A letter from Laura Cortner, Executive Director, Ruscombe — A Sanctuary for Healing and Community
I first came to Ruscombe as a young woman just out of college, not quite sure of my direction. I wandered into the greenhouse — the same one where this photo was taken — carrying books from the esoteric library left behind by Ruscombe’s earliest residents. I sat down and started reading, and something settled in me. I didn’t know it then, but I had found my anchor.
That was decades ago. I never really left.
I’ve served as property manager, office manager, and now Executive Director of the nonprofit we built to carry this place forward. What has kept me here all these years is not any single dramatic moment — it’s the cumulative feeling of this place. Ruscombe has been tended by healers for so long that the walls, the grounds, the very air of it hold something you can’t manufacture or relocate. Other wellness centers have sprung up all over Baltimore, and they do wonderful work. But this place is singular. The thousands of people whose lives have been changed here — through dramatic healings, through the quiet steadiness of preventive care, through simply having somewhere beautiful and intentional to come back to — they are why I stay. And they are why I am writing to you today.
Because Ruscombe is at a turning point, and we need your help.
What Ruscombe Is Becoming
For forty years Ruscombe has been one thing: a sanctuary. A historic mansion on Yellowwood Avenue in Baltimore, tended by gifted healers, quietly changing lives one appointment at a time. Now, as a formal nonprofit organization entering our third year, we are becoming something more — not different, just more. More accessible. More connected to the community around us. More deliberate about who we serve and how.
If you have visited recently and noticed the campus looking a little tired, I want you to know: we see it, too, and we are fixing it. The nonprofit exists precisely to do what goodwill alone could not — to raise the funds, build the infrastructure, and create the partnerships that will restore and sustain this place for the next generation.
A Team Worth Knowing
None of this happens without the right people. I am proud to introduce the small and dedicated team making it possible.
Our Office Manager Johnai Clark is professionalizing our operations from the inside out. Our Property Management team, Summer and Chris, are working overtime this Spring managing repairs and completing two new rain gardens with indigenous plants to help manage stormwater runoff, thanks to a grant from the Chesapeake Bay Trust. And our new Director of Community Partnerships and Development, Nazaahah Amin, has hit the ground running — filing grant applications, building a fundraising plan, and venturing out into our neighboring communities to introduce Ruscombe and listen to what people need.
What We Are Building
We are actively seeking nonprofit organizations doing mission-aligned work to rent our office and event spaces — groups working in health, environment, arts, or education whose presence deepens the larger work of healing and strengthening our community.
We are also expanding our by-the-hour room rentals — a calm, beautiful setting for focused work, a private meeting, or simply a few uninterrupted hours away from the noise of daily life. Schedule a tour here.
Equity, Inclusion and Community — Our Core Values in Action
Something has been on my heart that I want to share openly. When I look at who comes through our doors for paid services, and then at who shows up for our free events, I see two very different groups of people. Our neighbors are hungry for what Ruscombe offers — but without deliberate effort to remove the barriers, we are not fully serving the community right outside our gates.
Holistic care has long been out of reach for many people simply because it is not covered by insurance. We want to change that — through the Whole Access Fund, by welcoming practitioners who offer culturally-rooted healing traditions, and by genuinely letting the community help shape what healing looks like here. We are not deciding for our neighbors what they need. We are showing up to listen, learn, and grow alongside them. This too is part of what Ruscombe is becoming.
That same commitment is shaping how we work internally — staff, board, and leadership working together with a consultant to build policies, handbooks, and structures that reflect these values from the inside out.
A Fresh Face for Ruscombe
You will soon see this values work reflected in a completely refreshed Ruscombe — new logo, new colors, a new website, and a new brochure. We look forward to unveiling them and would love to hear what you think.
Growing Our Governance
Our Board of Directors is actively recruiting — we are looking to bring on at least four new members, with a focus on people deeply connected to the communities we serve. We have also created four working committees and are looking for volunteers to contribute their time and expertise.
If you or someone you know is looking for a meaningful project with a mission-driven organization, please share this link.
The Whole Access Fund
We believe healing should be accessible to everyone — not a privilege for the few. That’s the heart of our Whole Access Fund, which we are actively working to launch later this year. Once active, community members will be able to apply for reduced-cost access to Ruscombe’s healing services — acupuncture, massage, counseling, yoga therapy, herbal wellness, and more — with support available for uninsured and underinsured individuals. Practitioners will also be able to refer clients directly to the program. The fund will be sustained through donations and community giving. This is a pivotal year for Ruscombe, and every contribution — at any level — helps us build the foundation this place deserves. Make a gift today.
Ruscombe in the Neighborhood
We have been showing up. Last month we had the joy of spending time at Plantation Park Heights Urban Farm — connecting with neighbors, learning from people doing powerful community-building work right here in Baltimore, and being reminded that Ruscombe is part of a living network of healing, food access, and community care. See photos on our blog or follow along on Instagram @ruscombecommunityhealthcenter.
Come Celebrate With Us — The Blooming
Our Summer Solstice Open House — The Blooming — is coming up on June 25th, 5–7pm, and we would love for you to be there. Come walk the grounds, meet our healers, sip some botanical blends, and feel what decades of intentional healing does to a place. See our full invitation and link to register here.
A Personal Ask
If Ruscombe has ever been an anchor for you — a place you returned to when something was hard, or a place that quietly changed how you felt about your own health and wellbeing — I hope you will consider helping us make sure it can be that for others too.
This is the work of our nonprofit — restoring, sustaining, and growing a place that has quietly changed thousands of lives. We are doing it thoughtfully, deliberately, and with real heart. But we cannot do it without the people who already know what this place is worth.
There are many ways to help — volunteer on a committee, refer a practitioner or nonprofit who needs space, bring a friend to the Open House, or simply make a gift to the Whole Access Fund. Every connection and every contribution moves us forward.
The Ruscombe you love exists because people like you showed up for it. Help us make sure it endures.
With gratitude, Laura Cortner Executive Director, Ruscombe | A Sanctuary for Healing and Community | LauraCortner@Ruscombe.org | 410-653-1105