The Dish Stanford people on the move and in the spotlight

Catherine Palter, right, with healing partner Margot Baker

HEALING PARTNERS, a program for breast cancer patients run by Women’s Health at Stanford, celebrates its fifth anniversary this month, according to KATHY TURNER, the research nurse practitioner who directs the program. Healing Partners pairs women diagnosed with breast cancer with a volunteer Healing Touch practitioner.
Healing Touch is a gentle, non-invasive form of energy balancing that promotes deep relaxation. Founded by a registered nurse in Colorado in 1989, it is used to help manage the side effects of chemotherapy and radiation, including fatigue, nausea, loss of appetite and pain. Since its inception at Stanford, the program has served 175 women with a breast cancer diagnosis free of charge.

Among those active with the organization is CATHERINE PALTER, associate director of land use and environmental planning. Palter received support from the organization after being diagnosed with breast cancer in 2005. She was so impressed that she became a Healing Touch practitioner and has volunteered her efforts weekly for the past two years.

She acknowledges initially being skeptical about the therapy, which involves providers placing their hands a few inches above a fully clothed patient to assess energy flow. Providers then lightly touch the patient or move their hands above areas where energy is blocked to increase flow.

“I didn’t expect to feel anything,” said Palter. “I almost immediately felt energy flowing through my body. It was like magic. I believe that it is the reason that I fared so well with the side effects and emotional aspects of breast cancer.”

Palter told the San Francisco Chronicle, which profiled the program in 2008, “It opened my mind up to the fact there are some things in this world that we can’t explain, and that doesn’t make them any less real.”
To learn more about Healing Partners, visit the website.

Music and reflections on the civil rights movement will be themes of two events taking place Wednesday, Jan. 20.

• At noon, “Food and Song for the Soul,” the annual Martin Luther King Jr . commemorative luncheon program sponsored by the African American Staff Group and the Black Community Services Center, will take place in Tresidder’s Oak Lounge.In addition to lunch, the program includes performances by Talisman and staffer ANITA BLACK and remarks by students JULIAN KELLY and BRANDON JACKSON and representatives of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute.

• On Wednesday evening, at 7 p.m. in Cubberley Auditorium, there will be another screening of Soundtrack for a Revolution, a documentary film by Dan Sturman and BILL GUTTENTAG, an Oscar-winning filmmaker, former Knight Journalism Fellow and a lecturer in the Graduate School of Business. The 82-minute documentary chronicles the civil rights movement and features interviews with the leaders and foot soldiers committed to nonviolence.

Since 2005, FACE AIDS, a group founded by Stanford students dedicated to fighting AIDS in Africa, has raised more than $1.5 million to support Partners in Health (PIH), a nonprofit working in Africa but with deep roots in Haiti as well. Founded by Paul Farmer, the Harvard physician who is currently serving as deputy U.N. Special Envoy for Haiti under former President Bill Clinton, PIH was among the first groups to provide emergency services on the ground in Haiti to respond to the recent calamity.
To support PIH, FACE AIDS has partnered with Sterling Stamos, a Menlo Park-based private investment firm, to raise $100,000 for PIH’s Haiti earthquake relief and reconstruction efforts. Sterling Stamos is providing a $50,000 challenge grant that it will match dollar-for-dollar with funds raised by FACE AIDS.
“We find that years of investment in building a strong local partner organization mean that we are again in the position of responding effectively to a natural disaster,” said Farmer. “We are very proud of our team.” He said PIH has been working very closely with the United Nations, the Haitian and U.S. governments, and other nonprofits to meet the immediate needs of Haitians, as well as to work toward the long-term rebuilding of the country. For more information on Stanford’s efforts in support of Haitian relief, visit the university’s Haiti Information web page.

-Ruthann Richter

Some pretty exciting news is coming out of Stanford Athletics these days.
Running back TOBY GERHART announced he will forgo his final year of collegiate eligibility in order to enter the 2010 NFL Draft. Gerhart, who played in 38 career games from 2006 to 2009, had the option of returning to Stanford as a fifth-year senior since he played in just one game as a sophomore in 2007 due to injury.
He also has withdrawn from Stanford for the winter quarter in order to devote his time to prepare for the NFL Combine in February.
“After careful thought and deliberation, I have decided to withdraw from Stanford University for the winter quarter in order to fully devote my energies toward the pursuit of my dream of playing in the NFL,” said Gerhart. “While I certainly will miss patrolling left field on the Sunken Diamond or running through the gaping holes created by my O-linemen on the gridiron at Stanford Stadium, I will forever cherish the camaraderie, friendships and memories that I forged here at Stanford with all my friends, teammates and coaches.”

Ali Riley and Kelley O'Hara

Paul Ratcliffe

Speaking of the draft, soccer stars ALI RILEY and KELLEY O’HARA were each selected in the first round of the Women’s Professional Soccer draft by the same team, the Bay Area’s FC Gold Pride.
When O’Hara, who attended the draft in Philadelphia, reached Riley at Stanford, “We were both yelling and screaming and excited that we would get to play together,” O’Hara said. “We’ll get to carry on the Stanford tradition.”

Meanwhile, their coach, PAUL RATCLIFFE, became the first in 14 years to claim back-to-back Division I women’s National Coach of the Year honors, earning the National Soccer Coaches Association of America award Friday at the organization’s annual convention.

Michelle Wie, with a flower in her hair, and the Solheim Cup team in the Oval Office.

“the white house was AMAZING yesterday. meeting pres obama was one of the coolest things EVER!!” tweeted MICHELLE WIE, who met the president during a visit with the Solheim Cup women’s golf team earlier this week. “He’s a total local boy!” The president and the Stanford junior bonded over their home state of Hawaii and their shared high school alma mater, the Punahou School. The Solheim Cup is a biennial golf tournament for professional women golfers contested by teams representing Europe and the United States. The USA Team won the cup in 2009.

Following the success of last summer’s National Senior Games, the 2010 Bay Area Senior Games have been scheduled for April 10-14 at Stanford and other venues. The Games will feature 11 competitions in swimming, track and field, cycling, racquetball, fencing, golf, soccer, 3 v 3 basketball, race walking, softball, water polo, and lawn bowling. Water polo, soccer, fencing and lawn bowling were demonstration sports at the 2009 National Senior Games and have been added to the program. In addition, a Bay Area Senior Games Golf Tournament will be played at Stanford Golf Course on April 13.