Dr. Geeta Maker-Clark - Medicine For All People
DESCRIPTION:
In this episode, Dr. Geeta Maker-Clark carries forward the essential work of redefining health care for our times. She addresses the health issues arising at the intersection of culture, race, food traditions, lifestyle and inequity in the food system. Her work with food is deeply rooted in the belief that if you trace back just a few generations, every person comes from a rich culture of healthy, medicinal foods, and that food is deeply personal and part of a larger socio-political system. Dr. Geeta relies heavily on the use of food as medicine in her approach to healing, as well as herbal medicine, nutriceuticals, botanicals, mind body connection, and healing practitioners in the community. She guides us back to the medicines that surround us; many of them free, ancestral, and immediately accessible.
GUEST BIO:
Dr. Geeta Maker-Clark MD, ABOIM is a nationally recognized leader, speaker, educator, and advocate in the field of Integrative Medicine. She is the Director of Integrative Nutrition and Advocacy at Endeavor Health, Clinical Assistant Professor and Co-Director of the Culinary Medicine program at the University of Chicago, Pritzker School of Medicine, and faculty for the U of Arizona Integrative Medicine and Ayurveda Fellowship. Dr. Maker-Clark has spent two decades studying integrative medicine, nutritional science, botanical medicine, mind-body medicine, and natural childbirth in health clinics all over the world. She started the Food is Power program on the South Side of Chicago in Chicago Public Schools to empower youth with health literacy, through a curriculum that focuses on decolonized food education, food justice and sovereignty and pioneered one of the first culinary medicine programs in a medical school in the country. Dr. Maker-Clark was recognized as a national leader in food justice activism with a Castanea Fellowship from 2019-2022 and the Mesa Refuge Michael Pollan Fellowship in Food Journalism in 2021. She has received numerous honors for her leadership in health equity, food justice, and integrative medicine, and is a sought-after speaker who brings together science, storytelling, and practical wisdom to help people and communities flourish.
Dr. Maker-Clark believes in transforming the way we think about medicine and looks to ancient wisdom and modern struggles as opportunities to heal with the medicines that are all around us. As a woman of color, a community organizer, and integrative physician and thought leader in the food as medicine movement, her work aims to help communities be well-nourished—the heart of healing in our society and country. Her forthcoming book, Medicine for All People: Science and Ancient Wisdom for Revolutionary Healing, is a compelling invitation to restore the wisdom, practices, and relationships that have been marginalized by modern life yet remain essential to individual and collective healing.
https://drgeetamakerclark.com/