John Makransky, PhD, is Associate Professor of Buddhism and Comparative Theology at Boston College, senior academic advisor for Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche’s Centre for Buddhist Studies in Nepal, co-founder of the Foundation for Active Compassion (a socially engaged contemplative organization), and author of the popular meditation manual Awakening through Love. His academic writings have focused on connections between doctrine and practice in Indian and Tibetan Buddhism, on adapting Buddhist contemplative practices for contemporary application, and on theoretical issues in interfaith learning. Beginning in 1978, he studied with lamas of three Tibetan lineages, and in 2000 was ordained a lama in the lineage of Nyoshul Khen Rinpoche. Since then he has taught meditations of compassion and wisdom adapted from Buddhism in newly accessible ways to teachers, health-care givers, social workers, psychotherapists and those who work with prisoners, the hungry and the dying. He has offered contemplative workshops at Kathmandu University, Harvard Divinity and Medical Schools, Brown University, Emory University, University of Wisconsin–Madison, University of Virginia, Rhode Island and Bradley Hospitals’ Psychiatry Departments, and other institutions. He has published several books and many articles on Buddhist practices, their adaptation in current contexts, and Buddhist contemplative resources for service, social change and inter-religious learning.
Ferhan najeeb qureshi is a disciple of the legendary tabla maestro, Ustad Tari Khan. Prior to the training he continues to receive from Ustad Tari Khan, Ferhan took his initial lessons in Hindustani (north Indian) music theory and practice with Surinder Singh Mann. Ferhan studies the Punjab gharana (musical style) of classical tabla, which both of his teachers represent, and has accompanied numerous distin- guished classical artists (vocalists, instrumen- talists and dancers) in both the United States and in Pakistan.
Srinivas Reddy is a scholar, translator and musician. He studied classical South Asian languages and literatures at UC Berkeley and currently teaches at Brown University and IIT Gandhinagar. Srinivas is also a concert sitarist and spends his time performing, teaching and conducting research around the world. His books include Raya: Krishnadevaraya of Vijayanagara (2020), Meghadutam: The Cloud Message (2017), Malavikagnimitram: The Dancer and the King (2015), and Amuktamalyada: Giver of the Worn Garland (2010). www.srinivasreddy.org
Matthieu Ricard, Ph.D., is a Buddhist monk at Schechen Monastery in Kathmandu, Nepal. Born in France in 1946, he received his Ph.D. in Cellular Genetics at the Institut Pasteur under Nobel Laureate Francois Jacob. As a hobby, he wrote “Animal Migrations” in 1969. He first traveled to the Himalayas in 1967 and has lived there since 1972, studying with Kangyur Rinpoche and Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, two of the most eminent Tibetan teachers of our times. Since 1989, he served as French interpreter for His Holiness the Dalai Lama. He is the author of “The Monk and the Philosopher,” with his father, the French thinker Jean-Francois Revel; “The Quantum and the Lotus,” with the astrophysicist Trinh Xuan Thuan; “Happiness, A Guide to Developing Life’s Most Important Skill;” and “Why Meditate?” He has translated several books from Tibetan into English and French, including “The Life of Shabkar,” and “The Heart of Compassion.”
As a photographer, Ricard has published several albums, including “The Spirit of Tibet,” “Buddhist Himalayas,” “Tibet,” “Motionless Journey,” and “Bhutan.” He devotes all of the proceeds from his books and much of his time to 120 humanitarian projects involving schools, clinics, orphanages, elderly people’s homes, and bridges in Tibet, Nepal, and India. He supports these projects through his charitable association, Karuna-shechen. Ricard is devoted to the preservation of Tibetan cultural heritage.
Ricard has been deeply involved in the work of the Mind & Life Institute for many years, and is a Founding Steward of the Mind & Life Institute. He previously served on the Mind & Life Board of Directors.
Richard Davidson received his PhD from Harvard University in Psychology and has been at Wisconsin since 1984. He has published more than 573 articles, numerous chapters and reviews, and edited 14 books. He is the author (with Sharon Begley) of “The Emotional Life of Your Brain,” published by Penguin in 2012. He is co-author with Daniel Goleman of “Altered Traits: Science Reveals How Meditation Changes Your Mind, Brain, and Body,” published by Penguin Books in 2017.
He is the recipient of numerous awards for his research, including the William James Fellow Award from the American Psychological Society. He was the year 2000 recipient of the most distinguished award for science given by the American Psychological Association – the Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award. He was the Founding Co-Editor of the American Psychological Association journal EMOTION. In 2003 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time Magazine in 2006. He served on the Scientific Advisory Board at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences from 2011-2019. He was a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Mental Health 2014-2018. In 2017 he was elected to the National Academy of Medicine and in 2018 appointed to the Governing Board of UNESCO’s Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace and Sustainable Development (MGIEP). In 2014, he founded the non-profit, Healthy Minds Innovations, which translates science into tools to cultivate and measure well-being. His research is broadly focused on the neural bases of emotion and emotional style and methods to promote human flourishing, including meditation and related contemplative practices.
Davidson is the Mind & Life Chief Scientific Advisor (CSA). The CSA is an accomplished senior scientist who has a long history with the Mind & Life Institute and has made substantial contributions to contemplative science. The CSA serves an advisory role on science-related programmatic matters of the Institute. Davidson served on the Mind & Life Board of Directors from 1992 to 2017.
Sharon Salzberg is a meditation pioneer and industry leader, a world-renowned teacher and New York Times bestselling author. As one of the first to bring meditation and mindfulness into mainstream American culture over 45 years ago, her relatable, demystifying approach has inspired generations of meditation teachers and wellness influencers. Sharon’s most recent book is Real Change: Mindfulness to Heal Ourselves and the World.
Jon Kabat-Zinn, Ph.D. is Professor of Medicine emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, where he founded the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society (in 1995), and (in 1979) its world-renown Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) Clinic. He is the author of ten books, including the bestsellers Full Catastrophe Living, Wherever You Go, There You Are, and Mindfulness for Beginners. With Mark Williams, he is co-editor of Mindfulness: Diverse Perspectives on its Meaning, Origins, and Applications (2013). His books are published in over 40 languages. His work has contributed to a growing movement of mindfulness into mainstream institutions such as medicine, psychology, health care, neuroscience, schools, higher education, business, social justice, criminal justice, prisons, the law, technology, government, and professional sports. Over 700 hospitals and medical centers around the world now offer clinical programs based on training in mindfulness and MBSR. Jon lectures and leads mindfulness workshops and retreats around the world.
Jon previously served on the Mind & Life Board of Directors.
Prof. Jennings is a Professor of Education at the Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia. She is an internationally recognized leader in the fields of social and emotional learning and mindfulness in education with a specific emphasis on teacher stress and how it impacts the social and emotional context of the classroom. Jennings led the team that developed CARE for Teachers, a mindfulness-based professional development program that improves teacher well-being, emotional supportiveness and student engagement in the largest randomized controlled trial of a mindfulness-based intervention designed specifically to address teacher occupational stress. Jennings is leading the development of the Compassionate Schools Project curriculum, an integrated health education program designed to align with state and national health and physical education standards. She is Co-Principal Investigator on a large randomized controlled trial being conducted in Louisville, KY to evaluate the curriculum’s efficacy. Jennings was a member of the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Fostering Healthy Mental, Emotional, and Behavioral Development among Children and Youth. Dr. Jennings was recognized by Mindful Magazine as one of “Ten Mindfulness Researchers You Should Know.” Earlier in her career, Jennings spent over 22 years as a teacher, school director and teacher educator. She is the author of Mindfulness for Teachers: Simple Skills for Peace and Productivity in the Classroom and The Trauma-Sensitive Classroom: Building Resilience with Compassionate Teaching, both part of the WW Norton Series on the Social Neuroscience of Education.
Called “the most intriguing African-American Buddhist” by Library Journal, Rev. angel Kyodo williams Sensei, is an author, maverick spiritual teacher, master trainer, and founder of Center for Transformative Change. She has been bridging the worlds of personal transformation and justice since the publication of her critically acclaimed book, Being Black: Zen and the Art of Living With Fearlessness and Grace. Her book was hailed as “an act of love” by Pulitzer Prize-winner Alice Walker and “a classic” by Buddhist teacher Jack Kornfield. Her new co-authored book, Radical Dharma: Talking Race, Love & Liberation, is igniting communities—Buddhist, activist, and beyond—to have the conversations necessary to become more awake and aware of what hinders liberations of self and society. The Radical Dharma events that have emerged from the book: Connections, Circles and Conversations, have initiated profound healing and deepened commitment, dismantling oppression across lines of race, class, sexual orientation, and other divides.
Ordained as a Zen priest, she is a Sensei, the second of only five black women recognized as teachers in the Japanese Zen lineage. She is a social visionary that applies wisdom teachings and embodied practice to intractable social issues at the intersections where race, climate, and economic justice meet. She coined the name for the field of Transformative Social Change and sees it as America’s next great movement. In recognition of her work, Rev. angel received the first Creating Enlightened Society Award from the international Shambhala Community.
For over 20 years, she has deeply invested her time and energy to putting into practice her unwavering belief that the key to transforming society is transforming our inner lives. She has developed comprehensive systems for illuminating both practical personal change and the profoundly liberating potential of mindfulness, yoga, and somatic practices coupled with wisdom teachings. Calling for a paradigm shift that “changes the way change is done,” angel envisions the building of a presence-centered social justice movement as the foundation for personal freedom, a just society, and the healing of divisions of race, class, faith, and politic.
Both fierce and grounded, she is known for her unflinching willingness to both sit with and speak uncomfortable truths with love. Her work has been widely covered by such publications as The New York Times, the Boston Globe, Ms., Essence, Buddhadharma, and the podcast “On Being with Krista Tippett.” angel notes, “Love and justice are not two. Without inner change, there can be no outer change. Without collective change, no change matters.”
Dr. Eric Garland, PhD, LCSW is Distinguished Endowed Chair in Research and Distinguished Professor in the University of Utah College of Social Work and Director of the Center on Mindfulness and Integrative Health Intervention Development (C-MIIND). As Principal Investigator or Co-Investigator, Dr. Garland has published over 185 scientific articles and received more than $60 million in research grants to develop and test therapies for addiction, stress, and pain, including Mindfulness-Oriented Recovery Enhancement (MORE). In a bibliometric analysis published in 2021, Dr. Garland was found to be the most prolific author of research on mindfulness in the world.
