History
It was in lunch breaks and casual discussions, at The California College of Ayurveda, that initial discussions took place about the importance of creating an organization to safeguard the students as they turned into Ayurveda Practitioners after graduation.
Although there were several lone Practitioners in various parts of the country that were paving the way for Ayurveda to come into the U.S., CCA was the first State approved College of Ayurveda actually training people in the U.S. to become Ayurveda Professionals.
Every six months there would be groups of people expected to graduate and start a Practice.
As discussions intensified, it became clear we needed to create a Professional Organization that would also represent the Ayurveda Profession in California and be its spokesperson to other Professional Organizations, Health Disciplines and the State itself. Yes. We dreamed that one day Ayurveda would become a licensed Profession.
OUR HISTORY
OUR STORY
Practitioners would need protection. They would need continuing education, insurance and above all the right to practice Ayurveda as a viable profession in its integrity. Consumers also would need to be protected from malpractice. They would need to know who had a Scope of Practice that was credible and a range of ethics they were governed by. Education needed to be extended to not just Practitioners but to our communities at large. An Ayurvedic Terminology needed to be created as well. Thus was created CAAM’s Mission and Goals.
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CAAM was the first Professional Membership Organization of Ayurveda in the country. We soon got educated in Non-Profit Organizations, 501c3, 501c6. Some of the group members came and left as we explored our Vision mostly due to time commitments. We worked 3 years defining ourselves and in 2001 opened our Membership formerly when we held the First National Ayurveda Conference at UC Berkeley, CA., for Ayurveda Practitioners, Educators and Students. Five of the original Board Members remained: Ursula Greger, Mary Thompson, Andy Landerman DDS, Darla Mabery and myself. We brought in new Board Members by the time we held our Inaugural Conference. This included: Prashanti de Jaeger, Brooksley Williams, Kim Wilks, Kumar Batra. By then another Organization had also formed, on a national level: NAMA. We invited their President Kumar Batra who lived in California, to also join CAAM. He came on as Treasurer.
Practitioners would need protection. They would need continuing education, insurance and above all the right to practice ayurveda as a viable profession in its integrity. Consumers also would need to be protected from malpractice. They would need to know who had a Scope of Practice that was credible and a range of ethics they were governed by. Education needed to be extended to not just Practitioners but to our communities at large. An Ayurvedic Terminology needed to be created as well. Thus was created CAAM’s Mission and Goals.
CAAM was the first Professional Membership Organization of Ayurveda in the country. We soon got educated in Non-Profit Organizations, 501c3, 501c6. Some of the group members came and left as we explored our Vision mostly due to time commitments. We worked 3 years defining ourselves and in 2001 opened our Membership formerly when we held the First National Ayurveda Conference at UC Berkeley, CA., for Ayurveda Practitioners, Educators and Students. Five of the original Board Members remained: Ursula Greger, Mary Thompson, Andy Landerman DDS, Darla Mabery and myself. We brought in new Board Members by the time we held our Inaugural Conference. This included: Prashanti de Jaeger, Brooksley Williams, Kim Wilks, Kumar Batra. By then another Organization had also formed, on a national level: NAMA. We invited their President Kumar Batra who lived in California, to also join CAAM. He came on as Treasurer.