Scaling Compassion: Scaffolding for Sustainable Systems Change in Educational Settings - Mind & Life Institute

SRI 21|Session 11

Overview

During this session, we will explore the transformative process of rebuilding school systems that are perceived as broken. This approach, which Tyralynn Frazier likes to the careful tending of a garden by skilled gardeners, focuses on nurturing the healthy parts of a system to foster a new, thriving environment. By examining key components of change, their interconnections, and methods for sustained impact, Tyralynn shares their ongoing research on developing a whole-school implementation process aimed at long-term sustainable change. Drawing inspiration from both the cautionary tale of Icarus and the empowering narrative of Maya Angelou’s “Still I Rise,” Tyralynn’s presentation will contrast the destructive pursuit of misguided ambition with the power of resilience and community support. In this context, schools become catalysts for defining and achieving success in ways that enhance human experience, promoting connection, transformation, and sustained momentum rather than harm. The goal of their research is to manualize this process, enabling schools to foster environments of resilience, well-being, and flourishing, deeply rooted in the values of compassion and belonging.

SRI 21
11 sessions
June 5, 2024
Garrison, New York
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Speakers

Tyralynn Frazier, Ph.D., MPH, is Lead Scientist for SEE Learning at the Center for Contemplative Science and Compassion-Based Ethics at Emory University. In her current role, she guides the center in developing a research program on the global implementation of SEE Learning and fundamental research on the science of compassion, ethics, and prosociality throughout human development. Prior to this role, she was awarded an NIH-funded FIRST Postdoctoral Fellowship to work at the Hubert Department of Global Health at Emory University. During this time, she received training in education research, led research studies on cross-cultural measurement development, and studied the implementation of mindfulness-based interventions among families experiencing food insecurity and domestic violence. Her research interests have included topics ranging from life-course stress and the bio-behavioral impact of violence experienced over child development on biological markers of stress and immune function to phenomenological explorations of compassion in the classroom. Fundamentally, her work aims to take a highly interdisciplinary approach to understand how, why, and when prosocial training programs within schools worldwide might be vehicles for positive and lasting transformations in equity, belonging, compassion, and well-being among every person touched by these systems. She received her Ph.D. from Emory University in biomedical anthropology and an MPH in epidemiology from Rollins School of Public Health.

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