Her faith blended with health service, Grudzen forever seeks balance

By CZERNE M. REID

Marita Grudzen’s art adorns her cozy corner Welch Road office. Sipping a cup of peppermint tea, the staff lecturer in the Department of Family and Community Medicine explains one piece, the circular mandala design she created to represent her life.

The mandala’s central motif is a six-pronged star radiating from a circle that represents shared power and wholesomeness. A smaller circle in the center represents God. Each star point holds an image: a cup of tea, representing restorative healing; flowers, representing a love of gardens and growing things; a heart behind bars, depicting concern for the imprisoned; a human figure lying on a bed, representing care for the sick; a listening ear; and a healing hand.

Committed from an early age to a life of service, Grudzen identifies strongly with the mission of the Center for Education in Family and Community Medicine. “I have been so fortunate because the center is committed to service to underserved communities,” she said. Grudzen is also associate director and co-founder of one its daughter programs, the Stanford Geriatric Education Center.

Marita Grudzen, shown here with a piece of original art she created, began her service to the community as a nun. Later she married, traveled the world to provide relief aid and eventually settled at the School of Medicine, where for more than 20 years she has focused on family, community and geriatric care. Photo: Visual Art Services

Grudzen, 62, began her work in elder care, end-of-life care and women’s health in the late 1950s as a nun. For nearly a decade in the New York-based Maryknoll sisters, she observed her vows and attended to elderly sisters. She also organized discussion groups with women from surrounding communities who wanted to turn away from drug addiction and prostitution.

According to Grudzen, however, there was little action on the part of the institution. “I felt that I was limited in responding to these people,” she said. Her frustration caused her to eventually leave the organization to work with a smaller, independent group of sisters who responded to women’s needs through outreach programs.

In the 1970s, Grudzen established a feeding program for children in famine-stricken Bangladesh. She and husband Jerry, whom she married after leaving the convent, galvanized support from U.S. business and political leaders and were able to distribute powdered milk and teach hygiene through local clinics. The project, called “Milk for Bangladesh,” received two international awards. This, in turn, resulted in more support for their programs, which progressed from relief to development efforts. “When you have that kind of vision and energy, one thing leads to another,” Grudzen said.

Grudzen came to Stanford in 1981, where she continues to work with the poor and underserved. She believes healthy communities are building blocks of a healthy world. She has led Stanford Geriatric Education Center’s core faculty members in developing training programs that incorporate spirituality in the care of ethnically diverse elders. Gwen Yeo, the geriatric center’s co-director who calls Grudzen “our great lady, Marita,” said, “In many ways, she has been the center’s heart and soul. Without her, we’d be like some of the elders from various cultural backgrounds who experience ‘soul loss.’ ”

As a family and community medicine lecturer, Grudzen promotes schemes for building bridges between the resources of the university and the resources of the community. “She is a tireless community advocate and worker” said center director Samuel LeBaron, MD, PhD, adding: “she is an almost invisible hero working quietly and modestly.” The McGann Women and Health lecture series she has co-directed for over 20 years facilitates dialogue between health-care professionals and women in the community. Virginia Fowkes, associate director of the family and community medicine center, said, “She is an expert at sponsoring conferences and organizing the right people to be there – the people who can make a difference.”

Grudzen’s work in education brings various resources to the centers. Through a Templeton award she and colleague Bruce Feldstein, MD, implemented a course titled “Spirituality and Meaning in Medicine.” It encourages students to look beyond the narrow perspective of patients’ illnesses to their “lived experience” including spiritual belief systems. Grudzen recently co-authored the book “Vital Connections in Long-term Care” which is an extension that work.

A former respiratory therapist, Grudzen also is concerned with “health for health professionals,” particularly, emotional and spiritual well-being. She said the medical education process is rife with stress but has no built-in recovery period for medical students. She watched the grueling process first-hand as her daughter Corita, now a third-year emergency room resident, went through medical school.

Corita and her sister Simone are the jewels of Grudzen’s eyes. “I love them so much,” she said. Simone is a musician and filmmaker who, with her sister, is creating a documentary titled “Immaculate Confession,” a portrayal of the personal struggle of several Catholic priests and nuns who chose to leave the church to marry. Grudzen and her husband, a former priest, have been married for over 30 years. Jerry Grudzen is now a history and philosophy professor at the San Jose campus of the University of Phoenix.

After leaving a life of service in faith for service in medicine, Grudzen finds balance between the two. A member of La Communidad Christian community in San Jose, she said she tries to be true to her vocation. “I need a faith community,” she said, “but I need it to be more inclusive than most institutional expressions of Christianity.”