Janet Dahlem
MA • she / her / hers
Associate professor, Master of Arts in Holistic Health Studies, St. Catherine University
Janet is an associate professor at St. Catherine University (SCU) and served as the program director of the Master or Arts in Holistic Health Studies from 1990-2008 when she led a team in the development of the graduate program. She serves on a community-based board Out in the Backyard, a non-profit, aimed at reducing health/mental health disparities and to build community in the LGBTQIA+ and broader communities in the inner city of South Minneapolis. Janet also coordinates the Healing Touch workshops at SCU and the popular continuing education class for nurses, Enhancing Practice Through Holistic Nursing. In addition, she is also involved in many community health, environmental, and social justice projects.
Janet first joined the Leadership Council in 1990 to be a supportive collaborative partner with the holistic program at St Kate's (at that time on the Minneapolis campus). She loved the people, vision and mission and just could not leave. In 2020, with the times we are in with the dual pandemics of the COVID-19 virus and racism, she sees one of the important roles of the board to continue to lead in the fight against racism and white supremacy within ourselves, in nursing, healthcare and our communities.
She has used holistic healing approaches central to her personal health care since being a hippy in the 70’s when she learned to grow herbs and make her own yogurt. Now, as a proud lesbian/queer, she lives with her partner in South Minneapolis drawing on childhood farming roots by starting a small experimental backyard vegetable garden in this time of the virus.