Chellis GlendinninG `65

Spring 2009
HB
alumna
PROFILE
Chellis Glendinning ’65
by Susan Faulder
“my life has
been about
cultural
crossings —
dismantling
a life and
going into
another.”
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alumna profile
published
author of:
7
books, including most recently:
“My Name Is Chellis and I’m in
Recovery from Western Civilization”
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Although actual travel outside of the United States is
infrequent for her, HB alumna Chellis Glendinning ’65
says, “My life has been about cultural crossings —
dismantling a life and going into another.”
This incredibly interesting and diverse professional
describes herself as “a European-American author of
creative nonfiction, licensed psychotherapist and
political activist whose participation has spanned the
social movements of our times — civil rights and
anti-globalization and indigenous rights.”
Her clients “are torn apart by substance abuse, childhood
violence and neglect, and deal with the issues of
immigration,” Glendinning says. Despite this, she maintains
a vibrant and positive attitude, insatiable curiosity about
life and learning and an engaging sense of humor.
Since 1990, Glendinning has lived in the northern
New Mexican village of Chimayó, which she describes
as economically comparable to a Third World country.
Combined with her psychotherapy practice there,
Glendinning writes prolifically. She is also a noted pioneer
in the field of ecopsychology, which is defined as “weaving
together insights from history, psychology, sociology,
and culture to illuminate the human/nature relationship.”
Given her broad professional experiences, she is in demand
as a speaker, having presented at many institutions including
the Center for Psychology and Social Change at Harvard,
the American Psychological Association and the
Association for Humanistic Psychology.
chapters in anthologies,
book forewards, etc.
nearly
175
articles, book reviews,
essays, short stories
and poems
1
opera: “De Un Lado Al Otro”
Early on, Glendinning’s life trajectory was influenced by her
mother, Mary H. Daoust Glendinning ’38, who became
involved in the civil rights movement in the mid-’50s. This
was a unique life pursuit for a woman of that generation.
“I grew up in an environment that combined the interaction
between civil rights and women’s issues,” says Glendinning.
She attended HB during the “cusp years,” when fellow
students began to become aware of and involved in
societal and civic issues beyond their immediate world.
A group of her classmates chartered a bus to take them to
Washington, D.C. to participate in a civil rights march
past the White House. “We missed only one day of
classes,” she remembers, “but I shocked one of my teachers
as I described this significant (and unheard of at the HB
of the times) adventure.”
An HB National Merit Scholar Semifinalist and star
athlete, Glendinning is grateful for her HB education, a
liberal-arts program that fostered a broad view of the world.
“It was a real gift!” She remembers with particular fondness
Spanish teacher Mrs. McCormick and English department
chair Mrs. McCreary.
At a time in life when many might be thinking about
slowing their pace toward retirement, Glendinning is in
the process of crossing another boundary to a new life.
By summer 2009, she will have moved from Chimayó to
La Paz, Bolivia. She was introduced to the country, its first
democratically elected government in 500 years and a group
of citizens who are “fabulous activists” by good friend and
former California State Congressman Tom Hayden.
“Everyone in Bolivia discusses politics, including 18-yearold taxi drivers,” she enthuses.
This new move is surely one of many new chapters
Glendinning has left to write.
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