Deborah L. Friedman, Assistant Commissioner of the New York City Mayor’s Office of Labor Relations, talks about helping to develop and implement the city’s “Culture of Health” initiative for its 350,000 public employees. She also discusses the benefits she has experienced from 10 years of daily practice of the TM technique.

Ms. Friedman joined the Office of Labor Relations as the Assistant Commissioner of Workforce Engagement and Innovation in September, 2014. One of her primary responsibilities is developing and implementing the city’s inter-agency “Culture of Health” program, which focuses on fitness, nutrition, obesity, smoking cessation, and stress reduction, to improve the health of all workers and their families and enhance their access to care.

Partnering with agencies and academic institutions, Ms. Friedman works to build sustainable programs throughout municipal government. Her responsibilities also include working with NYC agencies, their workforce, and municipal labor unions to identify and implement quality programs that will improve services to New Yorkers through better labor-management relationships and worker engagement.

Before becoming the Assistant Commissioner in the NYC Office of Labor Relations, Ms. Friedman spent 15 years representing healthcare workers, including attending physicians, interns, residents, and public hospital workers, in various states around the country. She learned the Transcendental Meditation technique 10 years ago and is an avid advocate of the TM program.

Deborah L. Friedman, Assistant Commissioner of the New York City Mayor’s Office of Labor Relations, talks about helping to develop and implement the city’s “Culture of Health” initiative for its 350,000 public employees.

Mario Orsatti, the host of TM Talks and Senior Teacher of the Center for Health and Wellness, a division of the David Lynch Foundation, interviewed Ms. Friedman on November 20, 2022.

Watch the discussion with Deborah Friedman (47:00)


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