Western Institute for Social Research

WISR’S PURPOSE AND PHILOSOPHY

WISR’s programs are designed to provide community-involved adults with high-quality learning opportunities, combining academic theory and research with experience-based knowledge and insights, to help people develop satisfying personal careers while providing leadership toward educational innovation, community improvement and constructive social change.

Higher education should help community-involved adults become aware of their intellectual strengths, of what they already know and can do, by thinking, talking, and writing about those strengths, and applying them to problems that the students are personally concerned about. Higher education should help adults assess their personal goals, and the kinds of further learning that they need to pursue those goals and attain them. All students should be encouraged to stretch themselves, to become broadly acquainted with fields of knowledge and intellectual methods that are relevant to their areas of interest.

We believe that facts and methods of analyzing are best learned as parts of a broad, developmental approach to knowing, as a natural, dynamic process that all of us engage in throughout our lives. Critical inquiry can be a focal process in the education and self-development of community- involved adults.

We believe that all learners’ intellectual interests are ethically and politically informed, and that these aspects of knowledge should be openly and hospitably explored in the educational process.

Intercultural understanding and multicultural learning experiences are important to adult learning in today’s world, especially between members of different genders, economic classes, and ethnic and racial groups. Every student should understand how the most basic facts and ideas that we know are shaped by our individual experiences and the group cultures in which we take part.

We believe that adults learn best when their study is closely connected to their own personal and group interests, and connected as well with work in which they are actively engaged. We believe students should be encouraged and supported in doing work that contributes not only to their own advancement but also to the improvement of their communities, and to long-term social change for the benefit of all peoples.

A Brief Historical Perspective. WISR was founded in part as an attempt to improve on both conventional and alternative higher education as they had evolved into the 1970s. At that time, in the aftermath of the sixties, many educators and students were debating the merits of the university’s role in the community and in social change, the “relevance” of the curriculum, and generally, the values served by higher education. WISR was founded partly as our modest but concerted response to some inadequacies in conventional education—for example, the absence of emphasis on personalized education, multiculturality and social change. It was founded partly in response to the limitations of alternative programs of the seventies, which oftentimes were too preoccupied with simply “looking different” from the conventional. Since then, many conventional institutions have adopted reforms which have incorporated in only a partial way some of the agendas from the sixties (e.g., field studies programs, women’s studies, ethnic studies). Most current reforms are guided by the economics of marketing academic programs to appeal to a growing population of mature adults who are interested in returning for further academic study and professional certification (e.g., to obtain degrees and licensing). Most alternative institutions of the sixties and seventies have failed to survive.

WISR is one of the very few alternative, multicultural and social change-oriented institutions of higher learning that have survived for what is now a quarter of a century. WISR’s Board, faculty, staff and alumni have continued to hold WISR to these initial commitments—to create and sustain a multiethnic academic institution for people concerned with community improvement, social change and educational innovation; to provide individualized degree programs for working adults; and to continue to refine and enhance the teaching-learning methods that work best for our students, while keeping our basic philosophy, values and our sense of purpose intact. Hence, our motto, Multicultural is WISeR.

DEGREE PROGRAMS

The Doctor of Philosophy Degree in Higher Education and Social Change

The interdisciplinary PhD program provides advanced, individualized learning and professional training for educators, community service professionals, community activists, and other adults concerned with the relations among social change, education, and community service or development in everyday practice. Examples of specific objectives are (1) preparing teachers for innovative college and university programs; (2) assisting the personal and intellectual growth of leaders in community service organizations; (3) helping to advance knowledge of ways to meet the needs of low-income and ethnic-minority communities; and (4) contributing to the education and knowledge of professionals in such fields as education, community services, and counseling. Students in the PhD program critically examine (a) existing programs and institutions; (b) innovative models and practices; (c) the social/cultural/political conditions that influence institutions and programs, local communities, and professional practices; and (d) the creative potential of new kinds of learning and teaching processes. These educational processes may directly or indirectly influence students; educators; professionals in community services, public policy or counseling; clients of community organizations and professionals; and the general population. Examples of areas of concern to PhD students are multicultural education, community-based adult literacy programs, health education, the educational effectiveness and social impact of self-help groups, the professional education of counselors concerned with creative practices that consider the larger social context, and the educational practices in formal school and college settings. Key elements of the PhD program at WISR are:

· Each student designs his or her own individualized program of studies in consultations with one to several primary faculty advisers of his/her choosing.

· Students have great latitude to design projects and studies that contribute to their particular personal and professional goals within the broad guidelines of the program.

· The program aims to provide advanced individualized learning, professional training and assistance in accomplishing creative projects for educators, counselors, community service professionals and community activists.

· The program is especially for people concerned with social change, community improvement, and professional or educational innovation.

· The program is not designed to meet State requirements for the Clinical Psychology License.

· The PhD program is typically two to four years in length, and most students continue to work during their studies.

· PhD students usually complete 10 to 11 pre-dissertation projects on topics central to their interest. Some of these projects are practical and action-oriented, others may involve critical reviews of pertinent literature, and others are designed to synthesize and critically reflect on insights students have gained from previous experiences.

· These projects culminate in written papers.

· The student completes his or her program by conducting action-oriented research and writing a dissertation that is a creative project of strong personal significance, of some importance to others, and a springboard for the next steps in the student’s work and life.

The PhD program in Higher Education and Social Change has graduated 28 students since the first person enrolled in 1976. It enrolls mature and capable adults who are able to do creative, specialized work in one or more areas pertaining to the education of adults for social change. PhD students learn how to create useful knowledge for educators, community-based professionals and leaders, and lay people who are interested in using educational processes to address social problems.

Master of Arts Degree in Education

The Master of Arts in Education provides individualized, interdisciplinary learning and professional training for educators, community service professionals, community activists and leaders, and other adults interested in understanding education as a process and social institution in its relation to personal growth, community development, and broader social change. Students in this program learn how to do advanced, specialized work in content areas such as those described in the discussion of the PhD program (above). MA students learn concepts, practical skills, and methods of inquiry, so they can engage in competent practice as educators, community leaders, or professionals in related fields.

Master's and Bachelor of Arts Degrees in Psychology

These programs help students to learn counseling skills and theories from both traditional and contemporary currents in the field. BA students learn basic concepts of psychology as they apply to one or more of their individual areas of interest. MA students have two options: First, they may pursue individualized programs of advanced study in psychology, requiring at least 32 semester units of completed work. Second, they may elect to do at least 48 semester units of graduate work, with an emphasis on marriage and family therapy, combining classroom-based instruction with individualized study. This second option takes longer to complete, and it meets the academic requirements for the State of California Marriage and Family Therapy License (the educational requirements of Section 4980.37 of the California Business and Professions Code). For more details on the MFT option, consult WISR’s supplement to this catalog, “An option for meeting the State of California’s academic requirements for the Marriage and Family Therapy (MFT) license.” The following are some highlights about WISR’s MFT option, taken from that supplement:

· The State has a number of important prerequisites for licensing, the first of which is that the prospective licensee must obtain an approved MA that meets the academic requirements spelled out by State laws and regulations (like WISR’s MFT MA option). Some of the most important additional prerequisites are: 3,000 hours of supervised experience (no more than 750 of which may be obtained during the MA program, with the balance coming after receiving the MA); a criminal background check; and a written exam and a clinical vignette written exam.

· Those considering the MFT license should contact the State agency which is responsible for licensing, the Board of Behavioral Science. The Board has a very informative website: www.bbs.ca.gov/

· Another excellent source of information is the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists: www.camft.org/

· WISR MFT students are required to participate in a minimum of two years of Saturday seminars, which meet twice per month (one time per month in the mornings, and once each month for most of the day). Students with previous relevant MA level work may be required in seminars for a slightly shorter period of time.

· Through faculty assisted individualized study and participation in seminars, students are expected to demonstrate foundational knowledge, including understanding a well-rounded range of readings and the completion of an analytical paper, in each of the following areas: Human Development, Human Sexuality, Psychopathology, Theories and Methods of Marriage and Family Therapy (two papers), Cross-Cultural Counseling, Professional Ethics and Law, Psychological Testing, Psychopharmacology, Aging and Elder Care, and Theories of Social Analysis and Change (as applied to some aspect of MFT practice).

· WISR MFT students must also participate in an all-day workshop on Child Abuse Assessment and Reporting, two days of training on Alcoholism and other Chemical Substance Abuse and Dependency, a day and a half of seminar studies in human sexuality, and seminar studies on aging and elder care, as well as on spousal abuse and domestic violence.

· MFT students at WISR learn about research methodology, especially qualitative and action-oriented methods using observational and interviewing skills, and demonstrate the successful use of these in their thesis or in another project.

· Each WISR MFT student must complete a minimum of 306 hours in a Supervised Practicum, and write two critically reflective papers on their insights and experiences in at least one, and preferably, two, practicum setting(s).

Those considering WISR’s MFT option should also consult WISR’s Supplement: “School Performance Fact Sheet for WISR MFT Students and Alumni.” Some highlights from this fact sheet are:

· Overall, more than half of the students entering the MFT program succeed in completing the program;

· the vast majority of our alumni have either obtained the license or their intern number and are working toward the license;

· at least three-quarters of our MFT alumni are employed as MFTs, MFT interns, or in closely related fields;

· most all pass the written exam on the first try; a substantial majority also pass the oral exam on the first try [the oral exam has recently been replaced by a clinical vignette written exam], and so far, all of our alumni who take the exam pass it eventually.

· Of the fourteen alumni surveyed in 2003, all were very enthusiastic and positive about their educational experiences at WISR.

Students pursuing the MA in Psychology, which is not designed to meet the State’s academic requirements for the MFT license, are also prepared for competent professional practice, and they learn to consider some of the community, social, and multiethnic issues surrounding the practice of psychology. Students pursuing the BA in Psychology develop sufficient understanding of a range of psychological theories, issues, and practices that they can go on for graduate study, or can obtain entry-level positions doing work related to psychology. BA students also become familiar with some methods of inquiry in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences, and learn how to organize their ideas, find their individual voices, and express themselves through writing.

Master's and Bachelor of Arts Degrees in Human Services

and Community Development

Work in a community agency or grassroots organization is combined with study of skills such as community needs assessment, program evaluation, networking, problem-definition, constituency-building, and institutional development for community groups. The Master and Bachelor of Arts Programs in Human Services and Community Development provide individualized, interdisciplinary education and professional training for adults interested especially in creating and offering community services and programs that are responsive to community needs and promote constructive social change.

Students pursuing an MA are prepared for competent professional practice and/or community leadership, and they learn how to address immediate tasks and problems as well as the "bigger picture." Students pursuing a BA develop an understanding of theories and practices so that they can go on for graduate study, work with local community groups, and/or obtain at least entry-level positions in a community service agency. BA students also become familiar with some methods of inquiry in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences, and learn how to organize their ideas, find their individual voices, and express themselves through writing.

Master's and Bachelor of Arts Degrees in Social Sciences

The MA and BA programs in social sciences analyze the connections between everyday life, larger social/political/economic/cultural conditions, and issues of social change from an interdisciplinary perspective. The Master of Arts and Bachelor of Arts Programs in Social Science provide individualized, inquiry-oriented education and professional training for working adults interested in the interdisciplinary study of issues that connect those aspects of community services, community education, community development, social policy, and social change that interest them.

Students pursuing the MA are prepared for competent professional practice in fields that require the use of social science knowledge and methods, including jobs in community services, media, social research, community activism, organizational management and organizational consulting. Each student learns one or two specialties and gains a foundational understanding of methods of inquiry in social sciences. BA students are introduced to theories and methods in the social sciences as preparation for graduate study, local community work, or entry-level jobs in social service agencies. BA students also become familiar with methods of inquiry in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences; they learn how to organize their ideas, find their individual voices, and express themselves through writing.

STUDY AT WISR FOR PERSONS LIVING OUTSIDE THE AREA

The vast majority of WISR's students live in the San Francisco Bay Area. However, WISR also offers degree programs to students who live outside the area under special arrangements tailored to their specific learning needs and capabilities. We have found that most students admitted from outside the Bay Area do exceedingly well in our programs. Here are examples of some alumni and current students who have studied from a great distance from the Bay Area--through regular phone conferences with faculty, exchange of drafts through mail and e-mail, and occasional visits to WISR to participate in seminars and to meet with faculty and other students.

· A faculty member at the University of California, San Diego, who specialized in multi-cultural education, teaching reading and writing to young children, and the creation of support systems for minority teachers.

· A faculty member at Evergreen State College in Tacoma, Washington, who was doing interdisciplinary team teaching and innovative education in writing and study skills for adults re-entering college after years away from formal education.

· The historian for the Omaha tribe, who while living in Nebraska, successfully obtained his MA at WISR with his studies focusing on cultural preservation projects growing out of his work with his tribe and with anthropologists, educators, public officials and the general public.

· A professor of “English as a Foreign Language” in Japan who was very involved in a number of facets of cross-cultural education. His PhD studies at WISR furthered his professional writing, including a paper on “Ethnographies of Learning” presented at the 1997 TESOL Conference in Orlando, Florida. His dissertation was concerned with researching and articulating a critical approach to learning and teaching culture, based on the study of “English as a Foreign Language” classrooms in Japan.

· Several former and current PhD students are licensed therapists living in such locales as Colorado, Hawaii, Germany and Seattle, who have pursued advanced work in the treatment of a wide variety of trauma survivors, and in the training of therapists and other professionals who work with people recovering from various forms of trauma. These therapists have often studied the use of somatic and movement approaches to therapy in conjunction with verbal approaches. Some have been concerned with neurological and physiological, as well as spiritual, aspects of healing.

· A current MA student at WISR is an accountant living in Baltimore who is studying African culture and spirituality for insights that can be used by African Americans.

· A WISR PhD student is a tenured professor of law in Boston. As an Asian-American, he serves on community task forces which are fostering community dialogue to further multiculturality in the greater Boston area. His PhD studies are also focusing on his specialization in labor law and workplace bullying, as well as his special interest in the role of intellectuals in promoting progressive social change.

· A current student is a Nigerian who is using his PhD studies at WISR to further social policy research aimed at redistributing the wealth from Nigerian oil resources to benefit impoverished communities there.

Admission Requirements and Teaching/Learning Process

Like all students admitted to WISR, applicants from outside the Bay Area discuss WISR's program and their own goals, interests, and backgrounds with a core faculty member. The application process involves extended telephone conversations, letters of recommendation, and the applicant's written statement about her or his interests, plans, and the kinds of learning and community action in which s/he has been involved.

Students living outside the Bay Area are expected to maintain regular contact with WISR faculty, and to visit WISR periodically. Each student constructs an individualized program of study with WISR faculty help. Frequent (usually biweekly) telephone conversations and exchanges of letters and/or audiotapes with WISR faculty are used to communicate about the student's learning goals, projects in progress, readings, job-related work of current interest, and other topics related to the student's learning. This regular feedback helps to give students support, stimulation, constructive criticism, and intellectual foci for their professional and academic activities. All students must provide rough drafts of papers to WISR faculty, so that they can receive specific suggestions for refining their ideas and improving their writing skills. Regular telephone conversations are used to discuss students' difficulties and frustrations, brainstorm about possible work/learning projects, and maintain student-faculty contact. The students use periodic face-to-face meetings (at least annually, but usually more frequently) with faculty and other students at WISR, and with other resource people from the Bay Area, to enrich and fill out their involvement in WISR learning activities.

LEARNING PROCESS AND

ACADEMIC STANDARDS

WISR's Individualized Approach to Learning and Grading

Most of the work of WISR students is similar to what is called independent study at conventional institutions. However, WISR's learning/teaching relationships involve substantially more ongoing and cumulative student-faculty contact than the model of independent study, which relies primarily on initial "contracts" and faculty checkups at the contract's end. WISR students average twice-monthly, individualized discussion sessions with faculty members, with more frequent contacts when projects are at especially active phases, and less frequent contacts in a project's less active phases.

Evaluations of student work are made by each person's primary faculty adviser throughout the individual, faculty-student consultations, and in the faculty member's review of written papers and project reports. A strong effort is made to engage each student in habitually evaluating her or his own efforts. Open, candid discussions of a student's strengths, progress, and areas needing attention are part of many faculty-student consultations. At the same time, students are encouraged to do repeated revisions and rewrites of their papers and reports, until they have been brought to a level of quality acceptable to both the student and the teacher. WISR faculty members try to separate the process of evaluating students' work from the penalties and insults to students' pride that are considered necessary parts of traditional, summary grading systems.

WISR's teaching and learning methods emphasize regular, intensive, one-to-one contacts between student and faculty members, and small-group seminars in which everyone is expected to contribute to the shared learning. These methods were more traditional throughout Western history, from Classical Greece to Oxford and Cambridge Universities, than they are in modern U.S. universities, where the prevalent patterns of impersonal, course-based instruction are inventions of comparatively recent times.

WISR relies not on standardized courses but on students' active efforts, under faculty supervision, to solve problems that actively interest them, bringing their own work experiences together with the resources of academic research. Instruction at WISR is based on a curriculum that emerges in accord with WISR's educational principles. There are not separate, specified courses. However, there are required seminar sessions on two Saturdays per month for the MFT Program, and optional seminar sessions available to all interested students, typically offered two or more times per month. In WISR's curriculum, a student's course of study is not determined a priori, and there is no specific deadline for the completion of work.

WISR relies not on graded, written, question-answer examinations but on students' abilities to write clearly about subjects that they develop, and to respond articulately to questions about what and how they have learned. Qualitative written and verbal evaluations are used instead of single-letter or number grades, and faculty members making assessments are expected to know how any individual student’s work-product is related to the student's previous efforts and educational objectives. Academic assessments are not based on rigid, technical criteria of achievement but on faculty members' requiring that students meet broad, basic standards of clear thought, substantively rich description, coherent explanation, concern for evidence, and active, imaginative inquiry. In short, each student's faculty advisers evaluate the student's work based on the guidelines stated in the catalogue in the sections on "Awarding Grades and Credit" and "Degree Requirements."

Sequences of Learning Activities

The typical path of a WISR student from admission to graduation follows three phases, at both the graduate and the undergraduate levels.

The first phase is exploratory. Students investigate existing knowledge about a number of substantive areas, actively try to learn the "lay of the land" in fields of study with which they are working, and/or begin actively working on one or two projects that have strong, personal interest for them. The knowledge areas, community issues, and projects pursued are defined collaboratively by the student and her/his faculty advisers, building on the student's (pre-existing or emergent) intellectual, professional, and community interests. For most students, this phase takes between six and twelve months to complete.

The second phase is oriented to breadth and to completing tangible projects. Students work to complete projects resulting in tangible products that help them to learn, give evidence of their learning, and (where possible) contribute to their communities. These products are frequently similar to "independent study" term papers, but are intended to be more deeply and thoroughly considered than those in most conventional institutions. Repeated revisions of drafts, based on intensive, student-faculty discussions and written faculty comments, are a typical, important feature of this phase.

Besides building on each student's own intellectual and professional interests, these projects must help the student become proficient and demonstrate competence in a range of theories and practices within a major field and in two broad, core areas of study: Methods of Social Action Research and Theories of Social Analysis and Change. The time required for students to finish this phase varies widely, depending on the particular student's degree program, and the amount of academic work that the student has previously done in the relevant areas of study.

The third phase is focused on the student's major project (undergraduate), thesis (Master's level), or dissertation (Doctoral level). This effort involves a serious, in-depth study of a subject intrinsically interesting to the student and, usually, of benefit to others. This phase typically requires three to six months at the undergraduate level, six to nine months for Master's students, and a year or more at the Doctoral level.

Evolution of Student Projects

Whenever it is deemed helpful to the student’s learning process, faculty members fill out a Tentative Project Plan form with students at the beginning of a learning project. The student and the faculty member write a paragraph description of the project--its nature and scope as presently envisioned, the anticipated learning activities and expected products (e.g., type of paper). In addition, the faculty and student agree on the anticipated number of semester units that the student is likely to earn through that project, and note the number of units. Where applicable, the faculty member explains why more or less than 4 units are anticipated.

It is expected that very often student project plans will change, and students and faculty are strongly encouraged to be open to changing project plans, as well as the scope and intensity of the project (as well as the number of units awarded). Emphasis is on achieving a quality learning experience, consistent with the student’s learning needs and purposes and with WISR’s academic standards. Furthermore, it is expected that students may often find themselves in the middle of a project which spontaneously or fortuitously unfolds without advanced planning. Students and faculty are also encouraged to nurture these fruitful and unexpectedly developed learning projects, even when the projects weren’t intentionally planned from the “beginning.” In these cases, the faculty member and student may choose to write on the Tentative Project Plan form a paragraph describing the process of how the project has spontaneously or unexpectedly unfolded thus far.

At the end of a project, the faculty member articulates on the Project Evaluation Form how the project grew larger or smaller than the initial units projected, where applicable. About one paragraph is written on the process by which the project came to change in credit unit size from what was anticipated, and another paragraph on the academic criteria and evidence used in making the final credit determination.

Awarding Grades and Credit

Credit hours at WISR are awarded based on each student's progress through the requirements for a specific degree program. In order to complete requirements for the BA, students shall have earned at least 124 semester units; MA students, except in the MFT program, shall earn at least 32 units. At least 48 semester units are required for the MFT program. The PhD program requires 54 semester units beyond the MA. Faculty will fill out Project Evaluation Forms for each completed project, noting the credit units awarded with their comments explaining the basis for the awarding of credit. In addition, faculty will note if a particular graduation requirement has been fulfilled, as noted above, and this form will be attached to the student’s Course Syllabus (see below).

Grading. Student work at WISR is graded Credit/No Credit. Credit is awarded primarily for the completion of work that can be demonstrated by evidence that is then included in the student's Learning Portfolio. In awarding credit, WISR faculty are mindful of the quantity and quality of work expected of students in conventional universities. Although the form and content of WISR student projects may be very unconventional, WISR faculty assign semester units to a particular student project by referring to their experiences in more conventional universities. WISR faculty base their credit-awarding decisions about student projects on their sense of the approximate number of semester units that would be awarded for a similar amount and quality of academic work in accredited universities. This evidence used in awarding credit may be of several kinds:

Academic papers. Most evidence of student academic work takes this form. Papers may be analyses of intellectual or professional issues of interest to the student, critiques of readings s/he has done, critical analyses of community projects, detailed plans for educational or community projects, reports of research on community problems or issues, records of research interviews by the student about issues in professional or personal development, combinations of these types, or other serious efforts negotiated by the student and her or his faculty adviser.

Evidence of critically examined, experience-based learning. WISR grants credit based on evidence of students' educational thought and growth that emerges in the student's community and professional work. For example, documents acceptable as bases for academic credit include evaluations by a student or co-worker of the student's community work, when that work was specifically discussed with the faculty adviser as a part of the student's learning program.

WISR does not grant credit for prior experiential learning. WISR does not grant credit for on-the-job activity in general, or even for achievements in the student's work life, unless that activity has been subjected to ongoing, critical discussion by the student and the faculty adviser, for its intellectual and ethical significance, its relation to the student's goals, and its significance for community improvement and social change. In some cases, the student's work amounts to a faculty-supervised internship in her or his workplace, or in a community organization. In all cases, however, the faculty adviser must have evidence of the student's learning from the process, and of a student attitude toward learning in the work-context that goes beyond unreflective performance of a job.

Audiotapes. Evidence of students' learning may also include audiotaped records of workshops given by students at their workplaces, of focused discussions on issues relevant to their WISR learning goals, and of seminars led at WISR.

Creative products. Evidence of students' learning may also include reproductions or descriptions of creative and artistic products such as videotapes, films, paintings or drawings, murals, sculptures, poems, and other imaginative literary pieces, where those products help to show the student's thought and imagination in some coherent relation to learning goals.

Faculty observations of students' learning. Credit is granted to students who demonstrate to a faculty member their mastery of a body of knowledge, such as the literature of a subject-area. Student reading-lists in specific subject-areas are included in their learning portfolios as partial evidence of such mastery.

Participation in WISR projects and seminars. Credit is granted to students for regular participation in a structured series of collaborative and group learning activities, such as WISR's seminars, workshops, and community projects. In particular, students who participate in one or more seminars and write a critical analysis of the seminar content, process and structure, and assigned readings may receive one unit (or more) of academic credit. Longer, more in-depth papers on topics related to seminars may of course also be eligible for academic credit, depending on faculty review. Faculty, guest speakers or student presenters at seminars may provide papers or related articles, either before or after their seminar, for the participants to read and to refer to during the seminar. Students wishing to receive academic credit may then use these readings for their own analysis and reference.

The number of units students may accrue for seminar participation and analysis is limited. Students pursuing 32 unit MA programs may earn up to 8 units, PhD students may earn up to 12 units, and BA students may earn a maximum of 16 units in this way. Any units for seminar participation and analysis beyond these will require special permission from a faculty advisor. Although students in the MFT program have seminars that are specifically designed and required for their program and to meet licensing requirements, they are encouraged to attend other seminars at WISR to earn academic credit--for example, to fulfill the requirements for study in theories of social analysis and change.

Course Syllabus. Each student entering WISR is required to write a course syllabus at the completion of each project for which credit is awarded. This course syllabus includes the following: 1) what they accomplished or learned during the project (in about one to two paragraphs); 2) more specifically, what they accomplished or learned in relation to WISR’s degree requirements as stated in the official catalogue, and pertaining to other, related educational purposes, objectives, outcomes and competencies discussed in such official WISR documents as the catalogue, the application for State Reapproval, and other documents distributed by faculty to students; 3) a list of books and articles they read; 4) a list of relevant seminars, workshops, or conferences attended at WISR or elsewhere (if applicable); 5) any pertinent job, volunteer or other community or professional experiences; 6) the resource people and libraries used, as well as the “types” of people interviewed (where applicable). The faculty advisor signs the course syllabus and approves of its accuracy, or if it is incomplete or inaccurate, returns it to the student for the appropriate revisions. The student’s faculty advisor or faculty member supervising the project also attaches the Project Evaluation Form (see above), which contains their comments.

Transfer of Credit to WISR from Other Institutions

Maximum transfer credit accepted. No more than 94 semester units may be transferred from other institutions toward WISR’s 124 semester units required for the BA. No more than six semester units of graduate study may be transferred toward WISR’s 32 semester units required for all MA degrees offered by WISR. No more than 21 units of PhD credit may be transferred toward the PhD at WISR.

Undergraduate transfer of credit. All undergraduate units earned by a student from any regionally accredited or California State-approved college or university are routinely accepted for credit by WISR. Undergraduate units from foreign institutions or from unaccredited institutions and those not approved by the State of California are accepted by WISR if they can be translated into U.S. equivalents, or if the student’s previous academic work can be verified by WISR’s President as being comparable in quality to work expected of students at WISR. In doubtful cases, WISR’s President consults with an admissions officer at local, accredited or approved institutions, or asks WISR’s Board to appoint a subcommittee of faculty and/or Board members to evaluate the prospective student’s previous academic work. WISR’s natural science and humanities breadth requirements may be met by previous academic work at other institutions when the student has had at least six semester units in either one or both of these areas of study. WISR will also consider for credit course challenge examination results from such nationally recognized standardized tests as the CLEP tests.

Graduate transfer of credit. For WISR’s MFT program, students who have completed academic work which clearly meets State guidelines and WISR’s descriptions of the core courses required for WISR’s MFT MA in Psychology option may then receive up to six semester units of transfer credit. Courses transferred for students entering the MFT program are evaluated by WISR’s President, sometimes in consultation with licensed MFT’s on WISR’s faculty, to make certain that the course titles/descriptions closely parallel State guidelines, as well as WISR’s descriptions for core MFT courses.

In other graduate programs at WISR, each student’s prior graduate study is taken into careful account, in planning out her or his program of study, in order to build on the student’s strengths and avoid duplication of efforts. Some graduate course work is accepted for transfer in such cases. At the request of the prospective student, the President, often in consultation with a Board-appointed subcommittee of two or three Board and/or faculty members, who hold graduate degrees, evaluates the student request for transfer of credit. Credit is accepted for transfer only if it is determined, after examining the student’s transcript(s) and/or samples of the student’s academic work, that the work to be accepted for transfer credit is comparable in substance and quality to work expected at WISR.

Degree Requirements

Requirements and Expectations for all WISR Students

Studies in Methods of Social Action Research.

All students at WISR are required to participate in an eight-part seminar series on Action Research, including completion of assigned readings. Students who, for geographic or other important reasons, must miss one or more seminars will be expected to negotiate with their faculty adviser alternative assignments. Students will also be assisted in learning how to use the internet, relevant journals, and libraries, and to critique the literature in their field(s) of study.

Theories and Methods of Social Analysis and Social Change.

All students at WISR are expected to do at least one project that draws on their reading of and reflection on several perspectives on social change. Students are also expected to write a paper drawing on what they have learned from these readings and how it applies to one or more issues, problems or topics of special concern to them

Participation in WISR’s Learning Community.

WISR recognizes that each student’s learning can be greatly enriched by active collaboration with other students in exploring and documenting study areas that touch their personal and professional interests. Because WISR’s program demands that individual students take major responsibility for defining and pursuing the study areas in their degree programs, collaboration among students is especially helpful in easing student’s progress toward their degrees. All WISR students are strongly encouraged to collaborate, formally and informally, with other WISR students and/or alumni in formulating and carrying out their research inquiries, and in critiquing and supporting each other’s intellectual and professional work. All students should consider such collaboration a part of their responsibility to themselves and to the WISR learning community as a whole

WISR faculty will help all students to develop collaborative learning relationships with other students through face-to-face meetings, seminars, telephone and internet contacts, and written correspondence. Each PhD student is required to conduct at least one seminar at WISR during enrollment there, and students in other degree programs are encouraged to do this as well.

Students living in the greater Bay Area are expected to attend most of the quarterly All School Gatherings, so that they may come to know other WISR students and become acquainted with their backgrounds and research interests. Students living outside the area should negotiate with their faculty advisers the periods and timing of their residencies at WISR, including at least one visit per year.

Production of Annotated Bibliographies.

Each WISR student is required to develop annotated bibliographies in which they write a paragraph or two about each of the several sources they have been found to be most important in the core areas of their studies. Specifically, students are expected to produce an annotated bibliography of at least two or three sources in each of WISR’s required areas of 1) theories and strategies of social change, and 2) action-research and qualitative/participatory research methods, as well as in WISR’s thematic areas of concern of 1) multiculturality, and 2) in the PhD program, with higher/adult/community education and social change. Each student will also do an annotated bibliography in what they consider to be their main one to four areas of primary emphasis and concentration. MFT students will do annotated reading lists of the two to four most important sources in each of the state-required areas of study (i.e., theories and methods of marriage and family therapy, human development, sexuality, cross-cultural counseling, law and ethics, psychopathology, psychopharmacology, psychological testing, alcoholism and substance abuse, child abuse assessment and reporting, and aging and elder abuse).

As part of producing their annotated bibliographies, students will be asked to describe each of the major readings, why it has valuable been valuable to them, and if applicable, its limitations, as well. Students will be encouraged to also address such questions as,

· what is it about this reading that resonated with you personally?

· what were you challenged to think about in a new way?

· how readable was this work?

WISR faculty hope that the process of constructing these annotated bibliographies may very well be confidence-building for students, and help them to keep track of the highlights of their learning. Also, the annotated bibliographies will enable the WISR community to develop a pool of knowledge in the main content areas across all degree programs, and in the areas of particular concern to MFT and PhD students, respectively, who together, make up a substantial majority of WISR students.

The development of annotated bibliographies, in conjunction with course syllabi, will be a requirement effective for all students entering on or after June 1, 2004, and students who have enrolled prior to then will be strongly encouraged to develop such annotated bibliographies.

Bachelor of Arts

WISR does not use semesters, but bases its degree requirements on sequences of guided study negotiated by individual students and faculty advisers. Credits for completed projects are given equivalents in semester units by faculty advisers, according to criteria and procedures noted above. Stated in semester-units, WISR's requirements for the Bachelor of Arts are as follows:

124 units minimum for graduation, including

40 units in basic or general studies

44 or more units in the major field

40 units in the major field and/or electives

WISR faculty award credit for the completion of student projects by using as a baseline the fact that most conventional undergraduate classes carry 3-5 semester units of credit. In each project, a WISR student does readings and/or practical and experiential work, and writes a paper that typically involves reflections on the work, articulation of the student's insights, and some creative formulations. WISR faculty evaluate the quality of the student's learning in the project, the quality of the written product (and any other product or evidence of accomplishment and learning), as well as the quantity of student effort involved. They then assess the project's worth in terms of the 3-5-unit standard.

WISR faculty have found that students learn better, and integrate the various aspects of their work better, if their projects are somewhat larger and more intense than those required by a conventional undergraduate class. Consequently, WISR undergraduates more often earn 4-8 units for a project, although variations in this are common. The culminating major project, the senior thesis, usually involves at least 12 semester units of credit.

Each student must study at least one (1) year at WISR to receive a Bachelor's degree, no matter what credit is awarded for previous work. No specific minor field is required, because at WISR the major field is expected to be sufficiently interdisciplinary to involve the student in more than one traditional area of study.

Each undergraduate, when admitted, must have completed a substantial, year-long course in each of four areas (social sciences, humanities, and natural sciences), or must complete a significant project at WISR dealing with methods of inquiry in each neglected area, and applying those methods in a critical analysis of a topic interesting to the student. During their work at WISR, all students are helped to improve their communication skills "across the curriculum." This is accomplished in part by requiring students from the beginning to articulate their learning goals, ideas, and activities to faculty members in individual consultations, and to write and rewrite draft project reports in response to close faculty analyses and comments, both written and oral. Students may lead and take part in seminars, in part to help build their oral communication skills.

Foundational work in social inquiry is considered basic to study at WISR, and is required of all students, regardless of special interests. This includes doing one project in Social Action Research and one in Themes of Social Analysis and Change.

Every undergraduate student must complete a culminating major project showing her or his ability to do a serious, substantial study, if possible with a practical significance, in an area of strong personal interest.

Master of Arts

WISR's Master of Arts programs are open only to those who hold Bachelor's degrees. Normally, graduate transfer credit is not allowed for courses taken at other institutions. A minimum of 15 months of study at WISR (approximately 32 semester units), exclusively in graduate study, is required for each Master of Arts degree, except that students taking the Master of Arts program in Psychology with an intention to meet the academic requirements for the State's Marriage and Family Therapy (MFT) license must complete 48 semester units (about two years of study), over a minimum of 24 months of study.

Typically, MA students earn an average of about four semester units for each of six to seven projects (some may earn less than four units), and at least six units for the thesis. Faculty members award credit to each project by assessing its relative importance in the student's total degree program. Faculty members also assess the quality of each student's learning, the quality of the student's written product and other demonstrated accomplishments, and the quantity of the student's effort in comparison to what would be expected of students in more conventional graduate classes.

For graduation, each Master's student must develop in her or his Learning Portfolio at least six papers, project analyses, lists of focused readings completed, and other materials demonstrating that the student has a broad range of knowledge in her or his field of study, and a significant ability to integrate theories and practices in the major field and in two core areas: Methods of Social Action Research and Theories of Social Analysis and Change. Each student must also complete a Master's thesis, combining critical analysis of a problem of interest to the student with a potentially significant contribution to helping others. The Master's project must embody creative effort by the student. Ordinarily this involves defining a problem, designing and/or trying out an approach to that problem, and writing a reflective, critical analysis of the process and its results.

In addition, students working toward the MFT license are assisted and expected to study in the core subject-matter areas required for the license. This includes mastering content in such areas as psychopathology, human development, marriage and family counseling theory and techniques, research methodology, psychotherapeutic techniques, human sexuality, cross-cultural analysis, and professional ethics. While this material is incorporated in individualized study, students are also required to participate in two Saturday class sessions each month. MFT students must have at least 306 hours of supervised experience in a practicum that meets State requirements. Also, students discuss their practicum experiences with their faculty adviser(s), and write two papers critically analyzing insights from these experiences.

Doctor of Philosophy

A student is required at entry to hold a Master's degree and to be a mature adult with a history of community involvement or successful professional practice. A minimum of two (2) years of study (54 semester units) is required of students for the degree. In practice, most WISR students have completed their doctoral studies in two and one-half to three and one-half years beyond the MA. Faculty assess the quality of the student’s learning, the quality of the student’s written product and other demonstrated accomplishments, and the quantity of the student’s efforts in relation to what would be expected of students in more conventional PhD level classes. Typically, students earn at least three or four units for each project, and about twelve units for the dissertation.

A doctoral student must complete a range of projects, culminating in papers comparable in quality (not necessarily in form or content) to papers expected for doctoral seminars at more traditional institutions. In practice, about ten such projects are necessary to demonstrate:

· breadth of expertise in one's major field(s) of emphasis;

· ability to use theory and practice creatively, and to create theories and action strategies;

· ability to integrate WISR's two core areas--Action Research Methods and Theories of Social Analysis and Change--into one's thinking and action; and

· completion of a dissertation project that shows significant intellectual and practical creativity in an area of personal interest and potential importance to others.

Further, each Ph.D. student is required to plan and conduct at least one seminar session on a subject which reflects a major interest of theirs, and to demonstrate how it relates to theories and practices in the broad, interdisciplinary field of higher education and social change.

PhD students are strongly encouraged to attend one or two seminars per month to help them learn about theories pertaining to higher education and social change, and about research methodology. Through seminars, readings, and individual discussions with faculty advisers, PhD students are expected to learn about theories and research methods, and to use and critique some of these theories in their papers and in the dissertation.

Graduation and Evaluation of Progress Toward Graduation

Throughout most of the student's program, decisions about the direction and quality of his or her work are made by the student's primary faculty adviser(s), in consultation with the student and with other instructors, community resource people, and/or field supervisors, as the advisers and the student think useful. The recommendation of a BA or MA student's readiness to begin the culminating project or Master’s thesis is made by the primary faculty adviser, usually only after three-fourths of the other requirements have been completed. At that time, the student writes a thesis proposal, which outlines (1) the major issues and questions to be addressed, (2) the significance of those issues to the student and to others, and (3) the sources of information, the methods of inquiry, and (if appropriate) the modes of action to be used.

The student then constitutes, with his major faculty adviser's help, a Graduation Review

Board composed of at least two WISR faculty members, two WISR students, and one or more outside experts (or other WISR faculty) in the student's field. The Review Board members comment on, critique, and approve the student's proposal. The proposal then serves as a general guide for the student's thesis inquiry. However, it is subject to change, and the student is expected to discuss his or her thesis progress with each Review Board member throughout the work on the thesis. Review Board members comment on and critique at least one rough draft, but usually two drafts. The student's major faculty adviser helps to facilitate and mediate disagreements if Review Board members make inconsistent suggestions for change.

Once the faculty adviser and the student are confident that all Review Board members are ready to approve the thesis, a final Graduation Board meeting is held. At that time, the student discusses and answers questions about the thesis and his or her learning in working on it, and throughout the entire degree program. The student is questioned about his or her future plans, and how the experience at WISR will contribute to the student's future work. The Review Board may also examine the student's academic accomplishments throughout the program, and discuss them with the student. Finally, each graduating student is required to submit a written self-evaluation, which includes a critical reflection on what she or he has learned in the program, and a discussion of insights gained, challenges and obstacles encountered, and WISR's strengths and weaknesses in contributing to the student's learning.

In the MA program leading to the Marriage and Family Therapy License, there are the following additional steps in evaluating the student's progress toward the degree: Evaluation sessions are given to MFT students at three stages: (1) after six months or the completion of three areas of study and three major papers, to assess the student's readiness for entering the practicum; (2) approximately at the midpoint of the student's Master's program; and (3) when the student has completed all requirements except the thesis. Each session is conducted by two core faculty members, at least one of whom holds the MFT License, with a student peer. The student's work in the practicum is evaluated as well. Evaluations are intended to offer constructive suggestions, to help students strengthen weak areas, and to support growth where the student shows strength.

For PhD students, there are two formal evaluation steps prior to the Final Graduation Review Board meeting, when the dissertation is reviewed, approved, and authenticated by the Review Board. First, three WISR faculty members review the Ph.D. student's completed projects, after most of the pre-dissertation requirements have been met, to determine if she or he is prepared to undertake the rigorous study required for a doctoral dissertation. The WISR learning process is designed to help students develop the breadth and depth of knowledge in the area(s) of primary interest, as well as the skills of action-oriented inquiry and knowledge-building, so they will be ready to undertake a dissertation by the time they have completed the approximately ten required projects. Second, each PhD student's Graduation Review Board evaluates the student's dissertation proposal to determine if the topic design and procedures meet the Institute's academic standards as articulated in the section on Doctoral Degrees, above.

No English as a Second Language (ESL) Instruction Provided

WISR does not provide ESL instruction. All instruction is conducted in English. Some students who are not native English speakers, but who are fluent in English, have enrolled and successfully completed programs at WISR. WISR’s admissions process helps all prospective students to assess their skills, learning needs and interests, and aids the prospective student in determining whether or not WISR can meet his or her educational needs. Enrollment at WISR does not provide foreign students with I-20 status (i.e., WISR students do not qualify for foreign student visas.)

STUDENT RIGHTS

AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Effective Dates for this catalog: July 1, 2004-June 30, 2006.

Information About WISR's Course of Study

For information about WISR's areas of study, degree programs and requirements, academic standards, methods of evaluation and grading, bases for awarding credit, and individualized teaching-learning process, students and prospective students are encouraged to read this catalog thoroughly and to ask questions of WISR faculty members as often as they like. Our course of study and teaching-learning methods are quite different from others. Students can best learn about them by repeatedly considering and discussing how they apply to individual students' circumstances and contemplated directions of study.

Faculty Assistance

As an aid to student learning, faculty members will work with students, if asked, to help them form study groups. Faculty members will also seek to schedule seminars on topics of particular and current interest to students, as students make these topics known. A student always has the option of changing his or her faculty adviser if, for any reason, the student believes that his or her study at WISR would be aided by such a change. Students may ask any faculty member for the names and phone numbers of other faculty members with whom they wish to meet. Changes of advisers are, of course, subject to the willingness and availability of the faculty members involved.

Dismissals and Appeals

Since WISR faculty are committed to helping all students succeed, and because of the thoroughness of our admissions counseling process, no student at WISR has ever been dismissed. However, a faculty adviser could recommend review of a student's persistent lack of academic progress to WISR's Board of Trustees, or to a designated subcommittee of the Board, and the Board could, as one option, dismiss the student.

All actions taken by faculty members, Graduation Review Boards, or subcommittees of the Board are subject to appeal by the student to the WISR Board of Trustees. Such appeals may request reevaluation of credits awarded, graduation decisions, dismissals, or any other decision bearing on the student's learning and academic progress. Decisions of the Board of Trustees, made after reviewing the relevant evidence, are final.

Student Rights: Grievance Procedures

A student may lodge a complaint (grievance) by communicating verbally or in writing to any instructor or administrator. Any such person contacted shall attempt to resolve the student's complaint immediately. Oral and written complaints will be accepted by the Institute in any form. When submitted in writing, a simple, specific statement about the issue to be resolved should be sufficient.

If a student complains verbally and the complaint is not resolved within a reasonable time, and the student again complains about the same matter, the President of the Institute shall advise the student that the complaint must be submitted in writing, and when that has been done the President shall provide the student with a written summary of the Institute's response.

If a student complains in writing, the President of the Institute (or, in the President's absence, a designated staff person) shall, within ten days of receiving the complaint, provide the student with a written response, including a summary of the Institute's investigation and disposition of it. If the resolution requested by the student is rejected, the reasons for the rejection shall be explained.

Grievances not resolved by agreement between the student and the President of the Institute may be submitted to the WISR Board of Trustees for a final decision by the Institute.

Any questions or problems concerning this institution that have not been satisfactorily answered or resolved by the Institute should be directed to the Bureau for Private Postsecondary and Vocational Education, PO Box 980818, West Sacramento, CA 95798-0818, (916) 445-3428.

Student Services

As a small institution serving mature, working adults, WISR does not provide special student services associated with more traditional universities, such as a counseling center or job placement office. However, as a part of the teaching-learning process, WISR faculty regularly give students personal assistance with such matters as career planning, setting personal learning goals, and evaluating their impact on other life decisions. Faculty refer students to other students, alumni, adjunct faculty members, Board members, and others in the community who may be able to help them think through career decisions, find volunteer learning opportunities, and seek jobs.

Student Housing

The Western Institute for Social Research is an institution established for mature adults who are actively engaged in the work of the communities where they live. It does not provide dormitories, and assumes no responsibility to find or help students find housing.

Sexual Assault Victim Information

All sexual harassment or assault incidents are to be reported immediately to the WISR President John Bilorusky (510-655-2830) or to WISR Faculty Member Cynthia Lawrence (619-265-2877). In an emergency, dial 911 for immediate attention.

Cancellation and Refund Policy

If a student cancels enrollment on or before the first day of instruction, WISR will refund all monies paid to that point, less the $100 enrollment fee.

Student Records

Student transcripts will be kept for 50 years. Other student records will be kept for at least five years.

Institutional Status

WISR is currently approved to offer degrees by the State of California’s Bureau of Private Postsecondary and Vocational Education (BPPVE). WISR is a private, non-profit educational institution, not a public institution. As a non-profit, WISR is governed by its Board of Trustees.

Student Responsibility to Maintain Good Standing in Tuition Payments

WISR expects students to stay up to date in their tuition payments in order to remain enrolled, or alternatively, to negotiate an acceptable payment schedule for becoming current within a reasonable time. Such repayment schedules are typically negotiated with WISR’s Treasurer of the Board of Trustees. If the attempt to negotiate an acceptable payment schedule fails, or if the student does not adhere to the agreed on payment schedule, WISR has the right to disenroll the student until the student has become current in paying past due tuition and late fees. In any case, the Board may require that the student not re-enroll for a minimum of six months. Furthermore, a student may not schedule their Graduation Review Board meeting, if he or she has a past due tuition balance.

State of California Student Tuition Recovery Fund (STRF)

At the current time, students are not required to pay $2.50 of every $1,000 of tuition into the California State Tuition Recovery Fund (STRF). At a future date, the State may again require WISR students who live within California and who are not receiving tuition monies from outside agencies such as the Department of Rehabilitation to pay into this fund. For more information about STRF, see pages 21-22 of the catalogue.
Previously, the State of California created the Student Tuition Recovery Fund (STRF) to relieve or mitigate economic losses suffered by California residents who were students attending schools approved by, or registered to offer Short-term Career training with the Bureau for Private Postsecondary and Vocational Education (Bureau). Previous regulations were as follows:

You may be eligible for STRF if you are a California resident, prepaid tuition, paid the STRF fee, and suffered an economic loss as a result of any of the following:

· The school closed before the course of instruction was complete.

· The school’s failure to pay refunds or charges on behalf of a student to a third party for license fees or any other purpose, or to provide equipment or materials for which a charge was collected within 180 days before the closure of the school.

· The school’s failure to pay or reimburse loan proceeds under a federally guaranteed student loan program as required by law or to pay or reimburse proceeds received by the school prior to closure in excess of tuition and other costs.

· The school’s breach or anticipatory breach of the agreement for the course of instruction.

· There was a decline in the quality of instruction within 30 days before the school closed, or if the decline began earlier than 30 days prior to closure, a time period of decline to be determined by the Bureau.

· The school committed fraud during the recruitment or enrollment or program participation of the student.

You may also be eligible for STRF if you were a student who was unable to collect a court judgment rendered against the school for violation of the Private Postsecondary and Vocational Education Reform Act of 1989.

It is important that you keep copies of the enrollment agreement, financial aid papers, receipts or any other information or documents of the monies you paid to the school. Questions regarding STRF may be directed to the Bureau for Private Postsecondary and Vocational Education, P.O. Box 980818, W. Sacramento, CA 95798-0818. [Authority cited: CEC #94944]

A resident of California who pays his or her own tuition is required to pay a state-imposed fee for the STRF. The fee is $2.50 per $1,000 of tuition, rounded to the nearest $1,000. This fee is payable at the time a student enters into a contractual agreement for a specified amount of tuition. For example, a California resident signing a $3,500.00 contract for December 2004-June 2005 would have to pay $2.50 x 4 = $10.00

Students who receive monies from the State Department of Vocational Rehabilitation or other third party payers (i.e., “an employer, government program or other payer that pays a student’s total charges directly to the institution when no separate agreement for the repayment of that payment exists between the third-party and the student”) are not eligible for the STRF and also do not have to make payments for this fee. This is also the case for students who are not California residents.

Submit requests for STRF Claim Forms to:

Student Tuition Recovery Fund

Bureau for Private Postsecondary and Vocational Education

PO Box 980818

West Sacramento, CA 95798-0818

Telephone: 916-445-3428

WISR'S DISTINCTIVE ALUMNI

Alumni of the PhD program in Higher Education and Social Change include:

Dr. Richard Otis Allen is a retired adult education and high school teacher of English language arts and cultural history. After 30 years of teaching, he earned an M.S. degree in education from California State University at Hayward, and then enrolled in WISR’s PhD program. His PhD thesis explored the approaches, methods, studies, and practices by which a teacher and at-risk students help each other to gain greater mutual, self, and cross-cultural respect and greater liberative power and wellness. He refined and rewrote his dissertation after graduation, and it was published by iUniverse, Inc. in 2004 as Fighting to Finish: Personal Storytelling in a Public Library Adult Literacy Program. The continuing and related subject of much of his PhD study at WISR was an analytic self-study of the efficacy of critical teaching and learning of narrative concepts and techniques in encouraging people individually and collectively to create healthy, realistic, and meaningful socioeconomic and cultural change in themselves, their communities, and the larger U.S. society. In order to achieve these ends, he established an adult learning center, the Benu Bivekananda Center in Oakland. His dissertation studied and developed a teaching-learning model, whereby adult educators can help learners to conceptualize their life problems and concerns as elements of an incomplete or unresolved story, and then learn and use methods of narrative analysis and critical literacy to understand and solve the problems of concern to them. The method was developed, implemented and evaluated in conjunction with its use by several literacy tutors and with teachers of over fifty learners at two adult learning centers. Richard completed his PhD in April 1998. Subsequently, he volunteered as an adult literacy educator for the Second Start Program of the Oakland Public Library, and presented papers on his work at professional conferences.

Dr. Inger Best has a BA, magna cum laude, in Environment and Politics, and a Master’s of Public Administration, from California State University, Hayward. Her interests include environmental issues, consumer protection and citizen participation. As evidence that citizens do have the power to make public policy changes, she single-handedly was able to persuade the City Council of Alameda to reduce developers’ hours of construction work in residential neighborhoods, and as a result the City Code had to be changed. One of her other deep concerns is the advancing globalization, whereby large corporations are gradually diminishing the power of democratically elected governments worldwide. Inger is a native of Norway, a long-time U.S. resident, and a Norwegian citizen. Her dissertation at WISR, Environmental and Societal Consequences of Consumption Instigated by Advertising, concluded that worldwide consumer oriented lifestyles are incompatible with environmental sustainability.

Dr. John Borst completed his PhD at WISR in August 1995. His dissertation, entitled The Metaphors We Teach By, was an ethnographic study of the careers of college faculty and the organizational cultures in which they have taught. The dissertation was written for and about college faculty who have an ongoing interest in making a difference in students’ lives. Its intent was to provide faculty with a way of thinking and talking about education, in order to critique and better understand their own teaching practice, and for the more adventuresome, to help chart a path toward meaningful and lasting personal/institutional change. He made presentations about his dissertation research at the Eighth Annual Lilly Conference on College Teaching. John lives in the high desert country of Southern California where he teaches third through twelfth grade part-time in the Victorville School District. He also runs a business that publishes fine art prints and posters. After completing his Ph.D., he became a part-time faculty member at the University of Redlands and La Verne University, where he taught organizational development. Currently, he teaches graduate level research methods, both in the classroom and online, for Antioch University. Also, at Chapman University he teaches a graduate level course in organizational dynamics and an undergraduate course in organizational behavior. He teaches communication courses online for Jones International University. John also is an avid distance runner and has a consulting service, which focuses on “values-based leadership practices and collaborative methods of achieving personal and institutional renewal.”

Dr. Rosemary Christoph is a licensed MFT who completed her PhD at WISR in March 2004. She works as a counselor at La Familia in Hayward. Her dissertation was an extensive study through literature review, interviews with therapists and clients, and her years’ of observations as a therapist of themes and issues surrounding the turning points in people’s lives.

Dr. Rebecca Daniel-Burke was a family therapist in Oregon, then a clinical supervisor of other therapists in Korea and Japan. She now works as a Regional Manager in the health care field. Some of her PhD studies at WISR centered on the Internet and social change. She enjoys international travel and has been reading Proust with an international group on the Internet. Her dissertation involved an extensive review of the literature and dozens of interviews with people over 50 about various aspects of aging. Specifically, she focused on the following questions: 1) Is there evidence to support what kinds of things help us to age well? 2) Is social network an important factor in aging well? 3) Is there a model of care that can help people with symptoms of dementia and/or help their loved ones to self-assess their situation, educate themselves about prevention and various forms of dementia, plan self-care, and remain in their social network as long as possible?

The late Dr. Marita Davila received a postdoctoral fellowship from the American Council on Education in 1982-83, after finishing her PhD at WISR in 1980. After several years as a teacher and as Director of the Library and Learning Resources Center at Laney College in Oakland, she took a faculty position at the College of Alameda, where she taught Spanish and Folklore until her retirement. Marita was active in a number of community groups, and was President of the Association of Latin American Women in the Bay Area. Her dissertation was an in-depth historical study of The Black Presence in Spanish America, including comparative studies of African-American people in different Latin American countries, race and social structure, and comparisons with slavery in the United States. This work has been used as a resource in classes at Stanford University and at several other Bay Area campuses. Dr. Davila passed away in 2003.

Dr. William Duma completed his PhD in September 1997. He is a Black South African journalist who was in exile for 14 years. While working on his PhD at WISR, he was a faculty member in English, Journalism, and Ethnic Studies at Los Medanos College in Pittsburg, CA. In May 1994, he was named Contra Costa Community College District Teacher of the Year. His dissertation studied the dynamics of social change in South African, in particular reference to William’s concept of “Neo-Apartheid.” At the end of 2000, he returned to South Africa at the invitation of several officials of the South African government. His recent work there has included research and analysis on issues of social policy and social justice for the South African government.

Dr. Irene Favreaucompleted her dissertation on the performing arts as tools for social change in September 1998. As part of her dissertation, she produced a musical drama on the death penalty, entitled “Dilemma.” She studied the effects of this production on several audiences and the participants, and articulated how nonprofit agencies can learn to use music and theater. She entered WISR after having served as a state legislator in New England and while working as an administrator for the Community Congregational Church in Tiburon. Her PhD papers focused on such topics as how gender influences violent behavior and crime, proactive policy-making, religion and social change. Soon after receiving her Ph.D., she was appointed Executive Director for the Mental Health Association of Marin.

Dr. Lee Francis resumed his private practice as a consultant in Washington, D.C., after completing his PhD at WISR in 1991 with specializations in higher education administration, social policy and social change, communication theory and praxis, American Indian cultural perspectives, and the institutionalization of multiculturality. He entered WISR after receiving his MA in education from San Francisco State University, where he also served as an administrator in the Educational Opportunity Program. Lee's dissertation was an intensive study of empathic communication and its application in institutionalizing multiculturality in business, community agencies, government, and educational institutions. His research drew heavily on his years of experience as a private consultant, designing and conducting workshops in cross-cultural communication. After completing his PhD at WISR, Dr. Francis wrote Native Time: A Historical Time Line of Native North America (New York: St. Martins Press, 1996).

Dr. Damun Gracenin set up an educational program for homeless children through the San Francisco Homeless Youth Network, with funds from a San Francisco Foundation grant. This pilot project provided a high school option for homeless youths who have dropped out of the school system, and was based in a crisis shelter program and at a drop-in center. Damun enrolled in WISR when he was a teacher/counselor with the Mission Reading Clinic's Occupational Reading Skills Program at the San Francisco County Jail. While studying at WISR he received a fellowship to serve on a commission with 120 other literacy teacher/counselors in the United States and Great Britain. His dissertation, using data gathered when he designed an innovative jail-based literacy program, described a model for teaching literacy in adult basic education. Since receiving his PhD in 1989, he has also taught basic reading courses for adults at the College of San Mateo, and a writing course in New College's Tribal Justice Program for Native Americans.

Dr. Diane Heller is a psychotherapist in Colorado who specializes in helping clients work through the aftereffect of life-threatening events to a restored sense of resiliency and well-being. She teaches trauma intervention in the United States and internationally, most recently in Copenhagen, Munich and Jerusalem. Since 1992, she has been a faculty member of the Foundation for Human Enrichment, specializing in training for therapists and health care professionals related to the treatment of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. One of her PhD projects was her videotape, Columbine: Surviving the Trauma. It featured interviews with two Columbine survivors and their family, and was designed to provide education about trauma responses for survivors of that and other traumatic events. It was aired on CNN and over 600 other stations both in the United States and internationally. Her dissertation addressed the psychological issues facing survivors of auto accidents. It was published as a self-help book, Crash Course: A Self-Healing Guide to Auto Accident Trauma and Recovery (North Atlantic Books, 2001), which was written for professionals in the field, as well.

Dr. David Hough has taught English as a Second Language in Japan for many years, and is very involved in a number of other facets of cross-cultural education. His PhD studies have been furthering his professional writings about practice and action-oriented research into intercultural education. One of his PhD papers, “Ethnographies of Learning,” was presented at the 1997 TESOL Conference in Orlando, Florida. Another PhD paper, “Understanding Cultural Change: A Vygotskian Perspective,” was presented at the Conference of the Society for Intercultural Education, Training and Research in Japan at Reitaku University in April 1997. His dissertation was concerned with researching and articulating a critical approach to learning and teaching culture, based on the study of “English as a Foreign Language” classrooms in Japan. He is now professor of communication at Shonan Institute of Technology in Fujisawa, Japan. In this new capacity, he is responsible for teaching communication theory, intercultural communication, cross-cultural psychology, anthropological fieldwork methods and area studies. His current research interests combine sociolinguistics with liberatory approaches to pedagogy in helping to preserve and enrich endangered indigenous languages and cultures. Dr. Hough received a three-year grant from the Japan Ministry of Education and Science to produce dictionaries and first language reading materials for Kosraean, a Micronesian language spoken by about 9,000 people in the Federated States of Micronesia. To date, the project has produced a children’s picture dictionary for 1^st and 2^nd graders, a junior dictionary for 3^rd-5^th graders, and other Kosraean language materials for the schools, which focus on oral histories and traditions.

Dr. Marilyn Jackson received her PhD from WISR in September 2004 and has an MA from the Institute in Creation Spirituality and Culture, Holy Names College in Oakland. In her dissertation, she contrasted popular spirituality movements in Western society to traditional religion by relating Creation Spirituality to Lutheranism. While studying at WISR she published a chapter, “The Life of the People: The Legacy of N.F.S. Grundtvig & Nonviolent Social Change Through Popular Education in Denmark” in the book, Community and the World, edited by former WISR faculty member, Dr. Torry Dickinson. Her studies also focused on unlearning racism and building multi-cultural society through dialogue, education, cultural expression and community based celebrations as well as women and career development issues. She is also concerned about lifestyle related to the health and the environment. She has organized education activities about indigenous people and has been extensively been involved with Scandinavian music and other cultural activities. She believes in egalitarian values and is concerned about dispelling negative stereoptypes about socialism and educating about social democratic values. She is on the board and staff of the Ecumenical Peace Institute and works for WISR as Assistant to the President.

Dr. Cheryl Jones is involved in doing cranialsacral work with children at risk, and in teaching others how to do it. She is currently formulating a research project on this as part of her PhD studies at WISR. She lives in Kula, Hawaii on the island of Maui. She has created an organic farm, which is certified by the Hawaii Organic Farmers Association. Cheryl’s dissertation was a research project with a longitudinal follow up to examine the impact of cranialsacral therapy on children’s and young adults’ anxiety. Cheryl received her PhD from WISR in May 2003.

Dr. Urmas Kaldveer completed his PhD at WISR in December 1993. His dissertation was on, “Education As A Ritual Process.” In his dissertation, which included an extensive review of philosophical, educational, and anthropological works, he proposed a possible solution to contemporary educational problems by describing the value of some traditional and contemporary systems that seem to work. He examined the social benefits of these systems in terms of global political and economic health, and their potential for furthering a healthier physical and mental balance with individuals. During his PhD program, Urmas was a part-time instructor in Science and History at Mendocino Community College in Ukiah. He served as Administrative Director of the Lake County Elderhostel Program, and as founder and main teacher of the alternative "New School" of Ukiah. He had an M.S. in Microbiology from the University of Arizona, where he had completed most of his PhD requirements, except for the dissertation, in 1969. After receiving his PhD from WISR, Urmas was selected Executive Director of Pelagikos, a Sausalito-based nonprofit center for marine research. Pelagikos is a place where professionals and lay people who have a fascination with marine life, and a desire to contribute to a better understanding of the global ocean environment, may meet. He was recently invited to participate in an international conference on ecology, native wisdom and spirituality in Killarney, Ireland. He is also a member of the advisory board of The Cloud Forest Institute in Ecuador and the Cetacean Studies Institute of Santa Fe, New Mexico. Most recently, Urmas has been living and working about half the year in a Mexican fishing village on the coast of Baja on the Sea of Cortez, where he monitors the condition of a coral reef there and conducts eco-tours so that others can learn about the land and sea.

Dr. Cynthia Lawrence received her PhD at WISR in 1987. Her doctoral program focused on the education of African American children, and on progressive, alternative approaches to multicultural education. Her dissertation grew out of years of experience as a classroom teacher, field supervisor of student teachers, and professor of teacher education at the University of California at San Diego. It set forth an educational approach based on her success in teaching reading to children who had previously been identified as failures. She revised her dissertation for use as an instructional guide and resource book for teachers of reading and writing to children. She has retired from the Teacher Education Program at UC San Diego, but still teaches classes and supervises student teachers. She continues to lead workshops on cultural inclusion and diversity, and has been instrumental in developing and training teachers for a charter (experimental) school in San Diego that is culturally and linguistically based. Her work in race and human relations was expanded to include an appointment to the Mayor's Advisory Committee on gay and lesbian issues. In her spare time, she gathered a small group of women together to make meaningful music. She has been a part-time core faculty person at WISR for more than 10 years. In 1997, she co-presented a paper at the Annual Women’s Studies Conference in St. Louis on “Tying Academics to the Community.”

The late Dr. Calu Lester (WISR PhD, 1984) was a part-time WISR faculty member and the founder of WISR's KWIC-FAN Project, after leading many community programs devoted to helping jail inmates, biracial youths, mentally retarded citizens, people of color, and others. His dissertation was on the development of identity and self-esteem among biracial adolescents. Calu received an NIMH Research Fellowship to a 1986 Paris conference on AIDS. He was in NIMH's National Advisory Group on AIDS in Third World Countries, and co-authored a report, growing out of the 1986 conference, that examined AIDS from a multidisciplinary, multicultural perspective.

The late Dr. Wayne Morris entered WISR after retiring as a Colonel from the U.S. Army, in which he was a nurse anesthesiologist. He had previously received an MS in Nursing Administration from the University of California at San Francisco, and an MA in counseling from John F. Kennedy University. While enrolled at WISR, he worked as a nursing consultant, nursing home administrator, and gerontologist. His WISR studies centered on leadership training and gerontology, and he wrote his dissertation on male mid-life crisis. He conducted in-depth interviews with men who were undergoing mid-life crises or transitions. His dissertation critically reviewed research in psychology and medicine, and also drew on literary and historical writings and commentaries on popular culture. Wayne completed his PhD in the summer of 1990 while he was critically ill, and he thereafter volunteered his time to help WISR's developmental efforts.

Dr. Robert Nichol completed his PhD at WISR, in part to follow up on his interests and studies from his Master’s program in Anthropology at San Francisco State. He is concerned with the development of human consciousness, and in investigating parallels between some current experiments in neurofeedback using stroboscopic light and practices of spiritual shaman/explorers for hypnotic trance induction that might date as early as 10,000 BC. His PhD studies have included: the development of a software program aimed at enabling people to engage in self-help efforts, to reduce their day-to-day stress, and a presentation on self-management to 25 patients at UCSF who have received or are waiting to receive an organ transplant. For his dissertation, Dr. Nichol created and studied two art-based stress management programs for adults. These programs drew on his extensive knowledge and experience in drama, art, music and poetry. He has articulated a perspective on how to use art for soul building, given the political limitations of our present technology- and work-oriented society with regard to allowing the personal and spiritual into our institutions.

Dr. Victoria Patterson began her PhD program at WISR when she was a teacher and Director of the GATE (Gifted and Talented Education) Program at the Willits Unified School District in Northern California, and an instructor in anthropology at Sonoma State University. She had worked intensively with members of the Hopland Pomo Indian tribe in the recovery and recording of their native musical heritage, to preserve it for the benefit of younger tribe members. Her doctoral program included study of participatory methods in anthropology and ethnography, educational innovation, and the uses of anthropology in community development and education. Her dissertation documented the tradition of Hopland Pomo music, with the help of a group of Pomo elders who are descendants of several generations of traditional singers and dancers. She was the Education Editor for News from Native California for many years and has published many articles and books in collaboration with northern California tribes, including a chapter on Pomo gender relationships in Women and Power in Native North America (University of Oklahoma Press). She has also worked with many museums on public education projects, most recently, the University of Pennsylvania Museum. Vicki teaches classes in American Multicultural Studies and Education for Mendocino College, Sonoma State University and Dominican University. She has served as the Director of Workforce Preparation Programs at Mendocino College and as a member of the Mendocino County Workforce Investment Board and the Board of Directors of Mendocino County Economic Development and Finance Corporation, Nuestra Casa-Mendocino Latinos Para La Comunidad, and the Redwood Empire Aikikai. Currently, she is the Director of a nonprofit Latino organization and she has just returned from a trip to Mexico sponsored by the National Institute for Adult Education (INEA) in Mexico.

Dr. Sally Riewald, a teacher of writing at The Evergreen State College/Tacoma, used her PhD dissertation as a vehicle in creating a model writing program for adults. She also conceived and developed The Student Handbook as a learning aid for the adult population enrolled at TESC/Tacoma. In 1986, INSTRUCTOR Magazine published her article based on observations and innovations made while teaching English as a Second Language to children in Tacoma schools. Sally received her PhD in 1987.

Dr. Darrell Sanchez is a licensed counselor in Boulder, Colorado. He is also an experienced bodyworker, and holds a degree in dance. He specializes in work with trauma survivors, and has held advanced workshops for other professionals on how to treat clients who are recovering from whiplash. Darrell’s PhD studies at WISR enabled him to further explore and investigate his varied interests in such topics as: therapy with trauma survivors, Jungian psychology, the role of arts and creativity in the healing process, choreography and the Argentine tango, and the role and importance of intuition in the practice of therapy and in everyday life. In his dissertation, Darrell explored the relationship between creativity, trauma and social development. He interviewed eighteen healthcare practitioners regarding these issues and with respect to the use of a balance board device he invented, called a Tuning Board. He finished his PhD at WISR in December 2001.

Dr. Don St. John is a psychotherapist in private practice in Seattle. He teaches and lectures in the area of somatic-emotional-relational development, which was the focus of his dissertation. His dissertation was based in part on interviews with adults who have successfully overcome childhood traumas in their subsequent years of mental, somatic, emotional, spiritual and interpersonal development. Don completed his PhD studies at WISR in March 2004.

Dr. Anngwyn St. Just completed her MA in Psychology at WISR in 1992, and her PhD in Higher Education and Social Change at WISR in March, 1994. While working on her MA, she taught in the University of California Extension Drug Program. She also served on the staff of a nonprofit institute devoted to multicultural work with trauma survivors, where she did in-service training of staff who were working with people experiencing post-traumatic stress syndrome. She was also a staff member of the recovery program for trauma survivors, including Vietnam veterans, Soviet Afghanistanian veterans, battered women, people with chemical dependency problems, sexual trauma victims and survivors of natural disasters. Her writing during her programs at WISR has been presented at professional meetings in the U.S. and published in a scholarly journal in Russia. After completing her MA, she moved to Colorado and became licensed as a counselor in the State of Colorado. During her PhD studies at WISR, she developed her own contemplative camping model which uses the natural world in healing the wounded feminine. She served as co-director of the combat trauma recovery program at the International Center School of Rehabilitation in Moscow--the only post-traumatic stress recovery facility in the former USSR. She is currently the Director of the Colorado Center for Social Trauma in Lyons, Colorado. She has served as the Chairperson of the Board for an AIDS outreach and self-help program in Boulder, as well. Dr. St. Just is a frequent presenter at professional conferences, such as the 34th Annual International Conference of the Association for Humanistic Psychology held in August 1996 in Tacoma, Washington. She has presented lectures and seminars throughout Europe: including the C. G. Jung Institute in Switzerland, the Annual European Rolfing Conference in England, and the European Conference on Traumatic Stress in the Netherlands. Her article, “Learning to Use the Natural World in Healing the Wounded Feminine” was published in The Soul Unearthed, Wilderness as a Path to Personal Renewal (1996), Cass Adams, editor.

Dr. Mary Kay Sweeney was Associate Director of the Canal Community Alliance, a nonprofit, multiservice agency in a multiethnic, low-income community, the Canal area of East San Rafael, during her doctoral studies at WISR. Her program focused on therapeutic approaches to community work, the philosophy and practice of nonviolent social change, and the politics of food distribution. Her dissertation was entitled The Politics of Compassion: Psycho/Social Dynamics of Local Food Distribution. Her research was based on interviews with service providers and with recipients of food, recording their attitudes, behavior, and feelings about the acts of giving and receiving food. She completed her PhD in 1990, and in 1991 was appointed Assistant Executive Director at the Seva Foundation. "Seva" is a Sanskrit word meaning "service," and the Foundation has projects throughout the world, but focuses primarily on eradicating preventable blindness in Nepal and India. Mary Kay continued to serve on the Board of the Canal Community Alliance, and was appointed Deputy Director of Homeward Bound of Marin (formerly known as Marin Housing Centers).

The late Dr. James Todd was the Chairperson for the Business and Hospitality Department at Morris Brown College in Atlanta at the time of his death. He was the former Director of the Step-to-College Program in the School of Ethnic Studies at San Francisco State University, where he was also a Lecturer in that University's Black Studies Department. He enrolled at WISR after having received a Master's degree from the University of Oklahoma, and having directed a number of innovative community health projects. While at WISR, he directed the Institute's KWIC-FAN Project, providing education and outreach to prevent the spread of AIDS in Bay Area African-American communities. While a student at WISR he was appointed to the Step-to-College directorship, and his dissertation was an in-depth analysis of his experience in that program, teaching a yearlong course in critical thinking to students of color at two San Francisco high schools. The study applied and critically analyzed the pedagogy of Paulo Freire. Since completing his doctorate in 1990, Jim also served as a consultant for the U.S. Department of Education's Secondary School Recognition Program, and founded a Bay Area chapter of the National Black Child Development Institute. He and his wife, Gigi Todd, established a Foundation to support projects for students who are now in the eighth grade and at severe risk of dropping out of school. Jim received the Coleman Foundation Award for Outstanding Entrepreneurial Teaching by the American Academy of Management. On February 19, 1998, in Chicago, The General Electric Fund awarded Step-to-College/ASCEND, a program founded by Dr. Todd, a National Best Practice Award.

Dr. Oba T'Shaka received his PhD from WISR in June 1991. He is Professor and former Chairperson of the Black Studies Department at San Francisco State University. He is a long-time community organizer and writer, and the author of The Political Legacy of Malcolm X (Third World Press). His PhD studies at WISR focused on his educational and community work, and the significance of that work in light of African philosophies. His dissertation was published as The Art of Leadership, Volume 2. T'Shaka says of his work: "A central topic . . . is how to 'free the minds' of African and African-American people. No effective organizing can occur among African-American people as long as we are programmed to 'see ourselves through the eyes of others’." T'Shaka is a regular speaker at African-American organizations, on college campuses, and at civic events around the country. He has spoken at the Fort Lauderdale (Florida) Martin Luther King 1991 City Commemoration, Emory University, the University of Chicago Law School, the University of California at Santa Cruz, the University of Kansas, the Association for the Study of Classical African Civilization, and the teacher/community training program on Afro-centric curricula of the Cleveland Public Schools.

Alumni of WISR's MA programs in Psychology, Social Sciences, Education, and Human Services and Community Development include:

Isadora Asch has given conflict resolution classes and conducts conflict resolution sessions for families through the Family Support Network in Napa. She transferred to WISR from the MA program in Psychology at the California Institute for Integral Studies. Her MA thesis at WISR was a study of the theory and practice of conflict resolution work with adolescents and their families. She graduated in 1991.

Paul Baber received his MA in Human Services and Community Development in 2001. His thesis was a study of the factors that impede and contribute to recovery from mental illness. He currently works in Contra Costa County for a human services county contract agency, Mental Health Consumer Concerns. His work there has involved advocating for persons identified as mentally ill--for example, providing advocacy services, referral information, and serving on mental health planning groups. He has served on various mental health planning groups and tasks forces. He made a presentation and co-led a workshop at the spring 1998 Conference of the California Association of Social Rehabilitation Agencies (CASRA) for mental health workers on factors that contribute to recovery from mental illness.

Theresa Beldon finished her MA in Psychology toward the MFT license in January 1999. Throughout her studies at WISR, she focused on her studies of Bodynamic Analysis, a European theory of somatic psychology that is new to the U.S. Her practicum was the Lomi Clinic in Santa Rosa. After completing her studies at WISR, she continues as a trainer of Bodynamic Analysis in California and Canada for practitioners who wish to become expert with this approach. In 2004, she is preparing to take the exam for the MFT License.

Dr. Philip Brooks is a faculty member at the California Institute for Integral Studies (CIIS). Philip’s thesis was a study of a course he teaches at CIIS on foundational psychospiritual counseling skills. The goals were to find out how the course impacted students and to discover how to improve the course. He completed his MA at WISR in November 2003, and is gaining his supervised hours toward the MFT license.

Beth Buchanan received her MA in Psychology from WISR in 1993, after entering WISR with an MA in Dance/Movement Therapy from California State University at Hayward. Her MA at WISR met the State's academic requirements for the MFCC license. While at WISR, she worked at Oakes Children's Center in San Francisco as a dance therapist. Her MA thesis was a study of ritual abuse, and the treatment of victims of such abuse. She subsequently moved to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where she worked as Assistant Coordinator of Patch, a neighborhood-based, social work program there, which coordinates services for people in need. In that capacity, Beth did home visits, coordinated the work of volunteers, ran a dance therapy group for children, and provided administrative assistance to the director. She also maintained a small, private practice in dance therapy.

Brian Bullis completed his MA in Psychology in October 1995, and since moving to Oregon has begun practice as a licensed counselor. During his MA program, he worked at the True-to-Life Counseling Program in Northern California, and as the counselor for their Journey High School. There, he maintained an intense relationship with at-risk teens and their families. His study at WISR focused on his belief that life-changing therapy is the effort that a client and a therapist make to help the client examine the manner in which he or she has answered life-existential questions and revised some of these answers in ways that make life more authentic and fulfilling.

William Cavil is the Associate Director of the Institute for the Advanced Study of Black Family Life and Culture. He received his MA in Human Services and Community Development at WISR in December, 1992. His MA studies focused on youth development, African American family dynamics, and media and communication indoctrination. His MA thesis was based on interviews with adolescent African American males about their television viewing habits, self-perceptions, attitudes about Black people, attitudes toward women, and future goals and aspirations. He plans to continue to study mass media and its effects on African-American people.

Louanne Cole Weston, PhD completed her MA in Psychology, leading toward the MFCC license, in January 1994. She became a licensed MFCC in 1996, and has a private practice in the greater Sacramento area, where she now lives with her husband and two young sons. Her MA thesis examined psychological aspects of 37 women's responses to a major innovation in birth control and sexually transmitted disease protection, the "Women's Choice" female condom. Louanne is also a Board-certified clinical sexologist. She is listed in the International Who's Who in Sexology. For over a decade she has worked as a therapist, educator, public speaker, journalist, and frequent guest on TV and radio, including The Doctor Dean Show, People Are Talking, The Joan Rivers Show, The Alex Bennet Show, KCBS-AM, KGO-AM, KQED-FM, and The Don Bleu Show. As a journalist, she writes often for Fitness magazine, and until recently had a weekly column called Sex Matters in the San Francisco Examiner. She co-authored audio cassettes, video cassettes, and a workbook for the series Love, Sex and Dating in the '90s. During her program at WISR, she worked as a counseling trainee at Mission Children's Day Treatment Program, which serves a multiethnic population of children who have experienced traumatic separation, abuse, and/or economic deprivation. She has been the Health Expert at www.webMD.com, a health website, for which she answers questions on the “sex matters” message board.

Caroline Diana Cunningham (formerly Diana Montaigne) entered WISR's MA program in Psychology several years after receiving her BA from Smith College. Her area of specialization at WISR was music therapy, and her MA thesis was on music and medicine. Her thesis research involved a review and synthesis of music therapy literature and an examination of the uses of music in mainstream and homeopathic medicine. After she received her MA in May 1990 she enrolled in a Doctor of Naturopathy program at John Bastyr Medical College in Seattle. She completed that program and relocated to Edinburgh, Scotland, where she established a successful homeopathy/counseling practice. Later, she returned to the U.S. and continues her professional work.

Simone Frei completed her MA in Human Services and Community Development in November, 1989. Her Master’s thesis was a study of the causes and consequences of bulimia. Subsequently, she worked as a Certified Alcohol and Drug Abuse Counselor in Corvallis, Oregon.

Ed Harris works for Kaiser in Vallejo in the Chemical Dependency Services Program and is a Certified Addictions Counselor. He is also a bilingual counselor there. In 2001, he completed his MA in Psychology, leading toward the MFT license. His thesis topic was a study of whether short stature is a factor contributing to depression in men. For over 20 years, he has worked with youth and adults in the fields of mental health and chemical dependency. Ed is also a serious guitar player.

Dennis Hastings is Tribal Anthropologist for the Omaha tribe in Nebraska. He received a scholarship from the Association for Community Based Education to continue his education at WISR, where his work has been in support of his tribal involvements. Dennis has accomplished many things since enrolling. Some examples: He took a leading role in obtaining passage of State legislation in Nebraska to protect Indian burial sites. He helped the tribe to obtain the return of important Omaha relics, including The Sacred Pole, from the Peabody Museum at Harvard. He took part in productions of several television documentaries and docudramas, one of which, "Dance to Give Thanks," won the Visual Anthropology Award of Excellence over 40 other entries at the American Anthropology Association meetings in New Orleans. Dennis completed his MA in May, 1998. His Master’s thesis was the book he co-authored with anthropologist Robin Riddington, Blessing for a Long Time: The Sacred Pole of the Omaha. It was published by the University of Nebraska Press. The book has received praise from many academicians. For example, in the Spring 1998 issue of Phi Beta Kappa’s The Key Reporter, this book is reviewed under “Recommended Reading”: “This innovative blend of Omaha poetics, ethnography, and ethnohistory moves back and forth between past and present to document the life of Umon’hon’ti, or Venerable Man, the ‘Sacred Pole’ of the Omaha tribe. Riddington, an anthropologist, and Hastings, an Omaha tribal historian, ingeniously adopt the conventions of Omaha oral narratives to tell the story and significance of the Sacred Pole. . . . In the often contentious contemporary climate regarding the repatriation of human remains and sacred objects to their indigenous owners, this volume contains many insights into the importance of repatriation to American Indians, and lets the Omaha tell the story in their own fashion.” Dennis is currently the Director of the Omaha Tribal Historical Research Project, Inc. (OTHRP). OHTRP is involved with bringing Omaha culture visually and through books into the local public schools at Macy, Nebraska, as well as coordinating plans for the ultimate resting place of Umon’hon’ti, or Venerable Man, the ‘Sacred Pole’ of the Omaha tribe by building him a museum /interpretive center as a permanent home. The museum, Tae’ah’thee, was named after Dennis’ grandmother who was a medicine woman, was designed by Vincent Snyder, an associate of Frank Gehry, the international architect. The design has won three national awards, an international award, and has been written up in architectural magazines as far away as Turkey. Dennis’ work is featured on the website: http://www.jackalopearts.org/ and is currently being translated into French as well as English.

Kathy Kain completed her MA in Education at WISR in August 1997. She is a bodyworker, who, for many years, has been training other bodyworkers in the use of hands-on methods to help clients with trauma recovery. Originally trained in Ortho-Bionomy, she has broadened her interests to encompass working with the body as a metaphor for life experience. Her MA thesis was a sharing of the results of her varied inquiries with other bodyworkers to achieve a deeper appreciation of the subtleties of mind-body connectedness.

Peter Kehoe, PhD received his MA in Psychology in 1996. Since then, he has obtained his California MFT license and a PhD in Psychology, and he now works for Santa Clara County Department of Family and Children’s Services. He develops and manages case plans for families of dependent children, writes court reports and makes recommendations to the court as to continuing dependency.

Warren Kaufman finished his MA in Psychology, in the MFCC program at WISR, in June 1994. His M.A. thesis was on chemical dependency and addiction. Before entering WISR, Warren had been a sculptor, salesman, administrator, statistician, writer, and advertising and business consultant. He began college in New York City in 1951 and completed his BA at WISR in 1991, after transferring from New College of California. His major interest is in working with youths, and his senior project was "A Study of Youth Homes: Are Youth Homes Treatment Centers or Programmed Abuse Centers?" During his studies, Warren worked in a residential treatment center for youths in San Francisco. In the first year of his MA program, he gained experience as a supervised counseling trainee at a Santa Rosa nonprofit agency. In early 2004, he was taking the final steps to becoming a licensed counselor in the State of Washington where he now resides.

Jill Klenota enrolled at WISR after many years of professional experience in the field of psychology. She is currently working at the Early Childhood Mental Health Program in Richmond as an Infant-Parent therapist. She provides therapy to low-income families with young children and is also a specialist in chemical dependency treatment. She finished her MA in Psychology (MFT) at WISR in 2001. Her thesis was a study of working with traumatized children in families with a history of sexual and physical abuse, and how therapy, including play therapy, can be used to help families heal and change.

Bobbi Lawrence is a Certified Clinical HyhHHypnotherapist, who did her practicum with life-threatened clients and their families at the Center for Attitudinal Healing. She completed her MA in 1998, and her thesis was a study of how to integrate hypnotherapy and EMDR into a psychotherapeutic practice. Since graduating, she has co-authored the book, Allergy-Free (with Konorad Kail, N.D.), which is an alternative guide for those wishing to control their allergies. She has also taught a class on anxiety at the Antioch Kaiser, and she has served as the Program Director for Parent Education for the Family Stress Center in Concord

Rick Longinotti completed his MA in Psychology (MFT) in 2003 and did his thesis on nonviolent communication. He is currently an MFT intern, counseling Medical clients in Watsonville and at the county jail. He leads Nonviolent Communication groups at the jail, and co-leads communication groups with his wife. Their website is: www.talkingpeace.com

A-lea Silas Lovis completed her MA at WISR in 1992. At Kaiser Hospital in Oakland and through the Shanti Project, she has counseled patients and their families about death, dying, and bereavement. She has studied hypnotherapy and family therapy with Milton Erikson. Her MA thesis was on "Re-Visioning Marital Intimacy." It is a critical examination of readings and interview data on the spiritual dimension of marital relationships, as it pertains to difficulties and growth experienced within marriages. She is a practicing member of Judaism, the religion into which she was born, and during her MA program she served as a counseling trainee at Redwoods Presbyterian Church in Marin. After finishing her studies at WISR, she did pastoral counseling at Psychles of the Spirit.

Bettye Lowman has been a City of Berkeley employee for 22 years. She is currently Acting Director of the South Berkeley Senior Center. She was previously Associate Director of the West Berkeley Senior Center where she has worked for many years. She completed her MA in Human Services and Community Development at WISR in September 2004. She did her undergraduate work at Laney College, San Francisco State, and National University in Human Resource Management Studies. She holds a gerontology certificate from Vista College. Her MA thesis is a study of issues, challenges and preventive strategies regarding the often ignored topic of the spread of HIV/AIDS among women in general and African –American women in particular.

Ronald Mah completed his MA in Psychology at WISR in September, 1991, and is now a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist with an extensive private practice in Castro Valley. When he started at WISR he was the owner and principal of a Berkeley pre-school, and had previously developed three children's craft books: Predator/Prey Puppets, Dinosaur Masks and Puppets, and North American Animal Masks and Hats. His MA thesis examined the images of family roles and relationships that people learn from television, stories, and films. While pursuing his MA at WISR, he accumulated 1500 hours of supervised experience toward the MFCC license. In addition to his private practice as a licensed counselor, Ronald worked as a part-time community college instructor and lecturer and a seminar presenter to professional and early childhood education organizations and schools. For example, he has been a frequent presenter of papers at the Annual Conference of the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists (CAMFT). Other groups to which he has made presentations include the California Association for the Education of Young Children, the Professional Association of Child Care Employers, and University Child Care Services. He is a part-time faculty member at WISR and has served on the Board of the California Kindergarten Association. He maintains a website: www.ronaldmah.com

H. Martin Malin, PhD completed his MA at WISR in May, 1996, and he has since received his California MFT license. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Clinical Sexology. He was previously manager of the Johns Hopkins Medical Institution’s Sexual Disorders Clinic, and after finishing his MA at WISR, he served an Associate Professor and Director of the Clinical Studies Program at the Institute for the Advanced Study of Human Sexuality in San Francisco. He has actively contributed writings to the field and has been published in such journals as The Therapist (the journal of the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists).

Haritha Manthena has moved to the United States from her native country of India and completed the MA in Psychology at WISR, with the goal of obtaining the MFT license. Her MA thesis was on “Hinduism and the Effects of its Interpretation on the Psychology of Asian Indian Women.” She has found this study to be very revealing, as well as personally helpful. She has completed her trainee hours for the MFT license and plans to take the exam in the near future.

Karen McChrystal received her MA in Psychology at WISR in 1980, in preparation for obtaining her State Marriage, Family and Child Counseling (MFCC) license. For many years, she maintained a private practice as a licensed MFCC in San Francisco, Berkeley, and Kentfield. Her clients included people who were victims of child abuse, and those suffering from hidden guilt or imaginary crimes. She also worked with clients to help them overcome writer's block, and served as an organizational development consultant.

Sunaree Medrala completed her M.A. in Human Services and Community Development in 1998, as part of her ongoing work in her home country of Thailand. Her MA thesis was a follow up study of the continuing education efforts and activities of resettled refugees in Western countries, particularly in the vicinity of Vancouver, Canada. She reviewed pertinent literature, interviewed thirty Burmese refugees and five providers of services to refugees in Vancouver. She also drew on her observations in working twelve years as a professional in refugee programs. After receiving her MA, she returned to Thailand and assumed the positions of Senior Staff Trainer/ Liaison Officer to the Ministry of Education for St. Theresa International College in Bangkok. Subsequently, she accepted a position as a simultaneous interpreter for the International Law Enforcement Agency in Bangkok.

Carole Morton is presently an MFT intern apprenticing under a licensed therapist in San Francisco. She expects to get her license soon. Carole takes a holistic approach to working with people challenged with chronic or critical illness, such as lupus, HIV or cancer. She also worked with people challenged with childhood abuse issues, dealing with PTSD, anxiety, depression, and low self-esteem. She employs somatic psychology, gestalt, breathwork, focusing, inner meditation, and relaxation techniques. She also does a fair amount of couples counseling. For her MA thesis at WISR, she produced a film, which portrayed an individual talking about their relationship with an unseen person, and at the end of the film we discover that the individual has been talking into a mirror. Carole used this film by showing it to a number of people, in order to learn more about what ideas and feelings the film elicits about each viewer’s relationship with her/himself. During her studies at WISR, Carole worked as a trainee in mind/body/spirit medical clinic, and in the field of pre- and peri-natal psychology with infants and young children as well.

Virginia Norton has been an innovator in human services since the early 1980s. She was founding Director of Napa Emergency Women's Services and of a home health care referral program. She taught police officers and cadets in Napa, Sonoma, and Solano counties about domestic violence, and has been a part-time instructor at Napa Valley College. Her study for the MA in Social Sciences at WISR covered many topics, including services for homeless people, the formation of an ad hoc context bringing women together for dialogue, alternative futures, and the family in today's society. Virginia's MA thesis was on "The Role of Fiction in Social Change." It included a review of literature on the impact of fiction on society, and several of her own short stories. Since receiving her MA in 1992, she has been working for the Napa County Employment Training Office, writing reports, plans, and grant proposals. She also has served on the advisory board for the Napa Valley College Re-entry Program. One of her short stories has been published in a local literary magazine, and her goal is to spend more time writing fiction, which is her true love.

Mark Notz received his MA in Education from WISR in April 2000. His studies focused on his work as a high school teacher with at-risk youth. His Master’s thesis was a study of the sport of Lacrosse—its past, including its “special spirit” and its connections to the communities and cultures where it is played, its current practice, and its future promise, including its possible role in the education of at-risk youth. After graduation, Mark continued to teach at risk students in the Opportunity Program at Vanden High School, which serves those students from Vacaville and Travis Air Force Base who have been struggling in the regular classroom. At the same time, he was the head coach of the University of California at Davis Lacrosse team. He has moved to Massachusetts, and taught at an alternative education program at Stoughton High School, and is now Lacrosse Coach at Wheaton College, and he continues to be interested in education for at-risk youth.

Risa Pervier-Sawhill lives in Auburn, California, and worked as a technical writer for the Employment Development Department, while working on her MA. She completed her MA in Psychology toward the MFT license in August 2000. Her thesis was on “Life Changes/Losses and the Grief Process.” Upon graduation, she reduced her hours of work as an Administrative Analyst for the State Payroll Audit for Unemployment and Disability (EDD), and started a 10 hour per week internship with Sierra Family Services in Roseville and Auburn. In her spare time, she enjoys a variety of outdoor activities.

Shoshanna Preiss enrolled at WISR to change careers, to retire from her many years of work in special education and to become a counselor. She completed her MA in Psychology in January, 1999. Her thesis was an examination of children’s choices of stories as gateways to self-knowledge and hope. After finishing Her MA, she began working at an agency in Richmond, Gateway, which sends her into schools in West Contra Costa County as a counselor. She also does some parent education and facilitates a post-adoptive parent support group. Her interests include storytelling, music, dance, photography, the arts and the use of sand tray as an educational tool in the classroom.

Lyn Rountree works with severely emotionally disturbed adolescents at Victor Youth Services in Redding. She has a specialized interest in Equine Psychotherapy, which was the focus of her MA thesis. Lyn received her MA in Psychology toward the MFT license in October 1998. She has since received her MFT license.

Ona Schissel 's MA work in Human Services at WISR included an internship with the State Department of Vocational Rehabilitation. In her MA thesis, she analyzed career education materials such as tests, planning guides, and curriculum guides, and compared these materials to contemporary themes and issues regarding the nature of work. After her graduation in 1980, she entered private practice as a vocational rehabilitation counselor.

Mary St. Clair has a BS in Business Administration from Hayward State and has served in the U.S. Air Force. While studying at WISR, Mary worked as an office manager in chiropractic and acupuncture offices. Mary completed her MA in Psychology in March 2000 with special emphases on the development, psychology and treatment of marital and sexual disorders, crisis and suicide intervention counseling, and counseling with “at risk” teenage girls. Mary is now interning at A Better Way, an adoption and foster care agency, to obtain the necessary supervised hours for the MFT license.

Larry Yavorsky completed his MA in Psychology in November 1994. His MA thesis examined the effects of the use of acupuncture in conjunction with other treatment modalities at the Chinatown-North Beach Clinic, which is part of the Department of Mental Health of the City and County of San Francisco. Larry continued to work at the clinic as a counselor, case manager, and outreach worker after graduation from WISR.

Shelly Zavala facilitated a weekly women’s support group while enrolled at WISR. Shelly is originally from New Zealand, and she and her husband have a school age daughter. Shelly completed her MA in August 1998, and her thesis was on her experiences of being a trainee therapist--on how the therapist’s shadow, his or her own issues and agendas and counter-transference affect what the therapist does with her or his clients. As part of her research, Shelly interviewed four clients with whom she worked as a trainee. Throughout her program, Shelly was especially concerned with learning how to relate to the inner selves of clients, and to better appreciate and understand the subtleties of therapeutic practice. Shelly has since become a licensed MFT.

Alumni of WISR's BA programs:

Larry Berkelhammer completed his BA in Psychology in April 1994, and went on to complete an MA program on his way to obtaining the MFT license. Larry's senior thesis was "A Comparison of the Rosen Method [of Bodywork] with Psychotherapy: Focusing on the Effects on the Practitioner." Larry entered WISR with no previous college credit, but with years of experience in starting and operating his own business and in learning about various approaches to humanistic psychology and bodywork. In conjunction with his studies at WISR, he studied at The Rosen Institute, and he became certified in the Rosen Method of bodywork just before completing his BA at WISR.

Lisa Carey is a single mother who returned to school to complete her BA in Human Services and Community Development in February of 1998. She is working full-time and also starting her own business. Some of her specific interests include: 1) getting school systems to acknowledge people of mixed heritage as a group within the category of people of color with needs for specific curricula and school practices; 2) looking at the powerful but subtle effects of language, for example when terms such as “dark” and “black” have negative connotations and can perpetuate racism; and 3) studying how people can change their learned patterns of communication so that they can more effectively work with each other to create social change. Her senior thesis was “The Process of Preventing Lice Infestation by Creating an Inhospitable Environment Through Research and Making Policy Changes at Walden School.” After graduating from WISR, she made presentations to various community groups, such as BANANAS (child care information and referral agency) in Oakland on how parents and childcare providers can address the problems posed by head lice infestations among children.

Sam Hunt completed his BA at WISR in 1988, with the aid of funding from the State Department of Vocational Rehabilitation. He is a journeyman rigger who has worked in steel mills in Ohio and Chicago, an oil refinery in Los Angeles, and an auto plant in the Bay Area. At WISR, he pursued his interests in labor studies, social history, and 20th Century Japan and China. His senior project was a survey of the Communist League of China from 1928 to 1941, based on interviews with a former League member shortly before his death in late 1987. Immediately after receiving his BA in Fall, 1988, Sam achieved his objective of a job teaching English in Japan. A year later, he began MA studies at WISR, in conjunction with a residency at the University of Tokyo, through which he worked with Professor Hideo Totsuka on a comparative study of Japanese and American labor relations. Sam finished his MA in Social Sciences at WISR in 1991, with a thesis on “Japan's Post-World War II Strike Wave (Before and After).”

Micha Kauert immigrated to the United States from Germany after obtaining the Berlin Degree in Education. While enrolled at WISR he was a self-employed carpenter and a devoted Black Belt in Aikido. He completed his BA in 1988, with a senior project on the psychological and social causes of violence and aggression. His research included interview data on the ways in which martial arts, particularly Aikido, help people to handle feelings of anger and aggression. After a break in his studies, he enrolled in WISR's MA Program in Psychology, with the goal of obtaining his MFCC license. Micha completed a practicum in the crisis unit of Marin General Hospital during 1991-92, and did his MA thesis on Brief Therapies and the strategy of "reframing." Upon completing his MA in 1992, he moved to Santa Cruz and took a counseling position in a community agency. He is now a licensed MFT.

The late Charmaine Murphrey received her BA in Psychology from WISR in April 1995. She completed her degree in just over two years after not having been in school for 40 years (high school in Texas). Her senior thesis was a study in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. She went on to complete of her PsyD at Western American University, and to obtain the California Clinical Psychologist License.

Eli Rosenblatt received his B.A in Social Science from WISR in April 1993. He has been organizing for human rights and social justice for more than 17 years. Eli enrolled at WISR after having completed almost two years of college at San Francisco State University and at Lewis and Clark College. His BA studies at WISR revolved around his involvement in community activism and organizing. They included a community education project to inform the public about the Rainforest Crisis; readings in community organizing; readings and interviews on the role of Euro-American activists in solidarity with Native North America; and a senior thesis that developed a handbook of readings for educators and activists on the crisis in prisons. His senior thesis, a book of articles he edited and wrote about, was refined and published by South End Press under the title, Criminal Injustice: Confronting the Prison Crisis. After graduation, Eli started his own business, providing legal and investigative assistance to criminal defense attorneys, focusing mainly on death penalty appeals. He founded and coordinated the Prison Activist Resource Center (PARC), a project that was launched out of Berkeley's Long Haul, an activist community center. PARC worked in coalition with other prison activists, religious communities, academics and youth activist groups to organize a 3 day conference attended by 3,000 people on “Critical Resistance: Beyond the Prison Industrial Complex.” PARC also publishes an annual directory of contact information and areas of work for over 300 prison issues groups and organizations in the U.S., Europe and Canada. Eli continued to work with other groups around prisons and criminal justice issues, including projects of the Coalition for Battered Women in Prison, the Real Dragon Prison Project, and Free Radio Berkeley. He was the founding coordinator of the National Radio Project’s Prison Desk. He has also been an active contributor to a number of on-line discussion groups regarding prisons, criminal justice, and domestic violence. As a consultant and contractor, Eli has provided custom installation of telephone and voice mail systems, PC and Mac networks and upgrades, and strategic tech planning to numerous grassroots non-profits. Currently, pursuing a Master’s degree in education, Eli lives with his partner, Amanda, and two four-leggeds in Portland, Oregon. More recently, he is preparing to pursue further graduate studies at the University of Oregon.

Nadine Shaw-Landesvatter has worked as an English as a Second Language/English as a Foreign Language teacher for over seven years. She has worked abroad in Kagoshima, Japan; Quetzaltenango, Guatemala; and Bangkok, Thailand. Nadine is African-American and married to a German photographer whom she met in Bangkok. They have two sons, Jacob, 7, and Kai, 5. Prior to enrolling at WISR, she founded and continued to facilitate a support network for parents of multiracial children, W.A.Y. 2000. Her involvement with multiracial and intercultural families served as an important part of her studies at WISR. For her senior thesis, she founded the nonprofit organization, Our Colors, Inc. (www.ourcolors.net). That organization is, by design, “a community of lots of races-- the multiracial community. We are a grassroots non-profit organization committed to fostering hope, courage, self-esteem and confidence in our children in this race conscious society. We offer support through facilitated forums, information and resources for parents of biracial, multiracial and transracial adopted children. Our mission is to educate and to bring awareness to ourselves as parents as well as bring an awareness to our community . . . on the issues of diversity--multiracial/multiculturalism and to promote racial sensitivity and acceptance.” She continues to plan and coordinate educational and support activities for this network, including the publication of a newsletter and the maintenance of a web site.

Gilles Tarquin completed his BA in Psychology in May of 1998. His senior thesis was an investigation into the father-son relationship, how it has been, how it is, and how it could or should be. His BA studies at WISR focused on psychological causes of disease, psychological factors leading to work injuries and psycho-social factors and issues pertaining to the father-son relationship. Gilles is a native of France, and is continuing his work as a chiropractor. He is now certified as an Industrial Disability Evaluator and does ergonomic evaluations for businesses, and is also involved in nursing homes with the elderly a few hours each week. In his spare time, he is working on writing a story, which takes place in Argentina after the first Peron presidency.

Steve Thompson completed the last 37 units of his BA studies in Human Services and Community Development at WISR. He received his degree in March 2000. He studied at WISR while working full-time and living with his family in the Sierra foothills in Angels Camp. His senior thesis was an assessment of services available to, and needed by, elders living in Calaveras County, especially the more remote areas.

Susan Wayne completed her BA at WISR in Human Services and Community Development in December 1993. Susan came to WISR from Toronto, Canada, where she was on a year-long sabbatical from her job as Manager of the Toronto Centre for Career Education. The Centre was providing career counseling, job search and placement, and career information for high school students, adult students, and the general public. It also offered an eight-week course for welfare recipients, mostly laid-off factory workers, on self-assessment, job search, and development of computer skills. Susan's studies at WISR focused on (1) strategies and models through which the schools could more accurately reflect the society of which they are a part; (2) employment and equity issues in general; and (3) ways to establish equity issues as parts of the language and agendas of the Centre, in the context of organizational restructuring and downsizing. More recently, Susan has left the Centre and is focusing on project work in the community, designing a program for a shelter for women and children who have suffered abuse, to help women move towards financial and personal independence.

WISR'S DISTINCTIVE STUDENTS

WISR enrolls only adults, most of whom are members of underserved groups such as people of color and women. Many are in leadership positions in multicultural educational programs, community agencies, and grassroots groups serving people of color and low-income communities. They are in positions where they positively influence the lives of large numbers of people. Most are working to connect their local efforts with large-scale and long-term social changes. Many of our students actively share insights and research findings from their efforts with others nationally and internationally through published writings and presentations at professional conferences. Their studies at WISR are designed to enhance and build on their work and their volunteer activities. The following examples illustrate the range of students' backgrounds and involvements.

Current PhD students include:

Judy Andreas is currently planning a conference on Anti-Semitism as a concern in coalition and anti-oppression work. The planning and evaluation of this conference is an important aspect of her PhD studies at WISR. She is also involved with holistic healing in trauma recovery and understanding Asperger’s Syndrome.

Uwe Blesching has been a paramedic in the San Francisco Department of Public Health since 1986. He has been a filmmaker for 10 years, doing documentaries and educational films for children. He completed his BA and MA at WISR. Academic projects he has completed at WISR, include: a large-scale documentary project on the Cuban health care system and the use of natural remedies; the development of a web site; the translation into English of the Cuban health department’s guide to remedies based on traditional and natural medicines; and a practical guide to green, effective, economical and safe personal health care regimes, based on his research done in Cuba. He is currently working on a feature length film set in Cuba, and has completed a major documentary film, Viva Chile M, about the life and literary works of Fernando Alegria, who was a former WISR Board member, former Chair of the Spanish and Portuguese Department at Stanford University, and a renown Chilean poet and novelist. (For more information, go to: www.vivachilem.com/) Uwe’s dissertation is a book in the making—a guide to alternative and natural medicines.

Vicente Gannam, B.Sc., MA, Ph.D (Cand) has worked in several areas of social services since 1987, in various communities in the U.S., Canada, and Latin America. He currently works as a Senior Policy Advi-sor for the Ontario Ministry of Health, in Canada. Prior to this position, Vicente was the Director of Youth Intervention and Outreach Services for the YMCA of Greater Toronto. He was responsible for YMCA youth initiatives in Toronto, more specifically those targeting youth at risk and homeless youth. He was al-so responsible for a partnership with the YMCA Colombia, which involved program development and deli-very for youth in Medellin. Vicente also has a private practice in Toronto, Canada, facilitating individual's spiritual well being. More information about his practice can be found at www.spiritualwellbeing.ca. Be-sides spirituality, his interests include the Enneagram, ethno-culturalism and diversity as well as various ap-proaches to addressing substance abuse.

Amber Gray is a somatic psychologist, and Director, Program for Survivors of Organized Violence and Torture, Port au Prince, Haiti. She has seven years’ experience as a dance movement therapist and bodyworker, in specializing in treating survivors of torture. Previously, she was the Clinical Director of the Rocky Mountain Survivor Center (RMSC) in Denver. RMSC is a nonprofit agency which provides mental health support and services for survivors of political torture and war trauma. She has an MPH and an MA, and is a Registered Dance Therapist (DTR) as well as a Board Eligible Nationally Certified Counselor (BENCC). As a result of her work with traumatized children, she has given presentations to other professionals, nationally and internationally. One of her PhD projects was published in a professional journal in Argentina: “El Cuerpo Roto” (The Broken Body), co-authored with Eric Harper, in Psicoanalisis y El Hospital (Psychoanalysis and the Hospital). Another one of her PhD projects was an article in 2001 in the American Journal of Dance Therapy on “Healing the Relational Wounds of Torture: Dance Movement Therapy with an Adult Survivor.”

Mohammed Ibrahim is a Nigerian who is very involved in community economic development in Nigeria and other West African countries. He is the only non-cabinet member appointed to Nigeria’s National Oil and Gas Reform Committee, whose purpose is to make sure that Nigeria’s natural resources are distributed to better conditions in impoverished communities throughout Nigeria. In addition to assistance provided by WISR’s core faculty, Mohammed is being aided in his studies by two Nigerian academicians, Yinke Omorogbe, Professor of International Law at Nigeria’s University of Ibadan, and Olu Ajakaiye, who directs the African Institute for Social Research (a United Nations Regional body) based in Nairobi, Kenya. One of Mohammed’s PhD projects at WISR is an anthropological study of the peoples of the Gulf of Guinea, to try to find the common strand that binds them in spite of the tribal, ethnic and long-standing sentiments which have led to suspicion, disharmony and disunity, often resulting in inter-tribal wars, civil strife, internecine conflict. He is goal is to find ways to unify these peoples so that they can more fully take advantage of the immense human and natural resources of that region for the benefit of all the people living there.

Roger Mason is Manager of the Kaiser Permanente Health Education Center located in the Fremont, Union City, and Hayward medical facilities. Previously, he was Program Director for Tissue Transplant Education for the University of California at San Francisco Tissue Bank. He has served as educational liaison between two tissue banks to promote tissue donation for 19 Bay Area hospitals. His ultimate goals include doing more college teaching and organizational consultation. Academically, he is building on his interdisciplinary experience at the University of Chicago, and seven years of postgraduate studies in the fields of sociology, philosophy, psychology and theology. He is nearing completion of his program at WISR which has included studies of American Shakers, institutional altruism, and generational differences in contemporary U.S. society.

Prabha Milstein has worked as a teacher and as a crisis intervention counselor in San Francisco elementary schools. She completed her Master’s degree toward the MFT license at WISR in March, 2000, and her thesis was on “Working with Children and Families in Poverty.” She is working on obtaining her supervised hours as an intern for the MFT license, while she is working on her PhD at WISR. She is considering establishing a community-based non-profit concerned with the needs of children and families living in poverty.

Bill Morgan teaches third grade in the San Francisco Unified School District. He is particularly interested in developing social studies curricula and learning materials that more fully and accurately present labor history and multicultural perspectives. His PhD studies at WISR revolve around his active efforts to bring about changes in school curricula, including articles for teacher publications and the design of innovative learning materials and programs for use in the schools.

Christopher Peck is a social worker for Santa Clara County. His PhD studies grow out of his interests in such varied areas as the 1959 Cuban Revolution and how it has affected feminism and machismo, as well as democracy in the U.S.A., writing Haiku poetry and open mike poetry readings.

Ursula Reich has had training in homeopathy, massage, Healing Touch, LaHo-Chi, Qigong as well as educational psychology, sociology, political science, linguistics and foreign languages. She has a Master’s degree and a PhD equivalent from the University of Heidelberg, Germany. She is a body-centered psychotherapist, specializing in holistic medicine, transpersonal psychology and social changes through alternative medicines. She lives in Boulder, Colorado and Heidelberg, Germany.

Chilufiya Safaa has two sons, one an adult and one a teenager. She completed her MA in Education at WISR in March 2002. Chilufiya founded “Wee Lil People” Preschool in 1989. It is now a preschool performing arts academy and has expanded to include a Kindergarten. From the perspective of an African-American woman who grew up in the segregated South, she is especially interested in multicultural curriculum development, and how learning styles and learning environments affect children, especially African-American boys. She is also a public speaker and a romance writer, and member of the National Romance Writers Association.

Shyaam Shabaka is former Supervisor of Health Planning, Education, and Promotion for the City of Berkeley's Office of Community Services. He holds a Master’s in Public Health from the University of California at Berkeley. He founded Global Vision 20/20, a nonprofit organization helping to empower low-income people in the Americas, Africa, and other developing parts of the world, through self-help programs in health, education, economic development, and sustainable agriculture. He has been developing a program with the International Children's Resource Institute to use traditional healers in Africa to help educate people about HIV and AIDS prevention. His success in helping African-American youth in Berkeley to develop an urban garden is detailed in the article, “Strong Roots” (by Melody Ermachild Chavis) in Sierra magazine, May/June 1997. Shyaam is active with a number of community development groups in Oakland and Berkeley. He served as a consultant for the Partnership in Public Health Project in Contra Costa County. Shyaam is nearing the completion of his PhD at WISR and his dissertation is focusing on the work he is doing to establish and develop EcoVillage Farm Center in Richmond. Its purpose is to “educate local children about the land, their environment, and the art of farming. Over the last few years, the small community farm has operated on a loosely structured, volunteer basis to bestow outdoor experience to innercity youth, and to grow fresh vegetables for the community. Once fully established as a farm, community garden, and environmental learning center that will provide ongoing community outreach and educational programs, . . . [it] will become a place where local schoolchildren and neighborhood residents can enjoy open space while gaining a greater understanding and appreciation of nature, food production, nutrition and working in partnership with others.”

April Silas is the Executive Director of the Homeless Children’s Network in San Francisco. Her PhD studies have involved several action-oriented, participatory research efforts involving parents, children and teenagers who are members of homeless families. One such study enlisted parents and youth in an examination of the impact of television on homeless children and youth. Another study examined the role service providers play in supporting or inhibiting the sense of safety that homeless parents feel when they are living in a shelter

Sandy Tomlin does research and publication work for the nonprofit, United Native Americans, Inc. She is a member of the former Native American Heritage Preservation Project in Contra Costa County. She was active in Indian burial ground preservation from 1979 to the mid-90s. After receiving her MA and auditing about 20 UC Berkeley classes in Native American Studies, she became motivated to make her own contribution to improving Native American Studies. One of her goals in her PhD studies is to promote improvements at all levels of lower and higher education. She is currently working with the Native American academician, Lehman Brightman, to get his research published and develop some work of her own. She is also concerned with how biological warfare has been used in genocide.

Andrea Turner is Program Director for Senior Volunteer Services, City of Oakland. She is Co-Director of the Vukani Mawethu South African choir. She is President of the Board of “A Safe Place” (which is a shelter for battered women), and serves on the Board of East Bay Peace Action. Her PhD dissertation studies the involvement of elders in cultural and social change movements. As part of her ongoing involvement in many facets of community arts, she is currently working on plans for an art exhibit to display works created by elders.

David Yamada is a professor of law at Suffolk University Law School in Boston. His interests include: employment law and policy; “workplace bullying” and abusive work environments; the labor movement; alternative higher education and adult education; and the relationship between scholarship and activism. He holds a BA from Valpariaiso University, an MA (Labor and Policy Studies) from Empire State College, and a JD from New York University School of Law. His studies at WISR include a seminar presentation for fellow WISR students and faculty on the implications of globalization and technology for higher education. David is on the City-Wide Dialogues Planning Committee for the Lead Boston project of the National Conference for Community and Justice. The project’s mission is to train and develop leaders in Social Justice and Action from every professional sector in understanding and managing business priorities as they relate to civic leadership and diversity issues. Lead Boston bridges racial, religious, and cultural lines to foster a more diverse and engaged civic leadership.

Current MA students include:

Margery Coffey is using her MA and PhD studies at WISR to support and augment the work she is doing with WISR alumnus, Dennis Hastings (see above), and others on the Omaha Tribal Research Project. Among other things, she is currently doing paintings that come from images in Omaha culture and history. More information about her efforts and the Omaha Tribal Research Project can be found on the website http://www.jackalopearts.org

Sevgi Fernandez completed her BA in Psychology at WISR, and has continued on for the MA at WISR, to obtain the Marriage and Family Therapy (MFT) license. She is a single mother with a young son who is “working hard to raise Justice to be a strong and joyful person who knows and loves his cultures.” Sevgi is biracial and has a great interest in studying the psychological effects that growing up biracial in this society has on individuals. She has worked as an art teacher with adolescents at the Fred Finch Youth Center, a residential treatment program in Oakland. She plans to do more work with youth in the future, and hopes to “help them to know and embrace their cultures and rise up against the obstacles that face many young people today.” More recently, she worked in a Marin City agency where she provided individual and group therapy to at risk adolescents living below the poverty line, and all with mental health issues. She is currently working on her thesis which is examining the effects of poverty and racism on mental health. She says that “Much of my studies at WISR have involved examining cross-cultural therapy, as well as racial bias and stereotyping in the mental health community. WISR has been a wonderful support system both educationally and spiritually.”

Mary Gilmore has worked as a pre-school teacher at Claremont Day Nursery for a number of years, and is beginning her studies toward the MFT license.

Eric Mauer recently completed his Master of Arts in Teaching at the University of San Francisco. He is now pursuing his MA at WISR toward the MFT license, as well as a PhD at WISR. He has many years of experience in the professional fields of education and psychology. His major interests include humanistic psychology, progressive politics, innovate education, psychotherapy, social change and social justice, peace, writing poetry, and literature.

Jim Newberry works in Special Education in Merced, California. He is finishing a career in that field, and has come to WISR to work on the MA in Psychology towards the MFT license. He is interested in a meditational approach to psychotherapy, especially in contemplative psychotherapy and Psychosynthesis. “I am very grateful to be part of WISR,” he says.

Vincent Otyang is from Uganda and is especially interested in community development, social change, and civic matters. While studying at WISR, he is also working on voter registration. He has recently incorporated a nonprofit, Global Charities, to do community development, civic education and to develop cross-cultural ties, locally and internationally.

Nancy Taylor is finishing in October 2004 her MA at WISR leading toward the MFT license. She is currently doing individual and group therapy at Millhouse Children’s Services based in Nevada City and Sacramento and is also Chief of Quality Assurance there.

Raelene Weaver is in WISR’s MA program in Psychology leading toward the MFT license. Her long-term goal is to become a sex therapist.

Current BA students at WISR include:

Jeanelyse Doran is nearing the completion of her BA studies at WISR and is beginning graduate studies at the Graduate Theological Union in the Fall of 2004. She is currently Executive Director of the Mt. Diablo Peace and Justice Center.

Surya Kramer is pursuing her BA studies at WISR in conjunction with her job as the student counselor at Heartwood Institute, which is a vocational massage school in Northern California. She is also on the development committee to turn Heartwood into a nonprofit. She is excited that her projects reflect her work and passion, including a current project on organizational development and communication, and an upcoming effort on curriculum design.

SEMINARS AND WORKSHOPS

WISR's interdisciplinary seminars and workshops are open to degree-credit students and, on an occasional basis by arrangement, to prospective students and members of the general public. They are central to WISR's learning community, bringing students, faculty, and community leaders together regularly to analyze issues and problems from both practical and research viewpoints. There is an Action-Research seminar requirement for all WISR students and two Saturday seminars per month required of all MFT students. Otherwise, there is no formal requirement that students attend a certain number of seminars. However, to the extent feasible, given work and family demands, students are expected and strongly encouraged to participate in interdisciplinary seminars--at a level which shows that the student is actively engaged in WISR's learning community, and is contributing regularly to its group learning processes.

Students, members of the community, and faculty members make presentations to the seminars, and discussions are free-flowing. WISR regularly makes its seminars and workshops known to community groups with which we work, providing a place, a focus, and a discussion leader for involvement by community citizens. Typically, interdisciplinary seminars are held once or twice per month from 6:30-8:30 p.m. on weekdays. Most focus on core themes in WISR's curriculum, such as Action Research, Community Development and Services, Ethnicity and Multiculturalism, Education, and Theories and Strategies of Social Change. Some are given by students on projects they are pursuing, to get constructive criticism and suggestions from other students and faculty. Still others feature outside experts, WISR faculty, or students presenting on topics of current interest to the Institute's learning community. Students also meet in study groups that they design and conduct, with faculty taking part, on subjects of continuing interest. Two recent examples are a series on Paulo Freire's ideas and their practical implications for community work and an ongoing Women’s Feminist Theory Study Circle.

Learners and faculty are expected to make every effort to participate in the All-School Gatherings that are held about three times each year from 10 am to 1 pm on Saturday. We invite board members, alumni, and friends to attend also. There is an expectation that students living in the Bay Area will attend most of the All-School Gatherings while they are enrolled at WISR. There is a discussion theme/topic during the three hour event, as well as time for informal socializing and sharing of food, and an opportunity for everyone to share with others something important about themselves. Often everyone is asked to bring some item—an artifact, object, photo, painting, story, film clip or something personal, academic, social, political or cultural—to share. Each person’s “show and tell” lasts for about three minutes. Themes from recent All-School Gatherings were: small group/study circle formation, discussion of student learning and the learning process at WISR, discussion and exploration of shared interests among students to facilitate collaborative projects, discussion of the use of action-research in student learning projects, and reflections three years’ later on the aftermath of 9/11 in terms its long-term impact on our society.

It is a core requirement for all WISR students that they learn about the concepts and strategies underlying WISR’s approach to action-research. This includes, for example, how to make science and inquiry part of everyday life, and how to use what we know from everyday life to aid our inquiries and community projects. How do we learn things we don’t know yet from others? How can we write and talk with people to gain knowledge which is both conceptual and concrete?

Participation in one (typically, six-session) action-research seminar series is required of all students who have enrolled since July 1, 2003. For those students who are not able to attend a particular session, or an entire series, due to geographic or other considerations, faculty will help these students to design alternative assignments in order to learn the material. For students enrolled prior to July 2003, participation is still strongly encouraged, because learning about action-research is a requirement for all WISR students.

Generally, faculty will distribute readings in conjunction with each seminar session, and very often, before and after each seminar session, faculty will suggest questions as “food for thought” and encourage students to bring their thoughts, notes and questions to each seminar to stimulate and deepen the discussions. We have copied, and are willing to distribute (at duplication cost) to those interested, a collection of six seminar papers written by WISR faculty in conjunction with the 2002-2003 series.

Examples of action-research seminar topics:

Leaping Off the Ivory Tower: The Practice of Engaged Scholarship

Overview and Introduction to Action-Research Methods

Asking Questions in Everyday Inquiry and in Formal Research Projects

Science, Scientific Methods and Approaches to Action-Research

Feminist Perspectives on Science

Critical Inquiry in Action Research

Writing in One’s Own Voice

Interviewing

Seeing Oneself as a Builder of Knowledge

Creativity Born out of Diversity

Demystifying Science and Qualitative Research Theory

Interviewing: Asking People to Tell You What They Know

Examples of interdisciplinary seminar and workshops:

Theories and Strategies of Social Change

Religion and Social Change

Social Change in the Current Liberation Struggles of Haiti

Assessing Our Capacity to Participate in Social Change Efforts

Chevron and WalMart: Colonialism and Development

Social Change in the Aftermath of September 11th

Developing Social Change Theories in Response to September 11th

Developing Strategies for Social Acton that Address the Current World Crisis

Social Change Theory

Roundtable Discussion on Strategies for Social Change

Music and Social Change

Highlander Center: A Social Change Model

Topics in Multiculturality

The Importance of Cultural Understanding

Cultural Inclusion

Student Presentations

Globalization, Technology and Higher Education

Liberating Culture: A Sociohistorical Approach to Intercultural Communication

Social Network and Various Aspects of Aging

Interviewing in Cuba

Impasses and Turning Points

Introduction to Complexity Theory and How it Relates to Action-Research and the Dialogue Between Science and Religion

Connecting to Film: Social Change vs. Propaganda

Seminars to aid student learning and academic performance

Collaborative Education, The WISR Way

Developing Your Educational Plan and Assessment Portfolio

WISR’s Learning Process

Movie Nights

The Big One (by Michael Moore)

Bamboozled (by Spike Lee)

Viva Chile M. . .! (by WISR Ph.D. Student, Uwe Blesching and WISR adjunct faculty member, Marcia Campos)

In addition, WISR psychology students are required to attend two Saturday seminars (one three-hour and one five-or six-hour seminar) every month, which are specifically designed to prepare them for competent counseling practice, and for the State license examination in Marriage and Family Therapy. These Saturday MFT seminars are open to WISR students in other degree programs as well.

Examples of MFT seminar topics:

Clinical Case Review

Cross-Cultural Counseling

Alcoholism and Other Chemical Substance Dependency

Child Abuse Assessment and Reporting

Psychopharmacology

Clinical Case and Film Review

Psychological Testing

Narrative Approach to Family Therapy

The Past, Present and Future of MFTs

Theories and Methods of Marriage and Family Therapy

History of Psychology and Family Therapy

Group Therapy Practice

Human Sexuality

Working with Survivors of Psychological Trauma

Legal and Ethical Issues in Marriage and Family Therapy

Domestic Violence

Human Development: Basic Rules of Developmental Theory

Human Development: Developmental Principles of Major Theories

Psychopathology

Parallels Between Action-Research and Therapeutic Approaches

Overview, Indicators, Assessment and Treatment Planning for:

Structural Family Therapy, Strategic Family Therapy and Communications Family Therapy

Research in Marriage and Family Therapy

COMMUNITY PROJECTS

From time to time, WISR sponsors community projects that our students initiate, and helps the students to seek funding for their community work. Examples of this are:

· Production of the film, Viva Chile M . . . !—A Tribute to the Life and Work of Fernando Alegria. This documentary film was made by WISR PhD student, Uwe Blesching, in collaboration with Chilean Sociologist and Biographer, Marcia Campos. Uwe Blesching is film-maker, and conceiving, filming, producing and distributing this film was part of his PhD studies at WISR. The impetus for the film grew out of Fernando’s many years of service as a member of WISR’s Board of Trustees, during which time he was also Chair of the Spanish and Portuguese Department at Stanford University. The film was made with the permission of the Alegria family, and is in part, a way for Fernando’s family and friends, and the entire WISR community, to honor Fernando and generate greater public awareness and recognition of Fernando’s accomplishments. Fernando was one of Chile’s most notable writers, poets, and literary critics. This documentary traces the Chilean and American cultural, political and literary landscapes of the past seventy years—from the seeds of socialism in Latin America to Allende, the Beats and the Latino revival through the eyes and mind of Fernando Alegria, one of the most gifted and renown contemporary Latin American writers and revolutionaries of the past century. The film was completed in early 2004 and premiered at La Pena Cultural Center in Berkeley. Since then it has been made available for instructional purposes in schools and colleges, and has been purchased by the University of California at Berkeley, among other institutions. The film is being shown at a number of film festivals in and out of the United States, including the 7^th Cine Las Americas Film Festival in Austin, Texas, the Los Angeles International Film Festival, the HBO New York International Latino Film Festival, and the Competencia Nacional de Documentales del Festival Internacional de Cine de Valpariso. For example, the National Library of Chile will show the film on July 29, 2004. More information may be obtained by going to www.vivachilem.com

· Three dozen African-American elders in Oakland and Berkeley took part in WISR's Black Elders Project. The Project designed a choreworker training curriculum for in-home helpers of frail, home-bound, and low-income elderly people. The Project also created a network of elders who learned to serve their friends and neighbors as indigenous community health educators. It set up a continuing forum to involve local African-American elders more actively in community development. Grants from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation and the Pacific Gas & Electric Company helped to support the Project. WISR doctoral students and community supporters coordinated these activities, and in 1986 presented a panel on the Project at the Annual Meeting of the American Society on Aging.

· The Kapuna West Inner-City Child/Family AIDS Network (KWIC-FAN) was founded in 1986 by a WISR PhD graduate, the late Dr. Calu Lester. The project provided education on AIDS prevention to thousands of people of color over a five-year period. It was composed of African-American men and women in order to bring easily understandable information on AIDS directly to the African-American community, and to help prevent the spread of AIDS among African-American citizens. The project was sponsored by WISR as a community service. It provided street outreach education to hard-to-reach, at-risk populations in low-income African-American neighborhoods with the help of funding from such groups as the American Red Cross, the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, the Urban Health Study, Shanti Project, Vanguard Foundation, Alameda County, City of Berkeley, Northern California Grantmakers, and private community donors.

WISR occasionally hires its students as part-time staff members on projects for which it has outside funding. Examples are:

·WISR faculty and students collaborated with the Bay Area Black United Fund (BABUF) in the participatory research project to evaluate the 2003 Health Summit convened by BABUF. This collaborative research resulted in the publication of “A Black Paper to Build Knowledge and Recommend Actions: Moving the Work of the African American Health Summit into the Community.” Prior to the Summit, BABUF staff and the WISR research/evaluation team met to plan strategies including the content of note-taking at the Summit and post-Summit information gathering. After the Summit, WISR researchers met among themselves and with BABUF staff to discuss the information gathered during and after the Summit. The Black Paper grew out of a concerted effort made to collect, distill, and in some instances prioritize information and ideas collected from a range of participants. Dr. Woody Carter, Executive Director of BABUF, wrote in the introduction to the Black Paper, “We are thankful to . . . the excellent work done by the evaluation team from the Western Institute for Social Research (WISR), in Berkeley. WISR was sensitive and skillful in designing an assessment tool that immediately recognized the strengths inherent in the oral tradition of African Americans.” WISR was then asked by BABUF to continue this participatory research collaboration to contribute to the evaluation of the 2005 and 2007 Health Summits and to provide research support to the ongoing efforts of the African American Health Initiative. More information about BABUF and their African American Health Initiative, including the 2003, 2005 and 2007 Health Summits, may be found at www.babuf.org

· Recent assistance to Neighborhood House of North Richmond in training community-based interviewers as part of their Kaiser Foundation-funded project aimed at promoting Healthy Eating and Healthy Living in several communities in Richmond, CA.