Thurgood is Coming

A performance, written and played by Dr. Lenneal Henderson

Tuesday, February 24, 2015, 6:30-8:30 p.m.

Pacifica Graduate Institute

Ladera Campus, Barrett Center

To commemorate the 50th anniversary of Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas’ Supreme Court Decision, Dr. Lenneal Henderson, a distinguished scholar, educator, playwright and actor, wrote Thurgood is Coming, a one-man play. Dr. Henderson will perform the role of Thurgood Marshall (1908-1993), who dedicated his life to challenge racial barriers in education, housing, electoral politics, and criminal justice. Marshall won the landmark Brown vs. Board of Education case in 1954 and became the first African American to serve on the US Supreme Court. As Chief Counsel for the NAACP, he successfully argued many cases for the Supreme Court. Marshall also helped to draft bills of rights for Kenya and the constitution of Ghana.

Dr. Henderson is currently Distinguished Professor of Government and Public Administration, Senior Fellow at the William Donald Schaefer Center for Public Policy, and Senior Fellow in the Hoffberger Center for Professional Ethics at the University of Baltimore where he was formerly a Henry C. Welcome Fellow. He is also on the faculty of the Community Psychology, Liberation Psychology, Indigenous Psychologies, and Ecopsychology specialization at Pacifica Graduate Institute,  and the Fielding Graduate University in the School of Human and Organizational Development, and School of Educational Leadership and Change. Dr. Henderson holds the Daniel T. Blue Endowment Professor of Political Science at North Carolina Central University. He currently serves on the boards of LifeNet Health Inc., the Environmental Action Foundation, and the Board of the Maryland Humanities Council. He has been on the boards of the African American History and Culture Commission, the Baltimore Urban League, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, and is a founding member of the Reginald Lewis Maryland Museum of African American History and culture.

In addition, Dr. Henderson is a distinguished international presenter and lecturer on social, political, and economic policies, urban dynamics and racial and ethnic studies, and natural resource policies in many countries such as Bulgaria, India, Zimbabwe, the Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Kosovo.

His books include: Black Political Life in the United States; Administrative Advocacy:  Black Administrators in Urban Bureaucracies; The New Black Politics: The Search for Political Power (co-editor); Public Administration and Public Policy: A Minority Perspective (co-editor), and most recently, Dimensions of Learning: Education for Life (co-editor).

Words from Aaron Kipnis

Your Readers are Waiting!
 

After receiving Pacifica’s first Ph.D., my heavily revised dissertation was published by Jeremy Tarcher, Inc. Knights Without Armor was well received and opened the doors to four more books: Gender War Gender Peace, What Women and Men Really Want, Angry Young Men and, most recently, The Midas Complex.  Many chapters, articles, films and speaking engagements also resulted from having had the good fortune to be supported by the radical academic freedom which still exists at Pacifica.

To students and alumni who aspire to publish their thoughts, I say: Just Do It. Joe Campbell said follow your bliss. That is wonderful for those who have some. But if not, if you are at all like me--outraged by injustice, offended by bias, irritated by ignorance and angry about abuse--then just follow your affect. Your anger, sadness, hunger, odd passions and fears can serve you just as well as bliss.

If you can’t find a publisher, self- publish. It’s easy these days. If you have thoughts and emotions and a need to express them, stop ruminating (you are not a cow) and put them on the page.  When you publish, you will join the world of other writers and thinkers. What will come your way may amaze you, but you will never know if you do not face your insecurity or whatever else is stopping you from finishing your book. Please do, however, translate your dissertation into the common tongue first and edit out all the APA b.s. and most of the really big words you learned in grad school (unless you want to be a scholar read by only a handful of people).

Your readers are waiting.

In community,

Aaron Kipnis, Class of 1991

COMING HOME!
Three days YOU will not want to miss!

Pacifica Graduate Institute's Annual Alumni Meeting is a 3-day feast packed with workshops, lectures, poster sessions, a film premiere, Pacifica Authors book-signing, Mythic art displays, reunions, awards, receptions, tours, and a community day honoring the dreams and work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.!


Join us for a celebration of the works of our very own Alumni!

Contribute your ideas about how to steer our association, develop scholarship funds and community service projects.

Continue our mandate of tending soul in the world!
 

For additional information, click here:
www.cominghometopacifica.com

Coming Home 2015: Poster Session Presenters

Ginger Swanson, MA (Depth, 2010)

The Other Woman: A Journey to the Whole Woman

Although she has been with us for eons, the other woman’s true identity has been all but erased from existence. She has been buried in the shadows of society’s taboos and burdened with carrying negative projections of an ill-begotten stereotype. Using Carl Jung’s theories of the archetypes and complexes, the researcher explored the lived experiences of other women portrayed in film and history over the last hundred years, including Anais Nin and Sabina Spielrein.

*

Satya Keyes, MA (Engaged Humanities & Creativity, 2014)

Portrait of the Artist as Creative Project Research Developer and Educator

Keyes’ vision is to facilitate through praxis the creative intelligence needed to forward and nourish any educational culture through holistic acknowledgement of Self (tending of Soul) and contributing to a world that works. She has already accomplished much, including the following: established the first mindfulness/meditation program for a 5-diamond resort spa; created a music/therapy project for performing and serving arts; developed a health/wellness program for university campus cultures combining Jungian active imagination and mindfulness/meditation techne; as well as a Next-Gen project for the evolution of social media worldwide.

*

Susan Savett, PhD (Depth, 2014)

Games as Theater for Soul: An Archetypal Psychology Perspective of Video Games

The question of soul-making within video games is rarely approached. Millions of people are spending billions of hours each week playing digital games. These astonishing numbers point to a vast reservoir of psychic material that has been relatively unexamined by the field of depth psychology. Yet, in a realm of virtual games where image is primary and fantasy is played out, soul (psyche) is clearly present in its various disguises. Games are a new domain for soul, and archetypal psychology may provide designers a new access path for game designs to evolve into new directions.

*

Charlyne Gelt, PhD (Clinical, 2001)

Hades’ Angels: An Inside View of Women Who Love Lifers and Death Row Inmates

What Women Can Learn from Their Transformative Journeys

Hades’ Angels offers a close look at women in committed relationships with lifers and death row inmates who did not know him prior to incarceration. Dr. Gelt raises consciousness about the occurrence and the nature of such relationships. These dynamics offer a world of information that can be applied to certain outwardly successful, emotionally submissive women in the general population who get caught up in destructive relationships with men on the outside. If mutual attraction to a partner has its basis in similar needs and fears, then what is it that binds a Hades’ Angel to her imprisoned partner?

*

Barbara Lutz, MA (Depth, 2010)

Thinking From the Heart in Clinical Practice:

Emotion Regulation with a Probation Youth with Immigrant Background Using the HeartMath Method

Congruent with indigenous wisdom, current research confirms the important role of the heart in creating the base for strategic and creative thinking: emotional regulation. By monitoring their heart rhythm, clients and clinicians alike can recognize that consistent emotional patterns either reduce or renew their physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing.  This case study provides an introduction to HeartMath methodology which shows heart rhythm variability as an indicator of emotion regulation, and coherence as a harmonious state, where we can connect to our deepest selves, to others, and to the earth.

*

Beth Anne Boardman, PhD (Myth, 2012)

The Alchemy of Adolescence

Like Egyptian Osiris, who gets trapped in a coffin, thrown into the Nile, murdered, dismembered, and reborn, adolescents follow a trajectory of profound musculoskeletal, neural, and endocrinal restructuring on the way to adulthood—a process that sometimes feels like an endless night-sea journey. This poster traces the visual, musical, and written imagery of contemporary adolescent popular culture in the United States and draws comparisons with an Alchemical process of solve et coagula, a falling apart in order to refine and reconfigure.

*

Jeannette Jet Nesa Bland, PhD (Myth, 2014)

Twenty-Two: Mystical Letters and Numbers of the Hebrew Alphabet

The Hebrew alphabet’s twenty-two core letters vibrate with a poetic essence drawn from stories, dreams, and lineages. Stories secure memories and details of oral traditions. Through these oral traditions, symbolic concepts evolve into shaped writing systems. Letters grew organically from these shapes and images. This book connects the meaning and mystical nature of Hebrew letters with the stories from which they emerged. The impact of the project results in a presentation of the Hebrew alphabet as a vibrational force that blends physics, art, and philosophy.

Guess Who's Coming Home?
Your Classmate-Authors!

Here are the Pacifica Graduate Institute Alumni that have
answered the call and are confirmed for our Alumni-Authors
Book-Signing on Friday evening!
 

Dennis Archambault (Myth 2010)
         Androgeny JOY
        Odyssey Dreams
 
Lois West Bristow (Depth 2009)
         Death Comes Not as a Stranger
 
Brad Chabin (Depth 2011)
         Adolescent Males and Homosexuality: The Search for Self
 
Craig Chalquist (Depth 2003)
        Terrapsychology:  Reengaging the Soul of Place
        Ecotherapy: Healing with Nature in Mind
        Storied Lives: Discovering and Deepening Your Personal Myth
        Deep California: Images and Ironies of Cross and Sword on El Camino Real
        Rebirths: Conversations with a World Ensouled
 
Maura Conlon-McIvor (Depth 2004)
        She's All Eyes
        FBI Girl
 
Selden Edwards (Myth 2002)
        The Lost Prince
        The Little Book: A Novel
 
AnnaMarie Fidel-Rice (Clinical Psych 2003)
        The Alchemy of Grief
 
Catherine Anne Held (Depth 2006)
        Delia’s Book: Guidance for Cancer Healing
 
Catherine Ann Jones (Myth 2003)
        Heal Yourself With Writing
        The Way of Story: The Craft & Soul of Writing
 
Dara Marks (Myth 2005)
         Inside Story: The Power of the Transformational Arc
 
Ruth Meyer (Depth 2005)
         Clio’s Circle: Entering the Imaginal World
 
Maureen Murdock (Myth 2011)
        The Heroine’s Journey: Woman’s Quest for Wholeness
        Unreliable Truth: On Memoir and Memory
        The Heroine’s Journey
        The Heroine’s Journey Workbook
        Spinning Inward: Using Guided Imagery with Children for Learning, Creativity & Relaxation
        Father’s Dauther: Breaking the Ties that Bind
        Monday Morning Memoirs: Women in the Second Half of Life
 
Elizabeth Nelson (Depth 2001)
        The Art of Inquiry
        Psyche’s Knife: Archetypal Explorations of Love and Power
 
Terry Pearce (Myth 2007)
        Leading Out Loud: A Guide for Engaging Others in Creating the Future
 
Anne Perrah (Myth 2006)
        Taken to Heart: Parenting Our Children and Re-Parenting Ourselves
        Through the Healing Power of Story
 
Elizabeth Robinson (Myth 2011)
        The Soul of the Nurse
 
Janet Buber Rich (Myth 2009)
        Hestia: Goddess of the Hearth
        Exploring Guinevere’s Search for Authenticity in the Arthurian
        Romances: The Thousand-Year Quest of a Mythic Woman
 
Jennifer Selig (Depth 2004)
        Integration: The Psychology and Mythology of Martin Luther King, Jr.
        A Tribute to James Hillman: Reflections on a Renegade Psychologist
        The Soul Does Not Specialize: Revaluing the Humanities and the Polyvalent Imagination
        Reimagining Education: Essays on Reviving the Soul of Learning
        Thinking Outside the Church: 110 Ways to Connect with Your Spiritual Nature
        What Now?: Wise and Witty Advice For Life After Graduation
 
Susan Vorhand (Clinical Psych 1999)
         Mosaic Within: An Alchemy of Healing Self and Soul
 

COMING HOME!
Three days YOU will not want to miss!

Pacifica Graduate Institute's Annual Alumni Meeting is a 3-day feast packed with workshops, lectures, poster sessions, a film premiere, Pacifica Authors book-signing, Mythic art displays, reunions, awards, receptions, tours, and a community day honoring the dreams and work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.!


Join us for a celebration of the works of our very own Alumni!

Contribute your ideas about how to steer our association, develop scholarship funds and community service projects.

Continue our mandate of tending soul in the world!
 

For additional information, click here:
www.cominghometopacifica.com
 

It's a Good Time To Come Home!
Need Additional Information?
Contact Dianne Travis-Teague
alumnirelations@pacifica.edu
pgiaa@pacifica.edu
Tele: 805.679.6163

What Coming Home Means to Me

As a current 4^th year dissertation student, “Coming home” to Pacifica is a welcome break from the often isolated experience of research and writing, and it is a fabulous way to reconnect and reground myself to the very place where my research ideas were spawned. Coming home gives me the opportunity to reconnect with the essence of Pacifica, friends, staff, and some of my favorite professors. There is nothing quite like returning back to the place where my journey first began and to literally feel held by the essence of Pacifica and all that the Pacifica community symbolizes to me. I feel privileged to return in this manner and celebrate the journey with many of our alumni who have already completed their graduation rite of passage. Each alumnus I see, speak to, or simply stand in the presence of, will vicariously serve as a symbol of light for me in my own hazy path toward graduation. It’s going to feel go to be home again.

Warmly,

William J Jones, M.A.

Doctoral Candidate &

Pacifica Graduate Institute

Dissertation Students…You’re Invited!

Turn Your Dissertation Into A Book, Article, or Published Work!

Renowned Depth psychological researcher, teacher, and co-author of the celebrated The Art of Inquiry: A Depth Psychological Perspective, Elizabeth’s  Nelson, PhD will be providing a step-by-step Dissertation Workshop on how to effectively turn your research into a book, articles, or published work!

Current Dissertation Students Attend the Workshop - Reduced Rate of $25

Annual Meeting Registration Form
Download pdf at http://tinyurl.com/cominghome-registration-form
Poster Submission Form
Download pdf at http://tinyurl.com/cominghome-poster-submission

When: PGIAA “Coming Home” Annual Meeting Saturday, January 17, 2015

Where: Pacifica Graduate Institute (Ladera Campus) - 801 Ladera Lane, Santa Barbara, CA.

Time: 3:00pm-5:00pm

Limited Space Available!

IT’S A GOOD TIME TO COME HOME!
Need additional information?
Contact Dianne Travis-Teague
email to:alumnirealtions@pacifica.edu
or email to:pgiaa@pacifica.edu
Tele: 805.679.6163
Fax: 805-879-7393

Events Open to General Public

• Friday, January 16^th - 5:00 – 6:30 p.m.  - Meet our Authors & Book Signing, PLEASE RSVP

   

   

• Saturday, January 17^th - 10:00 – Throughout the day  -  Art Exhibition ~  Mythic Threads, Art, Healing & Magic in Bali w/Pam Bjork

   

   

• Saturday, January 17^th - 7:30 p.m. -  Santa Barbara Premier of Finding the Gold Within - PLEASE RSVP

Reception and Meet n’ Greet following Screening of Film.  “Finding the Gold Within” follows six African American young men from an after school program called Alchemy, Inc. through their first two years of college.  Alchemy, Inc. is a National Arts and Humanities Youth Program award-winning program founded by Pacifica Graduate Institute Alumnus Kwame Scruggs, which uses myth, storytelling, and mentoring to help urban adolescents develop their purpose and dreams.  The screening will be concluded by a reception honoring the filmmaker Karina Epperlein, who will be joined by Kwame Scruggs, Founder & Executive Director of Alchemy, Inc., and most importantly, guests will get a chance to meet the six young men who are the subject of the film.  (Please RSVP at 805.679-6163). 

• Sunday, January 18^{th -} 9:00 a.m. - Lecture by Jennifer Selig, Panel Discussion & Reception

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. – Celebrating the Dream is co-sponsored by the Martin Luther           King, Jr. Committee and features a lecture Jennifer Selig, Panel Discussion with local city officials and Reception followed by a Q&A (Please RSVP at 805.679-6163).  

“Our sponsors make it possible for Pacifica Graduate Institute Alumni Association (PGIAA) to provide services to our alumni. We acknowledge their generosity and support, with sincere appreciation.  Your generous contributions will help make our vision a reality!” 

sponsors for the 2014 Annual Meeting include The Santa Barbara Fund, co-Sponsoring “Finding the Gold Within,” the Martin Luther King, Jr. Committee, co-sponsoring “Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. – Celebrating the Dream” Community Panel and Q&A, and the Pacifica Graduate Institute Bookstore, co-sponsoring the Writers/Media Day.  Local vendors donating goods, services and discounts include Santa Barbara Travel, Best Western Hotel, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Alaskan Airlines, Shea Mortgage Affinity Program, Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, Ralph’s  and Von’s supermarkets. 

“Over the past four years, the Pacifica Graduate Institute Alumni Association (PGIAA) was born and is now a 501(c)(3) organization.  This year’s event is designed not only to build community, but to share the wealth of talent found amongst our alumni/ae.  We hope you will join us for this momentous celebration,” states Dianne Travis-Teague.

Dianne Travis-Teague, Director of Alumni Relations facilitates the ongoing collaborations between Pacifica's Office of the Chancellor and the Pacifica Graduate Institute Alumni Association to extend and nurture the Pacifica experience in and through the world.  In partnership with Dianne and her team, the Alumni Association provides programs and services that strengthen the connections between graduates and the institute. 

Pacifica Graduate Institute is a WASC accredited graduate school with two campuses located between the coastal foothills of the Pacific Ocean, a few miles south of Santa Barbara.  The Institute offers masters and doctoral degree programs in psychology, the humanities and mythological studies all informed by the traditions in depth psychology.  Pacifica has established an educational environment that nourishes respect for cultural diversity and individual differences, and an academic community that fosters a spirit of free and open inquiry. In the last 35 years, Pacifica Graduate Institute has graduated over 4500 alumni and alumnae.

For additional information, click here:
www.cominghometopacifica.com

It's a Good Time To Come Home!

Need Additional Information?

Contact Dianne Travis-Teague
alumnirelations@pacifica.edu
pgiaa@pacifica.edu
Tele: 805.679.6163

PGIAA Proudly Announces the 2015 Recipients of the Wendy Davee Award for Service and the Chancellor's Award for Excellence

Award Ceremony to be held Friday, January 16^th
at 2015 Annual Meeting -“Coming Home”

 
We are honored to announce the recipients of two annual awards presented by the Alumni Association in partnership with Pacifica’s Office of the Chancellor.  Our recipients will be honored during the Association’s upcoming Annual Meeting, “Coming Home”.  Plan now to join us for The Chancellor’s Opening Reception as we celebrate our alums.

The Wendy Davee Award
for Service

Congratulations to
Dr. Jill Griffin!
(Myth 2012)

Dr. Griffin is the recipient of our Second Annual Wendy Davee Award for Service, which honors alumni/ae who exemplify Wendy's dedication and spirit of soul tending through service in the community. 

Founder of Squash Blossom Leadership in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Dr. Griffin’s lifelong love of the natural world and its impact on both physical and psychological health lead her to write her dissertation on Animals and Soul:  Animals in Native American Mythologies and the Individuation Process. 
 
Dr. Griffin has worked with adolescent girls in northern New Mexico for more than eight years, first as a juvenile justice board contractor in Taos, then as the founder of Squash Blossom Leadership.  The mission of Squash Blossom Leadership centers around cultivating leadership in the community, “from the inside out.”  Dr. Griffin emphasizes that leadership is the possession of each and every one of us, and that it begins with gaining access to one’s own truth and voice.

Dr. Griffin welcomes, honors, and includes traditions from the wide variety of cultural backgrounds represented by the girls of Northern New Mexico.  Her attention to the individuality of each girl fosters self-esteem, and her lessons in leadership skills enhance the community by teaching the girls how to work together in groups for the greater good, as well as for individual achievement. 
 
Working primarily with middle school girls, ages 11-14, Dr. Griffin in the last year has added leadership programs for young women aged 17-19.  The girls’ leadership groups meet weekly to develop skills and to learn to navigate the vicissitudes of the teen years. The groups create leadership projects within the school setting.   In February of 2014, her “girls’ circle” in Santa Fe planned and hosted an event around the concept of kindness.  The girls decided all on their own to create a freestanding door that the students of the school would walk through as they took a pledge of kindness, and then they would add their signatures to a gigantic pledge sheet.  (Please see the wording of the Pledge, below.)
 
Over 200 students during one day’s lunch period signed!  The entire student body was afforded the opportunity to benefit spiritually and emotionally from this activity planned by the girls of Dr. Griffin’s Squash Blossom Leadership group.
 
Crossing the threshold is, of course, an act that is fundamental to mythic journeys. Dr. Griffin encourages the girls to consider the use of ritual, or ceremony, to mark life changes, focus aspirations, and honor relationships.   As Dr. Griffin said in her personal statement to Pacifica Admissions, “In my understanding, myth is about making sense of this world and embodies the mystery.”
 
In addition to the girls’ circles leadership activities each week at school, Dr. Griffin also believes that girls need to exercise and experience the strength of their bodies.  Citing Jung, who encourages all of us to maintain contact with the archaic within and the animal self, Dr. Griffin arranges outdoor adventures for the girls, including hiking, rock climbing, rappelling, and camping.   While on these trips, the girls put away all electronics and get close to the earth. In collaboration with the Santa Fe Mountain Center, they engage in scary but safe activities to harness the teen need for excitement and for pushing against the edges of breath and life itself.
 
Apart from her work with Squash Blossom Leadership, Dr. Griffin also volunteers her time to the PGI Alumni Association, serving as Regional Coordinator for the New Mexico Pacifica Alumni.  Her group has created a Salon series, and they meet and discuss their Pacifica studies, work, and research together regularly.
 
Dr. Griffin represents a glowing example of a Pacifica Alumna’s best work in the world.  She enriches her community, leads by example, promotes civic responsibility through the philosophies and concepts she teaches her “girls’ circles,” encourages healthful practices, fosters and exhibits innovative thinking and projects, and most importantly, teaches her girls to embrace all of who they are, to listen to their unique voices while at the same time working together toward the future.  Dr. Griffin’s Squash Blossom Leadership work, and her service as a PGIAA Regional Coordinator showcase her commitment to the welfare of teenage girls from all backgrounds, and to staying connected with Pacifica’s principle of tending the soul in and of the world. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

2014 Santa Fe Girls’ Circle Pledge of Kindness: 
 
“I take a pledge of kindness, towards all people, whether I know them or not.  For I understand the value of every human being, including myself.  Wherever there is meanness, will bring a kind word or deed.  For I believe that kindness will make the world a better place for all.”  

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

More about Wendy Davee:
Wendy Davee (MA Counseling 1987) joined the Core Faculty of Pacifica Graduate Institute in 2000. While continuing to teach at Pacifica, she also served for seven years as Chair of the Counseling Psychology Program.  Wendy was a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and worked extensively in non-profit, educational and governmental settings providing therapeutic services to children, adolescents and families. She supervised MFT trainees and interns and had a special interest in the healing power of symbolic play in the therapeutic relationship with children. In 2012, the Office of Alumni Relations and the Pacifica Graduate Institute Alumni Association established the Wendy Davee Award for Service. Each year, Alumni Relations and the Association will honor our alumna’s memory with an award to one or more alumni who have exemplified Wendy’s spirit of service and giving.
 

Chancellor's Award for
Excellence

Congratulations to
Dr. Mark Whitehurst!
(Myth 2010)

Dr. Whitehurst is the recipient of the Association’s first Chancellor’s Award for Excellence, created to acknowledge and provide recognition for consistently superior professional achievement and to encourage the ongoing pursuit of excellence.  

A community advocate, Dr. Whitehurst began his Santa Barbara experience by volunteering at the Joseph Campbell archive in 1992.  Dr. Whitehurst is a lifelong lover of the arts and a decades-long, steadfast supporter of the Santa Barbara arts community.  Dr. Whitehurst wrote his dissertation on the Archetypal Power of Music:  The Improvisational Cadenza as a Model for Pedagogy and completed his doctorate in 2010.
 
With a career in community publishing, Dr. Whitehurst began publishing CASA Magazine in 1993. It has provided a veritable treasure-trove of arts information and resources to the wider Santa Barbara area for the last twenty years. The magazine has received numerous awards and was named Citizen of the Year by Downtown Santa Barbara in 2007, for playing an active role initiating the 1st Thursday Cultural Night.
 
Year after year CASA supports the community and the arts through generous sponsorships of a wide-variety of cultural organizations and events, and in 2011 Dr. Whitehurst, his wife and partner Kerry Methner, and CASA received the Leadership in the Arts Award from the Santa Barbara County Arts Commission.  
 
Dr. Whitehurst’s community work includes being a board member of Santa Barbara Beautiful since 1996 and a past president. He continues to serve on the board.  Santa Barbara Beautiful is an organization of volunteers dedicated to beautifying their area in a variety of ways, including expanding, preserving, and protecting the urban forest (they’ve planted 12,000+ trees), recognizing exceptional beautification projects through an awards program, encouraging and supporting the placement of art in public places, and educational outreach. 
 
He serves on the board of Downtown Santa Barbara and has been President and Treasurer for the 1400-member nonprofit organization, which is dedicated to the promotion and enhancement of the business, cultural, community, and environmental vitality of downtown Santa Barbara for the benefit of its members, Santa Barbara residents and visitors. 
 
Dr. Whitehurst’s additional board work includes serving on the board of the Park and Recreation Community Foundation, which supports the 50 parks in Santa Barbara and the Douglas Preserve, and serving as Treasurer for the board of the Santa Barbara Performing Arts League.  The Arts League fosters communication and collaboration within the performing arts community to contribute to the cultural vitality of greater Santa Barbara.
 
Dr. Whitehurst has been an instructor for Adult Education along with his partner Kerry Methner, co-teaching a psychology class called “Turning Points in Thought from Film” for 12 years.
 
Dr. Whitehurst enjoys his family, from parents to grandchildren, who all live in Santa Barbara.
 
The Office of Alumni Relations and Board of PGIAA would also like to thank Dr. Whitehurst with great affection, for all he has done to help our nascent organization with publicity and encouragement!  

More about the Chancellor’s Award for Excellence:
This program underscores Pacifica Graduate Institute’s commitment to sustaining intellectual vibrancy, advancing the boundaries of knowledge, providing the highest quality of instruction, and tending the soul of the world. Through this award, PGI publicly proclaims its pride in the accomplishment and personal dedication of its alumni. The award provides worldwide recognition for service to our communities.
 
This award is given in recognition of exemplary work in service to the world, as well as commitment and dedication to furthering the Institute's mission.  The Chancellor’s Award for Excellence was created to encourage excellence in what Pacifica Graduate Institute Alumni do and recognizes individuals for exceptional service to the community. 
 

COMING HOME!
Three days YOU will not want to miss!

Pacifica Graduate Institute's Annual Alumni Meeting is a 3-day feast packed with workshops, lectures, poster sessions, a film premiere, Pacifica Authors book-signing, Mythic art displays, reunions, awards, receptions, tours, and a community day honoring the dreams and work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.!


Join us for a celebration of the works of our very own Alumni!

Contribute your ideas about how to steer our association, develop scholarship funds and community service projects.

Continue our mandate of tending soul in the world!
 

For additional information, click here:
www.cominghometopacifica.com
 

It's a Good Time To Come Home!
Need Additional Information?
Contact Dianne Travis-Teague
alumnirelations@pacifica.edu
pgiaa@pacifica.edu
Tele: 805.679.6163

"A Toast Heard 'Round the World"

On New Year’s Eve, we invite all Pacifica Alumni to join in “A Toast Heard ‘Round the World” – a celebration honoring Pacifica, its alumni and our Alumni Association. This celebration will expand beyond our campus and reach out to our global community. Raise a toast with us this New Year’s Eve. Tweet, Facebook or Instagram your dreams for the Association! To join the toast or for more information, click here:

www.toastpacifica2015.com
 

Gratitude and Unhappiness Cannot Coexist!

As we prepare for our Annual Toast Heard ‘Round the World and our upcoming Annual Meeting:  Coming Home 2015, we wanted to pause to briefly chat with you about gratitude – it floods our souls this year!

When you log-in to offer a Toast this year, please share one (or more) reasons for your gratitude!  Then, kindly offer a Toast for our Alumni Association – a personal memory from 2014 or a wish for the New Year!  

Here are just a few of the people and/or reasons we gratefully celebrate you:

• Dr. Steve Aizenstat and the Board of Trustees, Pacifica Graduate Institute – your unwavering support continues to be the ‘wind beneath our wings’.  We are sincerely grateful for your support and guidance.  We raise our toast of gratitude to you.
   
• Our Volunteers – where oh where would we find such devotion and caring?  Your contributions are invaluable.  We raise our toast of deep appreciation to you.
   
• Gregory Baisden (2012 PhD Myth) and Rebekah Lovejoy (2012 PhD Myth) embarked on a journey of sizeable proportions - reimagining and redeveloping the PGIAA website!  Thanks to their unwavering dedication, our site launched in early November.  Over the past nine months, they worked diligently to design, build and transfer historical data from the Association’s previous site.  If you have not visited, www.pgiaa.org, please do so.  Site development will continue in 2015.   Your professionalism, work ethic and dedication are much appreciated as well as your countless volunteer hours. On this very special day, we raise our toast of gratitude to Rebekah and Gregory. 
   
• Jo Todd, (2006 PhD Depth) Champion for Regional Coordination continued her leadership of our tireless and fearless Regional Coordinator team!  The group has grown by ‘leaps and bounds’, serving as a life-line for the Association’s communications.  We raise our toast of appreciation to you Jo.
   
• Regional Coordinators (see attached roster), thank you for keeping the home lights burning.  You empower us to tend the souls of our alumni!  We raise our toast of sincere gratitude to you.
   
• PGIAA Board of Directors (Tom Lyon, President/Charles Caldwell, Vice President/Beth Boardman, Secretary/Holly Reusing, and Treasurer) and members, John Michael O’Neil, Kay Todd, Patricia Taylor, and Suzanne Cremen Davidson) – we thank you for countless volunteer hours and your leadership of the Association.  We raise our toast to the Pacifica Graduate Institute (PGIAA) Board of Directors)
   
• Linda Coleman, our Accountant extraordinaire - thank you for the financial acumen you generously provide!  We raise our toast of gratitude to you.
   
• Rebecca Eggeman, our esteemed Legal Counsel – thank your untiring support and legal leadership!  We raise our toast of appreciation to you.
   
• Pacific support network (e.g., Bookstore, Library, Business Office, Public Programs, Faculty and Administration and Rincon Catering)  - for the many times you answer our calls for assistance and support, we raise our toast to you.
   
• George Thurlow and Team UCSB Alumni Association) – when the going gets rough, we call George.  For the countless times you have given us support and encouragement, thank you.  For always seeing the light at the end of a tunnel, we raise a toast of deep gratitude to you.
   
• OUR ALUMS.  We do appreciate your patience, support, encouragement, excitement, collaboration as we have endeavored to grow our Association.  We honor your enthusiasm and look forward to seeing you at our 2015 Coming Home celebration.  We raise our toast to you, Pacifica Graduate Institute Alumni/ae.
   
• To the ‘soul of the world’, we raise our toast in gratitude and with hope that the New Year brings us all many blessings!

COMING HOME:
Three days YOU will not want to miss!

Pacifica Graduate Institute's Annual Alumni Meeting is a 3-day feast packed with workshops, lectures, poster sessions, a film premiere, Pacifica Authors book-signing, Mythic art displays, reunions, awards, receptions, tours, and a community day honoring the dreams and work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.!

Join us for a celebration of the works of our very own Alumni!

Contribute your ideas about how to steer our association, develop scholarship funds and community service projects.

Continue our mandate of tending soul in the world!
For additional information, click here: www.cominghometopacifica.com