Ken Paller is a Professor at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, where he holds the James Padilla Chair in Arts & Sciences and also serves as Director of the Training Program in the Neuroscience of Human Cognition. He was born and raised in Los Angeles, received degrees from UCLA (BS) and UC San Diego (Neuroscience PhD), and then completed postdoctoral training at Yale, Manchester UK, and Berkeley. His research has focused on human memory and consciousness, using a variety of methods including electrophysiology, neuropsychology, and neuroimaging. His findings have contributed to understanding features of conscious memory experiences as well as ways in which memory operations differ in the absence of awareness of memory retrieval, as in implicit-memory priming, intuition, and implicit social bias. Some of his research has concerned patients with memory disorders, including evidence linking memory deficits to poor sleep. Recent studies from his lab showed that memory processing during sleep can reinforce prior learning, providing novel evidence on sleep’s role in memory. Investigations of the relevant physiological mechanisms are helping to elucidate the hidden but critical contributions of sleep to cognitive abilities, including remembering details and solving problems, as well as to well-being more generally.
Chris May’s interest in cognitive-emotional training underpins both his enthusiasm as an educator and his research in the contemplative sciences. Having worked as an assistant and association professor of psychology for 10 years at Carroll University in the United States, Chris now teaches and conducts research at the University of Groningen (Netherlands). Chris’ research interests have focused on the cognitive and emotional effects of multiple contemplative practices. In recent years, his attention has turned to the interpersonal influences of meditation. He also makes contributions to the scholarship of teaching and learning.
Shelley Aikman is a health psychologist and a professor of Psychological Science at the University of North Georgia. She studies health and social attitudes. She is interested in the impact of mindfulness on how individuals feel about themselves and the social world around them.
Paul Verhaeghen is a cognitive psychologist. As a professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology, he has mostly studied attention and memory in aging. As a long-time meditation practitioner, holding an MS in Buddhist Studies, he has recently expanded his research interest into the study of mindfulness. He is the author of Presence: How Mindfulness and Meditation Shape your Brain, Mind, and Life (Oxford University Press).
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.
Bruce Barrett is Professor and Vice Chair for Research in Family Medicine and Community Health (DFMCH) at the University of Wisconsin – Madison. Following M.D. and Ph.D. (Anthropology) degrees in 1992, he did an international health fellowship in Guatemala, then family medicine residency in Eau Claire WI, then a primary care research fellowship. He joined the U.W. faculty in 2000, was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure in 2006, full Professor in 2013, and Vice Chair of Research in 2019. Bruce has received funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the National Institutes of Health, including three R01 grants from the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, investigating the herbal medicine echinacea, placebo effects in common cold, and two large trials testing the effects Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction against matched exercise training and non-interventional control on the incidence, duration, severity and functional impact of acute respiratory infection. He then founded Mindful Climate Action, which combines mindfulness training with environmental education to help people improve their own health while reducing carbon footprint. Bruce volunteers with Physicians for Social Responsibility, the Farley Center for Peace, Justice and Sustainability, and Wisconsin Health Professionals for Climate Action.
Kaira Jewel Lingo is a Dharma teacher with a lifelong interest in spirituality and social justice. Her work continues the Engaged Buddhism developed by Thich Nhat Hanh, and she draws inspiration from her parents’ lives of service and her dad’s work with Martin Luther King, Jr. After living as an ordained nun for 15 years in Thich Nhat Hanh’s monastic community, Kaira Jewel now teaches internationally in the Zen lineage and the Vipassana tradition, as well as in secular mindfulness, at the intersection of racial, climate and social justice with a focus on activists, Black, Indigenous, and People of Color, artists, educators, families, and youth. Based in New York, she offers spiritual mentoring to groups and is author of We Were Made for These Times: Ten Lessons in Moving through Change, Loss and Disruption from Parallax Press. Her teachings and writings can be found at www.kairajewel.com.
Christiana Figueres is a Costa Rican citizen and an internationally recognized leader on climate change. She was Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) from 2010 to 2016. During her tenure at the UNFCCC, Ms. Figueres brought together national and sub-national governments, corporations and activists, financial institutions and NGOs to jointly deliver the historic Paris Agreement on climate change, in which 195 sovereign nations agreed on a collaborative path forward to limit future global warming to well below 2°C, and strive for 1.5°C, in order to protect the most vulnerable. For this achievement Ms. Figueres has been credited with forging a new brand of collaborative diplomacy and received multiple awards. Since then Ms. Figueres has continued to accelerate the global response to climate change. Today she is the co-founder of Global Optimism, co-host of the podcast “Outrage and Optimism” and is the co-author of the recently published book, “The Future We Choose: Surviving the Climate Crisis.” Ms. Figueres sits on multiple executive and advisory boards and is a frequent public speaker and media commentator. She is a graduate of Swarthmore College and the London School of Economics. She lives in Costa Rica and has two fantastic daughters.
Two time Grammy Winning/Multi-Platinum selling Pianist/Composer Peter Kater has been a leading innovator of contemporary instrumental music for over 3 decades. He’s received many awards and accolades for his rich and diverse music including 14 Grammy Award nominations; two Grammy wins and the Environment Leadership Award from the United Nations.
