balance in
your life?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">It's a discipline to be balanced and I do actually find it. I
like order, so I have a natural system of dividing my day up into pieces There
is a piece carved away for writing, when I can be alone and listen to my wind-chimes,
and there is a piece that belongs to the kids, a great big piece. Then there's
the piece where I can socialize with friends or I can go and work out, because
health and fitness is still hugely important to me.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">I had done a little martial arts training at college, so when
Josh was old enough for pre-K and I suddenly had time to return to it, I did so
with great passion. Now I'm a 2<sup>nd</sup> degree black belt in tae kwon do,
and a certified women's tactical defense instructor. I teach self-defense classes
to women and girls, showing them how to be aware of their surroundings, and how
to make small changes to what they do to make sure they stay safe.</span><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">I don't feel guilty for making that time for
myself, to stay fit, to create my art and hone my craft, or to take it to the
world. I think so many women feel guilty about the time they take for
themselves, but by finding that balance, they are modeling good behavior for
their kids and for the community. People should celebrate creative endeavors
and legitimize them. What my kids see me do, for my writing and for myself, will
inform their future decisions. When they try to undertake something of their
own, they will be able to say, “I'm going to do that because it's important to
me, and it should be important to the people that care about me too.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzvNUOTFMzlYClOXwGdfeVcXxRLfMCUt7KKxDHT8AhWFzSnkO9dnPcLvVfTuDZnOM4Su7utc-_oQAgo5OkAdiqbyGMiy4-_q-vNkTmiKT6fyB6Msn_dyPckHgO_DtUBz7UQlSQIwcAxD0d/s1600/Chris+Cander+office.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzvNUOTFMzlYClOXwGdfeVcXxRLfMCUt7KKxDHT8AhWFzSnkO9dnPcLvVfTuDZnOM4Su7utc-_oQAgo5OkAdiqbyGMiy4-_q-vNkTmiKT6fyB6Msn_dyPckHgO_DtUBz7UQlSQIwcAxD0d/s1600/Chris+Cander+office.jpg" height="320" width="213" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">What does Houston mean to you?</span></b><b><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />
</span></b><span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">It means home, it really does. Houston is such a welcoming
place, our arts community is so vibrant, and there is so much that is available
and accessible. You don't have to have a lot of money to enjoy some really
amazing things here. I feel very comfortable here, and whenever I would go away,
like when I studied overseas or when I went to live in Venezuela after college,
the place I always wanted to get home to was here. Houston has always made me
feel like I can breathe right.</span><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />
<br />
<b><span style="background: white;">Where is
your happy place in Houston?</span><br />
</b><span style="background: white;">My home, if that's not a dorky answer.
Specifically, my office in my home, where I'm surrounded by books. It's a
portal to another world. I love being alone in my office knowing that my family
is close by, but that I still have some quiet time. I know that sounds antisocial
but it means such a lot to me. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />
<b><span style="background: white;">What's
your favorite place to eat or drink?</span><br />
</b><span style="background: white;">No question about it, Shiva in Rice Village
– it’s absolutely amazing. My husband and I went there on our first dinner date,
and we've done all our major celebrations there since. The food is wonderful,
and it's very sentimental place for us.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />
<b>What is your Houston secret?<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">I am as passionate about reading as I am about writing, and I
absolutely love Inprint’s Margarett Root Brown Reading Series. Eight times a
year, they bring in these incredible writers and we sit in the intimate setting
of the Wortham Center to hear them read from their work, answer questions and
sign their books. Why doesn't everyone in the whole city take advantage of this?
Well, I suppose not everyone loves reading as much as me, but it's one of my
favorite things to do, such a cool thing.</span><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />
<br />
<b>If you could change one thing about Houston…<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">I hate the humidity, it does terrible thing to my hair, and I
can't stand the traffic, but really someone needs to figure out the public
transportation. I wish there were more opportunities not to use your car,
whether it was on a bike or on public transport. </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Actually I like to walk, but trying to do it in this city, I
feel like an interloper. They don't make it easy for you to cross streets and
people look at you funny if you aren't in your car.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">
<br />
<b>Who would be your own Inspiring Houston
Woman?</b></span><br />
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<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">There are so many women who inspire me, but in
particular, I have two. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">I have always had an incredibly close
relationship with my sister, Sara Huffman. She's always been my first reader
and my biggest champion. She is an incredibly talented jazz singer, with a
couple of albums out, but she’s also a fifth grade teacher at Hunter’s Creek
Elementary School. After only three years, they chose her as teacher of the
year because she really does an amazing job with her kids.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">My other
inspiring woman is someone I admire professionally. Robin Reagler is the
executive director of Writers in the Schools. She has done so much for literacy
in and around Houston, and her work and commitment bring the love of words to
children all across the city. I love her spirit. She's a poet and an advocate,
but also she's a mother, a wife and a great friend. I'm grateful to know her
and I'm grateful to have been working for her the last few years.</span><i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />
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</div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">For more information about Chris and her new
novel, </span></i><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Whisper
Hollow<i>, </i><a href="http://chriscander.com/"><i><span style="color: windowtext;">click here</span></i></a><i>.</i></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">For more information about Writers in the
Schools, </span></i><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><a href="http://witshouston.org/"><i><span style="color: windowtext;">click here</span></i></a><i>.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">For more information about <span style="background: white;">Inprint’s Margarett Root Brown Reading Series, </span></span></i><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><a href="http://inprinthouston.org/"><i><span style="background: white; color: windowtext;">click here</span></i></a><i><span style="background: white;">.<o:p></o:p></span></i></span></div>
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Caroline Leechhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00577580003627430304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9095899061562578820.post-42970129300761617482015-02-27T09:00:00.000-06:002015-03-01T08:19:55.900-06:00Kelly Lyons<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><i>Kelly Lyons is a sophomore at Seven Lakes
High School in Katy and a keen dancer. At 11 years old, she was diagnosed with
Crohn’s disease – an auto-immune disease which causes inflammation of the
digestive tract. Since then, Kelly has been determined to face her health
challenges head-on, and to use to her leadership skills and inspiring story to
raise money for Crohn’s research and to extend awareness of the issues which
make life so challenging for those suffering from this debilitating disease.
She founded her </i>Lucky 15<i> project in
2012 to raise funds for the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of America, and in
2014 she became CCFA’s Youth Ambassador. She also serves on the Children’s
Patient Advisory Council of Memorial Hermann Hospital.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">What’s your
story, Kelly?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">I'm 16 and a sophomore at Seven
Lakes High School. I've always been really interested in school and I always enjoy
learning about something different. I've always naturally fallen into a
leadership role and though I knew that is what I wanted to do later in life, I
wasn't sure how I would come across a leadership role that would really fit
with what I wanted to do.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">When I was in sixth grade, I was diagnosed with
Crohn's disease, which is an autoimmune disease. How it affects you is a little
different for everybody, depending on where the inflammation in your digestive
tract occurs. I have it in my stomach and in my intestines, and it prevents me
from absorbing nutrition. When I was diagnosed, I only weighed about 50 pounds
and I wasn't eating anything because everything hurt when I was digesting it.
That meant I wasn't gaining any weight. The doctor told me it was like having
mosquito bites on your arm that you just keeping rubbing, except that it was
happening inside me as food was trying to pass through. I started on three
months of steroids to get me back to a place where I could absorb nutrition. I
am now on one of the newer biologics, Remicade, which I've been on for four
years now. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">I found out great news in
December, my Crohn’s is in remission. Unfortunately, I will need to keep up
with treatments to keep it there, and those come at the expense of my immune
system. At the start of the year, I spent two weeks with pneumonia because Remicade
suppresses the immune system. This means that for about four weeks of every
eight, I basically have no immunity to infection. I can still go to school but
I try not to sit next to people that might be coming down with something, and
we always stand up at the doctor’s office. Crohn’s was the first diagnosis that
I had, but it was simply the beginning of a long list of other things to
follow. I also have dysautonomia and intracranial hypertension. It's hard to
point the finger at which condition causes what symptom, but definitely the intense
fatigue makes it harder to get up at six and go to bed at ten, and have to do
it all over again every day of the week. Unfortunately, this year, I have had
to miss several months of school because I couldn’t stay healthy enough, but I
am feeling stronger now and am catching up so that I can return in March.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Sixth grade was hard for me,
and during seventh grade, I had to be homeschooled for almost the whole year.
Because I wasn't able to attend much, school became more precious to me. I
started to realize how precious so many things that I took for granted things are.
That was when I decided that if I wanted to accept this new life, and also make
it less intimidating on a day-to-day basis, I had to find a way to make a
positive impact, to find something that would change my life for the better.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">That summer, when we were
visiting my grandmother in Denver, she let me spend time in her craft room
which is full of jewelry-making equipment – beads and wire etc. By the end of
the summer, my mom and I were making everything we could think of, cute
homemade pieces that my friends and I might wear. That is how I started <i>Lucky 15</i> as a way of raising funds and
awareness at the same time. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5S_krdAN2JiHFQon-g1MU3E30gu1tK15tWt2A_6YkQuwnmDdrltEFkR-oXsbhK2Sf3OCsDwtr934RSt9sCKsWBmffxZG6ijgsxm1K3W79mOfjDCpBcBVH7oA40EkfdPGonHt1y0oKsF3P/s1600/Lucky+15+shirts.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5S_krdAN2JiHFQon-g1MU3E30gu1tK15tWt2A_6YkQuwnmDdrltEFkR-oXsbhK2Sf3OCsDwtr934RSt9sCKsWBmffxZG6ijgsxm1K3W79mOfjDCpBcBVH7oA40EkfdPGonHt1y0oKsF3P/s1600/Lucky+15+shirts.png" height="212" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">At first, <i>Lucky 15</i> was only going to be jewelry,
but it has developed further since then. I was very lucky to be given support
by Dr. Medrano, the principal at my middle school, Seven Lakes Junior High.
When I went to see her, she immediately asked how the school could get involved.
So I worked with my counselor and the principal to promote <i>Lucky 15</i> within the school. We did pep rallies and spirit nights,
we made T-shirts and I sold my jewelry at a holiday booth in December. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">All the money that we’ve
raised so far through <i>Lucky 15</i> has
gone to the Crohn's and Colitis Foundation of America, the CCFA, for medical
research, educational and support programs, and for Camp Oasis. In our first
year, we raised about $4,000 which was way past what I was ever expecting, and
so far we have raised more than $15,000.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWGrJKC9nKFpccsgYEJAcCZcXjKz1BhcJEuZbbyV24aMxJS38aLGZC7nf3M1r0u1UGijL84PmEvxRblePr8XBE7IOC7BdWvv8c3sfO-DI6Yo833BjfEONbLDPe6uuNkmh_bSxBC6Zk3IXz/s1600/Kelly+Lyons+15_2640+necklace+medium.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWGrJKC9nKFpccsgYEJAcCZcXjKz1BhcJEuZbbyV24aMxJS38aLGZC7nf3M1r0u1UGijL84PmEvxRblePr8XBE7IOC7BdWvv8c3sfO-DI6Yo833BjfEONbLDPe6uuNkmh_bSxBC6Zk3IXz/s1600/Kelly+Lyons+15_2640+necklace+medium.jpg" height="265" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Why <i>Lucky 15</i>? Well, fifteen is my favorite number and I wear a necklace
with a 15 on it. It also has a turtle to
represent us each taking one step at a time. Plus, I like green, so of course
the color green had to be in it somehow too. I also like to ask people to think
of fifteen things or people or places or times that they are thankful for. When
you're struggling or having a hard time, it is helpful to be able to go back to
that list. Focusing on the good things really helped me through the first
couple of years after being diagnosed. I was grateful that the people who were
there at the beginning really believed in the project. When they saw that it
was really important to me, the project became special to them as well.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">I was fortunate that my junior high and my
high school are close. <span style="background: white;">Some of my supporters and
their parents helped me continue <i>Lucky 15</i>
at the high school too. It was so cool to watch it develop even further.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Why do you do
what you do?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Lucky 15</span></i><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> has not just been about raising money<span style="background: white;"> to
go towards finding a cure</span>. It is <span style="background: white;">also about
educating people. As I started talking to people, I was surprised to hear a lot
of, "I have a friend with Crohn's disease." I have even met other kids who have been diagnosed
who were in the same primary school I went to. I am so grateful that I could
share my story because knowing that there was someone out there who had the
same challenges as I did has allowed us to become friends and it's opened up
doors too.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="background: white;"><br /></span></span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1k-TTtQUx49JxCAE9nu4C09VXHIm0YhbVi30OpeESqFCBfUlxrX2tFp7Ggx08e-B-IgSxh8CnzkO9cKgrPgI7KOrc7Fe7GAlHhar3e_qHoQSp9-4G8FOWusO9t5y6AfGrBU4_4HtIqQBW/s1600/Kelly+at+Winter+Ball+-+credit+Priscilla+Dickson+-+medium.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1k-TTtQUx49JxCAE9nu4C09VXHIm0YhbVi30OpeESqFCBfUlxrX2tFp7Ggx08e-B-IgSxh8CnzkO9cKgrPgI7KOrc7Fe7GAlHhar3e_qHoQSp9-4G8FOWusO9t5y6AfGrBU4_4HtIqQBW/s1600/Kelly+at+Winter+Ball+-+credit+Priscilla+Dickson+-+medium.jpg" height="400" width="265" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kelly speaking at the CCFA Winter Ball 2014<br />
<i>photo: Priscilla Dickson</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="background: white;">After my first year of running <i>Lucky 15</i>, I started making connections
with the walk manager and the executive director of The Crohn's and Colitis Foundation
of America in Houston. They asked me to
be the youth ambassador for their Winter Ball. That was such a cool experience.
I had the opportunity to give a speech to a ballroom full of people. Luckily,
because of the stage lighting, when you're up there you can only really see about
twenty people so you feel like you're only talking to them. In fact, it was a
lot easier than presenting some of my projects to my high school class. After
my speech, I got to talk to some of the guests. Of course, I didn't really know
who they are, but we had really interesting conversations and it was lovely to
meet them. It was only after some guests had walked away that someone asked me
if I had been nervous talking to them. It turns out that they were actually
really important, one was the head of a major company! That evening was such an
amazing experience and it really gave me the confidence to share my story because
people wanted to listen. I spoke again at the Houston Walk for CCFA – they
called me their Future Hero – and that speech was to about 1,000 people at
Discovery Green. Those two events taught me that I love public speaking and
made me more confident as a leader.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br />
<span style="background: white;">Looking to the future, I thought I might try to
be an architect but since I have had the opportunity to be on the Patient
Children's Advisory Council at Memorial Hermann Hospital, my eyes have been
opened to some professions in the hospital. They interest me because I know how
it feels on the other side of things as a patient. Of course, I don't know if
I'm going to be healthy enough to go off to college right away. We've talked
about it, and though I’m not sure yet what I want to do, I think it will be
something where I can use my patient experiences because they give me insight
about how to make the patient experience better for others. Lately I have come
to understand that I am passionate about making things better for other
hospital patients.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">What is your Houston story, or your Greater Houston story, since you
live in Katy?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">I was born in Houston but
moved to Covington in Louisiana as a baby. Then when I was about nine, my dad
got a job here in Houston again and we moved back. Although I enjoyed my time
in Louisiana, I always felt that Houston was much more like home. Although I
live in Katy, I have had quite a lot of experience in Houston because I'm here
all the time for doctors’ appointments and medical test and treatments. The
CCFA office is here too. I have I connected with Houston as a place that has
meaning to me and I am grateful to be here because the medical resources are
tremendous..</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br />
<br />
<b>Who or what has been the greatest
influence on your life?<span style="background: white;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">That would have to be my
mother, Lisa. We were always close, but when I was homeschooled in seventh
grade, she was my school and I spent all my time with her. We would drive to
doctors’ appointments or we were at home with each other, so we really became
very close and almost like one unit. We would even finish each other sentences.
Watching her accept the changes that my diagnosis made to our lives has guided
me toward my acceptance of it as well. She approaches everything with
determination and perseverance, and maintains a desire for it to be done right.
That has really inspired me to find something close to my heart and to go after
it. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeLKOBcy7s42Ubii3bsQ-2QDN3aG7vjO_UVBLNYDTXFeBR7GZGrn0Tb0FNvRzL34CJz2RHm30oH7Qw2agsoB0GIDg-sPWjS6Bjezv_pN3G9gjniXtk2it_mQ1Luk_ec8b2SUbMot70ZWeu/s1600/Kelly+and+Lisa+Lyons_2659+medium.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeLKOBcy7s42Ubii3bsQ-2QDN3aG7vjO_UVBLNYDTXFeBR7GZGrn0Tb0FNvRzL34CJz2RHm30oH7Qw2agsoB0GIDg-sPWjS6Bjezv_pN3G9gjniXtk2it_mQ1Luk_ec8b2SUbMot70ZWeu/s1600/Kelly+and+Lisa+Lyons_2659+medium.jpg" height="265" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">My mom also understands that
I have to find balance. Even though I love my schoolwork and going to school,
she knows I can't spend all my time on schoolwork, even if I've missed a day. She
knows too that even though I love dance, I can't make dance my only priority. She
has also taught me that I can't always be thinking about my health, only focusing
on whether I'm sick or on the medications I have to take. She encourages me to
find that balance for myself, and make the right choices, even though they are
some of the hardest decisions to make. I
think that's one of the biggest gifts that she could have given me.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br />
<b>And how do you find, or seek to find, that
balance in your life?<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">It is definitely a
day-to-day thing. I have to ask, what will I feel glad to have accomplished at
the end of the hour? Sometimes it's at the end of the week, but sometimes it
really is just at the end of each hour. What am I going to be able to do in the
next hour that is going to make me make me satisfied and happy with today?</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br />
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br />
<!--[endif]--><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">What advice
would you give to someone facing a diagnosis of Crohn’s disease?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">First, I think that you
really have to move in your own time. My GI nurse, Sara Hughes, really helped
me when I was first diagnosed. She said, “Here's the website, here is CCFA, and
here is a bunch of other resources. When you're ready to go and learn about
other people and accept this, you can look into it further. You don't have to
do it right now, just when you are ready.” That was one of the best things for
me. She didn’t just tell me that I had this challenge and that I had to just
move on with my life. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Also, I would say that you
have to find and keep that personal connection to whatever it is that you want
to do. Make sure you nurture that passion. Don’t let go of everything that was
important to you before, even if it doesn't quite fit into your life now.
Evaluate what you want to do. You need to make your own decisions and you need
to do it in your own time. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br />
<b>What does Houston mean to you?<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">I think it's so great to be
in a place where there are people from all over, all with so many different
goals and passions and interests. That is one of the reasons why I love my high
school, which has close to 4,000 students. I love that everybody is just doing
whatever they think is going to make them happy in the future. But at the same
time, you cannot help but find people with common interests and goals.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Where is your
happy place in Houston?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">If it isn’t the dance studio,
then it must be my high school, Seven Lakes. It surprises even me to say that,
but I find that I am always striving to get back to school, especially after
I've been home sick for a week, like now, when I’m home for weeks and weeks. I
just want to be back there. Even though I end up with a lot of work, I am so
glad to get back to school and into a community where I can just enjoy the
ordinary stresses of being a sophomore. It will be good for me to get back to
normality.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br />
<br />
<b>What is your favorite restaurant?<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Outback Steakhouse! Having
Crohn's disease, not everything sits quite right with me. I want to spend time
with my friends and family, but it's not always easy to go out to eat with
them. I've always managed to find something at Outback Steakhouse that works
for me though. There are some pretty standard things I have to avoid, and that
varies from person to person, but one of the universal things is spicy foods.
For me personally, it is things with a lot of yeast like cinnamon rolls, or
peppermint, which is rather strange. I also can't to drink a lot of milk
products. It all depends on where the disease is in your body.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br />
<br />
<b>What is your Houston secret?<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUgyquVm7O7uxftEcvbqS9N4wrFwjIqhS8zpXegRI5MDlR9voS0ckb_OF_21QNpvaGL-vf3FHF59xBFrmvVCLu7qrG25xbdj0Vco2r1vt4GeHOT3cg4qTj8UxmLNQL3JwUcxqGF95DKCf3/s1600/kelly+dancing.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUgyquVm7O7uxftEcvbqS9N4wrFwjIqhS8zpXegRI5MDlR9voS0ckb_OF_21QNpvaGL-vf3FHF59xBFrmvVCLu7qrG25xbdj0Vco2r1vt4GeHOT3cg4qTj8UxmLNQL3JwUcxqGF95DKCf3/s1600/kelly+dancing.png" height="197" width="200" /></a><span style="background: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">This must be the Adamson Ballet
School in Katy. I've danced for 13 years now and dance has always been
something very close to my heart. I mostly do ballet but I've also done tap and
jazz, and other styles within jazz too, but ballet is usually the style I come
back to and spend the most time and energy with. Dance is so controlled and so
disciplined, you always know what to expect, even when you're doing something new.
It's a very calculated form of exercise and it keeps me healthy in other ways.
I know it keeps me from just wanting to sleep on those hard days.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Adamson Ballet School has become
almost a second home to me. Everyone is so encouraging and supportive as I
pursue dance even while having these medical challenges. Lately, I’ve had to
accept that I cannot go to class regularly. When I’m sick, dancing can be hard,
but having people there who don't look at me as if I'm crazy for trying is
wonderful.</span><br />
<span style="background: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">
<b>If you could change one thing about
Houston…</b><span style="background: white;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">I'd have to say the weather.
The dysautonomia that I suffer is really impacted by the heat. The heat causes
all the blood in my body to go down to my feet and it just sits there. I take
medication that makes my body feels like it's cold in order to push the blood
back up. So the heat is not my friend, and Texas is totally the wrong place to
live! But then, the cold isn't very good for Crohn's disease either, so there are
limitations to what I can do outside. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">I am always grateful that I
picked dance because it’s an indoor activity. I pleaded with my mom to take me to
dance when I was three and I don't know if that was fate, but the the fact that
I picked something which would not require me to run in the heat is perfect. I
could not cope with that at all.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Who would be
your own Inspiring Houston Woman?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">When I was being diagnosed,
I didn't really know any kids with Crohn’s disease, and all the adults that I
had heard about were much older and I couldn't really relate to them. I was so
fortunate, therefore, to get Jennifer Porter as my eighth grade counselor at Seven Lakes Junior High. When
I explained my medical challenges to her and told her that school could really
hard for me because I have Crohn's disease, she looked at me and said, “So do
I.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">I was her office aid for a
whole year, so I really got to know her on a personal level, and she also
worked with me on creating <i>Lucky 15</i>. It
was really good for me to see that even though she has Crohn’s disease, Ms
Porter has a family and children,that she’s been to college and has a job that
she really likes. Her mom connected with us too which helped my mom, because
she could relate another mother whose daughter had grown up with Crohn's disease.
To have a counselor that knows exactly what you're going through was just
crazy, but fantastic.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">For more
information about </span></i><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Lucky 15<i>,
visit </i><a href="http://kellyslucky15.weebly.com/about.html" target="_blank"><i><span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;">Kelly’s website</span></i></a><i>.</i></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">For more
information about the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation of America in South Texas, visit the </span></i><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><a href="http://www.ccfa.org/chapters/southtexas/" target="_blank"><i><span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;">Foundation’s website</span></i></a><i>.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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Caroline Leechhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00577580003627430304noreply@blogger.com1Houston, TX, USA29.7604267 -95.369802828.8787477 -96.6606963 30.6421057 -94.0789093tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9095899061562578820.post-6727874239379562562014-09-19T23:48:00.003-05:002014-09-19T23:48:42.345-05:00A roomful of Inspiring Houston Women at HubDot Houston launch<br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Through my <i>Inspiring Houston Women</i> blog and because of my love of storytelling, I recently became involved with a new event called HubDot which was about to launch in Houston.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5qOXYOKxUys_2s3qHGcqEKgZv-GS1zGvKp4lbllKMHmk9lCmggMgJ0bAOJ4tvYsyUO041TnPhF0io3GkfruLxxgbjYTLvjRzSN7tjIGoZX6cK-IZbYg1xxoFPN5Z4WUjhDbYIXhC6YBc/s1600/simona2-150x200.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5qOXYOKxUys_2s3qHGcqEKgZv-GS1zGvKp4lbllKMHmk9lCmggMgJ0bAOJ4tvYsyUO041TnPhF0io3GkfruLxxgbjYTLvjRzSN7tjIGoZX6cK-IZbYg1xxoFPN5Z4WUjhDbYIXhC6YBc/s1600/simona2-150x200.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Simona Barbieri,<br />HubDot's founder</i></span></td></tr>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">HubDot was founded in London in 2012 by a remarkable Italian lady, Simona Barbieri and it is now spreading across Europe and the US. The central mission for HubDot is a simple one:</span></div>
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<i><span style="color: #303030; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">“When we put women together in the same space and put storytelling at the center, incredible things happen.” </span></span></i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">HubDot’s networking events for women of all ages, cultures and backgrounds have one striking difference to the events we have all been to at professional conferences. First, they take place in somewhere women are generally very comfortable – a clothes store – with the beautiful Anthropologie stores joining HubDot to host these events on the shop-floor in their vision, allowing wine, nibbles and shopping to form part of the experience.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Secondly, no one wears a label with her name or her job title or company. Instead, each woman chooses from a selection of five colored dots (hence the name) which serves as a means of introduction to other guests. For example, if you wear a yellow dot, it means “I have an idea, can anyone help?” or a green dot means “I’m here to be inspired”. This makes it easier for you to approach someone wearing perhaps a purple dot and ask, “What is your story?” rather than, “What do you do?” </span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">For those who are really looking for an evening with absolutely no pressure at all, there is even a blue dot for “I am here to socialize and shop”. To get the storytelling between the guests flowing and some ideas sparking, each event also has a handful of speakers, given only one minute to present their story, and also some music, often from a musician who has her own story to tell. </span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Leslie Loftis,<br />Houston Organizer</i></span></td></tr>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">This week saw the US launch of HubDot here in Houston, organized by a team led</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> by Leslie Loftis, a native Texan who met Simona when they both lived in London and who decided she wanted to share the HubDot philosophy in her home town. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">I was so proud to have been one of the storytellers invited to speak by Simona and Leslie. Because we were only given one minute to share a story we wanted to tell, I focused on the amazing women I have interviewed for <i>InspiringHoustonWomen.com</i>. </span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #222222;">I was delighted too that one of my </span><i style="color: #222222;">IHW </i><span style="color: #222222;">interviewees, </span><a href="http://www.inspiringhoustonwomen.com/2014/01/anita-kruse.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: #351c75;">Anita Kruse of PurpleSongs Can Fly</span> </a><span style="color: #222222;">at Texas Children’s Hospital, gave one of the most moving speeches of the night.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Anita talked of her work with young cancer patients at TCH, helping them to write and record their own songs during their treatment programs in the Cancer Center. She had brought along with her Christian Spear, herself a cancer survivor. Christian sang an excerpt from the Purple Songs single <i>No one fights alone </i>(you can watch the full <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGNBEJwe6_0&feature=em-share_video_user">music video here</a>)<i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Other speakers included Dorothy Gibbons, founder of The Rose, a breast cancer charity which provides mammograms and cancer treatment to women without medical insurance. For every three insured women who have a mammogram at The Rose, they are able to give another mammogram free to a woman who cannot afford one. Dorothy told us, ‘No woman should die of breast cancer because she could not afford $150 for a mammogram.’<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Another speaker, Elizabeth Pudwill, told the assembled group of her battle against a series of addictions which led her to time in jail. Determined to put her life back together again, she founded </span><i style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">I Know Somebody – Houston</i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">, an organization which aims to connect women to each other so that someone in need of something can find help.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Simona opens the storytelling with story of HubDot<br />at Anthropologie City Center</i></span></td></tr>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">We also heard from two young chef/entrepreneurs, the founder of a non-profit organization which aims to help those with chronic headaches such as migraines, and from one of the first female fighter pilots in the US Air Force who then became a stay at home mom, and then found her third vocation as a pastor.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">I was not surprised to find any number of inspiring women in that room who would be perfect subjects for future interview, and I will be contacting them in the next week or so to invite them to take part.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">HubDot will be continuing its events in London, Milan, Naples, Luxembourg and Houston and over the coming months, will also launch HubDot chapters in Oregon and Barcelona, as well as in South Africa and Gambia.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">It was a fantastic evening, and even if I say so myself, I rather summed up the general feeling of the gathering in the last ten seconds of my one minutes speech:</span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">“I know that I am preaching to the converted here when I say that this amazing city, and indeed, this room, is full of truly Inspiring Houston Women, so I have a long job ahead of me to talk to them all.”</span></i><i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">If you are interested in finding out more about HubDot in Houston, or in one of the other cities above, please visit the website at </span><a href="file:///C:/Users/Caroline/Documents/My%20actual%20documents/writing/Blog%20text%20and%20pics/www.hubdot.com" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">www.hubdot.com</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">.</span>Caroline Leechhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00577580003627430304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9095899061562578820.post-42057496910780199652014-05-30T09:00:00.000-05:002014-05-30T11:39:48.481-05:00Linda McSpadden McNeil<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><i>with </i>Mirror <i>by Jaume Plensa</i></span></td></tr>
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<i><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0cm;">Dr Linda McSpadden McNeil</span></i><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> is the
Director of the Center for Education at Rice University and a Rice Education
professor. A curriculum theorist and analyst of school structure and reform,
she has written extensively on teaching and learning in urban schools, on
school organization and on education policy and standardization. Her writings
are widely cited scholarly publications and national media. </span></i><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In 1988, she
co-founded the Center for Education to support research and teacher enhancement
programs to address the persistent problems of inequity and uneven quality in
urban schools. She and her colleagues in the Center for Education have for
twenty-five years designed, created, funded, and operated programs to retrain
urban teachers in their subject fields and in children’s learning and
cultures. </span></i><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">She has two daughters.</span></i></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">What’s your story, Linda?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I am a teacher, my mother was a teacher,
and my grandmother was a teacher in one-room schoolhouses, so teaching is in my
bones. Now I teach Rice students to become teachers, but originally I was a
high school English teacher and that has led to all my current work. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I was a high school teacher in a
district that had taken twenty years to desegregate its schools. I quickly
realized an incredible tension between what they wanted kids to learn and what
they didn't want them to know. I thought they had hired me to be the best
teacher I could be, to be like the teachers who had inspired me to teach. A cohort of us in the English department had
that same vision for the kids and yet we were being told, “Don't teach Black
poetry – that’s political.” I learned then what I've come to call the tension
between knowledge access and knowledge control. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">When I had the opportunity to pursue a
PhD at the University of Wisconsin, </span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I
began with the questions I had faced as a teacher: “What counts as <i>school
knowledge</i>? What factors shape the
ways schools make knowledge accessible – or inaccessible – to kids? Whose
knowledge is of most worth?” These questions took me into classrooms for
long stints of ethnographic research, looking first at the interactions of
teachers and kids and then into the school setting itself. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I observed
the dynamic between the teachers and the students, seeing what kinds of
questions were being asked, and what was being left out. This kind of research came naturally to me
because I inadvertently became an ethnographer at a very young age. My dad’s work as an Amoco engineer of the
generation that drilled the West Texas oil fields caused us to move
frequently. As the new kid at five
different elementary schools, I always began by observing: who might be a new best friend, which teacher
would be kind and interesting. My
experiences, from being a child in some very remote schools to being a teacher
who was being told by the administration what not to teach, converged in my
doctoral studies and my first book, <i>Contradictions
of Control: School Structure and School
Knowledge.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I
arrived in Houston just as standardization was being imposed on schools, first
from the district level, then from the state and, now, nationally. Suddenly, the curriculum was not being shaped
by the teachers in the classroom, but by “the system.” Teachers were no longer valued as curriculum
developers. Because I was already doing
research in classrooms, I was one of the first witnesses to the harm
standardization was doing to the quality of schooling. As multiple-choice standardized tests started
to drive what could be taught, I documented huge curricular losses as the
tested subjects were watered down into multiple-choice formats, particularly
math, reading and writing in those early years. Other subjects were set aside, or
their teachers made to replace lessons in the arts, physical fitness and
science with test prep drills for math or reading. Teachers were being forced to dump complex
writing assignments, the reading of novels, lab experiments, field trips to arts
performances and coastal estuaries, as well as lessons related to the cultures
of their students, to drill on the generic content of tests that would be
scored by computers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">That
was the beginning of twenty years of “school reform” in Texas which has brought
us the very top-down, centralized, standardized form of schooling most people
look on as a testing system. The testing is really just the tip of the iceberg.
The test scores are indicators in a management compliance system that ties everything
from students’ graduation to teacher’s pay, administrators’ bonuses and even
the closing of a neighborhood school, to scores on a computer-scored test.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I never
thought I would be studying standardized testing. But even as that first wave of testing came
in, it became clear that the big investments in “education reform” would not be
for perpetually underfunded schools or scholarships to recruit young people
into teaching. The financial – and political – investment would be in the
testing system. Despite all the research to the contrary, despite reports from
teachers and child development experts, none of the arguments on behalf of
children could be heard above the domineering voice of the testing industry.
Testing companies have lobbyists; third grade children don’t.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I
believe, however, that it’s up to all of us to do everything we can to create
the professional, political and moral space in which good teachers can make
magical things happen every day for the children in their classrooms. It was this belief that prompted the two
strands of work I’ve been doing. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The
first was to create the Center for Education, with programs in support of <i>teachers’ development</i>. And the second
was to embark on a series of <i>research</i>
<i>studies</i> that could inform not only
educators, but also parents and policy makers, about the impact of the
standardized accountability system on children and schools. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Even
before the testing became so ubiquitous, my colleagues and I were very
concerned about the anti-teacher climate in the press and in politics. We were,
after all, preparing bright, dedicated Rice students to teach and we wanted
them in schools hospitable to knowledgeable, caring teachers. So Ronald Sass, now an emeritus scientist
professor, and I created the Center for Education to be a base for teacher
development. We had generous funding and incredibly wise advice from Maconda
Brown O’Connor, our first board president.
A trustee of the Brown Foundation, she was a social worker who counseled
boys in juvenile detention. As she helped
the boys connect back to their schools, she could see the ways schools could be
nurturing or could exclude these youth as “problem kids.” To Maconda, every child had promise, and her
support of our work came from her own sense of urgency that all teachers needed
support to be able to help all kids thrive.
She was a “practical visionary” whose lessons continue to teach us.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Our
idea was not to give quick Saturday teacher workshops. All of our programs were
long-haul, addressing serious deficiencies in the schools. A key example is
science. Very few middle grade science
teachers had been science majors in college, and even fewer had ways of
connecting with the city’s extraordinary scientists. We created a teaching laboratory in an urban middle
school where teachers came for an intensive year of study and exploration with
scientists from Rice and industry, learning how to engage their students in the
questions and ‘aha’ moments that make science so powerful. We had financial support from individuals,
corporations, local foundations, the National Science Foundation and ultimately
the school district itself. And now,
after so many years, the “Model Lab” science teachers continue to be valued
leaders. And out of that original lab, new programs were created first for high
school teachers, then elementary teachers, as well as on-line curricular
resources for science inquiry across the grades.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The
School Writing Project addressed the persistent low quality of children’s
writing nationally and locally – a problem made worse by multiple-choice test
drills and formulaic writing required by the state. The School Writing Project brought small
groups of teachers together in intimate seminars to work on their own writing
as well as the teaching of writing and sharing samples of their students’ work. Over the years, these seminars branched into
specialized discussions of teaching English language learners and of
integrating the teaching of writing with the other creative arts. Many teachers have told us that they have
remained in teaching, and remained in urban schools, because of the
professional community they found in School Writing Project.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The
focus of these programs, and others such as Asia Outreach, created by Rice
history professor Richard Smith, and our early childhood programs, has always
been on empowering teachers. We have
worked to make teachers more knowledgeable about their own subjects and the
many ways children learn, and about the cultures of the children in their classrooms. We don’t just advocate for “teacher
professionalism” in the abstract, but support teachers to make their teaching
engaging and their classrooms places of inquiry and equity. Our research in schools has informed our work
with teachers. And, maybe even more important, we have learned from teachers
what we should be investigating in our research.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Our <i>research</i> is the other “half” of the Center’s
mission: studying what is taught in
schools, who is being well-served or underserved by our schools, and what
factors in the community and in the policy arena are shaping children’s
education. When I began studying what is
taught – or not taught – in schools, those
were classroom studies with me as the solo researcher. What I found in classrooms led me to take a
hard look at the administrative practices in schools and the policies
controlling them. For these larger
studies, I’ve had the great benefit of working with smart colleagues who share
my vision of research in the public interest. Our research looks a bit like a
set of concentric circles: from
classrooms, to systemic problems such as dropouts, to democratic schooling
itself. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">After
being in classrooms documenting the curriculum losses – what I think of as the
“real learning” – under standardization, we looked at where this was coming
from. This got us into policy analysis.
Our next finding was even more disturbing. We discovered that schools were triaging
out of school the students they saw as weak, those they saw as putting the
school’s scores in danger, and they were doing so in ways that were technically
legal. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">It was
from teachers and principals we knew well that we learned the real story behind
the “drop out problem.” The myth of the
standardized accountability system was that it would raise academic standards
and close the racial “achievement gap” in Texas schools. But as we spent more time in schools,
particularly in high poverty, urban high schools, we saw that the huge dropout
rate – more than 100,000 kids each year from Texas high schools! – was not a separate
problem from the testing system. The
gap, in fact, was widening.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">As the state’s system of accountability
became ‘high stakes’ for administrators, directly tying their job contracts and
pay bonuses to the test scores of the kids in their schools, they began to
triage out of school those students whose scores were likely to lower the
school’s accountability ratings. These
students came disproportionately from African American, Hispanic, immigrant and
high-poverty communities. Students
literally came to be seen as “assets” or “liabilities” to the school ratings,
with the “liabilities” triaged out prior to taking the test. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Many schools were reporting dropout rates as
low as 2% or 3%, yet when those same schools had one thousand entering
freshmen, with only 350 of those students end up in the senior graduating
class, you have to ask questions. My colleagues and I started noticing that the
school ratings were higher if the dropout numbers were also up. The greater the
number of low-achieving kids dropping out, the higher the school’s test score
rating. Frankly, it took us a long time to figure out how to write about this
because it shows that our state’s education system actually rewards principals
who “lose” kids. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">In the end, we never had to make the
accusation that principals were deliberately triaging weaker kids out – the
principals did it for us. They told us they felt caught and but felt the system
left them little choice. We designed a
study to find out if these schools were exceptions, or if this represented a
pattern that could explain the thousands of kids being “lost” from our high
schools. We were able to show, by race and grade level, how the “losses” of
students enhanced their schools’ ratings—and those bonuses. We published our
findings as <i>Avoidable Losses</i> in a peer-reviewed on-line journal. It has had almost 20,000 hits and been used
by parent advocacy groups, teachers, and legislators organizing against the
high stakes testing system.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Having
documented the losses of both high quality curriculum content and of students
under standardized accountability, my research team and I are now studying and
writing about the threat this system poses to democratic, public education
itself. The test score numbers generated
by the standardized tests mask old inequities and create new ones. Low scores
are being used to justify closing neighborhood schools and shifting taxpayer
dollars to charter chains and others who would destroy the public’s
schools. There are political and for-profit
forces working together to replace this essential democratic institution with a
market of privately owned, but tax-payer funded, “schools.” This push to de-democratize schools is
important to understand because the public’s schools are a vital venue for
maintaining a voice for democracy itself.
This is the book we are currently working on and we hope it becomes more
than just bearing witness to this anti-democratic-schooling movement. We hope it helps foster an even stronger
public discussion already underway about re-claiming the billions of testing
dollars for classrooms and high quality instruction in the public’s schools.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">My
original research question, “What is shaping our kids’ access to knowledge and
to ways of learning in schools?” has led me into amazing classrooms where kids
are thriving and into the current policy fray that frankly seems hostile to
children. I couldn’t be more grateful
for the teachers and colleagues who keep reminding me why we need to keep
asking these questions.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">What is your Houston story?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I’ve
been in Houston for thirty years. I was
born in California and grew up in the oil fields of West Texas before we moved
to Tulsa. Although my dad became Amoco’s
international corrosion expert, he was the kind of engineer who was a real
craftsman and didn’t easily fit any organization chart. I think I inherited
that sense of craft from my dad and from my grandparents, and I carried it into
what I think about teaching. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Who or what has been the greatest influence
on your life?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">My two
daughters – one is a psychiatrist and the other is a veterinarian who does
international public health work. They are both just amazing – funny, smart
generous, caring – and always inspiring me.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The greatest
influence on my work here has to be Maconda Brown O’Connor, who was fierce and
more than a little angry about what was happening to children and youth in the
justice system and in some of our schools. Maconda’s idea was that if you sit
in a place of privilege like this university, with a base from which to work on
problems, then you have no excuse not to. And if one thing doesn’t work, try
something else. She helped us create the
Center for Education and also created the Greater Houston Collaborative for
Children, an organization of advocacy for young children. She was not shy about
giving advice, nor hesitant to give support.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Here at
Rice, there is Neal Lane. Neal is a
scientist. He was our provost in the early years of our work and one of those
rare people who is just so wise. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I’m also
inspired by people whose courage seems to them to be just common sense. Our friend Joe Elder in Wisconsin, who as a
Quaker peace negotiator took desperately needed cardiology equipment to the
hospitals in Hanoi while US bombs were dropping on the city. The young people who ten years ago started No
More Deaths/No Mas Muertes to provide relief for immigrants in peril of dying
in the Arizona desert. The Black
teachers who were assigned to integrate that white high school where I first
taught, and in doing so became my teacher as well. My professors at UW-Madison who asked
important questions about education and power and tolerated my decision to do
the messy and inefficient research in classrooms . This question is bringing to
mind how many people I am grateful for – people I need to thank more often!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">What advice would you give to someone new to
the education system?</span></b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Find
kindred spirits. Find people who value
what you value. I tell my students to
seek out other teachers who care deeply about the kids and who are willing to
try things and to share ideas with you.
I’ve given that advice to my students and to my daughters as they start
new jobs. The same holds for kids
starting out in a new school – and for parents as they build a common cause
with other parents. Sometimes it might
be someone you work with very closely, or it might be colleagues around the
country who are struggling with similar issues and situations, as we are now
seeing in the movement to undo the harm of standardized schooling and get back
to focusing on kids and learning. Institutions
are always in flux and the world is so chaotic right now that kindred spirits
both anchor and energize us.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>The countryside near Linda's cabin <br />in New Mexico</i></span></td></tr>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">How do you find, or seek to find, balance in
your life?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Through
my daughters and through my friends, particularly those friends who have been
in our lives so long that we are a part of each other’s stories. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">In
terms of place, we are fortunate to have a small cabin in the Santa Fe National
Forest in New Mexico. It is in a remote
area my parents took us to when I was a little girl. It’s on a narrow dirt road with few
neighbors. Once we’re up there, it’s all
sweatshirts and jeans and rain on the tin roof, hiking, fishing, or just
watching the hummingbirds. It is our
family’s spiritual home. As poet Wendell
Berry says, it’s that one place that we have to know over many years and know
by a particular tree or shifts in the stream to be fully alive on this earth.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">What is your happy place in Houston?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The
homes of good friends and my porch swing on a spring evening at dusk, when the
night herons and other birds are coming “home.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The
Rothko Chapel and Menil complex are both energizing and restorative. Think about the time period in which John and
Dominique de Menil started bringing all of these things together in one of the
most competitive, materialistic cities in the world. They were saying to
Houston, “What about human rights? What
about the spirit? How can we bridge our differences?” I had the honor of
meeting Mrs de Menil on two occasions. I don’t think she really felt what they
were doing was courageous. Yet they
created this extraordinary Chapel so that Houston would not lack a sacred space
dedicated to human rights, to social justice, to collective envisioning. Just
amazing. And it was a Rothko Chapel Oscar
Romero Human Rights event that introduced me to Dolores Huerta, whom I was
honored to host in my home, another of the inspirers in my life.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">What is your favorite restaurant?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">One of
the greatest gifts of Houston is that we don’t have to decide! It’s wonderful that the fourth largest US
city has so much that is local. We can
shop at a locally owned dress shop, and a local hardware store where they can
answer every question, and we can eat food from all over the world in
restaurants owned by families who brought their grandma’s recipes to our
neighborhood. Just about any local
Mexican restaurant is my favorite!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">What is your Houston secret?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">People
who have never been here think that it’s going to be rather desolate but end up
surprised at how lovely many parts of the city are – especially the trees. And although the reputation is oil and gas
and real estate, or space and medicine, the real Houston is in the mix of
people who are from literally everywhere. And if I have a secret, it’s probably
that I eavesdrop to try to improve my Spanish!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">What would you change about Houston?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Houston
is already a truly international city. The
children of this city and the families coming into the city are the changing
face of America. That makes it even more
important for us to get education right, to get children’s health care right.
Houston should be competing with Seattle in the race to bump up the minimum
wage. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">We are
now the most diverse city in the US, which is certainly something to
celebrate. But I am concerned that
diversity without equity is not progress.
Diversity without equitable political and economic power is not yet
democracy. While I love all the international restaurants and hearing all the
different languages on the street, I am starting to think that people are
looking at diversity as an exotic accessory rather than “This is who <i>we</i> are now.” Everyone is talking about how fabulous diversity
is, but few seem to be thinking aloud about the growing concentrations of
wealth and poverty, about what diversity means for the city’s infrastructure,
for mass transit into all the parts of the city, cleaning up the superfund
pollution sites and creating parks everywhere. The possibilities are endless if
diversity can enact a new political imagination.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">And in
the schools, although diversity should be a great asset to connect all our
children with the global community, we still sometimes hear that distinction
between educating “our kids,” and “other people’s children,” suggesting that we
will not make the same investment in some children’s education. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Houston
has the chance to become a very robust international city because everything
here is truly globalized. We have a
chance to gain a real understanding of the world by learning from the human
connections within our city’s communities.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Linda was nominated as an Inspiring Houston
Woman by <u><a href="http://www.inspiringhoustonwomen.com/2013/10/pansy-gee.html">Pansy Gee</a></u>.</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">For more information about Linda’s work at
the Rice Center for Education and for her publications, visit the <a href="http://centerforeducation.rice.edu/index.html">Center's website</a>.</span></i></div>
Caroline Leechhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00577580003627430304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9095899061562578820.post-48411063444423187552014-04-28T13:37:00.000-05:002014-04-28T13:41:30.048-05:00Susan Fordice<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHMa7PF91zXLP8XZvgifIV_ERcqXZwwwP5V683jYRIBl8UZh9UTBOfWO0zMQ_kIlSwTQqA-MpyVLoGQDFeZN3dYh0r5aIpQdHpErcf5ZzZk5p4nT1T3LTbzyD2Jufq8fise7E7_e8TuK1_/s1600/Susan+Fordice+-+1993+-+main+portrait.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHMa7PF91zXLP8XZvgifIV_ERcqXZwwwP5V683jYRIBl8UZh9UTBOfWO0zMQ_kIlSwTQqA-MpyVLoGQDFeZN3dYh0r5aIpQdHpErcf5ZzZk5p4nT1T3LTbzyD2Jufq8fise7E7_e8TuK1_/s1600/Susan+Fordice+-+1993+-+main+portrait.jpg" height="400" width="285" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Susan is the President and <span style="background: white;">CEO of Mental Health America of Greater Houston. Susan grew up in the Midwest and graduated
from South Dakota with a degree in psychology. She resided in Los Angeles and
Chicago before moving to Houston twenty years ago. She worked in development at MD Anderson Cancer
Center and Rice University before joining Mental Health America, this area’s
oldest mental health education and advocacy organization. She works to change attitudes about mental
health and mental illness and advocates for good public policy and access to
the effective treatments that are available for mental disorders. </span></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="background: white;">Susan is married to Jim and has three
daughters, a stepdaughter and a stepson.
She is the grandmother to ten grandchildren.</span></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">What’s your story, Susan?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I was born and raised in South Dakota and have lived
in several Midwestern states. After the
end of a 14-year marriage, I changed my life in earnest and moved to Los
Angeles. The next stop was Chicago. The opportunity to relocate to Texas came a
few years later. We heard the weather in
Houston was “tropical” which suited us just fine. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Most of my career had been in hospital
development and fundraising, working with regional medical centers and medical
schools. My first employer in Houston
was MD Anderson Cancer Center. I will
always be grateful for that experience, they are only the best in the
world. In the mid-1990s, I joined the
development staff at Rice University and continued to travel nationally. Assigned to bio-sciences, bio-engineering and nano-technology,
I had the unique opportunity to know and work with Professor Rick Smalley following
the awarding of the Nobel Prize. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjoGPGWHowG7FdXU6UugYFStuSDeEs0ye1hWwRSUox_qf5sel6va3F4lH8KlOnZDh3w_TB879oQMBy8rYSROcQgXOvojwee0LgE0k8JKx21BG5T7GP83CgAVQ1FbEfxg62jZZMG_A38ifa/s1600/MHA+Logo+for+WORD+DOCUMENTS_White+Space.tif" imageanchor="1" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjoGPGWHowG7FdXU6UugYFStuSDeEs0ye1hWwRSUox_qf5sel6va3F4lH8KlOnZDh3w_TB879oQMBy8rYSROcQgXOvojwee0LgE0k8JKx21BG5T7GP83CgAVQ1FbEfxg62jZZMG_A38ifa/s1600/MHA+Logo+for+WORD+DOCUMENTS_White+Space.tif" height="134" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">When I once again decided to make a major
change in my life, I joined Mental Health America in the late 1990s. I left a development office of more than one
hundred staff members to become a shop of one.
Like so many of us working in nonprofits, I felt called to support something
that was personal and in an area of great need.
Sixty years ago, Miss Ima Hogg founded MHA in Greater Houston to be a
voice for people who had no voice. It is
such an honor to be here and continue this work.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />
</span><b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Why do you do what you do?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkJk3MmnQ1Cq6QQNJwyZvXVd0kDzum0O_4281nL56ZEGEM-9X4pDcKmDZZfrzngxfgcihEgsMpNF0D47BUuGCcZWqypfUBs3Bgl8FTG3PszpJXmyDnNln_M0kDKeyjm7Mg9cXGbu8TP-x-/s1600/Susan+Fordice+and+mother+0080.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkJk3MmnQ1Cq6QQNJwyZvXVd0kDzum0O_4281nL56ZEGEM-9X4pDcKmDZZfrzngxfgcihEgsMpNF0D47BUuGCcZWqypfUBs3Bgl8FTG3PszpJXmyDnNln_M0kDKeyjm7Mg9cXGbu8TP-x-/s1600/Susan+Fordice+and+mother+0080.jpg" height="320" width="252" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Susan and her mother</i></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I have generations of reasons to care about mental
health. Without going back too many generations, I lost my mother at the age of
59 when she died from complications from alcoholism. In fact, she suffered with major depression. Because
of stigma, we never called her illness a mental illness. I used to wonder how people died from
alcoholism and, sadly, I found out. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I do think that if we had called her illness by
its real name and treated it differently, she might have lived to enjoy her
grandchildren and see her great grandchildren be born. We all missed so much by her not being here. That's not an uncommon story. It is a story shared by many. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br />
<!--[endif]--><span style="background: white;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Not surprisingly, I have my own story and I
feel it’s immensely important to call it what it is. In the mid-1990s, I was also dealing with
depression. Even with my family
experiences, I didn’t realize it at the time.
Our family had experienced some difficulties and losses and I just
thought that profound sadness was situational.
One day, I went to see a new internal medicine doctor for an annual
medical and all of a sudden I was sobbing. I didn't see it coming, not a clue.
After talking to me for a while, she said, “I think you are depressed,” which
made me laugh. She suggested I try a
medication and if I didn’t feel better within two weeks, we would dig a little
deeper. Three days later, as I'm driving
down 290, I suddenly said, “Oh my gosh! This is what <i>normal</i> feels like!” I was
absolutely euphoric just to realize that I felt normal. I called her and said, “I am such a
lightweight, it only took me three days!” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I have three beloved daughters. They have six children and each generation
has its own stories. How they manage
their challenges makes my heart soar.
The power and beauty of a family is in the love and support we can
provide to one another. By virtue of the
work I do, I know and have heard from so many people who have struggles, so
many. We know they need understanding,
support and proper treatment. Treatment
works. Early intervention works. We need better public policy and access to
care for everyone in need. It’s not just
what we are all called to do as a caring community, it is a benefit to the
community. <span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-size: 12pt;">It is more cost effective</span> to help people recover their lives rather
than cycle in and out of jail, shelters and emergency rooms. It is really difficult to believe and
absolutely impossible to accept that this still happens way too often. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />
<span style="background: white;">The last legislative session was a good one for
mental health. There seems to be a
realization that you can’t sweep mental health under the rug anymore. We made progress, but there is much more to
do.</span></span></div>
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</div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">An example of our current work is a school
behavioral health initiative, which involves a large number of independent
school districts in the area. It can take
as long as fourteen years for a diagnosis following the onset of symptoms. Think about the difference in the trajectory
of a child’s life, not to mention the reduction in suffering, if we identify
kids earlier and they get the help they need.
Legislation from the past session will help make that a reality by
providing training for teachers and administrators and also by adding training
to recognize signs and symptoms of behavioral health problems in educator
preparation programs. Remember, there
isn't a blood test for these illnesses and there is a lot of denial along the
way. These accomplishments were
supported by a passionate and effective group of stakeholders, including
teachers, counselors and nurses from our independent school districts, parents,
grandparents, community organizations that serve children, advocates and
others. We need to support educators and
make sure they have knowledge, tools and resources. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />
<br />
</span><b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Who or what has been the greatest influence
on your life?</span></b><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0F6XMrq70hFezSqginevh4v_46TbTb7lDpXH0SyzOugwpy3Qc1KGC_nKwernQi9RK9ygFP1j2vCuTJXf8wTT5ZUctZPT5GEhiCSQsQGhyiHG4Jpy5mz5cjdmSh83N4YoY7u8VImzuBm3H/s1600/scan10038.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0F6XMrq70hFezSqginevh4v_46TbTb7lDpXH0SyzOugwpy3Qc1KGC_nKwernQi9RK9ygFP1j2vCuTJXf8wTT5ZUctZPT5GEhiCSQsQGhyiHG4Jpy5mz5cjdmSh83N4YoY7u8VImzuBm3H/s1600/scan10038.jpg" height="400" width="258" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Susan with her grandmother, <br />
before the car accident which disabled her</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">That’s an easy one for me. As a young child, I spent
several years living with my grandparents.
When I was five, my grandmother was in a horrible accident when their
car skidded on ice. Other people in the car
were killed and my grandmother went through the windshield of the car. She had
a traumatic brain injury which left her paralyzed from the neck down and unable
to speak. They expected her to die so
they let me in to see her to say good-bye. To everyone’s surprise, she survived
and lived another seventeen years. However,
she lived in constant pain and had limited medical treatment for pain or for
recovery. Over the course of those seventeen
years, the paralysis gradually improved leaving her paralyzed from the waist up
on her right side and able to speak with the vocabulary of a very young child,
though this followed many years of no mobility or ability to speak. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">We lived in a small town in South Dakota,
population 400, with one doctor about thirteen miles away. There were no social services, though neighbors
did bring food for a while and visit. We
had never heard of physical therapy.
It’s difficult to recall, let alone describe. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">In all those years, never once did she ever
complain. We knew when her pain was most severe because she would close the
drapes and just lie on the sofa with an ice pack on her head. This was a
woman who had every reason to withdraw from reality, yet she got up every day and
gave that day her best. If I had one
grain of her strength and courage, I'd be something special.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">We did have adventures when I got a little
older and she was more mobile. When I
was fourteen, we had a Sunday morning ritual of watching the television
ministry of Oral Roberts. He healed
people and at the end of his show would ask people at home to stand and hold up
their right hand and ask to be healed. I
helped her with that hand every week. We
were so unsophisticated and we were looking for a miracle, so one day we ran
away from home to go see Oral Roberts.
We waited until I was fourteen and could drive legally with my farm
permit. I had eight dollars in my pocket
and I didn't read a map, so we stopped at every gas station and asked for
directions. Unfortunately we had a little
fender-bender and my grandfather was called.
He had to come and lead us back home and we were in big trouble! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Undaunted, we waited a couple of years and
devised a new plan. We had heard of the
Mayo Clinic and it was only 250 miles from home. Once again, with less than ten dollars in my
pocket but a lot of hope in our hearts, we quietly slipped away. When we went through the doors of the Mayo
Clinic with no money and no insurance, they found a home for me to stay in and
did a full assessment of my grandmother.
They told us about physical therapy, which would have been so much more
helpful if done earlier. They referred
us to a physical therapist in a town fifty miles away from home, which we thought
was just amazing. Of course they had to
call my grandfather and we were definitely in trouble again. He told us to get home on our own, which we
did just fine. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">What advice would you give to someone new to working
in the mental health field?</span></b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />
<span style="background: white;">Never compromise your integrity. Never.
And treat others as you wish to be treated, which is just about as solid
and simple as it gets. When you have an opportunity to work with
colleagues and other organizations, always be a good and generous partner. Together
we can have a greater impact so treat those relationships as a sacred
trust. Give more than you hope to get
and forget about who gets the credit.
That is much easier in a good relationship. Not so easy when you get burned, but you
can’t let the bad experiences keep you from doing the right thing. Be the good example for others even when it’s
hard.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhr-bXkVAijs3uQ3vU6zXB61DQZbs-6HEgavHdzIby8u1WqeccFc_EuX-F_5tRmA-cHWOk79Sh_qvLBe_48HWgprEmRIuxEougnV8diBupC4QFPgDMRnZ5CpSgAGd2q4hFLZa182PyahX_z/s1600/Susan+Fordice+banner.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhr-bXkVAijs3uQ3vU6zXB61DQZbs-6HEgavHdzIby8u1WqeccFc_EuX-F_5tRmA-cHWOk79Sh_qvLBe_48HWgprEmRIuxEougnV8diBupC4QFPgDMRnZ5CpSgAGd2q4hFLZa182PyahX_z/s1600/Susan+Fordice+banner.JPG" height="400" width="135" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Susan with <br />Blake and Addie,<br />two of her ten grandchildren<br /> and with Rikr, her dog</i></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">How do you find balance in
your life?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I love my job but my family is everything to
me. I have three daughters, a stepdaughter and stepson. Plus I'm the
grandmother of ten. Six of my
grandchildren live here and four in the Midwest. Every weekend gives me balance
because nearly every weekend, I have time with my grandchildren. The Houston grandkids range in age from 6 to
18, so our activities are very different.
We love going to the theater, musicals, movies, shopping, antiquing,
football games, or we may just shoot baskets in the driveway. If I’m really lucky, I will get some time
with my busy daughters. </span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">I also love dogs and have a few, mostly rescues.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">My favorite is a big, beautiful white German shepherd named Rikr. He's my shadow and follows me around the house. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">My dogs make me laugh every day.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">What does Houston mean to you?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I came here with all the stereotypes of Texas
in my head. I didn't know what to expect and I was just so surprised. Houston
has the best of everything! Some of it
is so unusual – a house covered in beer cans and an art-car parade, yet we also
have the best medical care in the whole world in our backyard. People who have health challenges do their
research and this is where they come. I
love the people. Like where I come from,
there are such wonderful characters. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I miss Southern California and there are things
about growing in rural America that I miss, but I do love Houston. I am not leaving.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Where is your happy place in Houston?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I love my backyard. People sometimes ask me where I’m going on
vacation and I'll say, “To my backyard.”
Also, my husband Jim and I go to Carrabba's every Friday night. With
busy lives, it’s the one time when we actually get to catch up and have a real conversation.
That it always our time. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">What is your favorite restaurant?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I enjoy Carrabba’s and I love Pappadeaux’s, but
can’t think of favorites without mentioning Paulie’s shortbread cookies. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">What is your Houston secret?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">One of the things I enjoy most is when the West
Texas peaches appear in Houston. Being a Midwesterner, I've done a lot of canning
and preserving in my life, but I have never had such a heavenly smell in my
house before. It’s such a treat to be
able to give those little jars of jam as gifts and I absolutely love the sound
of the lids popping when they seal to the jar.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />
</span><b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">If you could change one thing about Houston…<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">When I moved here twenty years ago, I wondered,
where are the trains? We had three different types of trains in Chicago to get
you anywhere and everywhere. I’ve now
been commuting down 290 for twenty years, so I would love to see some trains or
some diamond lanes at least. I will
never understand a barricaded HOV lane.
Really! You get stuck there
behind one of those smoke belching buses and think you’ve found a new
hell. The other thing I would change
would be the air quality.</span></div>
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<i style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></i></div>
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<i style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #222222;">Susan was nominated as an Inspiring Houston Woman by </span><a href="http://www.inspiringhoustonwomen.com/2013/11/sarah-fisher-and-trish-morille.html"><span style="color: blue;">Sarah Fisher</span></a><span style="color: #222222;">.</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">To find out
more about the work of Susan and her team at Mental Health America of Greater
Houston, visit the <a href="http://www.mhahouston.org/">MHA website</a>.</span></i></div>
Caroline Leechhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00577580003627430304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9095899061562578820.post-19140723150084734972014-04-11T09:00:00.000-05:002014-04-11T10:08:34.746-05:00Kate McLean<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1K7ebgwhUMVVsd1Kjr3cwf3VThub77dMOk8yA12204sXs9tEdqsK2dIc6xuEK8HBHDYsHbS8JszCn40I2_0MV7ghQqjtpKp-1pB49qH05FK3tqPlRMN7Y_P4OOT_HILhJ6dPlhYStiJm3/s1600/Kate+McLean+DSC_1976+-+main+portrait.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1K7ebgwhUMVVsd1Kjr3cwf3VThub77dMOk8yA12204sXs9tEdqsK2dIc6xuEK8HBHDYsHbS8JszCn40I2_0MV7ghQqjtpKp-1pB49qH05FK3tqPlRMN7Y_P4OOT_HILhJ6dPlhYStiJm3/s1600/Kate+McLean+DSC_1976+-+main+portrait.jpg" height="400" width="265" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhMLserkM6ot6l71worem2InnkLgea4IfnR4-zZKh4llQ5GVxeBcF2Rh6um8RcFsTgTaNks57tKf_nzNER5G8DLnsDgWGmKeJe0KxKIjyCXB70vHRDkrNVXOrYuEhL5lERQ3yzMAb4b2lU/s1600/Kate+McLean+DSC_1960+gjetost+medium+BRIGHT.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><br /></a><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Kate McLean is the chef de cuisine at </span></i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Tony’s<i>, one of Houston’s best fine dining
restaurants. Recently named as one of the 2014 Top 5 Rising Chefs in the US by
Gayot Restaurant Guide, Kate learned her craft in restaurants in Colorado,
Seattle, Hawaii and in France, before returning to her native Houston in
2010. She was sous chef at </i>Tony’s <i>for three years before being appointed chef
de cuisine in the fall of 2013, the first woman to hold that position in the
restaurant’s fifty year history. She lives in Midtown with her boyfriend,
James.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><b>What’s your story, Kate?<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I've always loved food. Always. My mom is a great cook and my
grandmother too but really, I just really love food. Growing up, everything I
did revolved around food. If I was ever rewarded, I would choose food,
something like a Reese's peanut butter cup, because having something that you
love is total satisfaction. Food makes
me happy. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />
<span style="background: white;">Although I was born in Houston, I grew up in
Dallas and then El Paso, before coming back here when I was thirteen. I never thought of being a chef until I was
in college and went to work for the summer in a lodge near a lake in
Colorado. I got the opportunity to work
in the kitchen, doing things like prepping the salad and I discovered that I
really liked the creative aspect of thinking and working with my hands on a
dish. Unfortunately, the chef there was
a real jerk. I've always been rebellious
and have never liked being bossed about.
So one day when he was messing with me, I ended up breaking down in
tears. The lovely sous chef, Timmy, came
and asked me, “What do you want to do?
Do you really want to do <i>this</i>?”
Then he started asking me more detailed questions and that really started the
ball rolling for me. It made me think
that maybe I actually did want to cook as a career and knowing that Timmy was
willing to help me was real boost.</span> <br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">I knew I didn’t want to work in an office, even
though I was in business school studying marketing. I had always had businesses
growing up. At eight years old, I sold rocks. They weren’t painted or polished,
they were just rocks, but people actually bought them, probably because I was an
eight-year-old girl! So though I liked business, that conversation with Timmy
was the turning point. When I went back
to school, I got a job working at a burger and pizza place. It was really fast-paced
and always packed. It was so much fun – the routine and the tickets and the
heat and I don't know what else, but it felt great. I fell in love with cooking,
with the intensity of it. Of course, it
was quite a high-end burger company, not McDonald's, though that might be a
better story!</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">After I graduated, I moved to Seattle to live
with my cousin Caitlin. I found a job
and worked my way up in a bakery which shared a kitchen with a really nice
restaurant, the Dahlia Lounge. But after a couple of winters, I decided that Seattle
was too cold for me and since all my friends were moving to Hawaii, I moved to
Hawaii too and that was super fun. I
loved the people there and I learned a lot working at a seafood restaurant. The owners were vegan and gave me the chance
to really hone my creativity. I was grill chef by then and I got to create the specials
every night. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I knew I wanted to do fine dining because it's beautiful and
it's tight and it seemed like the perfect goal for me. I wondered then if I needed to go to culinary
school in order to move to the next level.
Then an email arrived inviting me to apply to work in a bed and breakfast
in France. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i><span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Les Carmes</span></i><span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> is
near Avignon in Provence and was run by an English couple. Their son was the chef and was trying to get a
Michelin star so it was very intense and gave me the chance to experience service
on a whole new level. I learned so much, though it was a hard season to get
through. It was a mix of French classic
cuisine, along with English and Spanish, but the main thing that I learned were
the flavor components he would come up with. I've always been rather rebellious
about flavor. I love to create something
weird, something that you haven't heard of before, but something that
works. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEien_7eQQyK0hN7yQAIKMffskEQHV2zim7TBbxf-3wUJKbJUm_g-O8ZfJbKbkTW2FVPECjh5wPTEAw-SURlzysHJns1TGhEAf8OjoAbM3jDU92KaXtoGoHdjJWFLFVaEDrlFeAcUpnvLLMN/s1600/Tonys+restaurant+interior+MEDIUM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEien_7eQQyK0hN7yQAIKMffskEQHV2zim7TBbxf-3wUJKbJUm_g-O8ZfJbKbkTW2FVPECjh5wPTEAw-SURlzysHJns1TGhEAf8OjoAbM3jDU92KaXtoGoHdjJWFLFVaEDrlFeAcUpnvLLMN/s1600/Tonys+restaurant+interior+MEDIUM.jpg" height="400" title="Photo courtesy of Tony's Restaurant" width="296" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b>Tony's Restaurant</b><br /><i>A picture window connects the kitchen <br />and the main dining room</i></span></td></tr>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">At the end of the summer season, I went travelling around
Europe with some friends and when I came home, of course, I needed to get a job.
I was lucky enough to get coffee date from Mr Vallone [owner of Tony’s] during
which he asked me to do a tasting menu for him the next day. I was allowed to pick
whatever I wanted from the pantry to make four dishes. I remember that I did an
avocado and crab salad with pancetta, a really tight little salad, and I did
lamb with braised fennel. I also crusted
tuna in lava salt from Hawaii and served it with beach mushrooms in a cognac
sauce. My last dish was burrata cheese
but I didn't really know how to use the broilers. In order to warm it up a
little bit, I put it on parchment paper under the broiler and of course, it caught
on fire! The cheese did get a little covered in ash, but I sent it out with a
pasta chip and a <i>sauce vierge</i>, and it
can’t have ruined it completely, because they hired me.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br />When I started working here, I would work a
number of different kitchen stations. Then they made me sous chef and then in
November of last year, I was made the chef de cuisine.</span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Day to day, I’m usually in the restaurant by nine. I'll
change into my whites and, depending on the day, I have a few tasks such as the
preparation of that tomato ravioli filling.
Also, I’ll give some thought to new dishes. I pick up ideas randomly
from all over the place. I have five or
six books that I look at, for instance The Flavor Bible which is a great tool
for any chef. It has, say, green grapes
in there and then it lists everything that goes really well with green grapes in
alphabetical order. It’s fantastic.</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">So if I have a new dish to present, I will write up the
recipe and get it ready to show to Mr Vallone and to our General Manager, Scott
Sulma. Some mornings, I'll be tasting
stuff or teaching people how to do a new dish, or I'll be checking on the
parties and events. For example, we are
about to do a Wine Dinner in partnership with winemaker Paul Hobbs. He will feature a bunch of wines and we'll
prepare food to go with them. It's the first one I've done and I think it'll be
fun.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXcGwG4Fx1dLfAhX3oUhEfFH9qDL_ZABjAzGKd8A2WUcz8pbuSBjHPftVyuHrJRbSNGk1yvz_i1NShhFCAZEruGs1yme-e76hyGlKWeDmooTRJNKpJ8XGTsYzy8NiBE34_jEc8OEUYlP3D/s1600/Kate+McLean+DSC_1956+rabbit+medium+BRIGHT.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXcGwG4Fx1dLfAhX3oUhEfFH9qDL_ZABjAzGKd8A2WUcz8pbuSBjHPftVyuHrJRbSNGk1yvz_i1NShhFCAZEruGs1yme-e76hyGlKWeDmooTRJNKpJ8XGTsYzy8NiBE34_jEc8OEUYlP3D/s1600/Kate+McLean+DSC_1956+rabbit+medium+BRIGHT.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13.333333969116211px;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Tomato fonduta ravioli, braised Texas rabbit with a white asparagus sauce<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">“This is Texas rabbit which our supplier gets direct from a farm. They send us rabbit legs and we braise them. The white asparagus is from Holland and is in season only three months of the year which makes this a very special springtime dish.”</span></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">People start coming in for lunch from 11.30 and we’re really
busy through till about two, though we are open all afternoon. Though we all
try to get to break in the middle of the day, I do my orders each afternoon for
produce and bread. I don’t have a
standing order because I want to decide each day what we need.</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">In the evening, it's always busy, particularly on Thursdays,
Fridays and Saturdays, though we are closed on Sundays. We’re open from about 5.30 until ten, or until
midnight on Fridays and Saturdays, so that makes for long days. We do have seasonal rushes, of course.
December is just crazy and Valentine’s Day lasts a whole week! This year, we were busy through January and
February which is good because those are normally slow months.</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">During the service, I don't actually cook, I do the expediting.
I get the tickets and I tell the line chefs when to fire things. Once the first
course has gone, we still have that second course hanging on the board so it’s
up to me to keep track of the tickets and where everything is. Once the food is
ready, I make sure that everything is right, put it on the tray and send it out. </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">I don't taste everything for every table but I do taste all the purées and
sauces before service starts so I knew that we're good to go. I don’t get to
eat until probably about 10.30 or 11pm.
Sometimes I'm so tired I can't even put anything in a box. I just want
to go home, but usually I look forward to eating at the end of the night. It's a
treat for me, especially if my boyfriend stays up to eat with me.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiX7oVvVhAM_G0k2dRwqt3wHyeHS2vUW30eB3wVBh7slUqRDc3EVmUT9YQ9IA74JYqBDNycC0cU6VWDtJ_jfFfWFxHivVQa198napGPkWvp1iMQme2Umo54UQPb89AB7HQEnujBsRqJKhR6/s1600/Kate+McLean+DSC_1960+gjetost+medium+BRIGHT.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiX7oVvVhAM_G0k2dRwqt3wHyeHS2vUW30eB3wVBh7slUqRDc3EVmUT9YQ9IA74JYqBDNycC0cU6VWDtJ_jfFfWFxHivVQa198napGPkWvp1iMQme2Umo54UQPb89AB7HQEnujBsRqJKhR6/s1600/Kate+McLean+DSC_1960+gjetost+medium+BRIGHT.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13.333333969116211px;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><i><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Gjetost, lemon honey crème fraiche, toasted almonds </span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><i><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">and chilled green grapes<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">“G<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">jetost is a Norwegian cheese. They slowly boil sheep's milk until it caramelizes. It’s a little weird because you expect it to be sweet but it's not. This dish is a palate cleanser and although it looks like a dessert, it is on our menu as a cheese course. The green grapes rather taste like a sorbet because there's so much sugar </span></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">in them when they freeze. </span></span></i><i><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">They’re fun, almost like eating a slushy.”</span></span></i></div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">James and I have been together two and a half years. We met
when he was a catering waiter and he's wonderful. Sometimes it's hard for him to deal with my
ridiculous hours and it's been rough at times, but he is very understanding. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The other thing I really enjoy is writing so perhaps that is
be something I might do more of in future. Of course time is always the issue,
but luckily, writing is something I can do alongside my job.</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />
<br />
<b>Who or what has been the greatest
influence on your life?</b><span style="background: white;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I think God has been my greatest influence. I'm not a model
Christian by any means, but I don't think I would be here without Him. I feel
like I've been following on a path. I didn't expect to do all this but it
didn't happen by accident. I didn't ever
quit because He helped me not to. He makes me want to be a better person and He
helps me deal with the stress. </span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />
<br />
<b>What advice would you give to someone
new to a restaurant kitchen?</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Don't give up, ask questions and work hard. That’s it. It really should be that simple. The kitchen can be a crazy place and you can
be very exposed and vulnerable, but still don't give up. I’ll admit though that
there were times I wanted to get fired because I simply refused to quit!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">How do you find, or seek to find, balance in
your life?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I don't know that I do. I try to look forward to little
things, I guess, like being with James. He is how I find balance because he has
so much love and he is such a great person to be around. Even though we don't get a lot of time together,
when I am with him I'm not thinking about work or stressing out, I'm balanced.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">What does Houston mean to you?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Houston means home, but it also means somewhere to explore.
I'm crazy about exploring the city. We like to walk around different areas,
like Montrose or Downtown. Sometimes
we’ll hear about really cool places and we’ll go check them out.</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />
<br />
<b>Where is your happy place in Houston?<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">On the 59, when you take the spur-road exit towards Downtown,
there is the best view of the Houston skyline. That is my happy place because
it means I'm almost home and it means that I’m in Houston. Sadly, it’s hard to
get a photograph of it because you're driving on a two-lane highway!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">What is your favorite restaurant?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">This probably sounds annoying but my favorite place to eat
and drink has to be our apartment. I love being home with James, eating with
friends and having dinner parties in the courtyard.</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />
<br />
<b>What is your Houston secret?<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I can't tell you exactly where it is but just off I-10,
hidden back in that little area by Target near Downtown, there's an artists’
work-yard. There are ten or twelve huge
presidents’ head statues. You can drive round
and see them all. It's really cool. </span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />
<br />
<b>If you could change one thing about
Houston…<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I would move the ocean closer because I love the beach. And I
think it would be have to be ocean rather than the Gulf. The Gulf’s okay but it's not the same, so perhaps
it could be the Caribbean Sea, but with the waves from the Pacific. That would
be perfect.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<i><span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">For more information about dining at Tony’s, <a href="http://tonyshouston.com/">click here.</a> <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
</div>
Caroline Leechhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00577580003627430304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9095899061562578820.post-58506817188323113142014-03-28T10:00:00.000-05:002014-03-28T10:00:01.370-05:00Nancy Smith<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAX4wN83WlXoWkssx0naHgBYlyJlNaVEcsE9WzfHdXAI749N2cCCYAvq0usFhF0-GAHyiJzG8mbHJe4AcdZBaEONQfvc8L9fKusoH5cCrBXFMTlEuB9J6siPAuc-L5xhoiAMga9w6J-uuU/s1600/Nancy+Smith+-+7407+-+main+portrait.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAX4wN83WlXoWkssx0naHgBYlyJlNaVEcsE9WzfHdXAI749N2cCCYAvq0usFhF0-GAHyiJzG8mbHJe4AcdZBaEONQfvc8L9fKusoH5cCrBXFMTlEuB9J6siPAuc-L5xhoiAMga9w6J-uuU/s1600/Nancy+Smith+-+7407+-+main+portrait.jpg" height="266" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Nancy Smith was a
stay-at-home mom then a teacher, a hospital volunteer and a full- time hospital
employee when she decided to follow her calling and retrain as a hospital
chaplain. She was the chaplain at <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Memorial</st1:placename>
<st1:placename w:st="on">Hermann</st1:placename> <st1:placename w:st="on">Memorial</st1:placename>
<st1:placetype w:st="on">City</st1:placetype> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Hospital</st1:placetype></st1:place>
for almost a decade. She was ordained as
a Baptist minister in 1998 but through her studies and her work in multi-faith
situations, she moved beyond the confines of the church to work in spiritual
healing in its widest sense. She has been married to Joe since 1967 and has two
children, Jennifer and Michael and two grandchildren, Ben and Clare.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">What’s your story, <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Nancy</st1:place></st1:city>?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I
am a fourth generation Houstonian and I feel like I have followed a thread of
learning my whole life. One of my great-grandparents on my father’s side
traveled to <st1:state w:st="on">Kansas</st1:state> in a covered wagon as a
child and then came to <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Houston</st1:place></st1:city>.
She had one child and after she was divorced, she became the Dean of Jeff Davis
High School even though she hadn't had a college education. When she retired, she went to the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">University</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Houston</st1:placename></st1:place> even though she was in her late
seventies. So to me being a lifelong learner is something that has always been
in my family and I just never thought of it as unusual. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">My
own path was really chosen for me, I wasn't the one who chose it. Like all of
us, we have circumstances that happen which turn out to be fortuitous. I had
grown up the granddaughter of a physician and though I thought I might be a
nurse – I would have been Nurse Nancy! – I actually majored in education. I was a stay-at-home mom until the mid-1980s doing
all sorts of volunteer work with the kids like scouting and with the
church. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I
went back into teaching when there was a bad economic turn and my husband was
struggling to hold on to his real estate business, but I soon realized what I
wanted to do was work for MD Anderson, the cancer hospital here in
Houston. I had been volunteering there
for many years and had just spent two weeks as a summer camp counselor at Camp Star
Trails with MD Anderson kids who were being treated for cancer. It was just a
fabulous experience and the spirit of MD Anderson just called me. So I resigned from my teaching job and was
lucky enough to get a job there as a Patient Care Coordinator. We would meet a new
patient when they first arrived, escort them around and show them the ropes. We
were there to help them and to walk alongside them throughout their time in the
hospital. So I got to meet so many well people whose bodies were not so well,
and it seemed to me like the person kept getting “weller and weller"! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I
realized then that we are all on such a spiritual journey. It had broadened my
life so much to see people who had come from all over the world, patients and healthcare
professionals, people who had taken such different paths from mine. One time I
looked up at a Code Team – the team that comes from all over the hospital to
perform CPR – and of this team there was not one face that was the same color
as the one next to it, or even from the same religious tradition. The sense of strong human spirit there
totally amazed me, So I decided that I really wanted to support people's
spirituality as they go through life. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">To
me, religion is humankind's way of making sense of life and the spirit which
provides it so I began going to seminary at night after I worked all day. My
sweet family didn't mind. I would get up at 4am and write my papers for my next
class that night and a kind woman at work would type them for me. I took three years of seminary over ten years
and I just knew that there was a thread for me to keep following. I could see it
in the scriptures I was reading or in whatever theology I was studying and I
could see it come to life in people. It sent me on a journey that went deeper
into the church and then it took me away from the church again. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I
struggled with the church as an institutional structure and the way that people
believe in literalism. It seemed to me that for them faith became such a
limiting factor. Take healing, for
example since that’s what I was all about.
In the Bible there are stories of healings. You can take them literally
and it won't ever apply to your life because you can't really believe that
could happen to you. But what if you see the metaphorical ways that healing
happens, like the concept of resurrection?
When you see over and over again people being borne up from the ashes of
what they have experienced, you realize that if you believe it too literally,
it keeps the truth of it at a distance. It was good for me not only to intellectualize
all this but also to integrate what I was learning with what I was experiencing
at MD Anderson. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I have
had people say to me, "So, what <i>are </i>you?" Well, I went to four different seminaries. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">I
graduated from the Houston Graduate School of Theology, which is a Quaker
seminary, because it's here in </span><st1:city style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;" w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Houston</st1:place></st1:city><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">.
I couldn't pick up and go to another location because my family was here and my
job was here. I also took lots of classes at Perkins, the Methodist seminary
and even at the Catholic seminary. I actually
took one class at Houston Baptist University but discovered that my male peers
were not open to women and it felt very oppressive, maybe not from the
professors, but from certainly the young men, so that wasn't for me.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">My
husband and I belonged to a moderate, smaller <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Baptist</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Church</st1:placetype></st1:place>
and there was a wonderful pastor there who believed, as I did, that women could
do anything men could do and in the Bible when it said that women don't teach
it was more a cultural thing. In 1998, when I was ready to be ordained, he led
the church through a study and put me before the church so they could ask about
my calling. When they voted and only four
people voted against me from a membership of around 120. I was so indebted to that beautiful
congregation for doing that, but still, four people did leave the church over
it. I know though that it wasn't just
good for me, it was good for the church too!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">By
that time, I was already a practicing chaplain having taken two years of
clinical pastoral education. I worked at CanCare and then took on a full-time
ministry at <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Memorial</st1:placename>
<st1:placename w:st="on">Hermann</st1:placename> <st1:placename w:st="on">Memorial</st1:placename>
<st1:placetype w:st="on">City</st1:placetype> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Hospital</st1:placetype></st1:place>
which was a wonderful experience. A
licensed professional counselor has to go through lots of supervision and if my
supervisor, Leanne Rathbun, were in Houston I would nominate her as an
Inspiring Houston Woman too. Leanne gave me permission to be messy inside
because at that time I felt I knew a lot less than I had known before, and I
know even less now than I have ever known. You have all those absolute certainties
about life when you're young, in your teens and 20s, but then you start
thinking, “Wait, there's more!” That's
what happened to my religion. I could see that there was more and I really
wanted little girls in the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Baptist</st1:placename>
<st1:placetype w:st="on">Church</st1:placetype></st1:place> to know that they could
do anything. In fact I wanted little girls everywhere to know that if they
follow what's inside, they can “Go for it!” That for me is what it's all about and
teaching and healing are all part of the same thing, part of becoming who you really
are.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">It
has felt rather like coming out of the closet in a way for me because I have
hidden it from some people I knew in my previous life as a hospital chaplain or
as a church person, because I don't want to disappoint them. But I have moved
on and I think I would never call myself a Christian in the traditional
exclusive sense anymore because I appreciate that there are different paths of
different streams which all come off the same river. I’ve worked out that I
can’t use anymore the religious language I used to use, because I know that
there is more to it. I’m not saying that
I go through a cafeteria line and choose only what I want, but I feel that we
can really expand each other’s understanding of where we came from and where we
are going just by listening to each other.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqJJslNNdPaELqjIYwJ2qY6dFamRzve50zQqYqwy0HSYFiah6MPdVlIjvAgRij8wziUKhLJR_597zF-hdVyPCzaWNUROSfZWwXp9P8iW2rX602ZIMStkSGEf97WiJ_HYPUm1TxQ_iBHxhU/s1600/Quilt.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqJJslNNdPaELqjIYwJ2qY6dFamRzve50zQqYqwy0HSYFiah6MPdVlIjvAgRij8wziUKhLJR_597zF-hdVyPCzaWNUROSfZWwXp9P8iW2rX602ZIMStkSGEf97WiJ_HYPUm1TxQ_iBHxhU/s1600/Quilt.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">That
stood me in good stead in the hospital community because a hospital is a
microcosm of the world which is why I love it, and the hospital chapel is not a
Christian chapel, it is a place for all to go to. I was the lead chaplain at <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Memorial</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">City</st1:placetype></st1:place>
for almost ten years and in our chapel there was a symbol. It was a cross. Now, many of my friends were Jewish, the
patients and the volunteers were Jewish and I became very close with a rabbi
who is in our area, and they would come and light the Hanukkah candles. At the time of the Jewish high holy days in
September, I wanted to cover that particular symbol so that they could come into
the chapel and maybe have a service there. So I went to Hansen Galleries and
they gave me a beautiful piece of fabric, a tapestry that was so colorful it looked
like a stained glass window. I hung that up over the cross but when it came
time to take it down and return it to Hansen Galleries, I felt so uncomfortable
about it. It felt like we were putting up Aunty Mable’s picture on the wall
just because Uncle Henry was coming to visit, only to take it down again when
he left. I thought this doesn’t feel
right. We are acting as if we are the owners of this house and we are not. So I
went to my supervisor and we agreed to take down the Christian symbol. Of course, a lot of people were not happy but
another chaplain and I worked with a quilter in <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Pennsylvania</st1:place></st1:state> who made us a beautiful quilt
to hang there instead. She told us about
why she had put this thread here and that thread there, it was all about the
story of life’s journey.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span> </div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjl0DQS-kF7g2IbtoseOgCIMXf5c17IwTsLn5bqS1DCyl-ZEcY3r6hV8GwmAtbeGNN_ngBxh4YQJ4V8raodeJZBnBVt-VPCZMFlYX2ff5OgGMpLAgmFDR04QzbohmFMLs2SIL65G741sLwZ/s1600/Faces+of+Faith.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjl0DQS-kF7g2IbtoseOgCIMXf5c17IwTsLn5bqS1DCyl-ZEcY3r6hV8GwmAtbeGNN_ngBxh4YQJ4V8raodeJZBnBVt-VPCZMFlYX2ff5OgGMpLAgmFDR04QzbohmFMLs2SIL65G741sLwZ/s1600/Faces+of+Faith.jpg" height="400" width="286" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Faces of Faith - by Ed Hankey</span></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">We
had interfaith services in the chapel and one year when all of the Festivals of
Light – Hanukkah, Christmas, Diwali and Ramadan – all overlapped we organized </span><i style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Sharing the Light of our Faith</i><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">. People from different faiths brought pictures
and other things to hang outside the chapel and I loved it. Later the volunteers gave us the gift of a
sculpture for the niche outside our chapel and I helped design it. We called it </span><i style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Faces of Faith</i><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">, a group of men, women and children of different
faiths at different ages. It’s still
there although there is a new chapel.</span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I
retired in 2006 because my mother was very ill, so I got to spend some time
with my mother at the end of her life and I wouldn't take anything for
that. I didn't go back to the hospital
after she died because my father developed Alzheimer's. That was another little turn in the road, but
you know, all along the way, while you are following that thread, I think there
is such a responsibility to tell your own truth. Though
you don't want to squash anybody else's truth, I truly believe that there is a
built-in salvific force that our creator has put inside us which moves us
towards whoever we are. I don't want to put a name to it. Most people call that creator God but to me, that's
a limiting word. Theologian Paul Tillich said that it’s the ‘ground of all being’ and I believe that. I believe it's more
than religious language can describe. I wouldn't deny my Christian faith
because of course it brought me to where I am. I believe it all but I also believe
there’s more.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">What advice would you
give to someone new to spiritual healing?</span></b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Well,
whether it’s someone new to teaching or healing, in healthcare, as a mom or as
a friend, I would say that you must listen to that still small voice inside,
and if something out there isn't congruent with your experiences don't just
jump into it. Keep on listening to yourself and to your experience because each
of our experiences, every one of them good or bad, is part of our wholeness.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Who or what has been
the greatest influence on your life?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">My
husband, Joe, has been my greatest enabler in the best sense of the word. His
acceptance and encouragement of my evolution is life giving. There have been other people too, all along
the way, who have influenced me and I lament that I am not in touch with every
one of those people still. But we were there for each other, influenced each
other and inspired each other even if it was only for that one day or even that
one hour. There were my friends that I
ran with, there was my great friend Polly, there were people I worked with at
MD Anderson, and there were the patients too.
And there’s Rabbi Rabinowitz and my nephew Blaine who has cerebral
palsy. Really, there are so many of
them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">How do you find, or
seek to find, balance in your life?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">When
I was younger I ran marathons and even now my physical fitness is very
important to me. So I go over to Trotter
YMCA every morning and do my exercises.
That gives my day structure, and I experience the YMCA as a place of
great diversity and faithfulness. I know
lots of lovely groups of people over there.
We have a birthday club and on Sundays I go to what I call ‘yoga
church’. It's wonderful! It's like a ritual for me and it keeps me
grounded. There are people in that class from all over the world and it feels just
like a beautiful little church for me, with all the people from different
places. I used to be on the board there
years ago when the Y set up a Women’s Center because many women don't want to
exercise with other people, especially the Muslim women because they have to be
dressed. So in the Women's Center they don't have to be. It's a separate space,
smaller than the big one and I thought that was just very understanding and
empathic, especially for a Christian organization.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQNaXon7VFE9PY5yw4DtV78R3SvulKnVWurDEzKGNIdJdF3I0Gkxo2Pt9SXUlY4sTFlPIzDceV6Ght1rJ6jdVfqcxWP_SpqYe_S_phKcEsz5XvZ7FWvVVPCzK2cqZsX2TmhSyZS20Cd2iZ/s1600/Jerusalem+YMCA+by+Ron+Peled.jpg" height="216" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="Jerusalem International YMCA, photo by Ron Peled" width="320" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Jerusalem International YMCA</i></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQNaXon7VFE9PY5yw4DtV78R3SvulKnVWurDEzKGNIdJdF3I0Gkxo2Pt9SXUlY4sTFlPIzDceV6Ght1rJ6jdVfqcxWP_SpqYe_S_phKcEsz5XvZ7FWvVVPCzK2cqZsX2TmhSyZS20Cd2iZ/s1600/Jerusalem+YMCA+by+Ron+Peled.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: black;"></span></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">I
traveled to </span><st1:country-region style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;" w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Israel</st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">
in November and it was so good. We stayed in </span><st1:city style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;" w:st="on">Jerusalem</st1:city><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">
in a hotel called the </span><st1:place style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;" w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">King</st1:placename>
<st1:placename w:st="on">David</st1:placename> <st1:placename w:st="on">Hotel</st1:placename></st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">
which was absolutely fabulous. Right
across the street was a YMCA housed in a historic building and when you walk
in, their mission statement is there on the wall and it says we are a place of
peace amidst a time of religious diversity.
It was special to me to come across that.</span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsp_LiE-pBjRmQHpRBF5gKGRueqyX2ilnq78-q9CGeSmee_fAAgWNq5hwysT1xxjfEIecG6PcOUWf-n2c0rIztRD3-_jZd-yqZ3X51sGzqGOMLqss7w0wHkt7jgdWlv3CkSeUfDUTabUr7/s1600/YMCA+Jerusalem+-+photo+by+Ron+Peled.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: black;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsp_LiE-pBjRmQHpRBF5gKGRueqyX2ilnq78-q9CGeSmee_fAAgWNq5hwysT1xxjfEIecG6PcOUWf-n2c0rIztRD3-_jZd-yqZ3X51sGzqGOMLqss7w0wHkt7jgdWlv3CkSeUfDUTabUr7/s1600/YMCA+Jerusalem+-+photo+by+Ron+Peled.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">What does <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Houston</st1:place></st1:city> mean to you?</span></b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">It's
a whole different city than it was. The little house I grew up in is long gone. It was on <st1:street w:st="on"><st1:address w:st="on">Norfolk Street</st1:address></st1:street> and now it’s under <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Greenway</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Plaza</st1:placetype></st1:place>!
Then we moved out to Briargrove when that was the furthest you could
go. I love when I go to the Heights
because that's where my father's family originated and I love going over to the
Montrose area because that's where my mother's family came from. I see places that
aren't even there anymore, but they're so real in my mind. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Where is your happy
place in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Houston</st1:place></st1:city>?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">On
my patio. On a pretty day I just sit tight there and wherever I look I see
green in any direction. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">What is your favorite
restaurant?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">It’s
Pondicheri. I love the big breakfast plate because I love the way they balance
their tastes. Another place I love is a neighborhood restaurant called Joyce's which
has been here forever and ever. It used to be that we would go in there and I
would think it was full of old people, and of course, now I'm there! Anyway
it's a lovely little retro seafood place. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">What is your <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Houston</st1:place></st1:city> secret?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">One place I love is full of secrets. <st1:placename w:st="on">Glenwood</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Cemetery</st1:placetype>
was, I believe, the first planned public garden in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Houston</st1:place></st1:city>. People in the 1800s went there for
picnics and it is filled with famous and infamous Houstonians and world class
sculpture. The monthly tours led by Jim Parsons are really fun and are rich
with history and gossip.</span><b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">If you could change
one thing about <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Houston</st1:city></st1:place>…<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I
love the vitality of Houston and I love the diversity, but if there's anything
I'd change it would be that we could see each other's ‘otherness’ more readily
and be more accepting of it. We should
embrace it more than being afraid of it. I love the things that are organized
to foster diversity like the festivals in Downtown.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I
also think that in this city it is too easy to become isolated. We go to work and
we come home and stay there. So I think we all need to make an effort to get out
there and meet more people. I would certainly change that about myself.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><i>Nancy Smith was nominated as an Inspiring Houston Woman by <a href="http://www.inspiringhoustonwomen.com/2013/10/jennifer-enos.html">Jennifer Enos</a></i></span></div>
Caroline Leechhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00577580003627430304noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9095899061562578820.post-58084509261403199202014-03-14T09:00:00.000-05:002014-03-14T12:27:12.650-05:00Rebecca Richards-Kortum<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXokqWuYbAX6SxmDb9mXGs7eHfkz3azDeQFx1m7xhrP_VGaFw9JnFhairKvK5a7hHR3ekS0VbHSURJMSVDjigIhrQvoWFBLpQc_COaAbfset9n6CxXpAXu_PpHuiZK7knlPW7GmbgzkakQ/s1600/499c1c46-8af8-4c15-a3fb-2631e65cc654.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXokqWuYbAX6SxmDb9mXGs7eHfkz3azDeQFx1m7xhrP_VGaFw9JnFhairKvK5a7hHR3ekS0VbHSURJMSVDjigIhrQvoWFBLpQc_COaAbfset9n6CxXpAXu_PpHuiZK7knlPW7GmbgzkakQ/s1600/499c1c46-8af8-4c15-a3fb-2631e65cc654.jpg" height="400" title="Photo courtesy of Rice University" width="263" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><i>Rebecca
Richards-Kortum is Professor of Bioengineering at Rice University. She is the co-founder of </i>Beyond Traditional
Borders<i> (BTB), a program which challenges undergraduate students to create
affordable technologies for use primarily in Third World countries. Together with her colleague Maria Oden, she
was last year awarded the prestigious Lemelson-MIT Prize and they donated the
$100,000 check to the hospital in Africa which inspired the BTB program. She lives in Houston with her husband,
Philip, and their six children.</i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />
<b><br /></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><b>What’s your story, Rebecca?<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I'm on the faculty of Bioengineering at Rice University and I
focus primarily on two areas. I work on creating technologies for low-resource
settings, primarily with a focus on pediatrics, improving child health and
improving maternal health. I also have
other projects which focus on early cancer screening and diagnosis focusing
mainly on cervical cancer, head and neck cancer and esophageal cancer. I've
been doing cancer imaging reading my whole career, but it was really in the last
seven years that I've come to focus on cancer screening in low-resource
settings in developing countries. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">That means really thinking about how you reduce the cost of
screening so that it is affordable for the vast majority of the world at risk
from the kind of cancers we deal with so that people can have access to early screening,
not just to palliative care when they develop stage four cancer.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I originally studied medical physics and then switched to
engineering when I got my first faculty job, but they are similar in many ways,
math and science, with a design-oriented focus.
Biomedical engineering does tend to have more women than, say, mechanical
or electrical engineer. When I started
teaching electrical engineering, maybe 10% of the students in my cost were
women, but now I’m in biomedical engineering, it's closer to 50-50. In Global Health it’s closer to 90% women
which on the one hand is wonderful but on the other hand, it pisses me
off! Is it really just our problem to
deal with poverty and social injustice and making the world a better place? I
think we need more balance on both sides. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Why
do you do what you do?</span></b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />
<span style="background: white;">In 2005, I went to Malawi and met a really
unbelievable pediatrician, Dr Elizabeth Molyneux, who has been in Malawi her
whole career. She was the one who really inspired me to think about how we
could get undergraduate students to look at new at ways to address needs in the
hospital nursery, especially for premature babies.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="background: white;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="background: white;">From that meeting, my partner Maria Oden and I
created Beyond Traditional Borders, which is a minor in Global Health Technologies
where we bring students from all over campus – humanities and social sciences
as well as engineering and science – and we give them real design challenges. They
start with an introductory eight-week design project and then a one-semester
project and then a whole year. After each of those projects they have the
opportunity to apply for a summer internship where they take the thing that
they have created to the place which had originally proposed the challenge for
them to solve. During these internships, they get wonderful feedback and although
most of the time it's “You need to change this many things before it's useful
to us”, for the students it's incredibly motivating. They get to go and experience first-hand the real
challenges that they've only learned about it in a classroom setting. When they come back, they are so motivated
they will often do independent study work to further their technology to get it
to the point where it actually can be used clinically.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">For example, premature babies often have
breathing difficulties. Here in Houston,
it would easily be treated with technology called CPAP – continuous positive
air pressure. It’s very simple, if you
think of a baby's lungs as a balloon. In our lungs we have <i>surfactant</i> which helps the balloon of our lungs stay inflated but
with premature babies they lack <i>surfactant</i>
so when they breathe the lungs collapse. Every breath for them is like that
first puff into a balloon and they get exhausted just by breathing. With CPAP, you
just put little silicone rubber prongs into the baby’s nose and the machine blows
in a mix of air and oxygen so that when the baby breathes, instead of the
balloon collapsing, it stays open and the hard work of breathing is greatly
reduced. For most premature babies, if
they are on CPAP for a week or two they develop surfactant and are fine, but if
they don't have access to a CPAP machine, the mortality rate is as high as 75%.
<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj227Fbg2VZpDDNEtkNbCmqmtzjl8Ky84Zhs7WvMJdmpJdlFXnRpJ-Ri5JKN7z3BPTbUPoJIw1nC49kMtjsT9oiSXVfThImAnEL3B5GrkNB83Bsqocr0Vi5MqxlsAfMFTiKlPsZr77wION4/s1600/bcpap.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj227Fbg2VZpDDNEtkNbCmqmtzjl8Ky84Zhs7WvMJdmpJdlFXnRpJ-Ri5JKN7z3BPTbUPoJIw1nC49kMtjsT9oiSXVfThImAnEL3B5GrkNB83Bsqocr0Vi5MqxlsAfMFTiKlPsZr77wION4/s1600/bcpap.jpg" height="175" title="Photo courtesy of Rice 360º" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The challenge that Dr Molyneux gave us was to develop an
affordable CPAP machine. Here in the US, the cheapest CPAP machine will cost
you around $6,000 which might well have been $6 million for her in Malawi
because it was just not affordable. In response to this problem, our 2010 team of
students developed a prototype which delivered airflow and pressure comparable
to the one they use at Texas Children's Hospital. But our machine was made with
fish aquarium pumps and cost only $150!</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">
</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Since then we have been able to prove that it does improve
survival.</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Mortality rates went from 75%
down to 35%, which is comparable to the rates in the United States when CPAP
was first introduced.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Now we are working to roll it out across the whole country
and I am working to put together a complementary package of technologies that
will do all the things that babies need – keeping them warm and hydrated, keeping their
glucose levels where they need to be and, if they have jaundice, treating them
with phototherapy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">When we have a project we think will be successful, we make
the first few prototypes in our lab so it can be taken for clinical evaluation. We work with colleagues at a wonderful
industrial design firm called 3rd Stone Design who have helped us find
appropriate manufacturing partners to bring the CPAP device to market. We are also in very early conversations with some
multinational corporations that have the capability to undertake the
international distribution we would really need. So we are not there yet, but I
feel that we are on a really positive path to get to the point where it could
be more widely available. We also just received from grant from Glaxo Smith
Kline and Save the Children which will allow us to expand to Tanzania, Zambia
and South Africa, so we are super excited by that.</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />
</span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEhyphenhyphenlWtZA-FLEcAHxNdbvKhQK9GJxRqX6GJkHc6VlNHaqHQCGx9pGXlik1i5UQr1E-ouRXj0teFGZrzEJz6HlAttih9XJ_d3sD6OkFOaUJRJJz9-6w7OBVepIMAone3Z0Tpu9de2EvKZLT/s1600/0501-LEMELSON+-.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEhyphenhyphenlWtZA-FLEcAHxNdbvKhQK9GJxRqX6GJkHc6VlNHaqHQCGx9pGXlik1i5UQr1E-ouRXj0teFGZrzEJz6HlAttih9XJ_d3sD6OkFOaUJRJJz9-6w7OBVepIMAone3Z0Tpu9de2EvKZLT/s1600/0501-LEMELSON+-.jpg" height="306" title="Photo courtesy of Rice 360º" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div class="MsoNormal">
<strong><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 1pt none windowtext; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-weight: normal; padding: 0in;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Maria
Oden (left) and Rebecca Richards-Kortum </span></i></span></strong></div>
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<strong><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 1pt none windowtext; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-weight: normal; padding: 0in;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">at Rice University's Oshman Engineering
Design Kitchen in Houston</span></i></span></strong></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<strong><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 1pt none windowtext; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-weight: normal; padding: 0in;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Image by Jeff Fitlow</span></i></span></strong></div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="background: white;">Last year, Maria Oden and I were honored to
receive the Lemelson-MIT Prize for our work with Beyond Traditional
Boundaries. Even more wonderful was that
it came with the prize of $100,000 and we were able to donate that money to the
Central Hospital in Malawi, the hospital which inspired our program and the
CPAP project. When you go to the ward,
there aren't enough beds for the babies so it is not uncommon to find sixty
babies in twenty beds. There’s also not
enough space for moms so they can't be with their babies all the time and
that's not good for the moms or for the babies. We have been able to raise
another $275,000 in additional donations which will allow them to expand the
nursery which is very exciting. We have
the architectural plans and they will be breaking ground as soon as rainy
season is done. If everything goes
according to schedule, it will be completed in December 2014. That's going to
be a happy day - walking in see that!
And of course, the new nursery will have our CPAP machines and hopefully
many other technologies which will be created through our program.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4rk0rw8IM-y8ZXh66PhdIcA9V4VBdonkRx0i1wKUoOTNmC1GFwpQVUSDWmHMsobtrbjp7TWtKGZiNG0v-bbqWq-_y3jmpvBbOHDYTT6MPPX4d7t90_T77eZJ0gYWkaBSH4IqTwS6mnp4j/s1600/dayoneproject1.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img alt="" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4rk0rw8IM-y8ZXh66PhdIcA9V4VBdonkRx0i1wKUoOTNmC1GFwpQVUSDWmHMsobtrbjp7TWtKGZiNG0v-bbqWq-_y3jmpvBbOHDYTT6MPPX4d7t90_T77eZJ0gYWkaBSH4IqTwS6mnp4j/s1600/dayoneproject1.jpg" height="282" title="Photo courtesy of Rice 360º" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">What
is your Houston story?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I grew up in Nebraska and went to the University of Nebraska,
and then I went to MIT for graduate school and from there I went to University
of Texas in Austin where I was on the faculty of electrical-engineering and
also biomedical engineering. I had been there about 16 years when I moved to Rice
in Houston in 2005. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />
<span style="background: white;">The main reason to move was that there was no
medical school in Austin, at least there wasn't then. For people like me who do the kind of
translational research in which you are doing clinical evaluations of
technologies, it’s really difficult without a medical school so we would
be driving to Houston every week. When a
job opened up at Rice, it seemed like an amazing opportunity.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">At home I have six kids from aged twenty-two down
to aged four. I have three boys and
three girls. Alex and Max are both at college, one at Rice and one at the University
of Houston. They're both studying
engineering which is wonderful and makes me so happy! Then Zach is in high school and he wants to do
either architecture or civil engineering. Kate is in middle school, Elizabeth
is in second grade and finally, Margaret is in pre-school. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">We adopted Elizabeth and Margaret from Ethiopia. Margaret has
been with us since 2010 when she was six months old and Elizabeth was about to
turn seven when she came to us in 2012. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I love being a mom, it's just an amazing experience and when
you travel in Africa you see a lot of kids that don't have parents and who are living
in orphanages. We felt that we had more
room in our family so we looked at the various adoption programs and decided
that at that time Ethiopia was really the only program in Africa that we felt
was an ethical program. Maggie was only a baby and therefore had a very easy
transition, but when Elizabeth arrived with us, she had perhaps only twenty
words of English. She is so brave though and it's really amazing to think of
all the uncertainty that she's been through. She was born in an area of
Ethiopia where they speak <i>Wollayta</i>
and when she came into care she was placed in an orphanage in Addis Ababa where
they speak <i>Amharic. </i>She was only
about four at that time and there was only one other little girl who spoke the
same language as she did. Then she came home with us and had to learn yet
another completely new language.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />
<span style="background: white;">Adopting an older child is a very challenging but
wonderful experience and it's very different from adopting an infant. I thought
I knew that going in, but really I didn't really know it at all! Much as you
try to be prepared, you can't really know how challenging, but also how great,
it can be. I think Elizabeth is not yet fully settled but she has made so much
progress. The difference for her between starting first grade and starting
second grade was enormous. She's absorbing English day to day, but we have
hired wonderful Rice student teachers who come and work with her on her
homework every day after school. They
are just amazing with her and they have energy at that time of day that I
definitely do not have! <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Because of the work I do, I have to spend lot of time out in
the field with the student interns, looking for new challenges and checking
that they're doing the right thing as far as getting feedback on their
implementation. So I usually have to do four trips abroad each year – to Africa
to see them but also to meet with those in China involved in our cervical cancer
project and in India with our esophageal cancer project. So I do end up with too many frequent flyer
miles – that's such a badge of shame, right?</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">So I’m lucky to have beside me my husband Philip, who is
awesome. He's also at Rice in the
faculty of Psychology. We actually met living in the dorm in our freshman year
in Nebraska. I lived on the second floor and he lived on the third floor so
I've known him since I was 17. As our
careers progressed, Philip and I have made decisions together as much as
possible. When we moved to Austin, he had the opportunity to go back and get
his PhD which he really wanted to do and then he got his dream job in Austin so
it worked out pretty well. Then when we came here, he moved from industry into the
academic job at Rice. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Who or what has been
the greatest influence on your life?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Definitely it's my kids. Because so much of what I do is
focused on trying to help moms have the opportunity to bring their kids home,
and anybody who has had a baby knows how much you worry, being a mom myself has
definitely influenced the projects that I've chosen.</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />
<br />
<b>What advice would you give to someone
new to your field?<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I think the most important career advice is to think about
where you find meaning. If you are going to work hard, you want to work hard at
something that you find meaningful.
Worry less about what ladder you want to climb and just try to figure
where something you find meaningful can intersect with career opportunities. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">How do you find, or
seek to find, balance in your life?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">That's the eternal challenge, no? Well, we take it a day at the time. The
hardest thing about having six kids is making sure that they get enough
one-on-one time with you. Somebody is always having a crisis, so you have to
make sure that you're not getting so absorbed in that crisis that other people
are either being neglected or <i>feeling</i>
neglected. Even with the two older boys at college, you know they never really leave
you! That's a big myth, I think, but it's great that they still need you and want
your help. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">What time do I get for me? I get up early and that's my time.
I like to run and so I do that in the morning. I can't stay up late but I can
get up early. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">What does Houston
mean to you?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">What really drew me to Houston professionally was the Medical
Center and the opportunity to work with physicians that are providing patient
care and are also trying to bring the next set of advances in patient care.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />
<span style="background: white;">On a personal level, although Houston is the
fourth largest city in the US, where we live feels much more like a small
community. We really love it here.</span><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Where is your happy
place?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">My happy place has to be looking at an empty email
in-box. Some days I think all I do is answer email.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />
<b>What is your favorite restaurant?<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">My favorite place to eat in Houston has to be the taco truck
beside the Alabama Ice House – it has the best tacos in Houston! It might look a
little sketchy but it's very good.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />
<b>What is your Houston secret?<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I think Houston's best kept secrets are the public schools.
They are awesome. There are many very talented teachers, especially in the
magnet schools and high schools. We have had two kids at DeBakey High School,
and one at the High School for the Performing and Visual arts and both schools offer
really great experiences. Mr. Smith, who was until this year the band director
at Pershing Middle School, was an amazing resource and of course Mark Twain
Elementary is really an extraordinary school.</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />
<br />
<b>If you could change one thing about
Houston…<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I would make it Austin – but without the cedar! I do miss the
beauty of Austin. Houston is pretty in its own way, but it's not as pretty as
Austin.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
<br />
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<i><span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">For more
information about Rebecca’s work with Beyond Traditional Borders, visit the <a href="http://www.rice360.rice.edu/">Rice 360º website</a><o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
Caroline Leechhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00577580003627430304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9095899061562578820.post-67497508578326196872014-02-28T07:00:00.000-06:002014-02-28T07:29:04.957-06:00Deborah Markey<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkaoD6y_gXXKUjv8ZjSoqhXgpsEd_N4w6NGAA6yIZYmY5XQeUZNf7YlaVS-ne_v3JmHyxappPL010WqseNiptU8FzQDQ7aAontwsCDeFxqFuqLFFPo7aAlHt2a-Dqpqb5zbtJYJuUmYIX0/s1600/Debbie+Markey+-+1830+main+portrait.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: black;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkaoD6y_gXXKUjv8ZjSoqhXgpsEd_N4w6NGAA6yIZYmY5XQeUZNf7YlaVS-ne_v3JmHyxappPL010WqseNiptU8FzQDQ7aAontwsCDeFxqFuqLFFPo7aAlHt2a-Dqpqb5zbtJYJuUmYIX0/s1600/Debbie+Markey+-+1830+main+portrait.jpg" height="400" width="265" /></span></a></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Deborah Markey became
the Executive Director of the Houston Arboretum & Nature Center in
2005. She guided the 155-acre nature
sanctuary within Memorial Park </span></i><i><span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">through the dual devastation of Hurricane
Ike and the subsequent drought. </span></i><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> She has succeeded in increasing not only the
Arboretum’s financial capability, but also its impact on the Houston public
through its work with both children and adults.
A Houston native, she has served for many years as a community leader in
The Heights area of the city where she lives.
She has three children – Connor, Hunter and Madeline.</span></i></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">What’s your story, Debbie?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Going through two major natural disasters in
three years was something that I would never have expected to be dealing with
nine years ago when I joined the Houston Arboretum. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Hurricane Ike came along in 2008 and we know
the hurricane then brought on the drought. The reason is a scientific
phenomenon called El Niño and El Niña. El Niño is a period of time in the Gulf
of Mexico when the water is really warm and causes a lot of precipitation to
come off the Gulf across Texas. During
those years, Houston’s atmosphere dumps lots of water on us and it’s very
humid. When I came to the Arboretum in 2005, that's how it was. But Hurricane Ike cooled those waters and
switched the oscillation patterns from El Niño to become La Niña, a very strong
current which prevents any cold and wet weather coming from the north. It means if you looked at a weather pattern, you
would see cold fronts stopped as if at a barrier around Texas. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Generally, Houston has about 55 inches of rain
a year but in 2010 it was just 11 inches and in 2011 only 12 inches. Everyone
in Houston felt the drought and knew that less rain was falling than usual each
year, but it wasn't until 2012 that we all realized the enormous damage that the
hurricane followed by the drought had really done.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0Tr-izOEKf3DnPWvk_e67dWrsnp8IQ7MZUrhCzkzhbmk8rgSPc5XJm-9GM0JJSTUtgeYN_9mhn3awrSehFs0Zab_sDYErxiVWmyiMY2xUNKm8uaKenmyJoghyphenhyphenVJMpPeNLQziHcb8UpTIL/s1600/Arboretum+1865.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="color: black;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0Tr-izOEKf3DnPWvk_e67dWrsnp8IQ7MZUrhCzkzhbmk8rgSPc5XJm-9GM0JJSTUtgeYN_9mhn3awrSehFs0Zab_sDYErxiVWmyiMY2xUNKm8uaKenmyJoghyphenhyphenVJMpPeNLQziHcb8UpTIL/s1600/Arboretum+1865.JPG" height="400" width="265" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">During Hurricane Ike, we lost one thousand
trees. It was painful to see. These were
live trees, big trees, every walking trail was deeply blocked and there was no
power to the park. We had shut down on
Thursday night knowing the storm was coming, and when we came back to work on
Monday, it was way more devastating than we had expected it to be. To their credit, all my staff came ready to
clear the park. I had to laugh with them that this was the line in their job
descriptions which said “Will undertake other tasks as needed!” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Everyone joined in, even the office workers and
me. I put all the guys on chainsaw duty and all the girls on brush clearing. Luckily
my Conservation Director had made the decision on the Thursday to reserve a
backhoe to come after the weekend, otherwise we would never have got one. So the backhoe and operator arrived on
Tuesday to clamp and haul stuff for us.
Of course, I could not depend on the City of Houston to help because
they had so much else to do around the city, but we did have lots of people turn
up to volunteer through the week, and even more on the weekends, so we found a way
to do it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">We piled the stuff in the parking lot – huge
tree trunks and underbrush – and I had three 40-foot containers being emptied
three times a day! This was of course incurring huge haulage charges and I soon
discovered that the insurance would pay for none of it. The insurance covered damage to the building
– of which, luckily, there was very little – but covered none of the
forest. That took a long time for us to
recover from.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">It wasn’t until that week that I ever thought
of myself as a leader. I suddenly
realized that people were looking at me as if to say, “What should we do?” I understood then that there is a difference
between being a manager and being a leader. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">That was such a painful time, but it was worse
to watch the forest die over the following few years. Memorial Park, of which the Arboretum is a
part, is a population of trees planted 75 years ago all competing for the same
water. By August 2012, when you drove through
the park and looked at the tree line, you thought, “Wow, it looks like fall in
the park,” but then it hit you. That was not fall, that was death. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2RDCKicUF54bWIXeuqHpY1FKwxnNrdEDcbsZolUOq5dvLaugDsZ65PQYdNd1UFTD88T-xopVjx2eA5DgB5L8PnrmF-bUjg2j5-94IITQMNF8uq0UTrLmUuFZQ6NCCBhyzni8AFe6W9OPu/s1600/DSC_1846.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: black;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2RDCKicUF54bWIXeuqHpY1FKwxnNrdEDcbsZolUOq5dvLaugDsZ65PQYdNd1UFTD88T-xopVjx2eA5DgB5L8PnrmF-bUjg2j5-94IITQMNF8uq0UTrLmUuFZQ6NCCBhyzni8AFe6W9OPu/s1600/DSC_1846.JPG" height="400" width="265" /></span></a><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Then, of course, the wildfires at Bastrop
happened. The Houston Fire Department and the Texas Forest Service called us
all together to create a plan to be implemented in case of a forest fire in
Memorial Park. We had to clear our driveway back a certain number of feet so
that the fire department wouldn't get stuck if there was a fire in the park and
we had to clear a lot of acreage.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">We lost five thousand trees in the drought.
There was a 50% mortality rate across Memorial Park. But as one
of the park’s stewards, I get to help fix the problem. It's not an overnight
fix, of course, it's going to take millions of dollars and many years, but we
will do it because we have to and we will use the knowledge we have now to make
the park more sustainable.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Last year we went through a master-planning
process to raise money to restore the land, and raised about $700,000. The
restoration will cover the 155-acre forest sanctuary and also all of the
building work that needs to be done. For example, we only have 91 parking spaces
and that's not nearly enough. We're full every weekend and have to have parking
attendants to handle it. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Although it does make parking harder, I am very
proud of the work I have done to raise public awareness of the Arboretum in the
nine years I've been here. When I first
arrived, business for the Arboretum totaled $600,000, but now the total gross
revenue is $2.2 million. I’ve taken a small organization with a small footprint
and have grown it. We have homeschool programs and preschool programs. Our Summer
Camp which was half a day for six weeks and cost $85 a week is now all day for six
weeks and brings in $295 a week from each child. We have Winter Camp, Spring
Break Camp and we partner with lots of different folks to add a lot of other
programs too. We know many adults who want to be here, but how do you get the others
to come? You serve them wine and
cheese! Just recently, we had a very successful
Tapas on the Trail event with 250 people in the forest in the evening with
gourmet food. We also have a family event called ArBOOretum in October and that’s
very popular. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">So though we've done a great job of encouraging
people to come here, they don't necessarily see the devastation I see and they
still love coming here. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhi2W7D8_ON_rII6OL0sNeYrj7w6vvOGfz_5pqpDAZAQsMj_hakR3rkmlUc9DXFMB98DGkSyJzwl91Mrvd3BBDhGFs9daDO5Sp5cMEirIxNkGDT-S4Kg4GIgtGuHL7mlORLMqruzppBAp-/s1600/arboretum_1878.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: black;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhi2W7D8_ON_rII6OL0sNeYrj7w6vvOGfz_5pqpDAZAQsMj_hakR3rkmlUc9DXFMB98DGkSyJzwl91Mrvd3BBDhGFs9daDO5Sp5cMEirIxNkGDT-S4Kg4GIgtGuHL7mlORLMqruzppBAp-/s1600/arboretum_1878.jpg" height="200" width="640" /></span></a></div>
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<b><span style="background: white;">What’s
your Houston story?<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">I’m Houston born and bred, but because I went to
college at Texas A&M in College Station, I was ready to come home afterwards. But I've always thought that if I had going
to UT in Austin, I probably would never have left. I love Austin.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br />
<span style="background: white;">I was married for a long time and lived in the
Houston Heights and when I got divorced in 2002, I moved to the Woodlands
Heights, close to my children's schools.
I had a website development business which was great because I could
work from home so I could be there for the kids. I had a number of really great
jobs including working for a management consultant who was a Harvard MBA and ten
years working with her really helped me a lot. I was also very involved in the Houston
Heights Association. I was on the board and in charge of many projects within
the Heights including raising funds to renovate a neighborhood park called Donovan
Park.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">Although I didn't have any paid non-profit
experience, I wrote up my résumé listing all my skills and asked people I knew
to let me know if any suitable jobs came up. Then one day my son came home with
the book from Writers in the Schools on the front of which was his picture of a
turtle. I asked him where he had seen a turtle and, he said he’d seen it at the
Arboretum. Though I hadn’t been there myself for a few years, he had gone there
on a field trip. Within a couple of
months of that conversation, I was appointed Executive Director at the
Arboretum. It was an amazing coincidence!</span><br /><br />
</span><b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Who or what has been the greatest influence
on your life?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">My mom – I was the first from my family to go
to college and I was a bit miserable for the first couple of years. I was not
happy in my science-based course and I was struggling with my grades. I
remember coming home and saying to my mom that I was going to drop out, but she
wouldn’t let me. She said I was too
smart and I’d worked too many years to throw it away. Instead, she arranged for me to take an aptitude
test which found that I had an above-average business brain. My mom suggested that I go back to school and
change course to major in Business, so I did and it was like second nature to
me. It was really awesome.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHvElLEvOcYosMw1QbjihjTf6Wa8jcgb_LsNDPn_IFUkMx2d1jAGrpptOUK2jgud5VyZu_FVfpNVOTmeaD7Y63T9ATcHxsxZSOUeSgH9vru2Z0MRaKnavyswTmx858f9wKk2KO1FVq2PES/s1600/arboretum_1879.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHvElLEvOcYosMw1QbjihjTf6Wa8jcgb_LsNDPn_IFUkMx2d1jAGrpptOUK2jgud5VyZu_FVfpNVOTmeaD7Y63T9ATcHxsxZSOUeSgH9vru2Z0MRaKnavyswTmx858f9wKk2KO1FVq2PES/s1600/arboretum_1879.jpg" height="400" width="138" /></a><b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">What advice would you
give to someone new to running a non-profit?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">I'd say collaboration is the key to success and
also being open. Houston Mayor, Anise Parker, said recently in one of her
speeches that “collaboration is the new competition”. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">I am so lucky to be within an organization which
is part of the larger Houston picture, and to be one of the leaders working to
make Houston an amazing internationally-known city in which to live and work. People
think of us as having cowboy boots and pick-up trucks, with horses in the
backyard. They think we have no culture
but it's really not like that. Houston's a very diverse city. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">How do you find balance in your life?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">I like to find balance. I'm an avid outdoors
person and have to spend a lot of time outdoors to be happy. Exercising and keeping in shape are important
to me. Also my job is super fun so it's not like I don’t look forward to coming
to work. I'm good at not taking work home, so while I work a lot here and I do
work on the weekends if I need to, when I go home I have my own time in my house
with my wonderful dog and the one child I have left at home. Living in my
neighborhood is really awesome. We have
access to so many trails so I can bike up here at the weekend to check on
things and then I ride back home which is a great experience for me. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Balance is important, but in the greater scheme
of things, we are lucky that we are living in a time where we have so much that
other people in the world do not have. I'm very aware of the fact that we are
in the top 1% that has this amazing quality of life that other human beings
don't have.</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">What does Houston
mean to you?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Being part of a program called Leadership
Houston has really made me realize how much I love the city. Mayor Parker
recently came to the graduation ceremony of and said that when she was part of
the Leadership Houston program, she had no idea she was ever going to be the
mayor. I have watched her throughout her
career and she has done some amazing things in this city. She said that she always makes time to come
back for that event because any one of u</span><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">s could end up as mayor too. This is such an inspiring program. Mayor
Parker was a graduate from Class 12, I am in Class 30 and they are already
recruiting Class 34.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Also, in Houston, the spirit of philanthropy runs very deep.
So many men and women who have money because they made good in this town have
then given back to the city. Look at Bill White and what he achieved during his
time as mayor, for example. He rallied
his philanthropist friends and said, “I want to build a beautiful city park
near the George R Brown Convention Center and I want to get it done before I
leave office.” Few people realize how much collaborative work it took to
transform a series of dusty parking lots and private spaces into Discovery
Green, the most beautiful urban park space you've ever seen. Now this huge effort has moved on to
transform Buffalo Bayou Park as well. In
this city, there are so many people investing time, energy and money to create
real quality-of-life experiences for the people who live there.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Where is your happy
place in Houston?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">I think my favorite place is Buffalo Bayou
Park. I really enjoy spending time there, like this weekend when I took the
trail from my house which connects to the Buffalo Bayou Trail right at
Spaghetti Warehouse. It’s great to see
this renovated space and everyone on their own bikes or using the bike-share
program. There are skateb</span><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">oarders too and
even groups on Segways. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">What is your favorite
restaurant?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">My favorite place is a neighborhood restaurant
called The Glass Wall. It’s right down
the street from my house and has fond memories for me. When the power went off thanks to Hurricane
Ike, they accommodated half the neighborhood, so we have found a way to pay
them back. The bar is reserved for
people who live in the neighborhood and when we go in there, it's like <i>Cheers!</i> where everybody knows your name.
They serve great local food and wine,
and anywhere the bartender knows what you’ll have to drink before you even get
to your table is really a great place. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">There are so many good places to eat in Houston, it's hard to choose another one, but it would have to be The Grove on Discovery Green. The food is fantastic and the atmosphere’s incredible. If you have the chance to sit on the porch outside overlooking all the people that are using the grassy green space, it's really lovely.</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhG49mkICqQHxf4OqyLhdmXGfgpbJHsaYE2nDDHL3E5WK4nvDHiRglmR544TDhyphenhyphengPHTegXSuIdO49q7HGBMiikMWwRzywCRwbYi20vvjov0yaGVBXkdTa9wbkEpTy7JfC11xTeo1yCUo68/s1600/Arboretum_1858.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: black;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhG49mkICqQHxf4OqyLhdmXGfgpbJHsaYE2nDDHL3E5WK4nvDHiRglmR544TDhyphenhyphengPHTegXSuIdO49q7HGBMiikMWwRzywCRwbYi20vvjov0yaGVBXkdTa9wbkEpTy7JfC11xTeo1yCUo68/s1600/Arboretum_1858.JPG" height="400" width="266" /></span></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">What is your Houston secret?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">I would have to say that the Arboretum is the best
kept secret in the city and I would love to keep it for myself, but I do
realize that's probably not the best business model for an executive director
to have! I’ve met many people who say their favorite place in the whole of
Houston is the meadow pond, so it’s not only me that loves it here.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">If you could change
one thing about Houston…<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Mass transit – it's terrible that we don't have
it. It is embarrassing that we have a
city of this size and we are embracing the rubber tire model of getting around.
I do realize that though lots of people are trying to stop that being the case,
we're too far into it to make much change. I am disappointed that I have to
take my car to work every day but even the buses are just not an option for me
because the route would take me over ninety minutes each way.</span></div>
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<i><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">To find out more about the Houston Arboretum and
Nature Center,<a href="http://www.houstonarboretum.org/"> click here</a>.</span></i><i><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">For further information about Leadership Houston, <a href="http://www.leadershiphouston.org/">click here</a>.</span></i></div>
Caroline Leechhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00577580003627430304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9095899061562578820.post-45625898506776677582014-02-14T09:00:00.000-06:002014-02-14T09:51:12.156-06:00Amy Weiss<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwMut7DCJfmBLDGplzU9dPumivaPEGRxWVJ483y-5wHkApbVZfQt8v0mRyPDl7v7o49_f3ztoO0Lgja_1hKpx7HU9X0v4GwZmi1E0oS3JBl5-xHKZ468o50VYu2THjd4aEIyY6uJV1iEqh/s1600/DSC_1683+CROP+-+main+portrait.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwMut7DCJfmBLDGplzU9dPumivaPEGRxWVJ483y-5wHkApbVZfQt8v0mRyPDl7v7o49_f3ztoO0Lgja_1hKpx7HU9X0v4GwZmi1E0oS3JBl5-xHKZ468o50VYu2THjd4aEIyY6uJV1iEqh/s1600/DSC_1683+CROP+-+main+portrait.jpg" height="400" width="268" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Rabbi Amy Weiss is
the founder and executive director of Undies for Everyone, a non-profit
organization that distributes new underwear and socks to underprivileged
students in Houston’s school districts. She
founded the Initiative for Jewish Women and serves on the Independent Police
Oversight Board in Houston. She is the Director of Food and Nutrition for
Houston Hillel, the campus organization for Jewish students, where her husband
Rabbi Kenny Weiss is the executive director. She has two sons, Eli and Joshua.<br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">What’s your story,
Amy?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Ever since I was a child I wanted to have a house full of
people. As a rabbi, I meet so many
people who are new to Houston – we called them strays – and we welcome them
in. That’s just so fulfilling to me. I
became a rabbi to make Judaism more accessible, so it's not unusual for us to
have fifty people for Passover in our house every year. I love making people
happy and I love nurturing people. That's why I do all the cooking here at the
Hillel. For example every<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="aqj">Tuesday</span><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>and<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="aqj">Wednesday</span><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>we do lunches here for the
students. A friend of mine and I bake
cookies at the beginning of every semester and put them in the freezer so the
kids have homemade cookies for every lunch, because they should feel comforted
and nurtured. I guess that I treat
others like I would like to be treated.</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">Growing up in Dallas, I was very involved in my
youth group and was a song leader, playing the guitar all over Texas and Oklahoma
at conventions of hundreds of Jewish kids. After getting a degree in
advertising from the University of Texas, my first job was selling advertising,
but on the first day, literally the first day, I remember thinking this just
isn't right for me. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />
<span style="background: white;">Eventually I found myself involved with my
synagogue again and the rabbi there took me under his wing. He wanted me to become a rabbi and after
getting my Masters in Jewish Education, I began the rabbinic program at Hebrew
Union College in New York. On the last day of my first week, I met my husband Kenny
who was there leading a teen trip. He came to my house for dinner and we've
been together ever since. That was 1991. It seems like yesterday but at the
same time it just seems like so far away.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In 1995,
when we were living in Washington DC, our<span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background: white;"> </span></span><span style="background: white;">first
son Aaron was born prematurely and died. Then, after having trouble getting
pregnant again, we had Eli in 1997. When Eli was eight months old we
moved to Pennsylvania and since there nothing else to do I got pregnant again,
but I lost that one. I got pregnant again and in 1999, we had Joshua.
Aaron, Eli and Joshua – you can tell we're rabbis, we're so biblical!</span></span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">We moved to Houston in<span class="apple-converted-space"> 2001 </span>when Kenny got the
chance to apply for the job at the Houston Hillel. He just fell in love
with it, so we moved here a year later.</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Why do you do what
you do?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Losing our first son, Aaron, really changed me. When Eli and
Joshua were born, I figured if God is going to give me these children I’ve got
to do something with them, I have to be there for them. I can't be a
congregational rabbi and have two kids. Some people can do it but I can't. So I started the Initiative for Jewish Women
(IJW) and did that for seven years. I was programming for Jewish women, but the
truth of the matter is that there's a zillion things for Jewish women to do and
I after a while I found I couldn't differentiate myself. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">By 2008, I was also blogging for the Houston Chronicle’s
religion section and around October time, when everyone was doing endless holiday
toy drives for underprivileged children, a social worker said to me, “You know
what these kids really need? Underwear and socks!” So I blogged about it and people started dropping
things off here. I got a few hundred pairs
and I talked to Waste Management to get boxes. I pulled together a committee
and <i>Undies for Everyone</i> just sort of
grew and grew from there. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiN1lXxbPiXD1X6sCgvKxV04e4Cus-MhQBtK3Th8eAKx3PFEfY1Ku1g-HocylO1EeKntSHmSP9Y-3_zaWdM_rdUI3Vut6QLBymO-bqX2b1-q-XYVJDgRTy99yywKBwILyfnKndPbEA1grjs/s1600/undies+logo.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiN1lXxbPiXD1X6sCgvKxV04e4Cus-MhQBtK3Th8eAKx3PFEfY1Ku1g-HocylO1EeKntSHmSP9Y-3_zaWdM_rdUI3Vut6QLBymO-bqX2b1-q-XYVJDgRTy99yywKBwILyfnKndPbEA1grjs/s1600/undies+logo.gif" height="192" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Then last year, my dad died. So I stood back and re-evaluated
my life, and I thought, “You know, the Jewish ladies don't need me as much as
these kids need their tushies covered.” So I let the IJW go, and focused my
energy on Undies for Everyone. I got some friends, filled out the paperwork and
it is just unbelievable how fast it all developed. In our fourth year, we gave out 10,000 pairs
and this year we gave out somewhere between 33,000 and 38,000. We even had a
donation from the man whose family owns the company which supplies Target with
all the Disney and Marvel-type underwear.
They are Jewish so someone had given him our details and he sent us
43,000 pairs of underwear. Elyse, our board chair, and I flew to New York in
October to meet him, so now we have a relationship with him and another company
in New York. That's where we get the big stuff but also individual people or
schools have underwear drives, where they ask everyone to bring one packet.</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">There are two parts to our organization. Obviously our first
priority is about covering the kids who are disadvantaged, so there is the collection
and distribution of mass quantities of underwear, but we also offer <o:p></o:p></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">the opportunity to give to anyone who wants to do something for someone
else.</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Some people can write really large
checks or even medium-size checks, and other people can go buy one packet of
underwear.</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Either way, they will know
that they have changed someone's life and I think that changes their life too.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhob1eDRwWHwBYbchwzCTtIKQ4PItiocwTQPT3mS7zBKuZ034jKiWQAYn50TSX3Qv1MNsWRyVj3xymULsNGjz-a1R6zwCmBVYm3A70SI5KqCyg-AyYGzXrt6zk6bMgT9HjN6cJURtc0jNMy/s1600/DSC_1690+-+underwear+-+medium.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhob1eDRwWHwBYbchwzCTtIKQ4PItiocwTQPT3mS7zBKuZ034jKiWQAYn50TSX3Qv1MNsWRyVj3xymULsNGjz-a1R6zwCmBVYm3A70SI5KqCyg-AyYGzXrt6zk6bMgT9HjN6cJURtc0jNMy/s1600/DSC_1690+-+underwear+-+medium.jpg" height="266" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Our idea is also that we have to teach our kids how to give. A
parent can use Undies for Everyone as an opportunity to take a kid to the store
and say, “You have a whole drawer full of underwear and you take it for
granted. But there are kids out there that don't have any underwear at all, and
doesn’t most everyone deserve to have underwear?” Everyone can identify with
that. So let your kids pick a pack of
underwear to give to someone else and that's the start of teaching those kids
about being philanthropic and giving them the opportunity to repair the world.</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Once we have all these undies, we distribute them in a number
of ways. The City of Houston runs a Back-to-School event which pre-registers
25,000 kids in fifteen school districts. Each of them gets a wrist band which
gets them a backpack and supplies, vaccinations, uniforms and even haircuts. We, of course, give away underwear. I think 15,000 pairs went there and another 10,000
pairs went to Houston Independent School District nurses, not only for the elementary
schools where little kids have accidents but also to the middle school nurses who
really love it because teenage girls are not regular yet in their cycles. We
gave 3,000 to Fort Bend schools, 2,000 to Alief and to Waller and we will soon expand
into charter schools and places like that. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">For the future, we already have a trademark attorney and we
are looking to go national within a few years. You know, it's God's work. This
is not just about covering these kids’ privates, it is about dignity and
self-esteem. It represents so much more for them, it’s about being like
everyone else so they don’t have to worry about someone else finding out they
aren’t wearing any. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ7vEp0Yh9WjxXavQwUvBRCVwZheX0keePPg4P2jlqJoMqPaALvOV0oJUFkNh70c0vqLkW2mAgQ4Pt2d40RZN6fCARX8nwYKeVAo4llakeq9luyxX9lvj8tMUnuVpVfGJUeHr1zP4DaL95/s1600/PRO_IMG_1388944063_dc_comics_mezuzah_cases.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ7vEp0Yh9WjxXavQwUvBRCVwZheX0keePPg4P2jlqJoMqPaALvOV0oJUFkNh70c0vqLkW2mAgQ4Pt2d40RZN6fCARX8nwYKeVAo4llakeq9luyxX9lvj8tMUnuVpVfGJUeHr1zP4DaL95/s1600/PRO_IMG_1388944063_dc_comics_mezuzah_cases.jpg" height="320" style="cursor: move;" width="201" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEzqAbc9q143z_gyYsrqjvDDPvVLFeC1LV4_YDtBonBJWEuJle21WhLkgA6Z8UHyDComXw6kQBcpHpKYhFn2jss6fenfBHyZdeY_g5J0QLJ_UgCr_ROBhrGGP61bJl5d-ZThyphenhyphen0_zIYjn88/s1600/hello+kitty+mezuzah.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEzqAbc9q143z_gyYsrqjvDDPvVLFeC1LV4_YDtBonBJWEuJle21WhLkgA6Z8UHyDComXw6kQBcpHpKYhFn2jss6fenfBHyZdeY_g5J0QLJ_UgCr_ROBhrGGP61bJl5d-ZThyphenhyphen0_zIYjn88/s1600/hello+kitty+mezuzah.jpg" height="320" width="131" /></a><b><span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Is
there more to your story?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">I don't blog for the Chronicle anymore but I do make </span><i style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">mezuzahs</i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> out of Lego! And yes, that is
extraordinary, but I am all about making Judaism accessible! A </span><i style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">mezuzah</i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">
has a prayer in it and you put it on your door frame. When I was growing up, people only put up one
</span><i style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">mezuzah</i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">, but in traditional Judaism,
you're supposed to have one on every door in the house, except the bathroom and
the laundry room. So for people who normally wouldn't put a </span><i style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">mezuzah</i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> on their kid’s bedroom door,
here's this really cool thing, and since everybody loves Lego, you're giving
the kids an opportunity to connect. It's not scary, it's not old and it's not
weird. It’s just really cool!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />
<b>Who or what has been the greatest
influence on your life?<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">It's really hard to say because there have been a lot of
people who have influenced me, but I think my husband is really the greatest
influence. He allows me every
opportunity to be successful. I worry a lot and it can be paralyzing and he
just doesn't let that happen. He doesn't let difficulties or worry stop him. He
will do anything to give me an opportunity to shine and he has just been the
best thing that ever happened to me. He’s an awesome, awesome guy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">What advice would you
give to someone <span style="background: white;">who sees a need in the community
and thinks they have something that can help fill that need</span>?<br />
</span></b><span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Go talk to lots of people and make sure that need isn't being
filled by someone else. If you want to
succeed and you want to make a difference, you have to know that you are doing
something different from all the many other non-profits in Houston. Otherwise
you are not going to get funded and you're not going to get people on board.
The other thing I would say is take Rice University's Leadership Institute for
Non-profit Executives course which has been phenomenal. It's a one year course
and I have met some of the greatest people. I've just loved it.</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />
<br />
<b>How do you find, or seek to find,
balance in your life?<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">You know I’ve given that a lot of thought and I don't think
there really is balance. My family comes first and everything else comes after.
There are always things to do, including this job, so that I can be there for
the kids and for Kenny, because the home is the center of it. Everything else
just fills in around it. I have also just accepted that I'm not going to be
able to do everything fabulously.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />
<b>What does Houston mean to you?<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">It is so clichéd, but I think Houston is the city of
opportunity. It is a really diverse city, in thinking and believing, with lots
of different religions, but ultimately so many people do so much work for
Houston to make it a better place. It's just amazing.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />
<b>Where is your happy place in Houston?<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">It’s the swing on our front lawn at home. It hangs from a
tree and sometimes Kenny and I will sit there and just hang out, throwing a
ball for the dog. But really, wherever I am, if I have my family and my friends
near, I'm okay. As long as the food's good!</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />
<br />
<b>What is your favorite place to eat?<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Our go-to place is India’s, on Richmond, which is really
good. It's from the 80s or the 70s, it has commercial carpet but the food is
great and the people are so nice. It’s so quiet, you can go<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="aqj">on Saturday</span><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>night with another couple and have a
conversation and some really good food.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">What is your Houston
secret?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The Chocolate Cinnamon Shake at Goode Company Taqueria! It's
not even a milkshake really, more like soft serve ice-cream. In fact, they don't
even serve it with a straw. I don't know if it's actually a kids’ thing though because
it has quite a cinnamon bite to it. It's awesome!</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />
<br />
<b>If you could change one thing about
Houston…<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The weather or the potholes! The weather because I'm not good
at sweating. And the potholes? I think the tire people go out at night to dig
them. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><i>For
more information about Amy’s work at Undies for Everyone, <a href="http://www.undiesforeveryone.org/">click here</a>. </i></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><i>To
see Amy’s Lego mezuzahs, <a href="http://jewdads.net/">click here</a>. </i></span></div>
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; mso-outline-level: 3; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><i>For more information about the Rice University <span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0in; text-decoration: none;">Leadership Institute for Nonprofit
Executives</span>, <a href="http://cpnl.rice.edu/Certificate_Programs.aspx">click here</a>.</i></span></div>
Caroline Leechhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00577580003627430304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9095899061562578820.post-85335974803795690392014-01-31T09:00:00.000-06:002014-01-31T12:39:37.486-06:00Anita Kruse<div class="MsoNormal">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiV_84h97NYCG8ZIrFtzamrFGhuAAicO0hw2N5E_BpFIWNzKZ-zBBL4blbH7GihBRvTIdaeuJ4NHB4ag07ObaPhxg9dh7FuXQjLbUdtZNyjuxCKsRAd5WjvwYUleEv0TOBr6tTK3W-xClpl/s1600/Anita+Kruse+-+main+portrait+1662.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiV_84h97NYCG8ZIrFtzamrFGhuAAicO0hw2N5E_BpFIWNzKZ-zBBL4blbH7GihBRvTIdaeuJ4NHB4ag07ObaPhxg9dh7FuXQjLbUdtZNyjuxCKsRAd5WjvwYUleEv0TOBr6tTK3W-xClpl/s1600/Anita+Kruse+-+main+portrait+1662.JPG" height="640" width="424" /></a></div>
<i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Anita Kruse trained
as a classical pianist and composer before becoming a singer/songwriter and has
performed her songs internationally. In
2006, Anita founded Purple Songs Can Fly, the first ever recording studio housed
within a pediatric oncology center and in it she helps children undergoing cancer
treatment create their own songs.
Working within Texas Children’s Cancer and Hematology Centers, Anita has
helped over six hundred young cancer patients and their siblings create, perform
and record their own music. Anita has also
made sure that these Purple Songs Can Fly – literally. The songs have travelled all over the world –
and beyond - on The Rolling Stones’ world tour, to the top of Mount Everest and
even into space. Thanks to Anita Kruse,
many very sick children have made their Purple Songs – and their hopes and
dreams – truly fly.</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">What’s your story,
Anita?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I
was born in Riverside, California. My father was a pilot in the Air Force so we
moved many times as I was growing up. It meant that I had a very interesting childhood.
I was fortunate to see other countries of the world, learning about other
people and other ways of living. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">My
mother was a pianist. She was amazing because, though she was a trained
pianist, she could play anything that she heard by ear. That always impressed
me because though I was naturally musical, it wasn’t my particular gift. So I
was around music a lot and of course because of my mother, I wanted to play the
piano too. Wherever we moved, she always
found the best teachers for me, but she was herself a great musical influence
on me. It was only much later in life
that I discovered that my father was also musical too, but he didn’t talk about
it very much. He’d played the cornet in his
high school and college bands, and I learned recently that he played in the
inaugural parade when Eisenhower became President. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I
got my degree in piano performance from the University of Connecticut and then
I went to the University of Michigan for graduate school. I studied with the incredible
pianist, Theodore Lettvin, and he was a great influence on me too. There’s a famous book called <i>The Great Pianists</i> and he was one of
them. I feel very fortunate that I got to spend time with him, to watch his
hands and learn from his wisdom. It was
during that time, when I was in my second year of my Master’s degree, that I also
decided to study composition. There was
a composer named Nicholas Thorne visiting the university on a year’s fellowship.
The first thing I wrote was for piano and saxophone and when I took it into my
composition lesson, Nick Thorne said, “Wow, Anita! I think you should keep
doing this!” S<span style="background: white;">o I didn't stop! It just felt
like I was just meant to do it. I had
never felt anything as powerful as the feeling of creating my own music and hearing
it come to fruition.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">At first, my composing was very classical, mainly
art songs for piano and voice. I worked with a soprano because I didn't think
of myself as a singer. I was always very
shy and very inward. I was happy to play
the piano in front of other people, but the idea of standing up to sing? No, I just couldn't do it! But I carried on writing songs which I would
sing only in my own little bubble until one day a friend heard me and said, “Anita,
you need to sing your own songs.” That
was many years ago and since then I've become more comfortable and less afraid,
but I truly understand when children are shy and not ready to sing out. That’s why I have made the Purple Songs Can
Fly studio very intimate and secure for them.
There’s no big audience and they can create something that doesn't hold
the same feeling of fear as live performance.</span><br />
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br />
<!--[endif]--><span style="background: white;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">What is the story
behind Purple Songs?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">For several years I came up to the Cancer Center here at
Texas Children’s Hospital (TCH) as a visiting artist. I performed piano and flute duets with a
wonderful flutist and friend, Jennifer Keeney.
The music was on the mellow side, and we used to setup in the central
waiting area where the music could be heard throughout the Cancer Center. The
patients and staff seemed to enjoy our music, so we were invited back to play every
couple of months.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">During that time, I was developing my own small studio at
home and I was also teaching piano and composition. I started taking my students into my studio to
record what they had written. One of my composition students wanted me to help
her write songs so she came in one day and I helped her write a song during her
lesson. So within that hour we wrote a song, recorded it, and I handed it to
her on the CD. Thinking about that and
also about my work at Texas Children’s, I suddenly saw an image of myself with
my own studio in the Cancer Center. I
called Carol Herron, the Director of the Arts in Medicine program at Texas Children's
and I told her about my idea. Carol already ran an incredibly extensive arts in
medicine program with many artists coming in to work with patients – visual
artists, creative writers, sculptors and musicians, but all the musicians were there
to <i>perform music</i>, not to <i>write music</i>. Carol didn’t think that
anyone had ever created a recording studio in a cancer center before, so I put
a proposal together, we met the director of the Cancer Center, Dr David
Poplack, and between us, we made it happen.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />
<span style="background: white;">At first, we didn't have a designated space. I
created a portable studio on a little computer desk with wheels that I could take
in-patient. It had a keyboard, a microphone and a laptop and I attached
monitors on Velcro. I even had a chair on it.
I was just like the Beverly Hillbillies with everything hanging off my
cart! <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Then I noticed that right behind the waiting area there were
three little phone booths that had been built years ago. Of course nobody used phone booths anymore
because they had cell phones so it had become an unused space. But those three little rooms were perfect for
me, so I raised money to renovate them into a studio and we painted them purple.
I have been obsessed with purple my whole life so I knew, as soon as I started
this, everything had to be purple. </span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="background: white;"><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhi4H4Bn15Vk-W1goawI3s3XBNWx7Y8o0iLunXHuFyz1ffH6cUSngYJUMM1XfLV1dQy0HdkF6pqr-V-qV37AZVQmBFs2wAeDGPePHVu7TJT4vT2HbRQ9OMarOhNoQae413ZlTAvMPqUbwRG/s1600/DSC_1679.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhi4H4Bn15Vk-W1goawI3s3XBNWx7Y8o0iLunXHuFyz1ffH6cUSngYJUMM1XfLV1dQy0HdkF6pqr-V-qV37AZVQmBFs2wAeDGPePHVu7TJT4vT2HbRQ9OMarOhNoQae413ZlTAvMPqUbwRG/s1600/DSC_1679.JPG" height="266" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The Purple Songs Can Fly studio at Texas Children's Hospital</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="background: white;">More recently, when they renovated the Cancer
Center they gave us a different, roomier space and anyone can come and take
part or just visit. Like everything else
in the Arts in Medicine program at TCH, it is completely open to any child who
wants to take part. We include information about Purple Songs in every new
patient handbook, the children might also hear about the studio from other patients,
from the nurses or see our flyer in the reception area. They can come and see the studio, and I ask them
if they want to write a song. I’m here
every weekday morning, but we can arrange a time in the afternoons as well. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="background: white;">Some children want to create an instrumental but
in general I start with the lyrics. Houston’s creative writing organization,
Writers in the Schools, has been involved in Texas Children's Cancer Center for
many years and its writers are amazing.
In fact, the very first Purple Song was a Writers in the Schools
collaboration. I help the children
create words, a beat, and we choose the sounds that they like. Some children,
once they have words and an underlying harmony, will start hearing a melody.
Some children hear a melody right away and I will ask them to sing it to me and
I will accompany it. It's different for every child, but even if they only sing
a fragment or have just a couple of words, I can hear where their voice would
naturally go.</span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="background: white;"><br /></span></span><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5u9VMLy06SyXacFIu3vYRtclc-eLJhfENaZY1bZvwmodUY75KKmnmMJ-C1D_MJah-V9Iwe3d2fPBIybC2ssPZthKSt1ixvp2siRxfxKqP6SGQjzwkR0GwKkGRFnap8rYjaAoJSOCYbtcy/s1600/DSC_1657.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="background-color: white; clear: right; display: inline !important; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5u9VMLy06SyXacFIu3vYRtclc-eLJhfENaZY1bZvwmodUY75KKmnmMJ-C1D_MJah-V9Iwe3d2fPBIybC2ssPZthKSt1ixvp2siRxfxKqP6SGQjzwkR0GwKkGRFnap8rYjaAoJSOCYbtcy/s1600/DSC_1657.JPG" height="320" width="212" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A Purple Songs CD signed <br />by Mick Jagger</span></i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">M</span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">ost </span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">of the songs are simply about things that the children want to share – things that make </span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">them happy or things they are thinking about, and they are often unrelated to their treatment. Many children have written songs to give to someone, perhaps to their mother or caregiver to say thank you. There have been many beautiful thank-you songs. One girl wrote a song to thank her karate teacher for giving her strength called 'Strong Heart, Strong Mind'. There have been a lot of songs about faith and about God and about angels, and for some reason, lots of songs about butterflies. One little girl wrote a song with the idea that her wishes attach themselves to butterflies and the butterflies then carry her wishes to God. We’ve had so many really beautiful ideas like that.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span>
<br />
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</div>
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="background: white;"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">There was a wonderful boy, Jonathan, who was about seven years
old and wrote a song called, ‘I Hate Shots’.
He also</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">
really loved to make origami and wanted to make cranes for me, so I got him
some purple origami paper and he made the cranes that I included in all of the
framed CDs.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">It’s wonderful to record the children singing because most
have never heard their voice recorded before. They take their song home on a
purple CD to share with family and friends, though I keep all the songs in an
archive too. To date, we’ve written and
recorded over 600 songs and a selection of them can be heard on our website.</span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Once we have them captured, we let the Purple Songs fly. People tell us where they are going in the
world and I give them a CD or all of the songs on a <i>fly-drive</i> and purple lanyard to take with them. Then they send us pictures from famous places
and I share the photos on our website. The Rolling Stones took our CDs on their
world tour and Dr Poplack recently took them with him on a trip to Africa. </span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> For several years, <span style="background: white;">Purple Songs flew on the in-flight playlist on Continental Airlines and
then United, which was amazing. </span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-Jne59oADLonhwgGU1F8RKv4nlA89HmNw5mW8tAmYCZMErphatVllOG4jJYJqIlr5aySXdzOa_8frsC9_2FW0ianysphNtu0wOHFzeIxJMHe13m53WTigyrSfxUTExDTXvmCOuNXD4z9Z/s1600/Astronauts+banner.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-Jne59oADLonhwgGU1F8RKv4nlA89HmNw5mW8tAmYCZMErphatVllOG4jJYJqIlr5aySXdzOa_8frsC9_2FW0ianysphNtu0wOHFzeIxJMHe13m53WTigyrSfxUTExDTXvmCOuNXD4z9Z/s1600/Astronauts+banner.JPG" height="400" width="153" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">They even went up into space on a Space
Shuttle mission in 2007 with astronaut Scott Parazynski. Scott then came back to the clinic to meet
with the children and share a film of his mission. He’s been back to see us several
times because after he retired from NASA he fulfilled his lifelong dream to
climb Mount Everest. He took our CDs
with him and came back to the clinic to share his adventure. In 2008, another astronaut, Heidi
Stefanyshyn-Piper, took Purple Songs up to the International Space Station. When she came to meet with the children at
TCH, she brought incredible pictures of the CDs floating in zero gravity.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I
am often amazed to see how Purple Songs Can Fly brings many elements together
which <span style="background: white;">lead to further connections. For example, I got permission to use Roger
Payne’s famous recordings of the songs of humpback whales, so I mixed them with
a Purple Song called, “That's Why I Don't Eat Fish”, written by a boy who
wanted to be a marine biologist. The song
ended up being played underwater at the NOAA deep-water research facility. We
set up two monitors in the Cancer Center and the children were able to interact
with the undersea researchers via a live video feed. Dancers from Hope Stone Dance Company also
performed a specially choreographed piece to go with the song and performed it
as a part of the event. So many amazing
connections have happened through Purple Songs, with people coming together to
offer support and ideas, all of them understanding the importance of music and
how songs can affect our lives.</span><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="background: white;"><br /></span></span>
<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoawIZSLL4PRu-zWA1Ib7SnnIdDkj3KzktpefVxpiJOZ6BAIejdM754Nza6wQim103-oUmkwHD-vNxQzmwTdn_Dt45_TbzkLqV6-EwzNOOydo2VVXjSoPc-Pegf5jCoTvaTP5zcPil3ZhB/s1600/DSC_1677.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoawIZSLL4PRu-zWA1Ib7SnnIdDkj3KzktpefVxpiJOZ6BAIejdM754Nza6wQim103-oUmkwHD-vNxQzmwTdn_Dt45_TbzkLqV6-EwzNOOydo2VVXjSoPc-Pegf5jCoTvaTP5zcPil3ZhB/s1600/DSC_1677.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Purple Songs Can Fly in zero gravity in the International Space Station</span></i></td></tr>
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<b><span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Who or
what has been the greatest influence on your life?</span></b></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I have had so many incredible influences on my life, so many
people, including the children I work with here. But actually, I have a sibling
who is severely mentally ill and I think that he has been the greatest
influence on my life. Seeing the fragility of life, the fragility of the mind
and seeing that it could just as easily have been me, has motivated me to use
my own gifts in ways that can hopefully help others.</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />
<br />
<b><span style="background: white;">What
advice would you give to someone who, like you, wants to use their gift to help
others? <o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I think it’s important to find inspiration, to strive to
learn from other people and other ideas. I love to see people use the
influences around them, filter them through their own particular way of doing
and seeing and being, and then create something that has never been created
before. </span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />
<br />
<b>How do you find, or seek to find,
balance in your life?<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I would say that is my biggest life challenge. I haven't found
it yet but I do seek it. I know how much of an introvert I am and I do need
quiet time by myself. It is interesting that I am all about sound and yet I
really crave quiet and I need it daily. I am at the moment fantasizing about a
silent retreat. I've never done that but I really think that would be good for
me.</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />
<br />
<b>What does Houston mean to you?<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I love Houston. It’s a great city, with an incredible arts
community and an incredibly high level of arts involvement. There are so many
artists here working in all different fields and from so many cultures too. I
lived in so many places growing up, so I didn't ever have a place that was my
home but after I came to Houston to visit a few times, I kept feeling a really
strong connection, but I didn’t know why. Then I read a beautiful article about
the Native American traditions of why we are connected to a place. It is said
that if you have had an ancestor who passes in a place, that is where you will
find your roots. My grandmother actually passed in Houston, in a car accident,
though it wasn't the place she lived. So in my mind I have had an ancestor who
has passed in Houston and that is as good as an explanation as any as to why I
feel this connection to this city. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Where is your happy
place in Houston?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">My happy place is right in here in this purple studio. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">What is your favorite
restaurant?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I love to eat Japanese food and there are a lot of Japanese
restaurants here, so I love anywhere where I can get really good sushi.</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />
<br />
<b>What is your Houston secret?<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I lived in Japan when I was a little girl, so I have this
strong connection to all things Japanese and there is a beautiful Japanese
garden in Hermann Park. Every time I go,
it is quiet, peaceful and beautiful. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">If you could change
one thing about Houston…<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">My parents live near Seattle, so a long way away from Houston. If I could change one thing, it would be to
have them closer. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br />
<i style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.399999618530273px;">Anita was nominated as one of the many </i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.399999618530273px;">Inspiring Houston Women</span><i style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.399999618530273px;"> by<span style="color: #666666;"> </span><a href="http://www.inspiringhoustonwomen.com/2013/11/sarah-fisher-and-trish-morille.html" style="color: #666666;"><span style="color: blue;">Trish Morille</span>.</a><span style="color: #666666;"> </span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">
<!--[endif]--><span style="background: white;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<i><span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">For
more information about Purple Songs Can Fly and to listen to some of the songs
Anita has helped the children write, visit the <a href="http://www.purplesongscanfly.org/"><span style="color: blue;">website here</span></a>.</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Purple
Songs Can Fly has its own internet radio show on Voice America Kids, hosted by
Zachary and Emily who are patients at Texas Children’s Cancer and Hematology
Centers and wrote Purple Songs with Anita. To listen to the show, visit the <a href="http://www.voiceamerica.com/show/2147/purple-songs-can-fly"><span style="color: blue;">website here</span></a>.</span></i></div>
<br />Caroline Leechhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00577580003627430304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9095899061562578820.post-6341877976525229682013-12-09T09:00:00.000-06:002013-12-09T09:00:00.428-06:00Anita Jaisinghani<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjI924Nf6N8ooUD3pyRSacyC2YBwdgIyCkMHHptEFXO8OKCm02F6dNFIxNnMoSdjGXlQAG7qoAu_OedoVPaeFljREdtbRSCD0fIeFDgYqc0SYc0Llcy_LtF0Hh2Q_8i2oC-Tgws-lK7MKHJ/s1600/Anita+Jaisinghani+-+by+Louis+Vest.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjI924Nf6N8ooUD3pyRSacyC2YBwdgIyCkMHHptEFXO8OKCm02F6dNFIxNnMoSdjGXlQAG7qoAu_OedoVPaeFljREdtbRSCD0fIeFDgYqc0SYc0Llcy_LtF0Hh2Q_8i2oC-Tgws-lK7MKHJ/s400/Anita+Jaisinghani+-+by+Louis+Vest.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo by Louis Vest</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Anita Jaisinghani is
the Chef/Owner of two award-winning restaurants in Houston. Raised in India and
trained as a micro-biologist, Anita came to Houston via Canada in 1990. Having been a stay-at-home mother for her two
young children, she gradually developed her love of food into a very successful
career, starting out as a pastry cook at Houston’s famous </span></i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Café Annie<i>, then with her own restaurants, </i>Indika<i> in Montrose and </i>Pondicheri<i> in River Oaks. With both menus, Anita combines the
complexities of Indian cuisine with the goodness of fresh Texas ingredients.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">What’s your story,
Anita?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I
have always loved food. As a teenager I
wanted to learn more but Indian food is possibly the most undocumented
undisciplined cuisine there is. People just do their own thing. There is no prescribed way to make anything
in India and every dish has a different version in every family. The one culinary school in India is in Mumbai
and it’s more of a catering college so my parents asked me, “Why would you go
to cooking school?” All my family were professionals
and very respectable, we employed a cook at home, so in the end I went into
micro-biology. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I
left India and moved to Canada in 1980 and I loved it there. I have a degree in microbiology, I was working
towards becoming a pathologist and my daughter was born there in 1988. We moved to Houston in 1990 and my son was
born here so I was a stay-at-home mom for about four or five years. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvtldfefEZfwab1vQDw-QQSmfFUglB5ebsjhwJQZzBXuRC88i-ZlNCeupNGdLkG0BiXJV4nUznYWHDmQmF0eetd2i1V9fBqrd06YhCbvwPHEeKq2iPqEV_GCPa2lBPKLa75BFIGJQ4Kvts/s1600/DSC_1642+-+crop.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="254" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvtldfefEZfwab1vQDw-QQSmfFUglB5ebsjhwJQZzBXuRC88i-ZlNCeupNGdLkG0BiXJV4nUznYWHDmQmF0eetd2i1V9fBqrd06YhCbvwPHEeKq2iPqEV_GCPa2lBPKLa75BFIGJQ4Kvts/s320/DSC_1642+-+crop.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">But
I still had this affinity for food and I began to play with it more and more
when I got to Houston. I had some
friends from Morocco, from France and from Holland. Talking and making food with them was a great
influence about food on me. We opened up a little catering business out of our
homes and that did well, with some very high-end clients in town. Then I opened up a little business selling
sauces to Whole Foods. I did start to study at the restaurant and hotel
management school at the University of Houston, but when you are older than
most of the students, you get most of it so fast and I just felt that I could
learn all that I wanted to learn through real-life experience instead. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I
wanted to work in a restaurant, so I looked at the list of Houston restaurants
and said to myself, “What is the number one restaurant in the city? Café Annie?
Let’s go there!” I sent my résumé
to them and they let me come in for a day’s trial. I had the wrong shoes on and
the wrong clothes and the guy who had to spend the day with me, the seafood
cook, had me down as some wannabe and told them, “Don’t take her.” But there was a pastry chef there at the time
who had been watching me on the other side of the restaurant and she said, “If
you want to come and work in pastry, you can come and work for me.” I said, “I’ll work for free for you, just let
me in the kitchen!”. I started working
for Café Annie for free for two days a week - with the right shoes and the
right clothes, of course – and within a month, they offered me a job. It was part-time as a pastry cook. My husband couldn’t understand it. We paid our maid more per hour than I was
earning, but to me it was like gold.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I
worked at Café Annie for about two years. They did offer me the job of Pastry
Chef, but I turned it down because I didn’t want the responsibility, and also
I’ve never had a sweet tooth. We have
these sweet cookies which we serve at Indika at the end of the meal and that
was the only thing that I knew how to make really well when I walked into Café
Annie. Then, when I started looking at
locations for my own place, they gave me a lot of support and at the end of my
two years working there, I brought them a plate of those cookies as a gift.
Chef Robert Del Grande immediately said, “I want the recipe!”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">We
opened Indika in 2002 and I ran it for about ten years, but I wanted to do a
restaurant which would take food to more of a street level. I wanted a mass appeal restaurant without
compromising on the authenticity of the cuisine, not just keeping it traditional,
I wanted to add a creative touch. That’s
what I’ve tried to do here at Pondicheri.
I opened here on March 1<sup>st</sup>, 2011, so I’ve been here just over
two years.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtpuXGDDd9p8hLehlR9EJb5ecY-6WVBfObyQsGXPA1lOqcUBECYVTZuMasGBTAnS6A9WKVU1KRSfU0FSGFQiPZr8sTfZ08dBLNDkmF4OPtA3YVEBYoccu5zp58GHVODiGs0UKDDQU4V9_H/s1600/DSC_1644+-+crop.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtpuXGDDd9p8hLehlR9EJb5ecY-6WVBfObyQsGXPA1lOqcUBECYVTZuMasGBTAnS6A9WKVU1KRSfU0FSGFQiPZr8sTfZ08dBLNDkmF4OPtA3YVEBYoccu5zp58GHVODiGs0UKDDQU4V9_H/s400/DSC_1644+-+crop.jpg" width="183" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Of
course, I have a crew at each restaurant that I have trained very carefully so
I can spend about two days each week in the kitchen at Pondicheri and two days
at Indika. Outside of that, there is a lot of other stuff that I end up doing,
but I am trying to delegate more and more of that. I try to focus as much on the food as I
can. It’s a balancing act, knowing how
to delegate, and knowing how to train other people is something I’ve learned on
the way.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">With
my children, I made a very strong decision to put family first, though my kids
might disagree with me on this! Within a
year of opening Indika I got a divorce, so I was pretty much a single mom with
two kids of 12 and 14. That’s a tough
age to be a single mom, but we lived within a block of the old Indika location
in Memorial and those were some of my best years, you know, and my kids turned
out great. I had a few rules that I followed
as a mother. I ate breakfast with my
kids and that was our time together, an hour every morning and I would make
them whatever they wanted. Then I was
always at home when they came back from school at 3.30. That was the middle of my working day anyway,
so when they came home we all had a snack and a drink together and would talk
about our day. Then I would go back to
Indika at about 6.30 or 7pm and come home at ten or eleven. They were home alone most evenings, but I had
Sundays and Mondays off because we were closed.
Sometimes they would walk over to the restaurant and we would eat dinner
together too if I wasn’t too busy. Other
than that, I stayed on top of things as best I could. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Why do you do what
you do?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I
am such a big lover of everything I grew up with in India, though I didn’t
realize that until I left. I couldn’t
wait to come to America and to try all the new food. In fact, my first week in Canada was spent in
the supermarket examining the food – it looked like art! In India, if you visit the markets, they are
very visceral, you can smell and feel everything. Here, everything was so beautifully packed
and presented, and I thought it was so clever.
It took me a few months to ask myself, “Why doesn’t it taste as
good?” At first I denied that there was
a difference, but when I went back after my first year away and had some
chicken at my mother’s house, it tasted simply amazing! This was in the early 80s and the chickens over
here were already being pumped up with stuff, unlike the scrawny chickens we
would eat in India. The bananas over
there might be spotty, but they tasted so much better in India than they did
over here. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">That’s
really what made me look at food and ask why does it all taste so different in
India than here? At first, I used spices
as a way of masking the inherent taste that I didn’t like about American and
Canadian food. At that point, I had
never heard of organic or of national/local because that was just how we lived
in India, it wasn’t special, that’s just the way it was. So that took me some
understanding. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I
used to talk about opening a restaurant when I was a young mother, but I never
thought that I’d actually do it. I was going to work as a micro-biologist! By the time I came to the US, however, I
loved to entertain. I could make a
dinner party for forty people, cooking all day. It would be the most seamless
party you’d ever been to because all the food would be perfectly done and that
just came easy to me. I loved the
organizational skills to run a dinner party. I wondered how I could take that
up to the next step and do it in a restaurant and that became my journey of
reinterpreting Indian food. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvDsh25bgYNH4fl7lhZ4qHAhgO08_3U5VqyWgXTGMassLtOQYwP1xalSWXm_sRRg0rw_lWZ7avU1LkQTiewRunvJudHfO18U7Fg4MaJTokMme1SWYaiIQgzPjjjH5Afj1T4YEvVaYNvCyb/s1600/DSC_1652+crop.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="256" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvDsh25bgYNH4fl7lhZ4qHAhgO08_3U5VqyWgXTGMassLtOQYwP1xalSWXm_sRRg0rw_lWZ7avU1LkQTiewRunvJudHfO18U7Fg4MaJTokMme1SWYaiIQgzPjjjH5Afj1T4YEvVaYNvCyb/s320/DSC_1652+crop.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">My
parents were from a small province called Sindh which now only exists as part
of Pakistan, so my food is different from most Indian food that you taste,
although I love all Indian food and I try to represent the country as best I
can. I bring in local Texas ingredients
because asking me to cook in Houston without using local ingredients is like
asking me live here without breathing the air.
I have to use what I have close by.
Indians do a lot more than what you see in restaurants too. In the south you get all sorts of octopus, mussels
and crab and in Rajasthan where my uncles live, there is lots of hunting. We
used to eat whole pig roasts and ducks and quail, so there is a lot more to
Indian food than most people know.
People ask me if I use these ingredients because they are Texan but I
say, “No, it’s because they are things I know about.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Who or what has been
the greatest influence on your life?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I
think opening my own business gave me great confidence. I own Indika with my ex-husband, but opening
Pondicheri on my own has definitely given me a lot more confidence. I’ve learned more here than I did there
because here I deal with everybody. I’m
not fighting a battle though and I’m not trying to prove anything so if I don’t
enjoy it, then I’m not going to do it anymore. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">My
mother was a great influence on me too.
She’s been gone for sixteen years so she didn’t live to see my two
restaurants, but she used to tell me that I could do anything I wanted to with
my life and that I was the best thing in town. Like an idiot, I believed her! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">What advice would you
give to someone new to the restaurant business?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I’d
say, get experience in the business, whether you are man or a woman. Learn everything about the business from A to
Z, don’t depend on anyone else to tell you how to work the numbers, what the
tax implications are or about financial planning. And you have to know that what goes out must
be less than what comes in. If you
follow that, you’ve got a business!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZ0tm_xkSZWrpSOR0pCuejb15VnLAnKsQWPU5uRhIeVhFlzxX-nAfjctJ3nZfZDLzK6tnMBe9zS2XJs7mM8DVs7pi75GZNpChNt4uJdaPAnODG8kF8EKaCz1PRMEWO45iORtibh11WXOHp/s1600/DSC_1651+medium.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZ0tm_xkSZWrpSOR0pCuejb15VnLAnKsQWPU5uRhIeVhFlzxX-nAfjctJ3nZfZDLzK6tnMBe9zS2XJs7mM8DVs7pi75GZNpChNt4uJdaPAnODG8kF8EKaCz1PRMEWO45iORtibh11WXOHp/s400/DSC_1651+medium.jpg" width="266" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">How to do you find,
or seek to find, balance in your life?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">That
is my greatest challenge! But it’s all
about having the right team and I do have a great team in each restaurant. I could be the greatest cook in the world,
but I need to have a team who can follow my vision. Or not even <i>my</i> vision, I am a very collaborative person. I’m not stuck on my
own ideas, so if one of my team tells me that there’s a better way to do
something, then I will do it the better way.
I always talk to my staff the way I would want to be talked to, I don’t
shout at people and I’m not an abuser. As
a result, I don’t have a high turnover. I don’t pay them more than the industry
standard, but I have learned how to treat people well. In any business, picking out the right people
and knowing how to treat them well is crucial. That means that I can walk away,
so I travel a lot and I can take vacations.
When I’m away, I don’t call all the time to ask if they are okay, if
they need something, they’ll call me. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">What does Houston
mean to you?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I
love Houston because of the weather – people always laugh at that! Houston is my home now, but I have to admit I
didn’t like it at first, I thought it was an ugly city. We moved here from Calgary which is at the
base of the mountains and then we were in Boston for about six months. It’s so
beautiful there in the fall and I just didn’t want to leave. When we came to Houston, I still had one leg
out but now that I have two businesses here, I have definitely put both feet
down. What I love about Houston is the
people. I came here out of nowhere and
opened up a business and I had more support from native Houstonians than I did
from anybody else, even from my friends.
It was the native Houstonians who have helped me out and so I have a lot
of affection for them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Where is your happy
place in Houston?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">My
home and my two kitchens. I don’t get
out much and I’m not a very public person. I’m not a media hog, I turn down
every request to be involved with things unless I am really required to do it.
I’m not a social butterfly, I never go to bars and I’m usually home by
ten! I’m not like some chefs who finish
their work and then go to bars drinking.
Also I am a strong believer in leading by example. If I am a drinker and a talker, then what am
I teaching my kids or my staff? I can’t
do one thing and expect them to do another.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">What is your favorite
restaurant?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">For
special occasions I will still go to RDG – which used to be Café Annie –
because I am very fond of the people there because they gave me a start.
Outside of that, I love Korean food and also there’s a phenomenal place called
Mala Sichuan on Bellaire Boulevard – I’ve eaten there twice in the last
week! You know, Indian food has a lot of
Chinese influences and I’ve been playing with some Chinese cooking here. Then I
discovered that place and I now want them to give me a lesson in how to cook
their food! That would be awesome.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">What is your Houston
secret?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The
park by Allen Parkway – it’s under construction just now but it has bike and
walking trails and I’m on it every other day.
A few people know about it and I’m sure once the construction is
finished it’ll become a more public park and more people will go there. For me, logistics are important. I don’t want to give up half a day to go somewhere,
but I can walk there from my house or go on my bike and it’s just
beautiful. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">If you could change
one thing about Houston…<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Mountains
would be nice! Or even just a hill!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">To find out more about Anita’s restaurants, please visit </span></i><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><a href="http://www.pondichericafe.com/" target="_blank">Pondicheri</a> at 2800 Kirby Drive and <a href="http://indikausa.com/">Indika</a> at 516 Westheimer Road.</span></i></div>
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Caroline Leechhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00577580003627430304noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9095899061562578820.post-56463370954991970812013-11-11T09:00:00.000-06:002013-11-11T09:00:10.416-06:00Naomi Warren<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrXifYHaxv3bLjZkpVby1MxHOhQh271Bo5r0j9A7pjivjd7_8PAST7_Hj8VysmVKgWz4kgWHqZxslJwTi32esxcd6sOQtWUFyUa0ejrmLNRRsyFm-vo5WG4d9tr1b1KYFwxVEPuobESOLu/s1600/Naomi+Warren+-+1529+-+Main+portrait.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="273" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrXifYHaxv3bLjZkpVby1MxHOhQh271Bo5r0j9A7pjivjd7_8PAST7_Hj8VysmVKgWz4kgWHqZxslJwTi32esxcd6sOQtWUFyUa0ejrmLNRRsyFm-vo5WG4d9tr1b1KYFwxVEPuobESOLu/s400/Naomi+Warren+-+1529+-+Main+portrait.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Naomi Warren was born in Poland in 1920.
During the Holocaust, she survived three concentration camps – Auschwitz,
Ravensbruck and Bergen Belsen. Her mother and her first husband, Alexander
Rosenbaum, both died in Auschwitz. Naomi
survived the war and came to Houston in 1946. She married another Holocaust
survivor, Martin Warren, and together the couple raised two daughters and a son
in Houston. They established a successful import company which she continued to
run after her husband’s death. Naomi has
made very generous donations to numerous organizations, particularly supporting
projects which educate younger generations about the Holocaust. These gifts include support for the Future
Teachers Fellowship which Naomi founded at Houston’s Holocaust Museum and the
forthcoming US premiere by Houston Grand Opera of </span></i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The Passenger<i> by composer Mieczyslaw Weinberg, based on a
novel by Auschwitz survivor, Zofia Posmysz. <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">What’s your story, Naomi?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">I was
born in Poland in 1920.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">My 19</span><sup style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">th</sup><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">
birthday was on the first of September 1939, the day that war broke out.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">It was a very special birthday because I had
just finished high school and I was going to go to the university, but of course,
the war changed all the plans that I had.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">In
1938, Poland was divided into two parts.
The eastern part, where we lived, was occupied by the Russians and the
western part was occupied by the Germans. My father was a president of a bank
and as such, he was considered an enemy of the communist system, so they arrested
him and deported him to Siberia. It was
a tragedy at the time, but thanks to the Russians, my father survived the
war. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6mYtn-PTtfkT668yI2fumpAb6mUTiJ41TwvF75w1KEbxFolaZzTN-ylFzbD69YFa8haONkNQwFvSp6njXV2UMeyYZK3LAQwFDawUCoEBgVE_zvyHi56qiCL11LyJ1QnGkOkqkjxveJItw/s1600/Naomi+as+a+young+woman+from+utexas+edu.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="242" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6mYtn-PTtfkT668yI2fumpAb6mUTiJ41TwvF75w1KEbxFolaZzTN-ylFzbD69YFa8haONkNQwFvSp6njXV2UMeyYZK3LAQwFDawUCoEBgVE_zvyHi56qiCL11LyJ1QnGkOkqkjxveJItw/s320/Naomi+as+a+young+woman+from+utexas+edu.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Naomi as a young woman<br /><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Photo courtesy of www.utexas.edu</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">In 1941
the war started between Russia and Germany and that was the point that the
Germans occupied our part of Poland and that’s how I had the “pleasure” of
experiencing of the concentration camps. I survived three concentration camps
before being liberated by the British in 1945.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">It’s
really very strange; out of every experience you draw certain ideas and
strengths. I don’t think I would be ever
have been the same type of person had I not been in a concentration camp. I was so lucky to survive and I was so happy
to be alive, but you had to be very strong. My brother was also a doctor, but
he survived. My sister survived because she was already in the United
States. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">My
mother and my young husband were both killed in Auschwitz.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Many
times I have wondered why I was one of the survivors, but I was always thinking
of my father. First of all, education
was very important to him, but besides that, he taught me to be strong, he
taught me to fight for what I believed in and perhaps that has resulted in who
I am now. I was reunited with my father
in the United States, and my brother and sister too. He lived to age 95.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The
war, of course, changed my life totally because I had to fight for
survival. So as a result of that it has
been a very, very exciting life – a very tough life from many points of view, a
life of fear and a life of not being so happy and not knowing what was going to
happen tomorrow, but I always had hope. I never gave up my hope. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">After
Liberation, I chose to come to the United States because I had a sister and an
uncle who both lived here. In 1946 a new
life started for me in Houston. Later on
I remarried, I have three children and a rather wonderful life. Really, I am a very happy person.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Have you ever returned to Poland?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I went
back to Poland ten years ago in 2013 though I never wanted to go back. When we got there, I forgot a lot. I think I had wanted to erase it from my
memory. I went to where I thought we
lived, but it wasn’t the right house, it was a different street. I felt very sorry that I had messed that up
because later I remembered the name of the street that we lived on. But at my grandfather’s house, we met a
lovely lady who invited us all into her garden to talk to her. It was very interesting to meet her.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I
forgot so much but yet I remembered such little incidents. I had a sister and a brother. My sister was
seven years older than I and I saw a clear vision of my mother standing outside
the door. The boyfriend of my sister
came to see her. He was absolutely
gorgeous and a magnificent dancer and my sister liked him very much, but it was
a problem for my mother. She didn’t like that my sister was going out with this
guy. My mother said to him “Are you back
already?” He went for a vacation or
something and the first time she saw him when he came back, she said, “Are you
back already?” I remembered that so
clearly.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitnzK_m0-xSQzlgNphBoKQKXB-ZopYzYXkOk-1WBlBgKRpHA0R-M3z47cpQFYJote8uhsVBZPm7JwfV2hj_3QbElt_jPIAzSqJQH_3TxLT_kuF3oneetiJwIJtY-Em_9y2-Hy7euZIl_k7/s1600/Auschwitz+gates.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="232" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitnzK_m0-xSQzlgNphBoKQKXB-ZopYzYXkOk-1WBlBgKRpHA0R-M3z47cpQFYJote8uhsVBZPm7JwfV2hj_3QbElt_jPIAzSqJQH_3TxLT_kuF3oneetiJwIJtY-Em_9y2-Hy7euZIl_k7/s320/Auschwitz+gates.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The gates of Auschwitz concentration camp<br /><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Photo courtesy of www.theholocaustexplained.org</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">We went
to Auschwitz and it was absolutely incredible.
I cried all the way from Krakow, the closest city, because I really did
not know how I would react. But when we
came there it was different. There is a big gate and the gate has a big saying
over it, <i>Arbeit Mach Frei</i>, which
means <i>work makes you free</i>. All my family stood outside the gate and
suddenly so much strength came to me and I thought to myself, “My goodness, I
survived this hell and look at who is with me, my whole family.” </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I don’t know where I found the strength to
deal with it, but I did. But was so
tragic to see the railroad and to see the cattle cars which transported us.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">What’s your Houston story?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">My
sister came to Houston because my uncle lived in Houston. He owned a steamship
company and his ships were hauling newsprint. When my father came to Houston after
the war, my uncle helped him start a business selling newsprint to the local
newspapers. My father was a very bright man.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpa6V2TyPo5GvJ77_MFb0sK26AsouZ1JuBdWBfqMZc7KvFac0gZEhY_CdX7lWtpXtA1T_qzciGDtEWwJokplu2zxWGlOEJPOO9_iZLCuSfifZat2T0zxh7mma6eRR8ZIX3opRyVlCW50E0/s1600/Naomi+Warren+1538+pigs+in+the+hall+2+smaller.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpa6V2TyPo5GvJ77_MFb0sK26AsouZ1JuBdWBfqMZc7KvFac0gZEhY_CdX7lWtpXtA1T_qzciGDtEWwJokplu2zxWGlOEJPOO9_iZLCuSfifZat2T0zxh7mma6eRR8ZIX3opRyVlCW50E0/s200/Naomi+Warren+1538+pigs+in+the+hall+2+smaller.JPG" width="108" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A few of Naomi's enormous <br />collection of pigs</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">After I
remarried in the United States, my husband and I started a business called the
International Trading Company. We
started importing sardines because he saw that there were no Maine sardines to
be had – Maine sardines were the most important sardines in the United States –
so we brought our sardines from French Morocco.
That’s how we started our business and then we started importing ham
too. Later it was just ham. We were one of the largest importers of ham
from Denmark – Danish pigs were smaller and had less fat. Later we started
producing ham in the United States. That’s why I have all these little sardine
boxes and pigs everywhere.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Who or what has been the greatest influence
on your life?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Certainly
my father, but also my mother. She was a
very unusual person and she was very bright.
In Russia, she finished the <i>gymnasium</i>
[high school] and she was accepted to medical school. She wanted to become a doctor, but she met my
father, they fell in love, and that was the end of the medicine. My mother was born in 1890 and my father was
born in 1885. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">What advice would you give to someone trying to start a new life after a tragedy?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">As far
as I was concerned, I felt that a new life was starting for me when I came to
the United States and I felt that the past was the past. I thought, “Now I have to start building
something else. Will I be capable of
doing that? I don’t know.” But I had to experience it and somehow it
worked.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">How to do you find, or seek to find, balance
in your life?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I enjoy
life, I always like to be doing something and I enjoy my family too. I keep busy, I just cannot stay home do
nothing. I can read or I can listen to
music but then I have to do something. I enjoy family and friends very
much. I am always so happy when my
children come to see me.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">What does Houston mean to you?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I like
Houston and I like living here. I don’t
think I would feel as comfortable living in another city. However it is so hard if you don’t’
drive. You have to get used to living
without a car, but I am very fortunate to be able to afford all the help I need
at this stage in my life.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Where is your happy place in Houston?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">My
home, because I feel secure here, because I feel that my family will always
come when I need them so I don’t feel alone.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">What is your favorite restaurant?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Oh,
there are not enough restaurants in Houston!
I have visited almost all of them, I can tell you. I like Toni’s and I like Café Rabelais,
because they have good bread. There’s
Pologna, but it’s still Polish food and anyway, I think we make better Polish food at home!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">What is your Houston secret?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I used
to love to go to the theater, The Alley was such an important part of my life,
but right now, I don’t go so much because I am not hearing as well as I used
to, and so I have to have very good seats.
It’s hard for me to get around, to get out of the car and to move
around. It’s a different life that I
have now.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I am
also proud to support <i>The Passenger</i> at
Houston Grand Opera very soon. The opera
is about a survivor of the concentration camp and a guard. They travel together years later and they
recognize each other. I was in Auschwitz
and I am a Holocaust survivor so that’s why I am involved.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">If you could change one thing about Houston…<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I feel
sad that people don’t walk. They go to
Memorial Park to run, but people don’t just walk.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><i>Naomi was nominated as one of the many </i>Inspiring Houston Women<i> by <a href="http://www.inspiringhoustonwomen.com/2013/10/andrea-white.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">Andrea White</span>.</a> </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #222222;">To hear more of Naomi Warren’s amazing story,
please watch the touching film by Leslie Sachnowitz Meimoun called </span><a href="http://vimeo.com/59508199"><span style="color: blue;">NAOMI
WARREN: A Story of Hope and Renewal</span></a><span style="color: #222222;">. The film recently received a
top Grand Remi Award at the 2013 WorldFest International Film Festival. You may
view this incredibly moving documentary about Ms. Warren's experiences and
survival of the Holocaust </span><span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://vimeo.com/59508199">here</a>.</span><span style="color: #222222;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">For more information on Houston Grand Opera’s
US premiere of Mieczyslaw Weinberg’s </span></i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The Passenger<i> in January 2014, please visit the <a href="https://www.houstongrandopera.org/Site/tickets/calendar/view.aspx?PerfId=2279"><span style="color: blue;">HGO
website</span></a>.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">For more information on the Warren Fellowship
for Future Teachers at the Holocaust Museum Houston, please visit the <span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://www.hmh.org/ed_warren%20fellowship.shtml"><span style="color: blue;">Holocaust Museum’s
website</span></a>.</span><o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<br />
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Caroline Leechhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00577580003627430304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9095899061562578820.post-86232424462352744842013-11-01T09:00:00.000-05:002014-04-28T13:39:31.176-05:00Sarah Fisher and Trish Morille<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiV9osgHLFdz2gzzDhMYPhAYnj0vGi21OnK0G5GRuAkP2kdaDqP6WP2ESuIY1rigZs9EdwBrnQEk6bLxN8tGyNhSsatGwDIXF-PGJPPMqtd6NH9oT8mpuUsp-MYE9Sp-RagLncNigR5Fe_H/s1600/Sarah+Fisher+and+Trish+Morille_1402+main+portrait.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiV9osgHLFdz2gzzDhMYPhAYnj0vGi21OnK0G5GRuAkP2kdaDqP6WP2ESuIY1rigZs9EdwBrnQEk6bLxN8tGyNhSsatGwDIXF-PGJPPMqtd6NH9oT8mpuUsp-MYE9Sp-RagLncNigR5Fe_H/s400/Sarah+Fisher+and+Trish+Morille_1402+main+portrait.jpg" height="265" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Sarah Fisher and Trish Morille are the Co-founders of </span></i><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">+Works</span><i><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> (pronounced Positive Works), a
parent-driven program serving as catalyst for positive community change in
eleven Houston public, private and parochial schools.. Building up from grass
roots, Sarah and Trish have driven forward a campaign which encourages positive
debate and creates opportunities for positive action within families, schools,
and the wider community. Their distinctive logo, with the blue and black
positive sign, can be seen in schools buildings, on the fences of sports
fields, and on cars, declaring that these environments to be a positive zones,
where high expectations for positive behavior are clear.</span></i></div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">What
are your stories, Sarah and Trish?<u1:p></u1:p></span></strong><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">SARAH – I have been
married for 23 years to my husband and best friend, Ken Fisher. We have two
teenage boys, ages 16 and 13. I was born and raised in the mid-west, and have
lived in three other countries. This is the third time I’ve lived in Houston
and I first met Trish on our first round in Houston 15 years ago.<u1:p></u1:p><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Work-wise, I have a
marketing degree from the University of Notre Dame, after which I joined a big
national advertising agency and then had my own one-woman ad agency at age 27. I
love doing the strategy all the way through to the creative production and I am
known for my rules-breaking creative approach. . When we were moving around the
world with my husband’s job, it became clear that one of us needed to be home
with the kids. I put my advertising career aside for 13 years – a time Trish
calls my ‘long nap’! I did a lot of <i>pro
bono</i> work in my boys’ schools and also started painting. <u1:p></u1:p><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">TRISH – I am married to
the love of my life, Rock Morille and we have just celebrated our 25<sup>th</sup>
wedding anniversary. We have two amazing children – our daughter is 19 and a
sophomore at Texas A&M and our son is 15 and a sophomore at Strake Jesuit
high school. I am a first generation American on my mother’s side, with roots
in Germany and I was the first person ever to graduate from college from my
family. I put myself through school, willing to make coffee, hold-down
nighttime retails jobs, and do whatever it took to follow my goal to work in
journalism. I interned in Austin at the NBC affiliate, KXAN helping the political
reporter, and then had my first paying job at KXAS in Dallas. When I moved to
Houston, I went to work for KHOU while finishing up my degree at the University
of Houston. I was pregnant with my daughter when I graduated with a degree in
Journalism – finally! I then transitioned from working in broadcast journalism
to working in public relations, heading up Macy’s special events and public
relations division in Houston, but my desire to get back into serious news
drove me to the Houston Post where I worked until they were purchased by Hearst
in 1995. <u1:p></u1:p><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">I’ve always worked, even
when my children were young but I worked differently and smartly. I had to look strategically about how I could
buy more time with my children and still have the career that I loved and be
able to support my family, something which really was important to me. My work
was very demanding and I knew it would be a challenge to rethink it all. I went
out and starting interviewing other women about how they did it, how did they
have full time careers and manage to be good mothers? I wanted to be the best
mother I could be and still have time for my career. Through all this, my husband was incredibly
supportive but really it was a balancing act. <u1:p></u1:p><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">In 1995, I started my
own consultancy, Morille & Associates working with a variety of businesses
and non-profits. For about the last ten years, I have had the great fortune to
work alongside Sue and Lester Smith and help run the Smith Foundation. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">It gives me the
flexibility to do </span><i style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">+Works</i><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> and maintain
other causes I feel passionate about including support to Houston’s cancer
community at Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children’s Hospital, mental
health and Houston’s homeless. In addition, I am a founding board member of
Dress for Success Houston and had the great opportunity to help establish some
other incredible organizations including Susan G. Komen for the Cure and Purple
Songs Can Fly at Texas Children’s Cancer Center.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><u1:p> </u1:p></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span></div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Why
did you create <i>+Works</i>?<u1:p></u1:p></span></strong><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">SARAH – As our family
was moving around, it was getting harder and harder for our boys to be ‘the new
kid’. If it’s hard when you are in first grade, it’s even harder when you are
in fourth grade and by the time you get to sixth grade…! If you don’t know how
to handle being targeted, you can get into a pattern that can be difficult to
escape. . And for me, it wasn’t easy to be the ‘new mother’ in all these
schools either. It’s sad, but it’s the truth. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">This came to a crescendo
when we were in Europe eight or so years ago, and Trish was going through the
same challenges with her kids in Houston. Trish and I had many long
long-distance phone conversations, trying without much success to help each
other and help our kids. There was a lot of shame involved. Look at us. Can you
imagine us just bawling? We are not exactly wimpy women, but the bullying issue
reduced us to tears. It was very
difficult to know what to say to the schools, and it was very hard to know what
to say to our children. It’s very lonely when you are a new parent. You don’t want to be high-maintenance from the
get-go and yet your child is really upset. It’s hard to understand why they are upset
because you don’t have the words to talk about it. It’s awful. Here we were,
both writers, both PR experts, yet we couldn’t find the words to help our kids.<i> </i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">TRISH – And we couldn’t
find the words to help ourselves either. My daughter was really struggling with
bullying – and seeing it taking place with others, too. I didn’t know how to react or respond
appropriately. Everything was about reacting, about a bully and a victim. We
didn’t want to raise victims; we wanted to create a new community language to
deal with it, asking why are we here? Why are we as a community allowing this
to happen? And how do we get ahead of it?<u1:p></u1:p><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">SARAH –When my older son
was in 5<sup>th</sup> grade, he made the school soccer team. He was young and
one of the smaller kids on the team. At a scrimmage early in the season, I was
standing on the sidelines and heard another mom say, “Why is our team so small?
How could this have happened? It’s going
to be such a long year!” My son then stole the ball from the largest and most
athletic boy on the other team and took it up the field and scored our first
goal. It was like a Nike commercial! Even so, a week later, I heard another kid
on the team ask, “Coach, why is our team so small?” And I thought, “Wow, how
many times have I said something to my kids that’s then come out of their
mouths at some other place and time?” It was like a lightning bolt for me. I
immediately called Trish and said, “I want to do an awareness campaign!” That
was a key point in the beginning of <i>+Works</i>.<u1:p></u1:p><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">We came back to Houston
at the end of that school year and though we got into that same horrible cycle,
what was interesting and different was that news stories were starting to pop
up which moved us to act. There were two in particular: the awful story in
January 2010 of Phoebe Prince who was bullied and killed herself. <u1:p></u1:p><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQpkerTeoypReqcS9DDPlSflJdP3DBN_yx0E3Abc5QlXXB7wWsP_rbwQWpc2x4xBaTxl7klMadU2bHNUyIM0z4oxDgBmnQe1ye74rPzOKWq62fEXE13gYXpg6UmyZt4N2CMyQwbCBrfeme/s1600/Sarah+Fisher+and+Trish+Morille_1401+square+mug.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQpkerTeoypReqcS9DDPlSflJdP3DBN_yx0E3Abc5QlXXB7wWsP_rbwQWpc2x4xBaTxl7klMadU2bHNUyIM0z4oxDgBmnQe1ye74rPzOKWq62fEXE13gYXpg6UmyZt4N2CMyQwbCBrfeme/s320/Sarah+Fisher+and+Trish+Morille_1401+square+mug.jpg" height="320" width="305" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">TRISH: Then on March 27<sup>th</sup>,
at 7.30 in the morning, I was at my son’s West U Little League game and Sarah
called me and said, “Where are you? You have got to see the front page of the
Houston Chronicle. It was yet another dreadful bullying story, but this time in Houston. Sarah came right over and put the newspaper in my hand and
said, “We have got to come out of the Positive closet.”<u1:p></u1:p><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">SARAH: That was when
Trish and I really started to look for solutions and to think more as ‘brand
people’. We let the professionals in us take over from the mothers, which was
therapeutic in itself. We came up with
the Positive Works name, and I created this positive sign with the black and
blue cross. Within a month, we were up and running as <i>+Works.</i> We had a three person board, with another friend acting as
Treasurer and we filed our papers with the state.<u1:p></u1:p><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">We decided to have two <i>+Coffee</i> meetings in my backyard. We put
an eight-page presentation together that basically said, “Families need schools
and schools need families to get ahead of the bullying problem, and we cannot
just wait for bad things to happen. We have to understand why bullying is
happening in the first place. Why are we blaming other people when we should be
working together to help our kids?"<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9DfRTyra7FDQeMzCdtmkDP0qfRCw1q4Qe5JTsm9BIK6jK70bqiJNDGGfuaLA00Vno8qCPtQGaqetYqZISDzhg39AAsPaU8j2d-GLGHMbG6D4TIvYvKoNIHC_iLsXUHmh1MMiqaJRtC7M6/s1600/Car+DSC_1399.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9DfRTyra7FDQeMzCdtmkDP0qfRCw1q4Qe5JTsm9BIK6jK70bqiJNDGGfuaLA00Vno8qCPtQGaqetYqZISDzhg39AAsPaU8j2d-GLGHMbG6D4TIvYvKoNIHC_iLsXUHmh1MMiqaJRtC7M6/s320/Car+DSC_1399.jpg" height="158" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">TRISH – One of the
things that became clear to us at that time was that how we parent matters. The
choices we make and the choices we allow in our homes, our cars and in our
community greatly impact all of us. In order to begin to see change in our
kids, we had to first look in the mirror. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">We were thrilled to get
the support of Dr. Stuart Twemlow of Menninger Clinic, an international expert
on bullying. It was the first time he had seen a program started by parents and
after reviewing our materials and unique approach, he endorsed us. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">TRISH – One of the
unique aspects of our program, are visual reminders such as banners, stickers
and signs, placed on campus in the physical locations where negative behavior
choices tend to happen. What’s cool
about what Sarah designed is that it is customized to reflect the culture of
each school. At Annunciation Orthodox
School, it is <i>Agape in Action</i> – <i>agape</i> is the Greek word for love. It’s
just fabulous!<u1:p></u1:p><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6S2yrPkm6Oj_3wCSBaZOnYlmBOKElHzi-bkhs-qP4mM0vf1r4Qfc7QfgY9Cc2IsGvytSSv5wM77zA1MpM-S0Rcdq2OWIgfZosczrUO3ZnBhWFteF8sjjVaZskqy8TvpVPEgKH3EX787Of/s1600/Cafeteria+IMG_7026.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6S2yrPkm6Oj_3wCSBaZOnYlmBOKElHzi-bkhs-qP4mM0vf1r4Qfc7QfgY9Cc2IsGvytSSv5wM77zA1MpM-S0Rcdq2OWIgfZosczrUO3ZnBhWFteF8sjjVaZskqy8TvpVPEgKH3EX787Of/s320/Cafeteria+IMG_7026.jpg" height="131" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">One of the banners inside Pershing Middle School</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">SARAH – It’s all about
building <i>+Community</i>. Each school
wraps its own idea and unique culture around the common core which means that
both the kids and the school community own it; the teachers and the parents, as
well as the kids. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">TRISH – Our message
really is first to the adults in the lives of children because we strongly
believe that in order to raise them, we have to look at ourselves first. There’s
a reason that the flight attendant on a plane tells you to put your oxygen mask
on first before you help others. Children pick up negative things and they
regurgitate what we feed them. Are we raising children to be compassionate and
respectful by showing them compassion and respect? Are we raising them to
handle life with resilience and a little grit? Are we introducing them to what
it means to fail, so that they can enjoy the success? Life is tough and it gets
tougher. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">I look at my daughter
and see how this work is impacting her. She’s a resident advisor at college and
she is using the Positive Connection inventory with her charges on the first
floor. <i>+Works</i> is about raising
resilient kids, kids with determination but in the right way, kids who care,
kids who are speaking up with respect and dignity for themselves and for other
people. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><u1:p> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3VQUtVaHL6DElmFxiturCd9WowocYg9P7DFL8sPSP-LsOU4yyaMCYppOFGT8YvHy3lqfPh59w9BsXdL9_gOVPTuWVYv8bLY4xANx6mW9SERh8e89PJ9RBPcoIyoa_tPO3xjZ-417kt5Ck/s1600/Mark+Twain+rally.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3VQUtVaHL6DElmFxiturCd9WowocYg9P7DFL8sPSP-LsOU4yyaMCYppOFGT8YvHy3lqfPh59w9BsXdL9_gOVPTuWVYv8bLY4xANx6mW9SERh8e89PJ9RBPcoIyoa_tPO3xjZ-417kt5Ck/s400/Mark+Twain+rally.jpg" height="265" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><i>The first <span style="text-align: start;">+Works rally, at Mark Twain Elementary School in January 2011</span></i></span></td></tr>
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</u1:p><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><u1:p> </u1:p></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span></div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Who
or what has been the greatest influence on your life?<u1:p></u1:p></span></strong><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">SARAH – My husband Ken
has been a huge influence on me. He’s been my best friend for thirty years, and
I have always appreciated his sense of humor and his ability to step back and
take the long view. <u1:p></u1:p><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">TRISH –Parenting has
been the biggest influence in my life. And when I reflect on my own childhood,
I recognize how difficult it was for my mother, who largely raised three girls
on her own and has struggled with major depression throughout her life. She
grew up during war times in Europe, and my late father served three tours of duty
in Vietnam and was a prisoner of war. When he came home, he suffered from what
I believe was post-traumatic stress disorder. They both really struggled but no
one talked about it as we do today. They ended up divorcing. I just knew that I
wanted a different life for my children and I learned how hard I was willing to
work to achieve that. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">What
advice would you give to someone trying to launch a campaign for a cause?<u1:p></u1:p></span></strong><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">TRISH – Do it with someone you enjoy being
with and have fun. Even though we work very hard, we have a lot of fun together
and we laugh a lot. You have to have a passion for something. It sounds trite,
but you do. We are doing this work <i>pro
bono</i>, and when we walk into a school and hear these anecdotes from teachers
we say, “My goodness there’s a reason we are supposed to be doing all this”. I
do think there’s a calling in it all. It isn’t an easy thing to do, but we do
it with people we enjoy and we are astounded how much we can achieve.<u1:p></u1:p><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">SARAH – Our skills are
very complementary. We are both strategists, and we’re both writers. I bring
the branding, the graphic design and marketing to the table, and Trish has the
journalism, PR, event management experience. Starting a non-profit is the hardest work
you’ll ever love. Put your time in, hang in there, and be open and flexible. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;">
<strong><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">What
does Houston mean to you?<u1:p></u1:p></span></strong><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">SARAH – Houston is an
amazing place to start something like <i>+Works</i>. People here are so open to ideas, it’s
incredible. I’ve lived all over the world and there’s no place like Houston. It
doesn’t matter who you are or where you are from. I’m living proof of that. We
didn’t know a soul when we came here sixteen years ago, and we were warmly
welcomed. <u1:p></u1:p><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">TRISH –I agree totally. Not
only are people generous with their time, their talent, their money and their
energy, they are also generous with their <i>people</i>.
I think that is really the biggest thing. They say, “You need to meet
so-and-so” and they follow through and they show up.<u1:p></u1:p><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">How
do you find, or seek to find, balance in your life?<u1:p></u1:p></span></strong><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">SARAH – I try to take
time to appreciate nature. I try hard to stop and look at the sunrise as I’m
taking my son to school. I really try to find peace and joy in little moments
like that and I have been trying to teach my boys to do the same. <strong><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><o:p></o:p></span></strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">TRISH – I love to walk
and I love Jazzercise. Being outdoors with my family is also wonderful –
skiing, hiking, and riding bicycles together. On most Mondays, I do a healing
rosary with a group of other moms. It’s so peaceful to sit in a room of
faith-filled women, such a moment of quiet in a busy week.<u1:p></u1:p><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;">
<strong><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Where
is your happy place in Houston?<u1:p></u1:p></span></strong><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">SARAH – For me, it’s
walking around Rice University. I really enjoy walking under those beautiful
live oaks. If Trish and I need to get
together to work something out, the two of us will go all the way round and we
are fast! We are probably the only one the other one can walk with.<u1:p></u1:p><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">TRISH – She’s right. We
are both power-walkers. I walk with other friends when they ask me, but then
they say they can’t keep up with me because I’m too fast. Sarah’s the only one
who can match me, other than my husband.<u1:p></u1:p><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">SARAH – The two of us <i>work</i> at the same frenetic pace and we <i>walk</i> at the same frenetic pace! We do
very well together.<u1:p></u1:p><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">TRISH – My happy place
is my home. I am so grateful to have my family and friends in it. The more the
merrier.<u1:p></u1:p><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;">
<strong><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">What
is your favorite restaurant?<u1:p></u1:p></span></strong><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">TRISH – My kitchen!<u1:p></u1:p><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">SARAH – Yes! Her
kitchen! Trish is an amazing cook!<u1:p></u1:p><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">TRISH – We cook as a
family and so enjoy those times together. We also have so many great options we
can walk to in Rice Village. We love Café Rabelais. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">SARAH – We walk to the
Village – it’s just so easy. And there are so many great choices. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">If
you could change one thing about Houston…<u1:p></u1:p></span></strong><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">SARAH – Mosquitoes!<u1:p></u1:p><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">TRISH – Zoning! My
neighborhood is where we’ve had the big struggle over the Ashby high rise.
Although I love our neighborhoods – all of them – I just wish that we had a
better framework for building in our city.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Who would be your own Inspiring Houston Woman?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">TRISH -
The woman I would like to nominate is Anita Kruse. I am so crazy about her work. Anita taught my children the piano from when
they were three. She used to be the
music instructor at Poe Elementary, has a background in classical music and is
a songwriter and composer. I met her
when one of my neighbors, an MD Anderson Hospital doctor, asked me if I would
write a press release about a CD Anita wanted to do. It was a Christmas CD and she wanted to give
the proceeds to MD Anderson, and there was born the idea of Purple Songs Can
Fly. I helped her to build a recording
studio at Texas Children’s Cancer Center where children with cancer and their
siblings can write and record their experiences through music. Anita is so
inspiring to me. She started her own non-profit, a few people came together to
help fund it and get it off the ground, and now each child gets a purple CD. The songs have literally been in outer
space. She is just awesome. <o:p></o:p></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.479999542236328px;"> </span><i>To read Inspiring Houston Women's interview with Anita Kruse, <a href="http://www.inspiringhoustonwomen.com/2014/01/anita-kruse.html"><span style="color: blue;">click here</span></a>.</i></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">SARAH – I would like to nominate Susan Fordice who is now
the CEO of Mental Health America in Greater Houston. We met her when she
was the Chief Operating Officer and she was a very early supporter of Positive
Works and has remained so. She has such a passion for advocating for a
better understanding of mental health and getting rid of the stigma. She has a
great line, “Putting the head back on the body”, understanding the whole person
and making it okay to talk about what is such a tough and challenging issue. I
think she’s amazing. Talk about someone who puts everything she has into
what she does! </span><o:p></o:p><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To read Inspiring Houston Women's interview with Susan Fordice, <a href="http://www.inspiringhoustonwomen.com/2014/04/susan-fordice.html"><span style="color: blue;">click here</span></a>.</i></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For more information about Sarah and Trish's work and about +Works, visit the campaign's website at: <a href="http://www.positivethinkingworks.org/">http://www.positivethinkingworks.org/</a></span></i></div>
Caroline Leechhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00577580003627430304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9095899061562578820.post-60499703794372694522013-10-27T07:15:00.000-05:002013-10-27T07:15:52.364-05:00Ten down, how many still to go?<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">A huge thank you to everyone who has visited, read,
commented on and Liked my first ten days of interviews with eleven amazing and Inspiring Houston
Women.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">I promised a festival of
inspiration to launch the blog and I think that’s what we’ve had, but now it is
time for a calmer routine to begin!</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">From this week, I will aim to post one interview every
Friday as I follow up all the inspirational women suggested by each woman I have
interviewed. As you can imagine, I
already have a long list in my notebook of women who inspire them, inspire me
and I know, inspire many others. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">As Tina
Hultén said in her interview last week, “<span style="background: white;">What I
like the best about Houston is that people want to do the best they can.
I think people work hard but they really have a desire for quality.” I couldn’t agree more, Tina. In this city, people seem to strive
constantly to do better for themselves, for their families, for their
communities and for their city.</span> Somehow, I don’t think I will ever run
out of women to interview. And that’s
all good.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Cheers</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><i><span style="font-family: 'Bradley Hand ITC'; line-height: 18px;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Caroline</span></span></i></b></div>
Caroline Leechhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00577580003627430304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9095899061562578820.post-15780681908951780682013-10-25T09:55:00.000-05:002013-10-25T10:14:28.856-05:00Elaine Green and Fran Wilcox<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNkV_7jWHI_8IAFekaDTDVhDOp4L2nvOUpZGQTXGJSTRHhsX1Hu1ZNxwcPHa5l43P3HfMyc-ISqSG1t4An-GQdumyQNsgBzEynldk0XWQ9JauyzAG183OF3vAeuBW5Q9hR-QqFdloRG71V/s1600/Elaine+Green+and+Fran+Wilcox+00071+main+portrait.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="color: black;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNkV_7jWHI_8IAFekaDTDVhDOp4L2nvOUpZGQTXGJSTRHhsX1Hu1ZNxwcPHa5l43P3HfMyc-ISqSG1t4An-GQdumyQNsgBzEynldk0XWQ9JauyzAG183OF3vAeuBW5Q9hR-QqFdloRG71V/s400/Elaine+Green+and+Fran+Wilcox+00071+main+portrait.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Elaine Green (left) and Fran Wilcox</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Elaine Green and Fran Wilcox are the Special
Education teachers at Lamar High School. Together they manage a class of
students with a variety of learning and physical disabilities. They also work
closely with their students’ parents to plan for the transition into further
education or employment after graduation. Elaine has been a teacher her whole
working life, but before teaching, Fran was a professional musician, playing
the horn in orchestras and bands internationally.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">What are your stories, Elaine and Fran?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">ELAINE</span></b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> – When we both first came to work together
at Lamar, I didn’t know her and she didn’t know me. We’d met once because we
both worked in Special Education, but to be honest I was a bit leery. We would
be sharing this classroom for eight hours a day and what if we didn’t share an
educational philosophy? It could not work out well, but actually, it has.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">FRAN</span></b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> – Our strengths are totally different and it
is totally brilliant the way we work together. Green’s a detailed person…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">ELAINE</span></b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> – … and she’s a global person. There are
times when I say, “I just can’t see that…” but she just gets it immediately. It
is almost a marriage made in heaven. We haven’t had a spat yet and this is our
15<sup>th</sup> year together in this room. Strangely enough we found that we both
have the same teaching philosophies and these days, I can say something and she
will have been ready to say the same thing or vice versa. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">We had
met once before. I was at Fondren Middle School for about 100 years – ok, for
23 years – and we used to put on this little dance at Christmas which the kids
loved. We we invited the participating high schools and that was when Fran was
at Lee High School, and the day she came over for that was the only time we’d
met before we had to work together.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">FRAN</span></b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> – Yes, and you had on that really nice
dress. I remember thinking, wow, she’s very dressed up. Maybe I need to tidy up
my act a bit!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">ELAINE</span></b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> – We both decided to come to Lamar at the same
time and we’ve worked out well. At
first, we had a struggle because people expected us to do the same thing as the
previous teacher. But I’m sure when we leave here, people will say, “Miss Green
and Miss Wilcox used to do blah blah” too.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Anyway,
I’m a native Houstonian. I am a mother of two, a widow of ten years, and my
kids are 33 and 28. One is in Dallas, he’s an artist and works for the Museum
of Modern Art in Fort Worth as an educational curator, so he somehow got into
education too. My other one went into architecture. He’s a project manager in
construction here in Houston. I take a lot of pride in them both. You know, you
want your kids to be happy first of all, whatever their area is. I do take a
lot of pride in knowing that they are ok and that they’ve found their niche.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">When I
was at school, and before I even graduated from Westbury High School, I just
knew I wanted to be a teacher. I was in the Future Teachers of America back
then and so I went to college to train and somewhere along the line I thought
that I’d like to do Special Education. I didn’t have a cousin or a sibling with
special needs, I didn’t know anyone, but I just really wanted to do that. Then
I decided to get certified in Special Education and Elementary Education at the
same time. When I started teaching Special Ed, I thought I’d do that for a few
years and then go to teach elementary. Well, forty years later, here I sit.
I’ve never done anything else. But she’s got a much more interesting story!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">FRAN</span></b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> – I was born in New Jersey and had an
undergraduate degree in Music Education, K through 12. I wanted to have
performance degree but my parents would not allow me to do that, they said I
had to have something to fall back on. But I knew was never going to be a Band
Director. I did my student teaching with the band and I had no patience. I was
really fortunate when I did my student teaching that I got to work with some
students with hearing impairments and I absolutely loved that room. The kids in
there were great and asked if I could do that full time instead, but they
wouldn’t let me. But I knew right then that if I could never play my horn
again, I would want to work with kids with special needs, I just knew it. But I
went to Rice with a music fellowship and then played professionally in
Colombia, South America, for a while. When I came back, I played with the
Houston Ballet, substituted with the Houston Symphony and did the Opera tour. Then
I developed Bells’ Palsy in my face and that pretty much ended my career overnight.
I was 31.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I still
play in a Czech band – my dad’s side of the family is Czech so it’s one of
those ‘get in touch with your roots’ things – but these days I’m at the back
only playing the up-beats. I put the PAH in the <i>oompah</i>! I think I could keel over back there and nobody would notice! You see, because the Bells’ Palsy affected
the nerve at the front of my face, sometimes I sound horrible and sometimes I
sound great and think, hey, I wish I could still do this! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">So I
needed to find another career and it was always in the back of my mind that I
had really enjoyed those kids from student teaching. I ended up working in vocational
rehab and from there to managing a workshop for adults with hearing impairments
and addictions and some folks with mental health issues. It was there that I
was really introduced to the Life Skills population. I didn’t really enjoy it,
but two women I worked with asked why I didn’t become a self-contained teacher
because I loved working with all the clients, but I wasn’t very good at
managing the staff. I did my Alternative Certification instead and ended up at Lee,
then Houston Community College, and then I came to Lamar and that’s history.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">On a
personal level, because I was a musician, it took a long time for me to really
settle down, but now I have a very important relationship in my life, and my
sister and her family are down here and they are super important to me. I’m
very close to my nieces, my sister and her husband and then I have my family at
home in New Jersey. I’m the oldest of six. My sister Cathy is a teacher’s
assistant working with special needs kids, and I am very proud of her.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Why do you do what you do?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">ELAINE</span></b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> – At the moment we have 20 kids in the
class, but we’ve had 34 at one time, it was nuts in here! We’ve never wanted
this classroom to be a ‘holding tank’ so to speak. Our goal is to get the kids involved
with the school and not to be the ‘group down in the basement’. We want to make
them as independent as possible and that’s been our goal from the very beginning.
I guess if you get to the point where
you don’t get some kind of gratification from that work, then it’s time to say
‘hang it up’, but we still both do. When one of the kids does something
wonderful, it’s still very rewarding, and that’s the bottom line. We do it because
we both love it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">FRAN</span></b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> – Yup, we just love these kids.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div style="text-align: left;">
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicyOaLf8X17dkusBu7W0DP7SYbOsxyvv1K54i1PEUIi_xPs8JVCNFUewoTw1K-NvoeLDiKuFFJw6pK-Yq1AD0e5OgH2hqP1p6R0S4T81G2Y863HDOQ4T1F-Bux06ZVfBaLDnKORTtntKEG/s1600/Collage.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="182" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicyOaLf8X17dkusBu7W0DP7SYbOsxyvv1K54i1PEUIi_xPs8JVCNFUewoTw1K-NvoeLDiKuFFJw6pK-Yq1AD0e5OgH2hqP1p6R0S4T81G2Y863HDOQ4T1F-Bux06ZVfBaLDnKORTtntKEG/s640/Collage.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">At a Lamar High School Pep Rally - October 2013<br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />
<b><br /></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><b>What advice would you give to someone coming
new to teaching in Special Education?<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">FRAN</span></b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> – Volunteer first! Because Green and I have
such a good relationship, we can spell each other. Sometimes if she needs to do paperwork or
call a parent she’ll go into our office, and I’ll cover the class room. We
figured that out for each other, but if you were just a single teacher, I’d
don’t know how you would do it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">ELAINE</span></b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> – That’s right, keeping on top of the paperwork
can be very daunting. There are so many state requirements, even for the regular
teachers. My niece came and volunteered in here with us a while ago and then
decided she wanted to become a teacher too. Because she had volunteered first,
she knew what she was getting into. I guess that would be my advice, you need
to know that all of the stuff, the paperwork etc, can take away from what you
want to do. Sometimes I say in meetings, “If we didn’t have the kids, we could
keep up with all the paperwork! These darn kids just get in our way!” I’m
joking of course, but that’s how it feels sometimes. The kids must be our
priority, and although this other stuff is essential it must come second with
us.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">FRAN</span></b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> – I’d say if your passion is to work with
our guys, just keep it pure. And you do have to have a passion – we both still have
that passion. Even on days when we know we are dragging, the kids just spark us
and we get so much from them. To share their “Aha!” moments and their laughs if
they get a joke is just wonderful. We had a few minutes spare today and we
played Hangman together on the board. Everyone was involved and laughing, it
was great.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">How to do you find, or seek to find, balance
in your life?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">ELAINE</span></b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> – We both have friends, but we are also friends
with each other outside school too. We go out together sometimes after school
and have Mexican food and a margarita. We talk about the day and try to work
out how to fix things. We’ve even, at a restaurant, got a napkin and drawn up a
list of pros and cons for a problem. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">FRAN</span></b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> – Sometimes we get our toenails done too!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">ELAINE</span></b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> – We also take yoga, and that’s our gift to
ourselves. We don’t let anyone interfere with our Tuesday afternoons. We have a
group of ladies that get together to do yoga and then go get dinner after that.
We all get our balance and then we get our food!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">FRAN</span></b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> – As well as that, I love to ride my bike
and I used to run marathons, because of that I have this whole world of friends.
I’ve just bought a kayak so that’s a new adventure. I paddled to the Christmas
lights down in Dickinson last year – you decorate your canoe and paddle at
night which was the most fun thing. And I love bird-watching. I’m real
diversified and I have all sorts of groups of friends. I’m really not a wild child or anything, but
I don’t stop still very often.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">What does Houston mean to you?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">ELAINE</span></b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> – For me, it’s roots. I didn’t pick Houston,
I was born here, my parents were here and my husband’s parents were here, so
it’s about roots. I met my husband in high school and when we got married after
college and I guess Houston means family to us. We bought a house ten minutes
from where we each lived because we wanted to be around our parents as they got
older, which we were. We were just a phone call away and we had many of those
between the two sets of parents as they got older.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Now my
children may break the link to Houston, but that’s ok, I want them to be happy.
They are both of them looking further afield, and that’s fine because it’ll
give me some nice place to visit.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">FRAN</span></b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> – I loved playing my horn because it allowed
me to travel. I travelled around Europe on a rail pass with a brass quartet and
we travelled all over. I also love all things British and I did once apply for
a scholarship to a school in London. I had a dream of living in one of these
little villages where Miss Marple would have lived, where you could ride your
bike and there were flowers everywhere, that would have been my ideal, even if
New Jersey was always my home. At first Houston was just about my job, but now
I have a lot of friends here, and I like Houston now, though it took a while
for me to settle.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Where is your happy place in Houston?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">ELAINE</span></b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> – Probably at my home with my family and my
dogs, that’s my happy place. And also on my yoga mat. It’s very easy for me to
find a happy place at yoga. For ten years we’ve been doing it and we consider
it a gift to ourselves. It took me about two years to get to that point where
things weren’t buzzing around my head, but now I find that spot on my mat and
all of that other stuff outside is gone for an hour. Occasionally I have to
fight to get it out but most times it’s just gone.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">FRAN</span></b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> – I have several. On the couch, just being quiet,
or sitting on the back porch watching the birds at the many bird feeders we
have. We feed the hummingbirds and we see all the migratory birds come by, which
is really cool. And I love being out on my bike in the country and actually, I’m
happy in the classroom too, and also with my sister and her kids. You know, I
have lots of happy places, I’m just quite a happy person.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">What is your favorite restaurant?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">FRAN</span></b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> – Carmelita’s on Bellaire Boulevard is right
between both our houses, and then there’s El Ranchero and …<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">ELAINE</span></b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> – Basically, we just love Mexican neighborhood
restaurants!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">What is your Houston secret?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">ELAINE</span></b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> – I think a secret that many people don’t
know about is the beer can house. I saw it years ago as a child and then again
recently with the kids. It’s off Washington, right in the middle of all these
homes and people come from all over just to see it. The man who made it has
gone but it’s still maintained by the same people that run the Art Car Parade –
and that’s another Houston secret that everyone should know about, it’s
fantastic! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">And of
course, there are the bats on Waugh Drive. Unlike in Austin where the bats go
away on migration, our bats never leave. Bats all year round! Aren’t we lucky? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">FRAN</span></b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> – It’s not really Houston, but a great day
out from here is to Brazos Bend State Park to see the alligators, it’s just
fantastic, and there’s amazing birdlife too. Also, there’s the Azalea Trail
here in the spring which is also a wonderful thing to go to. We rode our bikes
one year, and ate at every stop! The azaleas have such a short blooming time,
it’s really worth going to see.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">If you could change one thing about Houston…<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">ELAINE</span></b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> – the summer heat, it’s just too hot. When
even the kids can’t go out to play, it’s just too much, even for us natives.</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">FRAN</span></b><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> – Absolutely right, and <span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">because it’s hot most people don’t get
to know their neighbors very well because we stay indoors for the greater part
of the year</span>, which is a shame.</span></div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
Caroline Leechhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00577580003627430304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9095899061562578820.post-88202048369612059332013-10-24T11:20:00.002-05:002013-10-24T11:20:54.169-05:00Anne Chandler<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQbqdk96iwrdVg_0ByosUg_uHO8OG9xXAIdskiDv2QoaJdMhcpLhFpXZw1pQEORY3flOPQs8nBr9plGO0hy0ENyKhWfqD-7ULS116zTQ_87NIo9p-exPn3dHd1gV1udUzqrwWU1oczKgnT/s1600/Anne+Chandler+_0870+main+portrait.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQbqdk96iwrdVg_0ByosUg_uHO8OG9xXAIdskiDv2QoaJdMhcpLhFpXZw1pQEORY3flOPQs8nBr9plGO0hy0ENyKhWfqD-7ULS116zTQ_87NIo9p-exPn3dHd1gV1udUzqrwWU1oczKgnT/s400/Anne+Chandler+_0870+main+portrait.jpg" width="285" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Anne Chandler is the Director of the Tahirih Justice
Center in Houston. Before she joined
Tahirih in 2009, she was </span></i><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Clinical Professor for the University of Houston Law Center
where she served as the Interim Director of the Immigration Law Clinic. Anne
has three sons, Ben, Jacob and Alex.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">What’s your story, Anne?</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">First,
my family – I have three boys. Ben is 24 and after college he moved back to
Houston and is now a CPA. Then I have Joseph in high school and Alex in middle
school. I have always enjoyed being active and having fun with them. I coached them
in Little League, YMCA soccer and West U soccer. Of course, my two younger ones
are now at an age where they don’t even want me near them! You know how it
goes, “If you are going to sit on the sidelines, Mom, please be on the end… and
be quiet!” So I guess I have a shifting role now, but perhaps I might get that
role back when the grandchildren come, so we’ll have to wait!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I came to
Houston from Sonoma County in Northern California for law school because the
University of Houston and the University of Texas offered a joint Public Health
and Law degree. Also Texas had the border with Mexico and I always knew that I
wanted to do something cross-border. After I graduated, I stayed on here and
met my husband, Seth, who is originally from Houston. We have been married 15
years and he’s a law professor at the University of Houston, as I used to be.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">My
career has been working in under-privileged legal groups, specifically immigrant
refugee populations. That quickly turned into a focus on unaccompanied women
and children. I had the opportunity to teach and run an immigration law clinic
at the UH Law Center which I did for seven years. We developed an academic
focus in working with women who’d been trafficked and with vulnerable children
who had been abused, work which enhanced our students’ skills in representing
immigrants as they fight deportation. I loved that. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I knew of
the Tahirih Justice Centre in Washington DC because we had collaborated on some
cases and when Tahirih decided to open a second office in Houston, I decided to
leave the Law Center and dive back into the world of representing the most
vulnerable immigrants. That happened four years ago and I have not regretted it
one bit. It meant learning a lot of new skill sets, such as managing an office and
doing fundraising work, but I’ve enjoyed every second.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The Tahirih
Board chose Houston because they wanted to have more impact on protecting
immigrant women who were fleeing severe forms of violence. Though they were
doing a good job in DC, with quality fundraising and representation, they knew
from a public policy standpoint on legislation, they would still be speaking
from the voices of women only in the DC area. In choosing Houston, they looked
at the strength of the legal community because we partner with law firms who
take on cases on our behalf. Although we work closely with them, the majority
of client time is with these volunteer attorneys. The Board also looked at
demographic need, and their ability to raise funds in that city. Although they
looked very seriously at Chicago, Los Angeles and New York, Houston rose to the
top, mainly because of the demographic need, but also because the outstanding hub
of law firms here. Once the Houston decision was made, they wanted to hire
someone locally, someone who knew the landscape, and that’s I how came to join
the Tahirih family.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">In the
very early days we only had one social worker and a legal assistant – I didn’t
hire another attorney until Year 3 – but then we started getting grants and other
support, so now we have four attorneys who liaise with the clients and the
volunteer attorneys. Though our attorneys are relatively young, because a lot
of our cases have complex legal patterns, both in client management and in
having novel legal things to consider, I am always there to support them. Not
that I necessarily know the answers immediately, but because of my experience, I
can identify and reach out to the networks of people who will know. So I sit in
on all the major case acceptance meetings for cases that are heading towards
litigation and also if there’s a bigger situation such as a trafficking bust.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">We work
with all levels of law enforcement, from the Texas Rangers to the FBI and
Customs and Border Patrol, the Houston Police Department to the Sherriff’s
office. The way that immigration laws work is that in cases of domestic
servitude, debt bondage and trafficking, it is pretty critical that an immigrant
woman be willing to work with law enforcement if she is not to be deported. But
sometimes the women that we work with aren’t quite ready to do that, because of
trauma, distress or fear, so we work with the women to get them to the stage where
they can work with the law enforcement agencies and rebuild their lives in
safety. Sadly, sometimes the law enforcement officers meet with our clients and
say that there’s nothing they can do because of a technical aspect of the law. Other
times, however, they are already working on the case because our client is only
one of many women and indeed, sometimes they will bring a case to us. Many times
they’ve already done the investigation and then come to us for legal assistance
for the women involved.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Trafficking
is one of the types of harm that our clients have faced. One of the more
significant, in terms of attorney hours, is a combination of cases where women
have fled some atrocious violence abroad and their primary fear is of being
returned to their home country. In such cases, we are working with the international
refugee definition which was drawn up in the aftermath of World War Two. That definition
says that we, as a nation state in the international community, shall protect
individuals who have suffered persecution or who face persecution if they are
returned home. The way it was written, it protects people from persecution
because of their religion, race, nationality, social status, political beliefs
or because they belong to a certain social group, but <u>not</u> specifically because
of their gender. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">In
subsequent years, the European Union, the United Kingdom and Canada set up gender
guidelines to the refugee definition, but here in the United States, no guidelines
were ever confirmed, despite Janet Reno’s best efforts when she was Attorney
General. Therefore our judges literally have nothing to work with except for
case law, and that is sporadic, confusing, and dubious at best. It was, in
fact, this problem that led originally to the founding of the Tahirih Justice
Center. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Layli
Miller-Muro, now our Executive Director, handled a case when she was a summer
intern during law school. She represented a young lady who was fleeing Togo
under threat of an arranged marriage and female genital mutilation. Though her
father had always protected her and wanted her to have an education and a
career, when he died, the rights and decisions about what would happen to her shifted
to an uncle. He was horrified that she hadn’t already been subject to genital circumcision
and also that she still wasn’t married. Her mom and sister helped her escape to
the United States, but here the immigration officials offered her two options,
to get back on the plane or go to jail for a long time. The girl chose to stay
and go to jail. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">When
she appeared in court requesting refugee status and told her story, the judge denied
her case, stating that this was a cultural family matter and had nothing to do
with the refugee definition. Layli argued that women in certain cultures who
defied that culture’s rules by refusing genital mutilation should be construed
as a “particular social group”. They launched a big press campaign in DC about
female genital mutilation, discussing the horrendous statistics of the
psychological and physical damage caused from such mutilation. They also argued
that the arranged marriage to a much older man would be tantamount to rape. Ultimately,
the higher court found that the young lady from Togo was fleeing persecution on
account of her membership in a particular social group of </span><span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">young women of the Tchamba-Kunsuntu Tribe who had not suffered female
genital mutilation and who opposed the practice</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">. The girl's name was Fauziya Kassindja and after three years of being in
detention in different jails, she was free and new case law was developed based
on her fight for justice. She and Layli wrote a book together, <i>Do they hear when you cry?</i> and the
proceeds went to establish our Center. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">In
Houston we also have also dealt with a number of honor killing cases out of
Pakistan, Iran and Libya, where a woman has been perceived as defying or
shaming her family. We have also represented other women fleeing female genital
mutilation, a forced marriage, or severe forms of domestic violence. In cases
where the violence occurs within a family relationship, we have to show that
there is nowhere a woman is able to go within that country to be safe and that
the police and the court system will not protect her. Those are really
difficult burdens of evidence to show.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">We also
protect immigrant women who are living in a violent domestic relationship here
in the greater Houston area. For example, a woman might live here with a
husband with an immigrant visa, but if she leaves that relationship, her status
is gone. So when there is violence in those relationships, it is difficult for
a woman to know what to do. But that’s where we can help with getting
recognition of her own immigration status and getting her the power to work
before she goes into a deportation or custody hearing.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Why do you do what you do?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Our
work is heartbreaking on a daily basis, but it feels so good that we are there.
I look at the women who come to us and I wonder if I was in that situation,
would I have that courage? Probably not. So usually, I am both touched and
really motivated to serve. It is their strength that keeps us all doing it. At
Tahirih, we have a 99% litigation record which is incredibly satisfying. It’s a
great feeling to take a call from a woman and be able to say, “The law protects
you and we can help you access that law.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">To
watch these incredibly generous <i>pro bono</i>
lawyers step up and take each case is also amazing, and I’ve had lawyers come
to me and say, “<u>This</u> is why I went to law school! How can I support you
more?” The attorneys I work with are incredibly giving and gracious and bright.
And of course we also get to work with academic experts all over the world who help
us explain to a judge what cultural reasons prevent a woman being safe if she
is forced to return to her home country. They too give us their time for free, as
do the medical professionals who help us document injuries or give support when
the safety net of free medical care breaks down. Every day I have a lot of
reasons to be grateful that I am going to work.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">What does Houston mean to you?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Houston
people are incredibly generous and kind in a way that I haven’t experienced in
other places I’ve lived. Whether it’s the heat that makes everyone slow down a
little, I don’t know, but it’s a very open city and welcoming to new individuals
and to new endeavors. And Houston sucks you in very quickly! I would not leave
now, and I can even say that in August! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Who has been the greatest influence on your
life?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">It would
probably be my mother though she passed away at a younger age. She was a
theater teacher in a high school in California and she had a lot of spark and a
commitment to helping folks around her, and she was persistent. I remember
coming home one day and there was a boy sitting at our table who was perhaps
14, and she said, “This is now our new son!” It turned out that he was being
beaten at home and he’d written an essay about it, so mom helped him get out of
there. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">She
always taught me, “We don’t have to accept this if we can change it.” For
example, I remember as a kid shopping with my mom and she realized that the
boys’ tailoring was free but for the girls’ you had to pay, so she made a huge
fuss about it. She demanded that alterations to a pair of pants were done for
free. By that time, I didn’t even want
the pants, I just wanted to get out of there! But there was such integrity within
her that I learned about achieving justice for people. She had such a love for
the community, it really has influenced me.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">What advice would you give to someone new to the
law?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Don’t
forget about balance. Your career is one thing, but it doesn’t lead to
happiness. You’ve got to follow some true caretaking advice and ask yourself
how are you going to be part of a larger community, because at least for me
I’ve seen what really makes you happy is your family, your community and giving
back.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">So how to do you find, or seek to find,
balance in your life?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I’m
blessed that at Tahirih we value flexibility in order to have harmony between
work and life. So I would say to a newcomer, don’t forget that – family is
critical to happiness.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Where is your happy place in Houston?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">On the
soccer field! I play for various teams in Houston and it’s fun. It’s just a
great bunch of friends running around together! Being in a team does something
for me. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">What is your favorite restaurant?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">There
are so many to choose from, but I would say Goode Company Barbecue, though we must
sit outside and it has to be at least October!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">What is your Houston secret?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Houston
is so demographically rich, and the <i>Hua
Xia</i> Chinese School is one of the many amazing Chinese Mandarin schools in
town. Everyone there is incredibly welcoming and friendly, and it offers the
most amazing teachers for foreign languages. I first found <i>Hua Xia </i>when Joseph and Alex<i> </i>were
attending extended day at their elementary school. A teacher came in from <i>Hua Xia</i> to teach them Mandarin, but he
disguised it as teaching them origami and my boys both loved it and the teacher.
So when he left, they demanded to follow him to <i>Hua Xia</i> so they could continue to learn from him. I tried to learn
Chinese too, but I was really bad! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">If you could change one thing about Houston…<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">We have
a fantastic community here in Braes Heights – our ball fields, our YMCA, our library
and our great elementary and middle schools. But I’d love there to be a way
that we could extend some resources to help other communities to have that same
cohesion. We have a very strong neighborhood association and we have a strong
Constable so the neighborhood’s safe. If I don’t get home on time and my kids
are in the house, I’m not worried. A lot of other communities are almost there,
but I wish we could recreate all those essential elements in many more
neighborhoods in the city, in particular the type of neighborhoods that my
clients come from, where they are too scared to let their kids leave their
apartment building.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.tahirih.org/" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgP9NYVDKUjgn_FkdPobry9QNUUv9JfnXfJlXVd2ZkNOySpU5232JV6KI-FgaKNS1iAB1cHyHayoXEL13pvahPdoNAnwi8Ze26ZKPxpG4kdld_TFITaLCKk1UIMV6WX_A83M6JnANF5kHcs/s1600/ad-becomealifesaver.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">For
more information about the work Anne and her team do at the Tahirih Justice
Center, visit <a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/Caroline/Downloads/www.tahirih.org">www.tahirih.org</a>.</span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Do they hear when you cry?</span></i><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"> by Layli Miller-Muro
and Fauziya Kassindja is published by Delacorte Press (1998)</span></div>
Caroline Leechhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00577580003627430304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9095899061562578820.post-33883578400772377402013-10-23T09:00:00.000-05:002013-10-23T11:26:49.085-05:00Diane Zola<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVWzGLCKd4QeDqUn216AOf7HBc3mWcit1EXc0qeK66L4eNo-P6ZBzZ2EeNi9UfN1Te_6r8x2_kAtgqzmxme95PC3YrZB_pUukReWGRhX1fkeokjn097sXTmSi66fUTfY17LueZ2fuHlAQR/s1600/Diane+Zola_0912+-+main+portrait.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: black;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVWzGLCKd4QeDqUn216AOf7HBc3mWcit1EXc0qeK66L4eNo-P6ZBzZ2EeNi9UfN1Te_6r8x2_kAtgqzmxme95PC3YrZB_pUukReWGRhX1fkeokjn097sXTmSi66fUTfY17LueZ2fuHlAQR/s400/Diane+Zola_0912+-+main+portrait.jpg" width="265" /></span></a></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Diane Zola is the Director of Artistic
Administration for Houston Grand Opera (HGO), having joined the company as
Director of the young artist program, the Houston Grand Opera Studio. She also assisted
the Bolshoi Opera in Moscow create its own young artist program. She began her
career as an opera singer and continues to give masterclasses to singers at
major opera houses and music festivals all over the world and regularly served
on the judging panels for prestigious international vocal competitions. In 2012, she suffered severe injuries when
she was hit by a car, but continued her work for HGO throughout her recovery in
hospital and her rehabilitation period at home.</span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">What’s your story, Diane?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">My
grandparents emigrated from Ukraine to Canada and both of my parents grew up as
Canadians. My mom had been teaching in the States and when they got married
they decided to live in the States permanently. My parents became US citizens
after my sister and I were born. I think having that heritage is really
important in everything I do. We were very ethnically-oriented and committed to
the Ukrainian Catholic Church; I grew up with a mother and a father who felt it
was essential to give back and to do things for
people and to help someone who was down. I think that has impacted my life
tremendously.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I grew
up in Detroit at a time before the city started its downward spiral, when it was
an exciting city with a lot going on. Ours was a really musical family, my poor
mother was my first piano teacher and I think I caused her probably more agony during
those piano lessons than any other pupil she taught. My dad had a wonderful
tenor voice and sang in the church choir with me and my sister. I played the piano and the violin – I also
played the trombone for one year in my senior year at high school, learning just
enough to be the third trombone in the jazz band.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">We also
had a real interest in other countries and other nationalities’ customs. I couldn’t understand how you could live in a
city like Detroit and not go over the river to Canada. There were so many
people I was at school with who had never been to Windsor, or had never taken a
trip to Toronto which was less than four hours away! The one big regret in my life is that I
didn’t learn to speak Ukrainian fluently. It was not because our parents didn’t
try, it is a skill I really could have used later in my life, especially now
with my work in Eastern Europe.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I
wanted to be a singer from the time I was 16. Before that I wanted to be a
teacher or a nun, or both. I remember my mom saying, “If you’re going to enter
the convent, then you are going to go to university and live out in the world
first.” Then by the time I was 16, I had realized that I had a talent that
people said was somewhat special and after that, I just wanted to sing. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I was
maybe at times a little too focused on just the singing, I could have broadened
some horizons, but I put everything I had into it. I struggled for a lot of
years though I had some success. Because
I had played the violin for so long, I had a big interest in orchestral music
and chamber music and I used to go to all those concerts while I was in school.
I feel it helped round me out to be the person I am and gave me what I bring to
work in my job today. I have a rounded esthetic
for singers and music-making, about how voices carry, how well I hear someone
singing a role and how different it is to sing Strauss as opposed to Verdi or
Wagner to Mozart. I have an
understanding of all that.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">However,
I had a voice that people didn’t know what to do with. I had a really high
voice, but I also had what I would describe as an Eastern European sound with steel
to it. I was floundering for a year after getting my Masters, so I cooked in a
monastery in Toronto for a year while I lived with my aunt and uncle. These
wonderful priests had known me since I was young because my uncle belonged to
the order. They ran a high school and there was another lady from the Ukraine
who cooked too so when I wasn’t cooking I did proofreading for the Ukrainian
English magazine. It was a fascinating year for me, but I was still struggling
with what to do vocally, so I started my doctorate at the University of Texas. My
parents so wanted me to finish my doctorate because everyone felt that I could
teach then, but I really didn’t want to teach in a voice studio. So finally I
said, “That’s it!” and I moved to New York so that I could struggle with a lot
of other performers there! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I
worked in a law firm and I actually worked alongside Renee Fleming who is now
an internationally-renowned soprano! We both worked there along with about 25
other singers and they’d let us come and go. So I’d go to Europe for a while
and then come back to New York and there would still be a job for me. Finally though,
one has to face reality. I had certain dreams – I wanted to be married, I
wanted to have children and I wanted to sing – and none of those things were
happening! Finally a job came up at Columbia Artists Management. I was someone
who helped a lot of people. With my singer friends, I took care of them,
of their mail and their personal responsibilities when they were away, and I
went to performances like crazy so I knew voices and the repertoire. I ended up being an artists’ manager for ten
years, at Columbia Artists for a while and then I founded my own management. In
that time, I also travelled for a while with mezzo-soprano, Dolora Zajick,<b> </b>as her personal assistant and I also
drove Tatiana Troyanos, who was my personal idol. I think she was one of the
greatest singers who ever walked the face of the earth. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I was then bought out by a medium-sized management and as much
as I loved the work I was doing with the singers, I found it challenging and at
times disappointing. As an agent, you are never really part of the artistic
process and that bothered me. If things went well, you never really had a part in
it, and if things didn’t go well, it was all your fault! OK, I can be the bad
guy up to a point, but let’s be realistic, if you didn’t sing well, it’s not my
fault! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEix63wovdDX5dxq6kYXCdlOQCWGxXqXOgyRS2oNBuu8l83H1FC8Aj19JjYrG0q7l2p_6fUtoJyaet241MXTURYuscSf34ojIX_1VQ8_-JcswSl7s5GYTDqqU8KWPdLmX8W9B5D-ViFImgI8/s1600/Diane+Zola+coaching+at+CCM+Spoleto+-+photo+Betsy+Kershner+medium.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="color: black;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEix63wovdDX5dxq6kYXCdlOQCWGxXqXOgyRS2oNBuu8l83H1FC8Aj19JjYrG0q7l2p_6fUtoJyaet241MXTURYuscSf34ojIX_1VQ8_-JcswSl7s5GYTDqqU8KWPdLmX8W9B5D-ViFImgI8/s400/Diane+Zola+coaching+at+CCM+Spoleto+-+photo+Betsy+Kershner+medium.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Diane Zola giving a masterclass to young singers at the <br />
Cincinnati Conservatory of Music residency in Spoleto, Italy<br />
(photo by Betsy Kershner)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">During
that time I was managing a number of singers from the Houston Grand Opera Studio
so I was in Houston a lot. One of my dearest friends, Gayletha <span style="background: white;">Nichols, </span>was Director of the HGO Studio at the time – we
had met in Germany during the 1980s when we were both doing auditions. Gayletha and I would visit about
what we wanted to do with our lives and I said, “I really want to work for a
company and be part of a family where everyone is a team, and if things go well
you are part of that team and if things go badly, you are part of that team
also, not just a third wheel.” Then Gayletha received an invitation to go to the Met to be director of the National
Council Auditions and she said, “I really think you need to do this job.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I already
knew HGO’s General Director David Gockley, so I applied for the position and it
was quite a process to go through and then, all of a sudden I was moving to
Houston. I never thought I would leave New York City, but on my birthday, July
31<sup>st</sup>, 2000, I moved to Houston to be the Director of the Houston
Grand Opera Studio. It’s been an amazing
trip. I can’t believe I am in my 14<sup>th</sup> season at HGO.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">When
David Gockley left Houston for San Francisco, he took the Artistic
Administrator with him. So in September of 2005 I become HGO’s Artistic
Administrator. It was extremely challenging at first as I continued as the
Director of the HGO Studio for an additional 6 months, and tried to adapt to my
new position at the same time.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">It was
a challenge to let go of the Opera Studio in a lot of ways, but as time has gone
on, it’s has become easier. Plus I found
another way that I can still work with young singers. I have been going to
Moscow since 2001 to work with young singers there and had brought a number of
the young singers to Houston to be members of the Studio. Then the Bolshoi
Opera decided to start its own young artists program and asked me to act as their
consultant to help develop a business plan and launch their studio. That was so
exciting. I make maybe three trips to
Moscow each year. I’ve also been very active in judging vocal competitions, whether
it’s the Metropolitan Opera’s competition in New York or competitions elsewhere
in the States or in Europe. I was recently in Warsaw to judge the Moniuszcko
Competition. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Why do you do what you do?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">It’s
exciting to be at the very beginning of the process of a production, talking
about who the artists are going to be and talking to the directors and
conductors about the singers they want, then trying to put all the puzzle
pieces together. To watch it bloom like a flower on the stage is so
rewarding. I love what I do – most of
the time! We do sometimes have our disappointments.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I have
a great team that I work with, starting with Mark Lear, who is the Associate
Artistic Administrator. He is an amazing
support. Without Mark, I would truly be lost.
People like Mark are not working for themselves, they are working to
make HGO the very best we can make it, it’s so gratifying. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigkjJSueN460tLEfMLClvkbwU6KgLNIUzdK2iF1CmETQoA_1i5TFh8JBCq-GFLzlmsocR-WszrW3qBFynHxeg9_jTDnruJkVdo2CRoCn57F4vlcmu0HFF1jOJK98Cflp_j_NSevj9oH-b1/s1600/Diane+Zola+in+Daughter+of+the+Regiment+medium.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigkjJSueN460tLEfMLClvkbwU6KgLNIUzdK2iF1CmETQoA_1i5TFh8JBCq-GFLzlmsocR-WszrW3qBFynHxeg9_jTDnruJkVdo2CRoCn57F4vlcmu0HFF1jOJK98Cflp_j_NSevj9oH-b1/s400/Diane+Zola+in+Daughter+of+the+Regiment+medium.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Diane Zola as La Duchesse de Crackentorp in <br />HGO's <i>La Fille du Regiment</i> in 2007</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Sometimes
I think I’m a little selfish, and then I think, “But you are bringing such
beauty to the world, a beauty that the world needs.” Not everyone can be a
doctor and save lives, but I think maybe we save a soul or a heart once in a
while with the music we put on stage. It sounds a little Pollyanna-ish, but
that’s how I feel.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Who has been the greatest influence on your
life?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Overall
it’s my mom because she was someone who just loved learning and loved people. It was never too much to add one more person to
the family, whether it was an exchange student or a friend staying with us
while they were ill. This went on my whole life and that was part of both my
mom’s and my dad’s belief in being good Catholics, good Christians, and that
again has impacted me. You know, my
father was a saint! It would be one old lady after the next who was put in the
spare bedroom and he never complained! He would say to Mom, “We’ve got to do
this.” You know, one time they went to the station to pick up an exchange
student from Switzerland and when they got there, there were a handful of kids
from Liberia with nowhere to go, so they took one of them home. I grew up with
that esthetic, I was so fortunate.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">What advice would you give to a young singer
who was perhaps struggling, like you did, to find their place? <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I
always say that there is life after singing. Like a lot of young singers, I
felt my life would be over if I couldn’t sing, but life isn’t over at all. If
you want to stay in the field, there is so much to do, whether it’s teaching or
mentoring or working in a school or opera house. You know, what’s wrong with
putting together contracts and schedules?
It’s exciting and fulfilling. I think
that the biggest thing is to keep your options open, don’t ever think, “I’ll
never do that” because you should never say never. I learned that the hard way!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">How to do you find, or seek to find, balance
in your life?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">It’s
something I still struggle with. It’s
really easy when we are in the heat of production to have no balance at all. All
you do is come to work and go home and that doesn’t make for someone who uses
their time well. So I’ve been much more committed to making sure I am
exercising, especially after the two accidents I had.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">I was badly
injured when I was hit by a car last year and I struggled to recuperate. When I
was finally fit to travel again this spring, I went to Europe and I fell, breaking
my foot and my wrist. All that has given me a lot of pause for thought about
what I’m doing and why I’m doing it. It has also helped me think a lot more
about finding balance in life and remembering that you have to take time to
smell the roses.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Exercise
for me is now about building my body back. I have always struggled with my
weight, but now I am back on the Weight Watchers program and I’m really being
conscious of what I’m eating. I turned 60 this summer and I have to think
seriously about living alone, taking care of myself and trying to remain as
healthy as I possibly can. Sometimes that means giving up that piece of cake or
that hamburger – and I really love good hamburgers, and the French fries and
the glass of wine with it, but I was enjoying all of that a little too much in
the last year!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">But balance
is also about saying, “I’m turning the cell phone off right now for the rest of
the evening.” I never take a day when I don’t look at emails, but though I
still struggle with putting work away, I’ve made a commitment to put the cell
phone away when I go out for dinner with a friend, and that’s a big step. If we
are in production, it’s a little different because if an artist gets sick they
need to be able to contact me. But when we are not in production, it’s fine. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I also
made time this summer to go out to dinner and lunch more with friends – you say
all year that you are going to do it and then all of a sudden it’s September
and the start of the opera season, and then suddenly it’s May and you haven’t
done any of it. So I’ve been putting
myself out there a little more. I’ve also been making myself go to bed a little
earlier so I can read more. Reading is a real source of peace and it takes me
to another world which is really fabulous.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">What does Houston mean to you?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I’m
sure so many people are going to say this but, as a community, the generosity
of Houstonians is unbelievable. I saw this first hand when
I moved here in 2000, people took care of me and introduced me to the
city. Then last year, through my
struggles after the car accident when I couldn’t do anything, the help that I
received was truly incredible. I’ve also watched how people help the young
artists that come to Houston. I’m not talking about the people that give money,
though of course that is greatly appreciated, it’s about the people who give
their time, the people who do an extra ride into town to pick someone up to go
to the airport or take them to a doctor. You don’t see that generosity of time
and generosity of spirit in a lot of places.
I think that is what Houston means to me.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguuapykeZObAqD9VclSopzpIeyZSD7T9VZLos05uN8Zx4e_j4m47sa60WBiRvqOVvBCuON6LXw28MQ3Fc_BiU4xbNsx3Wfpzb_U0ZxCjn6YKEYMnqlSgdEwuEluCdrAhyrdwNDmHNLwvUP/s1600/Aida+pic+-+medium.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguuapykeZObAqD9VclSopzpIeyZSD7T9VZLos05uN8Zx4e_j4m47sa60WBiRvqOVvBCuON6LXw28MQ3Fc_BiU4xbNsx3Wfpzb_U0ZxCjn6YKEYMnqlSgdEwuEluCdrAhyrdwNDmHNLwvUP/s400/Aida+pic+-+medium.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Houston Grand Opera's AIDA<br />
with Dolora Zajick and Liudmiyla Monastyrska<br />
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">Photo by Lynn Lane</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Where is your happy place in Houston?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">That is
the hardest question! One of them is in
the Wortham Theater. When a production works, when it is just <i>going</i>, it makes me so proud. Not proud
of myself but proud what we have brought to the public, bringing a composer to
life or a singer that we are introducing to everyone, that’s a happy place for
me.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Another
happy place for me is to go to church at St Anne’s. I find real peace there,
even when I’m really pushed. We can go to mass a million different times
between Saturday night and Sunday night, but there’s a certain peace that I
find by going and just sitting being quiet.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I also
used to love to go to Memorial Park to walk, enjoying the trees and the
wildlife, but of course I can’t do that right now and I miss it. I would still
enjoy it, even with all the trees that are gone. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">What is your favorite restaurant?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">That’s
hard too, because Houston is so full of so many good restaurants, but I love
Backstreet Café. It’s in my neighborhood and I love that I can sit in a comfy cozy
room there or in the sunnier back room or, when the weather is beautiful in
January and February, I can sit outside. I love the food there, and I love to
go to Barnaby’s on Shepherd for hamburgers! I have French fries and a glass of
red wine and that for me is absolute heaven!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">What is your Houston secret?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I think
that the red beans and rice at Treebeards restaurant on Market Square just says
“Houston” to me, even though I know it’s really Cajun and from New Orleans.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">If you could change one thing about Houston…<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The
summer weather, without a doubt! I know people say that the humidity is good
for your skin, but I just can’t stand it! I’d rather just spritz my face! Yes,
the weather would be the one thing I’d change, along with getting more people
to know about Houston Grand Opera!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">For more information about the Houston Grand
Opera’s performances, of which Diane is so proud, please visit <a href="http://www.hgo.org/">www.hgo.org</a>.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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Caroline Leechhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00577580003627430304noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9095899061562578820.post-1807139224118285962013-10-22T11:16:00.000-05:002013-10-22T17:42:21.686-05:00Susana Monteverde<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZgRZpikUBGXWiSfVbpj6PkQIxsVIgkFm0bV1NCsUXdHwGz47jkn_acZlf5gPp1wWgbj5u88Ll1jecgUcbB2bmlZsU18e5UTkLctj7gLo7iQVxXNPF3W1nmkzIGCi4JH1F5ZU36LAvMBF7/s1600/Susana+Monteverde++00026+-+main+portrait.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="color: black;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZgRZpikUBGXWiSfVbpj6PkQIxsVIgkFm0bV1NCsUXdHwGz47jkn_acZlf5gPp1wWgbj5u88Ll1jecgUcbB2bmlZsU18e5UTkLctj7gLo7iQVxXNPF3W1nmkzIGCi4JH1F5ZU36LAvMBF7/s400/Susana+Monteverde++00026+-+main+portrait.JPG" width="265" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: xx-small;">Susana Monteverde with part of<br /><span style="text-align: left;"><i>Skywriting</i> by </span><span style="text-align: left;">Daniel Anguilu & Aaron Parazette,<br />a mural on the north wall of the Lawndale Arts Center</span></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Susana Monteverde is
the owner of SuMo Art, specializing in art education. Susana seeks to
build rich connections between people and contemporary artworks. She is
also the President of the Friends of Women’s Studies at the University of Houston.
She is married to William Grimsinger and has one daughter, Isabel.</span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">What’s your story, Susana?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I was born and raised in Mexico City. When I graduated high school, I came to the
University of Texas in Austin to study Theater. I thought I was going to make a
living in the theater, but halfway through the degree program I realized that I
did not have the all-encompassing drive that such a career takes. The other courses I really liked, however,
were in Art History, so I thought, “Maybe I’ll work in a museum, that sounds
interesting.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">My last undergraduate semester, I decided to
take a class with Sue Mayer, who taught Museum Education. When I told her that I was from Theater, she
said, “I <u>love</u> Theater people! Come!”
Her class was called Methods of Art Presentation. A boring title but it
was an unusual course geared towards future art teachers, taught in what is now
the Blanton Museum at UT. All education
students had take a public speaking class and Sue thought it was ridiculous to
have teachers, and art teachers in particular, taking just a standard public
speaking class. Why not teach them about art presentation in an art museum? When I took that class, my world opened
up. It was brilliant, like
Technicolor! And I did it well! So in graduate school I studied Art Education
with a specialization in museums.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">As I finished, my husband William was coming
out of law school. We knew we wanted to
stay in Texas because William had passed the Bar here, but where did we want to
go that would offer both of us opportunities?
We decided that Houston was that place because he had done a clerkship
here and the museum scene in town is amazing.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I started out as a freelance art educator,
working with arts organizations and on projects all over the city. I worked for
the Houston Center for Photography, writing curriculum and teaching a program
called <i>Girls Own Stories</i> for 3<sup>rd</sup>
and 4<sup>th</sup> grade girls in under-served communities. We would do autobiographical portraiture with
them and it was so much fun! I was able
to use not only my art education training but my theater training too. </span><span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I also worked at the Contemporary Art Museum at
the inception of their Frequently Asked Questions program. Contemporary art can be very challenging at
times, not least when the Museum presented Andres Serrano and his best known piece,
<i>Piss Christ</i>, which had a crucifix
submerged in a beaker of urine. The
photograph is so beautiful, the color and the atmosphere it creates is
gorgeous, but it was obviously very upsetting to a lot of people. The Museum was very concerned about protests,
so they created a Frequently Asked Questions team. Instead of having docents giving tours, they
would have the FAQ team placed around the gallery ready to discuss the artwork
with anyone who had questions. And it worked! In fact, it worked so well there
was no controversy and they decided to keep the Frequently Asked Questions team
on hand for subsequent exhibitions. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I then worked at the Museum of Fine Arts
Houston as the liaison officer between the museum and Talento Bilingüe de
Houston. It was an experiment, set up to
build stronger ties between the museum and the East End. This arts center is located in an industrial
area that was not really intended for people to live in – full of warehouses, train
tracks, derelict buildings, etc – a tough neighborhood where children were
growing up in a very precarious environment.
My job was to set up an after-school art program and a summer camp –
very challenging but very rewarding.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I have done a lot of pilot projects, that is my
strength; I much prefer initiating rather than maintaining programs. So another
pilot project I helped develop was the seed for what would eventually become
the Young Artist Apprenticeship at the University of Houston’s Blaffer
Museum. It involved bringing high school
students into the university to make art on a daily basis so that they would
have a relationship with the university and with an artist mentor, culminating
in their own exhibition. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Because of my work at Blaffer, I was invited to
be part of a team which painted a huge mural for Frank Stella in the Opera Hall
at the Moores School of Music. We worked
on it for about nine months and I learned an awful lot from many outstanding
artists.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYWagJzSWhBJaxXr_VNUCwjh99w1XvIi2enIiVGmUMhu6sZGoCaDhU_vY4MoidgY0TYjjbzpFTDCGyejf_GthUUC2IEyJT5a1uai8xbUfUEF11SCZx0U6JRwoqVEFA-OVmW6gbj-DZgcyv/s1600/Moores_Opera_House_UofH_Ceiling_art_by_Frank_Stella_Euphoria.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="color: black;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYWagJzSWhBJaxXr_VNUCwjh99w1XvIi2enIiVGmUMhu6sZGoCaDhU_vY4MoidgY0TYjjbzpFTDCGyejf_GthUUC2IEyJT5a1uai8xbUfUEF11SCZx0U6JRwoqVEFA-OVmW6gbj-DZgcyv/s320/Moores_Opera_House_UofH_Ceiling_art_by_Frank_Stella_Euphoria.jpg" width="240" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Frank Stella's mural in the Moores School<br />
of Music at the University of Houston</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I left the mural project to become the Director
of Education at Blaffer and was there for four and a half years working under a
really amazing director, Don Bacigalupi. We had a great working chemistry, and
his populist philosophy fit right in with mine.
Our staff was very tight knit and we did some very challenging artwork.
We worked hard, but we played hard too.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I loved it at Blaffer but just as the
leadership changed, I gave birth to Isabel.
I had never really thought about what I would do as a parent. I just assumed I would be a working mom, but
something happened when I had Isabel.
When I went back to work, it was hard for me to hand my baby over to
someone else, but what scared me more was that while I was at work, I found
that I wasn't thinking about my baby at all.
It was terrifying. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">William is a tax lawyer, and around that time, his
salary had increased so suddenly that I had the option to stay at home. It wasn't anything we had discussed and
William was rather shocked. It felt rather regressive. I am a feminist and I understand all the
politics, the power and independence that comes with earning your own money,
and yet, here I was, putting myself and my child in the hands of my husband. That took a lot of trust. It was hard for William too, suddenly having
the responsibility for us all on his back.
In retrospect, though I wouldn’t advise young women <i>not</i> to make a similar choice, but I <i>would </i>advise them to have those discussions beforehand! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I have continued to consult since then, but
very informally and by word of mouth. Recently I formalized my business, which
is called <i>SuMo Art</i>. As I’ve freelanced this past decade, what I've
realized is that I love, and I am good at, is teaching people about contemporary
art. I also enjoy connecting people both
to art and to one another. It feels like I’m connecting people to what
makes them human, to that part of themselves that is creative, thoughtful,
introspective, aware. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Last month I launched a trial program, Art
Explorations, which is a seminar consisting of five visits to different
galleries, museums, artists’ studios and the like. After every visit,
those who wish to join me are invited to lunch and further conversation. We began the series at Moody Gallery, where Betty
spent an hour regaling us with stories of starting an art gallery in the mid
70s when there were few women in the business. She showed us to the
"secret" room (aka the kitchen) where she stages upcoming exhibitions
and showed us brand new work, never seen before. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The other major part of my life the last few
years has been serving as President of the Friends of Women's Studies at the
University of Houston, heading up a board of thirty amazing women, most of whom
are breaking ground in their field, whether that is in energy, medicine,
finance, philanthropy, academia etc. Friends
is the community organization that helps raise funds for the Women's Gender and
Sexuality Studies program to pay for scholarships and fellowships. We have
dreams of expanding our two-year postdoctoral fellowship to include two or
three post docs, thereby creating a community of scholars dedicated to studying
women and gender issues. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Friends also supports the Carey Shuart Women's
Archive and Research Center at the university library which collects the papers
and ephemera of notable women and women's groups in the Houston area. To
date we have over 50 different collections which are available to the public to
study and learn about the women who have shaped this amazing city of ours. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHZjwwkEgjaOkPuRB7Hpw37Vh7klKoPRHYN-TU6waxHVFcZmL8Hk6l9Bo0s5VeqvLzCkC80Mm0vRg1lyIsV9aCCqAMsgDgrTlqvb1-ntHC3jYFVQHL6RoEXQyQRPwRDsJwoLpNPx1Q7OaY/s1600/logo-fww.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: black;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHZjwwkEgjaOkPuRB7Hpw37Vh7klKoPRHYN-TU6waxHVFcZmL8Hk6l9Bo0s5VeqvLzCkC80Mm0vRg1lyIsV9aCCqAMsgDgrTlqvb1-ntHC3jYFVQHL6RoEXQyQRPwRDsJwoLpNPx1Q7OaY/s1600/logo-fww.jpg" /></span></a><span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Friends is very much a hub for women.
Through our community programs, we connect the University to the community,
facilitating direct contact between scholars and the women they study with
information flowing in both directions. For example, our newly-named
Barbara Karkabi Living Archives series invites panels of women for round-table
discussions about any number of subject areas involving women, most recently, <i>Women’s Activism, Then & Now.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">We also connect women to each other, most
notably with our signature fundraising luncheon, Table Talk. Every year
we invite fifty amazing women to host a conversation, each at a table of ten women.
</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Maybe
this would happen in every city, but<span style="background: white;">
every year we have a wealth of riches in possible conversationalists to choose
from.</span> <span style="background: white;">We are now working towards our 2014 Table Talk and we know it
will be incredible and that we are going to blow past our fundraising goal.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Why do you do what you do?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I’m not an artist. My passion is in educating,
in having that conversation which enthuses people and sets them grappling with
art. As a result, I come to art education from an intellectual and educational
approach rather than from a studio background.
In fact, I was always very anxious about my art. I was one of those children who knew what I
wanted my art to look like, but I just couldn’t get it to come out right so I
would walk away. I enjoy helping other people get beyond that obstacle, to have
a relationship with art whether they are makers or not. People can have a connection to art as
viewers, as consumers, as “understanders”. That experience can be shut off for
a lot of people because they think, “I’m not an artist. I’m not an art historian.
I don’t know what I’m looking at. It has nothing to do with me so I’m walking
away.” But what I love to do is to bring them back in.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">This
presents me with two challenges, one which is posed by contemporary art itself,
finding meaning and building interpretations of intriguing works of art which
often times have not been studied or written about very much. The other challenge is facilitating a deep
connection between the viewer and the work of art, engaging people in a
dialogue, honoring the questions that arise when they are looking, and bringing
to light the wealth of information embedded in the work of art. People are often amazed when I mention that
works of art are as loaded with information as are books. We've been taught how
to glean information from books, but we haven't been taught how to do that with
art. So that’s what I am teaching.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I help
my students to be comfortable looking and asking questions. I want them to find answers, but more often than
not, to find more questions without definitive answers. I want them to be comfortable
with using their own formal and informal knowledge to create satisfying
interpretations of artwork that otherwise they may just walk past and not give
a second thought. Now that for me is
exciting!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Who has been the greatest influence on your
life?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">My
parents loved going to museums and they were friends with artists. Mexico took in a lot of ex-pats from the US
during the McCarthy era and so I grew up around a lot of lovely left-wing
people. Neither of my parents were
artists but they spent time with this group of international people, artists
and teachers, and that all had its effect on me. Also, my mother was an
excellent teacher in her own right and I learned much of what I know about
teaching from watching her at a young age.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Working
with Sue Mayer at the University of Texas was very instrumental to my career. She
helped me see that I had a lot of skills that could be brought to bear in education
and she opened a lot of doors for me and honed my skills. I co-taught classes
with her and did a lot of training of museum docents with her. Sue
was one of the people who helped professionalize art education in museums. Museum education, up until the 70s, was
something that was done informally and by volunteer groups of women who would
act as docents at the museums. Sue articulated
the need for professionalism and for pay.
She pushed for this position to be equal to any of the other positions
in the museum hierarchy and to have a museum educator who had studied and
really thought about pedagogy. From a
feminist perspective, that’s an example of women doing work that was not
recognized officially and Sue said, “No! This work needs to be officially recognized.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">What does Houston mean to you?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Houston is the kind of place that has porous
boundaries which means very deep conversations about art are possible where in
other cities it might not be the case. In
Dallas or in New York, perhaps, it would be “If you need to ask, you don’t need
to know”. I think there is much more of a divide. Something about Houston
allows for real interaction. Maybe it is that there is less snobbery, maybe it
is that if you have the enthusiasm or the idea, Houston says, “Go for it!” and
it doesn’t matter where you come from or where you studied, or whose money is
backing you. I’ve always found that very
interesting.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The other neat thing about coming to Houston is
that it is so open-armed. You come here and
people immediately welcome you into their circle and introduce you to their
friends. The art community here is no
different, it just welcomes you in. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">How to do you find, or seek to find, balance
in your life?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I am
fortunate that William and Isabel are very supportive of me and they are not
stingy with time or with encouragement, so that’s one thing I don’t have to
battle. I do make sure I make time for
myself in different ways. One is that I
like to swim and do yoga and I walk the dogs.
So I find bits of time, mostly in the morning. I know that if I don’t get it done in the
morning, the rest of the day takes over. If I am not physically active –
swimming or doing yoga – I am not a happy person. And a happy mom is a good mom! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Also
having a network of women friends is so important. I have been able to establish several
networks of women friends in Houston.
Isabel and I are part of a mother/daughter book club which is just
incredible. I love it for the reading
aspect and for teaching our girls the habit of reading and talking about books,
and also because it teaches them how to engage intellectually with friends, something
which I don’t think kids in this country see modeled very much. A lot of times, social interaction between
adults is segregated from the kids. We
find babysitters and go off to do social things with our adult friends, but it’s
different with my friends who are not American.
We have big family dinners with the kids around and they hear us talking
politics, science, art or whatever it is.
Oftentimes they join our conversations. With this book club, I not only
love that I have a friendship with these mothers, but also that our daughters
have solid connections with these women too.
These are women that Isabel can access, that she can bounce ideas off
and that, as she encounters challenges in her life, she can go to and share and
get feedback from, knowing that they are women that I trust and that she can
trust too. I think that is so important.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I have also
been part of another book club, with some of my closest friends, for 12 years or
so. Until I joined this book club, I didn’t really read for pleasure. I read
for school and for work, but never just for myself. It’s a really interesting group of women who all
somehow or other find themselves outside of the mainstream. We are all pretty
outspoken and we are all capable of fighting for our time and space to speak,
and we are liberal of course. It is
important for me to be in groups of people where I can express my social and
political beliefs without having to censor them. Living in Texas, that is not always the
easiest thing. You do encounter people
who are way more conservative or way more religious than I am, so it’s nice to
find that group of people where you can have an exchange of ideas and those
ideas can be heard without it feeling divisive.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Where is your happy place in Houston?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">In the
pool. The day can be hell, but if I am
in the water, I am just transported away.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">What is your Houston secret?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">It’s
surprising, but Houston has something like the third largest working artist
community in the country. Houston has a
vibrant community of working artists, museums, commercial and non-profit
galleries and it is a treasure. It makes
it possible for me to do what I do.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">What is your favorite restaurant?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Right
now, it’s Pondicheri, owned and run by Anita Jaisinghani. She serves Indian
food into which she integrates Gulf Coast ingredients. On her menu she might have crawfish curry or spiced
okra during season. Her food is always
so surprising. It’s just a revelation in
your mouth.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br />
<b>If you could change one thing about
Houston…<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">One of
the things that I miss from living in Mexico City is that there is not a
walking culture in Houston. I love the
connection you have with a neighborhood and a community when you are on
foot. Zipping past everything in your
car, unless you have a destination in Chinatown or wherever, you don’t know these
neighborhoods even exist. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Caroline Leechhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00577580003627430304noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9095899061562578820.post-71064981472367606142013-10-21T10:49:00.000-05:002013-10-21T11:29:09.724-05:00Kristina Hultén <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcZFp07K1lM63U8Ey0X0IgtPGs2JfGOws3yflccgPMmnuXk5gX4x86lzPIlaEtIdn3SimC3jy8g1uk-8Z68Q3jwVrjWETuds4FPm-7cp6bYdtfVYtqTvY0FIbbdUmMzPsnW2nhUeLWvHxd/s1600/Tina+Hulten_0933+crop+-+main+portrait.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" height="285" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcZFp07K1lM63U8Ey0X0IgtPGs2JfGOws3yflccgPMmnuXk5gX4x86lzPIlaEtIdn3SimC3jy8g1uk-8Z68Q3jwVrjWETuds4FPm-7cp6bYdtfVYtqTvY0FIbbdUmMzPsnW2nhUeLWvHxd/s400/Tina+Hulten_0933+crop+-+main+portrait.jpg" title="Kristina Hulten" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Kristina
Hultén moved to Houston from Sweden in 1997.
She is </span></i><i><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Assistant Professor
of Pediatrics <span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0in;">at </span><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0in; text-decoration: none;">Baylor College of
Medicine</span>, specializing in research to combat pediatric infectious
diseases. She conducts a children’s church choir and has three sons, Jakob,
David and Philip.<span style="color: #333333;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">What’s your story, Tina?</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I was
born near Stockholm in Sweden and I grew up not far from there in <span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Västerås.
</span>I went to a performing arts school from 4<sup>th</sup> through 9<sup>th</sup>
grade, and played the piano and sang in choirs.
But I was torn between going into natural sciences and music, so I went
into a natural sciences high school program but did all the music I could with the
performing arts students on the side. My
high school was built in the 1500s and it is one of the very few high schools
that has a cathedral on its school yard which I think is pretty cool. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Then, at
the end of school I was again torn about what to do –sciences or music. I
figured that I didn’t want to be a piano teacher and I really liked analytical
thinking, so I went into the sciences. I
always really loved medicine, and I wanted to do research so I did a PhD in
infectious diseases and clinical microbiology, and as part of that I came over
to Houston. I did a two month fellowship
at the VA for Baylor College of Medicine in my PhD research area, <i>Helicobacter pylori</i>, so they invited me
to come back when I was done. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I had
never been to Texas before I came here for the first time in 1994. I had
thought I really want to go to Paris and speak French, but my husband Thomas
said, “You know, the United States would be fabulous!” So I came here for two months and was just astounded
by how friendly people were and what a great research place I ended up working
at. I really loved it and we decided we
would both come back. I got a grant and
we came back in 1997 for a year to begin with and then we stayed. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I was
married before I came but all my children were born here. Thomas is a trombone player – he plays
classical trombone and jazz trombone and he’s also a composer and
arranger. He works with the Houston
Grand Opera and the Houston Ballet as Principal trombone and then does a bunch
of freelance stuff on the side – jazz, shows, composing and arranging.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I work
with a research group in infectious diseases and with two other researchers, more
senior than I am, who had started two programs before I got here, relating to <i>Streptococcus pneumonia</i>e and <em><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; color: #444444;">Staphylococcus aureus</span></em>. One of the studies is confined to patients at
Texas Children’s Hospital and the other involves eight different children’s
hospitals in the United States. They are
prospective surveillance studies, meaning that we collect isolates and follow epidemiologic
changes over time. We follow changes in antibiotic resistance, we analyze if
there are certain strains associated with certain disease presentations, and so
on.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">What we
learn can be used in different ways. In the case of <i>Streptococcus pneumoniae </i>we are interested in knowing what changes
occur after the introduction of a vaccine. After one pediatric vaccine had been
introduced several years ago we and other research groups noticed that a few strains
that were not part of the vaccine became more common and so the vaccine was
improved [by others] and now covers for these strains as well. Now we are
following the changes after the new vaccine is being used. These vaccines have greatly
reduced invasive pneumococcal diseases in children. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJ9XS-VKaOjKV3BqU2Xpn1Fz-Px-23e1AiwbqYiCswihKATDMORDzuISxSoCExmAXc7IsWao5oFvkDqIcF3fIiybJL1JJ0NibYYRt0GeQL7gfs0HPEHrsh3XwYJFeOMVxPZlBZoxJFmLhi/s1600/photo+2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJ9XS-VKaOjKV3BqU2Xpn1Fz-Px-23e1AiwbqYiCswihKATDMORDzuISxSoCExmAXc7IsWao5oFvkDqIcF3fIiybJL1JJ0NibYYRt0GeQL7gfs0HPEHrsh3XwYJFeOMVxPZlBZoxJFmLhi/s1600/photo+2.JPG" /></a></div>
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<span lang="SV" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">With the <i>Staphylococcus
aureus</i> research at Texas Children’s Hospital, the research also involves
epidemiology and resistance surveillance. There is no <i>Staph</i> vaccine in
use, but there are still changes in the types of strains that occur and <i>Staph</i>
germs are very adaptable to new challenges. For example, in the early 2000’s we
observed a quite sudden increase in methicillin resistant <i>Staph aureus</i>
(MRSA) infections in the community, both skin and more severe infections. We hypothesized
there must be a particularly virulent gene, or strain, that caused the severe
infections. Because of our ongoing study, we had the materials necessary to
investigate what was going on in our community here in Houston and we studied a
large number of bacterial isolates in the lab using different methods. We looked
for specific virulence genes and compared if different isolates were genetically
related to each other and we analyzed if there was a difference between strains
from different types of infection. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="SV" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">What we found was that there
was a particular clone that ”moved in” and took over. This clone was the cause
of almost all of the community MRSA infections, regardless of severity. Others
reported the same strain causing adult infections as it spread in many parts of
the United States at the same time. We sequenced one of the isolates together
with scientists at the Genome Center at Baylor College of Medicine to find out
what made this particular strain so successful. While a few genes have been
identified as ”of interest”, there is no easy answer. We, and many other research groups in the
United States, use different methods and approaches to understand better what
makes a <i>Staph</i> germ successful – with the goal of finding better
treatments and reducing or preventing disease.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Is
there an end point to my field of research?
There are smaller parts of the larger issue that have been completed and
that we know, but will there be a day when we completely understand how the
bacteria function and change so we can combat them successfully? There is a lot
of research yet to be done to reach that point when it comes to <i>Staph</i> infections. But the methods and
approaches change as we learn more and as new techniques become available. In
the case of <i>Streptococcus pneumoniae</i> it
is too early to tell after the latest vaccine. The research in infectious diseases at Texas
Children’s Hospital is really important to me, very motivating. I am absolutely
fascinated by the microbes and how they continuously evolve. I think it’s a great area of research – but then
everyone says that about their research interest, don’t they? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">What does Houston mean to you?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">We’ve
been here for 16 years, so that’s quite a while, and for the most part I feel
at home. When you have had your children
somewhere and raise them there, you get your roots there with the kids. As Europeans coming to the US, we think that
there are so many things that are alike, but then you start realizing the
things that are not alike. Things that
you think would be simple, like figuring out which toothpaste to use, or which laundry
detergent works, because all of a sudden they are not exactly the same. In Sweden, there are ten brands to choose
from and here there are 200! Then there
is the banking system, the social security, the differences in utilities,
schools and healthcare etc. So, there are lots of things to learn. When we
first came, we were struck by the kindness shown to us by people that barely
knew us. One example: when we had our first child, less than a year after our
arrival, my first work place threw us a baby shower. That was just amazing – shockingly
generous to us Swedes. The kindness we
were offered definitely helped us feel at home.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Also what
I think is really neat about Houston are the Arts. I am so proud of how the whole arts community
is growing – just take the quality of the Opera, it is inspiring to read the
program and see all the great ideas. The
Medical Center, it’s the same thing, it’s growing. What I like the best about Houston is that
people want to do the best they can. I
think people work hard but they really have a desire for quality, you see that
in the research area, at Baylor and Texas Children’s, this wish to improve and
I see that in the Arts scene and in other areas too. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">What advice would you give to someone new to
the United States?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I believe
you must find places where you feel at home and where you connect. For us, we had connections here already when
we came, a brass player and his wife. He
actually used to be a teacher of one of Thomas’s good friends in Sweden. We had our friend’s sister here too and so
having those connections helped us to get established. Our new friends went to
First Presbyterian Church and invited us to go there. So we went and discovered a Christian
community we could be part of. The big pull back then was the sermons, believe it
or not. But there was also a fabulous choir, which I started singing in, and we
found we had something in common. When
you go somewhere as a newcomer, find people with a common purpose and somewhere
to settle. Of course when you have kids,
school helps you, but the church has been very important for us to get
established and to feel at home.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I still
sing in the choir at First Presbyterian Church and I also lead a 3<sup>rd</sup>
to 5<sup>th</sup> grade children’s chorus called the Alleluia Choir. It’s really, really fun – I have three boys in
the choir, otherwise it is mainly formed by girls. They are all great little singers. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Who has been the greatest influence on your
life?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I think
my parents have been very influential in how I approach life. They were always very unselfish and they
always worked really hard but always worked hard for others. They were both teachers first and education
was important to them, but they also worked for the church. They gave up their teaching careers to go
into full time positions – my mom working for a Salvation Army community center
where she helped a tremendous number of people, either immigrants or single
moms on a fixed budget. To see how she
helped them navigate their tragedies and make a difference was very
inspirational to me. You know, in
general, any person who does things for other people, but not for personal gains,
really inspire me.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">How to do you find, or seek to find, balance
in your life?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Ha ha!
That’s easy, I don’t have balance! I
think it’s a constant struggle. I would like to spend a lot more time at work,
a lot more time for it to feel meaningful and to let me do what I need to get
done. And I would like to spend a lot
more time with my kids because they are growing up and they are fantastic, and
it is just magical to see them become themselves, to find themselves. They are their own individuals already when
they are born, but to see them discover that personality is really neat. My boys are 15, 12 and almost 11, and of
course I would want to be there with them to see them take every breath. But they certainly don’t need me there all
the time to grow. It is a balance,
right? And it’s good. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I guess
the struggle to find balance is, in itself, a good thing too, if you reflect
upon it, because you have to remind yourself constantly what’s important.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Where is your happy place in Houston?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I have
lots of happy places, but really I carry happy with me. I am happy when I go to
work and I’m happy when I go home to see my kids, and I’m happy with I sit down
in choir and I get to sing. I’m happy when I get to go to the opera and hear a
great performance, and so it continues.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">What is your favorite restaurant?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">OK, if
people come from Sweden, we want them to go to Pappasito’s because we want them
to have those fajitas, or to Goode Company because they need good Texas
Barbecue. But I like to go to Café
Rabelais because they have great mussels and I like to go with the kids to
Skeeters because I think it’s just so nice and friendly. Otherwise we love to eat at home.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">What is your Houston secret?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I try
to make everybody go to the Opera. I know I am repeating myself, but I think we
have a great arts scene here and people aren’t aware of that.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">If you could change one thing about Houston<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">First,
I would end all the senseless shootings. Then, I would make people stop texting
when they drive and become more patient as drivers. I think there is an
intolerance and rudeness about driving in this city, and everybody seems to be
putting themselves first.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Caroline Leechhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00577580003627430304noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9095899061562578820.post-4934182878391952082013-10-18T09:00:00.000-05:002013-10-23T19:49:03.072-05:00Kim Swales<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipB_vlPBMc8gQHIRYXvgW-cH6LajSJSyqzXcYMBMbuWURuron7Pfoh-5bC9Q-YVFfJj-Fms6We7EtJHIxIkvik213_HOOg6gFoOJu218Q52bDnlFpsg9nqw8IKURuxSC3gx4JWVHRrOhNG/s1600/Kim+Swales+-DSC_0874+main+portrait.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipB_vlPBMc8gQHIRYXvgW-cH6LajSJSyqzXcYMBMbuWURuron7Pfoh-5bC9Q-YVFfJj-Fms6We7EtJHIxIkvik213_HOOg6gFoOJu218Q52bDnlFpsg9nqw8IKURuxSC3gx4JWVHRrOhNG/s400/Kim+Swales+-DSC_0874+main+portrait.jpg" title="Kim Swales" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Kim Swales earned an MA and PhD in Marriage
and Family Communication by the age of 25 and was assistant professor at the
University of Houston. </span></i><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">When she had her
children, she continued to do lectures and speaking engagements, focusing
particularly on how to build strong family relationships. She now sees
individuals and couples privately for marriage and relationship counseling and
has recently launched a parenting </span></i><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">and marriage website called </span></i><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Nurtured Home</span><i style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">. She
has three children, Will, Harry and Kate.</i></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">What’s your story, Kim?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">My
husband David and I have been married 18 years this year and we have a 16 year
old son, a 12 year old son and a seven year old daughter that we adopted from
China. So that’s a high-schooler, a middle-schooler and a first grader so
thinking about balance is quite interesting because I am spread pretty thin in
that regard but I love it. I love having the high-schooler that’s dating and
the seven year old that just wants to color and play in the playground. It’s
nice.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I
started out as an assistant professor at the University of Houston at 25. I
went straight from my Bachelors to my Masters to my PhD in Communication, particularly
family and marital communication and relational communication. My dissertation looked at how people maintain
their marriage during its life-cycle from newly-weds to empty-nesters, how the
challenges change over that life-cycle and how they maintain their
relationship. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I knew
I wanted to teach, so I also qualified in counseling and psychology, but I
found that I really did not like general counseling. I realized early on that I worked best with
people struggling in their relationships – dating, marriage, parenting – and so
it was those people and their families that I wanted to help specifically. I was invited to give a lot of seminars at
schools, at the Jewish Community Centre and at Catholic churches. I talked
about communication skills, conflict and sibling relationships, really anything
that falls under the heading of parenting or relationships.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">So I’ve
always worked a little bit but primarily I was a stay at home mom when my kids
were younger. I did some marriage and parenting coaching at my house through
the years, but just this year I have decided to get an office space and do more
of it since all three kids are in school each day. And I love it, it never
feels like work.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Although
I use all my counseling training, I do more active coaching now. I have clients
who come to me because they have discipline problems with one child, or they
find themselves yelling a lot and they want more techniques for how to have
peace in their home. I also have a lot of married couples who come to me because
they feel like room-mates because they’ve stopped working on their marriage. All
the research shows that those feelings of love and lust and chemistry start to
fade two years into a relationship. But
because you have a lifetime with this person, you have to keep things going, but
people sort of give up, especially when kids come along. They put everything
into the family and nothing into their marriage. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I would
say that is probably my bread and butter – communication, conflict, getting
couples to reconnect. I have some couples or parents that come for one or two
sessions and I help them with that immediate problem and I have couples who, if
there’s been an infidelity or a big crisis, they come for months. But what I
like about coaching is that I feel that it’s much more time efficient. I direct
the sessions towards where they <i>want to be</i>
rather than <i>where they’ve been</i>. In counseling,
a large model is really delving into your past and what got you here. Sometimes
that’s vital and sometimes we have to spend a couple of sessions on that, but
mostly I try to get people to look forward and to fix whatever’s wrong. If I
can give them one book or one technique or one new way of fixing it, then
that’s great. They’re happy, I’m happy and everybody moves on.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Why did you choose to adopt a baby from China
when you already had two children?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I knew when
I was a little girl, I wanted to adopt and it is something I truly feel was a
calling, just as people are called to medicine or called to the church. I just knew I was meant to do this. I talked to Dave about it before we got
married, but then I easily got pregnant with my boys. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Then
when the boys were younger, I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis and that’s
why we decided not to have any more biological children. It became very clear
to me that God was redirecting my path and reminding me about my calling to
adoption, though it was a very curvy path.
It then turned out that I don’t have MS, I have food allergies, but that
is how Kate came into our lives. She’s
such an incredible blessing, I can’t imagine the Swales family without
Kate. She’s taught me the biggest
lessons in life I needed to learn, about not being so Type A and taking time to
smell the roses, because she is just so laid back. We are all so Type A and she is not, so we
needed her. She injects so much laughter
into our life.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Kate
was ten months old when we got her. She
had been placed with a foster family, not put in an orphanage which is very
unusual for China, but I did not go to pick her up. Dave went to get her and took Will, who was
then ten years old. Harry was very sick
at the time with stomach problems and one of us had to stay home with him, so
when it came down to which one of us would go, Dave has much more international
flying experience than I do, so we picked him.
Dave and Will spent two weeks taking care of her before they brought her
home. It was such a great opportunity
for Will to see China, to see the poverty and the things he saw there changed
him. There was of course a good chance Kate wouldn’t bond with me when she got
here, but she did immediately and it all worked out. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Does your family cope with you being the
expert?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I think
probably for parenting I do it a bit better than for marriage. I definitely
lose my patience with my kids and I make mistakes every single day, and when I
go and give a talk, that’s the first thing I admit, “I’m sure I messed up
today.” Knowing it is not always doing it. We know that we want to eat
healthily but we still have chocolate cake sometimes. I definitely have days
when I haven’t had enough sleep or I’m at the end of my rope and I yell at my
kids, but I also know a lot of strategies about how not to do that and I try to
incorporate those. Even with my marriage, it’s hard. Sometimes I’ll be sitting
here, giving a couple advice and deep in my heart I know I should be taking my
own advice and working harder on my own marriage. And I do. That’s one of the
benefits of this job, I walk out of here and I realize what great kids I have
and what a great husband and I don’t ever take that for granted. I don’t act
like the expert, even with my friends – a lot of people have no idea that I do
this. I’m very flawed and not perfect – nobody is, and even if you know all
this stuff you don’t always do it because we’re all human. But I try very hard
and I’m very intentional in my parenting and in my marriage.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">What does Houston mean to you?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I grew
up in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, went to college in Philadelphia and then
graduate school in Ohio. Then I had to choose where to work. I got some job offers in universities in
small college towns. I was 24 and I was single and I thought, “I can’t go and
live in a small college town because there won’t be anyone for me, there won’t
be anyone my age”. So I purposely chose the job in Houston so I could be in an
urban environment and it was great. I met people right away – in fact, I met my
husband right away! He is in the oil business doing product management for
geological software. For the past 20 years we’ve lived here, except for four
years when we lived in Charlottesville, Virginia. I loved it, but David wanted
to come back here. I’ll be honest, I was very reluctant to come back to Houston
because Charlottesville is so beautiful and there’s four seasons but now I’m so
grateful that we’re back.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">In Houston, it’s
the people. In the places where I’ve lived, I’ve never met more friendly, more
down-to-earth people. I really loved the seasons of the east coast and every
Fall I get a little antsy, missing the seasons. But I think the community we
have – our school community, our church community, our neighborhood community –
we have never had that anywhere else. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Who or what has been the greatest influence
on your life?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">It’s
probably a surprising event, and I share this when I speak, truly the one event
that guided me most in my life was my parents’ divorce. They separated when I
was in sixth grade and after about three years of going back and forth, they
divorced when I was in ninth grade. My mom was a stay at home mom and she’d never
worked. She had not gone to college, so when my dad left, she really struggled
to find a job that would help support our family. It was very difficult. She
didn’t really have an identity other than being a mom, and while that’s a
really important identity, it was all that she knew. So I watched her struggle.
I was in middle school and I decided right then and there that I would never
let that happen to me. I know for sure that’s why I went straight to my PhD. I
decided I was going to get as educated as I could, so that no matter what, I
would be able to take care of myself and get a job. That wasn’t in a selfish ‘I
don’t need anybody’ kind of way, but in a ‘just in case’ kind of way.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">My
parents’ divorce also made me focus on this line of work. The pain that I saw
them go through and the pain that my sisters and I felt made me want to study
marriage and relationships. Right after
I finished my doctorate I started a program for families going through divorce.
I have people come into this office who say “I can’t pay you because I’m going
through a divorce and I have no money” and I say that’s ok. I have people that
do pay which helps pay my rent. That would even by my advice to someone
starting out – do what you love, do what really means something to you because
that is why I do this, I’m not doing all this to write a book or get famous.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Having
said that, I would love to write a book!
But what I really, really, really want to do, my dream job honestly,
would be to have a radio show. I would love for people who had problems in
their relationships to call in and ask me to help. That’s what I do here in
this office, I do it all day long, for
my friends, for my clients, with my own family, it’s just this natural role I
have had in life to try to help people navigate their relationships. I could do it for a lot more people on the
radio, so that really interests me.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqARcFDkuBy3luPb4hX4xtVpzBZyU8LhubIXMDz7BHkWawW9qfGT95R1BhDsUFk-c73-Atjo0Vbfm2avtO4V3p__61PHKsTkhTNPmXJ8o9G9TU2loFcmvay7FySybzNymxf9hRDOO3zeAL/s1600/Nurtured+home+logo+from+website.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqARcFDkuBy3luPb4hX4xtVpzBZyU8LhubIXMDz7BHkWawW9qfGT95R1BhDsUFk-c73-Atjo0Vbfm2avtO4V3p__61PHKsTkhTNPmXJ8o9G9TU2loFcmvay7FySybzNymxf9hRDOO3zeAL/s320/Nurtured+home+logo+from+website.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I also started
a blog at the beginning of this summer called <i>The Nurtured Home,</i> about parenting and marriage. I started it right when summer vacation
started and I soon realized that I could either have a nurtured home this
summer or I could write a blog about one! So I am picking that up again now
that the kids are back in school. That’s a big thing with me, I really struggle
between living what I preach and trying to do more public work. In the end, I always pick doing it personally
– having a better marriage and family rather than writing about it – and I
don’t know how people do both. I know people do, but I haven’t found out how
yet.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">What
advice would you give to a woman new to marriage?<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I
certainly think that every woman needs to be educated – no one can take those
degrees away from me now and I always kept my toe in the water, even when my
sixteen year old was a baby. I didn’t plan on staying at home, I planned on
being a professor, because you can do that part time, but my oldest son had
some pretty severe health issues – he had a tumor in his head and had to have
head surgery when he was six months old so that stopped me going back to work. But
I would teach a class on Monday nights, or I would give talks at pre-schools,
always something to keep my toe in the water. I did that for fifteen years,
knowing I had contacts, knowing I had these things on my résumé so if I needed
to crack into professional mode again I could. I have great admiration for women
who make mothering their main occupation because raising really good kids is
about one of the best things we can do, men and women. But I do believe that every woman should have
a plan and an education.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">How to do you find, or seek to find, balance
in your life?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">There’s
a couple of ways and one way is this word ‘intentional’. There’s a scripture
verse which says ‘Where your treasure is, then there your heart will be also’
and I really try to apply that to my life.
It means what is most important to me? My family, God and my faith, my
community and helping other people, those things are all important to me. When someone asks me to do something, say,
speak at an event or volunteer at school, I really think about whether it is consistent
with my values and where my heart is. So
I politely declined being on the PTO, but I work in the school store with my
middle-schooler every Wednesday morning.
It’s a half-hour of him and me together in his school. I get to know his
friends, I get to know the school environment and I get time with my son which
is very valuable to me. I do one thing at each of my kids’ schools and if
someone asks me to do something else, I say no. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">That’s
the second part – I have absolutely no problem with saying no. I probably did
when I was in my thirties, but I’m in my mid-forties now and I don’t care what
people think. I care what my family thinks, and I care what God thinks but I
don’t care what anybody else thinks. So I can say no and I am really good at
it! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Where is your happy place in Houston?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">My
house! It’s funny, because I realized that every place I’ve lived, my happiest
place has always been my house. And I think people would be surprised by that
because I am very outgoing and I’m pretty social. But I don’t like big parties
and small talk, I like having one family over for dinner and having a glass of
wine and sitting all night talking to that person or that family. Or just being
with my family, playing cards, family movie night, we cook a lot and I love to
read. I’m quite boring, but I like being at home. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">What is your favorite restaurant?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I’m
very sentimental! When we lived in
Virginia, the place we missed the most in Houston was Goode Company Taqueria. We
loved their breakfasts and it was something that Dave and I did as newly-weds. We
would go have breakfast there and then go look at open houses when we were
first buying our family house. Then when we were pregnant with Will, I remember
I just craved their Mexican omelets, and now our kids love their food too – the
pecan waffles and the biscuits… It’s adorable! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Also, on
West Gray there’s a hole in the wall pizza place that has the best $7 manicotti
which reminds me of home in Pennsylvania – it’s places like that that are more
about the memories.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">And
then we love Ouisie’s Table on San Felipe. My husband gave me a 30<sup>th</sup>
birthday party there and a 40<sup>th</sup> – just maybe five couples in their
wine room. Two dinner parties there so
I have very fond memories of special times. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">What is your Houston secret?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">One of
the things that I really love about Houston is that there are so many wonderful
parks all over. We lived in West University and there are all those little
pocket parks, every one was different. And there’s a great park up in the
Heights. When I was trying to lose my baby-weight I would walk the Memorial Park
loop. At the Nature Conservancy Park on Newcastle – my boys would play there
for hours and I would take photographs there.
Because of the canopy, even in the middle of the day if you need a good
place to take photos and you don’t want bright sun, that’s a great place.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">For
such a concrete urban jungle that we live in, especially inside the Loop, it
was a pleasant surprise to me to find all the parks, though we have rather
outgrown that phase as a family. I don’t think all cities have this variety of
parks that we have and it’s a real treasure. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">If you could change one thing about Houston…<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">I think
Houston has a great medical community but I think it’s very traditional and
pharmaceutical. I wish that Houston was a more holistic and healthy community. I
feel like we don’t have great healthy restaurant options – Austin has these
great farm-to-table organic restaurants. In our family, we’ve struggled with
food allergies and health issues so nutrition is super important to me, not
that you could tell from the restaurants I named earlier! But we don’t have
those options in Houston, and for a city this size, that really surprises me. There
are some really upscale artisanal farm-to-table restaurants but you could only
afford to go there once in a while, where Austin has all these great little
places. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">With
our family health issues, we’ve had to seek out, not <i>alternative</i> MDs, but I want to say <i>holistic,</i> because they look at the body healing itself through
nutrition or supplements or alternatives therapies, rather than just drugs. We
have always had to leave Houston for that. I know that there are a couple of
naturopaths and MDs here that use the holistic approach, but they are very hard
to get into or they don’t see children. So we have had to travel to other
cities to get it and I wish that Houston had more of that. I don’t think there
is a big enough focus on natural health here.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><i>Kim
Swales’ blog, The Nurtured Home, can
be found at <a href="http://www.thenurturedhome.blogspot.com/">www.thenurturedhome.blogspot.com</a>.</i> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
Caroline Leechhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00577580003627430304noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9095899061562578820.post-30091128448391507692013-10-17T10:56:00.000-05:002014-03-28T10:30:29.254-05:00Jennifer Enos<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Jennifer Enos is a geologist
working in the Oil & Gas field. She has worked for Marathon Oil since 2004.
Having graduated from The University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee, she
earned her Master’s degree in Geology from the University of Texas in Austin. She
has one son, Ben. <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What’s your story, Jennifer?</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I grew up here, and in fact, I am a 5<sup>th</sup> generation
Houstonian. There aren’t many people who have family history in Houston that goes
back that far. I’m not sure what date that takes us back to, but I can
certainly count back five generations. When
I went to college I went to Tennessee to a school called Sewanee, my
grandmother was very worried I would never come back. I was real close to my
grandparents growing up and so when I was choosing grad schools, I decided to
go to the University of Texas. My grandparents were getting older and were not
so well and I just really wanted to be closer to home and to them, though I
didn’t necessarily expect that I would come back to Houston. I had always said
that I would never go into Oil & Gas, it was just not something I was
interested in at all, but when I was in the Geology department of UT, the oil
companies came to interview there. All you had to do was bring a nice set of
clothes, walk down the hall, have an interview and get a job. Obviously it
wasn’t quite that easy, but that’s how I ended up back in Houston because it
was an easy avenue into employment and it was back near family.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I have a brother in Austin and now he’s the one that’s far away.
Everyone else though, my parents are still in town, all of my aunts and uncles
are here and my grandparents, before they passed away were here too. They lived
very close to work, as do my parents, so I could go and have lunch with them
which was really nice.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My husband Eric is a forester. We met when we were at Sewanee, and the
major that we both had was called Natural Resources, which was a combination of
Geology and Forestry. So we both had a little bit of each, though of course I
was heavier in the geology part and he was heavier in the forestry part. But
it’s nice because we can understand each other but we don’t really burn each
other out. We have one son, Ben – just Ben and a dog! Pretty much every sport Ben
could try, he has tried. To say that he has narrowed in sounds silly since it
is still three sports, but now he only plays football, baseball and lacrosse.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Why do you do what you do?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I had a really weird way into geology. My grandfather was a geologist,
but that’s not what led me into geology at all. Growing up in Houston, I just
saw the business side of it, particularly the downside in the 80s when the oil
price was really low and people were struggling. So it really wasn’t on my
radar. But when I was at Sewanee, I took a Meteorology class when I was a
freshman and I loved the professor. He was so enthusiastic and I just really
connected with him. He was the Geology professor, but at a tiny little school
so he was multi-tasking as the Meteorology professor as well. So I signed up
for his Geology class the next semester and just loved it. In fact, when I
finished at Sewanee, I was worried that the only reason I’d got a degree in
Geology was because I really like the two Geology professors. I was a little
bit concerned about my future! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But no, I do really like it, and what I’m doing is totally different to
what I was doing in school. Sewanee is a huge campus with very few students.
It’s a 10,000 acre campus with about 1100 students, so the footprint of the people
is really small. There are all sorts of opportunities for being outside. It’s
up on top of a plateau in Tennessee, so we would have most of our labs outside
and we would go on these field trips to the Smokey Mountains and camp. That was
really the big draw initially, all of the outdoors opportunities that it
offered.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Then I got really interested in the real small-scale stuff, like
looking under the microscope and thinking about how rocks form. Say you had sandstone
– all those little grains of sand. Then over time they get buried and water
flows through them and a cement of different minerals grows between the grains.
That sort of stuff got me really excited, and there’s a little bit of that in
what I do now, but no so much.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In Oil & Gas, for geologists, there are really two different paths
for you to take, two different kinds of work. There’s exploration geology,
which is probably what most people think about, which is going out to find new
reservoirs for oil and gas. Then there’s development geology which is basically
once a field has been discovered, you have to think carefully about how to
develop it, where to place the wells and how to get the oil and gas out of the
ground most efficiently. So Development is what I have done my whole career up
until about four months ago. Eventually, though not initially, I felt really
comfortable in that role because you do a lot of work with engineers who are in
the field actually drilling and operating the wells and I really enjoyed that. So
that’s what I was doing when I used to go to Alaska and Wyoming, going out to
the wells and meeting those people with hard hats and boots and it was really
fun.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You are both petite and a woman,
so how did you find working in such a man’s world as the oil fields?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To tell you the truth, I have felt more resistance to my presence in
the office than out in the field and that was surprising to me. I don’t really
know why that is, but I find the connections out there easy, and once you’ve
connected with a person, all that other stuff goes out of the window. For
example, I worked Alaska when I first started at Marathon nine years ago and it
was perhaps my favorite job, though they’ve all had good things about them. It
was also a really important job for me. I would go and spend a lot of time out
on the rig when they were drilling wells and I was definitely the only woman
out there. All the geologists before me on that team had been men and the
engineers too. So they really didn’t have any experience of a woman being on
wellsite, but I would go out there and spend days and days at a time. A lot of
it was downtime – while they are drilling there’s not really a lot to do, but
there are different points to make decisions and that’s why I was there. So I
would just sit around in the Company Man’s office and talk with the guys. We
would just chat, talking about everything, so I think that is probably why I
didn’t ever have much of a problem out in the field. Back in the office though there’s
more politics, more competition and you don’t really get to know people to the
same degree because you are working and you are going home at night.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So that was Development work, but my new job is Exploration. I didn’t
plan my job change, but working for a big company, you move assignments a lot. There
are senior people making those career development decisions to move you along
the path of your career to capitalize on and strengthen your skillset. Prior to
this I was working Wyoming and I had a really weird assortment of assets. One
of them was a one hundred year old-plus oilfield which chugged along and always
did really well, but the other two were very challenged from an economic
standpoint. So I had to recommend to
Marathon management that we get rid of them, which wasn’t a nice thing to do,
but it was necessary. So with one sold and the other one shutting down, I
needed to move on.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Moving to the new job has been both terrifying and exciting. My area is
South Texas. The Eagle Ford Shale is a
sedimentary rock formation underlying much of that area. It is a huge boom and
one of our ‘shale oil plays’. It’s in an area of old oil and gas fields and Eagle
Ford is a new development. My group is trying to identify opportunities both
above and below the Eagle Ford to produce oil and gas. An example is the Austin
Chalk which is an old reservoir. Up north, around Giddings and moving west of there,
is traditional Austin Chalk production. Then Eagle Ford is down south of that
and we are trying, with new technology, to extend the Austin Chalk play right
down to where we are. We have a lot of data because the Eagle Ford is being
developed and because there are older oil fields there, and we are trying to
make use of new technology to find other things above or below those.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And I mean literally above or below. We are looking to see what got
missed. There’s a lot that was missed because back when my grandfather was
practicing as a geologist , there was very different technology to evaluate
reserves and to try to recover them in an economic fashion. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What advice would you give to
someone new to the Oil & Gas business?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I was talking with someone about this very recently and I did start out
pretty naïve, just assuming that people were going to teach me what I needed to
learn, but that’s not the case and probably more so for women than for men. So
I would say, “Don’t be afraid to ask questions and show your strength, and ask
for what you want.” Asking questions shows the strength of your desire to
learn, not your ignorance. The quieter you are, the more you look like you
don’t care, like you are uninvolved and your mind’s not clicking, so ask
questions.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Who has been the greatest
influence on your life?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Most definitely my grandparents, in particular my mother’s parents, and
my parents as well. They have all really set the example of forming strong
relationships, both family and friendships and having that be the core of your
life. So when you talk about finding balance, maybe I ask for a lot too. For
example in this recent job change, I was given the opportunity to go to a great
job ,but it was in Oklahoma City, so we wouldn’t even consider it because it
was away from our family and our community and I want Ben to feel rooted. Marathon
was fine with that though I know that if I continue to have opportunities to
move up the company, it will become more difficult to say no to moving, and
though Ben might be off at college by then, my parents will still be here and
might need more help. They don’t need any help now – they help us! But a day
will come…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">How to do you find, or seek to
find, balance in your life?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Finding balance is a constant struggle. I really like my job, so when
I’m at work I’m not sitting around thinking, “I wish I was at home with my
family or I wish I was doing something else.” But then things will happen, like
this past week, where I had a work event that I had to attend, but I had been
gone every night earlier in the week. Although usually I try to wait until
Ben’s out the door to school, but that morning I was leaving early for work, so
I said, “I’ll see you late tonight.” And he replied, “That’s what I figured.
That’s the way it always is.” It felt like he was two years old again when I
would have to leave him crying at daycare! But he said it so matter-of-fact, he
didn’t sound wounded. So I think that’s more my own problem and I think it
feels worse to me than it does to him. It’s a fact of life though, we all have
to go out and make a living. We are very lucky people that we can do jobs that
we enjoy and it’s nice for our kids to see that, and also to see that
supporting a family is hard work and an important business and all those things.
Still, sometimes emotions get the best of me. I do get to be here and attend a
lot though because we live close to work and I don’t travel very much. Plus I
work for a company that has good values and holds your family life as something
of high importance.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Where is your happy place in
Houston?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My recharge is being with my family whether that’s going to watch Ben
play football or sitting on the couch with him watching TV or walking the dog
with Eric, and that’s the real truth of it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What does Houston mean to you?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Obviously it’s home to me. I think if I were to live someplace else, I
would always feel like I was on vacation. Not that I wouldn’t enjoy it, but it
is hard to imagine feeling roots someplace else. I guess that’s a limitation of
mine, but it’s the truth. I’m really
proud of Houston. A lot of people like to put it down, people who live here as
well as people who don’t live here, so I am always out defending my city! I
think they do it out of ignorance because I don’t think people realize what the
city has to offer. A lot of people who move to this city move to the suburbs,
and I know that you can have satisfying community life there too, but the
things that I think about when I think of Houston, somebody who is living in
say Katy doesn’t get to experience very often. Houston is a hardworking city, a
really interesting mix of people and cultures and I think a lot of parts of
Houston are really beautiful.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What is your favorite
restaurant?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There are tons of places! Probably right now my favorite is Pondicheri.
I love it! There’s also a place where we love to go but I don’t know how to
pronounce it but it’s spelled POSCOL, it’s an Italian restaurant on Westheimer
and Montrose and its owned by the man who owns Damarco’s and Dolce Vita. It’s
just the kind of place where they have lots of dishes that you can share, so Eric
and I will have a pasta dish and, and Ben too if he comes with us, and we will
order more and more bread so we can mop up all the sauce. You know what I mean,
when you are tempted to lick the bowl?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What is your Houston secret?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I think that people don’t realize that the neighborhoods in this city
are as strong as they are, particularly in the inner part of the city, close to
and inside the Loop. How many people do you know who say, “Now we are having
kids, we need to move out to the suburbs because we want the kids to go to good
schools and we want them to have communities where they feel safe to ride their
bikes around”? Well, our kids do that right here in Braes Heights, they have a
great school and community right here. I do think that is something that people
even within the city don’t know about or appreciate. I’m constantly telling
young families that I work with, “You know, there’s this great neighborhood
inside the loop…”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If you could change one thing
about Houston…<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">How spread out the city is… or the traffic… I hate for people to have
to drive an hour each day to get to work. But changing that might not be good
because that would change how things are internally. If all the people that
lived within the Greater Houston area lived several miles further in, then the
character would change, wouldn’t it? We’d be like Chicago – a great city, but
where everybody’s having to build upwards. Living in a close-in neighborhood,
in a house with a yard like we do, would be unheard of there. So let’s scratch
that change.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Oh, I know! What I would change, for sure, would be the mosquitoes! Surely
there’s something we can figure out to get rid of the mosquitoes!</span><br />
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></b>
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Who would be your own Inspiring Houston
Woman?</span></b><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There
are many women within our own community who would have been on my list, but
really at the top would be my mother, <a href="http://www.inspiringhoustonwomen.com/2014/03/nancy-smith.html">Nancy Smith</a>. My mom is a really unique
person. When I was in high school she went back to work and she got involved in
working in the hospital system in Houston because of volunteer work she’d done
before. She was inspired to become an ordained minister because she wanted to
get involved in hospital chaplaincy. So she was ordained relatively late in
life, after I was married, and she never saw any boundaries to that, she just
went for what she wanted. She stirs the pot, she really does. She’s ordained as
a Baptist and when she was working, she was only one of two Baptist hospital
chaplains in the state. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But
she’s very multi-faith, she’s learned so much about other faiths and she
connects with a lot of parts of other faiths too, which as a hospital chaplain
is only right. She worked at MD Anderson for years and at a hospice for years,
and she didn’t shy away from the hardest jobs. Her hospice was home-hospice, so
she was visiting people in their homes. When she was at the hospital, she felt
a huge part of her responsibility wasn’t just to the patients, it was to the
staff too. She recognized a need within the nursing staff and would organize a
retreat for the nurses where they would get a massage and have meditation time.
She retired when her mother was very, very ill. As a daughter she’s inspiring,
but as a woman in Houston, I think that she’s just great. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
Caroline Leechhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00577580003627430304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9095899061562578820.post-37182438439006047772013-10-16T09:00:00.000-05:002013-10-17T11:26:49.202-05:00Valerie Koehler<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjniI-6T-cd-dWBisQjxNh4X3ED0BazrROred4brbvrIFDw4Kmwpy5bNa7sD62z7gCShTx10SX3P181ILzqcn2zzCFg1wZC-jNTRmV0_Cue5w4m2SsQ3r8d-YRKLJD9oK9mfe0zVniQufac/s1600/Valerie+Koehler+_0886+main+portrait.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjniI-6T-cd-dWBisQjxNh4X3ED0BazrROred4brbvrIFDw4Kmwpy5bNa7sD62z7gCShTx10SX3P181ILzqcn2zzCFg1wZC-jNTRmV0_Cue5w4m2SsQ3r8d-YRKLJD9oK9mfe0zVniQufac/s400/Valerie+Koehler+_0886+main+portrait.jpg" width="265" /></a></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Valerie
Koehler has been the owner of the Blue Willow Bookshop on Memorial Drive since
1996. She serves on the boards of the </span></i><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">American Booksellers Association and the Mountains & Plains
Independent Booksellers Association. Her
husband, Greg, is a partner in the bookshop and they have</span></i><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"> two sons, Will and Steve.</span></i></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"> </span></b><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"> </span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">What’s your story, Valerie?</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">I grew up in West University. We were a family of readers and West U
library was our local library. I always loved to read but never thought that I
would own a bookstore, that really wasn’t part of the plan. It sort of landed in my lap.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">I have a degree in Drama from the University of Texas and I worked in
sales and then stayed at home with my kids. My husband’s in the oil business so
we had lived in Houston off and on, but when we came back here for good, I knew
I wanted to live in this neighborhood.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">This book store was built in 1974 – it’s the only shop that’s ever
been here – by a wonderful woman called Musabelle Naut and her bookstore was
called Musabelle’s Books. The front of the store does look like it’s in a quaint
old building, doesn’t it? Musabelle had lived in Europe for a while before she
started this business and she wanted it to look like an old British bookshop,
so that’s exactly how she had it decked it out, with the wood and brick.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">When my kids started school, I decided that I needed to do something
other than serving on the PTA, so I came in here and said, “I’d like to work
here.” I didn’t know exactly what I was thinking. I worked for free because I just wanted
something part-time while the kids were in school. It became pretty obvious to
me that she was ready to retire, she was ill and the store was in disrepair. So
she offered it to me and I said, “I guess so!” I grew up in retail – my dad had
a grocery store so I grew up working there and also during college so I knew
retail. I think that was just as important as the love of books.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">I really didn’t have a huge knowledge of books, I just came to it as
someone who loved to read. I read what I loved and I loved to talk about the
books I read. I still love to surround
myself with wonderful people who also like to read and that’s how we go. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Musabelle had a lot of kids’ books but didn’t have much adult fiction
when I first started working here. Now we now have children’s books all the way
down one side, starting with birth and coming round to teens, and we have now a
lot of fiction. We serve a number of
book clubs, hosting the meetings here and I go out to speak to others about what
books to read. I just love to talk about books!<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuJKk7ou9BFG_2-O66U1kG7LduzZNrvOXzhK_k52FVgLIOhJlL__KMwLzw43KQBer3wo4nE-1zTsZTksrHJDcODPT0VZeCw3Z0P0UnJk44hKPgRxuepfT-ewznR2DGGwvSlNPrqCYWA8WX/s1600/Valeria+Koehler+_0904+medium.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuJKk7ou9BFG_2-O66U1kG7LduzZNrvOXzhK_k52FVgLIOhJlL__KMwLzw43KQBer3wo4nE-1zTsZTksrHJDcODPT0VZeCw3Z0P0UnJk44hKPgRxuepfT-ewznR2DGGwvSlNPrqCYWA8WX/s400/Valeria+Koehler+_0904+medium.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue;"><i>Visiting authors are all asked to sign the Blue Willow Bookshop wall</i></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">It kind of evolved over the years. My kids are gamers, so we added
games and little things we thought would work.
Then we started working on what we are best known for now, and that is all
the authors who visit us. Over the years I increased the visits to the point
where I had to hire someone to handle that part of it because there’s so much
detail, and we’ve had to really work at it too. It doesn’t take too many bad
experiences for the authors to get gun-shy when it comes to doing signings, but
we’ve had very few bad experiences. I
encourage everyone to come hear the authors speak, especially any aspiring
writers. We have all these wonderful writers here in your back yard, why aren’t
you coming to hear them? They are fascinating people who love to talk about
their craft and always have something interesting to share. They love to
encourage other authors. Very few have
been a little proud of themselves, they are normally really humble people. I
always learn something from every author who comes in whether they are
children’s, teen or adult authors. I always think, “I never really looked at
the world that way.”</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgclJcxZQtRQPs1ojQdwEReNXXjXdwhAhtGXcGkx9LxBzjIBdKA6W6UCmvx-LkKclL6sIaaJb-LNjF_egYpRyLdPBH1-CuWx_erqdO90u7XH9bCknxTUjvPj-EX12iXLjx1fAhBiUbLOhpz/s1600/Valerie+Koehler_0901.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgclJcxZQtRQPs1ojQdwEReNXXjXdwhAhtGXcGkx9LxBzjIBdKA6W6UCmvx-LkKclL6sIaaJb-LNjF_egYpRyLdPBH1-CuWx_erqdO90u7XH9bCknxTUjvPj-EX12iXLjx1fAhBiUbLOhpz/s400/Valerie+Koehler_0901.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">After the development
of author visits was the whole social media thing so we added that – we’re on
Facebook and Twitter and our newsletter goes out twice a month. I now even have
a guy who does my graphic design.
Basically I surround myself with people who do the things I don’t do
well! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">So sixteen
years later we are sitting here having a lot of fun. And we do try to make it
as fun as possible.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">What advice would you give to someone new to
running a bookstore?</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">I would say avail yourself of all the wonderful resources that are out
there in terms of support from the regional trade associations and the national
trade associations. I serve on both boards right now and it amazes me the work
that they do to support new bookstores, but they need to know that you need
that help so I would reach out to a mentor. I am actually mentoring a bookshop
in Temple right now. It’s part of a program I initiated in our regional trade
association, to mentor other stores, because I would have loved to have someone
to ask questions of. The other thing is to feel your way to what you want your
bookstore to be and embrace that brand, embrace what you do best. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">How to do you find, or seek to find, balance in
your life?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">We are not open Sundays, but I am here six days a week, pretty much,
and there’s not a lot of balance. Over the years, I have tried to put myself in
the position to let other people do things for me and that has helped a lot. I’m
not really a control freak and there are things that I don’t like to do or I’m
not good at, so it’s not hard to let someone else do them. However, it is hard
for me to be in town and not feel I should be in the store, but it’s real easy
for me to go out of town! And then I don’t think about it at all, literally, I
put it out of my mind. Both my sons live in different states, so I visit them
in Oklahoma and Tennessee.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">What is your Houston secret?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">That all of us independent bookstores are great friends. We don’t look on each other as
competition. In fact, we are doing a
joint Twitter feed with Brazos Books and Murder by the Book, and putting
together a website so we can all upload our events. Then people can go to and see who is coming to
Houston and when, and it’ll link to all three of our websites. It’s a way of
showing readers that we have a lot of authors coming to town and we want to
encourage that. And we also want to show New York that we have what it takes. I
think they are finally getting it but we still have times when I think, “Why
aren’t they sending that author to Texas?” We have a lot of support here though,
so they are learning.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">That’s the beauty of the independent book stores – all of us in the
United States have such different flavors. We really meld to our town and
become a community center. There has been a lot of talk about the demise of the
printed word and of the bookstore, but the ones that have survived are thriving
and new ones are opening because people are looking for that – it makes a
community to have a thriving bookstore. We have each figured out what we do
well and we go after that, rather than trying to be everything to everybody. We
can all order books for people – you can order them on our website or you can
come in and we can order them for you, but of course we can’t have every book
so we have to pick and choose what we are going to focus on. And of course you
can order e-books through our website too.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">What does Houston mean to you?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">I wasn’t born here, but I came here as fast I could! My sister works
with me now and I can’t believe that five out of the six siblings are still
here. We have all gone and come back. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Where is your happy place in Houston?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Blue Willow is really my happy place. I am here a lot.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">What is your favorite restaurant?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Just across the street from Blue Willow there’s an Indian restaurant
called Nirvana, and you can pretty much find us eating there at least twice a
month. My husband loves it and also he loves that it’s BYOB so we have a
collection of wine that we can take up there. I love to venture out and go to
different restaurants, though we don’t do it a lot. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">If you could change one thing about Houston…</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">My husband and I are not fans of drinking and driving so probably my
least favorite thing about Houston is that it’s hard to get anywhere unless you
are in the car. I could rant and rave
about that for a long time! If there was one thing I would do for Houston it
would be to improve the mass transit to take people to places – yes, to take us
to Downtown, but also other places where the restaurants are and to the museums
and all the really awesome places that we have here in Houston.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><i><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">Valerie and Blue Willow Bookshop can be found at
<a href="http://www.bluewillowbookshop.com/">www.bluewillowbookshop.com</a> </span></i></span></div>
Caroline Leechhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00577580003627430304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9095899061562578820.post-74816000107650452982013-10-15T09:00:00.000-05:002014-05-30T10:20:56.189-05:00Pansy Gee<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgukcL3dNGVORMJQKvTDaeeRmfJkjqMtId8OrfESQN5mcXruwBQQwUjMEiKFde2Jp-kD0F69BpZ0msyPEbO93NomWwqp92uHuf4O5KkzP0IvcVjNjltchW0YvwfBKf1ZQpSaUHUy-2OYIgj/s1600/Pansy+Gee+0739+-+main+portrait.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgukcL3dNGVORMJQKvTDaeeRmfJkjqMtId8OrfESQN5mcXruwBQQwUjMEiKFde2Jp-kD0F69BpZ0msyPEbO93NomWwqp92uHuf4O5KkzP0IvcVjNjltchW0YvwfBKf1ZQpSaUHUy-2OYIgj/s320/Pansy+Gee+0739+-+main+portrait.JPG" height="213" width="320" /></a></div>
<i><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: inherit;">Pansy Gee is
the head of the Literary Development Center at Mark Twain Elementary. She
teaches grades 3 through 5 of this unique program which she founded for these
grades in 1990. She is also a mentor and seminar leader for Rice University
Center of Education’s School Literacy and Culture Project (SLC) as well as a
supervisor for The Summer Creative Writing Camp with SLC and Writers in the
Schools. In 2012, she was awarded Asian Teacher of the Year by the Houston
Independent School District. She has two children, Kimberly and Christopher.</span></i><br />
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<b style="font-family: inherit;">What’s your story, Pansy?</b></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I have worked here at Mark Twain Elementary for 26 years this year and I’ve been a
teacher for 38 years. I grew up in Houston, born and raised and in fact, I’m an
HISD product. I am what I call a “first
generation and a half” Chinese – my mom was actually born here and my dad was
born in China but both spent the major part of their childhood in China. So I
consider myself first generation – lots of culture, lots of superstitions that
I grew up with that I still treasure. Not that I believe it necessarily, but
it’s part of my fiber. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I went to a very traditional HISD elementary school and I went to one
of the very first integrated middle schools. My mom and dad owned a store in
the middle of the Fifth Ward, three blocks from Wheatley High School. I never
knew there was a difference between black, white etc, until the 60s when all
that turmoil with Dr King and Civil Rights Movement came about and hit me in
the face. I remember I was walking home one afternoon by myself because I had
stayed late after school. Somebody from a distance, I couldn’t see whose voice,
hollered “Your daddy’s a N*****-lover!” It scared the pants off me and I ran
home. My Dad had to sit me down and explain things to me. I think I was in 5<sup>th</sup>
or 6<sup>th</sup> grade and I just didn’t know that there was this conflict. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Of course I was taught that Chinese people are the best, but I think
that was just my parents talking!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Houston is where I met and married Don. We met as seniors in high school
and I thought, “This gentleman talks too much.” Yes, it’s hard to believe that
someone can talk more than me, but I found myself thinking, “I’m going to be
very polite and get up and leave”. But then I met him again at the University
of Houston and we got to be friends. We dated for seven years before I finally
married the man! We have two children – Kimberly went to UT and Christopher went
to Texas A&M and it’s been fun ever since! My daughter is now a lawyer at
Hess Oil & Gas and my son works as an account manager in Austin for a
software company. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><o:p> </o:p> </span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: inherit;">Who has been the greatest
influence on your life?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Personally, of course, my parents. They always made sure they opened
the store on Sunday and it was just a regular working day, but they made sure
we went to church. So my Christian faith is also a very big part of what
influences me and my ambitions. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Professionally, I have been so blessed to have had so many good
teachers. Mrs Smith, my second grade teacher, wasn’t into shaming people. I once
changed the grade on a handwriting assignment to make it look better than it
was so I wouldn’t have to sit and practice handwriting when I got home. My
sister ratted me out and my father, as a consequence, made me go and apologize
to my teacher and to my class. He stood outside the door, but my teacher had
somehow warned the class in advance. She’d said, “Y’all just make sure that you
know that you are going to make a mistake one day and you’ll end up
apologizing. So you treat her the way you are going to want to be treated if
you were standing there having to do this.” Mrs Smith taught me how to treat
children like human beings.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Thinking back, I was a brat in elementary school, I really was, and here
at Mark Twain when it evolved that I became the disciplinarian for many years,
it was like God’s way of winking at me, saying, “See, I’ll get you!”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Mr Reiner, who became an Associate Superintendent of HISD, was my
middle school teacher and he had a big influence on me. He was a speech teacher.
He taught Debate and Public Speaking. I had him from 7<sup>th</sup> grade all
the way through to 9<sup>th</sup> grade. When he ended up being my Principal’s
boss, it was just hilarious, just another of God’s winks!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">And then Mr Amstutz, the principal of Mark Twain who first allowed me
to do this Literary Development Center thing that I’ve been doing for 26 years.
He trusted me enough to say, “Just make it your own.” So here I am. LDC is
unique to this school and it’s unique to Houston. I can’t tell you how many
teachers have been through this school to pick up ideas about the program,
about teaching, about literacy. Houston ISD has allowed us to make a language
arts lab where we can show that reading, speaking and writing are all combined.
Reading is about thinking, not about calling words and being able to
regurgitate stories. It’s about thinking and forming opinions and communicating
what your opinions are. And it’s about having those opinions valued, even
though they might be different from Johnny sitting next to you. We all have to
learn how to express those opinions and how to do it well, if we want to be
listened to. So that’s what this magnet is all about, that’s why it’s called
Literary Development Center. It’s about communication, it’s about thinking and
it’s about making sure everybody’s voice can be heard whether it’s in writing
or out loud. And it’s about reading really good books! And writing funny
stories. Or writing serious stories. Or writing a report. It’s about
communicating. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfAFJ_TkVMQ1jrIJmXvvUobrVH_fbbUI6xvKWQxDOcmrBl2VyW0hsT8kX8QIQgP5QNMB3xx-wZB30y0DuZc8HwZKhug0Lcvx5dkgf7x0WTqeFmNFV7FMe04Ek9TWClSgnHQ3q88BsruLt0/s1600/Pansy+Gee+-+Collage.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfAFJ_TkVMQ1jrIJmXvvUobrVH_fbbUI6xvKWQxDOcmrBl2VyW0hsT8kX8QIQgP5QNMB3xx-wZB30y0DuZc8HwZKhug0Lcvx5dkgf7x0WTqeFmNFV7FMe04Ek9TWClSgnHQ3q88BsruLt0/s640/Pansy+Gee+-+Collage.JPG" height="196" width="640" /></span></a><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: inherit;">What advice would you give to
someone new to teaching literature?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">My first piece of advice would be to pick a book or a story that you
like. Don’t choose something because it’s on a reading list or you’ve just
picked it up, or that you’ve read it but you didn’t find any joy in it. I
remember The Snows of Kilimanjaro by Hemingway. Oh my gosh, it was the worst
book I have ever read! I had to read it in high school – I would never teach
that book because I found no joy in it. I share books that HISD either doesn’t
know about or doesn’t care about, and because I haven’t caused too much
trouble, I can read whatever I want. So I pick books that I like because in my
heart of hearts I believe that if Johnny likes this book then he is going to
make an effort to read it. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">There are so many great books out there. I want the kids to enjoy that
excitement and awe, to be scared and to laugh and be sad and cry because of a
book. I want them to feel all that because that is going to make them be
readers for life. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: inherit;">How to do you find, or seek to
find, balance in your life?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I have to say to myself that it’s ok if the bathroom is not as clean as
it might be, or it’s ok if this stack of papers gets left. Or say to the class
teacher who is in the room with me, “OK, this one’s yours”. I have to give
myself permission to be ok with the fact that I can’t do it all. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">My balance is saying to myself, “Not today. Today I’m going to run or
walk on the treadmill and plug my little iPod in and listen to music and know
that it’s ok. That stack of papers will still be there when I open the door tomorrow
and it’s ok.” Especially now when my dad is sick, I have to give myself
permission to say to my Principal, Melissa Patin, “I need to go to the hospital
and this might not get done today.” And she’s been so wonderful. And it’s ok.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: inherit;">What does Houston mean to you?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I love Houston – I can’t imagine living anywhere else. I love visiting
other places, but this is home, it’s family. It’s familiar but it’s big enough
that there are still places to explore. My daughter has just recently moved in The
Heights. As a little girl, I knew The Heights to be a rundown neighborhood but
it’s not anymore, so there’s an adventure there. Houston is big enough to still
be an adventure. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: inherit;">Where is your happy place in
Houston?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">My chair at home – it reclines and it’s in front of the television and
it’s got a big lamp behind so I can read, so definitely my chair. And anywhere
that’s up high, like the top of the Williams Tower or the tallest bank building
in Downtown. Just so I can look out over the city. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Or even driving – I drive east into town, and oh my gosh, the sunsets
in the morning! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">And of course, my classroom. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: inherit;">What is your favorite
restaurant?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">OK, you have to be stout of heart – Yuan Ten – it’s in the middle of
Chinatown down Bellaire Boulevard. It’s nothing to look at but the food is
always fresh and really good. You probably won’t find a lot of <i>lo fans</i> – American white people – most
of them are Chinese families or people who pop in at lunchtime because they
work in the area. It’s not a very big place so don’t be surprised that somebody
will come and share a table with you. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: inherit;">What is your Houston secret?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">My Houston secret? That the humidity is good for your skin. It makes
you look younger than you are and you are not going to get all dried up. Yes,
you are uncomfortable and you have to do laundry often, but the humidity keeps
you young, so look on it like that. I said to one of the students the other day
that the humidity was a bit much, even for me, “But it keeps my wrinkles
hydrated, so I don’t look 104.” And she looked at me as serious as can be and
said, “You don’t look 104, you look more… seventy”! She was just trying to be
nice, but that’s not what I wanted to hear! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: inherit;">If you could change one thing
about Houston…</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Traffic! It scares me to death sometimes, but what are you gonna do?</span><o:p></o:p><br />
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<b>Who would be your own Inspiring Houston
Woman?<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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Linda McNeil who is the Director of the Center for Education at Rice
University. Such a high position sounds daunting, doesn’t it, but she is so down
to earth and so caring. She opens her home at the drop of a hat, and says, “Oh,
you were in the neighborhood? Why didn’t you drop by?” She’s just that kind of
warm, wonderful woman, very accepting. She always wants to hear your ideas about
education and how to make education better.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Caroline Leechhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00577580003627430304noreply@blogger.com3