Beth Witrogen McLeod

Journalist, Author, Speaker, Consultant
Caregiving and Aging issues

Beth Witrogen McLeod is an award winning journalist, author, speaker and consultant on caregiving and aging issues. Her expertise grew out of personal experience caring for her parents who were simultaneously terminally ill 1,200 miles away. With a father dying of a rare form of cancer and a mother with Lou Gehrig's disease and dementia, McLeod learned first hand about the traumas and blessings of this mid-life rite of passage.

She turned her experiences into a passion for public service, first writing and producing an award-winning newspaper series, "The Caregivers," for the San Francisco Examiner in 1995. It was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. She developed a weekly column for The Examiner that often appeared on the New York Times Syndicated Web site. Honors for the series included National Hospice Organization, Pew Charitable Trusts, American Legion Auxiliary, Society of Professional Journalists and many regional and local service organizations.

McLeod left The Examiner to write her book, "Caregiving: The Spiritual Journey of Love, Loss and Renewal" (John Wiley & Sons, May 1999), which has been nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in general nonfiction. Her articles on elder care and related issues have been published in Good Housekeeping, SELF, Family Circle, Intuition, Cooking Light, Take Care!, Health and the Noetic Science Review. She has led an on-line caregiving support chat for five years and lectures frequently around the country on the practical and emotional aspects of family caregiving. She is a columnist and consultant for ThirdAge.com and WebMD and continues to write a column for The Examiner called "Focus on Aging." She is a contributing writer for Aging Today.

McLeod teaches a course on caring for aging parents through the University of California Extension system, and will be offering a similar course on-line through ThirdAge.com.

In August 1999, she was interviewed by Katie Couric for the "Today" show's "Forever Young" segment. In August 1999, "Caregiving" will be published as an "E-book." It has been accepted into the Prevention Book Club. A paperback version will be out in 2000.

Women's International Center presents the Living Legacy Award 2000 to Beth Witrogen McLeod in enthusiastic acknowledgement of her contributions to those who are empowered by her words.

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