Krista is the Director of Grants & Events at the Mind & Life Institute. She has been with Mind & Life since June 1, 2018. She has held leadership positions with mission-driven transformative organizations and has an extensive background in managing programs, people, and events in higher education and for global organizations. Krista enjoys managing dynamic teams, and has a long-term interest and background in contemplative practice.  And in her spare time she loves teaching creative dance to children and spending time in nature with her husband, son, and friends.

Francisco J. Varela (1946-2001) co-founded the Mind & Life Institute in 1987. Born in Chile, he received his PhD in Biology from Harvard University in 1970. Trained as a biologist, mathematician, and philosopher, he wrote and edited numerous books and journal articles on biology, neurology, cognitive science, mathematics, and philosophy. Francisco introduced the concept of autopoiesis to biology and supported embodied philosophy, viewing human cognition and consciousness in terms of the enactive structures in which they arise. His work popularized within the field of neuroscience the concept of neurophenomenology, which requires observers to examine their own conscious experience using scientifically verifiable methods. His book The Embodied Mind: Cognitive Science and Human Experience (1991), co-authored with Evan Thompson and Eleanor Rosch, is considered a classic in the field of cognitive science, offering pioneering phenomenological connections and introducing the Buddhism-informed enactivist and embodied cognition approach. In 2004, Mind & Life launched the Francisco J. Varela Research Grants to support the examination of contemplative techniques and their application to reducing human suffering and promote flourishing. 

R. Adam Engle is the co-founder of the Mind and Life Institute. He was educated at the University of Colorado, Harvard University and Stanford University, where he received his B.A., J.D., and M.B.A. degrees respectively. He has divided his professional life as a lawyer and entrepreneur between the for-profit and non-profit sectors.

In the for-profit sector, Mr. Engle began his career as a lawyer, practicing for 10 years in Beverly Hills, Albuquerque, Santa Barbara, and Teheran. After leaving the practice of law, he formed an investment management firm, focusing on global portfolio management on behalf of individual clients. He also started several business ventures in the United States and Australia.

Mr. Engle began working with various groups in the non-profit sector in 1965. In addition to the Mind and Life Institute, he also co-founded the Colorado Friends of Tibet, a statewide Tibetan support group based in Boulder, Colorado; was a founding member of the Social Venture Network; and has advised numerous other non-profit organizations.

Barry Hershey is a filmmaker who has written and directed eight films. He has been involved in various capacities in two dozen other films, including as executive producer of The Dalai Lama—Scientist. Most recently, he has produced the documentary film, Climate Emergencies: Feedback Loops, as well as the one-hour broadcast film Earth Emergency. He received his MFA from USC School of Cinematic Arts. He is currently working on a fiction script, Shadowpoem. For over 30 years, he has been involved with the Mind & Life Institute and joined its board in 2012.

Raymond L. “Rip” Gellein Jr. today leads a family investment vehicle, RBG Capital Advisors LLC, which invests in early stage operating companies in the construction, marketing and technology spaces. In addition he currently serves on the Board of Directors of Marriott Vacations Worldwide, Inc.

Prior to this, Rip had a long career in the hospitality and real estate industry. He served as the Chairman and CEO of Strategic Hotels and Resorts, Inc from 2012 to 2015. Prior to that he was the President of Global Development for Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide, Inc. Prior to that position, he was the Chairman and CEO of Starwood Vacation Ownership, the subsidiary of Starwood that was formed from the acquisition of Vistana, Inc in 1999. Rip served as the Chairman and Co-CEO of Vistana Inc when it went public in 1997 and was intimately involved with the founding of Vistana in 1980 and led that enterprise through its sale to Starwood. Prior to Vistana, he served as Vice President and Division Manager in Real Estate for Continental Illinois National Bank in Chicago.

Rip holds an MBA in Finance, Accounting and Marketing from Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management (1974), as well as a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Denison University (1969). Between college and graduate school, he taught mathematics and psychology as well as coached basketball, football and tennis at two private schools, the last two years at the Groton School in Groton Massachusetts.

Rip is married and, together with his wife Jacque, have a total of 6 children and 11 grandchildren.

Rip Gellein served on the Mind & Life Board of Directors from 2009 to 2021.

DIANA CHAPMAN WALSH, PhD is President emerita of Wellesley College, Senior Advisor to Stanford University’s Center for Innovation in Global Health, life member emerita of the MIT Corporation, co-founder of the Council on the Uncertain Human Future, and former board member of the Broad Institute (chair), the Kaiser Family Foundation, the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, the State Street Corporation and Amherst College. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a former professor and department chair at the Harvard School of Public Health. 

Diana Chapman Walsh served on the Mind & Life Board of Directors from 2012 to 2017.

Daniel is currently Associate Professor in Sustainable Architecture & Cities (with deep interest in equitable green-economies as well) at the School of Architecture & Planning, University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) in Johannesburg, South Africa. He is an architect and urban environmental policy planner focusing on sustainability and the built environment. With research and consultancy interests focused on developing countries, his core interest is the understanding and applied resolution to the dilemma of achieving socio-economic development for all within the tightening eco-limits of our planet. Daniel’s key interests is the coupling of green innovations to socio-economic development priorities such as jobs/skills and eco-entrepreneurship. One of the newly emerging themes of his research interest is the transitioning to sustainable cities and how a better understanding of assumed human behavior models could enhance humanity’s transitioning endeavors, especially when based on emerging insights from neuroscience, and especially neuro-phenomenology as conceptualized by pioneer scholars such as Francisco Varela, Roberto Maturana, and Gregory Batson. 

Daniel has earned academic and professional merit awards including a Fulbright Scholarship for his Masters studies in the US, Certificate of Merit on a competition-entry on Eco-Village and Eco-Coastal Settlements organised by the International Federation of Young Architects (IFYA) in 1993. A Solar Academy for Southern Africa (organised at Wits in collaboration with International Solar Energy Society in Germany and Sustainable Energy Society of Southern Africa) was awarded the SESSA Renewable Energy Project of the Year Award for 2002.