Daniel Morris is a Ph.D. student in Dr. Ken Paller’s cognitive neuroscience lab at Northwestern University. His research focuses on sleep and dreaming, aiming to understand the neurophysiological correlates of lucid dreaming and contemplative sleep practices. He has worked with the Emory Tibet Science Initiative to train three cohorts of Tibetan Monastic Scholars during Northwestern’s 3-month intensive neuroscience research internships. He has also travelled to South India in 2023 and 2024 to teach at the ETSI Winter Research Workshops. His other research interests include meditation, dark retreat practices, virtual reality, and sleep-onset hypnagogia.

Juensung completed his doctoral studies under the supervision of Dr. Michel Ferrari at the University of Toronto. Prior to beginning his doctoral research, Juensung completed an MA in the same program again under the supervision of Dr. Ferrari, and completed an Honours Bachelor of Arts in Cognitive Science and Philosophy under the mentorship of Dr. John Vervaeke. Following the completion of his graduate studies, Juensung joined the University of Groningen as a postdoctoral researcher under the supervision of Prof. Brian Ostafin, where he conducts research on awe, spirituality, and meaning in life.

Juensung’s personal research focuses on investigating tools, practices, and experiences that facilitate intentional self-transformation, particularly the cultivation of wisdom and self-transcendence. Currently, he is conducting exploratory research on the influence of esoteric spiritual practices on the cultivation of wisdom and the effects of awe on the feeling of truth. His doctoral thesis, funded in part by a SSHRC Doctoral Fellowship, examined changes in student personal projects over the course of a semester in response to exposure to philosophical and spiritual education, with an aim towards understanding the genesis of self-transformative moral and spiritual aspirations. He has previously coordinated research on changes in personal projects in response to physical distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic and assisted with research on the phenomenological experience of microdosing psychedelics.

​​Justus Wachs is a Participatory Action Researcher, organizational developer, and PhD Candidate at McGill University in Montreal. His research and practice focus on integrating contemplative and embodied methods, such as mindfulness, storytelling, and systems sensing, to foster transformative learning and systemic change within sustainability-focused organizations. Drawing on a decade of environmental activism and creative facilitation across diverse stakeholders, Justus investigates how inner transformations of values and worldviews can catalyze outward structural change, helping organizations address socio-ecological crises.

Joanna is currently a Ph.D. student in Developmental Psychology at the University of California, Davis. She received her BA in Psychology from the University of California, Santa Barbara where she also received minors in
Applied Psychology and Educational Studies. She is broadly interested in research examining the link between psychosocial stress and biological markers of health. Her research surrounds stress and resilience in children and adolescents, particularly the stress-buffering role of close relationships (e.g. parent-child, interparental) and exploring the use of novel technology in understanding how children’s social environment predicts stress and stress-related health outcomes.

Marissa Ferry is a fourth-year Clinical Psychology PhD candidate at Pacific University. Her research interests include mitigating the impacts of intergenerational trauma through culturally adaptive and promotive interventions in racially and ethnically minoritized children, adolescents, and families. Her current population of focus is early childhood and their caregivers, and she is passionate about community-centered care, equitable access to mental health services, and giving voice to populations who have been traditionally excluded from research and healthcare spaces. Prior to her doctoral studies, Marissa received a master’s in counseling psychology from the University of San Francisco.

Josh Brahinsky is a psychological anthropology researcher working out of the Department of Transcultural Psychiatry at McGill, with recent research positions in Anthropology at Stanford where he was trained in ethnographic phenomenology and Psychology at UC Berkeley where he was trained in emotions measures. Josh studies self-induced high arousal altered states of consciousness, the contemplative practices (i.e. speaking in tongues, jhana meditation) that inspire them, and the communities that shape them. His multimodal research joins data from ethnography, phenomenology, psychological scales, and cognitive tasks as well as fMRI, EEG and EKG.

Dr. Carlos Andres Gallegos-Riofrío is a Research Assistant Professor at the University of Vermont (UVM), where he teaches Planetary Health and Agroecology. He co-coordinates the Agroecology and Planetary Health Research Program at UVM’s Institute for Agroecology (IfA). With over 20 years of experience, he integrates social sciences, public health, and participatory action research, working closely with Indigenous communities in the U.S., Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia. As Scientific Advisor of the Caliata Initiative in the rural Andes, he advances agroecology, health, and community resilience, fostering sustainable development through collaboration and transdisciplinary approaches.

Amaya Carrasco-Torrontegui holds a Ph.D. in Food Systems from the University of Vermont and co-coordinates the Agroecology and Planetary Health Research Program at UVM’s Institute for Agroecology. With over 20 years of experience, Amaya’s work focuses on agroecology, Indigenous knowledge systems, and health equity. Her research explores pathways to agroecological transitions and collective action in Ecuador and Bolivia. She also
leads initiatives supporting BIPOC communities in climate resilience, food sovereignty, and well-being. Amaya is the Executive Director of the Caliata Initiative and an active member of The Nature and Health Alliance, bridging sustainability and human health.

Dr. Dilara Ally (she/her) integrates clinical social work and data science expertise together as a postdoctoral associate at Cambridge Health Alliance/Harvard Medical School’s Center for Mindfulness and Compassion. Specializing in trauma, depression and anxiety, her research explores how Internal Family Systems influences attachment, inner compassion and perspective-taking in trauma recovery. Dilara is guided by patient-centered intervention development, leveraging machine learning and artificial intelligence to study self-related processes underlying treatment effectiveness. A two-decade Buddhist meditation practice has profoundly shaped her research and therapeutic approach, grounding it in acceptance and compassion.