Stephanie Dorais is a counselor educator, researcher, and licensed counselor. With a background in data analytics and trauma counseling, she currently serves in the counselor education programs as an assistant professor at Kean University and adjunct assistant professor at NYU Steinhardt. Her research focuses on how contemplative practices lead people to experience hope, compassion, transcendence, and other areas related to human thriving. She applies the intersection of contemplative science with intensive longitudinal methodology to examine outcomes related to counseling and thriving. She serves on multiple editorial boards of counseling journals and as a consultant at the Thrive Research and Intervention Center at the College of William & Mary. She lives and practices in the New York metropolitan area.
Daniel Gutierrez is an Associate Professor in the Counseling program at the College of William & Mary, the Co-Director of the THRIVE Research and Intervention Center, a Licensed Professional Counselor, and a Certified Substance Abuse Counselor. He holds a Ph.D. and master’s degree in Counselor Education and mental health counseling from the University of Central Florida. His current research focuses on the process of thriving. This emerged from his previous work which examined culturally-responsive evidence-based practices in mental health counseling (i.e., what works best for whom and in what setting), mental health disparities, and the integration of spirituality into mental health counseling. These areas of inquiry converged on the theme of contemplation and he has since been interested in the role of contemplative practices in mental health. His research has found that the awareness and way of being developed in living a more contemplative life are paramount to thriving and whole-hearted living. Daniel also serves as the current president of the Association for Spiritual, Ethical, and Religious Values in Counseling and the Associate Editor for Quantitative Research for the Journal of Counseling & Development, and the Associate Editor for Theory for the Journal Counseling and Values.
Angela P. Harris is professor emerita at UC Davis School of Law and co-editor-in-chief of the Journal of Law and Political Economy. An award-winning law teacher, she pioneered courses on critical race theory; mindfulness and the law; environmental justice; and markets, class, and culture. The organizations she has helped found include the Thelton E. Henderson Center for Social Justice at Berkeley Law and the Aoki Center for Critical Race and Nation Studies at Davis. She is the author of many articles on critical legal theory and has co-authored textbooks on criminal law; gender and law; race and American law; and economic justice. She seeks to bring compassion to the work of political, economic, and social transformation.
sujatha baliga’s work is characterized by an equal dedication to people who’ve experienced and caused harm and violence. A former victim advocate and public defender, sujatha is a frequent guest lecturer at universities and conferences about her decades of restorative justice work. She also speaks publicly and inside prisons about her own experiences as a survivor of child sexual abuse and her path to forgiveness. Her personal and research interests include the forgiveness of seemingly unforgivable acts, survivor-led movements, restorative justice’s potential impact on racial disparities in our legal systems, and Buddhist approaches to conflict transformation. She’s a member of the Gyuto Foundation in Richmond, CA, where she leads meditation on Monday nights. She was named a 2019 MacArthur Fellow.
Sulaiman Khatib was born in Hizmeh, a town just outside Jerusalem. He lives in Ramallah. He is a Board Member of Middle East Dreamers, and is former co-founder and former Co- Director of Combatants for Peace (CfP). CfP is a non-profit Israeli and Palestinian peace building organisation located in Bethlehm and Tel Aviv. Its founders are ex-Israeli solders and ex-Palestinian prisoners who decided to join hands in joint non-violent resistance as a means to end the occupation, and bring equality, freedom and peace to both peoples. Currently he serves as the Director of International Relations for Combatants for Peace.
Sulaiman was the founder and General Director of Al-Qud’s Association for Democracy and Dialogue, which he founded with fellow Palestinian peace activists in 2005. Al-Qud’s worked with youth in order to be able to create effective and sustainable projects and programs focusing on the promotion of peace, democracy, dialogue and civic participation in the Palestinian Territories.
At the age of 14, Sulaiman was sentenced to 15 years in prison and served a term of 10.5 years. He spent his time in jail learning about History, Hebrew, English and about other world conflicts and peace activists such as Gandhi and Mandela. He acquired his entire education and worldview in jail. This is when he started to have new thoughts about the conflict and the means for resolving it. As a result he is a committed advocate for peace in the Middle East and an active member of various programs aiming to promote a peaceful solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, within local communities, as well as on regional and international levels.
Sulaiman and Chen Alon, another co-founder of Combatants for Peace were nominated twice for the Nobel peace prize 2017 & 2018. Both times the nomination was on behalf of CfP.
Sulaiman has a biography titled ” In this place together” came out in April 13 , 2021 with beacon press. He also stared in the award winning film about Combatants for Peace, called ‘Disturbing the Peace,’ which was released in 2016.
Geshe Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, founder and spiritual director of Ligmincha International, is one of only a few masters of the Bön Dzogchen tradition presently living in the West.
Rinpoche is known for his ability to make Tibetan practices easily accessible to Western students. He is a highly respected and beloved teacher to students throughout the United States, Latin America, Europe, and Asia.
Rinpoche is the author of 10 books including ‘Awakening the Luminous Mind’ and ‘Spontaneous Creativity’.
My music comes directly from the heart and the spirit. The meditations are pure improvisations – there is no forethought given to what I will play before my fingers hit the keys. They are a channeling of the energies, emotions and thoughts which exist at a particular moment in time. With the advent of the Covid pandemic, I have taken to recording these meditations more regularly. I hope they bring the listener to a place of peace and calm, and perhaps to a place of greater understanding. For those who are interested, I am playing a 7 foot 4 inch Bosendorfer grand piano and recording on an Apple iPhone.
I intend to post additional music over time.
I was fortunate to begin playing the piano at the age of 3. I studied classical music from kindergarten through law school, even as I played in various rock bands and jazz ensembles among the way. I studied piano and chamber music with Joan Panetti at the School of Music as a Yale undergraduate, and chamber music with Leon Kirschner and Patricia Zander while at Harvard Law School (Yo-Yo Ma was in the class!). I wrote two musical comedies in law school and have continued to write through the years. I have composed a number of scores for films and documentaries as well as music for dance. I’ve had the good fortune to play with many prominent artists, including Buddy Miles, Stanley Jordan, Grover Washington, Charlie Daniels, Keith Richards, Al Kooper, Paul Winter, Eugene Friesen, Paul McCandless, Shambhu and Greg Anton.
https://www.meninmusic.com/
Durga Leela is an Ayurveda Practitioner and Yoga Therapist and the founder of Yoga of Recovery®, a comprehensive program that integrates Ayurveda and Yoga with recovery tools for all those affected by addiction and self-destructive behaviors. She teaches a holistic approach to recovery, integrating mind, body, and spirit. She overcame her own struggles with addiction and is a grateful member of 12-step fellowships for over 21 years. www.yogaofrecovery.com
Meena Srinivasan is the Founding Executive Director ofTransformative Educational Leadership (TEL). Prior to this role, she spent five and a half years working in partnership with the Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning (CASEL) to implement SEL system-wide in the Oakland Unified School District.
