Dr. Diane Friedlaender Shares Her Holistic Approach to Education – Lifestyle Medicine

By Sharon Brock, MS, MEd

The latest member of Stanford Lifestyle Medicine’s Gratitude & Purpose pillar is Diane Friedlaender, PhD, a famend training researcher, whole-student curriculum designer, and neighborhood builder dedicated to social justice and human flourishing. Her work in training coverage and curriculum design has been featured within the PBS NewsHour, Public Radio, Educational Leadership, and Education Week.

During her practically 30-year profession in training, she has demonstrated a dedication to designing holistic academic experiences, together with programs on objective, gratitude, and mindfulness. For instance, she might be providing the course “Living on Purpose” this summer season with Stanford Continuing Education, which explores how self-understanding connects to outward motion to deal with urgent wants on this planet, and the way objective is significant throughout completely different levels of life.

“If we only take traditional courses offered in schools, we tap into the narrowest slice of our own potential. By getting to know other aspects of ourselves—like our creative self, our spiritual self, or our embodied wisdom—we can develop a broader capacity,” says Dr. Friedlaender. “By developing different parts of ourselves, we can bring those expanded capacities to address problems in our society and make a tremendous positive impact.” 

Background

Dr. Friedlaender grew up near the Stanford campus in Palo Alto, California. She was born in Stanford Hospital, realized to trip a motorbike on the Stanford University quad, after which realized to drive stick shift in a Volkswagen bus subsequent to the Stanford observe. 

Given Dr. Friedlaender’s dedication to holistic training, it’s no shock that she attended a progressive faculty from grades Ok to eight, referred to as the Peninsula School in Menlo Park, California. 

“The focus of my elementary school was discovery- and play-based education. If I was curious or interested in a topic, my teacher facilitated an exploration of that interest,” says Dr. Friedlaender. “Being exposed to this type of education as a young child opened my eyes to a lot of different ways a human can develop that aren’t just academic or cognitive, and this experience had a huge impact on what is meaningful for me in my career today.” 

After graduating from Palo Alto High School, Dr. Friedlaender earned a bachelor’s diploma in Anthropology from UC San Diego and a PhD in training coverage from UCLA.

Returning to Stanford

In 2004, she started working on the Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education (SCOPE) as a qualitative training researcher. Here, Dr. Friedlaender studied faculties throughout the nation that served college students of colour and low-income college students nicely. Her job was to determine situations wherein marginalized college students might flourish. 

“Along with education research, my focus was designing curricula that promoted equity in education,” says Dr. Friedlaender. “Students shouldn’t be limited by the inequitable systems we currently live in. We need to build community and collaborate with people who have diverse perspectives, and the more diverse, the better.” 

After 14 years at SCOPE, Dr. Friedlaender was employed because the affiliate director of the Stanford Living Education (SLED) program. Within SLED, Dr. Friedlaender developed and managed the Leadership, Community Building and Social Change (LEAD) program and taught over 25 programs on neighborhood constructing, management, objective, and resilience. She joined the core school at SLED as head of pedagogy and analysis, and designed SLED’s lecturer growth program.

“Even though my career as a researcher aligned with my values of justice and educational opportunity, I was spending all my time documenting other people doing amazing work, and I wanted to be a ‘doer’ rather than just the ‘observer’,” says Dr. Friedlaender. “Also, working with students in real time brings me joy. I get so excited when students see light bulbs and learn about themselves.”  

Business Owner

Currently, Dr. Friedlaender is a facilitator for Studio Pathways, the place she facilitates skilled growth workshops with Ok-12 educators to help their growth of culturally responsive arts built-in instruction. She additionally serves as a program evaluator for public faculties and non-profits, documenting how artwork and creativity will be built-in into curriculum as instruments for fairness and deeper studying. 

This yr, she has additionally launched her personal enterprise, Deep Currents, which provides management retreats, programs, workshops, and one-on-one teaching to assist individuals join with their knowledge, values, and objective to grow to be simpler leaders. She additionally provides talking engagements on these subjects, in addition to resilience and gratitude.

“Going inward to engage outward is a pattern I’ve repeated in my career: first as an educational researcher, then as a curriculum designer and teacher, and now as a business owner,” says Dr. Friedlaender. “I often hear from students years after taking my courses saying the lessons they learned, especially how they learned to love and value themselves, are still having a positive influence on their lives. The lasting nature of the impact of my work is what I’m most proud of, and I hope to continue making a positive impact for many years to come.”