BA and MA in Health Arts and Sciences Programs
As an inclusive thinker and observer, I conceived and developed the Health Arts and Sciences: Bridging Nature, Culture, and Healing program in 1995 after observing the integral work of Goddard students interested in matters of health and healing. That early student work nurtured the vision of Health Arts and Sciences so it could become a vibrant learning community wherein learners, including students and faculty, could explore and assist in strengthening the roots of personal and community healing.
Always in appreciation of an integral and progressive perspective, I am grateful for the students and faculty members I work among as we aim to create healthy interpersonal, social and ecological spaces through a deepening commitment to multiple, critical and sacred perspectives. I love our mission: “to actively engage in the shared process of restoring health and wholeness to people and their communities through the creation of resilience and sustainability…”
Whether exploring comparative healing philosophies, from the spiritual to the biomedical, or a particular issue such as global warming, my students are challenged to gain a contextual awareness regarding the conditions that create health in a particular environment. They are also guided to strengthen their own vision, voice, and power to transform personal, social and ecological health in the communities of their concern. I approach each student with a curious appreciation for her or his unique intellectual gifts and creative expression, encouraging both theoretical and practical study so that scholarship is well grounded in reflection and hands-on experience.
My professional hobbies include educational design, for example consulting to launch the EcoVersity program for sustainable living and earth-based learning in Santa Fe, New Mexico. I also facilitated the creation of the “Wisdom of the Elders” travel study program in Southern Mexico. Before Goddard I taught Community and Holistic Health at the Institute for Social Ecology for eight years, consulted for the "Alternative Medicine Task Force" with U.S. Representative Bernard Sanders, and produced audio-visual media on eco-spiritual renewal and alternative health. I also produced a short video program on the People’s Health and Wellness Clinic in Barre, VT. In my earlier years I was a health educator at the Fort Totten Reservation in North Dakota, the Renz Women’s Prison in central Missouri, and I founded the Community Garden project for low income groups and immigrants in Columbia, Missouri. In one of my fondest memories, I helped sow the seeds for the bioregional movement in North America.
The Green Mountain forests have been my home since 1984. I grow organic gardens crowded with medicinal herbs, flowers, foods, and medicinal mushrooms; when available, I work with federal grants to replant indigenous flora throughout my 18-acre woodland home. Between Goddard, gardens, and mothering a ten-year-old, life is full. When time allows, however, my passions includes exploring traditional and contemporary earth-based wisdom traditions and place-based artistry in relationship to the healing arts.
Educational Background: M. S. P. H. (Master of Science in Public Health), School of Medicine, University of Missouri, 1981; B.A., Environmental Studies and Community Health, University of Missouri, 1979.
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Suzanne Richman, MSPH