Smith Center for Healing and the Arts relies upon the work of a network of faculty, staff, and volunteers from a wide variety of disciplines. We welcome inquiries, applications, involvement and/or support from anyone engaged or interested in this work.
Board of Directors
Susan Braun – President, Board of Directors
Susan Braun has more than 20 years of health care and oncology experience. She currently serves as the Executive Director of Commonweal. Prior to this, she was Executive Director of the ASCO Cancer Foundation and also served as President and CEO of CURE Media Group, which publishes the award-winning direct-to-patient cancer publication, CURE magazine. In addition, she served as President and CEO of the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation (now Komen for the Cure). Prior to joining the Komen Foundation, Ms. Braun worked in the Oncology/Immunology Division at Bristol Myers-Squibb, where she was involved in patient advocacy, strategic planning, public policy, and health care economics and finance.
Michael Lerner - Chair, Emeritus
Michael Lerner, PhD is President-Emeritus, Senior Advisor, and co-founder of Smith Center for Healing and the Arts and of Commonweal, a health and environmental research institute in Bolinas, California. He is also co-founder of a dozen major initiatives including the Cancer Help Program, Health Care Without Harm, the Collaborative on Health and the Environment and The New School at Commonweal. He is the recipient of a MacArthur Prize Fellowship and the author of "Choices in Healing: Integrating the Best of Conventional and Complementary Cancer Therapies." He has co-led 170 week-long Cancer Help Programs at Commonweal and Smith over the past 25 years.
Jeremy Waletzky - Vice Chair, Board of Directors
Jeremy Waletzky, MD is Distinguished Life Fellow, American Psychiatric Association, Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, The George Washington University, Trustee, Vice-Chairman, Smith Center for Healing and the Arts, Trustee, Public Conversations Project, Member, Rockefeller Family Fund Investment Committee, and Member, Fetzer Institute Investment Committee.
Steven Bookoff - Treasurer, Board of Directors
Steven Bookoff is CFO and Board Member, ORGANIC INDIA.
Myrtis Bedolla - Member, Board of Directors
Myrtis Bedolla is Gallery Director and President, Galerie Myrtis, LLC Contemporary Fine Art Gallery, Baltimore, MD; Owner, Creative Artisans Art Consultancy; Consultant, Metropolitan Consulting Corporation; and Consultant, Africare
Robert Hisaoka - Member, Board of Directors
Robert Hisaoka is President of RRR, LLC and is the Founder and Event Chairman of the Joan Hisaoka "Make A Difference" Gala Assisting Those Living with Cancer. Bob is an investor in Venture Philanthropy Partners, a philanthropic investment organization that helps community-based nonprofit organizations maximize their impact. Other local and national charities Bob supports include CharityWorks, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, Muscular Dystrophy Association, Michael Weiss Foundation, Chuck Norris's KICKSTART, KEEN, San Jose State University, Salvation Army and Greater Washington Sports Alliance.
Web Coleman - Member, Emeritus
Web Coleman has been a staff member at CHP's Hallowood weeklong cancer retreats for 15 years now. He leads orientation and trail walks, plus Sugarloaf Mountain trips and climbs. He aided his wife Barbara Smith [Coleman] in researching and founding Smith Center. Web's early experiences included camping, scouting, outdoor activities and sports. Careers included teaching, advertising, nationwide corporate consulting: employee communications, technical writing, supervisory training, management development. Web is a lifetime sailor. In retirement, he took up horses and 100 mile competitive trail riding. He knew Barbara for many years, and when both were widowed, married in 1994 at the original Smith Farm on Maryland's Eastern Shore.
Staff
Shanti Norris – Co-Founder and Executive Director/CEO
Ms. Norris serves as Executive Director of Smith Center for Healing and the Arts. She initiated the Smith Center hospital Artist-in-Residence program and Healing Arts Gallery. She runs the weeklong retreats for people with cancer, and oversees new initiatives, including the Faith-based Community Navigation project at Smith Center. Former Vice President of Kent Homeopathic Associates, she has an extensive background in complementary medicine and mind-body approaches to healing. She has taught meditation, yoga philosophy and stress reduction for over 35 years and underwent a formal ten-year mentorship with a renowned yoga master. She is a three-term member of CARRA, the patient advocacy program at the National Cancer Institute and a graduate of Project LEAD from the National Breast Cancer Coalition. She is a graduate of the Georgetown University Non-profit Leadership certificate course and the James P. Shannon Leadership Institute in Minneapolis/St Paul. She is a former board member of the Society for the Arts in Healthcare and Chaired their Annual Conference in 2004. She is a founding board member of The Art Connection in the Capital Region and a founding member of Arts in Healthcare Advocates (AHA.) She is a frequent speaker on the healing power of the arts. Her formal art training began at New York University and The Cooper Union in New York City and includes running the fine art studio of artist Peter Max. She is a member of ArtTable, the mother of three adult children, and is a painter and sculptor.
Michelle Clermont – Deputy Director
Ms. Clermont manages the finances, operations, administration, and human resources of Smith Center. She has worked in the integrative health and nonprofit industry for over eighteen years. She has broad experience in all aspects of operations including: strategic planning, team building, contract negotiations, event management, and budget development. Prior to Smith Center, she helped to integrate and manage two DC metro area healthcare clinics and managed an international nonprofit, that worked to integrate healthcare by empowering and educating healthcare providers in mind-body medicine, integrative cancer care, and nutrition. Michelle has studied dance for over thirty-seven years and pilates for over fifteen years. She also has extensive experience with yogic philosophy, energy medicine, and nutrition and is passionate about creating great-tasting, healthy, allergen free, vegan foods.
Brooke Seidelmann - Gallery Director
Brooke serves as the Director for The Joan Hisaoka Healing Arts Gallery, coordinating exhibitions, interfacing with curators, engaging collectors, and is constantly in search of stimulating and inspirational work to share with the Smith Center community. Prior to working in the arts, Brooke served as a researcher at the University of Maryland’s Center for Integrative Medicine, editing papers on acupuncture and homeopathy. Later, she received her Masters Degree in Art History and the Market at Christies’ Auction House, and has worked in galleries in New York City and Charleston, SC.
Carole O'Toole – Director, Integrative Navigation
Carole developed the Patient Navigation Program for Smith Center in 2006, introducing integrative navigation to Howard University Cancer Center, and developing faith-based community navigation services for African-Americans and African immigrants that operate from four churches in underserved areas and the community at large. She has also designed a training model for integrative cancer care navigation that is offered to navigators nationwide through Smith Center. Prior to her work at Smith Center, Carole was a Patient Navigator at Suburban Hospital in Bethesda, MD, and ran a private integrative cancer care navigation practice. She also has over fifteen years’ professional experience in environmental consulting.
In addition to her navigation work at Smith Center, Carole also staffs the weeklong retreats, coaches individuals on integrative cancer care decision-making and complementary resources, and leads Smith Center's “Living Well With Cancer” one-day workshops. Carole frequently represents Smith Center at national and local conferences and other public forums. She is the author of two books on integrative cancer care: “Cancer Community Healing Network”, and “Healing Outside the Margins”, and holds a Masters degree in Medical Anthropology and Health Policy. Carole has been a survivor of advanced cancer since 1994, enjoys biking and rowing on the Potomac with a survivor crew team, and is a wife and mother.
Darien Reece - Program Director & Creativity Workshop & Sandtray Facilitator for Smith Farm Center
Darien is a visionary artist and sculptor working in the outsider artist tradition. She nurtures a deep love of Tex/Mex folk art- retablos, depictions of the Virgin of Guadalupe, and all the little miracles of traditional Latino art. Chosen by the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities to paint 2 circular window panels for the Eastern Market Windows Project, her work has also been shown in galleries in Washington, DC, VA, MD, France, Germany and Croatia. In her previous life she was an antiques dealer in CT and a restoration consultant specializing in 18th century domestic CT and NY Dutch architecture. An allied associate member of the American Appraisers Association, she retains her passion for antiques by liquidating estates and by accepting private commissions.
Meredith Anderson – Program Director
Meredith joined Smith Center in 2008. She is a Washington, DC native and is deeply grateful to be a part of the work of Smith Center. She is the mother of a preschooler and in her (limited) spare time enjoys reading nonfiction and poetry and making cards.
Toroitich Cherono, Community Navigation Program Manager
Toroitich works closely with the Director of Navigation to help implement our Community Navigation program in the local African-American and African communities. She manages a stellar team of Breast Care Navigators who provide individual navigation and breast cancer education events at churches and in the community at large. Educated in Psychology and Sociology, Toroitich’s work at Smith Center is also informed by 9 years of non-profit experience, including counseling and managing a Human Trafficking program. Her personal experience with integrative therapies and the mind-body-soul connection shapes her approach to navigation. A recent transplant to the DC metro area, Toroitich lives in Takoma Park, enjoys theatre and poetry and is delighted to be contributing to Smith Center’s service to the community.
Jamie Kors, Development Director
Jamie serves as the Development Director for Smith Center for Healing and the Arts. She has been fundraising for over 11 years including, raising corporate dollars at the Human Rights Campaign, managing grants at the Vermont Arts Council, serving as the Managing Director at the Vermont Stage Company and writing grants at Theatre Communications Group in New York City. Prior to that, she was stage managing for various theatre companies in New York City and Northampton, MA. Jamie is a brain tumor survivor and enjoys playing soccer, tennis, bike riding, hiking, and experimental theatre.
Alaina Sadick, Outreach Director
Alaina came to Smith Center for Healing and the Arts with a background in nonprofit and arts marketing, most recently serving as Director of Marketing at Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts. As a yoga teacher and the daughter of a cancer survivor, she has a deep appreciation for the integrative and life-enhancing approach of Smith Center's work. She loves attending concerts and exploring new music, cooking healthy food, and spending as much time as possible outdoors.