DR. RUTH WESTHEIMER TO CLOSE MORNING LECTURE SERIES AT CHAUTAUQUA INSTITUTION

CHAUTAUQUA , N.Y. — Dr. Ruth Westheimer will be the final morning lecturer for the 2007 season at Chautauqua Institution. Dr. Westheimer will be speaking on Aug. 24 in the Amphitheater. Week seven runs from Aug. 20 to Aug. 24.

Weekly theme: Healing and Healthy Aging: Nurture and Nature

Is aging well by choice or by chance? Advances in medical science provide for longer life expectancies in many Western countries. As we age, what are our expectations for quality of life, freedom from pain, and ability to coherently contribute to our families and the greater society? Will emerging research in neuroscience - marking the 100^th anniversary of the discovery of Alzheimer's Disease - guide us to better aging? Can the growing industry of pharmacology counter individual genetic tendencies, and at what expense and length? Guest speakers will explore how the "boomers" heading into retirement affect families, communities, the workplace, economics, and medical ethics.

August 20 – Donald Barlett and James Steele

Donald Barlett and James Steele have been working as an investigative reporting team since 1971, first at the Philadelphia Inquirer (1971-1997), then as editors-at-large at Time Inc. (1997-2006), and as contributing editors at Vanity Fair since 2006. Their specialty is researching, analyzing and writing about the complex issues and institutions that profoundly affect American life. Their most recent book, entitled Critical Condition: How Health Care in America Became Big Business and Bad Medicine, was described as “a devastating indictment, supported by excellent research,” by Publishers Weekly.

Their work has earned them dozens of national awards. They are the only reporting team ever to have received two Pulitzer Prizes for newspaper reporting and two National Magazine Awards for magazine work. The Washington Journalism Review has said of Barlett and Steele that “they are almost certainly the best team in the history of investigative reporting.”

Mr. Barlett worked as a full-time investigative reporter at the Cleveland Plain Dealer, and subsequently moved to similar positions at the Chicago Daily News and The Philadelphia Inquirer before joining TIME in 1997. Mr. Steele began his journalism career at the Kansas City Times, where he covered labor, politics and urban affairs before moving to The Philadelphia Inquirer in 1970 where he worked as an investigative reporter for 27 years before joining TIME.

Their previous books include Forevermore: Nuclear Waste in America; America: Who Really Pays the Taxes?; and America: Who Stole the Dream? among others.

August 21 – Dharma Singh Khalsa, M.D.

Dr. Dharma Singh Khalsa, M.D. is one of the world's leading experts in integrative or complementary medicine, Alzheimer's disease and memory loss. His groundbreaking holistic medicine program for the prevention and treatment of Alzheimer's disease and memory loss, for which he is most widely known, was shared with the public in 1997 through the acclaimed international best-seller, Brain Longevity.

For close to 15 years, Dr. Khalsa has also served as President and Medical Director of the Alzheimer's Prevention Foundation (APF). In this capacity he testified before Congress about his work in the area of lifestyle influence on Alzheimer's disease. Recently, Dr. Khalsa was named Associate Fellow of the University of Pennsylvania Medical School, Center for Spirituality and the Mind, where he is conducing a breakthrough research project in conjunction with the University of Pennsylvania Medical School to examine the effectiveness of meditation on early cognitive impairment.

In addition to Brain Longevity, Dr. Khalsa has authored The Pain Cure, Meditation As Medicine, Food As Medicine, The Better Memory Kit, The New Golden Rules, and The End of Karma.

August 22 – Gail Sheehy

As a literary journalist, Gail Sheehy was one of the original contributors to New York magazine. A contributing editor to Vanity Fair since 1984, she won the Washington Journalism Review Award for Best Magazine Writer in America for her in-depth character portraits of national and world leaders, including both Presidents Bush, Bill and Hillary Clinton, Newt Gingrich, Margaret Thatcher, Saddam Hussein, and Mikhail Gorbachev.

Sheehy is a seven-time recipient of the New York Newswomen's Club Front Page Award for distinguished journalism, most recently for her Vanity Fair article "September Widows." Other honors include the National Magazine Award, the Penny-Missouri Journalism Award, and the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award in Race Relations for her book, Spirit of Survival. She is one of the founders of the Women's Commission for Refugee Women.

One of the most popular speakers on the lecture circuit, Sheehy offers dynamic programs based on her groundbreaking investigations and observations of the lives of men and women within different phases of their lives. She is also a provocative speaker on women’s health issues, and on how and why companies can survive global competition with a WWW strategy—Winning With Women.

August 23 – Christina Economos

Christina Economos is an assistant professor of nutrition at Tufts University’s School of Nutrition Science and Policy and a research scientist at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University. Her research efforts are focused on the interaction between diet, exercise, body composition, and aging, with an emphasis on techniques that develop and preserve skeletal muscle and bone mass throughout the lifespan.

Dr. Economos is dedicated to communication strategies and public health policies that deal with the complex relationships between nutrition, health, disease and human performance. She directed the country’s largest statewide osteoporosis prevention initiative for two years prior to joining Tufts. In addition to her teaching and research, she serves on the Massachusetts Osteoporosis Awareness Program Advisory Committee, is an appointed member of the Massachusetts Governor’s Committee on Physical Fitness and Sports, and is Vice President of the National Association of Governor’s Councils on Physical Fitness and Sports.

August 24 – Dr. Ruth Westheimer

Dr. Ruth Westheimer is a psychosexual therapist who helped to pioneer the field of media psychology with her radio program, “Sexually Speaking.” What began in 1980 as a 15 minute, taped show that aired after midnight soon became part of a network, which has included television, books, newspapers, games, home video, and computer software.

Currently Dr. Westheimer is an adjunct professor at N.Y.U., an Associate Fellow of Calhoun College at Yale University, and a Fellow of Butler College at Princeton University. She is a fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine and in addition to having her own private practice, she frequently lectures at universities across the country and has twice been named “College Lecturer of the Year.”

In addition to radio, her television career has included such shows as Lifetime's “The Dr. Ruth Show,” “Ask Dr. Ruth,” “The All New Dr. Ruth Show,” “You're On the Air with Dr. Ruth,” and “Never Too Late.” In print she circles the globe with her column, Ask Dr. Ruth. A prolific author, she has written 31 books, and counting. There were also Dr. Ruth's Good Sex Night-to-Night Calendars (1993 & 1994) and a board game, “Dr. Ruth's Game of Good Sex.”

Dr. Westheimer has been celebrated with numerous awards for educational programming on television and cable. She has received three honorary doctorate degrees, and People Magazine included her in their list of the “Most Intriguing People of the Century.” In 2002 she received the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, and in June of 2006, Columbia University’s Teacher’s College awarded her their Medal for Distinguished Services.

Born in Germany, Dr. Westheimer immigrated to the U.S. in 1956 and earned her Master’s Degree in Sociology from the Graduate Faculty of the New School of Social Research. In 1970, she received a Ph.D. in the Interdisciplinary Study of the Family from Columbia University Teacher's College.

Chautauqua Institution hosts the weekday Morning Lecture Series at 10:45 in the Amphitheater. Tickets can be purchased at the Chautauqua Box Office in the Turner Community Center on Route 394. They may also be ordered by phone at 716.357.6250 or on the Web at tickets.ciweb.org.

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** The Chautauqua Institution is a not-for-profit organization that serves as a community, a center, and a resource where the human spirit is renewed, minds stimulated, faith restored and the arts valued. It has performance venues, hotel, golf, tennis, and educational and recreational facilities.

For nine weeks each year, from late June through late August, the Institution offers a rich blend of arts, a variety of programming and recreational activities. Its educational mission is continued during the rest of the year with programs for older adults such as Elderhostels and other learning opportunities.