Fetzer Program History

We share our gratitude with the many talented and caring people who have worked with us through the years. Below is a sampling of our efforts.

Healing and the Mind with Bill Moyers, a five-part Emmy Award-winning PBS series.
“Unconventional Medicine in the United States—Prevalence, Costs, and Patterns of Use,” a study by David Eisenberg in the New England Journal of Medicine reveals a growing nationwide interest in approaches to health and healing that fell, at the time, outside of mainstream medicine.
Support of Jon Kabat-Zinn’s pioneering research at University of Massachusetts Medical School on what is now called mindfulness-based stress reduction.
“Health Professions Education and Relationship Centered Care,” a report of the Pew-Fetzer Task Force on Advancing Psychosocial Health Education.

The Courage to Teach, a pilot program on the vocation of teaching with educator Parker Palmer, informs the establishment of the Center for Courage and Renewal.
Support of Dan Goleman on early stage of what has become known as emotional intelligence. This work also helps establish the Collaborative for the Advancement of Social and Emotional Learning at Yale Child Study Center.
Work with the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society brings awareness to the use and effects of meditation and contemplative practice in everyday life.
“Brief Multidimensional Measurement of Religiousness/Spirituality for Use in Health Research” is developed with Dr. Lynn G. Underwood. Its Daily Spiritual Experience Scale has since been translated into more than 40 languages and is prized for its relevance across cultures.

Campaign for Love and Forgiveness, a multi-year demonstration project in seven cities nationwide, focuses on creating space for love and forgiveness in everyday life. Partners include PBS affiliates, the American Library Association, and StoryCorps.
Survey of Love and Forgiveness in American Society gathers insights about how people feel about their own lives, their communities, and the world.
Fetzer Forgiveness Research Working Group, chaired by pioneering forgiveness researcher Dr. Ev Worthington adds to the public discourse on the science of forgiveness and engages top researchers and advisors on the potential of forgiveness.
The Shamatha Project, led by Dr. Clifford Saron, is one of the most ambitious and comprehensive longitudinal studies of meditation ever conducted. This work at the Center for Mind and Brain at the University of California, Davis studies how intensive contemplative training benefits mental and physical health.