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Dr. Risa Lavizzo-Mourey of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has an unwavering vision of the future she wants to live into. Her most recent challenge "…To forge new and unconventional partnerships with the goal of building a Culture of Health that benefits all" provides a strategy for living into a safer, healthier community. Her challenge hit home for me given a recent experience I had. Part of the funds we received from the MARC grant were allocated to holding a 2-day workshop in managing...

Healthy relationships, parenting and family financial management classes are coming to Grimes County thanks to the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension’s Family and Community Health Unit. Introducing the program, “Strengthening Families in the Brazos Valley” (SFBV), Thursday, July 7, at the Grimes County Annex in Navasota was Parent Education Program Coordinator Laurie Naumann who said, “What goes on in the family unit affects everything else.” The informal gathering offered city and county...

“R-E-S-P-E-C-T: Find out what it means to me.” In schools working to reduce suspension rates, teachers could take a cue from Aretha Franklin: Considering how young people view respect can greatly improve classroom management, new studies show. A one-time intervention to help teachers and students empathize with each other halved the number of suspensions at five diverse California middle schools, and helped students who had previously been suspended feel more connected at school, according...

Three years after Gov. Jerry Brown freed schools from spending controls and gave them extra cash to narrow a yawning achievement gap, the governor's reform remains popular among schools -- but there's only scattered evidence that the state's largesse is improving education for the most disadvantaged students. When he signed what he dubbed a revolutionary law in 2013, Brown promised that money would flow to high-needs students hampered by language barriers, poverty and family instability.

"It can hurt to go through life with your heart open, but not as much as it does to go through life with your heart closed." -- Jim Doty Growing up, Jim Doty had many strikes against him: an alcoholic father, a mother with depression, a family living in poverty. But somehow—in a journey he recounts in his new book, Into the Magic Shop —he managed to overcome them. Dr. Doty is now a clinical professor of neurosurgery at Stanford University. He founded and directs the Center for Compassion and...

How much do you know about Childhood Trauma? Got 30 seconds?

How much do you know about Childhood Trauma? Got 30 seconds?

When Rolling Terrace Elementary School in Takoma Park, Maryland, told parents in the fall of 2014 that it would allow students to use Chromebooks as a way to bridge the digital divide between low-income families and affluent families, there were mixed reactions. The plan was aimed at helping students become more adept at using technology, but the affluent parents, most of whom were white, were apprehensive about their children getting more screen time. Alison Risso, then the president of the...

Psychiatrists and psychologists have traditionally taken distinct approaches toward mental health and, according to a new study, these differences may be here to stay. Researchers in the UK surveyed psychiatrists and psychologists in training about their perspectives on the causes of mental health issues and found that, despite attempts to integrate the field, the two disciplines “continue to sit at opposite ends of a biological/psychological spectrum.” “We found that trainee clinical...

As a society, we have unanimity about few things, but one of these is that no child should be harmed by violence. And yet, every five minutes a child somewhere in the world dies a violent death, and half of all children in the world — a billion kids — experience violence each year. Violence — emotional, physical, and sexual — is rampant in high-income countries, including the U.S., as well as in low- and middle-income countries, and across ethnic and racial groups. Three seminal studies the...

Let’s start with how not to have a conversation about race: Here’s the July 11 Minneapolis Star Tribune : “Minneapolis cops working Lynx game walk out over player comments, warm-up jerseys. Police union leader says walkout is justified.“ The Lynx are Minnesota’s high-flying WNBA basketball team. An accompanying photo shows two players wearing black T-shirts bearing the words, “CHANGE STARTS WITH US. JUSTICE & ACCOUNTABILITY.” According to the caption, the Lynx players “observed a moment...

Philando Castile was shot by a police officer during a traffic stop. His girlfriend, Lavish Reynolds, broadcast the aftermath of the shooting live on Facebook. The video leaves a trail of questions about the sequence of events, and the actions that led to Castile’s death. It also reinforces a broader question: How can police better train and equip officers to serve and protect the public? In search of some answers, I turned to some people who have deep expertise in these matters. Two of them...