BY BARBARA PALMER

Go inside the Olympic Village with JOANNE SANDERS, assistant dean for religious life, who traveled to Salt Lake City this week to join a group of 40 chaplains who will minister to Olympic athletes and coaches at the 2002 Winter Olympic Games. Sanders plans to stay connected with the campus through updates she'll post on the Office of Religious Life website. With the invitation to join the multifaith group of clergy, "all of the pieces of my life are coming together," said Sanders, who coached collegiate tennis before enrolling in divinity school. "There's such a connection between body, mind and spirit." Along with her contemplations, Sanders intends to share the fun of the Olympics and the occasional irreverent story, she said. Chaplains will be available to athletes and coaches 24 hours a day, but Sanders will have a few days off. "I'd love to make it to the women's bobsled competition," she said.

Joanne Sanders Photo: L.A. Cicero

Three foundations -- the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation -- give almost as much money to international health programs as the U.S. government, JOE LAMSTEIN, president of World Education, told participants at a campus conference, "Preventive Health Care for Women: Global Attitudes and Access." Less than 0.1 of 1 percent of the federal budget funds international health, Lamstein said. The one-day conference, sponsored by Women's Health @ Stanford, painted a grim picture of women's access to health care, both internationally and domestically. Half the women in the world deliver their children without the help of skilled attendants, much less at medical facilities, said MARY ELLEN STANTON, a senior health adviser for the U.S. Agency for International Development. In Afghanistan, more women died in childbirth last year than the combined men, women and children who died as a result of the conflict following Sept. 11, she said. In the United States, half of the female population aged 75 and over lived alone on a median income of $1,000 a month or less in 1997, said VICTOR FUCHS, professor emeritus of economics and of health research and policy.

KRISTIN BURNS, an administrative associate in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, and SHARON BERGMAN, a project administrator in Engineering Research Administration, were presented with 2002 Shah Family Staff Awards for outstanding competence, dedication and accomplishment at the School of Engineering award ceremonies held last Thursday at the Faculty Club. Also honored was NANCY LATTA, Integrated Circuits Lab, who received a 25-year service pin. CARMENALUZ MIRAFLOR, Center for Integrated Systems; KATHLEEN DITOMMASO, MARGARET MCLOUGHLIN, and CLAIRE STAGER, Computer Science; JAMES MCVITTIE, Integrated Circuits Lab; STEPHANIE SORENSEN, Materials Science; and JAMIE WILLMES, Dean's Office, all received 20-year pins.

Write to Barbara Palmer at barbara.palmer@stanford.edu or mail code 2245 or call her at 724-6184.

Barbara Palmer