Thursday, July 3, 2008

Learn Techniques From Disneys' First African-American Animator



(SAN BERNARDINO, Calif.) In 2001, Dr. Joshua Sweet made his debut on the silver screen in the movie Atlantis: Search For The Lost Empire, and made history as the first African-American human character in a Disney animated film.

Dr. Sweet had a lot of the heart and soul of another African-American who made Disney history. Thirty years ago, Ron Husband, who worked as the supervising animator in the development of Dr. Sweet, was the first African-American animator hired by Disney.

Friday, July 11 Husband will share his animation techniques as part of The Invasion of Infinite Creativity, an event hosted by The Art Institute of California - Inland Empire. His presentation from noon to 2 p.m. will describe to guests how he approaches the process of animation, and specifically, how he approaches a scene.

Husband also will show examples of his work. Besides Atlantis: Search For The Lost Empire, Husband has done animation for dozens of Disney films and television shows, and he currently works as an illustrator in Disney’s publishing group.

“Ron Husband’s experience makes him one of the top animators in Southern California,” said Santosh Oommen, academic director for the Media Arts & Animation program of The Art Institute of California - Inland Empire. “Success such as his requires incredible talent, but breaking Disney’s color barrier 30 years ago proves he also has great determination. He will certainly motivate and challenge anyone entering the field of animation.”

Other guest speakers during The Invasion of Infinite Creativity will be April Greiman, a pioneer in the use of technology to create graphic design, and Alexander Manu, who is the author of The Imagination Challenge: Strategic Foresight and Innovation in the Global Economy,” and an expert on developing innovation and creativity in business environments.

While The Invasion of Infinite Creativity includes presentations by three guest speakers who are especially well known in their areas of design, it is primarily an opportunity for the public to learn the latest design techniques through workshops led by the award-winning faculty of The Art Institute of California - Inland Empire. They will present workshops in Interior Design, Graphic Design, Web Design & Interactive Media, Media Arts & Animation, Culinary Arts and Game Art & Design.

Most of these workshops are free.

Interior Design workshops cover making computerized 3-D renderings with the SketchUP program; balancing mind, body and spirit with color; and marker rendering (a $30 materials fee for the marker rendering workshops will include 12 AD markers, marker paper samples and a DVD showing how to render wood, glass and metal).

Graphic Design/Web Design & Interactive Media workshops cover print graphics using InDesign, web design basics and how to publish a design portfolio online, web design with CSS Frameworks, Flash Object-Oriented Programming, AfterEffects for motion graphics, and search engine optimization.

Media Arts & Animation/Game Art & Design workshops cover figure sculpting (participants will sculpt a female form using a live model), life drawing, character design for film and television, storyboarding and comic books, digital character painting, history and future of animation, how Heavy Iron Studios (developer of various computer games) has approached level design, using ZBrush to develop and create characters, and digital character animation,

Culinary workshops cover healthy cuisine and international cuisine along with baking and pastry techniques and artistry.

The Art Institute of California – Inland Empire offers Bachelor of Science degrees in Game Art & Design, Culinary Management, Graphic Design, Web Design & Interactive Media, Interior Design, Fashion Design, Fashion & Retail Management and Media Arts & Animation. There are also Associate of Science degrees in Graphic Design and Culinary Arts. Each program is offered on a year-round basis, allowing students to work uninterrupted toward their degrees.

It’s not too late to start classes. Courses begin July 14, offering day, evening and weekend classes for new and reentry students. For details or a tour of the campus call (909) 915-2100, or go on line to artinstitutes.edu/inlandempire.

The Art Institute of California – Inland Empire is one of the Art Institutes (www.artinstitutes.edu/InlandEmpire), a system of more than 40 locations throughout North America, providing an important source of design, media arts, fashion and culinary arts professionals. For more information, call (909) 915-2100 or go on line to www.artinstitutes.edu/InlandEmpire.


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Environmental Stresses Bring Serious Health Consequences

(SAN BERNARDINO, California) Blacks in the Inland Empire live with environmental stresses that could have serious consequences for their health, including premature death.

Dr. V. Diane Woods, founding president and CEO of the African American Health Institute of San Bernardino County, has tried to persuade people of this for years. Dr. Woods designed and conducted a countywide health planning project from 2003 to 2005, funded by The California Endowment, called the African American Health Initiative Planning Project.

The study was to investigate from the perspective of Americans of African ancestry in San Bernardino County why they have the poorest health outcomes of all ethnic groups. More African Americans die from the leading causes of death such as heart disease, stroke, cancer, and HIV/AIDS than any other group. Even African American infants die two to three times more often than other infants.

Statistics for San Bernardino County show that Americans of African ancestry die 13 years earlier than Whites. “Simply put African American males die at an average age of 56, and African American females die at an average age of 62,” said Dr. Woods. Since then, the African American Health Institute was created in January 2006, and has been working to combat this statistic.

Now, two documentary filmmakers, Larry Adleman and Llew Smith, have taken a look at health data affecting all races from across the country. The result of the filmmakers’ investigation, a four-part series called Unnatural Causes, airs soon on the PBS network.

Unnatural Causes concludes that lower incomes, racism and other external stresses put people at the greatest risk of health problems. These causes that are outside of a person, and can’t easily be changed by one’s own initiative, are more likely than biology or bad choices to make a person sick.

San Bernardino affiliate KVCR is scheduled to show the documentary starting July 2, and air at 8 p.m. July 9, July 16 and July 23.

“What I like about this series is we have collected our local data. Our results overwhelmingly point to multiple factors in San Bernardino County other than biology and bad choices that lead to persistent trends of premature death for Americans of African ancestry,” said Dr. Woods. “Now public health experts across America support our findings with mounting scientific evidence. Our local situation mirrors the nationwide situation.”

Dr. Woods learned of this film in 2006, and immediately signed the African American Health Institute to be a partner organization with the filmmakers. Many health care organizations in the country have joined this partnership, as have national organizations such as the Health Policy Institute of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO), and the American Public Health Association (APHA). The complete list can be viewed at www.unnaturalcauses.org.

As one of the partner organizations, the African American Health Institute held a preview screening of the documentary on Thursday, April 20 at the Norman C. Feldheym Library in San Bernardino. The segment Dr. Woods chose to preview shows how environmental changes over the 20th Century led to a high increase in diabetes and other health problems among two Native American tribes, the Tohonos and the Pimas, on reservations in Arizona.

At the preview, Dr. Woods discussed concerns both the series and her organization have raised. There are similarities between the health problems of the Native Americans now living on reservations, and those of Blacks living in the Inland Empire, she said.

Historically, the Native Americans in Arizona lived off their land, the Tohonos eating native vegetation that grew abundantly and the Pimas developing an elaborate irrigation system to draw water from a nearby river for their crops. Both tribes ate healthy and got lots of exercise. There was absolutely no diabetes among them during this time.

But starting in about 1890, White settlers in Arizona had increased the demand for water so much, the river by the Pimas had run dry and the Tohono’s area was a desert wasteland. A dam built during the Calvin Coolidge administration promised more water for the Pimas, but they saw very little. Instead, because of overt discrimination practiced then, most of that water was diverted to resorts, golf courses and wealthy Whites-only suburbs.

“This is a part of the sad history of America,” said Woods. “The ultimate travesty is that most people do not stop to think about the physical and mental devastation this environmental change has brought to a proud, self-sufficient people, the Native Americans.”

The Native Americans, stripped of their livelihood, had to rely on surplus commodities distributed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Usually these commodities are white flour, cheese, lard or other fats, and canned food. “Not foods for a healthy diet,” Woods said.

The video points out that while “fry bread” is now regarded as traditional Native American cuisine, it is not. It is what the early 20th Century Arizonans living on the reservations often made with their commodities, which was all they had. Their typical diet was much healthier.

“Here in the 21st Century Inland Empire, some Americans of African ancestry also rely on USDA surplus commodities to put food on their table,” Dr. Woods said. “African people were brought to America against their will. They were stripped of their dignity and treated lower than animals. The mental and physiological damage done to Americans of African ancestry is unspeakable. Even today, our people are led to believe that our culture is unhealthy, and bad, which is not true.”

“Think about the potlucks we have after church,” she said. “These social gatherings represent collective energy for positive fellowship, nurturing of our young, encouragement for the struggling, and general support for good will, honesty and integrity. This is the core of the African village, a fundamental premise for the health of Americans of African ancestry.”

Most Inland Empire residents suffer from a lack of exercise, Dr. Woods said. Some live in neighborhoods that aren’t safe for children to play outdoors. And others live in newer suburbs, that while safer; still have only small front and back yards, and almost no space between homes.

“This crowded condition tends to herd people together. When the African American family gathers it is often in large open spaces, such as the back yard at a relative’s home. We are a people of movement, energy, and laughter. We enjoy family gatherings. We love people to people interaction. We like space. Mentally, the new environmental changes and housing developments in the Inland Empire tend to be stressful. They take away space.

“Continual stress and negativism are environmental factors that put Black people at even greater health risk than bad diets and lack of exercise, as was demonstrated in Unnatural Causes,” Woods said. “The stress factor has been documented in scientific studies as a killer.”

While overt race-based discrimination has been illegal for more than 40 years, many Black people grew up with that oppression and still live with these covert factors, which causes ongoing accumulated stress.

“For instance, some people with rental homes will turn a Black person’s application down even though the home is vacant,” Dr. Woods said. “Likewise, some mortgage companies will invent reasons to deny a “prime” loan, or any loan to a Black person, or give high interest loans instead of lower interest loans.”

“Another way Blacks are discriminated against,” Dr. Woods said, “is in health and healthcare. Within the last five years inequities against Blacks, the poor and under-represented minorities (URM) have been overwhelmingly documented in the Institutes of Medicine (IOM) report, studies by RAND, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), and many other scientific academies.”

As a health professional, she has often seen Blacks wait a long time for their doctors and insurance companies to approve a necessary surgery or treatment, while Whites with the same insurance coverage and same health provider obtain the necessary care quickly. “This is a case of inequity and unequal treatment, not inferior providers or a lack of insurance,” Woods said.

This type of stress is created for poor people, irrespective of ethnicity. The results are still the same, sickness or death. This is why everyone should view the PBS series Unnatural Causes. “We as health professionals need to target root causes of premature death and poor health outcomes in our society. We need to use our scarce money and human resources to change what is wrong in our society. And, what is terribly wrong are stress factors,” Woods said.

As Dr. Woods has been saying for several years, these risk factors create an intolerable situation.

“At this point in America, and other places around the world we are in a crisis, a global crisis,” she said. “A crisis requires an aggressive approach and we at AAHI-SBC are committed to following through with what is needed and to work with anyone who truly wishes to eradicate root causes for poor health outcomes.”

What San Bernardino County needs to do most of all, she said, is commit significant money to preventative health and healthcare. We need major change. We need to stop making excuses and stop trying to look good.

“Our County needs to give money and support to those community organizations that are truly working with their people. Organizations need to demonstrate with hard facts that they are working directly with people who need the help. Our County needs to stop using ‘token’ responses to life and death issues. Our County decision-makers need to stop playing with the lives of people they are responsible for protecting and preserving their health. We need to get about the business of not maintaining the “status quo.”

“Our County decision-makers can not afford to casually look the other way, or ‘play make believe,’ or pretend to create elaborate ‘less than honorable’ attempts in addressing serious societal issues, when people are dying needlessly from preventable conditions. Our County leadership needs to move aggressively ahead and get about the business of investing money and people power into saving lives of all people, and preventing one more needless death not just saving the lives of the chosen few,” said Dr. Woods.

She hopes the Unnatural Causes PBS national series will prick the “moral conscious” and further convince local policy-makers and decision-makers in the health industry of this need. “This is not a time to “just” stay in business but, to change for the good of the people, or we will all be dead shortly. Unfortunately, when death touches your family, the sting is great. The recovery is slow.”

“Unnatural Causes is not a feel-good production,” she said. “It is not entertainment, as usual. It is about a national movement forward to tear down false ideologies, and build up systems in America that will be fair, just, and equal for all. Unnatural Causes is about saving lives of Americans.”

The first episode is entitled In Sickness and In Wealth and it will air on Wednesday July 2 at 8pm on KVCR channel 24. This episode will address as to why some of us become sick more frequently than others, as well as why some die sooner.

The second airing, Wednesday July 9 at 8pm on KVCR channel 24, will show two twenty-five minute episodes entitled: When the Bough Breaks and Becoming American. The first twenty-five minutes segment, episode two, will focuses on: infant morality rates among African Americans that remain twice as high as that of white Americans, as well as investigate possible causes researchers determine add to the burden of racism as a long term-risk factor.

The third episode showing within the second airing will focus on recent Mexican immigrants and their tendency to be healthier than the average American. The longer they are here, however, the worse their health becomes, even as their socio-economic status improves. This is “Hispanic Paradox,” places their children at high risk for obesity, heart disease and mental illness.

The fourth episode, entitled Bad Sugar, will air July 16 at 8pm on KVCR channel 24 and will provide viewers with an in-depth look at the Pima and Tohono O’odham Indians of southern Arizona, which are marked with the distinction of perhaps the highest rates of Type 2 diabetes in the world.

The fifth episode, which will also be air July 16 at 8pm on KVCR channel 24, entitled Place Matters, tells of recent Southeast Asian immigrants, along with Latinos, increasingly moving into what have been neglected black urban neighborhoods and how their health is now being eroded.

The final airing of Unnatural Causes, showing July 23 at 8pm on KVCR channel 24, will include the sixth and seventh episodes. The sixth episode, Collateral Damage, will follow patterns of uneven development that mark the Pacific Islands and diabetes, cardiovascular and kidney diseases and tuberculosis. These diseases are taking a growing toll on Pacific Islander populations.

For more information about AAHI, please call us at (909) 880-2600.

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About the African American Health Institute of San Bernardino County (AAHI-SBC)
AAHI-SBC is a community-based resource focused solely on improving health among Americans of African ancestry, the poor and under-represented (URM) ethnic minorities in the Inland Empire. Please visit our Web Site at www.AAHI-SBC.org and learn more about what self-help groups and others are doing to improve the conditions of Blacks. You will also find the history of AAHI-SBC, an extensive list of partners, and activities underway.

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Innovation & Creativity = Business Success



(SAN BERNARDINO, Calif.) “What if?”

This question, in infinite variations, is the foundation for discovering something new. It’s a question Alexander Manu, the author of “The Imagination Challenge: Strategic Foresight and Innovation in the Global Economy,” encourages corporations worldwide to ask as they seek new business opportunities.

By challenging corporate America to use its collective imagination for almost three decades, Manu has ignited a passion among creative individuals for developing and sharing new ideas. He has given more than 200 lectures on creativity and innovation in 23 countries, attended by thousands of people.

Monday, July 7, he brings his innovative thinking to San Bernardino, when the Art Institute of California-Inland Empire hosts The Invasion of Infinite Creativity. This series of lectures and workshops is designed to both stimulate people’s creativity and to showcase the quality instruction students at The Art Institute of California-Inland Empire already receive from leaders in creative industries, such as design and animation.

As one of the keynote speakers for The Invasion of Infinite Creativity, Manu will give three presentations about his “Imagination Challenge” at The Art Institute of California-Inland Empire. These take place Monday, July 7 at 12 noon and 6 p.m.

Manu, who lives in Toronto, Canada, is the senior partner and chief imaginator at InnoSpa International Partners, a worldwide consulting firm that helps large corporations to use innovation and strategic planning to be more competitive. He previously was the founder and executive director of the Beal Institute for Strategic Creativity, which helped businesses to be more effective by using creative thinking.

Manu was born in 1954 in Bucharest, Romania. He obtained a Master of Decorative Arts degree from the Institute of Fine Arts in Bucharest in 1978, and served on the faculty there before coming to Toronto in 1980.

Besides lecturing, authoring and serving as a design and planning consultant for large corporations, Manu currently serves as an instructor for the Ontario College of Art & Design, and at the Rotman School of Management, both in Toronto. He also is a past president of the Association of Chartered Industrial Designers of Ontario (Canada), and served twice on the board of the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design.

Other guest speakers during The Invasion of Infinite Creativity will be April Greiman, a pioneer in the use of technology to create graphic design, and Ron Husband, who was the first Black animator hired by Disney Studios.

While The Invasion of Infinite Creativity includes presentations by three guest speakers who are especially well known in their areas of design, it is primarily an opportunity for the public to learn the latest design techniques through workshops led by the award-winning faculty of The Art Institute of California-Inland Empire. They will present workshops in Interior Design, Graphic Design, Web Design & Interactive Media, Media Arts & Animation and Game Art & Design.

Most of these workshops are free.

Interior Design workshops cover making computerized 3-D renderings with the SketchUP program, balancing mind, body and spirit with color, and marker rendering (a $30 materials fee for the marker rendering workshops will include 12 AD® markers, marker paper samples and a DVD showing how to render wood, glass and metal)

Graphic Design/Web Design & Interactive Media workshops cover print graphics using InDesign, web design basics and how to publish a design portfolio online, web design with CSS Frameworks, Flash Object-Oriented Programming, AfterEffects for motion graphics, and search engine optimization.

Media Arts & Animation/Game Art & Design workshops cover figure sculpting (participants will sculpt a female form using a live model,) life drawing, character design for film and television, storyboarding and comic books, digital character painting, history and future of animation, how Heavy Iron Studios (developer of various computer games) has approached level design, using ZBrush to develop and create characters, and digital character animation,

Culinary workshops cover healthy cuisine, international cuisine, and baking and pastry techniques and artistry.

The Art Institute of California–Inland Empire offers Bachelor of Science degrees in Game Art & Design, Culinary Management, Graphic Design, Web Design & Interactive Media, Interior Design, Fashion Design, Fashion & Retail Management and Media Arts & Animation. There are also Associate of Science degrees in Graphic Design and Culinary Arts. Each program is offered on a year-round basis, allowing students to work uninterrupted toward their degrees.

It’s not too late to start classes. Courses begin July 14, offering day, evening and weekend classes for new and reentry students. For details or a tour of the campus call (909) 915-2100, or go on line to artinstitutes.edu/inlandempire.

The Art Institute of California – Inland Empire is one of the Art Institutes (www.artinstitutes.edu/InlandEmpire), a system of more than 40 locations throughout North America, providing an important source of design, media arts, fashion and culinary arts professionals. For more information, call (909) 915-2100 or go on line to www.artinstitutes.edu/InlandEmpire.

Law School Expands in San Bernardino


Stephan Cutler, dean of the School of Criminal Justice & Public Policy for American Heritage University, gives remarks at the school's grand opening at 255 N D Street. Also on the stage with Cutler are Robin De-Ivy Allen, keynote speaker for the grand opening, and American Heritage University's management team: Registrar Margaret Espinosa, Law School Dean Pamela Gressier, Chief Academic Officer Jay Deb and President Tony Ogiamien.



(SAN BERNARDINO, Calif.) Aspiring lawyers and other professionals have new opportunities to earn their degree, with the expansion of American Heritage University into its new quarters at 255 North D Street, Suite 403.

“A law school! Right here in San Bernardino County! I am excited about this,” said Robin De-Ivy Allen, one of the guests at American Heritage University’s Grand Opening ceremony, held Tuesday, June 24.

De-Ivy Allen was the motivational speaker for the Grand Opening, but other guests shared the enthusiasm. Many agreed, the Juris Doctorate and other programs American Heritage now offers in downtown San Bernardino will motivate many people to pursue higher education.

President Tony Ogiamien noted that since American Heritage University moved into its new building, its enrollment has grown significantly. Many men and women work in the courthouse and other professional buildings nearby, and noticed the sign outside the building.

“This is a great new location for us,” he said.

The 255 North D Street address is also considerably larger than its old offices a few miles away. With the expansion, American Heritage University moves from a purely online school to a hybrid program, offering students a choice of online or in-class instruction.

“If you have not completed your degree, you have a new opportunity to do so here at American Heritage University,” Ogiamien said. “Our instructors are seasoned professionals.”

“But you do not have to sit in a classroom,” he said. “We also have quality online instruction.”

Undergraduate degree programs at AHU are designed to allow students to proceed at their own pace. They also are specifically tailored for students who started a degree elsewhere, but left college before graduating.

They are required to complete a minimum of two courses per session, and must finish their undergraduate program within two years. Undergraduate students must have already completed 60 units.

The postgraduate work must be completed within one year. The Juris Doctorate degree is a four-year program for those seeking California State Bar eligibility.

The School of Law offers a Bachelor of Science degree in Law and the Juris Doctorate. Courses cover such subjects as contracts, criminal law, criminal procedure, legal writing, torts, Constitutional law, civil procedure and real property law.

American Heritage University also offers bachelor’s degrees in business administration, film studies, social studies and computer information systems, master’s degrees in business administration, public policy and computer information systems and a doctorate degree in business administration. It offers certificates for nursing assistants and English as a foreign language.

American Heritage University has been granted full approval to operate by the California State Bureau for Postsecondary and Vocational Education.

For more information, call (909) 888-0321.

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Life Drawing Class at Art Institute of California-Inland Empire



(SAN BERNADINO, Calif.) Knowing how to draw from a live human model is important for any artist. The Art Institute of California – Inland Empire will show attendees how to do this at its Life Drawing workshop on Saturday, July 19, from 1 - 5 p.m. The workshop will be open at no charge.

“These classes to give budding young artists the instruction they need to improve in their drawing abilities,” said Santosh Ooomen, academic director of animation of the Art Institute of California – Inland Empire .”We are committed to helping artists in the Inland Empire grow.”

The Life Drawing workshops are usually offered on the third Saturday of every month. There are 21 seats available in each class. Students must bring their own pencils and drawing papers. The workshop is open to the public, those 15 years old or above, and the classes are offered at no charge.

“Many people have great creative talents,” Oomen says. “The workshop offers people a chance to focus that raw creative talent into directed creativity. Our goal is to help make better artists.”

Oommen says the workshop involves drawing from a live figure and covers topics such as anatomy and gestures. To sign up for the Life Drawing workshop, or for more information, call The Art Institute of California – Inland Empire at (909) 915-2100.

Monday, June 30, 2008

Healthy Relationships, A Healthier You




(RIVERSIDE, Calif.) – A young Black woman who survived breast cancer at an early age will highlight a conference that will motivate other African-Americans to take charge of their health.
Nikia Hammonds Blakely is the keynote speaker for the free Healthy Heritage Wellness Conference, taking place from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. July 26 at California Baptist University, 8432 Magnolia St., Riverside. The conference offers speakers, information booths and interactive sessions aimed at improving the overall health and well being of the Black community.
The theme of this year’s conference is “Healthy Relationships, A Healthier You.”
“Good relationships are essential to our happiness and emotional well-being,” said Phyllis Clark, event organizer. They influence everything from hypertension to age-related health issues.”
Hammonds Blakely was diagnosed with a rare and aggressive form of breast cancer when she was just 16 years old. She spent that summer undergoing radiation treatments and several surgical procedures, but after several months the cancer went away and has not returned.
“I was terrified when I learned I had cancer,” she said. “After God delivered me from this, motivating other people to take care of their health became my passion.”
Now 29, Hammonds Blakely is a member of the Susan J. Komen Foundation’s Young Women’s Advisory Council and speaks throughout the world on the issue of women’s health and African-American health. She also serves as a national ambassador for Circle of Promise, a division of the Susan J. Komen foundation working to improve the high incidences of and poor survival rates for Black women with breast cancer.
And she does this all while serving as an assistant director for marketing and alumni relations at Ivy Tech Community College in Crown, Point, Indiana and pursuing her Ph.D. in organizational management.

“Maintaining healthy relationships is not easy, but it can be done,” Clark said. “The Healthy Heritage Wellness Conference 2008 will provide tools and resources to help develop and maintain these relationships.”
According to a San Bernardino County Department of Health report, African
Americans in San Bernardino County die 13 years younger than whites. Many African American lives are shortened by illness such as diabetes, high blood pressure (hypertension), heart disease, HIV/AIDS and cancer.
The Healthy Heritage Wellness Conference features speakers who bring a wealth of
knowledge from the medical, emotional health, faith, and Afrocentric worlds.
Other speakers are:
• Dr. E.M. Abdlulmumin, a psychologist at the University of California – Riverside Counseling Center and psychology professor for the Thomas Haider UCR/UCLA Program in Biomedical Sciences at UCR. Dr. Abdulmumin is also the founder and executive director of the DuBois Institute, a recreational and educational program for youth at the Bobby Bonds Sports Complex in Riverside.
• Charles Fossett III of Montclair, a sociology professor and author of Heartbrokers and Marriagebrokers, two books that explore personal relationships.
A wellness panel includes Dr. Stephen H. Barag, a physician at Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center, speaking on hypertension and the doctor-patient relationship, Dr. Dave Williams, coordinator of the Riverside County Wellness Program, speaking on the holistic approach to wellness, Chef Anthony Stemley, owner of French Quarter Catering, sharing his techniques to prepare healthy meals and a representative of the Black Women’s Health Project, speaking on Twelve Commandments for Mental Health.
There are also free screenings for HIV/AIDS, prostate cancer and blood sugar levels, clinical breast examinations and more Clark said.
The free Healthy Heritage Wellness Conference is organized by a committee, which includes staff members from Riverside County Public Health Department, the American Cancer Society, the Southern California Witness Project, a breast cancer awareness group, Inland Agency, Dameron Communications and many volunteers.
Sponsorships for this year’s conference are still available. They will include The American Cancer Society, Pharmaceutical and Research Manufacturers of America, Southern California Edison, the Riverside County Health Foundation, Inland Agency, Dameron Communications and Novartis.
For more information or to attend the Healthy Heritage Wellness Conference call (951) 565-4431 or e-mail hhwcmovement@yahoo.com.

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