Keynote Speaker: Joanna Bull
Saturday, May 2, 2009 8:30 - 9:30 am
 Joanna Bull, M.A., M.F.C.C., is the co-founder, along with Emmy®-Award winning actor Gene Wilder and the late ABC film critic Joel Siegal, of Gilda’s Club. She is also an honorary member of the Board of Directors of Gilda's Club Worldwide. Gilda's Club is named for the comedian Gilda Radner, with whom Ms. Bull worked as a cancer psychotherapist during the comedian's illness. The first Gilda’s Club opened in New York City in 1995 and today there are 22 Gilda's Clubs in operation across North America and Canada, with several more in development in the United States and Canada.
Throughout her career, Ms. Bull has worked to establish free cancer support communities, first at the pioneering Center for the Healing Arts in Los Angeles and later at The Wellness Community in Santa Monica and Redondo Beach, California, and finally at Gilda’s Club. In addition to participating in the development and administration of such communities, she has trained and supervised therapists extensively in the concept, and has worked with hundreds of people who have cancer, as well as their family members, on psychosocial issues related to cancer. Recently she presented a paper at the International Psycho-oncology Conference in Banff, Canada. She has worked closely with the New York State Cancer Initiative and with other organizations dealing with cancer survivorship.
The mission of Gilda’s Club is to provide places where people with cancer and their families and friends join with others to build social and emotional support as a supplement to medical care. Free of charge and nonprofit, Gilda’s Club offers support and networking groups, lectures, workshops and social events in a nonresidential, home-like setting.
Raised in Detroit, Ms. Bull attended the University of Chicago; she also studied at the Chicago Art Institute. Her Masters in Clinical Psychology was earned at Immaculate Heart College in Los Angeles. She is the author of Gilda's Club: Philosophy and Program, as well as numerous professional papers. She has also recently completed a new chapter in Gilda Radner’s autobiography It’s Always Something, which will be reissued in the coming months. |
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