Donna Karan speaks with Kipton Cronkite on her Urban Zen Foundation, which, among many unique missions, advocates a healthy, strong, and peaceful mind for a healthy body.

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To fashion, Donna Karan is Queen. To the evolving medical model, she’s Navigator. Just as her designs revolutionized fashion, her latest endeavor, the Urban Zen Foundation, is revolutionizing patient healthcare in New York City.

Karan’s name has been embedded into our minds as a fashion icon for more than twenty years. The original draping of her glamorous eveningwear and her trendy street sportswear collections catapulted Karan to American fashion royalty. Now that she’s achieved this status, she has become a revolutionary leader in speaking out for change. Using her busy lifestyle, she has managed to leverage her experience to create the Urban Zen Foundation, a public charity dedicated to promoting patient advocacy and wellbeing, empowering children, and preserving cultures. The Foundation also has three retail stores that sell the Urban Zen Clothing Collection designed by Donna Karan, as well as other lifestyle goods, including furniture from Bali and handcrafted African jewelry. Ten percent of all sales benefit the foundation.

Years ago, Karan became inspired to take on this cause as she witnessed her husband Stephan Weiss lose his battle with lung cancer. She began to realize the importance of having a treatment plan in place that focused both on mind and body. During his treatment, she created a plan that included meditation, acupuncture, nutrition, and yoga, which helped his lungs expand and allowed him to breathe better. She also became involved in creating a plan for her best friend’s battle with both breast and brain cancer. During this time, she noticed a missing piece of patient care: Doctors were focusing on the disease, but not overall wellness. She set out to build a community center where like-minded people could participate in various programs and classes dedicated to Urban Zen’s three initiatives.

In May of 2007, Urban Zen conducted its first well- being forum in order to develop the Urban Zen Integrative Therapist (UZIT) Program, which launched at Beth Israel Hospital this year. The goal of the program is to change the current healthcare paradigm to include integrative medicine and promote patient advocacy by combining Western science with Eastern healing modalities. Urban Zen therapists must complete a five hundred-hour certification training program focused on integrating multiple therapies into patient care, which prepares them to help navigate patients on their journeys.

The process of positive interaction includes in-bed yoga postures, meditation and breathing techniques, reiki and healing touches, aromatherapy, nutritional alternatives to hospital food, and training in the Buddhist model of bereavement.

Recently, Urban Zen began conducting clinical studies with Beth Israel and achieving feedback from patients and their loved ones. Beth Israel’s collaboration with Urban Zen could serve as a  model for other hospitals. This is, at least, Karan’s goal.

Karan herself lives the Urban Zen philosophy, in- corporating its principles into every aspect of her day. She spends her mornings, from the hours of 7 to 10 a.m., in what she calls “My Time.” During these vitals hours, Karan focuses on the human trinity: mind, spirit, and body. Throughout the day she uses a combination of yoga and meditation while maintaining awareness of her daily nutritional intake, consisting largely of organic fruits and vegetables.

After her husband’s death, Karan converted his art studio in the West Village into the home for the Urban Zen Foundation. Now, she no longer needs to escape New York City to find a place of serenity; she has built her own temple in an urban setting. Urban Zen has quickly become a platform for those in the community who want to come together and enact change. Karan’s philosophy has also ignited members of the healthcare profession and politicians to get involved. Leaders, such as healthcare reformer Hillary Rodham Clinton, and outspoken physicians are giving more visibility to the issue.

Karan has also found a way to combine her passion for holistic healthcare with her talent for designing clothes. At Urban Zen, clients realize they are not only buying something for themselves, but are contributing to an important cause. The foundation has seamlessly bridged philanthropy and commerce together in a personal and fashionable way. The Urban Zen Foundation Center in the West Village holds a variety of classes and lectures. The curriculum is evolving, but one of the most popular is a dance class taught by legendary performance artist Gabrielle Roth. In addition to group classes, the center features communication and educational workshops where people can discover ways to improve their lifestyles, such as learning proper nutrition. In order to choose which class is right for an individual, Karan says, “Each person has to find out for themselves what touches their hearts and what touches their souls.”

For more information, see urbanzen.org

"Mind and Body" is featured in the Fall 2009 issue of Quest Magazine. Click here for more information on and subscriptions to Quest Magazine.

Special thanks to Quest Magazine for allowing the KiptonART Online Magazine to feature the article.
Images courtesy of Quest Magazine.
Images (from top, down): Urban Zen founder Donna Karan; Urban Zen nutrition forum in April; store display at Urban Zen Sag Harbor