The Wayne E. Oates Institute is a Connected Learning Community exploring spirituality and health as a way to advance integrative care for the whole person. The Oates Institute is a non-profit educational organization made up of caregivers from the medical, spiritual and counseling communities providing a forum for joining together as an interdisciplinary dialogue toward understanding the relationship between spirituality and the healing process.

The Oates Institute’s Board of Directors voted during their November meeting to represent the geographical diversity of its constituency by moving to a national board. This process will begin in January 2010 with the addition of three new members from San Antonio, Texas.  It was also decided that the board would come together for a retreat in San Antonio in February 2010 and in Louisville in September 2010.

In 1998 the Wayne E. Oates Institute began offering online continuing education designed to enhance the quality of care given by chaplains, congregational leaders, therapists, health ministers, nurses, clergy, and other caregivers. Today, members of the Institute’s Learning Community reside in forty-two different states. By utilizing an online Connected Learning methodology, the Institute transcends the need for program participants to share the same time and space.

The following three new board members from San Antonio, Texas, will be joining the Oates Institute Board:

James R. (Jim) Adams presently serves on the Board of Directors of Texas Instruments Incorporated and is a founder and President of the Harlandale Education Foundation, which has a goal of insuring every graduate of that school district access to a University education. Jim previously served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Southwestern Bell Telephone Company. In addition to his career involvement, Jim is also actively involved in community affairs. His special interests have been economic development and a number of educational thrusts.

Janet Brown Barnes currently serves on the Board of Trustees of the San Antonio Museum of Art and is on the Board of Directors of The Lattner Family Foundation. She previously served on the Board of Trustees of the Mission Road Developmental Center, the Board of the Young Art Patrons, and Janet is a past member of the Junior League. With a degree in Art History, Janet also served as President of Lenoir & Associates, Inc. traveling to France to purchase paintings for resale to private dealers and galleries.

Barbara (Babs) Baugh currently serves on a number of boards, including: Mercer University, Christian Ethics Today, and the B.H. Carroll Theological Institute. Among the honors and awards she has received are the W. R. White Award, Herbert H. Reynolds Award, the Volunteer of the Year Award from San Antonio Business, plus the James Hudkins and Pat Neff Award, and Parents of the Year awards from Baylor University.

These new board members will be joining current board members: Jan Shockley, WEOI Board Chair, Charles Brockwell, Past-WEOI Board Chair, Steve Coppock, WEOI Board Treasurer, John Abel (Pastor at Woodland Baptist Church), Mera Corlett (recently retired Director of Pastoral Care at Central State Hospital), Betty Jo Gaba (deacon at Deer Park Baptist Church), Kathey Golightly Sanders (development consultant with GSConsulting), Jim Mahanes (educator and artist), Lynn Meckler (adjunct faculty with Bellarmine University), Maggie Miller (retired faculty with Bellarmine University), Fr. Paul Scaglione (Director of the Office of Pastoral Care for the Archdiocese of Louisville), Elizabeth Walker (faculty with Louisville Presbyterian Seminary), Mary Ellen Yates (Marriage and Family Therapist), and emeritus board members, Elaine Akin (author), James Hyde (retired pastoral counselor), and Jan Yusk (dermatologist).

For the first time since its incorporation in 1993, the Oates Institute’s Board will cross the Mississippi River to hold its February board meeting in San Antonio, Texas.