Maha Al-Suwaidi (she/her) is a graduate student currently in the Health Psychology program at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and a certified yoga teacher (RYT200). As a Muslim, Arab, Middle Eastern woman, she is acutely aware of the impact of colonialism and systemic oppression on minoritized communities and is committed to collective action to advocate for systemic change and communal healing. Her research aims to examine how structural factors (e.g., racism, poverty) contribute to mental health disparities, and identify modifiable, scalable tools (e.g., mindfulness, physical activity) that can bolster mental and physical health equity among structurally disadvantaged groups. Overall, her scholarship is rooted in a desire to decrease equity gaps in mental health research, with a focus on increasing the accessibility and cultural competency of psychological treatment for minoritized groups.
Ram Mahalingam received his PhD in Developmental Psychology from the University of Pittsburgh. He was originally trained as a civil engineer and held more than 12 different jobs (math tutor, film script writer, children’s theater activist, poet, writer, lecturer, night watchman, dish washer, cook, book stacker and preschool teacher) including being a structural engineer for 8 years before becoming a psychologist. He is currently Professor of Psychology in the Personality and Social Contexts program at the University of Michigan. He is also a core faculty member of the Psychology and Women’s Studies Joint PhD program. He was the Director for the Honors Program in Psychology department and the founding Director for the Accelerated Master’s Degree Program in Psychology. He is currently the Director for the Barger Leader Institute.
His research is centered around intersectionality – the way that different identities we embody intersect shape how we make sense of our lives. In his empirical work, he conceptualizes intersectionality in three distinct ways (Mahalingam & Rabelo, 2013). First, he explores intersectionality as a lived experience, focusing on encounters and stressors for those with marginalized identities based on gender, ethnicity, religion, caste, sexuality, occupation, and class. Second, he studies intersectionality as identities in contexts. For example, he studied how intersecting ecological contexts shape beliefs about gender in communities with a history of female infanticide (Mahalingam, 2007b). Third, he views intersectionality as a critical social awareness of privilege and marginality for differing identities. This rich conceptualization of intersectionality connects his specific research projects to answer broader questions. With this overarching framework, He pursues three lines of research: (a) Dignity and Invisibility in workplace with a specific focus on janitors in India, US and South Korea; (b) Mindfulness, social justice and leadership with a specific focus on interconnectedness; (c) Relationship between cell phones and self. He is the Director for the Mindful Connections Lab.
Learn more about his work here
Steven Thurston Oliver, Professor and Department Chair: Secondary and Higher Education at Salem State University, is a Sociologist of Education whose research and expertise is focused on using Contemplative Pedagogy in K-12 teacher preparation and higher education programs as a catalyst for cultivating greater capacity among educators to engage across human differences. Steven received a Ph.D. in Sociology of Education from New York University, a M.Ed. in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies from the University of Washington, and a B.A. in International Affairs from Antioch College. Recent publications include: Dealing with Things as They Are: Engaging Students in Dialogue about Race and Hurtful Chapters of U.S. History, Understanding and Teaching American Slavery, and Queer-spectrum and Trans-spectrum People Out of the Shadows: The Institutional Imperative for Building Inclusive Campus Communities. Major Challenges Facing Senior Leaders in Higher Education. Steven and his husband Jonathan live in Lowell with their dog Batu who was rescued by the Sato Project in Puerto Rico.
Malena Price is a fourth-year Clinical Psychology PhD student at the University of Miami studying the impacts of mindfulness training on psychological health outcomes, such as anxiety, depression, and PTSD. She is currently completing a practicum position at Galen Hope Mental Health where she supports the psychological recovery of patients living with eating disorders and complex co-occuring conditions. Prior to beginning her doctorate, Malena completed a Fulbright Research Grant in Amman, Jordan where she provided psychosocial support to Sudanese refugees seeking asylum there. After she completes her doctoral studies, Malena will work for a humanitarian organization bringing evidence-based psychological services to individuals suffering from acute psychological symptoms in crisis settings. Malena is also a 300-hour Registered Yoga Teacher, a proficient Arabic speaker, and a mindfulness practitioner.
Yikai is a PhD student in counseling psychology at the Culture, Emotion, and Health Lab at New York University and a member of Mind & Life’s Young Adult Advisory Council. His research interests primarily focus on cognitive and emotional processes underlying adaptive coping and psychological well-being across cultures. His current constructs of interest include contemplative practices, emotion beliefs, psychological flexibility, insights, dialectical thinking, and acculturative and race-based stress. Currently, Yikai is interested in investigating emotion beliefs across cultures and how culture shapes emotion beliefs and influences the process of self-reflection. Additionally, he is interested in mapping out the underlying cognitive, emotional, and behavioral processes of psychological flexibility and exploring how psychological flexibility influences coping with acculturative and race-based stress among ethnoracial minorities. He is also interested in ways to promote equitable access to quality mental health services among underserved communities on the individual level as well as the policy level. Yikai is committed to building lasting community partnerships and advocating for social justice in the mental health field and beyond.
José Godoy is a licensed Clinical Psychologist and Mindfulness Teacher based in Asunción, Paraguay. He has been offering Mindfulness trainings in Paraguay since 2014 and he currently offers courses based on the Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) and Mindful Self-Compassion (MSC) programs. He also leads Mindfulness retreats, workshops, webinars and professional trainings. He has had extensive trainings to teach Mindfulness. Some of them include foundational trainings with Mindfulness Africa in South Africa, silent retreats with monastics in the tradition of Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh, the 2017 Oxford Mindfulness Centre’s Summer School, daily online sessions with Jon Kabat-Zinn in 2020, international Mindfulness conferences and more recently the Mindful Self-Compassion Core Skills Course with Kristin Neff and Christopher Germer. His work experience includes the implementation of Mindfulness Based Programs in local hospitals, schools, universities, companies, governmental institutions, professional associations, NGOs, sports centers, and private trainings. Moreover, José has been offering Mindfulness teacher’s trainings for people in fields such as psychology, education and medicine who are interested in becoming Mindfulness instructors. Besides this job, José also offers private psychological sessions. He is also the founder of Mindfulness Paraguay and cofounder of the Paraguayan Mindfulness Association. Both Mindfulness Paraguay and the Paraguayan Mindfulness Association pursue the mission of promoting Mindfulness in the country and make it more accessible to people who might benefit from it regardless of ability to pay. In order to fulfil this mission, he also offers free trainings and scholarships. In this regard, José has been offering in site Mindfulness trainings for parents of children living with multiple disabilities since 2014. Moreover, he has facilitated talks and workshops free of charge in public schools, universities, hospitals, rehabilitation centers and foundations reaching different groups, such as doctors, nurses, students, teachers and patients living with chronic diseases.
Demond Hill Jr. is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of California, Berkeley, in the Department of Social Welfare. As a researcher and mental health practitioner, he focuses on the emotional well-being of Black children/youth in educational settings. Specifically, utilizing critical theories, his research looks at three important areas: (1) the whole development of Black children/youth with a specific focus on their emotional development, (2) the impact of oppression on their emotional lives, and (2) schools as sites of wellness and/or violence. Demond is unapologetically committed to collectively creating a laboratory and therapeutic world for Black children, Black youth, and Black families.
With a sensitivity to processes with social impact and an interest in contributing to the personal and collective well-being of communities, Alejandra has managed resources for over ten personal and third-party projects with cultural, social, and artistic approaches since 2016. Each project has involved artistic and ancestral techniques aimed at raising awareness, enhancing self-knowledge, and creating sustainable projects over time for communities.
She enjoys actively participating and working with causes that help individuals align with their life purposes and connect territories with their vocations, thus contributing to their autonomy and the development of their talents and skills. This positive impact facilitates economic growth and emotional stability for the communities involved.
Aproteem Choudhury is a Community Health and Mind Body Medicine Consultant with experience engaging, mobilizing, and uniting disadvantaged communities, clinical populations, and healthcare institutions through contemplative practices.
After Hurricane Harvey devastated Houston, TX, Aproteem Choudhury felt called to help his hometown. He trained with the Center for Mind Body Medicine (CMBM) and helped form the Greater Houston Healing Collaborative to serve those touched by the storm with connective, intimate, and empowering mind body skills groups.
Since his invitation to the Center for Mind Body Medicine’s international Faculty, Apro helps deliver large-scale comprehensive professional training programs in mind body medicine. Realizing that a public health approach is needed to transform trauma in individuals and communities, Apro has focused his work on developing capacity building programs that emphasize contemplative care after (and during) collective trauma.
Following the Robb Elementary school shooting in May 2022, Apro began traveling to Uvalde, TX to lay the groundwork for such a program. Nearly a year later, Apro now leads, and helps mentor a 150 member coalition of caregivers in the rural community integrate mind body medicine into their daily lives and work.
At home in Houston, TX, Apro is the mind body interventionist at Texas Children’s Hospital where he is developing a similar community of contemplative care, providing direct services to patients and providers, as well as conducting research on the feasibility and impact of delivering mind body interventions for children facing behavioral health challenges.
