Take Back My Life

10/12/2026

Happy Birthday Mom! May your day be as badass as you are!

10/10/2026

This is the exhausted, happy and contented smile of a woman who got invited to a birthday party for the FIRST time since college and WENT!

What are the chances that I plop myself down on a cushy outdoor patio chair and end up surrounded by people who immediately become my new friends? This first truly autumnal day was accompanied by the kind of instantaneous camaraderie I haven’t experienced for decades.

“I think I know you.“ The woman seated to my right says after listening to me chat with her husband about a shared interest in writing and the best publication options.

I doubt it, I think. I haven’t crawled out of my cave for the past 13 years.

“Did you do a research project about sexuality and disability or something in college?”

This opens the floodgates for me to launch into my passion for my research, the story behind Care Cards and eventually, the unlikely revealing that not only is she the chair of the English department at our local community college, but she also is the mother of her daughter with a disability.

She seems to look at me with the kind of respect that I almost never experience in the company of a stranger.

“Am I the first person to suggest that you get a PhD?” she asks after listening to me prattle on that my research is unusual because it’s not about disability as a medical diagnosis, it’s about the social model and perception.

I tell her she’s not and she seems to have the unusual combination of intellectualism and personal experience with raging a war against the system in order for her daughter to be seen as fully human, so she doesn’t say more about this

She does say more, however, about the challenges her daughter is experiencing in receiving appropriate accommodations in college and if this doesn’t parlay into instantaneous friendship, I don’t know what could.

I spend the next TWO HOURS engaged in the kind of scintillating conversation with not only this woman and her husband, but a handful of others who seem magically also to have the ability to connect to me, with me effortlessly.

Exhausted, out of breath and in need of food and rest, I literally have to tear myself away from this party. But, not before exchanging contact info with my new friends..

Nobody is more surprised than me to realize that this feels like my birthday party, too.

10/10/2026

Care Cards: A Collaboration Born in the Emergency Department

Care Cards were developed through a collaboration between Briana Beaver and Dr. Ben Isakson, whose work in emergency medicine helped inspire the project. The idea grew from recognizing that patients often need a simple way to communicate what is important to them when they are in an unfamiliar, stressful, or overwhelming healthcare environment.

Together, Briana and Dr. Isakson helped shape the concept of Care Cards as practical conversation tools that could be used in real healthcare settings — keeping the focus on communication, connection, and listening.

The next stop for Care Cards is
Texas! The UT Health East Texas pilot will provide an opportunity to introduce Care Cards into healthcare settings and learn directly from patients, families, and healthcare professionals about how the cards are used and what is most helpful.

“This pilot is about listening,” said Briana Beaver, Founder of Care Cards. “We want to learn what happens when people have a simple, tangible way to say what matters to them. The goal isn't to add another complicated system. It's to make communication a little easier.”

Care Cards are intentionally designed to be small, practical, warm, and human. They are not medical forms, diagnostic tools, or replacements for professional care. They are conversation starters.

The pilot represents an important step in exploring whether this simple approach can support communication between patients and healthcare teams.

10/08/2026

Thank you to everyone who took the time to let me know you were thinking of me on my birthday. For many years, birthdays have felt heavy to me, symbolizing a kind of burden of grief I can’t quite articulate. So, this year, I spontaneously decided to do something celebratory and life-giving.

You’re looking at the Founder and Creator of an up-and-coming business— Moral Compass.

I’ve been on the precipice of taking this next step in formalizing years, a lifetime really, of advocacy, writing, passion and a vision for society where everybody counts, for quite some time. The occasion of a new beginning signified by another trip around the sun seemed like an auspicious time to give myself this gift.

I invite you to follow the journey of this next phase of my life with Moral Compass!

Welcome! I’m Briana Beaver, the Creator and Founder of Moral Compass. I’m a Chico local, medical sociologist, and advocate for health equity and patient voice.

Moral Compass creates and sells educational resources, publications, curriculum, training materials, communication tools and related products and services designed to promote understanding, communication, equity and human connection.

In collaboration with Co-Creator Enloe ER physician Ben Isakson, MD, I created Care Cards as the first Moral Compass project. This simple, human-centered resource is a way for patients to communicate what they need from their healthcare providers, and for providers to better understand the person behind the medical record.

At its heart Care Cards are about a belief that belongs in every community: every person deserves to be heard, respected and included in decisions about their own health and well-being.

Care Cards, which have been presented at an international medical conference at Dartmouth, are representative of my work to create understanding, dignity and partnership between patients and the people who care for them.

As a whole, I’m dedicated to advancing equity through health system change via collaboration, education, support and awareness + more through Moral Compass.

Together with clinicians, patients and educators, I actively engage with community through advocacy, publications and presentations, courses and workshops, storytelling and lived experiences.

Equity begins when every voice counts.

10/07/2026

I met Pam Newman (right) as a kid through our nonprofit. All these years later, I'm grateful to be amongst the women (& men) that contribute to her publication!

From our cover photographer to over 30 businesses and organizations that are women run inside our pages in our October edition, we feature North State women who are making a difference in their communities and raising the next generation.

We appreciate and honor the tenacity it took for these women to start a and run a business with today’s economic challenges.

And, BTW, the North State Parent staff and contractors include seven extremely talented women and two remarkable men, who work hard to bring you the most current and valuable resources and information to build and strengthen our North State community!

10/04/2026

I must admit, I’ve been disappointed by the lack of response to my book over the past year. I was so excited to make available the research I did for my honors thesis about sexuality and disability in a book form. I actually was encouraged to do this by a former professor, with the intention that it could be made into part of the curriculum at various universities.

I worked hard not only on the actual research and the writing of the book, but also on making it available. I contacted dozens of universities that had disability, sociology, social sciences, medical school departments etc. that I thought would be interested in including my book.

Nothing happened.

It’s frustrating to me that not only is there a lack of data about disability and sexuality, but even the organizations and institutions of higher education who claim to be receptive to related data, are not. Unfortunately, I think this is merely a posturing effort to look “inclusive,” but has no genuinely.

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