David Germano, PhD, teaches and researches Tibetan and Buddhist Studies at
the University of Virginia. He is the director of UVA’s Contemplative Sciences Center as well as UVA Tibet Center, the Tibetan and Himalayan Library, and the Sciences, Humanities and the Arts Network of Technological Initiatives (SHANTI). His personal research focuses on tantric, philosophical, and contemplative traditions in Tibet. He has lived for many years in Tibetan communities in Asia, in the context of which he has also worked extensively on programs of scholarly engagement, community service, and participatory knowledge initiatives. He has extensive experience with the development of digital technology for use in the humanities and education. He is currently focused on the exploration of contemplative ideas, values, and practices involving blended humanistic and scientific methodologies, as well as new applications in diverse fields.
Mirabai Bush is Senior Fellow and the founding Director of the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to encourage contemplative awareness in American life in order to create a more just, compassionate, and reflective society. She has designed and led mindfulness trainings for corporations from Hearst to Google, where she was a key developer of Search Inside Yourself, a training that has now reached more than 2000 Google engineers. She has also developed programs in contemplative practice for journalists, lawyers and judges, higher education faculty, environmental leaders, social justice activists, and the Army. She is co-author, with Ram Dass, of Compassion in Action: Setting Out on the Path of Service, author of Working with Mindfulness (a CD, an e-book, and a series of webinars), and editor of Contemplation Nation: How Ancient Practices Are Changing the Way We Live. She is most recently co-author of Contemplative Practices in Higher Education: Powerful Methods to Transform Teaching and Learning.
Eve Ekman is a Senior Fellow at the University of California Berkeley Greater Good Science Center, Director of Cultivating Emotional Balance Training Program and volunteer clinical faculty at the UCSF Department of Pediatrics. Ekman draws from an interdisciplinary set of skills and knowledge from her professional work and personal practice in clinical social work, integrative medicine, emotional awareness, contemplative science, and meditation. Ekman’s inspiration for research and training were inspired by her experience as a medical social worker in the emergency department of San Francisco General Hospital coupled with her training in emotion awareness and meditation intervention which she now leads: Cultivating Emotional Balance, CEB.
Dr. Paul Condon is a professor of psychology at Southern Oregon University in Ashland, Oregon. His research examines the impact of meditation on social processes–including compassion, moral decision-making, and emotion regulation. His research also examines the contributions of psychological science to modern meditation programs in dialogue with Buddhist philosophy.
At SOU, Paul teaches Health Psychology, Sustainable Compassion, Stress Management, History of Psychology, Statistics, Writing & Research, and General Psychology. He completed his Ph.D. at Northeastern University in Boston, MA and his BA at Gonzaga University in Spokane, WA.
