The last of four community dialogues focusing on Terry Tempest Williams's book Refuge will be held Monday, October 30, in Mary Woolley Hall's New York Room at 4 pm. Focusing on health issues in relation to Refuge, the discussion will be led by Eleanor Graham Claus '55, chair of MHC's board of trustees; Judith Kurland '67, MHC trustee fellow; and Katherine Pfister, clinical social worker at the Pattie J. Groves Health Center.

Eleanor Graham Claus, who became chair of the board of trustees last year and is also cochair for The Campaign for Mount Holyoke College—Advancing Our Legacy of Leadership, was a member of the board from 1987 to 1992 and rejoined in 1994. She has received MHC's Sesquicentennial Alumnae Award and the Alumnae Medal of Honor. A former nurse, Claus has enjoyed an active and distinguished career in health-care management and teaching. She retired two years ago from her position as the president for the Midwest region of Catholic Health Initiatives, one of the nation's largest not-for-profit health-care systems.

Judith Kurland, who has been regional director of the United States Department of Health and Human Services for the six New England states since 1997, has established a number of innovative, regionwide approaches to acute health and human service issues. These include creating a six-state collaboration of public health and managed-care organizations working to improve the health status of underserved populations; leading a summit of regional health, education, housing, and environmental agencies and organizations to create a multisectoral, integrated approach to reducing the incidence and severity of childhood asthma; developing a Latino health initiative to create and support programs, policies, and outreach for one population that may become models for meeting the needs of other underserved communities; and launching a regional Healthy Communities coalition. In addition, Kurland has most recently led the Northeast states in their ongoing efforts to address pharmaceutical pricing as a critical health policy issue. From 1988 to 1993, Kurland was commissioner of health and hospitals for the city of Boston, the only woman ever appointed to that position.

Katherine Pfister has worked as a clinical social worker at Mount Holyoke for more than twenty years and is a part-time summer faculty member at the Smith College School for Social Work. Her clinical interests include short-term and group psychotherapy; trauma and sexual abuse; depression; grief and bereavement; and the impact of recent parental divorce on college students.