First Navajo woman surgeon to speak at Wheaton about her work

The author of an autobiography that was read by members of the freshmen class at Wheaton as part of the college's orientation program will visit campus on Monday, Oct. 24 to talk about how she has melded her Native American culture with Western approaches to healing in her career as a surgeon and educator.

Lori Arviso Alvord, M.D., author of "The Scalpel and the Silver Bear" (1999) will give a lecture entitled ''Walking in Beauty, Living in Balance: A Navajo Philosophy of Healing'' in which she discusses how she has incorporated Navajo wisdom into her surgical practice to create better healing environments and how others can apply these principles to their own lives and communities.

The lecture will begin at 7:30 p.m. in the Hindle Auditorium at the college's science center. It is free and open to the public.

Alvord's autobiography, "The Scalpel and the Silver Bear" (Bantam, 1999), tells the story of her journey from the reservation to become a surgeon and her work to combine Navajo philosophies of healing with western medicine. She is currently associate dean of student and multicultural affairs at Dartmouth Medical School. A member of the Navajo Tribe, Lori is also an assistant professor of surgery, an assistant professor of psychiatry and is a board certified practicing general surgeon.

Members of Wheaton's Class of 2009 read Alvord's book or Khaled Hosseini's "The Kite Runner," along with Amin Maalouf's "In the Name of Identity," as preparation for a discussion on issues of identity and how they can be forces for good and ill in today's world. The assignment served as an introduction to the Wheaton Curriculum's emphasis on the importance of global and multicultural literacy to a liberal arts education in the 21st century.

Alvord earned her undergraduate degree from Dartmouth College and received her medical degree from Stanford University where she also fulfilled her surgical residency and finished as chief resident in 1991. For the next six years, she was employed by the Indian Health Service (a division of the Public Health Service, US Government) in Gallup, New Mexico, providing health care to members of the Navajo and Zuni tribes.

Dr. Alvord has received numerous awards, including an honorary degree from Albany Medical College, The Sirridge ''Outstanding Women in Medicine'' award from the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine, and the Governor's Award for Outstanding Women from the State of New Mexico. She is also prominently featured in the National Library of Medicine exhibit, ''Changing the Face of Medicine,'' honoring pioneering women physicians over the past 150 years. The exhibit runs through 2005 and will tour the country throughout 2006.