Koshikawa is a professor of psychology, Waseda University and the president of the Japanese Association of Mindfulness. Her research interest is the effectiveness of Eastern techniques, such as meditation and yoga, on reducing stress and increasing mental health. The focus of her recent research has been to understand how and why mindfulness meditation has effects on reduction of stress responses and how to use mindfulness meditation to empower people who find themselves stressed and exhausted. Koshikawa has practiced transcendental meditation, Zen meditation, and mindfulness meditation since graduate school. Her first encounter with mindfulness meditation was in a workshop in 1993 by Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn, who created Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction. She deepened understanding of it during her sabbatical at University of Oxford between 2003–2004, under Dr. Mark Williams, who developed Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy with Zindel Segal and John D. Teasdale.
In addition to teaching students at the university, she also teaches mindfulness meditation in a mental clinic, a community center and elsewhere to help people cope with stress, anxiety, and depression. Her books include Horizons in Buddhist Psychology: Practice, Research & Theory (A Tao Institute Publication, 2009); Mindfulness: Basis and Practice (in Japanese) (Nippon Hyoron sha, 2016); the Japanese translation (Kitaoji Shobo, 2007) of Mindfulness- based Cognitive Therapy for Depression: A new approach to preventing relapse (Guilford, 2002); Japan (translated by Chun-shu company, 2007); Buddhism Meditation Theories (Chun-shu company, 2008); History of Japanese Buddhism (Shunsha Co., 2015), among others.
Masaki Matsubara, Ph.D. Masaki Matsubara is a scholar of Japanese religions at the East Asia Program at Cornell University and is also a Japanese Rinzai Zen priest. Following his Zen monastic training, he received his M.A. in Asian Studies and Ph.D. in Asian Religions from Cornell University. His doctoral dissertation focused on Zen master Hakuin Ekaku (1686–1769), a seminal figure occupying a prominent place in the history of Japanese religion.
Matsubara’s research examines issues regarding identity, memory, and authenticity, specifically how these are culturally, socially, and historically developed in the tradition mechanisms of building, reinvention, and maintenance within contemporary Japanese Zen Buddhism (1868– present). His research focuses primarily on a study of the invention of Buddhist traditions and its effects on the identity creation of Buddhist religious figures, with particular emphasis on various historical, social, and institutional forces and factors in a particular historical context that have determined our received images of the past.
Matsubara taught Buddhist studies, East Asian languages and cultures, and religious studies at University of California, Berkeley (2009-2013) and was a fellow at the Ho Center for Buddhist Studies at Stanford University (2013-14). His courses ranged from modern to contemporary topics, including the particular narrative genres of biography, autography, hagiography, and translation. He also currently serves as an adjunct affiliated chaplain with Cornell United Religious Work at Cornell University. He is the head abbot of Butsumoji Zen Temple in Chiba, Japan, supervising a nearby affiliated International Zen Center in Japan and traveling between the United States and Japan to lead seminars and retreats. Matsubara is the author of “Hakuin Ekaku” in Oxford Bibliographies in Buddhism (Oxford University Press, 2014). He currently resides in New York City.
Minowa was born in Chiba Prefecture (Japan) in 1960. He graduated from Tokyo University in 1983. He has been a professor at the graduate school of Humanities and Social Sciences, the University of Tokyo since April 2010. His specialty is Japanese Buddhism and history of Buddhist thought. In particular, he is interested in the acceptance of precepts and the development of meditation. He studies how monks actually practiced and researches the development of meditation from India to China and to Japan, while trying not to forget the connection of his research and the present age. He is author of The Religion of Japan (translated by Chun-shu company, 2007); Buddhism Meditation Theories (Chun-shu company, 2008); History of Japanese Buddhism (Shunsha Co., 2015), among others.
Gaelle is a Mind & Life Fellow with years of previous experience conducting research in contemplative neuroscience. After receiving a Masters degree in computer science and a PhD in cognitive and neural systems, she served on the research faculty at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School where she investigated the effects of meditation on the brain using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Gaelle is also a former Grants & Science Manager at Mind & Life.
Fujita is professor emeritus of Kyoto University and former professor at the Graduate School of Advanced Integrated Studies in Human Survivability and former chair of the Department of the History of Japanese Philosophy at Kyoto University. He received doctoral degrees from Bochum University and Kyoto University, and is author of Philosophie und Religion beim jungen Hegel; Gendai shisō toshite no Nishida Kitarō [Nishida Kitarō as a Modern Thinker]; Nishida Kitarō: Ikiru koto to tetsugaku [Nishida Kitarō: Being Alive and Philosophy]; Nishida Kitarō no shisaku sekai [Nishida Kitarō’s World of Thought]; and Tetsugaku no hinto [Hints of Philosophy]. Fujita edited Tanabe Hajime tetsugaku sen [Selected Works of Tanabe Hajime’s Philosophy] and, with Kosaka Kunitsugu, the new edition of Nishida Kitarō zenshū [Complete Works of Nishida Kitarō]. His other edited volumes include Nihon kindai shisō wo manabu hito no tame ni [For Students of Modern Japanese Thought]; Kyōto gakuha no tetsugaku [The Philosophy of the Kyoto School]; Higashiajia to tetsugaku [East Asia and Philosophy]; Shisō-kan no taiwa: Higashi ajia ni okeru tetsugaku no juyō to tenkai [Dialogue between Ways of Thinking: The Reception and Development of Philosophy in East Asia].
Carolyn Jacobs, MSW, PhD, is Dean Emerita and Elizabeth Marting Treuhaft Professor Emerita of the Smith College School for Social Work.
Dr. Jacobs was a member of the School’s faculty for 35 years, serving as the dean for 14 of those years. In 2001 she was elected to the National Academies of Practice as a distinguished social work practitioner. From June 2015 to November 2015 she served as Interim President of the Mind and Life Institute. She is currently on the board of Elms College ( 2020-).
Jacobs received her BA from Sacramento State University, her MSW from San Diego State University, her doctorate from the Heller School of Brandeis University, and her training as a spiritual director from the Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation. She maintains a spiritual direction practice and is committed to creating spaces for health care providers to discover the rich resources of contemplative practices from many wisdom traditions in developing resilience for self and others.
Susan Bauer-Wu, PhD, RN, is a contemplative clinical scientist, mindfulness teacher, author, non-profit and health care leader, and registered nurse. Susan served as President of the Mind & Life Institute from December 2015 to December 2023. She was an NIH-funded researcher and Georgia Cancer Coalition Distinguished Scholar who received one of the first NIH R01 grants to study meditation in 2005. An early teacher of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), Susan completed MBSR teacher clinical practicum training in 1999. She has held leadership positions and/or taught at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, Harvard Medical School, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Emory University, and the University of Virginia (UVA). Prior to joining Mind & Life, Susan was the Kluge Professor in Contemplative End-of-Life Care and director of the Compassionate Care Initiative at UVA, with dual faculty appointments in Nursing and Religious Studies. She was also a Robert Wood Johnson Executive Nurse Fellow and served as president of the Society for Integrative Oncology. Susan completed a PhD in psychoneuroimmunology at Rush University in Chicago and post-doctoral training in psycho-oncology and behavioral medicine at Dartmouth Medical School. In 2021, Mindful recognized her as one of “the most powerful women in the mindfulness movement.” She is the author of two books: A Future We Can Love: How to Reverse the Climate Crisis through the Power of Our Hearts and Minds (Shambhala, 2023) and Leaves Falling Gently: Living Fully with Serious Illness through Mindfulness, Compassion, and Connectedness (Shambhala, 2025). Susan is a Mind & Life Fellow and currently serves and consults with values-aligned organizations and guides individuals and groups in purpose-full living and dying (coming-to-life.com).
