William L. Prensky, M.A., OMD
Chant Newall in Second Life
William Prensky (aka Chant Newall in Second Life) is the owner of Chant Newall Development Group (CNDG), a Second Life Design, Build, and Consulting firm operating throughout the world to provide an enriched and interactive experience in the Metaverse. He is also co-owner and the Chief Technology Officer of the FutureWork Institute, Inc. (FWI) in NYC, an HR and Diversity consulting firm, providing consulting and education to major corporate clients worldwide. At FWI he is the project leader in developing new media technologies, including Virtual Reality platforms for training and education. In addition to his work with CNDG/FWI, Dr. Prensky continues to maintain his private practice in Complementary Medicine which began over 30 years ago, and actively participates in the development of new education and educational tools for his profession and for businesses and professions throughout the world.
For more than thirty-five years his career has spanned the fields of healthcare, education, business and technology.
Pioneering New Technology and Web 2.0
At CNDG and FWI since 2003, he has helped to pioneer new consulting and educational strategies in the emerging technologies of Virtual Reality and Web 2.0. With a dedicated team of talented builders and designers in the SL Platform, he has championed the concept of Photo-Realism in Second Life, building reproductions of historic and real-world sites in the Virtual Metaverse, and has helped to create interactive training modalities in the Virtual World and “Green Training”, conducted solely within the new electronic media.
CNDG/FWI was named a Gold Solution Provider in Second Life (SL) by Linden Lab in the spring of 2009 as part of the first group of Solution Providers elected to that status. CNDG and FWI Estates are some of the most carefully built and detailed in SL, containing highly precise and detailed reproductions of historic sites, and a complex interactive scripted campus for education and training.
Developing Creative Approaches to Education
Throughout his career, Dr. Prensky has been interested in issues surrounding access to information and creative approaches to education. He was one of the original developers of the Peace Curriculum pioneered at Swarthmore College in the 1960’s and in 1969 he brought the Swarthmore team to UCLA where he was Chair of the UCLA Center for the Study of Nonviolence. While a graduate student at UCLA. he founded and directed the “Intra-Personal Communications Center” in Los Angeles, which was one of the first consulting firms to train educational institutions in the implementation of “peer group counseling” for students and faculty.
He continued his interest in consensual peacemaking as a member of the Board of Directors of the Camphill Foundation of America, the Camphill Association of America, and Camphill Village USA, where he studied and applied of the principles of consensus building as a means of decision making in organizations.
In 1996 Dr. Prensky was appointed Associate Professor of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine and Director of the Graduate Program in Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine at Mercy College in Dobbs Ferry, NY. There he developed the first professional program in alternative medicine offered in a regionally accredited, comprehensive educational institution. In addition, he brought an integration of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Acupuncture into the inpatient and outpatient services at Sound Shore Medical Center of Westchester, where he served as Chief of Service for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine for 3 years.
In 2001, he retired from Mercy College and continued his activities in integrating Traditional Chinese thought into the normative curriculum as Adjunct Associate Professor of Asian Studies at The City College of the City University of New York.
He was appointed Adjunct Associate Professor of Psychology at Columbia University Teachers College, where he taught graduate students the relationship of Traditional Chinese Medicine to our psychological and physiologic understanding of emotion.
Integrating Diverse Voices in Healthcare
Dr. Prensky began practicing Oriental Medicine in 1972 in Los Angeles, California. In 1973 he became the first American to be licensed by examination. In practice for over three and a half decades, he has spent much of his career working to integrate diverse voices in healthcare towards the development of a new and complementary model for the US. He has been a pioneer in consensus building within health care and educational institutions and has led diverse work-teams towards new solutions and integration. He has developed visionary plans for companies and professional associations interested in the future of healthcare as well as developing governance models for organizations throughout his field.
Dr. Prensky received his B.A. and M.A.in psychology from UCLA in 1968 and 1971 respectively. He received the degree of Doctor of Acupuncture from the Institute for Taoist Studies in Los Angeles, a Diploma in Acupuncture from the Hong Kong Acupuncture College and the degree of Doctor of Oriental Medicine (O.M.D.) from the California Acupuncture College, specializing in the applications of Oriental Medicine to traditional forms of psychotherapy and psychoanalytic theory and practice.
As well as being the first American licensed as an Oriental Medicine Physician in the US, he was one of the original diplomates of the National Commission for the Certification of Acupuncturists (NCCAOM), is a Diplomate in Chinese Herbs of the NCCAOM, and Chairman-Emeritus of the Acupuncture Society of New York (ASNY). He served as founding Chair of the National Academy of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine and was also the founding Chair of Oxford Health Plans Acupuncture Advisory Board, helping to design the Alternative Medicine Program at Oxford Health Plans, and founding Chair of the Committee for the Specialized Placement of the Handicapped, Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Mount Sinai Medical Center, New York..
In 1997 he was named “Educator of the Year” by the American Association of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine (AAAOM), and 2006 was named a “Founder of the Profession” by the AAAOM.
Bringing Innovations to Business
After moving to New York City in 1976, he continued to work towards recognition and licensure for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine in NY and nationwide. Continuing his commitment to education for both business and professions, he developed programs and served as Chair of the Small Business Council of the New York Chamber of Commerce and Industry, where he worked to add consensual and participatory management to the educational offerings of the Chamber. This included programs in Quality Circles and Continuous Improvement, skills honed by his helping to organize and his participation in a fact-finding mission to Japan to study these processes. The New York Chamber of Commerce and Industry awarded him the Small Businessperson of the Year Award in 1980 and the David Benetar Award for Leadership in Small Business in 1981. He also served as a member of the Board of Directors of the New York Chamber of Commerce and Industry for two years.
Working in Today’s World
Today, at CNDG/FWI, he uses his skills and experience in technology, business management, education and healthcare to help clients to enter into the new worlds offered by Virtual Reality and create functional approaches to the use of Second Life.
He continues to maintain his private consulting practice in Oriental Medicine, searching out ways to use the emerging Virtual Reality media as a way of exploring the frontiers of healthcare and medicine.