Pooja Sahni holds a doctorate in contemplative environmental neuroscience from the National Resource Centre for Value Education in Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IITD) India and is a practitioner of surat-shabd-yoga (ultratranscendental meditational technique). Her research interest includes behavioral and neuro-cognitive exploration of contemplative ecological educational techniques as innovative pedagogical tools for prosocial development among students. She has taken courses in theology, neuroscience and learnt the use of physiological tools (EEG, GSR, fNIRS & eye tracker) to supplement her research interests. As a part of her social responsibilities, she is also actively leading a women empowerment association involved in education and skill training.
Tawni Tidwell, PhD, TMD, is a biocultural anthropologist and Tibetan medical doctor. Her research facilitates bridges across the Western scientific tradition and Tibetan medical and contemplative traditions along with their attendant epistemologies and ontologies. She is currently a Research Associate at the Center for Healthy Minds of University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she is Principal Investigator for the Varela Study on Examining Individual Differences in Contemplative Practice Response (ExamID-Biome) that assesses variation in meditation outcomes as it relates to gut microbiome profiles and Tibetan medical constitutional characteristics. She is also Project Lead for the Field Study of the Physiology of Meditation Practitioners and the Tukdam Meditative State (FMed) guided by His Holiness the Dalai Lama in collaboration with Tibetan Buddhist monastic and Tibetan medical colleagues in India as well as the Russian Academy of Sciences. Her published works focus on modes of embodiment and entrainment through practice, diagnostic/treatment paradigms, Tibetan medical conceptions of cancer and metabolic disorders, and transforming toxins into medicines in Tibetan pharmacology. She maintains a private clinical practice in Madison, Wisconsin.
I’m an MA/PhD student in the Psychological Clinical Science program housed at the University of Toronto Scarborough. I’m interested in understanding the pattern of ruminative thoughts, such as how they emerge and develop over time, and whether mindfulness training affects these patterns. My current MA work involves using machine learning to characterize brain activities during interoceptive and exteroceptive attentional states in order to understand the effects of interoceptive training on people’s brain activities and their ability to pay attention to bodily sensations.
Steven Pratscher received his Ph.D. in social-personality psychology from the University of Missouri where he conducted research on interpersonal and relational effects of mindfulness and meditation. He is now a postdoctoral fellow in an integrative and multidisciplinary pain and aging research training program at the University of Florida. He’s interested in examining the effectiveness and mechanisms of action of various mind-body, complementary, and integrative interventions to improve chronic pain, as well as overall health, energy, and well-being. He’s particularly drawn to breathing and how modulating breathing influences consciousness, stress, health, pain, aging, and the body’s natural ability to heal.
Tenzin Sonam is an Assistant research scientist at Emory’s Center for Contemplative Science Compassion-Based Ethics. His research interest is in cross-cultural exploration of key constructs such as, compassion, self-compassion, resiliency, and common humanity included in the Center’s Social, Emotional, and Ethical Learning program, thus, informing its curriculum development and educator trainings to constructively respond to the diverse linguistic, cultural, sociopolitical, ecological, spiritual landscape, and personal identities of the learners, in order to create an inclusive and sustainable global education of the heart and mind. He received his Ph.D. in Teaching and Teacher Education from University of Arizona in 2017.
Michael T. Warren, Ph.D., is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Human Early Learning Partnership at the University of British Columbia. His research examines the roles of mindfulness and virtue development in human flourishing from middle childhood through adolescence. Michael is coauthor of Understanding Virtue: Theory and Measurement (Oxford University Press, 2021).
Dr. Rebecca Acabchuk has a PhD in Physiology and Neurobiology, with expertise in brain injury and concussion. She currently works as a Post-Doctoral Research Associate at the University of Connecticut, in the Institute for Collaboration on Health, Intervention, and Policy (InCHIP). Her research focuses on evaluating the mental and physical health benefits of yoga and mindfulness-based programs, using advanced methods of evidence synthesis and randomized controlled trials, as well as evaluating implementation strategies to bring evidence-based mindfulness programs into schools and the community. Rebecca’s research interests are inspired by her experience teaching meditation and yoga for 15+ years.
Gio Iacono, PhD is an Assistant Professor at the University of Connecticut, School of Social Work. His areas of practice and research specialization are LGBTQ+ youth mental health, mindfulness-based treatment approaches, and promoting diversity/inclusion within education. Dr. Iacono primarily focuses on intervention and community-based research. He has worked as a psychotherapist, educator, community organizer, and researcher in a variety of health and community-based settings. His community development work focuses on promoting the mental health of diverse communities. Gio has also been a mindfulness meditation practitioner for many years, and integrates mindfulness in his work as an educator, researcher and clinician.
William R. Moomaw is Professor Emeritus at the Fletcher School at Tufts University and Visiting Scientist at Woodwell Climate Research Center in Massachusetts. He holds a PhD degree in chemistry and worked to find solutions to stratospheric ozone depletion while working for the U.S. Congress. He then spent 20 years identifying actions and technologies to slow climate change and was a lead author of five major Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports. More recently, he has developed Natural Climate Solutions that protect and restore forests and wetlands to remove more heat trapping atmospheric carbon dioxide.
Dr. Susan Natali leads the Arctic Program at Woodwell Climate Research Center. She studies the consequences of climate change in the Arctic, with a focus on permafrost thaw and wildfire, and the global implications of these changes. Her work has provided groundbreaking measurements of greenhouse gas emissions from thawing permafrost. She also works with local communities in the Arctic who are adapting to the impacts of a rapidly warming climate and dramatically changing landscape. Dr. Natali is committed to seeing both the human and climate impacts of rapid Arctic change incorporated into public understanding and global policy.
