Celebration of Life: Rachel Naomi Remen
Join us in celebrating the life of one of Commonweal’s most beloved voices: Rachel Naomi Remen, MD. Rachel was a pioneer and influential leader in the field of healing and integrative medicine. She was co-founder and medical director of the Commonweal Cancer Help Program, which she helped build alongside Commonweal co-founder Michael Lerner, and which was featured in Bill Moyers’ landmark PBS series Healing and the Mind.
She was also founder and director of the Remen Institute for the Study of Health and Illness, and creator of The Healer’s Art, a curriculum that has reached tens of thousands of medical students at schools around the world and reshaped how generations of physicians understand their calling.
A Clinical Professor of Family and Community Medicine at UCSF, she wrote two national bestsellers, Kitchen Table Wisdom and My Grandfather’s Blessings, published in more than 20 languages, in which she shared the stories of healing, loss, and meaning that she gathered over a lifetime of practice. More recently, she wrote a children’s book, The Birthday of the World, a retelling of a kabbalistic story about the divine light hidden in everyone.
Rachel’s influence extended across medicine, spirituality, and public life. She was among the earliest to recognize the role of spirit and mystery in health and recovery, and her work helped legitimize the integration of the human spirit into contemporary medical care and education. She received numerous honorary degrees and was invited to teach at medical schools and hospitals throughout the country.
To leave a message of love or blessing or memory about Rachel, please go to her Legacy page. To leave a donation at Commonweal in her memory, please go to our In Memoriam page. To explore Rachel’s worldview through her interviews and conversations at Commonweal New School, visit the self-paced course we have set up in her memory.
Art credit: cover from Rachel’s children’s book, Birthday of the World
Saturday, October 3
2 pm – 4 pm PDT
In Gallery Commonweal and on Zoom
Saturday, October 3
2 pm – 4 pm PDT
In Gallery Commonweal and on Zoom
Rachel Naomi Remen, MD
Rachel was a Professor of Family Medicine at Wright State Boonshoft School of Medicine and the Founder and Founding Director of the Remen Institute for the Study of Health and Illness (RISHI), which was at Commonweal for decades and is currently at Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine. She was one of the best known of the early pioneers of holistic and integrative medicine. As a medical educator, therapist, and teacher, she enabled many thousands of physicians to find individual meaning and purpose in the practice of medicine and thousands of patients to remember their power to heal. More than 30,000 medical students have completed The Healer’s Art, her groundbreaking curriculum for medical students taught at the majority of medical schools in America. A master storyteller and observer of life, her bestselling books Kitchen Table Wisdom and My Grandfather’s Blessings have sold more than 2 million copies and have been translated into 21 languages. Rachel had Crohn’s disease for more than 65 years and her work is a unique blend of the wisdom, strength, and viewpoints of both doctor and patient. She died August 8, 2026.
Recommended Episodes
Art for Our Common Good: Creativity, Health, and Civic Life | Part 2
Art for Our Common Good: Creativity, Health, and Civic Life | Part 1
The Superhumanities
