Despite the international attention Darfur has received and the diplomacy attempted, the reality on the ground remains one of death, destruction, division and displacement. A nearly four-year-old government-sponsored counter-insurgency campaign has resulted in an inexcusable human rights catastrophe...and in the absence of unified international political will, 2008 may play out just the same.

Todd Parr is the author of countless incredible children's books. He has agreed read to a group of Coco and Lola's friends in the coming months. Todd is currently working on his 30th book, the I Love You book, for Valentine's Day, 2009. Coco's favorite of his books (among many) is The Peace Book and Lola's favorite is This is my Hair. We also recommend, in particular, all of Todd's Otto books, the Feel Good book, and The Family Book.

Peggy Orenstein is the author, most recently, of the New York Times best-selling memoir, Waiting for Daisy. Her previous books include Flux and the best-selling SchoolGirls: Young Women, Self-Esteem and the Confidence Gap. A contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine, Peggy has also written for The Los Angeles Times, Discover, More, Mother Jones, Salon, and The New Yorker, and has contributed commentaries to NPR’s All Things Considered. Her articles have been anthologized multiple times.

Please come to CPS Lectures #27 on Monday, October 27 to hear political expert Chris Lehane riff on where the US is headed.

In today's digital world, a single consumer can use social media — blogs, social networks, message boards, product review sites — to broadcast a complaint to an audience of millions. How influential are online consumers to a brand's reputation and how can businesses manage and thrive in this new reality — the consumer-driven world?

We are thrilled and honored to welcome Heather McLeod Grant and Leslie Crutchfield to CPS Lectures. They will be discussing their soon-to-be published book Forces for Good: The Six Practices of High-Impact Nonprofits and sharing the wisdom they have gleaned from years of experience in the business and nonprofit world. After getting her MBA from Stanford, Heather worked as a consultant at McKinsey & Company and then went on to co-found, with Leslie, Who Cares, a national magazine for social entrepreneurs. After that, Heather launched an independent nonprofit consulting business and has since served on the board of numerous nonprofit organizations. A graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Business School, Leslie is a managing director of Ashoka, a research grantee of The Aspen Institute’s Nonprofit Sector and Philanthropy Program, and a philanthropic advisor to foundations and high net worth individuals. She manages Ashoka’s recently-launched Global Academy program, whose members include the “global greats” of social entrepreneurship such as Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus. Leslie and Heather have lectured at Harvard and Stanford’s business schools, and have presented at numerous industry conferences on social entrepreneurship, international development, high-impact philanthropy, and women’s leadership. Heather and Leslie's inspiring and instructive book addresses issues that are very important in a sector that's defined by its contributions to society rather than its profitability: What defines success in the nonprofit world? How does a company achieve this? How can nonprofits apply a range of practices to become more effective in their goal of changing society for the better?

We're very excited to present returning CPS Lecturer Jon Cowan, president and co-founder of Third Way, a non-profit, non-partisan strategy center for progressives.

Please join us in an evening to which we've long looked forward - San Francisco Friends School Head of School Cathy Hunter will come and lead a discussion of the ways in which children develop the resilience, spiritual strength, and tenacity they need for healthy lives.

We so hope you can join us for Richard Heinberg's talk Friday, March 2 - special thanks to Evan Marquit for the inspiration and direction in putting this together.

Film buffs, culture curmudgeons, and plain old opinionated friends, CPS Lectures is thrilled to present a special benefit with a special guest - the man behind the little man, Mick LaSalle! As film critic for the SF Chronicle, Mick has inspired, delighted, challenged, and infuriated us with his witty, insightful critiques of the art and business of movie making. Mick also teaches film courses at Stanford and has written two books on pre-code Hollywood (a fascinating subject). He's got a lot to say about film, and we know you do to, so please join us for what promises to be a lively evening of discussion, dining, and dancing. Please note: This CPS Lecture will be slightly different because it's a benefit and a way to pay Mick - we're asking for a $30 donation, part of which will go toward FOOD NOT BOMBS (www.foodnotbombs.net), a vibrant grassroots movement to end hunger that is based in San Francisco. (We do this in memory of CPS, whose first way of helping those less fortunate than us was to donate to food shelters - we learned to do this from a young age.) This donation will be sliding scale so if you can't afford it, you can pay less. The first 20 people to sign up will be asked for $25, then the price goes to $35. A portion of the door will go towards Mick's fee, the rest will go to benefit Food Not Bombs

Cheating Destiny reveals the human drama behind America’s biggest epidemic, a unique blend of historical research, contemporary journalism, and personal reflection. The narrative uses diabetes as a prism to view deeper problems in America’s health care system and its medical research industry. You will read about medicine and money, outrage and despair, resilience and courage.

Diagnosed with diabetes as a teenager,the author was already well-qualified to write this story. (His older brother, Dr. Irl Hirsch, is also one of America’s leading diabetologists.) Then one night, his three-year-old son said he was thirsty – and their lives, and this book, took a very different turn. We live in a diabetic nation, and Cheating Destiny is your guide.

“A provocative amalgam of staunch advocacy, personal experience and investigative reporting.” *Starred* KIRKUS review

Jim Hirsch's appearance is a joint presentation of CPS Lectures and CloseConcerns.

Andrew Griffin runs Mariquita Farm, a small family farm located near Watsonville, CA. He is a legend in sustainable agriculture and will come discuss with us his opinions on changes in this field. Mariquita Farms is at San Francisco's Ferry Building every weekend; the farm grows organic specialty vegetables, greens, strawberries and herbs for their Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) members in Santa Cruz County, Silicon Valley, and San Francisco.

Nancy Koehn will be our guest of honor on Tuesday, January 8, when she will lead a discussion on "Leadership--with a Big L, Leadership with a small l--Living Truthfully in Turbulent Times." The discussion will be based on a Harvard Business School case she wrote on Oprah Winfrey as well as a book she is writing on Abraham Lincoln.

Nancy is the James E. Robison Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. Her research focuses on business strategy, leadership, and connecting with customers in the Information Revolution. Her last book, Brand New: How Entrepreneurs Earned Consumers' Trust from Wedgwood to Dell (Harvard Business School Press, 2001) received much acclaim; it examined six entrepreneurial visionaries who have created powerful brands and best-of-class companies in moments of great change. (As we have already received requests - yes, we will have books available.)

Koehn is also the author of The Power of Commerce: Economy and Governance in the First British Empire (1994), as well as a contributor to Remember Who You Are: Life Stories That Inspire the Heart and Mind (2004); The Intellectual Venture Capitalist: John H. McArthur and the Work of the Harvard Business School, 1980-1995 (1999); Creating Modern Capitalism: How Entrepreneurs, Companies, and Countries Triumphed in Three Industrial Revolutions (1997); and Management Past and Present: A Casebook on American Business History (1995). She has written and supervised cases on Starbucks Coffee Company, Wedgwood, Williams-Sonoma, Estée Lauder, Henry Heinz, Marshall Field, Dell Computer, Ernest Shackleton, and other companies and leaders.

At the Harvard Business School, she teaches the MBA elective in business history, The Coming of Managerial Capitalism, one of the School's most popular courses. In 1998, the HBS Student Association selected Koehn as one of two Outstanding Professors in the Elective Curriculum.

Koehn consults with many companies and speaks frequently before business leaders on a range of subjects including leading in turbulent times, the power of strong brands, visionary entrepreneurs, and learning from history. In 2001, Business 2.0 named Koehn one of 19 leading business gurus in the United States. She has appeared on "Good Morning America," CNBC's "Moneywheel," "Nightly Business Report," and "Street Signs," "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer," A&E's "Biography," CNN's "Money Line" and many other television programs. She is a frequent commentator on National Public Radio.

Before coming to HBS in 1991, Koehn was a member of Harvard University's Faculty of Arts and Sciences for seven years, first as a graduate student in history and then as a lecturer in the History and Literature concentration and the Department of Economics. During the years, she received the Allyn Young prize in 1989 and numerous Danforth commendations for excellence in teaching.

A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Stanford University, Koehn earned a Master of Public Policy from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government in 1983. She worked as a congressional aide before receiving her MA and Ph.D. in European history from Harvard University in 1985 and 1990, respectively.

David M. Darst will be our guest of honor Tuesday, December 6, and will talk with us about "The Influence of the World Economy and Global Financial Markets on Society, the Community, the Family, and the Individual - and Vice Versa."

David is a Managing Director of Morgan Stanley and sits on the Firm’s Asset Allocation and Investment Policy Committees. He serves as Chief Investment Strategist of the Individual Investor Group, with responsibility for Asset Allocation and Investment Strategy, and was the founding President of the Morgan Stanley Investment Group. David joined Morgan Stanley in 1996, after 24 years with Goldman Sachs, where he served as Chief Financial Officer of the Equities Division. Previous positions with Goldman also included responsibilities as New York International Equities Sales Manager and Resident Manager of their Private Bank in Zurich.

David is the author of three books: (i) The Complete Bond Book (McGraw-Hill); (ii) The Handbook of the Bond and Money Markets (McGraw-Hill); and (iii) The Art of Asset Allocation (McGraw-Hill), and has contributed numerous articles to Barron's, Euromoney, The Money Manager, and other publications. He writes extensively on asset allocation in the Morgan Stanley quarterly publication, Financial Management Review and Outlook, which he launched in 1997. He also founded two widely read Morgan Stanley monthly publications, Investment Strategy Digest and Market View Bulletin.

David earned his MBA from Harvard Business School and received his BA degree in Economics from Yale University. David has lectured extensively at Wharton, Columbia, INSEAD, and New York University business schools, and for nine years, David served as a visiting faculty member at Yale College, Yale School of Management, and Harvard Business School.

We are honored that preeminent art collector Paul Sack will come discuss the exhibition of his photography collection "Taking Place: Photographs from the Prentice and Paul Sack Collection" currently on view at SFMOMA until September 6! Johnny will beam ten of Paul's favorite photos onto the screen and Paul will lead a discussion on the inspiration behind art, photography, and favorite pictures.

Loosely based on architecture, "Taking Place" is a stunning exhibit - the best photography collection we've ever seen shown - San Francisco is SO lucky! The exhibit includes 285 vintage prints that span the history of photography from 1840 to the mid-1970s. What an amazing place to visit either before OR after Paul's talk! You will learn enormously from a visit to SFMoMA to see "'Taking Place'- from the curators: "...on its own, each photograph reflects a powerful and distinctive sense of place. As a group, the pictures add to our understanding of photography’s complex role in articulating how the human hand has shaped the natural landscape, as well as how the built environment has shaped our perception of ourselves."

Our discussion will start promptly at 7:30 - potluck will start at 6:30.

For more information on this awesome (in the true sense of the word) exhibit, see Kenneth Baker's review of this exhibit at www.sfgate.com.

Hope to see you for this very special evening Tuesday. Very special thanks to Paul and Prentice Sack for making this wonderful event happen.

Dr. Thomas Cunningham, opera expert extraordinaire, will speak to us about the San Francisco Opera's 2005 season, which begins in June, 2005. With multiple operatic samples from DJ Bogus and his Monster Sound System. Even if you don't go to any operas next season, you'll feel that you did after this evening!

A reading and discussion on Newman's book, to be published by Penguin in March, 2005 - Waiting for Birdy: A Year of Frantic Tedium, Neurotic Angst, and the Wild Magic of Growing a Family.

Our speaker will be Professor Alain Enthoven, renowned healthcare economist at Stanford University and one of the national's leading experts and speakers on areas of healthcare and managed care. The evening will benefit the St Elizabeth Seton School in Palo Alto, California.

Professor Enthoven is the Marriner S. Eccles Professor of Public and Private Management (Emeritus) at Stanford's Graduate School of Business at Stanford University. Enthoven has held a wide variety of positions in both the government and corporate worlds, including work as the Assistant Secretary of Defense, an economist with the RAND Corporation, and the president of Litton Medical Products. He is now Chairman of the Stanford University committee on faculty/staff human resources, grappling with the problem of soaring health care costs for university employees.

Professor Enthoven holds degrees in Economics from Stanford, Oxford and MIT, and is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The former Chairman of the Health Benefits Advisory Council for CalPERS, the California State employees' medical and hospital care plans, Enthoven is a member of the Research Advisory Board of the Committee for Economic Development.

In 1963, Professor Enthoven received the President's Award for Distinguished Federal Civilian Service from John F. Kennedy and in 1977, while serving as a consultant to the Carter Administration, he designed and proposed Consumer Choice Health Plan, a plan for universal health insurance based on managed competition in the private sector.

In 1997, the former Governor Wilson appointed him Chairman of the California Managed Health Care Improvement Task Force. Commissioned by the State legislature, the Task Force addressed a range of healthcare issues raised by managed care.

Enthoven wrote the Rock Carling Lecture "In Pursuit of an Improving National Health Service" recommending further introduction of market forces in the National Health Service. He and Laura Tollen recently edited a book entitled "Toward a 21st Century Health System: The Contributions and Promise of Prepaid Group Practice" (Jossey Bass, San Francisco, 2004)

A Discussion of the novel to be published in early 2005 by St. Martin's Press by Amanda Marquit. The author, a New York City native, will be discussing inspiration for the novel in our living room.

Read this interview with Amanda Marquit, in which she discusses how she came to write the novel, starting at age 14, and which tunes she listened to while she was doing it. Check out the book on Amazon.com

Lisa Materson, Assistant Professor of History at the University of California at Davis, teaches classes on the history of sexuality in America,women's history, and American race relations. Prior to coming to UC-Davis,she taught at Yale University and held a postdoctoral fellowship at Princeton University. She is currently writing a book on African American women's political activism in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This should be an excellent event with lots of fascinating questions addressed:

• What did "passionlessness" and "hysteria" mean to nineteenth-century Americans?
• When did birth control become widely available to American women and men?
• How did the feminist movement affect the bedroom?
• Lots of other provocative questions ....

Poet, author, and journalist Michael Wolfe lives in Northern California. During the 1970s and 80s, he published small press literature, including work from Moroccan storytellers translated by the American novelist Paul Bowles.

Wolfe became a Muslim in 1988. In 1993, Grove Press published his travel book about the pilgrimage to Mecca. In 1997, working with Ted Koppel and ABC Nightline, Wolfe was the first American journalist to report from Mecca. Unity Productions Foundation, his nonprofit production company, develops documentary films for national broadcast. UPF’s mission is to increase peace by creating understand of the world's cultural and spiritual traditions. The current focus is on Muslims and Islam.

Our discussion will center on what has happened since September 11, 2001, and where we go from here. Michael will share how he made his two-hour historical documentary on Muhammad for PBS, where it has now aired over 500 times. Cost is $10/person, which covers the cost of the DVD, "Muhammad: Legacy of a Prophet," as well as a small donation to nonprofit United Productions. The DVD will be sent out to everyone as you sign up (please note your address on your response if we don't have it). It's not essential to see the DVD before Sept 11, but it will just add to the discussion if you do! Otherwise we'll give it to you that evening.

This promises to be a tremendous discussion, and we hope to see you as we pause to reflect on this day.

Join us in discussing this intriguing topic with Executive Director of Friends of Island Academy Beth Navon. Friends of Island Academy (FOIA) reaches out to youth prior to their release from Rikers Island, a major New York City prison. Riker's Island is the heart of New York City's jail system, home to 80 percent of its 14,600 or so inmates, with nine jails for men and one for women. According to a recent Village Voice piece, Rikers' daytime population, including prisoners, employees, and visitors, numbers nearly 20,000.

The name "Friends of Island Academy" name reflects the Board of Education school located on Rikers Island Academy, which is attended by many of the youth while incarcerated. Upon discharge, FOIA provides job training, counseling, education, mentoring, and youth leadership development. In return, participants are expected to stay out of trouble, take responsibility for themselves, and work to rebuild their lives.

Founded in 1990, the inspiration for FOIA came from a small group of professionals with the Board of Education and Department of Correction staff who were alarmed by the more than 70% reincarceration rate for adolescents released from Rikers Island. FOIA evolved from their conviction that with intense support and access to opportunity, many young people could be saved from a life of recurrent criminal behavior.

FOIA is the only organization of its kind in New York City, with an active roster of 250 young men and 50 young women. The agency also reaches thousands of at-risk youth through anti-violence and education programs led by FOIA members.

As its website notes, FOIA is built on the belief that young people need to be helped, guided, empowered and challenged. Through the support of staff, each FOIA member takes responsibility, first for themselves and later for their peers and community.

100% of the $20 fee (sliding scale available, ask Kelly) goes to Friends of Island Academy. If you prefer to send a check, no problem - just make it out to Friends of Island Academy and send it over!

Join us in discussing this intriguing topic with San Francisco author Diana Kapp (who penned the fascinating cover story on this topic in October's San Francisco magazine) and entrepreneur Christy Jones (former senior executive at Triology Inc), founder of Extend Fertility, a company using revolutionary science to effectively slow down women’s' biological clocks.

100% of the $20 fee (sliding scale available, just ask Kelly) goes to Fertile Hope, an organization dedicated to providing reproductive information, support and hope to cancer patients whose medical treatments present the risk of infertility. (If you prefer to send a check, please make out to Fertile Hope and send to us at 56 Lloyd St, SF CA 94117. Thanks!)

Please let us know any questions - we hope you'll consider coming, whether you have been thinking about having kids, are flummoxed by the notion, have one kid, oodles of kids, or don't even want kids!

MY FLESH AND BLOOD is a feature length verité documentary about the Tom family - 11 (eleven!) special needs children adopted by Fairfield, California mother Susan Tom. Producer extraordanaire Jennifer Chaiken will be present to introduce the film and to guide discussion afterwards.

My Flesh and Blood won huge awards at Sundance this year (including the Audience Award and the Best Director Award) and will come out in theatres the day after Thanksgiving (Landmark Cinemas in SF and Berkeley) and will be presented by HBO/Cinemax Documentary Films next year. A few excerpts from the critics at Sundance:

“An extraordinary portrait of a woman and her found family...The human drama — joy, sorrow, unrealistic hopes — among these unlikely siblings blows away about anything the festival's [Sundance] make-believe tales can muster.”
- David Germain, WASHINGTON POST, ASSOCIATED PRESS

" An unforgettable film about a single mom with 11 adopted special-needs kids, [My Flesh and Blood] is actually about the meaning of life."
- Jennie Punter, TORONTO GLOBE AND MAIL

" no family compares in dysfunction to Susan Tom's in My Flesh and Blood you have a family portrait that is as engrossing as it is difficult to watch.”"
- Anthony Kaufman, VILLAGE VOICE

$10 donation requested, all of which will benefit Oakland Children's Hospital (sliding scale available - just let Kelly know). We will send a PayPal request to those that sign up. If you prefer, to reserve your place, please send a check made out to Oakland Children's Hospital and mail to John and Kelly Close, 56 Lloyd Street, SF CA 94117.

Hope to see you here - mighty thanks to Jane Dickstein for this connection and to Jennifer Chaiken for making this possible.

Kay Moffett, who interviewed 30 young women whose marriages ended early in divorce, will discuss her views on marriage in the 21st century: Why might early marriages be more likely to fail today than in the past? How have women's changing roles in society influenced the institution? How are our conceptions and expectations of marriage different from our parents'? Our conceptions of divorce? What kinds of factors seem to lead to divorce? And what seem to be the ingredients of great, long-lasting partnerships today?

Kay, a graduate of Harvard College and Stanford University, works as a Web Editor and Corporate Writer at Genentech. She is the co-author, with Sarah Touborg, of "Not Your Mother's Divorce: A Practical, Girlfriend-to-Girlfriend Guide to Surviving the End of an Early Marriage," to be published by Broadway Books in December 2003.

We conducted an observational study of sex workers at St James Infirmary. Individuals underwent an initial questionnaire, and we offered screening for STI at each clinic visit. We performed univariate, bivariate, and multivariable analyses to assess for predictors of STI in this population.

The majority of sex workers have never discussed their work with a medical provider. Domestic violence is extremely prevalent as is work related violence. Working with other sex workers appears to be protective of STIs. STI prevention interventions should target African-American and male sex workers. Addressing violence in the workplace and encouraging sex workers to work collectively may be effective prevention strategies.