Course Description

Instructor: Colleen McBride

“Awakening the Sage Within” a 6-hour workshop with 6 topic modules based on ideas presented in From Aging to Sage-ing authored by Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi. The overarching goal of the workshop is to engage elders in changing the way they are perceived in society and proactively envisioning how they want to be in the elder phase of life. To this end, the workshop modules encourage introspection, discussion and reflection related to: • doing inner work to combat fears about aging, • resisting ageism (and other isms) in our culture, • harvesting wisdom from life review, leading to life repair & forgiveness, • navigating life’s transitions with grace • facing mortality, • embracing mystery, and • finding one’s unique path to grateful and joyful eldering with purpose.

Bio: Colleen McBride is in training to be a Sage-ing Facilitator and is expected to be certified in April 2024. Dr. McBride is an internationally recognized leader in health behavior and health promotion. Over her 35-year academic career, she has developed and evaluated behavior change interventions to promote smoking cessation, fruit and vegetable intake and physical activity, adherence to cancer screening. Dr. McBride has over 200 publications and has given numerous invited lectures around the world on topics relating to health behavior. Dr. McBride has served in sequential leadership roles in a variety of settings: associate director in a program of Duke’s Comprehensive Cancer Center, founding Chief of an intramural research branch focused on social and behavioral implications of genomic discovery at the NIH, and past chair of the Department of Behavioral, Social and Health Education Sciences at Rollins School of Public Health. She is the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Public Health Genomics. She has developed and taught courses including: Public Health Genomics (taught to Genetic Counselors at NIH), Evidence-based medicine (at Duke to Physician Assistants), Grant Writing (2 years) and Public Health Theory (4 years to MPH Students). Together with Delia Lang (now Executive Associate Dean at RSPH), she founded the Office of Evidence Based Learning at Rollins. Currently, Dr. McBride is enrolled in the Candler School of Theology.