Past Recipients of the Pioneers Award

2009 - Michael Harner, PhD, is an anthropologist who is considered to be one of the world’s foremost authorities on indigenous healing traditions. He has dedicated the last 40 years to preserving and teaching the knowledge and principles of ancient healing practices for application in the contemporary world.

2008 - Deepak Chopra, MD is one of the world’s greatest leaders in the field of mind-body medicine. Over twenty years ago, Dr. Chopra realized there was potential in western medicine to include the fundamental principle that perfect health is more than just the absence of disease. Through his creation of The Chopra Center for Wellbeing in California in 1996, Dr. Chopra established a formal vehicle for the expansion of his healing approach. Dr. Chopra is known as a prolific author of over 49 books with 12 best sellers on mind-body health, quantum mechanics, spirituality, and peace.

2007 - Anna Halprin, PhD a visionary in the field of dance, movement, and healing. For over fifty years Anna has taught movement to people of all ages, helping them build awareness of their bodies, while continuously exploring the mind/body/spirit connection. In 1978, Anna co-founded the Tamalpa Institute in Marin County which offers training in the Halprin Process, her signature healing arts and movement practice. Even in her mid-eighties, Anna continues to teach, choreograph and perform.

2006 - Dr. Andrew Weil, MD is an internationally recognized expert on medicinal herbs, mind-body interactions, and integrative medicine. Dr. Weil is a clinical professor of internal medicine, and the founder and director of the Program in Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona's Health Sciences Center, Tucson. He is also the author of eight books including the national bestsellers Spontaneous Healing and Eight Weeks to Optimum Health. His newest book is Healthy Aging.

2005 - Dr. Govindappa Venkataswamy, known as "Dr. V," is the Founder and Director of Aravind Eye Care System in India and a founding member of the Seva Foundation. Aravind Eye Care System and its 5 hospitals perform more than 250,000 eye operations each year and care for more than a million patients annually. Three-quarters of their patients are non-paying cases. The Aravind system is a model for compassionate service that has influenced physicians, hospitals, service organizations and governments throughout the world. Dr. V has received numerous awards from the President of India to the American Academy of Ophthalmology to the United Nations World Health Organization.

2004 - Dean Ornish, MD is the founder, president and director of the Preventive Medicine Research Institute. Dr. Ornish is a professor and best-selling author renowned for his work in the field of heart disease reversal and prevention. For the past 25 years, Dr. Ornish has directed clinical research demonstrating for the first time that comprehensive lifestyle changes may begin to reverse even severe coronary heart disease without drugs or surgery.

2003 - Mehmet Oz, MD is Vice Chairman for Cardiovascular Services of the Department of Surgery and Director of the Cardiovascular Institute at New York Presbyterian Hospital, Professor of Cardiac Surgery at Columbia University, and Medical Director and co-founder of the Columbia Integrative Medicine Program. Dr. Oz sees himself as a bridge between the healing ways of the West and the East. He is author of more than 350 original publications, including his book Healing from the Heart.

2002 – Jean Shinoda Bolen, MD is a Jungian analyst and clinical professor of psychiatry. She works extensively with women and cancer, using mythology and archetypes as vessels of helping people to understand their disease and working closely with the spiritual dimensions of healing. She is author of several books on healing, including Close to the Bone: Life-Threatening Illness and the Search for Meaning.

2001 - John O’Donohue, PhD was a Catholic scholar who lectured and conducted workshops in the U.S. and Europe. He was the author of the award-winning Anam Cara, a bestseller in Ireland, a series of monographs and a collection of poetry. His philosophical work embraced the search for intimacy, consciousness and the contradictory human experience of both Individual Person and Person in Relationship to Other.

2000 - Larry Dossey, MD is the author of Healing Words; Reinventing Medicine and Prayer Is Good Medicine. An authority on spiritual healing, he lectures throughout the country and is responsible for introducing innovations in spiritual care to acclaimed institutions across the country.

1999 - Angeles Arrien, PhD is an anthropologist, author, educator, and corporate consultant. She lectures internationally and conducts workshops that bridge cultural anthropology, education, communication, leadership skills, and health care. She is the founder and president of the Angeles Arrien Foundation for Cross-Cultural Education and Research.

1998 - Jon Kabat-Zinn, PhD is Executive Director of the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society and Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center. He is the author of Full Catastrophe Living and Wherever You Go, There You Are. His work was featured in the PBS Special Healing and the Mind with Bill Moyers.

1997 - Rachel Naomi Remen, MD is a pioneer in training physicians in relationship-centered care and has been in the private practice of psycho-oncology for the past twenty years. She is co-founder and medical director of the Commonweal Cancer Help Program in Bolinas, California, which was featured on Bill Moyer’s PBS special Healing and the Mind. A former faculty member at the Stanford School of Medicine, she is currently assistant medical professor of family and community medicine at the University of California, San Francisco.

1996 – David Whyte is one of the few poets to have taken his perspectives on creativity into the field of organizational development, where he works with many U.S. and international companies. He is author of The Heart Aroused: Poetry and the Preservation of the Soul in Corporate America and has published several audio collections and books on poetry.

1995 – Edgar Wayburn, MD practiced internal medicine for half a century and held numerous leadership positions in healthcare, including professorships at UCSF and Stanford. He is perhaps even better known for his work in conservation, including spearheading the creation of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. Dr. Wayburn, a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1999, was honored by the Institute for his clear understanding of the impact of environmental and social issues on community health.