The author of several books, Mr. Dionne is a regular columnist for the Washington Post and appears frequently as a political commentator on radio and television. Based in Washington, DC, Mr. Dionne is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and an instructor at Georgetown University.

Stay tuned – there is much more to come on this exciting event!

Fall 2009: Healthcare

In the wake of an extended national discussion about healthcare reform, culminating in the legislation passed this spring, it is clear that many fundamental and unresolved differences exist with respect to the rights and responsibilities associated with caring for the health of our population. The Gerber Institute is making plans to offer programming during the Fall semester that will help audiences unravel some of the many complexities that are involved in healthcare debate.

Spring 2010: Education

It is a commonplace to say that American education is in a crisis. With costs rising, test scores falling (or not climbing rapidly enough), and ever-louder cries for accountability at all levels of education, many teachers, professors, and administrators are under tremendous pressure. Yet it is not at all clear how to reconcile all of the competing demands that educators face. Nor is it entirely clear how the educational enterprise is to be carried out in a Catholic context. Next spring, the Gerber Institute plans to present programming aimed at fostering dialogue around some of the more pressing and fundamental questions associated with education–in particular, Catholic higher education.

April 22, 2010 | Session Three

Healthcare and Immigration Issues

Tarcisia Roths Alumni Center (inside the Dugan Library and Campus Center)

Breakfast @ 6:45 a.m.

Panel @ 7:15 a.m.

Join panelists Fran Betzen Cook,  Marlene Dreiling, and Deborah Snapp as they take up a variety of issues related to the complex intersection of healthcare and immigration, and the challenges that lie therein.

Panelist Bios

• Fran Betzen Cook, LSCSW, Director, Catholic Charities Help Center and Immigration Services

Fran Betzen Cook, LSCSW

Grew up in Wichita and obtained a BSW from Avila College in Kansas City in 1999 and a MSW from Newman University in 2000.

For the past 10 years she has served at Catholic Charities in a variety of roles including counselor, staff supervisor, and currently as the Director of the Help Center and Immigration Services.   Her passion is in serving the poor and in ending oppression.

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• Deborah Snapp, LBSW, Executive Director for Catholic Social Service in the Diocese of Dodge City

Has been employed with the agency since 1987, starting as a Social Worker, before becoming Program Director in 1991 and being appointed as Executive Director in 2006. In addition, Debbie also serves on the board of directors of The Crisis Center in Great Bend, is a committee member of the South Central Kansas Tornado Recovery Organization, and active with many diocesan functions. Before moving to Dodge City in 1980, she received a Bachelor’s Degree in Social Work and a Bachelor’s Degree in Family Life and Human Development from Kansas State University. Debbie is also a strong advocate for adoption, as she and her husband adopted two sons through the adoption services of Catholic Charities.

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• Marlene Dreiling, Executive Director Guadalupe Clinic

• John McCormick, Associate Professor of Theology, Newman University

John McCormick

Dr. McCormick is an Associate Professor of Theology in the Department of Theology and Philosophy and Director of the Liberal Studies Program. McCormick joined Newman in the Fall of 1996. His academic interests include the areas of Sacraments, Church, and Catholic Social Teaching.

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April 15, 2010 | Session Two

Perspectives on the Relationship between Healthcare and Financing

Cardinal Newman Room (lower level of Sacred Heart Hall)

Breakfast @ 6:45 a.m.

Panel @ 7:15 a.m.

Join panelists Dr. Ed Hett, Lynette RauvolaBouta, Michael Murphy as they discuss questions related to healthcare and financing, including: How do reimbursement practices affect models of care? How would you re-envision the future?

Panelists Bios

• Dr. Ed Hett, family practitioner

Dr. Ed Hett

A native of Marion, Kan., Ed Hett, MD, received his undergraduate degree in Natural Sciences at Tabor College, and his Medical Degree in 1981 from the University of Kansas School of Medicine-Wichita. He completed his Family Medicine residency at St. Joseph Medical Center in 1984. That same year he opened a private practice, Twin Lakes Medical, which joined Preferred Medical Associates in 1997 and became PMA Twin Lakes, where he continues to practice part time.

Dr. Hett was named president of Preferred Medical Associates in 2001.

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• Lynette RauvolaBouta, Senior Vice President, Mission Integration, Via Christi Health

Lynette RauvolaBouta

Lynnette RauvolaBouta (RAU voh la boo TAY) joined Via Christi Health System as Vice President, Mission Integration in September of 2004.

She is responsible for ensuring mission integrity in Via Christi Health System structures, policies and procedures. This includes seeing that VCHS follows the integrity of the mission set forth by the Sisters of the Sorrowful Mother and the Sisters of St. Joseph of Wichita, the health system’s sponsoring congregations.  It also includes ensuring that VCHS facilities follow the ethical and religious directives for Catholic health care services.  RauvolaBouta designed the health system’s Mission Integration Plan, including church relations, community accountability and advocacy, organizational and clinical ethics, ministry leadership formation and spiritual (pastoral) care.

Prior to joining VCHS, RauvolaBouta served as executive leader of sponsorship for the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Agnes in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. She served as executive vice president for mission integration in the Benedictine Health System in Duluth, Minnesota, and was vice president of operations at St. Joseph’s Medical Center in Brainerd, Minnesota.

She has held a number of positions on the boards of healthcare, long-term and senior care facilities and is an accomplished organist.

RauvolaBouta holds a master’s in healthcare administration from the University of Minnesota, a master of arts in theology from St. John’s University, Collegeville, Minnesota, and a bachelor of arts in religious studies from The College of St. Scholastica, Duluth, Minnesota.

• Michael Murphy, President and CEO, Coventry Health Care

Michael Murphy

Michael joined Coventry Health Care of Kansas in May of 2008 as President and CEO.  Prior to joining Coventry, Michael previously held the position of President and CEO with  Mercy Health Plans in St.  Louis.  Prior to being named CEO for Mercy Health Plans, he served in various operating roles within the organization including Chief Operating Officer, Vice President of Operations and Vice President of Government Programs.  Prior to joining Mercy Health Plans, Michael founded, owned and served as President and CEO of Managed Prescription Services (MPS), a national Pharmacy Benefits Management company headquartered in St. Louis.  MPS was later sold to Humana.  Michael has also provided Management Consulting services.  He received his Bachelor’s degree from St. Louis College of Pharmacy in 1979 and his MBA from Washington University – Olin School of Business in 1996.

April 8, 2010 | Session One: Whose Responsibility Is Health? Whose Responsibility Is Healthcare?

What are the relationships between individual responsibility and social responsibility with regard to health and healthcare? What are the advantages/disadvantages of single payer and multi-payer systems?

• Panelists

Beverly Gossage

Beverly Gossage, the Director of HSA Benefits Consulting, is a Consumer Driven Healthcare Consultant and HSA specialist.

In addition to training and writing HSA policies for individuals and the self-employed, she helped pioneer them for businesses in Kansas and Missouri. The first small business that Beverly helped with one of these plans was a plumbing company in Lawrence owned by her family. Since that time, she has reduced health insurance premiums for individuals and businesses across the Midwest.

As a consultant and trainer for businesses with self-funded health plans, Beverly advises HR departments in all areas of health benefits, including the plan designs and premium comparisons, HSA contribution levels, anticipated participation percentages, account custodian and TPA evaluation, strategies for mitigating trend in utilization, and implementation of employee benefit education.

For more information about Beverly Gossage and HSA Benefits Consulting, please visit their website: http://www.hsabenefitsconsulting.com/about/

Msgr. Robert Hemberger, Vicar General, Diocese of Wichita

Msgr. Robert Hemberger

I attained a Masters in Theology from the Catholic University of America in 1970.  Ordained to priesthood in 1970.  I served in hospital chaplaincy from 1973-1982 at St. Francis and Halstead Hospital.  I attained a Licentiate in Canon Law in 1985.

I have served at the diocesan ministries as Chancellor, Vicar General, Judicial Vicar, Moderator of the Curia, Liaison for Health Affairs, on the Boards of Catholic Care Center since 1998, Via Christi Health System since 2001, and Newman University since about 2005.

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Chris Fox, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Philosophy, Newman University

Chris Fox, Newman University

Professor Fox received his masters and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Memphis. Since arriving at Newman in 2004, he has published articles and translations in areas related to contemporary Continental philosophy, Hegel, globalization, and the philosophy of religion. He is the 2006-07 recipient of the Newman University Teaching Excellence Award. In addition to Vital Issues of Philosophy and Ethics, Fox also teaches God and Cosmos, Social and Political Philosophy, History of Modern Philosophy, and Existentialism.

Paula Huston

Huston will link her reflections on forgiveness to current debates about capital punishment. Her lecture is the latest in a series of presentations sponsored by the Gerber Institute on the theme “Reconciling Differences.” Click on the link to the right to see all related events and posts.

In Forgiveness, Huston asserts that Christ’s injunction to forgive without measure is central to Christianity, and is not merely an option but a requirement. Copies of Forgiveness and other works by Huston will be available for purchase at the reading, courtesy of Eighth Day Books.

A popular speaker and retreat leader, Huston often appears at conferences, bookstores, churches, and other venues to speak on the topics of forgiveness, simplicity, and prayer, and the practice of the virtues. She has been a Newman Lecturer for several universities and has appeared on public radio stations and cable TV. In addition to Forgiveness, she is the author of The Holy Way: Practices for a Simple Life, a personal narrative about her struggles to incorporate into her life some of the practices of a contemplative monastic community in Big Sur, California.

Therese Bangert, SCL

Click here to view the embedded video.

Sue Norton

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Kristi Smith

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Fr. James Billinger

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Panelists Father James Billinger, Kristi Smith and Therese Bangert, SCL

Panelist Sue Norton addressing the audience

While the arguments both for and against the death penalty are numerous and complex, there is something about the personal testimony provided by Sue and Kristi that renders much of that logic-chopping superfluous. These are two ordinary women, placed by cruel fate in extraordinary situations, and subsequently discovering within themselves personal resources to respond to those situations in truly remarkable ways. Guided by faith, Sue and Kristi ultimately found that their own healing could not progress unless they stood before the men whose violent actions had shattered their lives–not to curse them or rage at them or blame them, but to forgive them. They did not forsee how this decision would shape the susequent course of their lives, they only knew it was something they needed to do. The fact that both of the men they confronted were able to hear their words, and express genuine remorse, paved the way for what eventually became an experience of reconciliation for both women with the perpetrators.

It is perhaps this last point that struck me with the greatest impact as I listened to their remarks. Many opponents of the death penalty focus–quite rightly, I believe–on concerns about the possibility of erroneous conviction, about the injustices inherent in our judicial system, about the oxymoron entailed by killing to show that killing is wrong. But to the ears of those who argue in favor of the death penalty, these claims too often sound like taking the side of the convicted murderer. What of the victims’ families? they ask. What of the victims themselves? Do they not deserve more consideration than those who committed such heinous crimes?

In the stories told by Sue and Kristi, however, I heard something that I had not considered before–something that raises the discourse about the death penalty far above the false opposition between victim and perpetrator. Kristi Smith said it explicitly (I paraphrase): “It took me over 13 years before I was ready to talk to my father’s murderer. If the state of Kansas had put him to death, I never would have had the chance to forgive him in person. I never would have become reconciled with him, and the nightmares I had up until then might never have stopped.”

Much, much more was said Tuesday night that I found both moving and profound. But I wanted to highlight this one point in particular, because of the way it helped me to see the entire question in a new way. Something is lost when we put a murderer to death, something more than a life, and that is what may in the end be the best possible chance at healing for those among the living most affected by what happened.

Whether you attended or not, your thoughts and reflections are most welcome. Please post your comments and let us know what you think. (Please be patient. As this is a moderated forum, comments may take a few days to appear.)

7-9 p.m. – Free

Dugan-Gorges Conference Center, Newman University Campus

Speakers

• Sr. Therese Bangert, SCL
• Fr. James Billinger
• Sue Norton, member of Murder Vicitims’ Families for Reconciliation (MVFR)
• Kristi Smith of Kechi, Kan., member of MVFR

Panelists will each provide 10-15 minutes of remarks, followed by a moderated discussion incorporating both prepared questions and questions from the audience.