Storytelling for Thriving Communities: A Spiritual Biography

Jerry serves as team member for the Thriving Communities Initiative, which began in 2011 as a program of the Whidbey Institute. He was director from 2010 through 2015, focusing on common people doing uncommon work for the common good. Transformational films, storytelling and bringing people together have produced a powerful network of people over the United States who are making positive impact. Jerry previously served as executive director of the Foundation for Vascular Cures in San Francisco, California; director of the Fossil Rim Wildlife Center in Glen Rose, Texas; and headmaster of several independent schools. In August 2024, Jerry was in a bike accident that left him paralyzed from the waist down. Slowly recovering, the healing process has been an uneven and profound experience.

Michael is the president and co-founder of Commonweal. His principal work at Commonweal is with the Cancer Help Program, CancerChoices.org, the Omega Resilience Projects, the Collaborative on Health and the Environment, and The New School at Commonweal. He was the recipient of a MacArthur Prize Fellowship for contributions to public health in 1983 and is author of Choices in Healing: Integrating the Best of Conventional and Complementary Therapies (MIT Press).