Dr. Oz Makes a Houston House Call, Promoting Mental Healthcare for Teens at Memorial Schmooze

Henry Clark
Dr. Oz Makes a Houston House Call, Promoting Mental Healthcare for Teens at Memorial Schmooze

MaryCharles Bennett, Dr. Oz & Jennifer Ducote

DR. OZ, ERSTWHILE U.S. Senate candidate and TV star, was the guest of honor at a cocktail party promoting HealthCorps’ mental health initiatives for teens, held at the home of CityBook Executive Publisher Lisa Holthouse and husband Michael.


A few dozen Holthouse friends gathered in the Memorial manse, readied for springtime with beautiful soft-colored florals, to rub shoulders with the good doctor, who was a renowned heart surgeon long before Oprah helped him become a household name.

As Lisa noted in her recent essay on HealthCorps, Mehmet Oz founded HealthCorps in 2003 to address health inequities in at-risk communities by empowering teens to take ownership of their health and well-being, “encouraging them to become change agents within their family, their school and their neighborhood.”

HealthCorps has programs in place in Houston at Jack Yates High School, Worthing High School, Wheatley High School, Welch Middle School, Wisdom High School, YES Prep Public Schools’ Eisenhower High School and Varnett Northeast.

Amy Braun and Lisa Holthouse

Kelli Weinzierl, Mary Kay Bowden, Andrea Eastham

Lyle Eastham

Dr. Nita White and Dr. Toron Wooldridge

John Weinzierl, Garry Tanner, Dr. Oz, Michael Holthouse

Charles & Tiffany Masterson

Dr. Oz, Martha & Richard Finger

Rosangela & David Capobianco

Dr. Oz, Aynesly & Palmer Letzerich, Amy Braun

Carolyn Tanner

Melissa Parigi, Dr. Oz, Palmer Letzerich

Tama & John Klosek, Amy Braun

Doug & Melissa Schnitzer

Palmer & Aynsley Letzerich, Jennifer & Doak Brown

Installation view of 'THIS WAY: A Houston Group Show' at Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, 2023. (Photo by Sean Fleming)

IN THE SUMMER of 1865, less than two months after the end of the Civil War, thousands of former slaves, or “freedpeople,” from the Texas countryside and every state in the former Confederacy made the pilgrimage via the San Felipe Trail to Houston’s Fourth Ward and established Freedman’s Town — a neighborhood for families determined to build and establish a thriving community as the country entered the Reconstruction era. Nearby cypress trees provided wood to construct family homes and handcrafted bricks were used to create the neighborhood’s streets. In June 2021, the Houston City Council voted to make Freedmen’s Town the city’s first official Heritage District, which allows nonprofits to help fund the restoration and care of the community’s historic structures, including those brick streets.

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Moseholm's 'Infinite Mapping of Changing Worlds' and Mosman's 'Inheritance'

THE FRUITS OF a cross-cultural, multigenerational friendship are on display in Things Fall Apart, an exhibit across two galleries at Redbud Arts Center. The show features recent paintings by New Orleans-born, Houston-based artist Randall Mosman and Copenhagen’s Anders Moseholm; it opens Saturday, Jan. 6, and runs through Jan. 27.

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