June 6, 2020 by Taylor Walsh An Infrastructure of Self-Care? • We’re thrilled to announce the spring formation of two advisory boards to offer perspective, experience and guidance to the project. Education Advisory Board Kate Tumelty Felice EdD The Education Advisory Board is chaired by Kate Tumelty Felice EdD who developed the WholeHealthED Wellness Studies program that was implemented in four middle schools in southern New Jersey in the spring semester of 2019. Board members all share work experiences and commitment in and around elementary and secondary schools: as school-based coordinators for garden or wellness programs, as specialists who bring these programs to schools, as innovative district leaders, and as policy and research specialists and adherents of Social and Emotional Learning, SEL and the Whole Child (WSCC) movement. Health Advisory Board. Please see members of the Education Advisory Board here. Health Advisory Board Larry Rosen MD The Health Advisory Board, chaired by Larry Rosen MD, includes pediatricians from across the country. Many are members of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Section on Integrative Medicine, SOIM. They serve families from private and public pediatric clinics, work with Childrens’ hospitals, serve as research specialists affiliated with academic schools of medicine, and as contributors to initiatives created to mitigate the tides of Adverse Childhood Experiences and trauma. Members are committed to the principles of whole child health and appreciate the role that whole health learning can play in supporting children’s health and wellbeing, in mind, body and spirit. See members of the Health Advisory Board here. The creation of the Education and Health boards is part of our mission to bring together innovative stakeholders who are and have been deeply engaged in improving kids’ knowledge about the factors that influence health through academic and experiential learning, strengthening children’s health during their years in school, and forming a solid foundation for their adult lives. It is not usual of course to think of a connection between a school garden and a pediatrician’s office (but check out one pediatrician’s garden-informed practice below). But the adherents of both school-based wellness learning and integrative pediatric medicine (when not treating sickness and injury) are working toward a very similar outcome: Imparting to children an awareness of the importance of sustaining their own best health, while providing the knowledge, experience, tools and methods that let them know they can do it themselves. Formation of the Education and Health advisory boards will help shed greater light on the overlapping paths the members and their institutions are taking in support of such an outcome.