Dr. Larry Ward is the co-founder of The Lotus Institute, a senior teacher in Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh’s Plum Village tradition of Engaged Buddhism, the author of America’s Racial Karma, and host of the Beyond the News podcast. Dr. Ward holds a PhD in Religious Studies with an emphasis on Buddhism and the neuroscience of meditation. As a teacher, Larry interweaves insights with personal stories and resounding clarity that express his Dharma name, “True Great Sound.” He is the author of America’s Racial Karma and a senior Dharma teacher.
I have recently been promoted to associate professor (early tenure and promotion) at the College of Education, California State University Sacramento. My research interests fall within the intersection of cognition, critical literacy, social justice pedagogy, and contemplative practices in education. One of my research agendas is to understand the critical role of compassionate reading comprehension in developing critical thinking, literacy, and civic engagement in children and young adults. I argue that compassion is an act of social justice. My works have been published in Reading & Writing Quarterly, The Reading Teacher, and Journal of Social Studies Research, among others.
I am a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Amsterdam where I conduct research on the psychoneuroimmunology of mindfulness.
After completing a master’s programme in psychology at University of Zagreb (Croatia), I obtained two PhDs: one by Coventry University (UK) in 2018 and another by Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University (Netherlands) in 2020.
In 2020, I founded Mindfulness Centre Split where I teach mindfulness mainly in Croatian language.
In 2021, I was awarded a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions Individual Fellowship.
Oneika Mays, she/her, LMT, E-RYT, is a multi-hyphenate facilitator who leads with joy, passion, and wisdom. She is a grounded leader with lived experience that centers on mindfulness and transformation. As a Black, queer feminist she brings a poignant lens to building a world that is more compassionate and understanding. With deep roots and knowledge in Buddhist and yogic teachings, Oneika delivers practical application and authentic connection through her facilitation skills. With openness and vulnerability, she facilitates the space to talk about change and embrace every part of ourselves.
Oneika has been practicing yoga for more than 20 years, and guiding yoga and meditation for more than a decade. Since then, she has used her knowledge to support social justice nonprofits and historically excluded communities. She served as the Mindfulness Coach at Rikers Island Correctional Facility for 4 years and is currently a teacher for Yoga International, an inclusive and accessible online studio with classes designed for every level of practice.
Dr. Sará King is an internationally recognized neuroscientist, artist, political and learning scientist, education philosopher, social impact entrepreneur, and public speaker. She has completed her YTT-200 and YTT-300 hr. yoga teacher trainings as well as her certification as a mindfulness meditation teacher with Spirit Rock in Marin, CA. She is passionate about catalyzing humanity’s capacity to heal ourselves from the inside out and dedicated to creating accessible contemplative practices at the nexus of art, music, and meditation. She is a part of the first cohort of Garrison Institute Fellows (2020-2022). Additionally, she completed an NIH post-doctoral fellowship in Neurology at OHSU (2019-2022).
She is currently a Post-Doctoral Fellow in Public Health at the T. Denny Sanford Institute for Empathy and Compassion in Human Health and Social Justice at UCSD. She is also the CEO and founder of MindHeart AI, an artificial intelligence start-up specializing in building platforms, software, and tools grounded in neuroscience, healing and well-being. She is also the author of “The Science of Social Justice” framework for research and facilitation and the inventor of the “Systems Based Awareness Map” (SBAM) – the world’s first theoretical map of human awareness – which she developed to explore our capacity to heal intergenerational trauma and promote the well-being of “collective nervous systems”. In 2021, she was named “One-To-Watch” by Mindful Magazine, as well as she made the November cover of Yoga Journal Magazine as a “Game Changer” for her work bridging neuroscience, social justice and contemplative practices. In 2022, she was also named one of the “10 Most Powerful Women in Mindfulness” by Mindful Magazine.
David DeSteno is a professor of psychology at Northeastern University. At the broadest level, his work examines the mechanisms of the mind that shape vice and virtue. Studying honesty and compassion, altruism and punishment, cooperation and trust, his work continually reveals the forces that underlie moral behavior. David is a fellow of the Association for Psychological Science and the American Psychological Association, for which he served as editor-in-chief of the journal Emotion. His work has been repeatedly funded by the National Science Foundation and the John Templeton Foundation. He is the author of several books, including most recently “How God Works: The Science Behind the Benefits of Religion.” He frequently writes about his work for major publications including The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and Harvard Business Review. He also hosts the PRX podcast How God Works: The Science Behind Spirituality. David received his Ph.D. in psychology from Yale University.
Dr Cullan Joyce is a passionate collaborator, activist, and meditation practitioner and is an Insight Fellow at the University of Melbourne’s Contemplative Studies Centre. He has 20 years of living with, studying, and practising different Buddhist and Christian contemplative traditions in Australia and overseas, particularly China and Vietnam. He has lived (now part-time) in a contemplative interfaith community outside Melbourne since 2018.
He helped organise Extinction Rebellion Regenerative Culture or Regen until 2021 by supporting the community’s well-being and providing care during disruptive actions. He collaborates with several activist and deep-ecology spaces to curate a sustainable, regenerative culture.
His research examines how the insights and practices of contemplative traditions can support communities during the Anthropocene.
Julieta Galante is a qualified medical doctor specialised in public mental health research. She typically applies rigorous methods to real-world scenarios, involving stakeholders, acknowledging social dynamics, and embracing complexity. Her main focus has been to study the potential of meditation practices for mental health promotion, particularly those techniques used in secular settings. The practices she has studied the most are mindfulness and loving-kindness meditation, and their impact on psychological and social outcomes. She is a passionate advocate of interdisciplinary work, and of improving research quality and transparency whenever possible.
Ana Eclair is an Associate Professor in Gender Studies and Insight Fellow at the Contemplative Studies Centre at the University of Melbourne. Her research intersects feminist, queer, decolonial and care studies and investigates the ways in which structural inequalities shape people’s experiences of everyday life. Ana is passionate about understanding contemporary pursuits of eudaimonia – the cultivation of human flourishing and living well. Her current contemplative practice research builds on her work on modalities of healing for long-term effects of intergenerational harm and gendered violence, such as systemic work, psychedelic medicine, art therapy, and mindfulness, among others.
Blake Colaianne is an Assistant Research Professor at Penn State University. His research examines how contemplative education supports social and emotional development in high school and college students. Currently, he is developing and implementing systems-level programming within K-12 and university settings. His relational approach to contemplative practice focuses on cultivating community and interdependence.
At Penn State, Blake teaches Art and Science of Human Flourishing and Mindfulness in Human Development. He is trained as a relational facilitator through the Courage of Care organization. He completed his Ph.D. at Penn State University, M.Ed at Harvard Graduate School of Education, and B.S. at Juniata College. Prior to graduate school, Blake was a high school science teacher for five years.
