Authors of Union – May ’21

Welcome to Authors of Union, highlighting our many published authors. Each month, we will highlight a selected few of our accomplished community of writers who are transforming lives and communities.

Dying to Live: A Rebel’s Journey out of the Abyss. A Minister’s Personal Journey of Trials and Triumphs

By alumna Reverend Dr. Betty R. Jones (Ph.D. ’16)

Alumna Reverend Dr. Betty R. Jones has suffered unspeakable grief – the tragic loss of her husband and three children. She suffered quietly and decided against seeking professional help because of what others would think, especially those in the African American community.

She writes in Urban Missiology, “Like most African American Women who suffer from mental distress; I was closed to the idea of psychological help. Most of the time we are contradictions to the status quo. Some of us will seek religious help, but I did not. Except for the tears, I suffered in silence. There was darkness all around me. From the time my darling daughter died and subsequently my two sons, I was an emotional wreck and I felt as though a soft wind could knock me over. Yet, I would not seek religious or psychological help.” (Source: “Coping with Suffering” Urban Missiology)

Dying to Live: A Rebel’s Journey out of the Abyss. A Minister’s Personal Journey of Trials and Triumphs (Outskirts Press) is Rev. Dr. Jones’ story of coming back from the abyss. She hopes that every woman dealing with life-changing trauma will find inspiration through her heartfelt journey.

Rev. Dr. Jones’ doctoral dissertation was titled “An Autoethnography of a Black Female Pastor’s Journey Through the Wilderness Toward Authentic Leadership”. She currently serves as pastor of County Line United Methodist Church in Ellenwood, Georgia, a part of the ADOX District of the North Georgia Conference of the United Methodist Church. Her dissertation may be found on Proquest.

Modello: A Story of Hope for the Inner City and Beyond: An Inside-Out Model of Prevention and Resiliency in Action

By alumnus Dr. Jack Pransky (Ph.D. ’99)

Dr. Jack Pransky has written ten books, three of which he began as part of his Union Ph.D. degree program. Dr. Pransky currently serves as semi-retired director of the Center for Inside-Out Understanding, specializing in prevention from the inside-out, using what he calls the “Three Principles”.

The Three Principles Dr. Pransky speaks of are Universal Mind, Consciousness, and Thought, universal spiritual facts about the way our internal world works, much like gravity is a principle of the physical world. Together, Dr. Pransky says, these three facts create our human experience, moment to moment. By gaining a deep understanding of how they work within all of us to create either well-being or its opposite, people naturally tend to live at higher levels of consciousness.

Dr. Pransky is a national and international consultant, speaker and author, who has worked in the field of prevention and community organizing since 1968. He is the recipient of the Martin Luther King Storyteller’s Award for his book Modello: A Story of Hope for the Inner City and Beyond: An Inside-Out Model of Prevention and Resiliency in Action (CCB Publishing), awarded by The Minister’s Alliance of Rhode Island. The book best exemplified King’s vision of the beloved community. In 2004, Dr. Pranksy received the Vermont Prevention Pioneer’s Award. He has served as the state of Vermont Coordinator for Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, for Child Protection Teams and for the Young Adult Advisory Team for alcohol and drug abuse issues.

Other achievements include:

• Helping to create the first Spirituality of Prevention conference in the country (with Prevention Unlimited)
• The first state prevention law in the country, preventing the common contributing factors of a host of different problems that many different state agencies are required to remediate, such as substance abuse, delinquency, child abuse and neglect, teenage pregnancy, teenage suicide, etc.
• Vermont’s first school climate improvement programs
• Vermont’s Juvenile Court Diversion system
• Two parent-child centers and other successful community-based programs

Learn more about Dr. Pransky and his books.

Moods Emotions and Aging: Hormones and the Mind-Body Connection

By alumna Dr. Phyllis Bronson (Ph.D. ’99)

Since her graduation from Union in 1999, doctoral alumna Dr. Phyllis Bronson has focused her ongoing research on the biological impact of molecules on mood and emotion. She works with women who have hormone-based mood disorders utilizing her original research on human identical hormones.

Dr. Bronson’s book, Moods Emotions and Aging: Hormones and the Mind-Body Connection,

(Rowman & Littlefield Publishers) addresses the mysteries and controversies of hormone therapy. She hopes the book will empower women to be better informed and make better choices about their health. Women’s International Pharmacy says, “Dr. Bronson’s book will equip anyone facing the challenges of hormone deficiencies. Because she works with and writes about real people with serious mood and hormone imbalances, her readers may see themselves in the patient stories she tells and be inspired to take action to resolve their own health issues.”

Dr. Bronson taught neuroscience and conducted hormonal research at the University of Denver, and has been a faculty member of the American Academy of Environmental Medicine and the International Society for Orthomolecular Medicine. She was a consultant at the Salpêtrière Hospital in Paris, and was on a task force studying women’s mood issues in the military. She lectures frequently throughout the country and her work has appeared in leading professional journals. Dr. Bronson is president of Biochemical Consulting and The Biochemical Research Foundation. Learn more about her and her groundbreaking work at this link.

Check back next month for more Authors of Union and their publications.

________________________________________________

Union is a global leader in providing higher education degrees for the adult learner. Your goals. Your success. Your Union. We’ve got U! Visit myunion.com to start your degree today.