Dianne Connelly and Bob Duggan

Short biographies of Tai Sophia founders Dianne Connelly and Bob Duggan are found below. However, their experience is not easily summarized. Their learning is drawn from renowned healers, scientists, and teachers from around the world, and they have brought this breadth of knowledge and understanding to the Institute.

Each founder has also brought distinct and complementary gifts to the academic richness of Tai Sophia. Dianne Connelly brings a gift for language and an attention to its power, as well as the consciousness of how words create the world. In addition to earning a doctorate in cultural anthropology, she has completed advanced studies in acupuncture, linguistics, poetry, and the biology of cognition. Dianne’s promise is to make sure that we are aware of the fullness of the present moment—whether in the treatment room, where a word can be a gift along with a needle; in the classroom; in a meeting in the hallway; or in the circle of family. She reminds us that in each moment we can call each other to our beauty and possibilities.

Bob Duggan has an extensive background in philosophy and theology, and has studied in seminaries in New York and Rome. From the age of 12, he was mentored by Ivan Illich, the philosopher, historian, and cultural critic who wrote Medical Nemesis and Deschooling Society. With this understanding, Bob brings the ability to see as optional what exists in our culture at the present moment, and to construct new possibilities. He asks, “What is possible?” and “What are the implications of what we say and do for the future?” and then moves toward that future.

When Bob and Diane began their study of acupuncture with J. R. Worsley in 1971, they were transformed by his teachings about the wisdom of nature and the power of our senses to observe life, and they saw the enormous potential in his insistence that the body is deeply wise. They went on to infuse those teachings into many of the programs at Tai Sophia, also drawing on knowledge from philosophy, theology, humanistic psychology, anthropology, and Western science.

In 1972, they organized the first American group of students to study acupuncture with Worsley in Kenilworth, England. Later, they created conferences and opened the Centre for Traditional Acupuncture clinic in Columbia, MD. They continued to expand their work and opened the Traditional Acupuncture Institute (now Tai Sophia Institute) in 1981, inviting many scholars to teach and study at the Institute, including Claude Larre, who brought wisdom of the Chinese classics, and Simon Mills, who brought great knowledge of herbs.

The rich legacy the founders continue to bring to the life of Tai Sophia can be termed a “calm restlessness.” Calm that is required to be present for learning is joined with a restless urge to pass on this knowledge for the sake of the next generations. The work of the Institute is rooted in this passion for learning that honors the ancients and is used in service of the grandchildren.

The founders continue to serve on the faculty of Tai Sophia and to teach Redefining Health, a weekend workshop for personal reflection and transformation.

	Dianne M. Connelly, PhD, MAc(UK), DiplAc (NCCAOM) Co-founder and Chancellor Emeritus of Tai Sophia Institute, and a practitioner of traditional acupuncture since 1973, Dr. Connelly received a master's qualification from the College of Traditional Acupuncture (UK) in 1979. She earned a doctorate in cross-cultural medicine from Union Graduate School in 1975, a master's degree from New York University School of Education in 1970, and a bachelor's degree from Le Moyne College in 1967. An international lecturer (she lectures regularly in Italy and Germany), Connelly is the author of Traditional Acupuncture: The Law of the Five Elements (1975), All Sickness is Homesickness (1986), Medicine Words: Language of Love for the Treatment Room of Life (2009), and with Katherine Hancock Porter, Alive and Awake: Wisdom for Kids (2003). She is the mother of Blaize, Jade, and Caeli, as well as grandmother to Tamar, Lennox, Rianna, Roman, Maxim, and Lucia.
	Robert M. Duggan, MA, MAc(UK), DiplAc (NCCAOM) Robert (Bob) Duggan, Co-Founder and President Emeritus of Tai Sophia Institute, has practiced traditional acupuncture since 1973. He holds a master’s degree in human relations and community studies from New York University, as well as a master’s in moral theology from St. Joseph’s Seminary. He received a master’s certification in acupuncture from the College of Traditional Chinese Acupuncture (UK). A national leader in the development of the acupuncture profession and the emerging healing arts community, he has served as a commissioner of the Accreditation Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine, on the board of trustees of the Horizon Foundation (a community wellness foundation in Howard County, Maryland, which in 2008 honored him with its annual Leadership Award), and a panelist at meetings sponsored by the National Institutes of Health and the White House Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medicine. In February 2009, Duggan testified before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, and in November 2009, he was among 20 leading thinkers, innovators, artists, philosophers, and entertainers selected to present at the first TEDx MidAtlantic Conference. Mr. Duggan lectures throughout the United States and abroad, and is the author of Common Sense for the Healing Arts (2003) and Breaking the Iron Triangle (2012).