Health Care
Memo to Board members: It’s Unwise to Try to Intimidate, Insult, or Challenge the Authority of your Regulator
  I have grave ethical concerns about the behavior, governance, and board leadership at the UVM Health Network (UVMHN) and its network of Vermont hospitals (Porter, Central VT, and UVM Medical Center… Read More
Education
Our Young People and the Imperative of Social-Emotional Learning
   Courtesy Penn Live Our public schools have become the focus of our efforts to support youth mental health. Many parents are stressed beyond imagination because of the pandemic, flooding, and… Read More
Policy & Politics
Beauty, Eroticism, Sexuality, and Pornography
Michelangelo’s David courtesy of BBC Media When I was young and in search of the facts of life, there was no discernible pornography. The closest we ever got was a book we… Read More
Health Care
A New Asylum for our Communities
The Weeks School Girls’ Dorm When I was young growing up in Morrisville, there were certain institutions that were invoked largely in an effort to ensure that we behaved. One… Read More
Health Care
Do UVM Medical Center or its Parent UVM Health Network Continue to Deserve their tax-exempt Status?
  During my long life, I’ve chaired 13 statewide nonprofit organizations, including the former Fletcher Allen Hospital, and served as a trustee on nine others. The first was the Vermont… Read More
Uncategorized
Patient - Observer
  I’ve written much about the state of healthcare in the nation and here in Vermont. As a former chair of then-Fletcher Allen Health Care some 20 years ago, a… Read More
Uncategorized
The Moral Determinants of Learning
Photo By Glenn Russell of VTDigger.org Dr. Donald Berwick’s Moral Determinants of Health, presents the fundamental tenets of sound healthcare policy. It looks beyond healthcare infrastructure, such as providers, clinics… Read More
Health Care
Comments to BCBS Annual Board Meeting; Woodstock Inn 062123
Thank you for the opportunity to talk with you today, I will use a portion of my time to raise what I feel are the key issues in healthcare today… Read More
Arts and Humanities
The Arts: Back to Bohème?
Arts and culture are not exempt from the continuing concentration of great, if not excessive, wealth among fewer and fewer people while the number of poor only grows. Orchestra seats… Read More
Elegies
Comments at Jim Morse's Celebration of Life
We’re grateful to be here today to honor the memory of a dear friend and an extraordinary human being. I won’t replay for you Jim’s pioneering resume in Vermont and… Read More
Education
Camping, Daycare, Early Education?
  Image Courtesy of Oregon Public Broadcasting With the second highest per capita homeless rate in the nation, the legislature ended, as of July, current state funding for providing hotel/motel… Read More