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Natural Awakenings Dallas -Fort Worth Metroplex Edition

 972.992.8815

Making a Difference, North Texas Game Changers

It can sometimes be difficult to grasp the goodness and compassion that is transforming the world from the ground up—real people working together every day to lift the global community toward understanding, wellness and connectivity. Thousands of thinkers and dreamers choose to see a world radiating with hope and light, despite omnipresent challenges. Their talents and gifts, alliances and collaborations are inspiring a new story of possibility, potential and faith that ripples outward into communities throughout the country. The individuals and organizations highlighted here represent a just a few of the game changers in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex that are actively working to create an alternative future.

 

Baylor Scott & White Health

Carolyn M. Matthews, M.D., Baylor Scott & White Health
Carolyn M. Matthews, M.D., Baylor Scott & White Health
Baylor Scott & White Health is the only major hospital in North Texas with an integrative medicine program. Located in the Charles A. Sammons Cancer Center at Dallas, the program is open to all interested in receiving personalized care in the areas of lifestyle, diet, exercise and mind-body medicine. The program combines complementary, holistic, ancillary and traditional medical approaches to promote optimal, sustained health. Baylor is leading the way in providing its patients with alternative care to target the underlying mental, emotional, physical and spiritual causes of their past, current and future health issues. Offerings include nutritional counseling, group support, individual counseling, acupuncture, guided imagery, stress management and spiritual support. Patients and their families are always welcome to visit the center’s healing garden, prayer labyrinth and meditation room to release stress and find peace.

At Baylor, patients have an opportunity to be treated by local leaders in holistic health. Carolyn M. Matthews, M.D., is the medical director of the integrative medicine program, and is board certified in gynecologic oncology, holistic medicine, hospice and palliative care and medical acupuncture. She has been an integral part of Baylor since 1991. Claudia Harsh, M.D., is board certified in obstetrics, gynecology, integrative and holistic medicine, and is licensed as a medical acupuncturist. She is also a published author who writes about balanced lifestyles, wellness and optimal health through transformational medicine. Together, they provide the medical care that patients need to find harmony both physically and mentally.


For more information, call 214-820-2988 or visit BaylorHealth.com/DallasCancer.

 

Breeze Energy

Walter Hornaday Breeze Energy
Walter Hornaday Breeze Energy
Since 2012, Breeze Energy has been powering residential and commercial homes and establishments with 100 percent Texas Wind Energy. Most electricity providers and wind power companies are owned by big energy corporations, but Texans Walter Hornaday and John Spicer decided to change that trend by making clean Texas wind energy readily available at an affordable rate. The state of Texas has enough potential wind power to meet more than 18 times Texans’ current electricity needs; Breeze Energy is harnessing that power for a purer, greener and safer tomorrow by being the only solely wind energy electricity company in the state.

John Spicer Breeze Energy
John Spicer Breeze Energy
With a background in mechanical engineering and experience working at a traditional energy company, Spicer noticed the abundance of renewable resources available and the potential to produce more wind energy than any other state. He also realized Texans’ lack of commitment to wind power and sought to change that. To do so, he reached out to wind energy pioneer and friend Hornaday, who had been working with wind energy since 1991. Hornaday established Cielo Wind Power, LLC, in 1998 to focus on large-scale wind power developments, and it is currently the largest and most successful independent wind company in the U.S. Together, Hornaday and Spicer are meeting the energy needs of families and businesses throughout Texas.


For more information, call 855-391-9463 or visit BreezeEnergy.com.

 

Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART)

Gary Thomas, CEO DART
Gary Thomas, CEO DART
The Dallas metroplex has no shortage of public transport, thanks to Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART), which, along with the A-Train in Denton County and the TRE in Tarrant County, has connected the entire North Texas region. With its extensive network of buses, light rail, commuter rail and high-occupancy vehicle lanes, DART is a largest light rail operator in the U.S.. The transit agency’s 90 miles of track makes stops at major arts, music, history, dining, shopping, outdoor and sports hot spots in and around the region. Popular destinations for visitors and locals alike include DFW International Airport, American Airlines Center, UT Southwestern medical district and downtown Dallas. With DARTs growing connectivity, North Texans have the opportunity to significantly cut back on their usage of automobiles, thus greatly reducing carbon emissions to alleviate the region’s Clean Air non-attainment status.

DART affords North Texans the flexibility to travel across a three-county region via mass transit alone. Most recently, it completed the blue line to University of North Texas (UNT) at the Dallas campus, in South Oak Cliff, which makes it possible to go from the original UNT campus in Denton to the Dallas Campus, a trip of almost 50 miles. The company’s mission “to build, establish and operate a safe, efficient and effective transportation system provides mobility, improves quality of life and stimulates economic development.”


For more information, call 214-979-1111 or visit Dart.org

 

Susan G. Komen Foundation

Since 1982, Susan G. Komen has turned millions of breast cancer patients into breast cancer survivors. The organization is the largest fundraising entity for breast cancer in the world, and the only that addresses the cause in the areas of research, community health, global outreach and public policy initiatives. To date, Susan G. Komen has invested more than 2 billion dollars in scientific research, community health outreach and advocacy in more than 60 countries. Within the U.S., the foundation works with more than 18,000 communities and employs staff, along with nearly 80,000 volunteers, to provide education, screenings and treatment programs.

Nancy G. Brinker, Susan G. Komen Foundation
Nancy G. Brinker, Susan G. Komen Foundation
The nonprofit’s founder, Nancy G. Brinkley, started the foundation and hosted the very first Race for a Cure in her home city of Dallas with 800 people. Race for a Cure has since grown to an international series with nearly 1 million people participating globally. This October, in observance of breast cancer awareness month, the race will take place in more than 130 cities across the country. Seventy-five percent of the net income from each of these races will stay in the host community to fund local programs, while the remaining 25 percent of the net income supports the organization’s national research and training grant program. Between 1990 and 2013, Susan G. Komen has helped reduce death rates from breast cancer by nearly 40 percent, and the foundation’s mission is to end breast cancer forever.


For more information, call 877-465-6636 or visit ww5.Komen.org.

 

Earth Day Texas

Trammell Crow, Jr., Earth Day Texas
Trammell Crow, Jr., Earth Day Texas
Trammell Crow, Jr., is the man behind Earth Day Texas, the largest annual environmental exhibition and programming initiative in the world. The event spans 1 million square feet of indoor and outdoor event space in Dallas’ historic Fair Park, and in April 2016 attracted more than 130,000 people from across the country, where attendees got an opportunity to join together in the name of environmentalism and sustainability. Attractions include a film series, a music series, yoga classes, a sustainable beer garden and local and healthy foods options. Earth Day Texas also draws together more than 1,000 local and national eco-friendly and environmental exhibitors.

Guests are provided with ample opportunity to learn more, be inspired and make a difference for this generation and future generations. Last year, the green speaker series featured several world-renowned keynote presenters including Sally Ranney, president of the American Renewable Energy Institute;  Leilani Münter, race car driver and environmental activist; and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., nephew of former President John F. Kennedy, chief prosecuting attorney for the Hudson Riverkeeper and president of Waterkeeper Alliance. Word on the street is they are trying to get Elon Musk for Earth Day Texas 2017 – stay tuned. Crow has taken Earth Day to the next level by creating the world’s largest community event for sharing the latest initiatives, discoveries, research, innovations, policies, products and corporate practices that are shifting the world to become a greener, cleaner place.


For more information, call 214-310-1200 or visit EarthDayTX.org.