The Study
In the alcoholism treatment field, the health and socioeconomic disparities between black and white patients at intake suggests that blacks will fare more poorly than whites. However, in a randomized control trial designed by Project MATCH — a multisite clinical trial of alcohol treatment — blacks and whites achieved equivalent drinking outcomes. Using the Project MATCH Public Use Data Set, Amy R. Krentzman explored religiousness and spirituality as strengths in the African American community that may account in part for the favorable drinking outcomes. Krentzman’s study hypothesizes that as spirituality and religiousness increase, blacks will be more likely to achieve favorable drinking outcomes than whites. Krentzman,_Farkas,_Townsend_2010.pdf

Because the data set provided a measure of spirituality through its “Purpose in Life” scale, as well as a measure of religiousness through a “Religious Background and Behavior Questionnaire,” she was able to analyze the data from baseline, both prior and 12-months post-intervention, to assess whether participants achieved six months continuous sobriety. The results showed that race moderates the relationship between purpose in life and drinking outcomes — as purpose in life increases, blacks are more likely to achieve sobriety than whites. However, the interaction of race and religiousness was not significant in terms of sobriety.

This study is one of the first quantitative attempts to provide evidence that purpose in life is a cultural strength that provides an advantage among blacks in achieving sobriety — this presents a number of implications for practice, including targeting purpose in life as a treatment goal with measurable objectives; asking more questions about purpose in life and religiousness at intake; and encouraging positive spiritual or religious pursuits among clients.

Amy R. Krentzman, Ph.D., is a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Michigan Addiction Research Center in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Her study is published in the the current issue of Alcoholism Treatment Quarterly (2010, volume 28).

Q. Mireille, you have now completed your first year in your position as publisher of two of the leading trade papers in the country. Have you found challenges with CHE and COP different from those of the mainstream media outlets you’ve worked with in regards to the battle for ad revenue – print and online?

A. In some respects, the challenges are very similar. We are seeing the migration to the web and digital channels just as the mainstream media (MSM) are. The nonprofit sector has moved to digital more rapidly than has higher education, but the direction is clear.  CHE and CoP have legacy business models that we’ll have to adapt to the new and emerging preferences.  Unlike MSM, we serve important communities with content that is not commoditized.  So our clients understand the value of people who engage with our content, both in print and online.

Q. There are very few people of color who occupy the position of publisher at high visibility publications.  What are your thoughts on that?

A. I’m more optimistic for the generation of media executives younger than I. They are such a richly diverse, media and tech savvy cohort and they are well positioned for corporate leadership roles such as publisher.  And many seem inclined to start their own enterprises.  Change is inevitable.

Q. Do you have a mandate for CHE and CoP and if so, can you share them with our audience?

A. Both news brands are incredibly influential and revered within the communities of higher education and the nonprofit world, and that is something we cherish. The quality of our journalism has meant that our company identity has been defined solely by our news.  My goal is to make our entire company—in particular, the marketing and sales—the equal and worthy peer of the high standard set by our news divisions.  So whether you are engaged with us through our news gathering work, or at an event, or as an advertising client—your experience will be seamlessly excellent. 

Here are some nuggets from the event that people told us they found valuable.

From Farra:  “Google yourself.  See what is being said about you and take an active part in shaping your own image.”

“Claim your name.  Go to namechk.com to register your name and manage your identity.”

From Bonnie:  “Don’t tweet what you’re doing, tweet what you’re thinking.  Twitter is a great way to showcase your intellectual capital.”

“The term ‘media’ derives from the verb ‘to mediate.’ Unlike traditional media where journalists mediate your content, you must be your own mediator on the Internet.”

The bottom line:  Frame or be framed.  You must manage your own brand on the Internet or someone else will do it for you.

Download the PowerPoint presentations from Farra and Bonnie here:  Personal Branding PowerPoints

--Handprint photo by Tina Vega

Great leaders of organizations have qualities that I respect.  They are calm.  Listeners.  They speak clearly about what they want.  Don’t jump to conclusions.  They listen more than they speak.  They don’t presume to know all of the answers.  They make decisions.  They ask for input.  They trust and are trustworthy.  They project an image of control and are pulled together.  I don’t need to see them often but I like to know that they are there.  They make me feel confident, motivated, inspired.

Leaders respect management and stay out of it most of the time.  But they do take time to understand it when necessary.

--Tiffany Dugan is a higher education professional who recently received her MS in Organizational Change Management at Milano, The New School for Management and Policy.

Photo courtesy of http://www.lumaxart.com

Theresa Lang Community and Student Center (55 West 13th Street)
No registration necessary

The New School invites you to No Longer in Exile: The Legacy and Future of Gender Studies at the New School, Friday, March 26, from 6:00-9:00 p.m. and all day Saturday, March 27 at the Theresa Lang Center, 55 West 13th Street.  This exciting event is a celebration of the return of Gender Studies to The New School and an exploration of what the community wishes from this new undertaking. 

Leading scholars in the field, along with the New School faculty and students, explore the rich institutional and intellectual history of the interdisciplinary field of Gender Studies and speculate about the directions this study might take us in the future.

Panelists include:

* Nancy Fraser, Professor of Political Science and Social Science at The New School for Social Research
* Mary Hawkesworth, Editor of SIGNS and Chair of Women’s Studies at Rutgers University
* Susan Faludi, Author of Backlash and The Terror Dream
* Bonnie Thornton Dill, Professor and Chair of the Women’s Studies Department and Program and Director of the Consortium on Race, Gender, and Ethnicity at the University of Maryland
* Valerie Smith, Woodrow Wilson Professor of Literature and Director of the Center for African American Studies at Princeton University
* Judith Halberstam, Professor of English, American Studies and Ethnicity and Gender Studies at University of Southern California
* Ann Cvetkovich, Author of Mixed Feelings/Professor and Co-chair of the LGBTQ/Sexualities Research Cluster at the University of Texas

Inspiring Women, an exhibit, will be on display during the conference in the suite adjacent to the Theresa Lang Center. The exhibit will then move to Adam & Sophie Gimbel Design Library (2 West 13th Street, 2nd floor) from March 29-May 31, 2010.

Conference participants include:

Elaine Abelson , Neil Gordon, Marianna Assis, Judith Halberstam, Carolyn Berman, Mary Hawkesworth, Cheryl Buckley, Joseph Heathcott, Ximena Bustamante, Randi Irwin, Julie Chaparro, Ferentz LaFargue, Hazel Clark, Maria Pia Lara, Ann Cvetkovich, Michelle Leve, Katie Detwiler, LM Ling, Bonnie Thornton Dill, Laura Liu , Jon Dimond, Bonnie McEwan, Kate Eichhorn, Layli Phillips, Elizabeth Ellsworth, Lisa Rubin, Suzanne Esposito, Ann Louise Shapiro, Valerie Smith, Susan Faludi , Ann Snitow, Silvia Fernandez, Ann Stoler, Nikol Alexander Floyd, Zhou Suiming, Nancy Fraser, Alexandra Wagner, Dina Georgis, Howell Williams, Chelsea Estep-Armstrong

Dear Friends:

You know how sometimes in life you go through a bad moment, and when your friends hear about it later, they say, “Why didn’t you say something? Why didn’t you ask? We would have helped.” That’s where Idealist is now, and I am writing to ask for your help.

Very briefly, here’s what happened. Over the past ten years, most of our funding has come from the small fees we charge organizations for posting their jobs on Idealist. By September 2008, after years of steady growth, these little drops were covering 70% of our budget.

Then, in October of that year, the financial crisis exploded, many organizations understandably froze their hiring, and from one week to the next our earned income was cut almost in half, leaving us with a hole of more than $100,000 each month.

That was 16 months ago, and since then we’ve survived on faith and fumes, by cutting expenses, and by getting a few large gifts from new and old friends. But now we are about to hit a wall, and this is why I am reaching out to you.

If over the past 15 years Idealist has helped you or a friend find a job, an internship or a volunteer opportunity; connect with a person, an idea or a resource; or just feel inspired for a moment, now we need your help. I wouldn’t be asking, and not like this, if this were not a critical time.

There are two ways you can help. First, if you can, please make a donation at:

http://www.idealist.org/donate

Some people in this community are not in a position to contribute right now, so if you are, please give as generously as you can. Thank you!

Second, please spread the word about this appeal by sharing this message with friends and colleagues who may have benefited from Idealist over the years. Since 1995 Idealist has touched hundreds of thousands of lives. If in the next week or two we can reach everyone who’d give us a hand if they knew we are in trouble, I believe we’ll come out of this crisis even stronger than before.

I believe this because while this has been a tough stretch, I’ve never been more optimistic about the future. The content on Idealist has never been richer, our traffic is surging, we are building a whole new Idealist.org that will be released later this year, and the potential for connecting people, ideas, and resources around the world has never
been more urgent or more exciting.

Your contribution will allow us to maintain all our services, and it will also give us some time to diversify our funding. Being able to breathe, recover, and plan ahead for a few months will be an incredible blessing.

Thanks so much for your support. Idealist has always been a
community-driven site, and we can’t do this work without you.

Thank you!

Ami Dar
Executive Director
Idealist.org

Here’s an excerpt from the Chronicle piece:

“Philanthropy as we know it now is based on a strange assumption: Let’s develop a hugely costly and divisive system for creating wealth and then hope that those who benefit most will give some back to solve problems that they have helped to cause.  That’s probably the least efficient way possible to tackle social problems--and the reason why it’s time to replace noblesse oblige with citizen-centered philanthropy that helps to revive activism across our society.” Read the full article here.

--Bonnie McEwan

We wonder: What does it say about our society when the top three news stories of 2009 are Obama’s inauguration, Michael Jackson’s death and Tiger Woods’s infidelity? 

In full disclosure, Make Waves’ media strategist Joan Grangenois-Thomas is related to the writer by marriage

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=121433788

For instance, when you buy moisturizer, check the label to ensure that it is made with plant-based ingredients rather than petroleum products.  Turn down your thermostat just one degree and save 320 pounds of greenhouse gases from going into the atmosphere.  Better yet, throw on an extra blanket while you sleep and turn the heat down another degree or two.  And you can increase your positive impact even more by making sure that blanket is made from breathable, natural fibers like cotton or wool, rather than polyester.

Remember that plastics are made from petroleum products, so cut down on them whenever possible.  One good way to do that is to avoid bottled water and drink good, old tap water instead.  In fact, up to 40% of bottled water started out as tap water anyway!  And while you’re saving the planet you’ll be saving money too. 

National Geographic has an excellent website called The Green Guide for Everyday Living.  Check it out for more tips on how to make 2010 a greener year.

MAKE WAVES’ media strategist Joan Grangenois-Thomas recently sat down with Wendy L. Wilson, news editor for Essence.com.  Wendy wanted to know about women who had lost their health insurance due to the loss of their husband’s job and what effects it was having.  As we come down to the wire in the debate over public options and other aspects of the healthcare reform bill in Congress, this interview demonstrates where the rubber meets the road. 

As the health care reform debate continues to heat up down partisan lines in Congress, more women are starting to see exactly how much we have at stake in this issue. According to a recent Joint Economic Committee report, “Comprehensive Health Care Reform: An Essential Prescription for Women,” an estimated 64 million women currently do not have health insurance in this country, a factor that is setting many of us up to fail as women have more pervasive and chronic health needs than men and tend to suffer higher economic fallout from bankruptcies brought on by medical bills.

Read the rest of Joan’s interview at Essence.com.