Exhale Lifestyle Magazine Spring Issue

Spring 2012

Linda Pizzuti Henry

Making her own mark in

Boston — a city she loves

Women Behind

the

STYLEs Vienne Cheung, Samantha House and more ...

Contents

SundayBrunch

41 42 44

Discover local flavor in Massachusetts

46

Four steps to a healthier heart

50

Is heart disease gender biased?

52

Polycystic Ovary Syndrome a hidden problem

54

Veronique LeMelle

62

Shea Rose

64 67 70 74

Wilson Farm Farmers’ Market Recipes

Vienne Cheung keeps it cool with VienneMilano hosiery

12

14

Bold Statement

How Samantha House turned a relaxing hobby into a profitable business

Reviews with Joyce Kulhawik Cultural Calendar Travel Is Work an endurance sport Pipeline Fellowship

Women’s Resources Q&A with West

77 79 80 82

18

Works of art

From minimalism to the bright colors from Matisse... show your inner light this spring!

16

Fashion Patrol

Local experts share this spring’s wearable trends

Designer Meghann Van Dorn resurrects an old Victorian in Dorchester

20

Contents

23

Boston Latino TV dares to be different

Dr. Una Ryan CEO of Diagnostics For All aims to save lives

31

Mary Mazzio doesn’t take ‘no’ for an answer

25

The ultimate survivor fights for the Cambodian community

28

38

Lydia Shire a Boston chef determined to succeed

Healthy meals made easy at Healthy Habits Kitchen

48

36

Public market comes to Boston

56

Battling breast cancer one day at a time

Retaining your style in the face of cancer treatment

59

Sandra Casagrand Publisher Howard Manly Executive Editor Jacquinn Williams Managing Editor

On our front cover

Linda Pizzuti Henry

Tim Stansky Sales Director

32

Walter Waller Executive Creative Director

Making her own mark in Boston — a city she loves

Photograph by Ian Justice: ianjustice.com Hair and makeup by Michelle McGrath: Team Artist Representative Styling by Erica Corsano Prop Stylist: Mari Quirk

Fendi cut out dress, $1850 at Saks Fifth Avenue Topaz drop earrings, $2735 at Persona Jewelry

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Marissa Giambrone Graphic Designer Contributing Writers Cheryl Fenton Astrid Lium Brian Wright O’Connor Kenneth J. Cooper Leslie MacKinnon Erica Corsano Sally Ourieff Jinny VanDeusen Photographer Ian Justice Copy Editor Rachel Edwards

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Exhale Lifestyle Magazine is a quarterly magazine distributed throughout the Greater Boston region.

For detailed information visit our website www.exhalelifestyle.com.

To subscribe

Annual subscription cost is $16. Mail check to: Banner Publications, Inc. 23 Drydock Avenue Boston, MA 02210 If paying by credit card please contact Rachel Edwards at (617) 261-4600 ext. 119.

For advertising opportunities

Please contact Tim Stansky at (617) 261-4600 ext. 123 or tim@exhalelifestyle.com.

Visit our website to download the media kit — www.exhalelifestyle.com.

Send letters to the publisher to sandra@exhalelifestyle.com.

Exhale is published by Banner Publications, Inc. All rights reserved — Copyright 2012 Volume 5 • Number 1 • Spring 2012

Contributors

some of our Health Contributor

Paula A. Johnson, MD Paula A. Johnson, an internationally recognized cardiologist, is the executive director of the Mary Horrigan Connors Center for Women’s Health and Gender Biology and is chief of the Division of Women’s Health at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.

Dietitian

Allison Knott, RD Allison Knott became a registered dietitian in 2008 and is currently pursuing a master’s in nutrition communication at Tufts University Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy. She completed her dietetic internship at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tenn., and worked as a clinical dietitian in Northern Georgia before coming to the Friedman School. Knott is passionate about communicating accurate nutrition information to the public.

Health Contributor

Joanne M. Foody, MD, FACC, FAHA Joanne M. Foody is the medical director of the Cardiovascular Wellness Center and Pollin Cardiovascular Wellness Program at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Foody has active and international roles in cardiac disease prevention and rehabilitation with a particular focus on women and heart disease.

Professional Development

Sally Ourieff, MD A native of Los Angeles, Sally Ourieff graduated from Stanford University.

She attended Harvard Medical School. Upon receiving her medical degree, she completed her training at Children’s Hospital, Boston and McLean Hospital, specializing in child and adult psychiatry. During her career as a psychiatrist and coach, Ourieff focused on helping individuals build positive, strong relationships and personal and professional lives that allow them to flourish. She later became interested in coaching within organizations. This led her to found her own business, Translational Consulting, an executive consulting and coaching firm.

Photography

Ian Justice A native of picturesque Melton Mowbury in England, Ian Justice has wrought his sense of style and impeccable work ethics into a photography career that approaches the two-decade mark. Justice not only makes beautiful images for print and web-based advertising, but realizes worlds in which products tell a story.

His skill with the camera and profound knowledge of the equipment and its possibilities make each project sparkle with creative freedom and originality.

Beauty Editor

Mariolga Mariolga’s passion for the arts and instinctual understanding of light and color have propelled her career as a makeup artist, cultivating multiple artistic collaborations and a loyal following.

Born and raised in Puerto Rico, Mariolga arrived in New York intending to pursue painting at Pratt Institute. She found her calling as a makeup artist, and never looked back. Her well rounded knowledge of the fashion industry is rooted in a degree in fashion merchandising and marketing, adding to her skill set as a licensed esthetician. She is currently represented by Team, the Artist Representative, out of Boston. As a makeup artist, Mariolga has traveled extensively to New York, Italy, Mexico, Portugal and Spain. Mariolga manages to balance her career with a joyful and fulfilling family. She is a hands on mother of three young children whose energy fuels her creativity. Mariolga, is grounded, creative and always works to the highest standard. All qualities that have landed her an impressive list of clients including: Adidas, Reebok, Glamour, Improper Bostonian, Boston Magazine, People Magazine, Pashion Magazine, T. J. Maxx, Cynthia Steffe, Jones NY, Anne Klein, LL Bean and New York & Co. She has also worked with celebrities such as Maria Menounos, Serena Williams, Daryl Hannah, Dane Cook, Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner.

She loves to share her expertise, teaching in the fashion department of Bay State College, and now serving as the beauty editor for Exhale Lifestyle Magazine.

Stylist

Design

Leslie MacKinnon Leslie MacKinnon is a blogger, marketing communications, public relations social media consultant with over a decade of experience on the New England publishing scene. Positions held in advertising for Boston Magazine and New England Home magazine led her to her recent role promoting design, lifestyle and food brands. Her passion is for her vibrant neighborhood, Ashmont Hill, Dorchester and it’s many amazing residents.

She regularly showcases the best of Dorchester’s ‘hidden gems’ on the blog, DottieHotties.com along with her collaborator and subject of her story in this issue, Meghann Van Dorn. She also earned a BFA in Photography from the Massachusetts College of Art.

Arts and Entertainment

Joyce Kulhawik Joyce Kulhawik is best known as the Emmy Award-winning arts and entertainment critic for CBS-Boston (WBZ-TV 1981-2008). She is currently lending her expertise as an arts advocate and cancer crusader to nonprofits all over town and appears on TV as a judge on New England’s premiere musical talent showcase “Community Auditions.” Kulhawik has covered local and national events from Boston and Broadway to Hollywood. Kulhawik is the president of the Boston Theater Critics Association, and serves on the The Boston Society of Film Critics.

For more arts news and reviews by Joyce visit www.joyceschoices.com.

Exhale Lifestyle Magazine is printed by Cummings Printing 4 Peter Brook Drive, P.O. Box 16495 • Hooksett, N.H. 03106-6495 • 603-625-6901 • cummingsprinting.com

Erica Corsano Erica Corsano works for Gilt City Boston, a subsidiary of Gilt Groupe, Inc. Corsano’s deep roots in the lifestyle realm reach back over a decade, beginning with roles as a fashion publicist in New York City for some of the world’s most recognized luxury brands. She moved over to journalism, regularly contributing to publications like Daily Candy Boston, The Boston Globe, and later held editorial positions at Lucky Magazine, Boston Common Magazine, and most recently served as the editorial director of STUFF Magazine.

The Fashion Doctors

Marianna Toroyan, PhD Marianna Toroyan has been involved in many arenas of the fashion industry for more than 10 years. While she was earning her doctorate degree, she developed a curriculum to improve self-esteem and realized that fashion was a factor in increasing self-image. She also earned a degree from Parsons New School for Design.

Publisher’s Note

I

t’s hard to believe that we just published our 9th issue of Exhale. It seems that the pace of life has become more hectic in the last few years. Perhaps that’s just my perspective as a person in the throes of the rapidly changing industry of print media! Our Exhale team worked hard these last two years building a community of readers with our magazine and hosting and sponsoring networking events.

Our goal has been to inform women about the many resources available to help them in their personal and professional growth. It was rewarding to hear about the connections that were made at our “Sisterhood of Startups” event in February. I could identify with the stories from women entrepreneurs and the challenges and rewards of starting and running their own companies. I found important resources to help Exhale. We will be working with an excellent team at Simmons School of Management to develop our business plan. We have been a big supporter of SOM’s annual Women Leadership Conference and it seems fitting to work with them on our strategy. Women supporting other women is central to Exhale’s mission.

Sandra Casagrand Publisher

BEHIND theSCENES

Each cover shoot is a unique experience. Coordinating the team’s schedule with the cover person’s schedule is always a struggle. So we felt lucky when our favorite location to shoot — Elevin Studios/Boldfacers — was available on the day that Linda would be in town. That set the tone for the rest of the shoot, which was filled with great energy. I enjoyed getting to spend some time to speak to Linda. I loved her philosophy of social activism under a for-profit model and she asked me some really good questions about Exhale’s business model and our plans for the future. Another shared interest is local food and she was happy to see that Exhale promotes the local farmers’ markets and the local food initiatives in Boston. Speaking of food — Linda showed up with a bag of the most amazing cookies. I have to admit, we made gluttons of ourselves. I was thrilled when she agreed to share her nonna’s recipe for the ricotta cookies, which were my favorite. Linda has a very busy schedule these days, but there are certain things that she is very focused on: local food, entrepreneurship and innovation, and the city of Boston which, she loves.

Linda Pizzuti Henry’s

Nonna’s Ricotta Cookies Linda Pizzuti Henry’s nonna’s recipe — perfected by chef Rob Chalmers.

Ingredients 1 cup ricotta, room temperature (Try Narragansett Creamery, Providence, R.I., www.richeeses.com) 1¼ cups sugar 4 oz. of butter, room temperature (Try High Lawn Farm, Lee, Mass., www.highlawnfarm.com) 1½ cups whole wheat pastry flour or all purpose (Try Four Star Farms in Northfield, Mass., www.fourstarfarms.com) 1 egg, room temperature (Try Stillman’s Hardwick, Mass., www.stillmansattheturkeyfarm.com) 1 tablespoon baking powder ½ teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon almond extract Glaze 1 cup of powdered sugar 1-2 tablespoons of milk (Try Thatcher Farm Milton, Mass., www.thatcherfarm.com ) ½ teaspoon almond extract

Photo courtesy of Kristin Chalmers Photography

Preheat oven to 350ºF. In a mixer fitted with a paddle, whip butter, ricotta and sugar until light and fluffy, 2-4 minutes. Add egg and almond extract, mix until incorporated.

Sift dry ingredients and fold in threes.

Using a tablespoon, scoop batter on a cookie sheet 1 inch apart and bake for 8 minutes. Turn sheet and bake 4 more minutes.

Cool and then glaze.

For glaze, whisk all ingredients until thick. You might only need 1 tablespoon of milk. I usually dunk the tops of the cookies in the glaze, pull them out, garnish with crushed almonds (optional) and let firm on a cooling rack.

For fun, add a few drops of food coloring to the glaze. Serve with love. exhalelifestyle.com

11

Women behind the style

T

Vienne Cheung (Ted Ancher photo)

here’s not much room for selfexpression in most boardrooms, unless you count your laptop case color or how far you push the envelope on casual Fridays.

With cubicles and dress codes, the corporate world isn’t exactly the place to be “you.”

Longtime Boston resident Vienne Cheung couldn’t stand it anymore. As a 30th birthday present to herself, Cheung left her compartmentalized cubicle as a product manager in corporate America. And as it turns out, the two legs she stood firmly on the other side of that office door ended up being a canvas for an exciting new enterprise. Armed with her MBA from Bentley University, Cheung combined her business savvy with her fashion sense to begin VienneMilano, a luxury hosiery brand and online boutique dedicated exclusively to thigh high stockings. From deciding on the brand’s name in March 2011 to putting on a pair of hose for the November launch party, Cheung’s venture was realized in under a year — thigh highs made from Italy’s finest luxury textiles in sumptuous shades and indulgent textures.

Vienne Cheung keeps it cool with VienneMilano hosiery A Woman’s Sexy Little Secret

By Cheryl Fenton

There’s “something about

having the band around your thigh that feels super sexy. It’s like your little secret that you can choose to share.

”

12

Exhale • Spring 2012

And third, I’ve enjoyed traveling to and from Italy. Just last fall, I was able to visit our engineer, who lives in Sicily.

You chose Milan, Italy, for your hosiery line — an obvious epicenter for the art of fashion.

Italy is the home of beautiful artwork, cars and all things fashion, including hosiery. It was the first European country I visited as a girl. One of the things I recall was the beautiful paintings. While in Venice, I remember staring at a piece of artwork from afar, trying to figure out if it was a statue or a painting. It looked so realistic.

That’s when I knew that it was an artisan country.

What empowers you?

I think empowerment is a way of life. You decide whether you want to stay happy, sad or mad. I empower myself by believing that I’m responsible for my way of life.

What empowerment do thigh highs bring, even under the stuffiest of business attire?

There’s silver glitter, the à la Mad Men back seam, a rich mocha oval cut-out pattern, preppy but sexy argyle styles, and of course, every day neutral opaques and sheers. Each pair is made with a silicone thigh band for stay-up confidence, a trait Cheung herself boasts.

We met up with this Boston-via-Hong Kong fashionista to find out her style of success.

What fears did you have taking the leap into a new career?

I think the fear for most people, myself included, is will it succeed? But I couldn’t let myself think about that. For getting over that hurdle, I just focused on what I needed and wanted to do. As a woman who isn’t married, didn’t have kids, wanted to learn, be challenged, and have always wanted to start a business particularly in fashion, I felt that turning 30 was the perfect opportunity. If I didn’t make the jump now, I don’t know if I ever could.

What are the joys of owning your own business?

First is the challenge. I don’t know if many people can say that they’ve launched a brand in 10 months. I’ve enjoyed the journey and all of the things that I’ve learned from the people that I’ve met.

This leads to the second joy, which is friendship. It’s been really awesome getting to know all of the amazing people around the world.

The intention of wearing a business suit is for a woman to present herself in a serious way, which can sometimes be restricting. Hosiery is often paired up with a business suit as it allows a woman to look more elegant.

VienneMilano’s thigh highs are elegant, playful and sexy. There’s something about having the band around your thigh that feels super sexy. It’s like your little secret that you can choose to share. A woman chooses whomever to reveal the band to, which is very empowering.

What’s your style?

For personal style, I am a relatively social person. I love to get to know people, where they come from, what makes them tick. For fashion, I love to accessorize, whether it’s shoes, bags, jewelry or hosiery.

You can really make a statement about yourself with the right accessories.

Describe your life since beginning VienneMilano in three words.

Keep it cool.=

exhalelifestyle.com

13

Photograph by Jeffery Jones

Women behind the style

How Samantha House turned a relaxing hobby into a profitable business 14

Exhale • Spring 2012

When Samantha House, a former local fashion and beauty editor, left Boston in 2007, she wasn’t sure if she’d be back.

Although impressive, her seven-year stint as a local editor was incredibly stressful, leaving little time for life outside of work. After eight years in Boston, House moved to the Big Apple, primarily for love, but also to explore other areas of fashion, particularly jewelry design. Creating beaded baubles became a calming refuge from writing, styling and producing while she was in Boston. Soon after her arrival in New York, the young entrepreneur took her love for jewelry to a new level.

When did you first start designing jewelry?

It started out as a hobby. When I worked in Boston all of my time was taken up by work. With the little free time I actually did have, I would go to Beadworks (a store that used to be on Newbury Street), play with beads and make jewelry. I would give the pieces away to friends, and then people like Gretchen Monahan would say things like, “You need to sell these in a store.” But I thought to myself, “I already have the workload of 10 jobs, so there’s no way I can do more.”

How did you make the transition?

I just had a lot of encouragement when I was looking for a job in media in NYC, and the scene is so cutthroat and competitive there and I just wasn’t interested in dealing with it. So I started making jewelry while I was freelancing as a writer and for a modeling agency. Six months in, I showed my pieces to a dear friend and she was like, “I am going to be honest with you; these are pretty but just not special enough.” That changed my perspective on everything. So many people want to be designers — I knew I had to do better.

So then what?

I ditched the entire collection and started from scratch. I labored over every single piece until I thought, “Wow, that’s amazing,” and I did that for every single piece. And then I decided to launch my website featuring my pieces. A week after the launch, I got a call from Barney’s New York saying that they wanted to sell my jewelry.

That must have been incredibly gratifying. What happened next?

Once I got into Barney’s, everyone started calling.

Women’s Wear Daily featured the collection, then Elle. I have even been in Vogue — twice! Intermix called to carry the collection and I also accessorized shows at Bryant Park. It was great. I didn’t have to sell, and people were just coming to me.

Were there challenges along the way with the business aspect of things? Keeping up? Production?

Basically, the biggest thing for me was that I am not a business person, I am an artist. I lost so much money making little mistakes. You

learn everything by default. It’s really difficult to be a single owner rather than have a business manager. That’s the best way to go about it, getting a business partner.

What’s the status of your business now?

I recently moved back to Boston, and I have someone in New York that runs things for me there and it’s going well. I have a full-time job here and I am in the process of restructuring my jewelry company. I am also launching a lower price point line “SAM,” where every piece will be under $100.

Why move back to Boston?

Living in New York really makes you appreciate Boston. I’m such a Boston girl. I feel like it has a lot of what New York has to offer, but on a smaller scale.

Where can we find your jewelry in Boston?

Flock in the South End is my number one place. They buy more jewelry than some of the bigger companies, and they sell them. They have been incredibly loyal, I love them, and they are amazing. You can also go to my online store: Samanthahousejewelery.com.

What kind of woman wears your jewelry?

The women that wear my jewelry are usually bold and outgoing because my jewelry is bold and noticeable. If you’re wearing a piece, someone is going to talk to you. I’ve had people email me to say that they wear my jewelry when they want to meet people.

What are some of the secrets to the line’s success?

I have tons of loyal customers and I believe in amazing customer service. There is not an email or phone call that I do not personally answer. The stuff is handmade, so pieces are not always going to be perfect. I personally fix any piece for free and make it up to the person. We also have a lifetime repair guarantee. If it’s tarnished or broken, we will refresh it or fix it for free.

You’ve been back in town for just a few short months. What do you hope to do or achieve now that you are back? Is there anything you might do differently this time around?

I was and am a total party girl and I am happy about that.

That will never change. But I have grown up a lot and [I’m] serious and really focused on my business and my career.

But I’ll always have fun, that’s just who I am. I’d like to take some of the lessons I learned in New York and bring them here to Boston. I believe in the fashion scene here and it has come so far. People care about fashion here.

They are a lot more daring than they were when I was here before. It’s really inspiring.

exhalelifestyle.com

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Style

fashion

Patrol

Local experts share this spring’s wearable trends

By Erica Corsano

A recent window-shopping, people-watching adventure on Madison Avenue reminded me of how trend-obsessed New Yorkers are. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not an insult, but a compliment — they look great. They also happen to have access to hundreds of indie boutiques, throngs of fashionable celebrities, socialites and eight million people for stylish inspiration. The rest of us might peruse the latest blogs, check out the shows on style.com and thumb through fashion magazines to try and understand what the fashion powers that be have deemed “hot” each season.

But how many of us are actually capable of incorporating runway trends into our real lives? And for that matter, how many of us want to? Sorry, I don’t care how cool it is, I look like a corpse in neon green. In search of a real take on this season’s hottest trends, I consulted a few of my favorite local fashion experts.

Gatsby Great We all know that television shows can have a huge impact on fashion (Mad Men, anyone?). HBO’s Boardwalk Empire, set in Atlantic City during prohibition, was perhaps the first small screen smash hit in recent history to give Americans a full taste of roaring ’20s fashion. Further adding to our love affair with the era’s style, the big screen has fashion bloggers buzzing this spring with the remake of the film The Great Gatsby, based on F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel of the same name. Think embellished tops, bejeweled headbands and dresses with dropped waistlines. This throwback style is one of stylist Lydia Santangelo’s favorites. “I love this trend because it doesn’t require a closet overhaul,” says Santangelo. She advises us to embrace it by adding stand-out accessories to the mix.

Get the look: Sue Wong Beaded dress, $475, saksfifthavenue.com.

Rainbow Bright

If you’re tired of wearing dreary winter colors, this season brings a much-needed breath of fresh air. Both neon and primary colors make replenishing your wardrobe bright. Add a touch of neon with a cardigan, handbag, belt or pair of shoes, or color block with sexy separates.

If you’re not ready for full-on brights, Stacey Simon, owner of National Jean Company, says, “try just a pop of the vibrant pinks, yellows or greens by accessorizing with them.” Simon adds, “A hot and practical bag for spring is the perfect way to add a hint of color, without overloading on the trend.” If you love this comeback from the ’80s, then you might also embrace cropped, printed pants. You’ll find them just about everywhere this season, and when worn the right way, these “fancy pants” are actually fun and flattering.

Get the Look: Cambridge Satchel Company’s neon bag, $155, at National Jean Company, 218 Newbury St. 16

Exhale • Spring 2012

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Style

Works of art

From minimalism to the bright colors from Matisse... show your inner light this spring!

The trends:

Color Your Nails

Add some color to your life this spring!

Start with your nails. Feel inspired with greens, blues, oranges, fuchsia, pinks and yellows!

Soft Smoky Eyes Get a soft smoky eye by using sheer taupes, shimmery bronzes and warm sand tones. For water resistant and crease-proof cream eye shadow, try db cosmetics in taupe 1911, bronze 1797 or gold 1914, $24.

18

Exhale • Spring 2012

Photography by Rob Coshow of Divided By Xero

Mariolga Pantazopoulos Makeup Artist define:beauty, inc.

Doll Lashes Fuller Brow

Etch your brows with db cosmetics brow gel. This easy-to-apply product has enough pigment to fill in the areas that need some attention and will keep your eyebrows in place too.

Comes in three shades: sepia 1907, brown 1939, copper 1954, $22.

For more information, call 508-641-9796.

Jeweled Lip

All the attention is in your lash line. Keep the skin simple with a soft glow on your cheeks and nude lips.

Create a thicker, fuller lash look by curling your lashes then follow with 2-3 coats of mascara while keeping everything else neutral.

I recommend Dior’s Diorshow Buildable Volume mascara in black 090, $25. www.dior.com

Create a perfect pout as your focal point. Play with shades of nudes, oranges and pinks.

Try: Orange Flip from Revlon, $7.19. www.drugstore.com.

For a smooch-proof sheer pink lip stain, try Forever Freesia from NYC, $4.99. www.newyorkcolor.com For a nude lip, try Kim from db cosmetics, $22. www.db-cosmetics.com

Minimalism Luminescent Skin

Add a dime size drop of Nars Illluminator in orgasm, $30, to your moisturizer to get an instant glow!

Keep your eyes naked and give your cheeks and lips a sheer flush of color.

Try Sephora cream blush in Poppy Pink, $14, or their lip & cheek stain in Merlot, $12. www.sephora.com

exhalelifestyle.com

19

Home It felt like we had the entire community behind us,” she said, “rooting for us to be the ones to take on this forgotten lady, pick her up, dust her off and bring her back to her original glory.

1

3

Meghann’s Picks 1. Restored Ashmont Hill Victorian seen from the street.

2.

Necklace found at The Beauty Bar in Dorchester.

2

3.

Turquoise Dansk Paella Pan found at ampersandvintagemodern.com.

4. Antique galvanized tub found at Dark Horse Antiques in Dorchester.

5. Vintage seamstress model

discovered at The Annual Ashmont Hill Yard Sale.

6. Block print. 1930’s hand-chiseled

6

block used to print posters for a traveling circus, discovered by Van Dorn at a garage sale in Buffalo, N.Y.

4

7. “King’s Chair” seat from Cote d’Ivoire in western Africa.

8. Scent: Tea Rose by Perfumer’s

Workshop, been wearing it since high school!

9. Restaurant: Neptune Oyster — the Ciopinno is my fave.

10. Upholsterer: Melo & Sons in Somerville.

5 20

Exhale • Spring 2012

7

Designer Meghann Van Dorn resurrects an old Victorian in Dorchester

By Leslie MacKinnon

I

nterior designer Meghann Van Dorn renovates a dying classic Victorian in one of Boston’s most exciting neighborhoods. Her love for old houses drew her to Ashmont Hill in Dorchester — as did the opportunity to find fixer-uppers with backyards, tree-lined driveways and original period details. Over lunch at The Ashmont Grill one spring afternoon in 2009, she and her husband, Will, soaked up the local atmosphere and found it to be “diverse and welcoming of newcomers,” she said.

Discovering a lonely foreclosed property on Ocean Street, they took note of the many challenges, including the porches in need of repair and the vinyl siding requiring removal. It also needed a new roof and new gutters.

Ultimately, the couple was able to “look past the ugly finishes,” she explained, and focus on the beauty found in the three-story turret, side piazza entrance and built-in cedar closet. They purchased the property, packed up their South End apartment, and quickly devoted their time and energy to restoring the historic house. “It felt like we had the entire community behind us,” she said, “rooting for us to be the ones to take on this forgotten lady, pick her up, dust her off and bring her back to her original glory.” Built in 1894 for the Rowbotham family, the house on Ocean Street remained in that family until the 1920s, when it was sold and converted into two apartments. Servant quarters were on the third floor.

Forty years later, the property became a boarding house during a time of great change in the ethnic landscape in Dorchester. During the 1960s, the neighborhood was transitioning from a primarily Irish-American population to a more diverse one. ^p22 exhalelifestyle.com

21

Designer Meghann Van Dorn

I

n the 1990s and through the turn of the millennium, the house was purchased and sold several times with each owner rehabbing it slightly.

Unfortunately, some of those owners removed many original details — and then the house was up for foreclosure. Moving into a home in need of repair while eight months pregnant with their first child brought it’s own unique challenges for Meghann. But she and Will were able to quickly do much of the repair work to make it livable for a young family.

After the birth of their son Garrett or “Rett,” in early June, they added a new roof and gutters. Over the past two years, they’ve slowly stripped away the layers to reveal original elements and restoring ones that have been lost, like the original shingles.

Meghann’s trademark modern, vintage and antique design style appears throughout her home. Items found at yard sales, or even on Craigslist live a second life via reupholstering or a new finish. Her savvy eye brings in 21st century pieces to easily coexist with the older antiques. An interior designer for the commercial firm Architectural Resources in Cambridge, Meghann grew up in an antique-loving family in rural Pennsylvania. According to Meghann, her mother was a real collector with a great eye. She brought Meghann to her first antique show when she was seven years old.

Her husband’s family also offered a distinct style. Her in-laws’ mid-century home in Wellfleet on Cape Cod employs the “simplicity that really calls to me.”

She says she finds inspiration in design mentors like Duxbury native DD Allen, who always offers a “sense of humor to the space.”

Walking around Meghann’s home, it becomes evident that many pieces are highly personal and tell a story about her family’s history.

Meghann’s older brother, Matt Sullivan, is an artist who created the shadow boxes that adorn her walls. An intense, intelligent man who rode motorcycles and “oozed cool” in the eyes of his younger sister, he started making the boxes as a hobby while living in Chicago, where he was a builder of movie sets.

He moved to Uganda, Africa, with his partner and their 10month-old daughter, and it was there that he suffered a massive stroke in 2004. His speech and cognitive abilities were affected as was the right-side of his body — but she says he was still “thinking in much the same way as he did before, but was unable to communicate what was going on in his head.”

Now living in Dorchester, he has turned back to his boxes to create a visual interpretation of his view of the world. “They are like tiny windows into his mind — something that I’ve been fascinated with since I was a little girl who idolized her big brother,” she says. Reflecting on her labor of love, Meghann says, “Since moving into the neighborhood, there isn’t a spring or summer day that goes by without someone stopping one of us to say ‘thanks’ for putting some love back into our old gal as they pass by. And that is so gratifying … not only do we love what we’ve done, but they do, too.” =

Profile

B

oston Latino TV (BLTV) is bringing Latino culture to the masses. For more than seven years, the independent production that broadcasts its programming in English has been using new media to showcase the Latino presence in Boston and in the rest of the nation. “It started off as a hobby. No one [mainstream media] was covering events that we were interested in,” says Digna Gerena, BLTV founder and senior production & marketing associate at Massachusetts Spanish TV network MASTV–WCEA. “So we started showing up.” According to its mission, BLTV’s goal is to highlight the positive contributions of Latinos to American culture in sports, arts, business and community service.

There’s little new in Latino-focused programming. But English-speaking Latino TV is. Long-standing network Univision is considered the number one TV station for the Latino community followed by Telemundo. But both of them have Spanish-only programming with companion websites that are also in Spanish [unless consumers choose to translate to English]. The estimated Hispanic population of the United States as of July 1, 2009, was 48.4 million, making people of Hispanic origin the nation’s largest ethnic or race minority, according to Census data. By the year 2050, the projected Hispanic population in the U.S. is expected to jump to 132.8 million. With the Hispanic population expected to grow exponentially, one might assume that media representation of the Latino community would change as well.

“Mainstream media misrepresent us . . . or we’re underrepresented,” says Gerena. The BLTV show is a culmination of short clips of important events, art, sports coverage and interviews. It airs Saturdays at 11:00 a.m. on Boston Neighborhood Network (BNN) and on Comcast channel 23. The short segments allow for BLTV to have a major presence on YouTube and cover a lot of news during the half-hour show. “We are a unique TV show that offers positive portrayals of our culture in a diverse range of topics,” says Araminta Romero, director of development and marketing at BLTV. “Understanding is the first step towards integration. We want to share our culture among English-language speakers so everyone can get insight into the Latino community from our point of view.” ^p24

Boston Latino TV dares to be different

By Jacquinn Williams

(Above) Araminta Romero, Digna Gerena and Evelyn Reyes pose at the Access Awards.

(L-R) Clairemise Montero (BLTV host), Araminta Romero (director of development), Gil Matos (co-producer & host), Digna Gerena (founder, executive producer) Tim Estiloz (broadcast & film critic) and Evelyn Reyes (public relations, co-producer).

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23

Boston Latino TV dares to be different

R

omero is also the founder and managing director at The Merge Point, a public relations and marketing communications firm that introduces businesses, organizations and consumers into the multicultural, urban and ethnic markets, and new age segments. She joined Boston Latino TV in November of 2007, a year or so after she met Gerena. “The show had been on air and available on the Internet [via their YouTube channel] for years, but it had little exposure in other social media outlets, and needed a new and more updated image to reach its target audience. I wanted the great work being done at BLTV to be seen, so we started an aggressive marketing

We are a “unique TV

show that offers positive portrayals of our culture in a diverse range of topics.

”

campaign that included a new website, new image, video streaming in other social networks (Facebook, MySpace TV, iTunes), and special events hosted

by BLTV. After a couple of months, our viewership increased from hundreds to thousands, and we improved the TV show’s brand awareness among the most important Latino professional organizations in New England,” says Romero. The BLTV team is gearing up now for their biggest event of the year, the Access Awards in June. It is an annual celebration, where Boston Latino TV honors and recognizes individuals and organizations that have demonstrated commitment to the Latino com24

Exhale • Spring 2012

(L-R) Araminta Romero, Anthony Galluccio, Digna Gerena, Gov. Deval Patrick and Senator Sonia Chang-Diaz.

munity. The idea for the Access Awards started with Gerena wanting to thank Evelyn Reyes — a colon cancer survivor who would show up and host throughout her chemotherapy treatments — for all of her work. Reyes is a co-producer at BLTV and was the first host. “In the beginning, Evelyn was right there with me,” Gerena explains. “Araminta and I used to plan events for Mass. General Hospital. Five years ago, I went to Ara and told her I wanted to create a way to thank Evelyn Reyes for her hard work and dedication. She always made herself available even when she had gone through chemo treatments and her looks changed. She is a true hero in my eyes. That’s why we created the Community Media Award.”

She adds, “Araminta was also recognized with the Make a Difference Award the first year [of the Access Awards] because she saw what Evelyn and I were doing and the value that it was providing to our community. She revamped the website, created a marketing campaign and made our hard work visible to the world.” There are a number of other categories including the Influential Leader Award, Visionary Award and Artistic Expression Award.

Each category is a way for BLTV to give a nod to those who have helped them along the way, from BNN who helped train Gerena to the Latino Professional

Network who have helped them spread the word to Jose Masso who helped connect BLTV to more artists. “Each winner gave us access to something — media, space, networks, technology,” Reyes says. “This year we’re thanking the next layer of helpful people.”

Though BLTV is doing great work, at the onset there were some who wanted the show to be in Spanish. “Some older people asked, ‘Why is the show in English?’ ” Reyes recalls. “But, no one has a legitimate argument against it.”

“Right,” counters Gerena. “But we’re part of the fabric of this nation, so why not English?”

Broadcasting in English certainly hasn’t hurt BLTV’s popularity. They won El Planeta’s 2011 Reader’s Pick award and they’re highly sought after to cover events. “If I miss an event because I’m on vacation or something, there’s no coverage,” says Gerena. “I want more people to cover our stories.

I don’t mind being the third or fourth camera. The more people that cover our stories, the better.” Reyes agrees. “We’d like more folks at the table,” she says.

For the most part the team at BLTV are all volunteers. They’re committed to the community and their message. “Our motto at BLTV is: We do it because it’s fun,” says Romero. “And we live by it.

That doesn’t mean that we don’t have moments of stress, but we enjoy it.”=

Profile

Mary Mazzio

Doesn’t take ‘no’ for an answer

By Astrid Lium

All photos courtesy of Mary Mazzio/50 Eggs Productions.

M

ary Mazzio likes a challenge and she has the life to prove it. By the age of 40, the selfproclaimed iconoclast rowed in the Olympics, made partner in a Boston law firm, had two children and launched her own movie production company.

Now a full-time documentary filmmaker, Mazzio operates her business, “50 Eggs Productions,” from an office at Babson College in Wellesley. With nary a wrinkle or gray hair, the now “over 40” entrepreneur exudes a similar vivaciousness to the undergraduates surrounding her.

A Newton native, Mazzio grew up in Needham and attended Mount Holyoke College, a women-only liberal arts school in Western Massachusetts. An advocate of girls’ sports teams and

organizations, she believes that women benefit from participation in all-female institutions.

Her own son and daughter — Jamie, 15, and Daisy, 13 — both attend same-gender schools. “A single-sex environment does two things,” Mazzio says. “It helps children stay children a little longer, even if it’s six months or a year. And, particularly for girls, I think it’s critical they hear their own voices and become more comfortable.”

Her own experience at Mount Holyoke helped strengthen her voice and build a foundation for her professional life. “You can’t make everyone happy, so just be yourself,” Mazzio says with a shrug and trademark megawatt smile. “Mount Holyoke gave me the courage to be myself.”

However, the voice she developed at an all-women’s school met greater resistance in her classes at Georgetown and in her career as an attorney. While working at the Boston-based firm Brown, Rudnick, Freed and Gesmer, Mazzio spoke freely as she did at Mount Holyoke. However, when male colleagues repeated her ideas only minutes later, they garnered more attention.^p26

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Mary Mazzio doesn’t take ‘no’ for an answer

Mary Mazzio and Dennis Gomez on the set of her new film.

G

ently pointing out the inequality, she would respond by rhetorically asking with a chuckle, “Didn’t I just say that?” Mazzio opts for humor instead of anger or criticism while making her points, no matter how serious.

Claiming that malevolence is “a sign of people being less than enlightened,” she believes that angry responses negatively brand people, especially women.

Mazzio kept this philosophy in mind while making her first film, “A Hero For Daisy.” The 1999 documentary follows the story of Chris Ernst, captain of the 1976 women’s crew at Yale, and the hardships endured by the team only a few years after the ivy league school went co-educational.

The crew protested insufficient athletic facilities and made a statement in the athletic director’s office by stripping their clothes and revealing “Title IX” written across their backs and chests. Mazzio admits that her film “could have been a diatribe about gender equality.” However, she believes that making people feel uncomfortable fails to capture the truth and ultimately thwarts communication.

While an advocate for women’s rights, Mazzio admits to not fully understanding what feminism has become in the 21st century. “I know it meant in the 1970s you took your bra off and you burned it,” she says.

However, now she believes that the term encapsulates women who want to be good mothers, good workers and good people. “I don’t know if that’s feminist, though, or just trying to be a good human.”

Despite her success in various fields, Mazzio is no stranger to adversity and disappointment. Often the last kid picked for a team, she lacked natural athletic ability. Known as “the cellist” in her family, the musically inclined Mazzio recalls being cut from sports teams in high school as her sister excelled in athletics. While trying out for crew at Mount Holyoke, she claims that she “was awful but determined.” At the end of the first week, most of the 150 potential rowers dropped out and she made the team “by default.”

The former attorney also faced external skepticism in her professional life. Told by her superiors that she “may not have what it takes to be a partner” at her law firm, she questioned her career choice as a lawyer. However, she believes that failure is underrated, deems it a “key ingredient for tenacity” and claims that it “gives you character.”

Mazzio ultimately refuses to take ‘no’ as a final answer. “ ‘No’ means ‘not now,’ but that could change tomorrow,” she explains. The awardwinning director, producer and writer of five documentaries concedes that feeling disheartened is human but perseverance is essential to suc-

cess. Not one to dwell in self-pity, she follows her mother’s advice: “You can cry for a day, and then you figure out what to do.�

Thomas Hermann, an attorney at the Boston firm Smith, Duggan, Buell and Rufo, worked with Mazzio in the 1990s at Brown Rudnick and recalls her effort and work ethic. “She carried off both training and work — a highly difficult challenge — superbly,� he says. Describing Mazzio as “a world class elite rower, a world class elite attorney and now an award-winning filmmaker,� Hermann wishes that he could “do even half of that with the same resolve.�

Although he has not worked with Mazzio on a film project, Hermann co-produced the 2002 film “Life From Baghdad� and enjoys recreational rowing on the Charles River.

Despite their shared interests, Hermann claims, “we’re not on the same planet.� After a pause, he adds, with a chuckle, “but maybe on the same river.�

After the Olympics, Mazzio enrolled in film classes at Boston University while working as a lawyer. Four courses shy of a graduate degree, she halted her studies in 2000, when she left the law firm and started her own company. The stress of working as a full-time attorney, making films and raising two small children caused a yearlong stomachache. Mazzio realized that she could not simultaneously manage all of them. “You can have it all, just not at the same time,� she says.

Mazzio attributes some of her success, especially as an entrepreneur, to the support of her family. “My mother instilled in me an ‘I can do anything’ attitude,� she says. Also, she relies on the support of her husband, Jay Manson, whom she met rowing. “Especially in the early years, you need someone to lean on,� she says. “[ Jay] has been incredible.�

While she loves motherhood, Mazzio says she felt inconsequential at first and lost touch with her identity. “If I were a stay-at-home mom, I’d be in a padded room,� she explains. “I need to be in the world achieving.� The outspoken mother emphasizes quality over quantity of time with her kids, maximizing their activities together.

Claiming that all mothers have angst and struggle with the balancing act, she says that no one gets it quite right, whether they stay at home or work. “I’ll never be a mother I seek to emulate,� Mazzio admits, referring to bake sales and school involvement. However, despite her busy schedule, she insists, “If my kid has a hockey game, I’ll go.�

The businesswoman, mother and athlete still manages to do a lot. Although her Olympic days are behind her, Mazzio rises at 5:30 a.m. six mornings per week to train on the Charles River. She also competes in the annual Head of the Charles Regatta. “I will continue to row until my teeth fall out,� she says with a chuckle.

Mazzio is currently promoting her latest film, “The Apple Pushers,� which follows the story of five immigrants selling fresh produce from pushcarts in New York City. She chooses projects carefully, prioritizing stories with inspiring role models and social impact. “I feel like I’ve started to make a difference,� she says. “But I have a lot more to do.�=

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Profile

The ultimate survivor fights for the Cambodian community

By Brian Wright O’Connor

O

Tary Meas and business partner Vannak Kann flank Prince Norodom Ranarith during their 2005 visit to Phnom Phen to open discussions of bringing Cambodian Kickboxing to the U.S. 28

Exhale • Spring 2012

n a recent late-winter afternoon at the Kun Khmer Federation, Chantary (Tary) Meas roams the gym, demonstrating punches and kicks to a dozen Cambodian kids. The sounds of children learning and laughing echo off the whitewashed stone walls of the old building on Middlesex Street in gritty downtown Lowell.

“This is what it’s all about,” says Tary. “We’re trying to start something important here — hope and opportunity for these kids and the Cambodian community.”

The Kun Khmer Federation serves as a social center for Lowell’s Cambodian community, a training gym for at-risk youth, and a venue for staging professional kickboxing matches derived from “Kun Khmer,” the ancient form of Cambodian kickboxing whose rituals are engraved on the stone walls of the Ankgor Wat temple.

Tary’s remarkable journey from war refugee to Cambodian community leader and martial arts entrepreneur reads like a movie script. The wildly suc-

cessful Mark Wahlberg vehicle, “The Fighter,” perhaps deserves a sequel, with Tary Meas rather than Mickey “Irish” Ward serving as the centerpiece of a Lowell story of redemption and resolve. As much as war transformed Cambodia, it also transformed Tary, diverting her from the path of a conventional Khmer woman — submissive to a husband, devoted above all to family — to a more active life.

“Tary is a very strong woman — emotionally, mentally, physically and spiritually,” says former Massachusetts state Sen. Steven C. Panagiotakos. “She has an amazing tale of survival and has used her abilities to give back and help others.” The daughter of an architect who served in the Cambodian parliament, Tary enjoyed the privileged lifestyle of the Buddhist bourgeoisie in her early years. She and her seven brothers and sisters lived in a home filled with flowers and the soft rustling of silk.

In 1975, when she was seven, all that changed with the arrival of the Khmer Rouge, who slaughtered some three million Cambodians, targeting the educated and the middle class, over the course of their regime.

The Meas family fled Phnom Penh for the countryside, hoping to find anonymous refuge among the masses living in makeshift camps.

Photos courtesy of Tary Meas

Her parents bartered jewelry and gold for food while hiding their identity from marauding cadres of soldiers who led the innocent to “The Killing Fields” of mass graves.

“There was no more school, no more property,” says Tary. “The only religion was the barrel of a gun.”The Meas family sent one older child to live with relatives while the rest were scattered among camps. Tary and her two younger sisters were allowed to remain with their parents. But the union didn’t last long. Her parents were led away to prison. Tary was sent with her sisters to a camp for children, where her first task was to scrub the floors clean of the blood of the murdered owners.

“They told us to forget about our families, our homes, our old lives — that it was all dead. After two months there, I was told that I now belonged to the government and had a responsibility to watch out for others.”

Tary was put in charge of 30 children and ordered to make sure they worked steadily in the fields. She often saw soldiers leading groups of people tied together like livestock into groves of trees, where they were

lined up and mowed down by bursts of gunfire. “In my mind, I just believed my parents were no longer alive,” she says. “I was numb and just did what I had to do. We ate insects. We shivered at night. We had to overcome darkness and ghosts.” In 1979, Vietnamese soldiers flooded across the border into Cambodia to oust the Khmer Rouge. In the midst of bombing and shelling, Tary and her sisters fled the camp. Moving by an abandoned clinic one night, she heard moaning. Inside, she found a woman in labor, struggling to deliver twins. “I just did what she said — helped pull them out and cut the umbilical cords.” She was just 11.

After months of trudging through the countryside, Tary found an older sister. Weeks later, while selling potatoes on the street, she spotted a man walking by, searching the crowd, looking. It was her father. Miraculously both her parents had survived the war, along with six of her siblings.

Only one was missing — taken away by soldiers, never to be seen again.

Reunited, the family snuck across the Thai border to a refugee camp.

In September 1981, a U.S. transport plane flew them to San Francisco and to a new life in Richmond, Va. Everyone pitched in to pay for food, heat and rent.

Tary entered the local public school, raked leaves, cleaned houses and worked at a day care center. She studied computer science at a local college. At age 19, she had her degree and a future husband — a Cambodian she had met at a Massachusetts wedding. In 1990, she moved to Lynn and began working with a Lowell startup. A daughter, Seda, was born in 1992, and her son, Tevin, in 1998. Meanwhile, the company flourished but the marriage faltered.

In 2000, she struck out on her own — a highly unusual move in Cambodian culture. “Nobody put a bullet to my head to stay. After ten years, it was time to go. Why stay in a marriage that puts me down?” she says. “I am not a meek Cambodian woman. I had my own work, my own life.”

She bought a home in suburban Dracut, and to supplement her income, opened a convenience store in Lowell. Her life took another turn when Dicky Eklund, the half-brother of Mickey Ward, walked into her store. Intrigued by the attractive proprietor, the former welterweight described his life in the boxing world and invited her to a fight in Revere. “When I saw the ring and the crowd and felt the excitement, a light went on,” she says. “I knew it was what I wanted to do.”

Working with a Cambodian friend, Vannak Kan, now her business partner, Tary traveled to Phnom Penh in 2004 to discuss promoting Cambodian boxers in the U.S.Their mission received massive media coverage and they were summoned to meet with Prince Ranarith Norodom in his office at the Cambodian parliament. They returned to Lowell as official representatives of the Cambodian government.

By then, she was working at the Massachusetts Executive Office of Public Safety as a systems manager. The state’s boxing commissioner soon named her one of the commission’s 28 deputies.

Tary has overseen about 35 boxing and mix martial arts bouts. She is easy to spot, the only woman on stage fully dressed. If anything goes amiss, in the ring or out, she can stop the bout immediately. There were many who doubted her ability to keep cool amidst the sweat and carnage of human beings pummeling each other for profit, but she’s considered one of the state’s most reliable commissioners. Kann, who left a successful banking career to run the federation, hopes the club can open its doors to its first matches before the fall. “It’s all due to Tary,” he says. “She is a great model for me but especially for Cambodian women because she shows that they can be whatever they want to be. She wants to make a difference, and that’s exactly what she’s doing.”= exhalelifestyle.com

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Profile

Dr. Una Ryan

Copyright: Diagnostics For All

CEO of Diagnostics For All aims to save lives

By Kenneth J. Cooper

(Above) Dr. Una Ryan in her lab. (Right) Dr. Ryan with colleagues.

(Steffen Thaleman photo)

A

small nonprofit in Cambridge aims to save lives, improve health and boost productivity in developing countries around the world with pieces of paper the size of a postage stamp.

This is no NGO with grand goals founded on idealism. Diagnostics For All (DFA) is grounded in science. It’s the pioneering work of a distinguished Harvard professor who discovered a way to test for diseases and medical conditions easily and accurately without technicians and costly labs.

Getting the ground-breaking technology that chemistry professor George Whitesides developed for the Defense Department first past regulators and then to the sick in poor countries is the mission of a former medical school professor and corporate CEO Una Ryan, who was born in war-torn Asia. Since her childhood in England, Ryan has yearned to heal people in the developing world.

“I think if you want to manage the health of a person or of a population, you’ve got to have the right information,” says Ryan, CEO of DFA since 2010. “The more cheaply you can gather that intel, the better, because you want to save your health care dollar or rupee or whatever for the treatment and the education. Testing people accurately saves lives and saves money.”

Even in this country, diagnostic tests are expensive, and relatively more so in poor nations. The testing that is available may be 30

Exhale • Spring 2012

Copyright: Diagnostics For All

unreliable. So health professionals don’t test. Instead, they go with their educated hunches.

“If you have a child who has a fever who is not coughing, they’ll be given an anti-malarial. Only 50 percent of the time does the child actually have malaria,” Ryan says, citing one example of mistaken diagnosis. “So you’re producing drug resistance, exposing people to side effects, giving them the wrong drug sometimes.”

The medical tests that DFA is preparing to distribute are somewhat similar to home pregnancy and blood sugar tests, only

more reliable and sophisticated, according to Ryan. Tiny channels are etched in small pieces of paper and treated with disease-detecting agents. A patient can self-administer the test by applying a dab of blood or other body fluid, and then eyeballing the colorcoded results.

“This is high tech at low-tech prices,” she says. “It’s postagestamp size pieces of paper, and we make the device on a printer.

We use wax printing on an ordinary desktop printer that I could send a letter on.”

The test at the most advanced stage is for liver damage, a potential side-effect of drugs for HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis patients. “The incidence of liver damage from those drugs is much lower in the U.S. than in the developing world, and that’s because people test for liver function here,” Ryan explains.

The condition can land patients on dialysis or make them need an artificial liver, both expensive procedures. If the damage goes unnoticed, “ultimately you die,” Ryan says bluntly. Detection affords an easy, simple solution to stop the liver damage — switch patients to another antiretroviral drug for HIV or a different TB medication. Field trials are being conducted in Vietnam.

Though her words resonate with the accent of Oxford, England, where she grew up, Ryan is a native of the developing world she strives to help. She was born during World War II, in an air raid shelter of a hospital in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, as Japanese troops roared down the Malay Peninsula in the early 1940s. She and her Chinese mother escaped; her British father did not.

“My father was captured and interned by the Japanese. The last thing [my mother] remembered my father saying as he disappeared in a sea of faces at the docks was, ‘Go to Mary in England,’ ” Ryan says, without self-pity. “So, after struggling across the world as refugees, we ended up in my Aunt Mary’s house in Oxford. I grew up in Oxford from 18 months to 18 years. But I had lived in Africa and India and everywhere by then, just getting across the world. That’s a very dramatic beginning.”

Oxford is known for its elite university, home of the Rhodes Scholarship. The early, informal education that Ryan received from her relative there proved valuable.

“Aunt Mary was from that wonderful generation of women who had lost the loves of their lives in World War I, but yet had done something very useful — they were all doctors or dentists or missionaries,” Ryan remembers. “So that was the exposure I had to strong, capable women when I was a very little girl.”

Her aunt once took her to a gathering of missionaries and they watched a movie about a small African boy whose family had been taken away and quarantined because they had leprosy. “It really broke my heart, and I decided when I grew up I was going to be a missionary doctor and I was going to cure all these dread diseases,” recalls Ryan with a chuckle. She was five then.

Ryan earned a PhD in cellular and molecular biology from Cambridge University and got hooked on research. For more

than a quarter century, her specialty of studying the lining of blood vessels carried her up the academic ranks to full professor of medicine. She has her own lab and 500 academic journal articles to her credit.

But the little girl’s dream of healing the sick in poor countries tugged at her white lab coat. “I hadn’t saved a life yet,” she remembers musing. But she lacked the medical training to care directly for patients. “I made the case to myself that if I could save countless lives of people I didn’t know, that would be just as good.”

Ryan joined Monsanto, a large pharmaceutical company, in St. Louis. Her next transition brought her to the Boston area as chief scientific officer of a small biotech company that became known as AVANT Immunotherapeutics. She became CEO and built a company that produced vaccines for travelers going abroad.

On the side, she secured grants to spinoff technologies to help the developing world, for example, vaccinate for diarrhea, a major cause of death among children.

After the sale of AVANT Immunotherapeutics in 2008, she left the company to run a startup, Waltham Technologies, that used algae to convert waste from breweries and wineries into fuel.

As a benevolent sideline, she was plotting ways to apply the methods she learned there to clean the water in ponds and wells in the developing world. Then the opportunity to run DFA came along.

The academic scientist and corporate CEO finds the nonprofit’s devotion to helping the developing world appealing.

She has devised a way to make it selfsustaining with a forprofit subsidiary that will license the tests to paying customers.

“I want something that will stand on its own feet and out-survive me by centuries,” Ryan explains.

During her two years there, the nonprofit organization has grown from one employee to eleven. Ben Whitesides, son of the Harvard professor who invented the technology, is one of those employees.

Ryan estimates it will take a year to guide the liver function test through the regulatory regimen of the Food and Drug Administration. Clinical trials will follow. Another test to predict premature births is being researched in southern Africa.

Once the tests have been cleared, distributing them to the poor around the world will be next. It’s a creative challenge for Ryan. She says DFA may work with governments, schools, clinics, retailers and nimble NGOs for further reach in host countries.

“We may have to have some nontraditional distribution,” Ryan says “to get our diagnostics, very inexpensively, to everybody who needs them” in the developing world. That is a grand goal.

In India, chain convenience or drug stores may stock the stamp-sized tests. They may be handed out in Africa by health workers who bicycle to rural villages or vendors hawking cellphone cards in urban slums.

“I’m seeing a very big future here,” Ryan says. “It’s not a small vision at all.”=

“I want something that will

stand on its own feet and out-survive me by centuries.”

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Profile

Linda Pizzuti Henry

Making her own mark in Boston — a city she loves B y A strid L ium

During a recent breakfast in Back Bay, Linda Pizzuti Henry orders her usual morning fare. Fifteen minutes later, a plate of scrambled eggs, a generous portion of steaming oatmeal, a bowl of fresh berries, and a pot of freshly brewed green tea arrive on a tray. As the waiter spreads the dishes around the table, attempting to split the meal between two people, Linda gently corrects him.

“Sorry,” she says politely, “that’s actually all for me.”

Her svelte frame may indicate otherwise, but Linda loves food. A culinary passion, which started at an early age, continues to surface in both her personal and professional life. Although reluctant to refer to herself as either a “foodie” or an

Photograph by Ian Justice: www.ianjustice.com Hair and makeup by Michelle McGrath: Team Artist Representative Styling by Erica Corsano

32

Exhale • Spring 2012

expert, the self-proclaimed proud Bostonian does admit to an appreciation of good food and health consciousness.^p34

Fendi “fragola” dress, $980 at Saks Fifth Avenue White turquoise and brass necklace drop earrings $235 at Persona Jewelry Belt, Alan Bilzerian, Linda’s own

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33

Linda Pizzuti Henry

T

he youngest of four girls, Linda grew up in a family in which food played an important role. “Both of my grandmothers were incredibly talented cooks,” she says. “[They] prided themselves on serving their families whole food from scratch with love.”

The Lynnfield native grew up learning to appreciate fresh ingredients and enjoy seasonal dishes. She still bakes her Nonna Pizzuti’s ricotta cookies, the recipe for which she proudly shares with Exhale.

Besides food, the other family focus was business. Growing up, the four Pizzuti sisters helped their father with his real estate development company. “I am very grateful that I started working young because I developed an early love and understanding of business,” Linda says. “I was exposed to so much, especially as we had to start at the bottom.” Having duties from filing and cleaning to political fundraising and decorating, she learned the intricacies of development and learned to love the process of it.

Linda also has a formal education in business and real estate, which she applied to her post-graduate work in the family firm. She earned a BS in Business from Babson College and an MS in real estate development from MIT. “I learned to look at a building in the context of how it serves a

“I want to utilize creative ways to reach, enable and empower others as much as I can.

”

neighborhood, smart growth [and] street activation,” she says of her hands-on studies. After finishing her thesis, Linda worked with her family on residential development projects and investment.

She enjoys staying busy and taking on the challenge of time management. But her participation in other entrepreneurial projects — MassChallenge, The Awesome Foundation and the Pipeline Fellowship among others — has curtailed the amount of work she does with the development firm. “Currently, all three of my sisters are running the family real estate business, and doing a great job,” Linda says.

“I have limited involvement these days.”

Instead she spends more of her time working with the team behind the Boston Public Market Association (BPMA), which is now launching Boston’s first year-round public food market. Projected to open in the downtown area, between the Financial District and North Station, the market plans to offer local produce and regional products seven days per week in a centralized location.

The transition from property development to a food market comes naturally to Linda, who claims that the Boston Public Market is, in fact, a real estate project. “It is utilizing the built environment to serve the community,” she says. “Without finding, designing and building-out a site, the market can’t take place.”

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Exhale • Spring 2012

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An investor, philanthropist and volunteer, Linda is involved in several local, national and international organizations. Although she invests most of her time in The Red Sox Foundation and the Liverpool Football Club — both of which are owned by her husband John Henry — Linda feels most passionate about the BPMA. The idea of a public market in Boston first piqued her interest in 2006, when she read about the efforts of the BPMA. She followed the organization’s developments more closely after discovering that one of her teaching assistants from MIT, Yanni Tsipis, was on the board of directors.

Now a board member herself, Linda joins a panel of professionals from a variety of fields, including real estate, agriculture, nutrition and law. “I met Don Wiest, the incredible visionary that is leading this movement, while on tour of the proposed parcel, and eventually started working with the group,” she recalls.

Linda’s first project with the organization was an online video that encourages viewers to contact Gov. Deval Patrick and bring the State’s attention to the project. According to Wiest, the president of BPMA, “Linda’s video project illustrates her knack for combining project strategy with social media.” Featuring Boston farmers, chefs, business owners and foodies — including Todd English and Ming Tsai — who underscore the importance and benefits of a public market, the video was set up to be viral and easily forwarded. Wiest underscores the ripple effect of such a project, noting that the video spawned hundreds of letters sent to the governor’s office.

The idea of a public market resonates personally with Linda, whose grandfather worked as a vendor in Boston’s Haymarket Square as a young man. While traveling, she prioritizes visiting local food markets in each of her destination cities. “It gives me the clearest, unfiltered window into the heart of where I am,” says Linda. “The public market reflects where a city is currently, whereas most tourist shops show you what the city once was.”

Hoping that a local public market reflects Boston in a similar fashion, the avid traveler believes that such an addition to the city offers myriad benefits.

Underscoring the diversity of the project, Linda claims that a market will provide goods to local shoppers and tourists, as well as business for regional entrepreneurs and artisans.

“There are precious few feasible projects that I have come across where you can really enhance the lives of such a broad range of people economically and culturally,” she says.

Although Linda splits her time between Massachusetts and Florida, traveling the globe when time allows, she deems Boston her home. When discussing the local community and the opportunities it proffers, Linda has grand plans for her city’s future. “Boston can be just as much of a food destination as San Francisco,”she says.“We in Boston live in the heart of one of the nation’s great food regions.”

Linda hopes that a public market will showcase the best that New England has to offer with a public market.

Likening her involvement in the BPMA, and other community projects about which she feels passionate, to puzzle pieces, Linda is gradually combining her skill sets and seeing a bigger picture. “These projects are all related to an overall philosophy,” she says.

Although she admits to not having it all figured out, Linda does have a common goal circulating her participation in each project. “I want to utilize creative ways to reach, enable and empower others as much as I can.”

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exhalelifestyle.com

35

Food

Public market comes to Boston

By Astrid Lium

T

he popularity of locavorism — growing, purchasing and consuming locally grown products — has dramatically increased both locally and nationally. The number of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) participants, community gardens and ‘green’ restaurants serving local food is rising. In 2011, the state of Massachusetts boasted 257 farmers’ markets — an increase from 237 in 2010 — about 30 of which operated in or around Boston.

But due to the limited growing season in the northeast, farmers’ markets only seasonally provide access to fresh local produce. Vendors at Haymarket Square sell goods all year, but many of their products — avocados from Mexico, Hawaiian pineapple, garlic from China — do not qualify as local, or even regional. As it is now, Boston lacks a year-round marketplace that exclusively sells local products.

The people involved with the Boston Public Market Association (BPMA) want to change that. For more than a decade, the association has been planning a viable way to open a market in downtown Boston that is open seven days per week all year. According to the BPMA’s website, in 2001, a group of food lovers, food producers, and State and City officials gathered to begin what would become the Boston Public Market Association. Later this year, those plans may finally start coming to fruition.

Donald Wiest, an attorney with Brennan, Dain, Le Ray, Wiest, Torpy & Garner, P.C., is the president of BPMA. He joined the organization about seven years ago and has been a chair member and president since 2007. Wiest attributes the depth of his participation to personal interest in the development. “I got involved because I 36

Exhale • Spring 2012

An image of how the Boston Public Market may look. (Photo courtesy of CBT)

work in real estate and I like food,” he says.

“The two come together with this project.”

Despite his position in the organization, Wiest takes a humble stance in regard to his involvement with the BPMA. Referring to himself as “just a volunteer,” he says that he is but one member of “a very active board of directors,” which consists of about 25 members with an array of backgrounds, from architecture and farming to communications and community activism.

Wiest says the project is a group effort, emphasizing that it “has benefited from the involvement of some extremely talented, committed people.” The involvement of the board members and various other volunteers ranges from a couple to 10 hours per week.

Having served as the Land Use Counsel to the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) from 2001 to 2006, Wiest believes that his background and expertise in real estate benefits the association.

“Boston is a densely developed and relatively small city,” he says. “It lacks parking space ... and a feasible site seemed to be the key piece.” The market will be housed in the 30,000-square-foot, ground floor space of Parcel 7, a state-owned building

located on the Rose F. Kennedy Greenway in downtown Boston.

Having grown up with a garden at his home in Pennsylvania, Wiest has had a lifelong appreciation of homegrown food. He shopped at the Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia, the diversity of farmers and patrons of which inspired him.

“My own food culture experiences were limited,” he says. “I had them through the market.”

Modeled on that and other North American public markets, like Seattle’s Pike Place and Atwater Market in Montréal, the Boston Public Market plans to adopt similar practices and thrive in the same fashion.

One of the primary objectives of the BPMA is to combine the efforts and energies of disparate supporters and participants to create a community. “There is something about public markets that are happy,” says Wiest. “There isn’t the human connection at a grocery store that you get at a public market.”

He says he hopes the market will help bridge the gap between the country, where most of the food is grown, and the city, where the demand for food is the highest in volume.

To make a public market accessible to

the highest number of people, the BPMA plans to have extensive hours seven days per week to attract commuters on their way in and out of the city. Also, Wiest emphasizes the inclusive nature of the project, noting that it will accept payments from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which are the same as food stamps.

“The BPMA matches money from SNAP dollar for dollar,” he says. “We want to make it affordable to all.”

The market will sell primarily, if not exclusively, produce, seafood, cheese and specialty foods from Massachusetts. But, maintaining a strict statewide policy or expanding into regional goods remains a debated aspect of the project.

According to Wiest, “the state wants to see a lean toward Massachusetts, but there are other products.” He notes that New England has become a great cheese-making region, and wants to choose the best products in the area, even if that means reaching into Vermont or Maine.

Although the BPMA has garnered a great deal of support from the local com-

munity, such popularity has actually been a drawback for the organization.

“It seems counterintuitive, but opponents make the proponents that much stronger,” Wiest says. “Everyone looks at this and loves it, so the tendency is to think that it will happen naturally.” As a result, items like a public market slip in the priority list as the state tackles more urgent matters first.

To nab the attention of the public, potential supporters and the government, Wiest insisted on spotlighting the project.

Fellow board member Linda Pizzuti Henry suggested a video for the website and set it up to go viral.

It features local farmers, business owners, chefs and foodies — including Barbara Lynch and Michael Schlow — encouraging viewers to share the video via email or social media.

According to Wiest, “Linda knew a lot of people in the video, [which was] cleverly and expertly shot, edited and scored with music.”

Below the video is a virtual postcard preaddressed to Gov. Deval Patrick, which urges the government to support the public market.

Wiest claims that the phenomenon spawned Advertisement

hundreds of eloquent emails from thoughtful people who sent them to the governor’s office.

“The state leapt into action after the public spoke out,” he says. “Linda harnessed the people and leveraged the response.” The state has allocated about $4 million of the projected $15 million required for renovations and startup costs of the public market.

Both Wiest and Pizzuti Henry emphasize that there is power in numbers, especially when everyone involved benefits from the project.He claims that connecting farmers and patrons directly removes unnecessary costs of transportation and adds a more human element to the transaction. Pizzuti Henry says she is excited about promoting local products and helping farmers maintain their economic autonomy with public demand.

“I love the ripple effect on how this will be an economic boost to the region,” she says.

“It will enable independent farmers as long as the market exists.”

For more information on Boston’s Public Market visit www.bostonpublicmarket.org.=

Feature Chef

Lydia Shire

A Boston chef determined to succeed

By Allison Knott, RD

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Exhale • Spring 2012

Eric Levin of Elevin Studios photos

I

nside Boston’s Liberty Hotel, a warm restaurant with copper and reddish orange accents fills the space that was once a city jail. The original brick walls contrast the fiery atmosphere of renown Chef Lydia Shire’s restaurant Scampo.

On a recent sunny afternoon in Boston, Shire is perched on a chair that she designed. “They named it the Lydia chair,” she says to illustrate how she had her hands in all aspects of Scampo, from the chair to the color of the linens. “It has been a true labor of love,” she says.

She goes on to explain how all her restaurants are like children. “Each one is different, they are equally special, but you love them all the same,” she says. “And they will need you at different times.”

Shire is a Massachusetts native with an unlikely path to success. With three children at the age of 21 and facing an early divorce, she sold her engagement ring to pay her way to London’s Cordon Bleu culinary arts school. After completing her time in London, she went on to be the first female to work at Maison Robert in Boston.

Her first interview for the job was almost a disaster. “I prepared a sevenlayer cake with a real buttercream icing,” she says. “I had to order an air conditioned cab to drive me to the interview in the middle of July just to be sure the cake didn’t melt.”

With that sort of uncompromising attention to detail, Shire went on to work in some of the best restaurants in Boston — Harvest, Café Plaza at the Copley Plaza Hotel and Parker’s at the Parker House Hotel.

It didn’t stop there. She went on to become the first female executive chef of the Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts Company after opening the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif. She was named “America’s Best

Chef – Northeast” in 1992 by the James Beard Foundation and was also honored as “One of America’s Top Ten Chefs” by Food & Wine. But Shire might best be known in Boston for her takeover of Locke-Ober, a restaurant that prohibited women from its dining room for 97 years.

Despite her enormous success, Shire is modest and friendly in her approach. Her philosophy for success is to pursue what you want. “There is no ‘no’ in the world. There has to be a way,” she says.

Her determination is clear. She reminds her chefs, “You have to make your eight hours in a job work for you. And if you look around and see what everyone else knows, and you know one more, that will make you rise to the top.”

When asked where she will go from here, she says she is in the best spot of her life. She is working with three great chefs — Simon Restrepo, Mario Capone and Oscar Figueroa — who have followed her for more than 15 years. “These three chefs and myself, we are truly a great team, we think alike,” says Shire.

In addition, Shire is teaching cooking classes in Boston at Towne. Although she describes the classes as “traumatizing,” she enjoys the work and enjoys challenging the participants to make culinary creations that aren’t considered “easy,” a word Shire says is not in her vocabulary.

Lydia Shire’s Lobster Pizza Ingredients 2 cups heavy cream 1 tablespoon tomato paste ½ cup of dry white wine 1 teaspoon black peppercorns 1 small onion 5 cloves of garlic Olive oil 2 shallots Whole 2 lb. lobster Handful of ricotta salata cheese Handful of parmesan cheese

garlic Saute ½ cup olive oil with 2 shallots and 3 it until ch blan er, lobst the cloves, put aside. Cook from er lobst ove Rem tes. minu 4-5 comes to a boil, n and the body and set the meat aside. Sauté onio ½ cup and ns ercor 2 cloves of garlic, bay leaf, pepp add 2 Then y. /bod shell er lobst of white wine. Add . paste to toma of n spoo table 1 and cream cups of er lobst add then Reduce to one cup, strain and cool, e. ston pizza on h meat. Place pizza doug Add a handful of ricotta salata and parmesan . cheese. Add diced lobster cream to next layer nkle Spri top. on ure Sprinkle shallot-garlic mixt with julienned scallions as a flavorful garnish. t it isn’t. You expect everything you expected to be there, excep Wine Pairing with Lobster Pizza Trimbach Muscat. It shines the spotlight on 2005 the s a simple, fleetthat’ me than For . rather match to aroma the wine to a es certainly, except there’s depth and endurance A treat as unexpected as lobster pizza deserv -for-more. t it to be floral and aromatic and it is that, -back expec You come dry.) more bone that, es than finish ly ined actual restra (It . and t it to be sweet, except it isn’ statement, except it doesn’t. It’s more serene this – for the taste to stand up and make a ing top note. And you expect – amidst all of Which I do, of course. there is in Lydia Shire’s lobster pizza. going on in a single glass of this wine than There may just be more of the unexpected It’s that special. special-order it for me.

Just like… well, lobster pizza. any, however, have been kind enough to The folks over at the Lower Falls Wine Comp ble. availa y widel not is – pizza r lobste To purchase: This is a wine that – like jross@jrosswine.com or www.jrosswine.com.

For more information, contact Jo-Ann Ross at

Feature Chef: Lydia Shire

Scampo Spag Crackling

This signature dish can only be sampled by visiting Chef Lydia Shire’s restaurant Scampo.

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Recipes

Recipes from

Wilson Farm Wilson Farm grows more than 125 crops each year and has been growing rhubarb at its Lexington, Mass., location since the 1930s. Rhubarb seems to stump a vast majority of shoppers and many cannot think beyond the strawberryrhubarb pie recipe. But Todd Heberlein, head chef at Wilson Farm, encourages their shoppers to try other recipes. According to Heberlein, “In-season rhubarb has much better flavor. You’ll definitely taste the difference.” When buying rhubarb, look for stalks that are firm, avoiding any that are starting to brown or show damage. Once purchased, rhubarb should be stored in a plastic bag, in the refrigerator.

Roasted Pork Tenderloin with Rhubarb Thyme Jam Serves 4-5 Ingredients 2½-3 lbs. pork tenderloin 5 sprigs thyme 2 cloves garlic, smashed Olive oil Salt

Rhubarb Thyme Jam 4½ cups rhubarb, diced ¾ cup white wine ½ cup orange juice 1 box (1.75 oz) pectin 5½-6 cups sugar 1 star anise 2 slices crystallized ginger 2-3 sprigs thyme Pinch salt and pepper

Combine pork, thyme, garlic, olive oil and a pinch of black pepper. Refrigerate for at least 2-4 hours. Meanwhile, make the sauce.

Place the wine, star anise, and ginger in a sauce pot over low heat. Reduce almost all the way. Add orange juice, thyme and pepper. Reduce until almost gone. Add rhubarb and pectin and bring back to a boil. Whisk in sugar. Bring back to a boil, and boil for 1 minute. Remove from heat. Skim any foam off of top. Discard star anise and thyme. Let cool.

Preheat oven to 350⁰F. Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large pan over medium high heat. Sprinkle pork with salt and place in pan.

Brown evenly. Place pork on a sheet pan along with garlic and thyme sprigs. Place in oven and cook until internal temperature is 150ºF (using a meat thermometer), about 25-35 minutes (depending on the size of the tenderloin). Let rest for 10 minutes. Slice and arrange on plates. Place a spoonful of the rhubarb jam next to it.

Rhubarb Bread Pudding Serves 10-12 8 cups challah bread, lightly toasted 3 cups rhubarb, thinly sliced 4 eggs 2 egg yolks ¾ cup sugar 2½ cups milk 2½ cups light cream ¼ cup honey 1 teaspoon vanilla 1½ teaspoons orange zest 2 tablepoons dried lavender, crushed

In a large bowl, mix eggs, sugar, milk, cream, honey, vanilla, orange zest and lavender. Place toasted bread in a bowl and let soak for 20-30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Preheat oven to 325⁰F. Mix rhubarb into bowl. Lightly spray a 9”x13” baking dish. Pour mixture into pan. Cover with foil and bake for 25 minutes. Remove foil and bake another 12-20 minutes until golden brown (the inside should be slightly wet). Let sit for 20-30 minutes before serving.

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41

Farmers’ Market Recipes

Featured produce of the month of May

Asparagus FUN FACTS:

• Asparagus grows in different colors — green, white and purple. White and green asparagus come from the same plant. If it’s covered with soil as it grows, it stays white.

But if it grows in the sun, it turns green.

• A stalk of asparagus can grow as much as 10 inches in one day!

• Asparagus, along with onions and garlic, is a member of the lily family.

• Asparagus spears grow out of crowns buried in sandy soil. The spears are ready to eat only a few weeks a year. So enjoy this fresh, spring treat while you can!

Baked Asparagus and Parmesan Cheese Serves: 4 1 lb. asparagus, bottom stems removed 1 teaspoon olive or vegetable oil 1 tablespoon parmesan cheese, grated 1½ tablespoons bread crumbs 1 fresh lemon, sliced (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 450˚F. 2. Gently mix asparagus with oil and lay in an even layer in a medium baking dish.

3. Sprinkle parmesan cheese on top and then top with bread crumbs.

4. Bake for about 15 minutes or until asparagus is tender.

5. Serve with a lemon slice on top, if desired.

TIPS:

• Asparagus is a good source of vitamins A and C, and fiber.

• Try dipping raw, tender asparagus in a low-fat dip, or chopped and tossed into a salad.

• Serve cold with vinaigrette, or with olive oil, fresh-squeezed lemon and a sprinkle of salt.

• Feed it to your kids! The flavor is mild and is fun to munch, raw or cooked.

Nutrition Facts: Serving size: about ½ cup; Calories: 56; Fruits and Vegetables: ½ serving; Fat: 1.5 g; Fiber 3 g.

Recipe provided by UMass Extension Nutrition Education Program, www.extension.umass.edu/nutrition.

42

Exhale • Spring 2012

PICK OF THE CROP:

• Choose firm, fresh asparagus with compact tips and smooth stems. Both thin and thick spears can be tender. Spears grow either thin or thick from the ground and stay that way.

They do not get thicker with age.

• Store asparagus in the refrigerator with the cut ends wrapped in damp paper towels. Trim the spears before cooking by bending the stalks until they snap. They naturally break where the spears start to get tough. Cook only until the spears are bright green and still somewhat firm.

MORE MATTERS!

Fruit and veggie tips for kids:

• Place 3 or 4 asparagus spears and some cheese in a flour tortilla. Roll it up, heat it, and enjoy!

• Try roasted asparagus: toss spears in olive oil and minced garlic. Then spread them in a single layer on a baking sheet. Roast uncovered in the oven at 450°F for 12 minutes, turning the spears once or twice as they cook. If you like, sprinkle the roasted spears with balsamic vinaigrette.

• Top whole wheat crackers with chopped asparagus (either raw or cooked). Sprinkle with shredded mozzarella cheese and microwave just until the cheese melts.

PICK OF THE CROP:

Strawberry Shake Serves: 2 1 cup fresh strawberries, washed and sliced ¾ cup pineapple juice or any 100% fruit juice ½ cup vanilla yogurt, low-fat or frozen yogurt, low-fat

• Choose firm, plump strawberries with a bright red color. If you buy strawberries in a box, check the underside of the box. This is where the strawberries will most likely show spoilage.

• Avoid berries that have mold or look dark, soft, and damp. When you get them home, sort them and throw away any overripe berries.

• Put the rest in the refrigerator unwashed with their green caps still on. They should keep for several days.

• When you are ready to eat them, wash them and remove the green caps with a small knife or spoon.

1. Gently rinse strawberries. Cut off stems and slice strawberries.

2. Place all ingredients in a blender.

3. Secure lid and blend until smooth. Pour and serve.

TIPS:

• Shop at farmers’ markets for fresh and local fruits and vegetables in season.

• Use frozen or canned fruit when not in season.

• Using frozen yogurt makes the shake thick and creamy.

Nutrition Facts using pineapple juice: Serving size: 1 cup; Calories: 120; Fruits and Vegetables: 1½ servings; Fat: 1 g; Fiber 2 g.

FUN FACTS:

• Strawberries are the first fruit ready to eat in the spring.

There are about 67 pick-your-own strawberry farms in Massachusetts.

• Strawberries are the only fruit that carry their seeds on the outside. Each strawberry has about 200 seeds.

• Strawberries are a member of the rose family.

• At one time people used fresh strawberries as toothpaste. The juice helped whiten stained teeth.

• Native Americans made a type of strawberry bread.

The settlers liked it and turned the recipe into strawberry

MORE MATTERS!

Fruit and veggie tips for kids: • Try a strawberry smacker — spread a thin layer of light cream cheese on a graham cracker. Top with strawberry slices and enjoy.

• Freeze strawberries in a plastic bag and eat them cold.

• Use strawberries in fruit and cheese kabobs.

• Make a strawberry-banana split. Slice a banana lengthwise, add sliced strawberries, and top with low-fat yogurt or frozen yogurt. Sprinkle with nuts, if desired.

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Sun

Recipes

Poached Eggs, Asparagus and Chorizo Poached eggs atop asparagus spears, garnished with crispy bits of Spanish chorizo and toasted bread crumbs, make a simple yet impressive morning entrée. The sausage and bread crumbs contrast with the tender asparagus as well as with the soft eggs with their runny, sauce-like yolks.

Serves 4; Prep time: 15 minutes Start-to-finish time: 45 minutes 1½ tablespoon olive oil ½ cup/30 g coarse fresh bread crumbs (see cooking tip) 4 oz./115 g Spanish chorizo, cut into ½-in/ 12-mm cubes (use the Spanish-style chorizo in casing, not loose Mexican-style chorizo) 1¼ lbs./680 g medium asparagus Kosher salt 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, diced 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice 2-3 tablespoons white or cider vinegar 4 eggs Freshly ground black pepper

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Exhale • Spring 2012

1. Heat 1 tablespoon of the olive oil until hot in a medium, heavy frying pan set over medium heat. Add the bread crumbs and cook, tossing constantly, until golden and crisp, 3-4 minutes. Remove the crumbs from the pan. (Crumbs can be prepared 1 hour ahead. Cover and leave at room temperature.)

2. Heat the remaining ½ tablespoon oil in the same frying pan set over medium heat. When hot, add the chorizo and stir until lightly browned, 3 minutes. Remove and set aside. (Chorizo can be prepared 1 hour ahead. Leave at room temperature.)

3. Trim and discard 2-3 in/5-7.5 cm of the tough bases of the asparagus spears.

Add the asparagus and 1 teaspoon of salt to a large frying pan filled halfway with simmering water. Cook until the spears are just tender, 4 minutes. Drain and toss the asparagus in a large bowl with the butter and lemon juice. Season with salt and cover with foil.

4. Bring a large frying pan filled half-

Betty Rosbottom has been a cooking teacher, syndicated columnist, PBS host, and cookbook author for two decades. She is the author of Sunday Roasts, Sunday Soups, The Big Book of Backyard Cooking, and Coffee (all published by Chronicle Books). She lives part time in Amherst, Mass., and Paris, France.

Sunday Brunch available beginning in June.

way with water to a boil. Add the vinegar and gently break each egg into a saucer and slide it into the water. Swirl the water with a wooden spoon while the eggs are cooking. Cook until the eggs are just set but the yolks are still soft, 3 minutes.

Remove with a slotted spoon and drain well. (If you have an egg poacher, cook according to the manufacturer’s directions until the eggs are set.)

5. Mound some asparagus spears on each of the four dinner plates. Top each serving with a poached egg and sprinkle with the chorizo and bread crumbs. Season the eggs with several grinds of pepper and a pinch of salt and serve.

Cooking tip: To make bread crumbs, use a 1-2day-old, high-quality peasant or country bread with crusts removed. Process large chunks of it in a food processor to make coarse crumbs. Sourdough bread works particularly well.

dayBrunch

With its flaky crust and delectable topping of sweet grape tomatoes and creamy blue cheese, this tart makes an enticing vegetarian dish for brunch. The exceptionally crispy pastry shell is prepared with cream cheese and seasoned generously with cayenne pepper. The tart can be baked several hours ahead, left at room temperature, and then quickly reheated.

Serves 6 Prep time: 20 minutes Start-to-finish time: 1 hour 30 minutes Crust 1 cup/115 g all-purpose flour 4 oz/115 g cream cheese, chilled and cut into ½-in/12-mm pieces 8 tablespoons/115 g unsalted butter, chilled and cut into ½-in/12-mm pieces ¼ teaspoon salt 1 /8 teaspoon cayenne pepper Topping 4 oz/115 g creamy blue cheese (such as Bleu d’Auvergne), finely crumbled 2 cups/298 g grape tomatoes, halved lengthwise (see market note) 2 teaspoons olive oil 1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar Kosher salt 1½ tablespoons chopped flat-leaf parsley 2 green onions, chopped to include 2 in/ 5 cm, of the green parts

Market Note: Small grape tomatoes, which have a sweet flavor, work better than larger cherry tomatoes in this recipe, and can be used year-round. However, in the summer feel free to try the tart with one of your favorite varieties. Sweet ones that are on the small side work best.

1. Arrange a rack at center position and preheat the oven to 375˚F/190˚C/gas 5.

Have ready a 9-in/23-cm tart pan with a removable bottom.

2. For the crust, place the flour, cream cheese, butter, salt and cayenne in a food processor. Pulse until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Remove and knead the mixture into a smooth mass, and then press it with your fingers in an even layer into the bottom (not up the sides) of the tart pan. Smooth

the dough with the back of a spoon. Freeze the tart shell for 15 minutes to firm, and then bake the crust until golden brown, 30 minutes. Remove the tart shell from the oven and cool for about 5 minutes but retain oven temperature.

3. For the topping, sprinkle the cheese evenly over the crust. Arrange the tomatoes in a circular pattern and in a single layer over the cheese, cut-sides up. You may not need to use all of the tomatoes. Whisk together the olive oil and vinegar and drizzle over the tomatoes, and then sprinkle with salt. Place the tart on a baking sheet to catch any drip-

pings and return to the oven and bake until the cheese has melted the tomatoes are hot, 10-12 minutes.

4. Cool the tart for 5-10 minutes and then remove the sides of the tart pan. (The tart can be made 3 hours ahead. Leave the tart at cool room temperature and reheat in preheated 350ºF/180ºC/gas-4 oven until warmed through, 8-10 minutes.)

5. Mix together the parsley and green onions, and sprinkle over the tart. Cut the tart into six wedges and serve.

exhalelifestyle.com

45

Food

Photo of Truro Vineyard courtesy of MDAR

Discover local flavor in Massachusetts

By Julia Grimaldi

Savor Massachusetts connects food lovers everywhere to the best of the Bay State’s culinary adventures. What’s a culinary adventure? How about a visit to a picturesque family farm to sip wine and enjoy lunch at a farm café? Sharpening your culinary skills in a cooking class that uses locally grown ingredients? Touring a microbrewery?

The food connoisseur’s first taste of a Massachusetts culinary adventure begins by reading more about MassGrown & Fresher online. Savor Massachusetts 46

Exhale • Spring 2012

joined the MassGrown agricultural website portal in 2009 to enrich the local food experience as it relates to the kitchen. From the Berkshires to Cape Cod, Savor Massachusetts focuses on the geographically infused, culinary uniqueness that distinguishes Massachusetts from other states.

Visitors will find all-star Savor Massachusetts participants such as Coonamessett Farm in East Falmouth, a farm with an on-site farm café and seasonal farm buffet dinners. There is also Green

Meadow Farm in South Hamilton, where visitors can enjoy an intimate farm tour and lunch inspired by the farm’s very own fresh produce, meat and eggs. Many of the highlighted farms, such as Hartman’s Herb Farm in Barre or Nashoba Valley Winery in Bolton, feature special culinary farm events throughout the year.

As the growing season kicks off, the culinary adventurist can find a surfeit of annual festivals celebrating just about every crop imaginable. Enjoy Furnace Brook Winery’s French style cider and

Photo courtesy of Nantucket Winery

Johnny Mash hard cider made from estate grown apples at Hilltop Orchards during the Apple Blossom Bash in May. Also in May, it’s possible to pay homage to asparagus at the West Brookfield Asparagus & Flower Heritage Festival where you can enjoy lunch in “Asparagus Alley.”

In June, delight in local strawberries at their peak during Verrill Farm’s Strawberry Festival, where you can pick your own, savor a house-made strawberry shortcake, and enter your favorite strawberry dessert in their annual contest.

In August, the celebrating is nonstop at Red Fire Farm’s Tomato Festival with a wide selection of fresh and often award-winning tomatoes to taste. Visit with local brew masters in September at the Mass Brewers Fest, featuring more than 80 samples of beer from 25 Massachusetts breweries.

A taste of Massachusetts wouldn’t be complete without a visit to an oldfashioned family festival where cranberry growers are the stars. The A.D. Makepeace Cranberry Harvest Festival in October features two days of terrific local food.

Photo courtesy of MDAR

The event includes the popular Cranberry Harvest Donut, children’s rides, juried crafters, cooking demonstrations, bog tour and musical performances.

Save room in your schedule for a visit to the Wellfleet OysterFest! This two-day event brings together locals and visitors alike for a weekend full of hometown flavor and big time fun, featuring something for everyone: local cuisine, educational lectures, cooking demonstrations, arts and

crafts, children’s activities, live music, road races, walking tours and the oyster shucking competition. Listings of wine festivals, beer festivals, farm-to-table restaurant events and on-the-farm dinners featuring well-known chefs and educational events are also available.

For the wine aficionado, Savor Massachusetts shares its local winery secrets via MassGrown & Fresher’s interactive, easy-to-use Google Map. There are 28 wineries with tasting rooms, which are open to the public, located in every part of Massachusetts. Local wineries produce and sell products made from viniferous and cold hearty grapes, as well as a variety of fruit including apples, cranberries, peaches, blueberries, and even honey that are savored by consumers across the state and country.

To promote Massachusetts’ growing competitiveness in wine making, 19 local wineries are also participating in a new Massachusetts Wine Passport program being offered through the Massachusetts Farm Wineries & Growers Association.

After collecting 15 “passport stamps,” visitors will be entered into a drawing to win a fabulous prize.

What goes better with wine than cheese? Savor Massachusetts reveals 15 farmstead cheese operations that are open to visitors. Many of the artisan cheese makers in the Commonwealth use fresh milk from their own farms. Varieties include both cow and goat milk cheeses. The new Massachusetts Wine and Cheese Trails Guide found on the website can help you plan your own tour.

It is always a good idea to check ahead to see if an appointment is needed.

Make Savor Massachusetts your culinary resource along with other MassGrown & Fresher harvest products and events. Both MassGrown & Fresher and Savor Massachusetts are programs administered by the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources (mass.gov/agr). Bon appétit!

Find it all at www.mass.gov/massgrown.

While you’re there scan the QR Code so you’ll have Savor Massachusetts bookmarked on your smartphone, too. = exhalelifestyle.com

47

Food

Healthy meals made easy at Healthy Habits Kitchen

By Allison Knott, RD

DaveChensPhotos.com

While working as an insurance executive, Sue Schochet recalls how easy it was to eat unhealthy food because it was fast, convenient and it fit her busy lifestyle.

Looking for a solution to this problem and facing a career change in late 2006, Schochet decided to meld her business background with her passion for healthy cooking. She opened the doors of Healthy Habits Kitchen in 2007.

“I think a lot of people want to eat healthy, but they just don’t have the time,” she says. “Healthy Habits Kitchen gives them that opportunity.”

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Exhale • Spring 2012

Healthy Habits Kitchen is a company that provides healthy meal kits to consumers for pick-up in the kitchen or delivery to their home or office. The one-stop shop for purchasing nutritionally balanced meals for home preparation features monthly menus with locally sourced produce, antibiotic and growth hormone-free chicken and ingredients with limited preservatives, artificial flavors, colors and dyes.

Customers pick out a meal of their choice with the necessary raw ingredients perfectly packaged in a box. Each kit is labeled with the meal’s directions for prepara-

tion and nutrition facts.

“We do the meal planning, the shopping, the dicing and slicing. All you do as a customer is cook it and enjoy it,” says Schochet.

Healthy Habits Kitchen truly appeals to those searching for a quick and convenient healthy meal. But, the early days of Healthy Habits Kitchen were not what Schochet envisioned.

The kitchen is hidden away in an office building in Wellesley, Mass., that’s difficult to find.

To raise awareness about the com-

pany, Schochet decided to get out into the community and build partnerships with like-minded people. Through her outreach Healthy Habits Kitchen continued to grow.

She has built partnerships with corporate communities for meal pickup in office settings, farmers’ markets, and local gyms. Schochet has also developed partnerships with nonprofit organizations such as the Ellie Fund, where volunteers deliver meals to breast cancer patients and their families.

In addition to her outreach in the

community, she holds workshops in the kitchen, Sue Schochet, founder of Healthy Habits Kitchen. where the food is sampled and people gather to learn are helping them lose weight, but I have about a service in the community, a noticed a change in many of my regular newly published book or other netcustomers,” she says. working opportunities.

It has also helped others learn their The kitchen also hosts meal assemway around their own kitchens. bly parties where people come together to “Someone will come to me and say, ‘I package their own meals. cooked your mango curry chicken and then Schochet has noticed that her cusI realized, wow, I can cook.’ ” says Schochet. tomers are becoming healthier. “People “So, it’s encouraging people to get in the don’t come out and tell me that my meals kitchen and cook on their own, too.” = exhalelifestyle.com

49

Health Matters

Four steps to a

healthier

heart Get started now!

By JoAnne Foody, MD, and Caitlin Johnson

Did you know that heart disease is 80 percent preventable? Through lifestyle changes and addressing risk factors, such as high blood pressure or being overweight, you have the power to drastically reduce your chances of developing heart disease. And, as a woman, reducing your cardiovascular risk is more important than ever. Not only are women more likely to die from heart disease than men, women are largely unaware that heart disease is a major health concern.

But the good news? Taking action to reduce the risk for heart disease is not as difficult as you might think! You don’t need to turn your whole life around to improve your heart health. In fact, just making a few heart healthy changes to your current routine can have a big impact on your health.

Restaurants and Fast Food Eating out is unavoidable and, in some cases, a single meal can pack in more calories, fat and sodium than our bodies require over an entire day. But it is possible to make heart-healthy choices on the go. At fast-food restaurants stay away from fried foods, and stick with a salad with a light or fat-free dressing, or a grilled chicken sandwich. Try a reduced-fat ice cream cone to satisfy your sweet tooth. In sit-down restaurants, select foods that are baked, broiled, steamed or stir-fried, and watch your portions.

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Exhale • Spring 2012

Get Moving!

Exercise is the single best thing that you can do to improve your heart health, help maintain weight and lower blood pressure and cholesterol. But we don’t all have time to dedicate an entire 30-45-minute period to exercising every day. Fortunately, incorporating more small bursts of movement into your day, such as taking the stairs or walking to a meeting, can be just as, if not more, beneficial as exercising all at once. And it’s easier to maintain over time!

Think Fresh

Everything in Moderation Maintaining a heart-healthy diet doesn’t mean cutting out all fun foods. Just try to be mindful of portion size when indulging in guilty pleasures, such as sweets or fried foods. And in some cases, you may be able to find slightly healthier alternatives to your favorite notso-heart-healthy foods. For example, if your weakness is potato chips, find a baked version that satisfies your craving but packs less fat and fewer calories.

We all have our go-to meals, which we cook on a regular basis, that are quick, easy and taste good. Unfortunately, these meals often include prepared foods with high sodium levels and low nutritional value. Take a look at the meals you cook frequently and find a few ways to incorporate more fresh ingredients. For example, if you cook tacos each week and serve prepared rice as a side, switch to a whole grain brown rice, mixed with fresh vegetables. By replacing prepared dishes with fresh ingredients, you will not only be helping your heart, but you’ll feel fuller and more satisfied after the meal.

JoAnne Foody, MD, and Caitlin Johnson are with the Cardiovascular Wellness Service at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

Advertisement

Health Matters

Is heart disease gender biased?

By Paula Johnson, MD

According to conventional wisdom, women have long been the “stronger sex.” We are capable of multitasking a laundry list of jobs, from caring for our kids to being caregivers for our parents, to running a household to running a Fortune 500 company.

We already know that our makeup is different than that of men.

That is why it’s hard to believe that scientists and medical researchers have long assumed that if something was valid for men, the same would hold true for women. In science, sex does matter, and it matters in the prevention, treatment and research of disease. It wasn’t until about 15 years ago that researchers starting paying attention to the impact that sex — the biology of being a man or a woman — had on the way health problems both presented and manifested.

One prime example of the need for research on gender biology is related to heart disease. Medication and the approaches to diagnosis of cardiovascular disease, which is the number one killer of women in this country, is still based on studies that are not adequately designed to understand the impact the disease has on women. Even the doctor recommendation of “an aspirin a day” to lower the risk of heart attacks only works for men. Although there are campaigns to improve women’s awareness of their risk of heart disease, women who are at risk for heart disease are generally not as aware of it as their male counterparts. Surprisingly, women actually tend to develop cardiovascular disease about 10 years later than men.

Of course, that doesn’t mean they should ignore their cardiac health longer. There are risks, such as diabetes, that wipe out that 52

Exhale • Spring 2012

Paula A. Johnson, MD, an internationally recognized cardiologist, is the executive director of the Mary Horrigan Connors Center for Women’s Health and Gender Biology. She is also chief of the Division of Women’s Health at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.

decade-long advantage, and also lead to a significantly increased risk of cardiovascular disease. Because there has been so little focus on gender differences and heart health, many women aren’t aware that their symptoms may be different compared with men.

A woman having a heart attack is more likely to feel something that mimics heartburn or have shortness of breath rather than the classic chest pain or pressure as the symptom. Another statistic that may also be surprising to women is that they are more prone to suffering a stroke than men. Cardiovascular disease actually looks different in females than males, and may even be more difficult to diagnose with our standard tests. At the Connors Center for Women’s Health and Gender Biology at Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Boston, researchers are working to develop strategies to make diagnoses in women who are suspected to be at high risk for heart disease (usually a positive exercise stress test), but in whom additional testing has been negative.

Women are also more likely to have certain types of diseases of the valves of the heart which can sometimes require a valve to be repaired at some point in life. Even if heart disease doesn’t run in the family, it’s important to know more about the most significant cardiac issues women face today. In addition to cardiovascular disease — which includes diseases of the arteries and stroke — women are also at increased risk for diabetes and obesity and other conditions that put them at a higher risk of cardiovascular disease.

Another important factor that affects heart health in women is stress. While many identify stress and anxiety with men, women often face a higher stress load than men, given their role in the workplace, in the home, and perhaps in the area of caregiving for older parents or in-laws.

Women are also more likely to be at risk financially. Data from Brigham and Women’s Nurses Health Study shows that women who are caregivers have a higher risk of death from cardiovascular disease and this risk increases if they lack support.

There is also truth to the notion of “broken heart syndrome,” which occurs mainly in women when they experience extreme stress,

such as the sudden loss of a loved one. One way of helping to manage your stress, or the stress of a loved one, is to look for ways to diffuse some of that stress, such as sharing tasks with family and friends. Women can also put fitness on the back burner, replacing it with a more urgent demand on their time, when, in fact, it’s critical to find time to exercise.

It helps to release stress and is an important contributor to cardiovascular health.

Getting adequate sleep is also an important factor for heart health. There are programs that can teach biofeedback, so that you can better recognize when your stress level is increasing, as well as techniques to decrease your body’s natural stress response.

Depression is another factor that many don’t connect with a higher risk of heart disease. It’s usually more common in women, and can be associated with ongoing stress.

It is important to seek professional help if there is a chance those sad feelings are more than just a passing case of the blues. So, what are the most important things women can do to boost their heart health? If you are a woman and you don’t smoke, don’t start! Smoking is the number one cause of preventable death in the U.S. Because our brain chemistry is different than that of a man’s, we can become more easily addicted to nicotine, making it harder to stop smoking once you have started. If you are a smoker, the best thing to do is to continue to try to quit. It may be a challenge, but it’s important to seek support and keep trying until you stop. There are a lot of new nicotine products on the market that also pose a danger to women’s health, so it’s particularly important not to start using them. Nicotine in any form is dangerous.

Find time to exercise! Allot 30 minutes three to five times per week. It will do wonders not only for the heart but for so many other aspects of good health. Remember that walking counts, so consider throwing on a pedometer to track progress. The goal is 10,000 steps each day — about five miles — but every little bit counts. A workout doesn’t always need to be perfect; it just needs to be a continuous part of a daily routine. On the flip side, overdoing the diet and exercise can be just as dangerous. The constant loss and gaining of weight, known as “yo-yoing,” can increase risk for cardiovascular disease. It is important to undertake a weight loss plan that’s realistic, like the old adage “everything in moderation.”

Get to know personal risk factors, including family history, and pay attention to any predisposing factors. Does mom or dad have heart disease? What about grandparents and siblings? Remember, you can be fit, and eat all the right foods and still have high cholesterol, and the reverse can also be true. If heart disease or stroke runs in the family, be sure your doctor has taken a thorough medical history.

It is never too early to start making cardiac care a part of your medical regimen. Research has even detected precursors to heart disease in adolescents. =

Women in their 20s & 30s Young women in their 20s should know their blood pressure and their family history of certain risks, like diabetes, high cholesterol or hypertension. As you enter your 30s, which are increasingly becoming the childbearing years, it’s important to know about some of the newer research that says that women who experience certain health problems in pregnancy, such as gestational diabetes, are at higher risk for developing cardiovascular disease as they age.

Be sure that your primary care doctor knows if you experienced any of these complications. Proper follow-up care will help ensure that you aren’t developing either disease or that any other risks are addressed.

Obesity can play a major role in health problems associated with pregnancy. If possible, either get to a healthy weight before you become pregnant or work on slimming down between pregnancies. If, on the other hand, you are on birth control pills do not smoke, and vice versa.

This is the time to think ahead and set healthy patterns that will pay dividends throughout the rest of your life. Getting enough sleep, eating healthy and exercising are key factors to long-range health.

Women in their 40s & 50s In your 40s you’ll notice that your metabolism will slow down, and your stress level will likely speed up. Raising a family and caring for aging parents during these years can lead to increased levels of stress and depression, which increase your risk for cardiovascular disease.

Maintaining your mental and physical health by exercising regularly and making yourself a priority now will make it easier to deal with the age-related changes to come. Pay even more attention to your diet now.

The bottom line is that if you’ve neglected your health on any level, now is the time to make it a real priority.

Women in their 50s should review the major risks of heart disease, the family and pregnancy history. Know what your chances of a heart attack or stroke are. Hormone therapy to combat menopause should be carefully considered, as it’s not recommended by the American Heart Association. At this age, high cholesterol levels and added pounds are also red flags. Keep regular track of your blood pressure, and talk to your doctor about taking aspirin or statins if you’re at risk. Heart health is important for women of all ages. We need to pay better attention to cardiovascular health and our overall health. Researchers need to do more to determine why sex differences play such a significant role. There is also a further need for studying women of different racial and ethnic backgrounds, as well.

African American women, for instance, are at higher risk for heart attack and stroke, compared with white women, and tend to develop the disease at a younger age. The Connors Center at Brigham & Women’s Hospital is committed to insuring that the intersection of women’s health and minority health are studied and consistently addressed in practice. Cardiovascular disease provides us with an excellent example of why we must study sex differences in health and disease more generally.

By doing so, we have the ability to improve the health of women and minimize the impact on generations to come. exhalelifestyle.com

53

Health Matters

By Allison Knott, RD

The most common symptoms of PCOS include weight A widely experienced but gain, acne, male-pattern hair growth, infertility and irregular periods. “These symptoms cause a lot of distress for women rarely talked about syndrome experiencing PCOS,” says Sonneville. “This is usually when a woman will complain to a physician.”

— Polycystic Ovary Syndrome The problem with PCOS is the lack of a clearly defined (PCOS) — affects nearly 1 in set of symptoms. Another problem is that the range of symptoms women experience can vary greatly. “This is why PCOS 10 women in the United States. is wildly underdiagnosed,” says Sonneville.

The syndrome presents myriad How is PCOS treated? symptoms, including acne, hair Although the medical field has been aware of the syngrowth, irregular periods and weight drome for more than 150 years, there are still many unexplained questions in diagnosis and treatment of PCOS. Currently, the gain. This syndrome, which can treatment has evolved to focus on lifestyle modifications, like exercise, for treatment of the symptoms. also lead to fertility issues, is under- diet Inandaddition, certain measures can be taken by women to help prevent development of the disease. “Preventing excess diagnosed, but once identified, can weight gain, exercising regularly and changing your diet to include more complex carbohydrates and limited refined carbobe treated with success.

What is PCOS? “PCOS is a hormonal imbalance, where women of reproductive age experience high levels of androgens or male hormones,” explains Kendrin Sonneville, ScD, RD, and instructor at Harvard Medical School.

Although there is a strong genetic component to developing the syndrome, all women can be affected by the disease, especially those who are overweight or obese.

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Exhale • Spring 2012

hydrates are all preventative measures,” says Sonneville.

All these changes also target one symptom that is not seen or felt, but is perhaps the most damaging — insulin resistance.

Insulin resistance is a common thread in women with PCOS putting them at a 40 percent greater risk of developing diabetes by the age of 40 if left untreated.

This condition causes insulin, a hormone involved in blood sugar regulation, to not function properly in the body. When someone has insulin resistance, her diet and lifestyle become the most important treatment mechanisms.

According to Sonneville, “As little as a 5 percent total weight loss can improve the body’s response to insulin and improve the symptoms of PCOS.” Often women see their fertility return with these small changes.

What role does diet play in PCOS? Hilliary Wright, MEd, RD, LDN, author of “PCOS Diet Plan: A Natural Approach to Health for Women with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome,” has worked with women who have PCOS for over 15 years.

Her approach in helping women living with the syndrome is what she terms a “Carbohydrate Distributed Diet.”

“Women with PCOS need to modify their intake of carbohydrates. However, this does not mean eating a low carbohydrate diet,” explains Wright.

Carbohydrate Guide Include: 100 percent whole wheat bread, bulgur, brown rice Oatmeal, bran, or wheat flakes Sweet potatoes, potatoes with skin Whole fruit Whole beans, legumes

Limit: White bread, white rice Sugar-sweetened cereal White potatoes without skin, mashed potatoes, French fries Fruit juice

A common misconception among women with PCOS and insulin resistance is the need to follow a low-carbohydrate diet that Wright explains is not sustainable or even healthy over the long term. Instead, Wright focuses on minimally processed carbohydrates eaten in addition to a protein or healthy fat source. “Once you have PCOS it is present for the rest of your life, so it is important to adopt a diet and lifestyle plan that you can live with forever,” she says.

The key to following her “Carbohydrate Distributed Diet” is to choose as minimally refined carbohydrates as possible.

This includes choosing whole grains instead of refined grains, whole fruits instead of fruit juice, and eating few sweets.

She also stresses the importance of distributing the carbohydrates throughout the day so that a typical day consists of multiple small meals instead of one or two large meals.

The newly released USDA MyPlate is a good resource for people trying to follow a balanced carbohydrate diet. MyPlate recommends filling half of your plate with vegetables, one quarter with a lean protein, and the other quarter with a whole grain or complex carbohydrate source.

To better understand the importance of this type of eating plan, it is helpful to understand how a carbohydrate works in your body. When a food containing a carbohydrate is eaten, it is digested and broken down into glucose and insulin is released to help with glucose absorption.

This activity changes depending on the type of carbohydrate eaten. For example, a refined carbohydrate like white bread will digest quickly, increasing the amount of glucose in the blood and leading to a rapid release of insulin.

Alternately, a complex carbohydrate like whole grain bread will take a longer amount of time to digest, leading to a slower rise in blood glucose and a slower insulin response.

Wright also adds the importance of eating carbohydrate containing foods in conjunction with a lean protein and/or a healthy fat. This helps to slow the digestion of the carbohydrate even further and slow the insulin response.

Diet is only part of the picture in treating PCOS. “Exercise is nature’s most potent medicine for enhancing your body’s ability to use insulin effectively,” explains Wright.

She recommends exercising at the time when it is the most likely to happen. “Start with modest goals and slowly work up to 30 minutes of exercise most days per week,” says Wright.

The number of women experiencing PCOS is higher than the number diagnosed, but as more is learned about the syndrome, the diagnosis numbers continue to rise. The earlier the diagnosis, the faster treatment plans can be implemented to help women experiencing PCOS. For additional resources, you can visit The Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome Association, a nonprofit run by women with PCOS or the National Women’s Health Information Center at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Speak to your doctor if you think you might have PCOS. = exhalelifestyle.com

55

Health Matters

Battling breast cancer one day at a time

By Sally Ourieff, MD

Marika with husband Erik in 2009, taken two weeks after she learned about the second recurrence. (All photos courtesy of Marika)

M

arika greeted me in the hotel lobby.

Dressed in a stylish tweed cap, boots and a jacket dress, her pixie hair framed her delicate and refined features. At 39 years, she looked at least a decade younger. “I overslept,” she said. “Our alarm didn’t go off. I hope I don’t look too tired.”

That could be the understatement of the year. She looked radiant. This could be the story of a woman facing advanced breast cancer and her journey through the American medical system. But it isn’t. It is instead a love story — one of a deeply felt romance, and of the love of family and friends who together take a journey to help one determined young woman attempt to beat the odds.

Marika Warila and her husband Erik met when he was a 19-yearold exchange student at the University of Jyvaskyla in Finland. He was far from his home in Boise, Idaho, and Marika was at the same university studying for her masters in music education.

They fell in love, and after getting married they stayed in Finland for three years. But the winters are even longer, darker, and colder in her country than they are in Boston. She knew Erik would not be happy there for a lifetime. In a bittersweet departure, they left her mother, father, sister and friends, and moved to Boise near Erik’s fam56

Exhale • Spring 2012

ily. They settled into a new life in Idaho, both working and beginning to think about starting a family. Earlier in Marika’s life, her mother had breast cancer twice. Marika’s mother was positive for having an abnormal breast cancer gene (BRCA) that increases the risk of a woman getting breast cancer from approximately 8 percent to almost 80 percent. After her last round of chemotherapy she told her family that if she got a third recurrence, she was not going to fight it. The last battle had been enough. Given her mother’s history, Marika had always been vigilant about checking for breast lumps.

In 2003, she found a lump in her right breast, which was positive for cancer and had spread into the nearby lymph nodes. After surgery Marika began chemotherapy. Shortly thereafter, she learned that her mother had been diagnosed with a third recurrence. “I told her that if I was going through chemo, she had to as well,” Marika explained. “During the whole time we shared everything. We supported each other across the world.” They both had a tough regimen. “I remember one of the side effects of chemo. When I walked, my feet felt like I was walking on knives. I would hobble to the bathroom like an old lady,” she recalled. But she and her mother endured and their cancers abated. Marika underwent reconstructive surgery and stayed on Tamoxifen for the required five years to help stay in remission.

B

y now, Erik and Marika were both ready to move forward with their lives. They wanted to start a family. Before she could try to get pregnant, the Tamoxifen had to be out of her system for three months. She and Erik made an appointment at the infertility clinic for three months almost to the day that she stopped the medication. But, another problem was emerging. Marika had begun to get a burning pain under her collarbone and behind her shoulder. Her doctors told her not to worry.

For a year she repeatedly went to the doctor and complained of the symptom. No one took any action. Then one night, a burning pain tore across Marika’s chest and she wound up in the emergency room. A CT scan revealed that the cancer had spread to her lungs and liver. The morning she heard the news was the morning of her infertility appointment. She called to cancel and did not reschedule.

“Erik was absolutely devastated,” she remembered. “And I was so angry. I should have pushed my doctors to get an X-ray or CT scan.

Maybe I knew and didn’t want to face it, but they also weren’t paying attention. I got a new doctor.” For the next two years, Marika, Erik and their families faced brutal battles in the war against her cancer. The high-powered chemotherapy was devastating to her system. Her already thin frame became emaciated and increasingly debilitated. “Erik became an expert on breast cancer trials,” she said. “He spent hundreds of hours doing research and trying to get me into an experimental protocol.” Erik eventually found a trial in Arizona that combined an experimental drug known as a PARP inhibitor with a standard chemotherapy regimen. She had to stop all of her chemo for a month before she could be accepted and enrolled. After four weeks, Marika was told that a spot would open in another week.

She waited. Four more weeks passed.

Off of her regular chemo, Marika’s cancer grew more rapidly. Her tumors had now spread to her bones and brain. It was a huge setback. And in the end, they never had a spot in the trial for her. Erik searched again and found another PARP inhibitor trial at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). They were told to fly out immediately. Barely able to walk, Marika made it to Boston only to learn that her liver function tests were too abnormally high and they could not accept her. She and Erik returned home, their last chance gone. “There was nothing more to do,” she said. “I started to plan my funeral because I wanted it to be a celebration. I planned every detail of my funeral: the music, the food, everything . . . and they could wear black, but they had to wear some touch of bright color, too.” Through tears and heartache, Marika and Erik spoke about the strength of their marriage and how, through all of the illness, they were more in love than ever. “It was like we felt we were newly married,” she said.

By February 2011, Marika was down to 100 pounds and clearly the end was near. Then one day the trial coordinator at MGH called.

If her liver tests had improved, which they had, and she could make

Marika’s mom Seija, sister Katja, Marika and dad Unto, last December in Boise.

it back to Boston, they had a place for her in the trial. With renewed hope Erik and Marika flew to Boston the next day. She entered the trial and began an experimental protocol. She and Erik stayed at the American Cancer Society Hope Lodge in Worcester, a home for out-of-town cancer patients.

There, with the support of other cancer patients, they spent three months getting through the initial treatments. Several days a week they drove into Boston, becoming fast friends with van drivers and “sweet, older, ex-marines” who became their greatest cheerleaders.

She began to gain weight. Her fevers abated. She stepped away from the precipice of dying. It has now been a year.

Marika’s tumors have only shrunk about 10 percent but they have not spread further. She is hoping that her cancer will be like a chronic illness, something she has to manage but can live with. Her hair has started to grow back and she has begun a new venture as she regains her sense of the future.

Marika founded For Ribbons’ Sake, a company that sells jewelry based on the cancer ribbon fashioned into hearts. Set with Swarovski stones that represent the designated colors of various types of cancer, she donates 20 percent of her earnings to the Cancer Resource Foundation (CRF). CRF provides education and practical resources for cancer patients and their families to help meet their everyday needs throughout their cancer treatment. Marika is bold, spirited, and straightforward as she talks about the lessons she, Erik, her family and friends have learned as they continue to live in the stable but continued presence of her breast cancer. “Our marriage is even stronger and our love has a new meaning, a new perspective,” she said. “We truly take one day at a time. I thank God for still being here. We are thankful for the little things. We say, ‘Isn’t this incredible,’ that we just took this walk or saw something amazing.

‘Isn’t it incredible what we have just done, at this moment, right now.’

We are experiencing everything as much as possible while we can.”

remember one “ofI the side effects

of chemo. When I walked, my feet felt like I was walking on knives. I would hobble to the bathroom like an old lady.

”

www.forribbonssake.com= exhalelifestyle.com

57

Health Matters:

Making progress in the fight against breast cancer

By Bruce Zetter, PhD

How are we faring in the fight against breast cancer?

The answer depends on the type of cancer. For some cancers, the length of patient survival after cancer diagnosis has not changed appreciably since the 1970s. For others, including breast cancer, patients are surviving for considerably longer times than they did in the past.

There are now 2.6 million breast cancer survivors in the United States alone.

What distinguishes the types of cancers where progress has been made?

In general, progress against cancer depends on three elements: 1. Increased public awareness 2. Better early diagnosis

3. Improved treatments based on new biological knowledge.

For breast cancer, all of these elements are in place.

Over the past 20 years, several organizations have formed that are dedicated to improving awareness and fundraising for breast cancer. Their efforts have led to increased knowledge of breast cancer by the public, increased philanthropic donations to research, and lobbying that has persuaded Congress to increase funding for breast cancer research, awareness and prevention.

Many of these organizations were started by individuals who had a personal interest in the cause. Some grew to achieve national recognition. Breast cancer research has been successful on several fronts. Early detection is made possible by mammography and by new tests that can identify which genes are mutated in a particular patient’s tumor. Researchers also have identified specific genetic mutations that predispose some women to

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Exhale • Spring 2012

a higher risk of breast cancer.

For women with a family history of breast cancer, these tests, if negative, can provide peace of mind. If positive, they can lead to physician-guided decisions on options for treatment and prevention. Our knowledge of breast cancer biology has also improved. We better understand the role of steroids, such as estrogen and progesterone, in stimulating breast cancer growth in some patients. Drugs such as Tamoxifen are used in these patients to block the stimulation of breast cancer cells by these hormones. In the past decade, we also have been able to better understand the cascades of molecular signals that trigger the growth of breast cancer cells.

New drugs based on this research are now in clinical trial. Another new approach involves the use of PARP inhibitors, which kill cancer cells by blocking their ability to repair DNA. Together, these new approaches are leading to increased diagnostic, preventive and therapeutic options for breast cancer patients.

We have not yet defeated breast cancer, but real progress has been made and should continue to be made in the years to come.

Bruce Zetter, PhD, conducts cancer research at Children’s Hospital Boston. He is also the Charles Nowiszewski Professor of Cancer Biology at Harvard Medical School. Information on his research can be obtained at www.childrenshospital.org/zetter. =

Health Matters: Style

Retaining your style in the face of cancer treatment Cancer patient to cancer survivor transformation Marianna Toroyan, PhD, The Fashion Doctors owner

I

t is not often in life that you get a chance to meet someone that truly touches your soul. Having done hundreds of makeovers and styling sessions, The Fashion Doctors had yet to meet anyone like Michelle Fahey.

In December of 2011, Julie Nations, executive director of the Ellie Fund, a nonprofit organization that fights breast cancer, introduced Michelle to The Fashion Doctors in an effort to get her “red carpet ready” for their annual Oscar Night Boston Gala.

As part of this campaign, Julie had put together a dream team of companies to donate their services to work with Michelle. These companies included Koko FitClub, The Fashion Doctors, Elisha Daniels, Gilt City, Hannaford Supermarkets, Exhale Magazine, Charles David Salon & Spa, TR Miller, Charles River Apparel and Dina K Photography.

Once the team was in place, The Fashion Doctors asked Annette Goubeaux, director of public relations for Neiman Marcus and Thomas Crewe, regional manager for Jimmy Choo, to join the team in assisting to outfit Michelle for the big event.

The Fashion Doctors were first on the scene to meet Michelle and get to know who she is and what her lifestyle entails.

Michelle Fahey’s story Fahey came to Massachusetts from Ireland at the age of 21. Not having any family or friends in the U.S., Michelle started working as an au pair for a family in Brighton.

Soon after moving there, she met her husband, Sean. They began to start a family in an Irish neighborhood while she worked as a waitress at a nearby bar in the evening. Four children later, Fahey worked part time so that she could spend more time at home.

It was after a family day at the beach that Fahey discovered a

lump on her right breast. She was surprised, but not alarmed. Just a few months earlier she had a clear mammogram.

So, like any mother, she carried on with her day and assumed that it would be gone by the next day. A few days went by and the lump was still there.

Fahey then called her doctor. After a scan, ultrasound and biopsy the news came — it was cancer.

When asked about her feelings, she said, “I stood alone in the kitchen trying to digest the news, and although my doctor was still talking I didn’t hear anything she said after [the word] cancer,” she says. “I cried first, then decided to call my sister in Ireland to tell her.

I think I just had to say it aloud to believe it and once I said it to her it became real.”

Fahey decided to go shopping. She knew that she wouldn’t cry in the store, so she walked around and tried to think of the best way to tell her husband and then her children. Her mother was also flying in the following day from Ireland, and Fahey was worried about sharing the news.

Since then, she has had a mastectomy and has completed eight rounds of chemotherapy over a 16-week period. She is now preparing herself for 30-35 rounds of radiation over the next few months.

“The worst thing for me through this whole ordeal was telling people and seeing the sadness that the news had brought to their faces,” explains Fahey.

“Then trying to tell them that it would be okay, I never doubted that it wouldn’t be okay and I knew that I would do whatever I had to in order to beat this,” she says.

After hearing Fahey tell her story, The Fashion Doctors had their work cut out for them. Typically, an assessment with The Fashion Doctors entails putting together an action plan that assists the client in feeling fabulous from the inside out. After meeting Fahey, it was clear that she had enough strength on the inside to fight an army. So the focus of this transformation was to assist Michelle in other areas. exhalelifestyle.com

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First: Michelle loves to

shop. The Fashion Doctors call that retail therapy.

She really wanted a closet makeover to get rid of some of her impulsive purchases.

Solution: The Fashion

Michelle trying shoes at Neiman Marcus

Doctors organized a closet intervention. Fahey’s husband and four sons were the judges on what stayed and what went to charity.

Second: Michelle wanted to

utilize clothing that she already had in her repertoire with some added accessories.

Solution: The Fashion

All photos by Dina K. Photography

Doctors analyzed what additions Michelle needed in her wardrobe to help complete her looks and then organized a series of shopping days with Michelle to complete this task.

Charles David Salon stylist fitting a wig on Michelle and markup artist getting her ready for Oscar Night.

Third: Michelle getting red carpet ready for the Ellie Fund’s Oscar Night event.

Solution: The Fashion Doctors took Michelle to some of their favorite shops: Neiman Marcus, for a fabulous evening gown; Jimmy Choo, for a stellar pair of shoes, and Elisha Daniels Boutique for Oscar worthy accessories.

Michelle working out at Koko Fit Club.

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Exhale • Spring 2012

Marianne Toroyan, Michelle and Elisha Daniels.

Michelle with her husband at Ellie Oscar Night.

Although The Fashion Doctors focused on Michelle’s wardrobe, there was an entire team that assisted Michelle on other aspects of her transformation. Charles David Salon and Spa donated a custom wig and makeup application for Michelle on Oscar Night. Koko Fit Club put together a work out regime for Michelle. Hannaford Supermarkets gave Michelle gift cards for groceries and a nutrition guide. Elisha Daniels, a cancer survivor and fashionista, was on hand to give Michelle some guidance on how to cope with breast cancer through her book, You Can Do This!: Surviving Breast Cancer without Losing Your Sanity or Your Style.

Throughout her transformation, Michelle remained positive and focused on her family. She has the support of her loving husband and her four sons, Brendan, Darragh, Matthew and Ronin.

Michelle feels grateful for everything that the Ellie Fund has done for her during this difficult time in her life.

If you are a breast cancer patient or would like additional information on the Ellie Fund, please visit http://elliefund.org/.=

SOAR ABOVE YOUR COMPETITION WITH If you’re a high potential woman business owner ready to take your business to the next level but need the strategy and expertise to get you there, the ATHENA PowerLink® program is designed to help you: s &OCUS ON YOUR UNIQUE CHALLENGES BY PROVIDING YOU WITH ONE FULL YEAR OF BUSINESS MENTORING s -EET YOUR SPECIFIC BUSINESS NEEDS AND GOALS WITH A CUSTOMIZED PANEL OF EXPERT VOLUNTEER ADVISORS s )NCREASES SALES BUSINESS AND PERSONAL INCOME AND PROFITABILITY To apply or to learn more, please contact: Clare Cox, Chair, ATHENA Governing Body | 508.420.1220.

For more info: www.southshorechamber.org/Athena The Women’s Business Connection connects and engages women to create innovative opportunities for professional growth. ATHENA Powerlink® further fulfills that mission by providing mentoring for women business owners.

The 3rd Annual Sustainable Economy Conference

How Can Massachusetts Build Bridges to a 21st Century Economy?

Federal Reserve Bank of Boston Monday, April 30, 2012 8:15 am - 4:30 pm For registration and more information:

www.SustainableEconomyConference.com For discount details, sponsorship opportunities, and all other inquiries, please contact:

Crystal@isesplanning.com (617) 416-4915

*Exhale Magazine readers receive special discount* www.facebook.com/SustainableEconomyConference @MassSEC

Presenting Sponsors:

The Role of Women in Creating a 21st Century Economy Active Citizenship for Sustainable Communities Partnership for Sustainable Communities Principles of Product Stewardship and Supply Chain ����������������������������������������������������� Leveraging Diversity and Inclusion in Business and Communities The Role of Businesses in Creating Sustainable Communities ���������������������������������������������������������������������������� Local and Urban Agriculture in Massachusetts ������������������������������������������������������������������������������� and community sectors for the purpose of creating sustainable communities and a sustainable economy in Massachusetts.

Presented by:

Community Partners & Media Sponsors:

Veronique LeMelle

Breathes new life into the Boston Center for the Arts A vision for 2020 and beyond

By JACQUINN WILLIAMS Macbett performance by imaginary beasts at the BCA Plaza Black Box Theatre in November 2011. (Nancy IasBarrone photo)

V

eronique LeMelle has everything under control. As the executive director of the Boston Center for the Arts (BCA) — a bustling nonprofit that seeks to sustain serious artists — she is always looking for a better, smarter way to do things.

And it shows. On a brisk afternoon in January, the center is alive with sound. LeMelle is sick with a cold, but that doesn’t stop her from talking animatedly about some of the changes she would like to implement at the BCA. Beautiful horns are playing in the background, and staffers scurry about as a rehearsal continues. The BCA serves arts audiences through exhibitions, live performances and community events. It supports artists through affordable studio, rehearsal and performance space. The campus is home to hundreds of working artists, as well as several nonprofit arts and educational groups that provide a wide spectrum of services. “We are the engine that supports the people that do the work that ends up in the MFA and ICA,” says LeMelle. The native New Yorker came to Boston after working in Louisiana as the executive director of the Louisiana Division of Arts. Through her work there she 62

Exhale • Spring 2012

helped artists put their lives back together after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. Now, she is focused on continuing to rejuvenate the BCA, working to ensure that it remains a relevant fixture in the art community. LeMelle is tackling this task on all levels, the physical space, programming, leadership and strategy. Recently, the organization had a two-day long charrette to discuss the expansion of space and services, as well as the creative direction of the BCA for artists in the year 2020 and beyond. The charrette was made possible by a grant from the Ford Foundation that almost didn’t happen. LeMelle got the opportunity to apply for the grant through a chance meeting. “The board chair for the Ford Foundation and I were in New York at the same time,” says LeMelle. “I was lucky enough to get an appointment with the president of the Ford Foundation, who used to live in the South End. He looked at everything and we had a very long, very frank conversation.” At the meeting, she was told that the organization wasn’t ready. “He said a 40-year-old organization should be a lot further ahead,” she recalls.

“We challenged him and explained that with an investment from the foundation, we can help move forward with planning.”

Her determination paid off, and the charrette attracted ap-

inform their next steps. Her love of the arts started long ago when her mother put her in dance class and immersed her in the theater.

“I was so A.D.D. and clumsy,” she says. She started taking dance lessons at three years old and continued to perform throughout her schooling. Though her commitment to the arts was evident, her parents didn’t see it as a career path. So, she went to school for a degree in economics and business. However, it was an internship at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center changed her life.

“At that internship, the world of arts administration opened up for me,” LeMelle explains. Since then, she’s worked in a number of arts organizations that prepared her for the Herculean work required at the BCA. Over the last three years, with LeMelle at the helm, programming has doubled and she has addressed some basic building needs like improving the heating system. Most important, she has increased the level of communication between the staff and the artists. However, she wants to do more. “I’m working to refocus and reenergize the staff. We’re changing the culture here to a culture of ‘I can,’ ” she says. “There’s a decentralized management structure. There’s team leadership by middle management.

We tackle major organizational goals each year based on their recommendations. It’s helped change how we do business.” LeMelle has also hired Kristina Newman-Scott as the new director of programs. Scott made the decision to implement an Artist Steering Committee that consists of eight artists. The committee is another way for artists to exercise some level of control within the center.

In addition to these changes, LeMelle is intent on creating community spaces. She wants the common areas to foster community, and in turn, potentially spawn cross-pollinated creativity. “I want artists to be able to congregate and hang out,” she says.

Despite all of the hard work of BCA staffers and the artists housed there, the center still suffers from identity issues. “The Boston Globe did a story on theater in Boston,” she says. “They had a list of new and small theater companies that were growing and getting stronger. Almost proximately 100 artists, every one of those companies such as Speakeasy engineers and neighborand Company One produce here. The BCA hood associations who was not mentioned in the article.” She’s ready gathered at the center to change that. Going forward, she wants to soto discuss ideas about Veronique LeMelle with BCA Chair of the Board Philip lidify BCA’s place in the world, in Boston and in how to make the BCA Lovejoy and chef Gordon Hamersley of Hamersley’s Bistro the nation. “I want us to be loud and proud,” she more effective. “Work- at the BCA’s annual “A Night at the BCA” event. (Alisha says. “This is who we are and what we do.”

Keshavjee photo) ing artists of today and To run such a large organization, LeMelle tomorrow are using difmakes sure to keep her work life balance in ferent tools,” LeMelle explains. “We need different support syscheck with exercise. She turned 50 last September, but that hasn’t tems [in place].” quelled the daredevil inside. “I went skydiving with my husband The first day, which was called the Learning Day of the charon my birthday,” LeMelle exclaims. “It was our children’s present. rette, participants discussed regional, national and global models It was great!” When she’s not working or jumping out of planes, of artist spaces that are now embracing sustainability and innoshe runs to keep in shape and clear her mind. She’s training for vation in shared spaces. the Iron Man Triathlon on June 16th. LeMelle wakes up at 5:00 The second day, the Visioning Day, everyone involved worked a.m. to swim in Walden Pond, rides her bike 10 miles to and in groups to consider issues facing artists, including technology, from work, and has intensive training sessions in Concord, Mass. community and artist spaces, accessibility, creative service and rev“I just run, constantly,” she says. “It keeps me focused and out of enue streams, and sustainable buildings. LeMelle and her staff retrouble. I need to be focused and disciplined to do the work I do corded the feedback from charrette participants and are using it to here. It all works together.” = exhalelifestyle.com

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(Photo courtesy of Marcus Smith)

Singer Shea Rose gives props to women who rock

By Jacquinn Williams

R

ising rock star Shea Rose has a new project and a renewed sense of purpose. The talented singer — who now has a clean bill of health after the removal of polyps on her vocal chords — won a Boston Music Award for best R&B contemporary soul artist of the year and recently dropped her latest album, Little Warrior Mixtape. Gracious and open, Rose is a graduate of Berklee School of Music intent on making waves in the music industry. Her album, which is offered for free on her website, leads with a remake of Nona Hendryx’s 1983 single, “Transformation.”

The remake is solid. It’s uplifting, bold and edgy. A selfproclaimed mash-up of Lauryn Hill and Lenny Kravitz, Rose can rap, perform a soulful ballad or be a pop princess whenever the mood hits.

Her musical roots run deep. Her grandfather played jazz organ at the Hi-Hat jazz club in Boston, and her taste in tunes ranges from Janis Joplin to Herbie Hancock.

Rose’s lyrics are full of messages of female empowerment, and she’s concerned about the landscape of hip hop not allowing room for strong, confident women.

Prior to gearing up for her spring tour that spans Boston, Fairfield, Conn., New York, Philly and D.C., Rose chatted with Exhale about the six women who rock in her life and inspired her creative journey.

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1

My mother is a woman of her word. Without her, I wouldn’t have been afforded the opportunity to pursue art with integrity. She’s always pursuing the truth.

2

Terri Lyne Carrington, from Berklee, collaborated with me on Little Warrior Mixtape. She taught me the right way to do things. I learned about the business [of making music] like publishing, songwriting and percentages.

3

I grew up with my great-aunt Lillian. She taught me how to be a lady. My mom let me know that sometimes you have to be a bull in a china shop because you’re a woman and sometimes nobody will listen. Aunt Lillian taught me how to do it with grace.

Women can be women and we don’t have to downplay that.

4

I love what Nina Simone stood for. It was her black womanness. It wasn’t watered down or wrapped up in nice language.

She was strong in her music and her talent.

5

I started playing guitar because of Lauryn Hill. She inspires me. Everything about her — her songs, her lyrics, her locks, and her style. I identify with it all.

6

Oh, one more! Bette Davis. She was far ahead of her time.

She’s still far ahead of her time.

Check out Shea Rose online or on tour now at www.shearose.com.

summer

The hottest shows of the

This spring and summer live music will turn up the heat all over New England! SO much music — SO little time. Let’s begin with the BIG OL’ BANDS & ARTISTS from RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS to MADONNA — they’re back! But then they never really left. If you don’t already have your tickets, you should make some calls.

Reviews with Joyce Kulhawik

THE DAVE MATTHEWS BAND

They’re working on a new studio album but will take time out to kick back on the DMB 2012 Summer Tour!

6/5-6 Comcast Center/ Mansfield, MA

JAMES TAYLOR

The sweetest voice north of Carolina, east of the Mississippi, south of the North Pole, and at the center of my heart. Join James and his band on the road — and catch his guitar lessons online!

6/30 Verizon Wireless Arena/ Manchester, NH 7/2-4 Tanglewood Music Center/Lenox, MA

ROGER WATERS

RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS

Pink Floyd front man hits THE WALL at Fenway. Need I say more?

7/7 Fenway Park/Boston

The “I’m With You” tour finds the 2012 inductees to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with us — on their ONLY New England stop!

5/7 TD Garden/Boston

MADONNA

The high priestess of pop, Super Bowl gladiatrix, keeper of the coned bra, and Gaga’s guru — she’s like a prayer for eternal youth.

9/4 TD Garden/Boston

RADIOHEAD

Still evolving since 1985 and one of the most influential groups ever, they are consistently praised by critics and embraced by listeners.

5/29 Comcast Center/Mansfield, MA

And the beat goes on…

ESPERANZA SPALDING: RADIO MUSIC SOCIETY TOUR

This Berklee College of Music’s bass-playing singer/songwriter was last year’s Grammy award-winning BEST NEW ARTIST! 4/22 The Orpheum Theatre/Boston

LADY ANTEBELLUM

The Nashville trio brings its honeyed harmonies and “We Own The Night” world tour to New England, hot off a Grammy win for Best Country Album!

DARIUS RUCKER OPENS!!

5/5 DCU Center/Worcester, MA

FEIST

The video of the first track from her latest album Metals begins with a man burying a dead dog. The girl is moody. Her mysteriously emotive vocals amalgamate a panorama of alternative influences: folk, jazz, indie rock, country, blues. She’s a singular sensation.

5/7 House of Blues/Boston

OPENING NIGHT OF THE BOSTON POPS WITH BERNADETTE PETERS

The Tony Award-winning Broadway star joins Conductor Keith Lockhart to kick off the 127th season of the Boston Pops!

5/9 Symphony Hall/Boston

CAKE

I like a band with a short name and a long shelf life.

5/10 Lupos Heartbreak Hotel/ Providence, R.I.

THE CRANBERRIES

The Irish rock band led by Dolores O’Riordan is back in bloom with Roses, their first album in 10 years.

5/11 House of Blues/Boston

POLYPHONIC SPREE

This alt rock pop symphonic choral extravaganza of 30-plus, musicians playing electric violins, flutes, French horns, guitars, harps, tambourines, trumpets, percussion, and more — while wearing their signature white choir robes — is a blast!

5/22 Paradise Rock Club/Boston

STEVE MARTIN and the STEEP CANYON RANGERS He’s hilarious AND plays the banjo. Seriously. Their album Rare Bird Alert debuted at #1 on Billboard’s Bluegrass Chart.

5/29-31 Symphony Hall/Boston

IL DIVO Conceived by Simon Cowell and dedicated to the proposition that all musical genres are created equal, they’re an international classical pop cross-over quartet who sing everything from Chris Isaak’s “Wicked Game” to Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata.

6/2 WangTheatre/Boston

KRISTIN CHENOWETH An Emmy and Tony Award winner, she was Broadway’s good witch in Wicked, and may be a little bit wicked on ABC’s new series Good Christian Belles.

6/8 Opera House/Boston

DIANA KRALL

A voice like a cool breeze, the Grammy award-winner’s intimate phrasing is like no one else’s, honed at Boston’s Berklee College of Music.

6/30 South Shore Music Circus/ Cohasset

SARAH MCLACHLAN

The angel-voiced Sarah’s 2012 Symphony Tour benefits the Sarah McLachlan School of Music.

7/6 Bank of America Pavilion/Boston

COLDPLAY

The Grammy award-winning super group, led by Gwyneth’s husband Chris Martin, brings its atmospheric chant-like anthems to town.

7/29-30 TD Garden/Boston

FOSTER THE PEOPLE

You should run faster than your “Pumped Up Kicks” can carry you for tickets to this one…

6/15 Bank of America Pavilion/Boston

exhalelifestyle.com

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Reviews with Joyce Kulhawik

s s i M Representation I have just finished watching one of the most infuriating movies I have ever seen. It’s a 90-minute documentary that debuted at the Sundance Film Festival in 2011 called Miss Representation, an excruciatingly enlightening film about the plight of women in our culture right now. I say “excruciating” because of what is still true in the year 2012: Women are underserved, underrepresented and underpaid.

According to filmmaker Jennifer Siebel Newsom — also an actress and women’s advocate — we are living so close to this reality that it is hard to see, let alone change. The film turns its laser focus on this problem “hiding in plain sight,” and through an accumulation of data and interviews, reveals the extent of the powerlessness of women in American society.

Miss Representation opens with montages of women portrayed by the mainstream media as sexualized, infantile objects of beauty. The movie goes on to illuminate how this diminished view of 68

Exhale • Spring 2012

women trivializes them in their own eyes, as well as in the eyes of a culture ready to dismiss women as ill-suited to positions of power.

The problem is perpetuated when young women are deprived of female role models. If young women never see women as leaders, they are less likely to aim for those positions, and realize their full potential.

The film is packed with statistics: “The U.S. is 90th in the world for women in national legislatures; women hold only 3 percent of clout positions in mainstream media; and 65 percent of women and girls have disordered eating behaviors.”

I have a few criticisms. These statistics should be contextualized for greater clarity as statistics can be notoriously misrepresented. Also, the eating disorder connection is too facile. These disorders are varied and complex. They may be rooted in an assortment of interconnected physiological and social conditions and their causes may exceed the scope of this film.

But there is more than enough evidence here to make a compelling case for the ways in which women are rendered powerless. Miss Representation — a clever title that cuts many

ways — is fast paced and packed with eyeopening examples that compel us to watch.

Condoleezza Rice, Katie Couric, Rachel Maddow, Pat Mitchell, Gloria Steinem and Rosario Dawson all weigh in. But it’s the stories told by the teenage girls in this film — and what they are up against when they take on the world — that will get under your skin.

As one of my friends said to me after seeing it, “How did we let it get this far?” I remember being a serious young woman of 18, in college, hearing about “women’s lib,” and wondering, “Why do we need that? I can do anything I want.”

Now, as a “career” woman of nearly 60, I see the subtle, corrosive effects of systemic sexism — and ageism, which is much harder on women than men. As I move forward, I keep looking for the “old girls network” — and there isn’t one. Still.

But there is power in knowing, and films like Miss Representation wake us up, light the way, and support us on the journey which is far from over.

April 13-15 Riverdance

April 21

Death Cab for Cutie

A scene from Riverdance. Composed by Bill Whelan, Produced by Moya Doherty. Directed by John McColgan © Abhann Productions Photographer Clark James Mishler

Now in its 17th year, Riverdance, the internationally acclaimed celebration of Irish music, song and dance that has touched the hearts of millions around the world, comes to Boston.

Discover why nothing in the world compares to the original!

Boston Opera House Tickets start at $28.

Call Ticketmaster at 800-982-2787. www.BroadwayInBoston.com

April 20-29

The Inspector

The Inspector, John Musto’s witty comic gem boasts a melodic score and features a large and talented cast of established and versatile American dramatic singers. Basing the work loosely on Gogol’s 19th century farce, The Government Inspector, Musto once again teams up with librettist Mark Campbell to create a swaggeringly funny tale of bribery, fraud, corruption and a little discreet pimping in 1930s Sicily.

Citi Performing Arts Center Shubert Theatre Tickets start at $32. www.blo.org

Death Cab for Cutie is accompanied on the Wang Theatre stage by members of San Francisco’s celebrated Magik*Magik Orchestra.

Death Cab for Cutie will perform in support of their critically acclaimed album Codes and Keys, available now on Atlantic Records.

Citi Performing Arts Center Wang Theatre Tickets are $39.50-$59.50. www.citicenter.org/deathcab

April 26-29

May 4

Jane Monheit

Jane Monheit is an intoxicating singer with a warm and supple voice, and perfect pitch. Audiences have long responded to her fearless honesty through her performances and over her 10-year recording career.

She sings like she knows what the song is about and has lived its story.

Presented by Celebrity Series.

Sanders Theatre For more information, call 617-482-6661. www.celebrityseries.org

May 6

David Sedaris

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater

The stunningly gifted and gorgeous Ailey dancers bring fire and passion to programs of classics and exciting new works alike. Following the successful transition to new artistic director Robert Battle, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater continues its triumphant journey as America’s leading modern dance company.

Presented by Celebrity Series.

Citi Performing Arts Center Wang Theatre Tickets are $35-$60. www.celebrityseries.org

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Best-selling author, humorist and National Public Radio contributor David Sedaris takes the writer’s art of observation to new heights. His wit skewers the mannerisms and cultural euphemisms of our time so effortlessly that one hardly notices the social critique. He has been compared to Mark Twain, Evelyn Waugh, Oscar Wilde and Voltaire. Perhaps he is our era’s contribution to that illustrious list.

Presented by Celebrity Series.

Symphony Hall For more information, call 617-482-6661. www.celebrityseries.org

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Boston Pops Opening Night

Keith Lockhart and the Boston Pops kick off the 2012 Spring Pops Season with a gala Opening Night concert featuring Broadway star Bernadette Peters. Peters’ divine voice was featured on a new cast recording of “Follies” released in November 2011. The multifaceted musical theater actress, whose career has spanned five decades, will be heard in full force on opening night sharing favorites such as “Some Enchanted Evening,” “There Is Nothing like a Dame” and “Being Alive.” The grand opening night festivities include a complimentary pre-concert reception and a post-concert CD and book signing with Peters.

Tickets are $20-$125. www.bostonpops.org

May 10-12

Gershwin Spectacular

Keith Lockhart and the Boston Pops will celebrate the music of one of the great innovators of the American Songbook, George Gershwin. The Gershwin Spectacular program will include a performance of “Rhapsody in Blue and Promenade: Walking the Dog,” featuring Pops principal clarinetist Thomas Martin. The second half of the program will feature members of the Boston Conservatory Theater Division in such Gershwin classics as “I Got Rhythm,” “Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off ” from “Shall We Dance” and “Embraceable You.” People of all ages are welcome to a Gershwin matinee Family Concert at 3 p.m. on Saturday, May 12. The Family Concert will feature a performance by the winner of the BSO Youth Concerto Competition, and children 18 and under receive a 50 percent discount.

Tickets are $20-$125. www.bostonpops.org

exhalelifestyle.com

May 11

Emanuel Ax

Emanuel Ax is one of the great pianists of our age. He exudes a warm, uplifting optimism — even glee — in performing, and his unmistakable authority and clear sense of purpose breathe life into music making. The purity of his phrases is not only a wondrous hallmark of his playing, it is a window into the soul of the music.

NEC’s Jordan Hall For more information, call 617-482-6661.

May 15-16

A Barbra Streisand Songbook

May 17-20

Mark Morris Dance Group

Mark Morris is a world-renowned choreographer of great ambition and endless invention. He is brilliantly sculpting his legacy. Both dance and music breathe and live in a Mark Morris Dance Group performance. The program includes three Boston premieres. Presented

by Celebrity Series.

Cutler Majestic Theatre For more information, call 617-482-6661. www.celebrityseries.org

May 23, 24, 26

City of Champions

Bill Westmoreland Photo

Ann Hampton Callaway, one of this country’s great interpreters of the American Songbook, brings her captivating sound to Symphony Hall to pay tribute to the adored Barbra Streisand. The program fires off with classic Boston Pops renditions of tunes from the likes of George Gershwin, Duke Ellington and Leonard Bernstein, before Callaway brings her jazz for a full second half of Streisand hits. Alan Bergman makes a special cameo performance on these dates to share stories about the years of collaboration he and his wife Marilyn shared with Streisand.

Tickets are $20-$125. www.bostonpops.org

Keith Lockhart and the Boston Pops celebrate Boston’s favorite hometown heroes during the third week of Pops concerts. Fans will hear the music of baseball, football, basketball, hockey and more in these Olympic and Boston sportsthemed concerts. From the energetic Opening Fanfare of “Also Sprach Zarathustra” to the more modern “Heavy Action” (better known as the theme song to Monday Night Football), the Boston Pops will share the popular hits of competitive sports with the audiences who know best. Keep your head up for surprise cameos by local sports celebrities from the Boston Red Sox, Boston Bruins, Boston Celtics, New England Patriots and New England Revolution during each City of Champions performance.

The Boston Pops will also unveil a special tribute to the 100th Anniversary of Fenway Park.

Tickets are $20-$125. www.bostonpops.org

SPRING 2012

May 9

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May 25 – June 23 Love Person

Love Person is a transcendent fourpart love story told in Sanskrit, American Sign Language, English and e-mail. Two couples are rocked to their cores when love unexpectedly transcends sexual orientation, physical attraction and social structures. Free, a deaf woman in a relationship with Maggie, accidentally strikes up a correspondence with Ram, a Boston University professor of Sanskrit and love interest of Free’s sister, Vic. The four find themselves inextricably bound by technology, translation and the breakdown of language itself.

BCA Plaza Theatre Tickets are $30-$38 www.BostonTheatreScene.com

May 29-30

Steve Martin and The Steep Canyon Rangers, An Evening of Bluegrass & Comedy

Multi-talented cultural icon Steve Martin will make his long-overdue Boston Pops debut on May 29 and 30 with the roving bluegrass troupe The Steep Canyon Rangers.

The comic who once said, “Talking about music is like dancing about architecture,” will present an Evening of Comedy and Bluegrass with Keith Lockhart, the Boston Pops, and help from his trusty banjo.

These concerts mark the first time Martin and The Steep Canyon Rangers have performed with an orchestra.

Tickets are $20-$125. www.bostonpops.org

June 3 Sandee O. photo

IL Divo

May 29 – June 3

Beauty and the Beast IL Divo is back with a new show designed by Creative Director Brian Burke. The 2012 tour promises to incorporate a stunning visual and musical mix of fan favorites. IL Divo will perform songs from their new album Wicked Game.

Citi Performing Arts Center Wang Theatre Tickets are $53.25-$128.75. www.citicenter.org/wickedgame

Emily Behny as Belle and Dane Agostinis as Beast. (Joan Marcus photo)

Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, the smash hit Broadway musical, is coming to Boston! Based on the Academy Award-winning animated feature film, this eye-popping spectacle has won the hearts of more than 35 million people worldwide. This classic musical love story is filled with unforgettable characters, lavish sets and costumes and dazzling production numbers including “Be Our Guest” and the beloved title song.

Boston Opera House Tickets start at $33. Call Ticketmaster at 800-982-2787. www.BroadwayInBoston.com

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June 9

Gospel Night Celebrates 20 Years

June 19-24

MAMMA MIA!

Charles Floyd and the Boston Pops Gospel Choir, his all-volunteer chorus, celebrate the 20th annual Gospel Night, an evening of spirit-raising traditional and contemporary American gospel music. To celebrate this milestone of one of the most popular programs every season, the Boston Pops Gospel Choir will also be joined by American Idol’s Melinda Doolittle and gospel singer Crystal Aitkin.

Additional guests will also be announced.

Tickets are $20-$125. www.bostonpops.org

June 12

More than 50 million people all around the world have fallen in love with the characters, the story and the music that make MAMMA MIA! the ultimate feel-good show. Writer Catherine Johnson’s sunny, funny tale unfolds on a Greek island paradise. On the eve of her wedding, a daughter’s quest to discover the identity of her father brings three men from her mother’s past back to the island they last visited 20 years ago. The story-telling magic of ABBA’s timeless songs propels this enchanting tale of love, laughter and friendship, and every night everyone’s having the time of their lives!

Boston Opera House Tickets start at $33. Call Ticketmaster at 800-982-2787. www.BroadwayInBoston.com

July 24-August 19

Billy Elliot the Musical Networks Presentations, LLC brings the multi-award winning Billy Elliot the Musical to the Boston Opera House for a four week engagement. Based on the

international smash-hit film, Billy Elliot the Musical has earned critical acclaim on Broadway, including 10 Tony Awards.

Boston Opera House Call Ticketmaster at 800-982-2787. www.BroadwayInBoston.com

Out of the Box

A competitive multimedia event, Out of the Box brings performance to the next level. Local performers from all backgrounds — actors, musicians, dancers, poets, puppeteers and everything in between — will converge in a multimedia cabaret. A winner will arise from the dust, judged by the audience.

BCA Plaza Theatre Tickets are $10 www.BostonTheatreScene.com

exhalelifestyle.com

SPRING 2012

Mama Mia! North American Tour 2010, Pictured: North American Tour Cast, © Joan Marcus 2012

Kylend Hetherington (Billy), Leah Hocking (Mrs. Wilkinson), Samantha Blaire Cutler (Debbie) and the cast of “Billy Elliot the Musical.”

Photo by Kyle Froman.

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Travel

WinnetuSBeach

Whether you’re walking along the surf, trailing fingers over the side of a boat, or watching the golden reflection of a setting sun, few ingredients add to the recipe of a summer getaway quite like water.

In New England we’re lucky to have so many nearby options, which, some might argue, may be our reward for enduring the frigid winters. From a family beach vacation to a romantic lakeside retreat, here are a few places to add a splash to your summer sojourn.

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Exhale • Spring 2012

Cape & the Islands Wellfleet Motel & Lodge, Wellfleet, MA

Looking for a place to hang your hat while you enjoy the Cape but don’t want to spend a mortgage payment doing it?

Consider the Wellfleet Motel & Lodge, a 12-acre property located opposite the Audubon Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary.

It’s no-frills but you’ll find clean, comfortable rooms at reasonable rates for the area.

Bring your bikes, because it’s steps from the Rail Trail, which you can ride to nearby Marconi Beach. Not in the mood for the beach? Hit the indoor or outdoor pool instead. Summer rates from $85/night. www.wellfleetmotel.com, 800-852-2900.

Winnetu Oceanside Resort, Edgartown, MA

Winnetu makes a lot of top-10 family resort lists because it’s a great choice for a hassle-free beach vacation. A location at the southern tip of the island, along popular South Beach, means all-day sun and warmth. A raft-load of complimentary family fun — kids’ program, tennis clinics, yoga classes, antique fire truck rides — maximizes

the bang for your buck. Summer rates from $325/night; one-bedroom cottage rates range from $810-1,445/night; two-bedroom cottages range $735-1,995; www.winnetu.com; 866-335-1133.

White Elephant, Nantucket, MA

What began in the 1920s as an eclectic mix of cottages overlooking Nantucket Harbor has evolved into a “Travel + Leisure” reader favorite. This island landmark offers laid-back luxury in the heart of town, blending island charm and sophisticated amenities. Choose one of the 54 guest rooms and suites, most with working fireplaces and harbor views, or spread out in a garden cottage. Indulge yourself at the on-site spa, and then spend the afternoon sipping lemonade on the harborside lawn. Summer rates from $225/night; www.whiteelephant.com; 800-445-6574.

Newport/ Block Island Castle Hill Inn, Newport, RI

A member of the Relais & Chateaux group, this seaside enclave has a stunning oceanfront setting, complete with sprawling vistas, private white sand beach, and its own lighthouse. The main inn, built in 1874, is home to the Turret Suite with 30-foot ceilings and panoramic views of Narragansett Bay. Other lodging options include cliff-perching harbor houses and cottages set on the dunes.

Summer rates from $445/night; www.castle hillinn.com; 888-466-1355.

Avonlea, Block Island, RI

Steps from the sand sits Avonlea, a newly renovated beach house with a wrap-around porch perfect for relaxing or enjoying the daily hospitality hour. Each of the nine rooms has its own personality, decorated in a simple Victorian cottage style. The inn is an easy walk to town, but it’s far enough away from the commotion to keep things serene. There won’t be much din on-property, either, as the inn has a no-kids-under-16 policy. Summer rates from $225/night; www.blockislandinns. com/avonlea.html; 800-992-7290.

New Hampshire’s Lakes Ames Farm Inn, Gilford, NH

The cottage colony vacation experience is alive and well at the Ames Farm Inn. Fourth and fifth generations of the Ames family continue to welcome families back every summer to this collection of lakeside cabins. There’s a quarter-mile of sandy beach on a secluded Lake Winnipesaukee cove that’s perfect for waterskiing. Activities include “Barn Nights” with dancing, movies, karaoke and crafts.

Summer cabin rates from $1,379/week; www.amesfarminn.com; 603-293-4321.

Bermuda Pompano Beach Club, Southampton, Bermuda

Opened in 1956 by Waban, Mass., native Tom Lamb as Bermuda’s first fishing club, Pompano Beach Club is run today by two of Tom’s sons, and has upped the luxe considerably since the early days. The resort is legendary for its friendly and personalized service, regularly snagging top-10 honors in TripAdvisor’s Travelers’ Choice awards.

All of the rooms have ocean views, making the most of the resort’s dramatic perch overlooking Bermuda’s southwest coast. The resort has a private beach with access to coral gardens and a shallow sandbar. The on-site water sports center rents kayaks, pedal bikes, windsurfers and snorkels. Bermuda’s top-rated public golf course, designed by Robert Trent Jones, is next door.

There is also a heated oceanfront pool, a spa, jacuzzis and tennis courts. Plus, the modified American meal plan means guests enjoy a full breakfast and five-course dinner daily. Summer rates starting from $530/night with MAP; www.pompanobeachclub. com; 800-343-4155.

Nova Scotia Lake Opechee Inn & Spa Laconia, NH

This renovated mill on the shores of Lake Opechee offers guests a calm lakeside retreat.

Choose from 34 individually decorated guest rooms with fireplaces, balconies, lake views, whirlpool baths and soft-as-a-cloud bedding.

Pamper yourself in the full-service wellness spa, then refuel at the inn’s restaurant. Summer rates from $209/night; www.opecheeinn.com; 603-524-0111.

Digby Pines Golf Resort and Spa, Digby, NS

The Digby Pines Golf Resort and Spa offers an unrivaled view of the Bay of Fundy’s highest-in-theworld tides. Built in 1929, this Norman-style chateau offers rooms and suites in the main building, and private two-bedroom cottages dotting the grounds.

There’s a heated outdoor pool, Aveda spa, golf course, tennis, two restaurants, and guided tours that offer a real sense of place.

The resort is also within walking distance of Digby, a charming fishing village famous for its scallops.

Peace-and-quiet lovers, take note: the village hosts an annual motorcycle rally in August. Summer rates from $167CDN/night for a queen room, $343CDN/night for a cottage; www.digbypines.ca; 800-667-4637.

Professional Development

Sally Ourieff, MD, executive, leadership, and board advisor and consultant.

Is work an endurance

sport?

Learn how to win the race

I

By Sally Ourieff, MD

t seems that whenever you

greet people and ask how they are, they invariably answer “busy.”

People are always busy.

“I never have enough time,” has become a mantra for everyone, from front line employees to the executive office.

Companies are highly focused on getting the most out of their employees. We reward the people who are first to arrive, last to leave, and who barely take vacation time.

As a result, people are exhausted and burnout is high. According to 2011 Gallup polls, only 28 percent of American workers feel “engaged” in their work. Fifty-eight percent are “not engaged” and 19 percent are downright miserable or “actively not engaged.”

When we are feeling stressed, tired, overworked or unappreciated it is hard to go to work every day ready to do our best. Instead, we should be focused on getting the best from each employee.

The key to being our best is not about putting in extra hours, but about managing our energy and balancing our lives so we can come to work and feel present and engaged. ^p78 exhalelifestyle.com

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Is work an endurance sport?

H

uman biology is naturally rhythmic. Our body functions in waves of circadian rhythms that control sleep; electrical waves that control brain, heart, and muscles; and hormonal waves that control just about everything.

Your energy comes in waves of highs and lows, as well. We all know about that mid-afternoon lull. If your energy level is chronically low, it decreases your resilience to manage stress, be productive, and even enjoy the positive things in your life.

Jim Loehr, founder of The Human Performance Institute, has trained hundreds of Olympic, professional, and now “corporate” athletes (executives). I recently heard him speak and he discussed how resilience is a combination of stress or “energy out” and recovery or “energy in.”

Just like a muscle needs to be stressed to get stronger, we need some stress to push us forward to grow and develop. But we need an equal amount of high quality recovery time in order to replenish our energy source and be ready Monday morning.

We have four essential pools of energy: physical, emotional, mental and spiritual. By spiritual I do not necessarily mean our religious beliefs, but rather making sure we know and understand our sense of purpose and what is most important to us.

While the physical energy of health and fitness is a necessary foundation, the greatest source of our energy comes from living life with purpose. When we are clear on that, it becomes the starting point for the enthusiasm, focus and energy we bring to whatever we do. As I wrote in the last column, living with purpose is “square one.”

Work often ends up feeling like an endurance sport. But as Loehr says, we function less well if life becomes a marathon rather than a series of sprints followed by periods of recovery. Without recovery, a cycle begins that contributes to poor health, lack of exercise, sedentary lifestyles, chronic disease and a significant emotional toll — all of which drain our energy further.

It also drains American businesses. In 2007, a Milken Institute study estimated that preventable chronic disease cost $1.1 trillion per year in lost workdays and productivity.

More important, however, is the cost of this “recovery deficit” on you as an individual. In today’s fast-paced world, it is unlikely that our lives will naturally become less stressful or that work demands will suddenly fall off.

But no matter how exhausted and stressed out you are, there are things you can do to rediscover yourself at your best: rested, energized, engaged and feeling good.

pose is to make life easier for others, then having even one positive interaction with someone can make your day worthwhile.

Bring positivity to work. People who are positive at work perform better. Emotions are highly contagious. When you are in a bad mood, it dramatically affects the people around you. When you are in a good mood, it can brighten another person’s day. Positive emotions create energy and negative emotions drain it. In fact, a positive spin on stress itself can make you more resilient. If you focus on how the stress can strengthen your performance rather than impair it, you actually experience less stress.

Reach out to friends and family especially when you are stressed. Social support is a major predictor of longevity, happiness and positive business outcomes. Providing support is even more helpful than receiving it.

the physical energy of health “andWhile fitness is a necessary foundation, the greatest source of our energy comes from living life with purpose.

Here are some ways to get started Work with a sense of purpose. Incredible reserves of energy can be tapped when you have a sense of mission in at least some part of your work. If customers are driving you crazy but part of your pur-

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When you are kind, help someone out at work, organize social activities for your colleagues, or even just ask someone for coffee, you are 10 times more likely to feel engaged in your job and 40 percent more likely to get a promotion.

Generate Good Energy Practice good energy-generating habits. Here are small but doable suggestions that research has shown have long-lasting effects on people’s energy level, happiness and well-being when practiced daily: • Do not work longer than 90 minutes without getting up, walking around, stretching, or taking a short break.

• Get to sleep! Studies by the military indicate that the impact of not enough sleep is huge on all systems in your body. Seriously, go to bed!

• Leave your work at work. Bringing it home leads to diminishing results. Remember, work should have the “best,” not the “most,” of you.

• Exercise, even if just for 10 minutes a day. While it is not enough to get you physically in shape, it is enough to improve your mood and make you feel happier.

• At the end of each day, write down two or three things you were grateful for during the day and the one experience you felt was the most meaningful. Gratitude and appreciation feed energy and happiness.

• Give yourself time to relax and don’t let anyone tell you it is not important. Evenings and weekends need to include real rest in order to gather more “energy in” and be able to engage and take on the challenges of the week.=

Professional Development

Pipeline Fellowship promotes women investors

By Astrid Lium

A

lthough women constitute a slight majority of the population, they are vastly underrepresented in the business world.

The Pipeline Fellowship intends to change all of that.

With Natalia Oberti Noguera at the helm, the Pipeline Fellowship is expanding the business model and changing its dynamic. The hands-on organization focuses on for-profit business ventures with social impact led by women who pitch their startup ideas to a panel of female investors trained by mentors and business experts.

As clearly stated on its homepage, the organization’s mission is to train “women philanthropists to become angel investors through education, mentoring and practice. Fellows commit to invest in a woman-led, for-profit social venture in exchange for equity and a board seat at the end of the training. The Pipeline Fellowship aims to diversify the investor pool and connect women social entrepreneurs with investors who get them.”

Based in New York City, the Pipeline Fellowship has recently expanded into Boston, announcing its 10 fellows in November 2011.

The group consists of professional women with varying backgrounds, ranging from education and journalism to law and real estate development. Likely to donate to nonprofit organizations, the fellows have the opportunity through the organization to maintain a focus on social change while investing in forprofit companies, primarily led by women.

“Women-led doesn’t mean women only,” Natalia, founder and CEO of the Pipeline Fellowship, says with a smile. “But I am a big fan of women only.” The 10 fellows each invest $5,000, which is combined and invested in one woman-based for-profit business

A. Lauren Abele, COO of Pipeline Fellowship, and on the right is Natalia Oberti Noguera, founder and CEO of Pipeline.

with a social conscience. The winner is chosen among several applicants and is awarded $50,000 to use for developing her startup.

During the six-month process, the fellows are guided by mentors — comprised of successful entrepreneurs and angel investors, both men and women — and taught the basics of choosing and investing in women-based businesses with potential.

At the Boston Pipeline Fellowship Pitch Summit on February 24, nine female entrepreneurs shared their business plans — ranging from home health care to beauty products — with the 10 fellows.

Siiri Morley, founding partner of Prosperity Candle, which creates at-home candlemaking business opportunities for women in war torn and post-disaster countries, says that her company is “creating tchotchkes with a cause.” Morley opened her pitch with a quote from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton: “Investing in women isn’t only the right thing to do; it’s the smart thing to do.”

But providing a platform for women entrepreneurs fulfills only one part of the Pipeline

Fellowship’s objective. Natalia primarily focuses on the investing side of business with her organization. Noting that there is no dearth of hybrid entrepreneurs, she underscores the need for more hybrid investors. Claiming that only 12 percent of venture capitalists are women, and a mere 5 percent are racial minorities, Natalia says, “we need to increase diversity in the angel investor sector,” which is what the Pipeline Fellowship is attempting to achieve with its program.

Her intent is to combine the business models — merging of the public and private sectors — and make women-based hybrids a more common alternative. Having heard how difficult the for-profit model is, she notes the binary nature of the traditional business world.

“The options are either nonprofit or for-profit,” Natalia says. “But it can be both!”

Without seeking donations or grants, the Pipeline Fellowship aims to create and expand upon a self-sustaining system with a social mission. “We’re combining the business savvy of the corporate world with the heart of the nonprofit world,” says Natalia. “The world really needs more hybrids.”

Deeming herself a hybrid, as well, Natalia explains that she “is very comfortable with ambiguities.” Half-Italian and half-Colombian, the Yale graduate grew up speaking English, Spanish and Italian and later studied French and Russian in school. Her father worked for the United Nations, and the family moved around frequently, which helped Natalia develop her adaptability. With an international, multi-lingual upbringing, she transcends categorization with ease.

Natalia’s parting word of advice: learn a second language, if you haven’t done so already.

“It really expands one’s mindset,” she says.

“Knowing that there is more than one word for ‘glass’ is very powerful.”= exhalelifestyle.com

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RESOURCES Association of Women in Communications

Business Women’s Network

The Association of Women in Communications is an organization that enables women in communications to network with others in their profession. By positioning its members at the forefront of the ever-evolving communications field, they are opening up access to smart career moves and important contacts. www.womcom.org

an umbrella organization to unite, network

The Business Women’s Network serves as

and promote 1,200 women’s businesses and

professional organizations, representing nearly eight million women. www.bwni.com

Center for Women and Enterprise/Community Entrepreneurs Program Established in 1995, the Center for

Athena PowerLink Program

Women & Enterprise (CWE) is a nonprofit

Since 1999, the ATHENAPowerLink® Program has been helping women-owned

start and grow their own businesses. CWE

businesses expand profitably through the use of professional advisory panels. The proven mentoring process “links” a business with a volunteer panel of advisors recruited from the local community. www.southshorechamber.org/Athena

Bentley’s Center for Women and Business The challenges posed by today’s global marketplace make the inclusion of women in leadership positions an economic imperative.

Bentley’s Center for Women and Business seeks to lead a global conversation about that imperative and to develop effective solutions for change. www.cwb.bentley.edu

The Boston Club The Boston Club is an organization of top women executives and professional women committed to developing, promoting and recognizing women leaders. www.thebostonclub.com

Boston Women in Finance Formerly known as The Financial Women’s Association of Boston, Boston Women in Finance (BWF) was started by a group of eight Wall Street women. They encourage women to seek career opportunities in finance and business. BWF represents women from across the business spectrum, including retail

and investment banks, brokerage houses, biotech, high-tech, mutual fund and insurance companies, accounting and consulting firms and academic institutions. www.bostonwomeninfinance.org 80

Exhale • Spring 2012

organization dedicated to helping women

is a national leader among women’s business development agencies. CWE’s mission is to

empower women to become economically selfsufficient and to prosper through business and entrepreneurship. www.cweboston.org

Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy at UMass Boston The center is committed to advancing

women’s participation in public life. We

recognize the talent and potential of women

from every community. Guided by the urban

mission of an intellectually vibrant and diverse university in the heart of Boston, we seek to

expand the involvement of women in politics

and policies that affect them, their families and their communities. www.umb.edu/cwppp

Downtown Women’s Club South Shore Chapter This network, now known as Connecting Women and Business, is great for people wanting to share information about their businesses, establish relationships and connections for work, finding a new job, referring a potential source of information or client, having fun mingling and just getting out. www. i-network.biz

Golden Seeds Golden Seeds has many constituents, including members of its angel network, limited and general partners of its funds, entrepreneurs and staff. All share the goal of obtaining high investment returns. Golden Seeds does this through empowering women entrepreneurs, emphasizing diversity and creating a positive investment environment for all participants. www.goldenseeds.com

Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce — Women’s Leadership Program In collaboration with the Simmons School of Management, the chamber has established the Women’s Leadership Program.The yearlong Women’s Leadership Program provides a select group of emerging female professionals (3-9 years of experience) with opportunities to enhance their leadership skills, engage in the region’s business and civic communities and develop professional networks. www.bostonchamber.com

Moms in Business Network

outreach and research. www.babson.edu/cwl

Mothers influence everything — from what we eat to the way we dress to what we drive. Of the 82 million moms in the United States, 74 percent work and 80 percent control household purchasing decisions for an average of three or more people — and spend nearly $2 trillion annually. Today’s mom drives our economy, and the Moms in Business Network is the associati on that represents her. www.mibn.org

The Commonwealth Institute

National Association for Female Executives

The Center for Women’s Leadership, Babson College The Center for Women’s Leadership’s mission

is to distinguish the best practices for women’s

entrepreneurial leadership. They target women at all professional levels, stressing educational

excellence, innovative professional development,

The Commonwealth Institute’s mission is to

support women CEOs, entrepreneurs and senior corporate executives by helping them grow their businesses and careers. They strive toward this

goal by focusing on peer mentoring and support. www.commonwealthinstitute.org

With 250,000 members and 400 local

networks, NAFE is the largest businesswomen’s organization in the United States. They are dedicated to advancing women in the workplace through education, networking and public advocacy. www.nafe.com

National Association of Negro Business and Professional Women’s Club

Simmons School of Management

The NANBPWC provides opportunities for women to enhance leadership skills and raise awareness of issues impacting the black community. Founded in 1935, it materialized as a national nonprofit organization that promoted and protected the interests of women business owners and professionals. www.nanbpwc.org

Since 1973, the award-winning Simmons School of Management has prepared young women and future entrepreneurs for a bright career in business. Women are prepped to be exceptional leaders and exit the school ready to lead in Fortune 500 corporations, entrepreneurial ventures, governmental agencies or nonprofit organizations. www.simmons.edu/som

National Association of Women MBAs

Society of Women Engineers

The National Association of Women MBAs is a nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering women and propelling them into leadership positions in corporate America. To accomplish its mission, NAWMBA focuses its efforts in four key areas: education, professional development, networking and collaboration. www.mbawomen.org

New Economics for Women Committed to reducing poverty by increasing wealth opportunities for women and children, NEW measures their impact by the specific impacts they make on families. From finding someone a safe place to live to helping start a business, NEW provides women with hope for the future. www.neweconomicsforwomen.org

SCORE

The Society of Women Engineers (SWE) is a nonprofit educational and service organization that empowers women to succeed and advance in the field of engineering and to be recognized for their life-changing contributions as engineers and leaders. www.sweboston.org

Springboard Venture catalyst Springboard Enterprises is the premier platform where entrepreneurs, investors and industry experts meet to build great women-led businesses. Springboard educates, sources, coaches, showcases and supports high growth companies seeking equity capital for expansion. www.springboardenterprises.org

WEST Advancing Women in the Business of Science and Technology

SCORE is a nonprofit association dedicated to helping small businesses get off the ground, and achieve their goals through education and mentorship. Their work is supported by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), and thanks to a network of 13,000+ volunteers, SCORE is able to deliver services at no charge or at very low cost. www.score.org

Launched in 2000, the WEST organization provides a forum for women in science and technology industries to network and share information about career advancement and skill development. www.westorg.org

U.S. Small Business Administration Office of Women’s Business Ownership

The Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC), founded in 1997, is the largest third-party certifier of businesses owned, controlled and operated by women in the United States. www.wbenc.org

The Office of Women’s Business Ownership’s mission is to establish and oversee a network of Women’s Business Centers (WBCs) throughout the United States and its territories. Through the management and technical assistance provided by the WBCs, entrepreneurs — especially women who are economically or socially disadvantaged — are offered comprehensive training and counseling on a vast array of topics in many languages to help them start and grow their own businesses. www.sba.gov

Women’s Business Enterprises National Council

The women’s center The Women’s Center is a community resource, to be used and contributed to by as many women as possible. The center’s goals are to foster empowerment and social justice in a multicultural space that is safe, warm, respectful and comforting to all women and their children. We strive to provide healing opportunities; celebrate women’s voices, victories and survival; and encourage women to become advocates for themselves and others. www.cambridgewomenscenter.org

Women Impacting Public Policy

Women Impacting Public Policy is a national bipartisan public policy organization that advocates for and on behalf of women in business. www.wipp.org

Women on Boards 2020 In 2010, two women were motivated by the lack of representation of women on corporate boards and the fact that the numbers were not increasing. They created a nonprofit organization that would concentrate on mobilizing stakeholders, from the consumer to the boardroom, to get involved and raise these numbers. 2020 Women on Boards focuses on educating all people of the importance of this issue. www.2020wob.com

Young Black Women’s Society

The Young Black Women’s Society, Inc. (YBWS) leads and empowers women and girls of color, helping them to develop their personal and professional lives. They provide tools and access through social activities, professional development, civic engagement, leadership development and mentoring. YBWS currently has 70 active members from the Greater Boston Area, ranging from ages 24-44, representing a wide variety of professions and industries. www.ybws.org or e-mail info@ybws.org

Younger Women’s Task Force

The YWTF is a nationwide movement dedicated to organizing younger women in their 20s and 30s to take action on issues that matter to them. Featuring women who have asserted themselves in their community and at work, they encourage this young generation to continue to break the glass ceiling and promote their own unique agenda. www.ywtf.org

YWCA Founded in 1866, YWCA Boston is America’s first YWCA. For more than 140 years, YWCA Boston has worked to eliminate racism and empower women. Today’s YWCA provides critical services in the community. They include mobile health and wellness education for women and girls; breast cancer survivor support; adult interracial community dialogues; youth/police dialogues; and financial literacy programs for women. YWCA Boston sponsors Boston’s Academy of Women Achievers and an annual, city-wide Stand Against Racism Day. YWCA provides housing for single women at its Berkeley Residence. www.ywcaboston.org exhalelifestyle.com

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Women Executives in Science and Technology are training tomorrow’s leaders Launched in 2000, the Women Executives in Science and Technology (WEST) organization provides a forum for women in science and technology industries to network and share information about career advancement and skill development. Exhale sat down with Executive Director Ilene Fischer to ask some questions about the organization.

Q What’s the history and mission of WEST?

WEST was founded by a group of women committed to developing women in science and technology as leaders in their careers. The organization has grown substantially since then. I had the privilege of becoming the executive director in February 2011.

I would describe WEST as a thriving community, a forum for early and mid-career and executive women committed to developing themselves as leaders through education, mentorship, networking and information sharing.

WEST encourages women to cultivate entrepreneurship and creative risk taking. By participating, members distinguish their passion and unique contribution to their work, build their talent, and become inspirational leaders and role models for their teams, organizations and businesses.

WEST’s mission is to develop women in science, engineering and technology as leaders to achieve success in their organizations and make a profound difference in their communities.

Q Please give some examples of the type of

Our annual Leadership Awards Event salutes outstanding women leaders who have made an impact in the science, engineering and technology community. We also hold an annual Giving Back Awards Event, acknowledging those women in science and technology who have given back to the community and key WEST volunteers.

WEST offers a mentoring program for interns and volunteers. Participants learn new skills in areas where they may not have an opportunity to develop in their jobs or in school. Participants in the program are mentored to enhance their career by producing outstanding results in their area of interest.

WEST also offers a Career Navigation Program: A customized, structured, six-month group mentoring program that meets monthly and explores specific development areas directed by the mentees.

Q Tell me about some of the women that went through your programs and the impact it had on their careers.

As a woman who started her career as a chemical engineer, I have a deep understanding of the dearth of leadership development opportunities available for women trained in science, engineering and technology. This gap in leadership skills may in fact keep women from being promoted in their jobs and limit their career options.

The specific skills that women need to advance in the science and technology fields include negotiation, communication, strategic thinking, organizational navigation, presentation, listening and skills to engage people in ideas and projects.

Dr. Paulina Hill has been a WEST member and active volunteer for many years. She was a post-doctoral fellow in Bob Langer’s lab in the chemical engineering department at MIT. In January 2012, she entered the venture capital world as a senior associate at Polaris Ventures evaluating investments in life sciences. Through her participation in the programs at WEST and as a volunteer she was encouraged and gained the skills to seek opportunities that would challenge and stretch her.

Dr. Yuly Fuentes has also been a volunteer at WEST for many years.

She was awarded WEST’s Volunteer Giving Back Award this year. She just completed her PhD and has been accepted as a post-doctoral candidate at MIT’s Sloan School, where she will be researching the economics of science.

She attributes her success to WEST programs and to the mentoring she receives as a volunteer.

help women advance?

girls to get into the fields of science and technology?

skills that women need to advance in the science and technology field.

Q What types of programs do you provide to

We offer workshops and panel discussions addressing many of the topics described to develop women as leaders. To address the needs of executive women we hold three dinners each year with community leaders as speakers. The dinners serve as peer networking opportunities for the executives that attend.

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Exhale • Spring 2012

Q Is WEST doing anything to encourage young

Mathworks sponsored WEST to offer a Career Alternatives Program for the Science Club for Girls and for the Girls Scouts. In this program we recruit 10 career mentors from different STEM careers, who share their career paths and successes with the girls. We are also planning on collaborating and supporting the Girls Scouts with their STEM conference in the fall.

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