Good Medicine: Music, Creativity, Culture and the Cultivation of Resilience

Anna O’Malley is an Integrative Family and Community Medicine physician, a lover of Nature, and a mother of two incredible daughters. She founded and directs Natura Institute for Ecology and Medicine, a land-based program of Commonweal which lives in the Commonweal Garden, and is focused on inhabiting a regenerative vision for medicine and healing, in deep reciprocity with the natural world.

As a Bravewell Fellow graduated from the University of Arizona’s Program in Integrative Medicine, Anna is inspired to transform medicine. Her residency training at University of California, San Francisco at San Francisco General Hospital, her work within the California prison system, and her 15 years of primary care practice deepened her understanding of the social determinants of health, the beauty of the path of service, and the critical importance of inclusivity. She is animated by embodying the “healer in a village,” exploring innovative models applying Community as Medicine, and honoring the mysterious and beautiful cycles of Life.

Steve Heilig is an editor, epidemiologist, ethicist, environmentalist, educator, and ethnomusicologist trained at five University of California campuses. He is co-editor of the Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics and of San Francisco Marin Medicine at the medical society he has long been part of. A former volunteer and director of the Zen Hospice Project, AIDS Foundation, and Planned Parenthood, he has helped improve laws and practices in reproductive and end-of-life care, drug policy, and environmental health. He is a longtime book critic and music journalist and emcee of the Sierra Nevada World Music Festival. He’s been part of Commonweal for 30 years now.