Stephanie A. Urchick
Rotary International President

Stephanie A. Urchick, of the Rotary Club of McMurray, Pennsylvania, USA, is the selection of the Nominating Committee for President of Rotary International for 2024-25, a decision that would make her only the second woman to hold that position. She will be declared the president-nominee on 15 September if no challenging candidates have been suggested.

With the world facing incredible challenges, including the COVID-19 pandemic, disasters driven by climate change, and conflict in many regions, Urchick says Rotary’s leaders can offer a vision and a plan for overcoming these challenges.

“Measures taken by Rotary leadership to survive and end critical challenges often make our organization stronger and more resilient for future events,” Urchick says. “This kind of essential leadership also creates new levels of cooperation, even among rivals, when Rotarians pull together as people of action to serve and solve a crisis.”

Making regionalization a priority is crucial, says Urchick.

“Because Rotary operates in more than 200 countries and regions, it is vital to recognize that the organization has the potential to become more efficient and effective by understanding and reacting to how regional differences affect the way Rotarians work together to address providing service, promoting integrity, and advancing world understanding, goodwill, and peace,” Urchick says.

Urchick is partner and chief operating officer of Doctors at Work LLC, a consulting and training company. She holds a doctorate in leadership studies from Indiana University of Pennsylvania. She is active on numerous community boards and committees, and has been honored by organizations including Zonta International and the Sons of the American Revolution.

A Rotary member since 1991, Urchick has traveled to Vietnam to help build a primary school and to the Dominican Republic to install water filters. She studies several Slavic languages, has mentored new Rotarians in Ukraine, and coordinated a Rotary Foundation grant project in Poland.

Urchick has served Rotary in many roles, including as a director, Foundation trustee, and chair of the RI Strategic Planning Committee and the Foundation’s Centennial Celebration Committee. She currently serves on the Election Review Committee and the Operations Review Committee. She is a Rotary Foundation Major Donor and a member of the Bequest Society.

To learn more about Urchick, read her interview and vision statement, which outline her goals for Rotary.

The members of the Nominating Committee for the 2024-25 President of Rotary International are: Floyd A. Lancia (chair), Rotary Club of Anthony Wayne (Fort Wayne), Indiana, USA; Guiller E. Tumangan (secretary), Rotary Club of Makati West, Makati City, Philippines; Jeffry Cadorette, Rotary Club of Media, Pennsylvania, USA; Bradford R. Howard, Rotary Club of Oakland Uptown, California, USA; Per Høyen, Rotary Club of Aarup, Denmark; Peter Iblher, Rotary Club of Nürnberg-Reichswald, Zirndorf, Germany; John M. Lawrence, Rotary Club of Paddington, Queensland, Australia; Jan Lucas Ket, Rotary Club of Purmerend, Netherlands; Seiji Kita, Rotary Club of Urawa East, Saitama, Japan; Sam Okudzeto, Rotary Club of Accra, Accra, Ghana; Bharat S. Pandya, Rotary Club of Borivli, Maharashtra, India; Kamal Sanghvi, Rotary Club of Dhanbad, Jharkhand, India; José Ubiracy Silva, Rotary Club of Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil; David D. Stovall, Rotary Club of Hall County, Georgia, USA; Bryn Styles, Rotary Club of Barrie-Huronia, Ontario, Canada; Giuseppe Viale, Rotary Club of Genova, Italy; and Chang-Gon Yim, Rotary Club of Daegu West, Korea.

By Jeff Ruby Photography by Jeff Marini

When my editor asked if I’d be interested in writing about “forest bathing” for Rotary magazine, I assumed I heard him wrong. Florist raving? Tourist baiting? Some other goofy trendlet I was too old to know about? Had the editorial focus of Rotary shifted dramatically without my knowledge?

No, he assured me. Forest bathing. I envisioned something like a polar bear club, with more privacy and fewer clothes. I also envisioned increasing my freelance fee. But before I could respond that, when it came to matters of personal hygiene, I was just fine with my own bathroom, thank you very much, my editor proceeded to educate me. It’s not bathing, nor is it hiking — or even exercise, per se — but rather an experience in which people immerse themselves in nature, often guided as a group through meditation and sensory exercises that make use of all five senses. Think of it as outdoor mindfulness, he said.

Forest bathing, also known as forest therapy, started in 1982 as part of a national campaign in Japan that promoted visiting forests as a way to reduce work-related stress. The concept was called shinrin-yoku (yes, it translates as “forest bathing” or, if you wish, “bathing in the forest atmosphere”). The ritual has grown into a movement sparked by Japan’s Forest Therapy Society, which has certified 65 forest therapy sites in the country. Meanwhile, forest bathing has spread like gentle ripples in a pond, with thousands of guides leading retreats and themed events around the world. Eco-hotels catering to forest bathers have popped up everywhere from the Barrenjoey Peninsula near Sydney to the Pocono Mountains in eastern Pennsylvania. Closer to my home in Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood, organizations from the Morton Arboretum to the Chicago Park District offer some kind of forest therapy outing.

 

Some people have incorporated shinrin-yoku into their daily routines. “I work right next to a park with a famous shrine where there are lots of trees,” writes Qing Li, a leader of the forest bathing movement. “From my office window I can see beautiful scenery, and I walk in the shrine at lunchtime almost every day.”

Those comments appear in Li’s 2018 book, Forest Bathing: How Trees Can Help You Find Health and Happiness. The 310-page volume has become something akin to a holy scripture among forest bathers. In it, Li, a doctor at Nippon Medical School Hospital in Tokyo who has spent 20 years studying forest bathing’s benefits, implores readers to leave their phones behind and find a spot where they can open their senses to nature. If you don’t have a forest handy, any small green space will do. “It will improve your mood, reduce tension and anxiety, and help you focus and concentrate for the rest of the day,” he promises.

None of this feels entirely new. We’re living in an existentially fraught moment in time when the need for “self-care” is a constant refrain. The idea of self-care has evolved into a catchall encapsulating any pastime unrelated to work, from ballroom dancing to journaling to petting puppies. Not long ago, this was called “me time,” but now everyone — doctors, teachers, bartenders, barbers — recommends self-care interventions far and wide. It’s not hard to imagine the guys in my pickup basketball game recommending forest bathing the same way one might suggest, say, paintball.

Read the full article here.