In my last class of Women and Power that I teach at Columbia University’s Graduate School of International and Public Affairs, the topic was Leadership in the 21rst Century and the legacy of this generation of women for the women’s movement and the world. My guests were 3 courageous leaders from the Amazon rain forest.

Here is a link to my blog on the Huffington Post on what we learned.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/carolyn-buck-luce/for-what-purpose_b_4191979.html

Carolyn Buck Luce, a cofounder and managing partner at Imaginal Labs, writes on Huffington Post: “I have found that women have to get to the center of what it means for them to have a life of meaning and purpose and to envision the leader they want to be — at home, at work and in the world.”

See the entire interview with Nancy Redd and read Carolyn’s essay on Huffington Post.

How did I spend my summer vacation? Journeying deep into heart and lungs of the world - - the untouched, pristine Amazon rain forest in central/south Ecuador, the home of the Achuar Nation. The Achuar are a “dreaming” culture who put great emphasis on their dreams. Up until about 25 years ago, they were “uncontacted” and for centuries had been recognized for their fierce warrior culture.

However, having witnessed the disastrous effects of oil exploration in the northern part of the country and its impacts on their indigenous neighbors, the Achuar leaders came to realize that they needed to “awaken the dreamers” of the North and change the dream so that the Rain Forest, and the world could be saved for generations to come.

Carolyn Buck Luce, the 2012 Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association Woman of the Year, will be speaking at the Annual Meeting of the SFO chapter of the HBA on October 24th, 2013 at the HQ of Onyx Pharmaceuticals. She will be sharing her vision for the future of the HC industry and the new competencies that leaders will need to drive the transformation that is upon us.

I had the privilege of participating in a panel at Arianna Huffington’s apartment last week for a gathering to explore ”The Third Metric: Redefining Success Beyond Money & Power.” Arianna asked all of the speakers to post a blog on the HuffPostWomen’s site. Here is an excerpt from that blog:

"…I have been thinking about this topic for a while as I reflect on the imperative to get more women into impactful roles of meaning and purpose so that we can make the institutions of today - - healthcare, education, politics, religion, capitalism - - better meet the needs of society. We all know that these institutions are broken and require transformational change. This type of change calls for courage. Courage, comes from the word “heart” and means to move forward with your heart in your mouth during times of fear, uncertainty and doubt

May 1. May Day. For centuries and millennia, May Day has been celebrated around the world for many reasons - as the rites of spring, the celebration of summer, and to honor the international labor movement. On this bright, refulgent May Day in New York City, over 500 of us gathered together to celebrate the lives of commitment of three extraordinary courageous leaders who have been supported by the work of Auburn Theological Seminary - - Congresswoman and veteran Tammy Duckworth, Spiritual leader and activist Sister Simone Campbell, and Philanthropist and social entrepreneur Lauren Bush Lauren.

Auburn’s mission is to equip bold and resilient leaders with the tools they need to bridge religious and political divides, build community, pursue justice and heal the world. They achieve this through their efforts to educate and support leaders through research, media training and movement building that uphold and connect the core values of the multi-faith movement for justice.

Is there a Doctor in my Phone?…

Remember when you had to make an appointment with the computer scientist at the University to bring your punch cards to the Mainframe computer there in order to get computing done? Now you don’t have to leave your bed to upload, download, troubleshoot and even have your genome decoded. But we still have to beg for an appointment with the doctor, drag ourselves out of bed when we are sick, be shuttled around to get various tests over the ensuing weeks and not be able to get your own test results because they get sent to your doctor which requires another appointment…

Welcome to the reality and the promise of telehealthcare where the Doctor’s Office is the Mainframe of the Decade

In the last 3 weeks I retired from EY ( given our mandatory retirement age for partners of 60), got married To the incomparable Rob Evans and started a month long honeymoon in Africa.

The first leg of the trip was to climb Mt Kilimanjaro, at 19000 ft the tallest in Africa, the top of the world and, an experience beyond belief. One that gives new meaning to a “once in a lifetime” experience.

And what an experience. Majestic awesome massive unforgettable and beyond extreme challenging. In Swahili “pole, pole” means slowly slowly. We had a climbing crew of 25 to support Rob and me. And they were climbing with 20 kilos of gear and food and water on their heads. And we climbed 7-13 hours a day up up up up waterfalls down waterfalls across waterfalls up rock walls through lava tubes up gravel dunes ascending through rain forests, savannah’s and arctic moonscapes through sun rain clouds hail snow. Pole pole. In fact you don’t climb up Kilimanjaro, you crawl up it. Particularly the last 9 hour push to the summit. In fact. In the last 3 hours the only pace that worked for me was lunging in order to maximize the strength of my large leg muscles. One lunge and a deep breath. Then stop for two breaths and rest. Then another lunge…