Dr. Angel Acosta recently completed his doctorate degree in the Curriculum and Teaching Department at Teachers College, Columbia University. For the last decade, Angel has worked to bridge the fields of leadership, social justice and mindfulness. Angel has supported over 30,000 educational leaders and their students by facilitating leadership trainings, creating pathways to higher education, and designing dynamic learning experiences. His dissertation explores healing-centered education as a promising framework for integrating contemplative science and educational leadership development. He is currently an education consultant and former Trustee for the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society.

Ramona Beltrán, MSW, PhD is a Xicana of Yaqui and Mexica descent and dancer/activist/scholar. As an Associate Professor at the University of Denver Graduate School of Social Work, her scholarship is committed to interrupting legacies of historical trauma that affect Indigenous and Latinx communities. She focuses on disrupting the problem-focused approach to understanding Indigenous/Latinx health that dominates mainstream research. She does this through centering resistance, healing, storytelling, and arts-based research methods in knowledge production with and for Indigenous/Latinx communities.

Philippe Rochat was born and raised in Geneva, Switzerland. He was trained by Jean Piaget and his close collaborators and received his Ph.D. from the University of Geneva, Switzerland in 1984. He then began a series of Post Doctoral internships in the United States at Brown University, the University of Pennsylvania, and Johns Hopkins University. During this time, he conducted research on action, perception, and cognitive development in human infants.

He taught and did research in developmental psychology at the University of Massachusetts, and joined the faculty at Emory University in Atlanta in the 1990s, where he is currently a professor of psychology and head of the Emory Infant and Child Lab. A 2006-2007 John Simon Guggenheim fellow, Rochat has published 5 single author books (one currently in press), 2 edited and 1 co-edited volume as well as many scholarly articles on infant and child development (see the complete list of publications and PDFs at (http://www.psychology.emory.edu/cognition/rochat/lab/Rochat.html). The main focus of his research is on the early sense of self, emerging self-concept, the development of social cognition and relatedness, and the emergence of a moral sense during the preschool years in children from all over the world. Philippe Rochat and collaborators’ research emphasizes differences in populations growing up in highly contrasted cultural environments, as well as highly contrasted socio-economic circumstances.

Dr. Kamilah Majied is a mental health therapist, clinical academician, and internationally engaged consultant on inclusivity and contemplative pedagogy and practice. She has practiced and taught Buddhism and mindfulness practice from several perspectives including mindfulness-based cognitive therapy, mindfulness and racial justice, Buddhism and mental health, and mindfulness practices to preserve the environment. Dr. Majied gave opening remarks at the first White House Conference of Buddhist Leaders on Climate Change and Racial Justice, where she also facilitated a dialogue on ending racism amongst the internationally represented Buddhist leadership. After 15 years of teaching at Howard University in Washington DC, Dr. Majied has recently joined the faculty at California State University in Monterey Bay as a Professor of Social Work. Drawing from her decades of contemplative practice, clinical training, and social justice leadership, Dr. Majied engages practitioners in experiencing wonder, humor and insight through transforming oppressive patterns and deepening relationships.