Jenny Mascaro

Jenny Mascaro is an applied biological anthropologist whose research focuses on investigating the impact of mindfulness and compassion meditation practices on the well-being, compassion, and health of both hospitalized patients and their healthcare providers. Her research approach incorporates a mix of methods, such as ambulatory assessment of linguistic behavior, functional and structural neuroimaging, as well …

Nirmal Govindaraju

Nirmal Govindaraju led and conducted professional research on nanomaterials and wide bandgap semiconductors for 13 years in the US before moving to India in 2017 to work on science and math education for low-income children and adults. Along the way, he has experienced, first-hand, the critical importance of social-emotional well-being for children to learn and …

Sam Brakarsh

Sam is from Zimbabwe where he co-founded the Chikukwa Research Trust (CRT), which focuses on mindfulness-based trauma healing, regenerative agriculture, and social theatre across twelve villages. Sam is a Theatre of The Oppressed practitioner, establishing a ToTO network in Zimbabwe as well as conducting trainings across Ghana, Kenya, The United States, The Philippines, and occupied …

Wangũi wa Kamonji

Wangũi wa Kamonji is a regeneration practitioner who researches and translates indigenous Afrikan knowledges into experiential processes, art and honey. Her work is motivated by the twin challenge of healing and generating new realities for the present and future. Informed by research using academic and indigenous methods; storytelling in written and oral forms; traditional Afrikan …

Rui Afonso

he/him – Rui Afonso is a Brazilian researcher interested in the effects of contemplative practices and altered states of consciousness (self-induced and substance-induced) on mental health. His background is in psychobiology and neuroscience. For decades he has been a teacher and practitioner of Yoga and meditation.

Robin Nusslock

I am an Associate Professor of Psychology at Northwestern University where I direct the Affective & Clinical Neuroscience Laboratory. My research program uses the tools of human neuroscience to study how the brain creates emotion and how these brain systems are implicated in health and well-being. I also study how stress affects the emotional brain, …