Founded in 1995, the Earl E. Bakken Center for Spirituality & Healing is celebrating 30 years of advancing the health and wellbeing of people, organizations, communities and the planet. When the Center began, we were one of a handful of integrative health and medicine programs within academic institutions across the country. Thirty years later, we are thriving with successful research, academic, and community outreach programming that has local, national, and international reach.
I am deeply grateful to the Bakken Center staff and faculty for their deep commitment to our work and celebrate their outstanding accomplishments.
Despite the challenging environment we are in, the Integrative Health and Wellbeing Research team continues their NIH-funded grants to engage underrepresented communities in developing healthy alternatives to medications for pain management. Their decades long program of research reaches critical populations including veterans. They also continue to be very successful in training the next generation of researchers.
Our academic programs continue to flourish. I want to particularly highlight our health coaching program that continues to grow in enrollment. Our faculty in this program are very active nationally promoting policy changes in insurance that will make health coaching more accessible through reimbursement. A new initiative, funded by the Weil Foundation, is a collaboration with the Department of Psychiatry that will train psychiatric residents to work with health coaches to enhance whole person care of patients with ADHD.
Our outreach programs reach tens of thousands of people and for many, are the face of the Center. We have established a very successful partnership with the University of Minnesota Wellbeing Program where University of Minnesota faculty and staff can earn wellbeing points and lower the cost of their insurance by attending Center programs. Partnering with community organizations such as the Minneapolis Institute of Arts expands our reach and impact. New this year is a collaboration with MIA and the Tibetan American Foundation of Minnesota that has brought new programming to the MIA focusing on Tibetan Healing in conjunction with the newly established Tibetan Shrine Room at MIA.
While these are challenging times, the Bakken Center has always had a flexible, lean infrastructure and a diverse revenue portfolio. In addition to that, we are currently engaged in University-wide strategic planning that will shape our focus and growth over the next few years. We will continue to remain focused and strategic while at the same time being flexible and responsive to emerging opportunities and unexpected realities. My advice to the team is to remain focused and strategic while at the same time being responsive to emerging opportunities and unexpected realities.
Towards the end of this report, you will find a list of individuals and organizations who have made philanthropic contributions to the Center this year. I am beyond grateful to them for their financial contributions as well to the faculty and staff who invest so deeply with their time, talent, and hearts.
With Gratitude,
Mary Jo Kreitzer, PhD, RN, FAAN, FNAP
Mary Jo Kreitzer Chair for Health and Wellbeing Leadership
Director, Earl E. Bakken Center for Spirituality & HealingProfessor, School of Nursing
University of MinnesotaFellow Ad Eundem Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland