Earlier this year Mind & Life completed a strategic visioning and planning process, to guide our expanding work through a lens of interconnection. We also began developing our digital efforts to have wider reach and greater impact on pressing contemporary issues. As such, Mind & Life is primed and eager to show up fully and make a difference: to serve, to foster individual and collective flourishing, and to partner with you and other organizations. We want to share our new strategic vision and explore how our expanding work is even more important moving forward.
You can watch the entire 60-minute recording above or select particular segments of interest below to watch on our Youtube page.
- Want to learn about how Mind & Life came to be? Watch starting at 11:22 to learn more about the fateful meetings between the Dalai Lama and western scientists that launched Mind & Life.
- How do Varela grants assist early-career academics and graduate students? Go to 14:58 to hear about Varela grantees Tish Jennings and Eric Garland and their success implementing their Varela-funded mindfulness interventions in schools, hospitals, and clinics around the country.
- Want to hear about the impact of Mind & Life’s grant programs? Watch from 16:13 to learn about our impact by the numbers.
- Mind & Life will be engaging in new strategies for inquiry as our work shifts. Learn more about our plan to shift our attention to the impacts of mindfulness practices and othering on the collective starting at 21:45.
- Watch Mind & Life President Susan Bauer-Wu walk through our theory of change beginning from 26:23.
- How did Mind & Life’s values factor into our strategic planning process? Learn about how our values guide us at 31:26.
- How will Mind & Life evolve in order to bring our vision for change to light? Watch from 33:20 to learn about the three main organizational changes we are making.
- What will Mind & Life’s work look like moving forward? Go to 34:06 to learn more about our new approach to grants, dialogues, and convenings, and our new online ventures: digital dialogues and our podcast.
- Want to hear about how Mind & Life is incorporating diversity, equity, and inclusion into our new strategic vision? Watch from 49:15 to learn about how we plan to incorporate ED&I values into our work.
- How is Mind & Life different from other organizations in the contemplative space? Learn what sets us apart at 54:17.
Susan Bauer-Wu
President, Mind & Life Institute
Susan is the President of the Mind & Life Institute, a role she assumed in December 2015. She has held leadership, academic, and clinical roles that have largely focused on … MORE
Wendy Hasenkamp, PhD
Science Director, Mind & Life Institute
Planning Committee Member, Reviewer
Wendy is the Science Director of the Mind & Life Institute. She is a neuroscientist, contemplative practitioner, teacher, and writer who is interested in understanding how the mind and brain … MORE
Shankari Goldstein
Program Manager, Mind & Life Institute
Shankari is a Program Manager at the Mind & Life Institute. Trained in the lineage of Integral Yoga, Shankari has spent years connecting to breath, body, strength, movement, and energy. … MORE
Maggie Guggenheimer
Director of Advancement, Mind & Life Institute
Maggie is the Director of Advancement of the Mind & Life Institute. She has worked since 2007 with Charlottesville-based nonprofits that cultivate human connection and celebrate our shared humanity, including … MORE
