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We are grateful and honored for the amazing experts who have participated at the World Happiness Summit since 2017.
Vice Admiral Vivek H. Murthy, MD, MBA, was confirmed by the U.S. Senate in March 2021 to serve as the 21st Surgeon General of the United States. As the nation’s top doctor, Dr. Vivek Murthy helps to advance the health and well-being of all Americans and has worked to address critical public health issues. He has issued Surgeon General Advisories on the youth mental health crisis and social media’s impact on youth mental health, the epidemic of loneliness and isolation, and on burnout in the health worker community. Dr. Murthy also issued a Surgeon General’s Framework on mental health in the workplace and he is the first Surgeon General to host a podcast, House Calls with Dr. Vivek Murthy, where he invites guests and listeners to explore how we can all build more connected and meaningful lives. As Vice Admiral of the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, Dr. Murthy oversees more than 6,000 dedicated public health officers serving underserved and vulnerable populations. Dr. Murthy previously served as the 19th Surgeon General under President Obama. Raised in Miami, Dr. Murthy received his bachelor’s degree from Harvard, his medical degree from the Yale School of Medicine, and his Masters in Business Administration from the Yale School of Management.
Arthur C. Brooks is the Parker Gilbert Montgomery Professor of the Practice of Public and Nonprofit Leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School, and Professor of Management Practice at the Harvard Business School, where he teaches courses on leadership, happiness, and social entrepreneurship. He is also a columnist at The Atlantic, where he writes the popular weekly “How to Build a Life” column. Brooks is the author of 13 books, including the 2022 #1 New York Times bestseller From Strength to Strength: Finding Success, Happiness, and Deep Purpose in the Second Half of Life and the 2023 #1 New York Times bestseller Build the Life You Want: The Art and Science of Getting Happier with co-author Oprah Winfrey. He speaks to audiences all around the world about human happiness, and works to raise well-being within private companies, universities, public agencies, and community organizations.
Psychologist Dr. Laurie Santos is an expert on human cognition, its origins, and the evolutionary biases that influence our all-too imperfect life choices. She is also knowledgeable in how behavioral change through positive psychology can lead to a happy and fulfilling life.
Currently the big project of Dr. Santos is to positively influence the culture of Yale University by teaching happiness and well-being. She created a course so meaningful that it became the most popular class taken at Yale in over 316 years.
In her course, Psychology and the Good Life, Santos teaches her 1200 students about behavioral change through positive psychology. Dr. Santos wants her students to be more grateful, procrastinate less and increase social connections. She believes that those positive habits will decrease mental health issues on campus and create happier and more motivated students.
From her research, Santos speaks to how we are biologically programmed to be motivated by sex, to be deeply influenced by other people — and to repeat our mistakes. And while Santos often uses subjects from the animal kingdom to help explain our sometimes-illogical behaviors, she also provides advice on how to engage our uniquely human faculties to counteract evolution, choose more wisely, and live happier lives.
Dr. Santos was appointed Head of Silliman College on July 1, 2016 to a five year term. She is a professor of Psychology at Yale University, where she serves as Director of the Comparative Cognition Laboratory as well as the Canine Cognition Center, a research facility that studies how dogs think about the world. She teaches one of Yale’s most popular undergraduate courses, Sex, Evolution, and Human Nature. She obtained her Ph.D. in Psychology from Harvard University.
Her numerous awards for science, teaching, and mentorship include the Stanton Prize from the Society for Philosophy and Psychology for outstanding contributions to interdisciplinary research.
Richard Layard is a British labor economist, currently working as program director of the Centre for Economic Performance at the London School of Economics. His early career focused on how to reduce unemployment and inequality. Richard was Senior Research Officer for the famous Robbins Committee on Higher Education. This committee’s report led to the massive expansion of UK university education in the 1960s and 1970s.
Following research on happiness begun in the 1970s by economists such as Richard Easterlin at the University of Southern California, he has written about the economics of happiness, with one theme being the importance of non-income variables on aggregate happiness, including mental health. Richard is co-editor of the World Happiness Report and Global Policy Report, and co-founder of Action for Happiness.
Karen Guggenheim is a pioneer in the global happiness movement, a leader in promoting the science behind wellbeing to an international audience, and a motivational speaker inspiring people about how to grow post trauma and rebuild a life focused on meaning, purpose, and happiness. She the creative force behind the World Happiness Summit®, the leading wellbeing conference promoting the benefits of an evidence-based approach to increase happiness in all areas of life. She is also CEO of WOHASU®, the comprehensive wellbeing ecosystem named after the Summit that is inspiring a fast-growing movement sending a positive rippling effect around the world.
In 2016 after personal tragedy, Karen drastically altered her career path and invested her time, talent, and treasure to create WOHASU®, a global wellbeing brand fostering a movement for optimism, positivity, resilience, happiness, and community. Her first book will be published by Rizzoli in March 2023 in Italy.
Karen produces the annual World Happiness Summit; a 3-day event that unites the world’s leading experts in the science of happiness and wellbeing with a global audience to learn practical tools for a happier life. Along with fellow experts, she has also develop unique trainings like the WOHASU/Florida International University Chief Happiness Officer Certification, the only CHO program in the world certified by a university.
At heart, Karen is a creator and storyteller who focuses on cultivating the global happiness movement to foster connection, highlight our shared humanity, and acknowledge that the route to happiness often requires us to travel through considerable pain and trauma. She shares her own compelling story to weave these concepts through a real-world lens that moves and inspires audiences and helps them figure out how to activate these ideas into practices for a happier life.
A popular speaker, happiness educator and community builder, Karen’s mission is to make a case for happiness by highlighting the opportunities for win-win scenarios created by learning and implementing evidence-based tools and policies that make people, organizations, and communities thrive. Under her leadership, WOHASU® LLC was awarded with the “Key of the City of Miami” by the Miami Mayor and the members of the Miami City Commission.
Mo Gawdat is the former chief commercial officer of Google [X], a serial entrepreneur, and the author of Solve for Happy.
Mo has an impressive combined career spanning 27 years, starting at IBM Egypt as a systems engineer before moving on to a sales position in the government sector. Venturing to the United Arab Emirates, Mo joined NCR Abu Dhabi to cover the non-financial sector. He then became familiar with the consumer goods industry as a Regional Manager for BAT. At Microsoft, he held various roles over a period of seven and a half years, in his last role at Microsoft he led the communications industry in emerging markets around the world.
Mo joined Google in 2007 to launch its business in emerging markets. He is fascinated by the role technology plays in empowering people in emerging communities and has dedicated years of his career to that passion. Over a 6-year period, Mo started about half of Google’s operations worldwide.
Mo is the author of “Resolve to be Happy: Designing Your Path to Joy” (2017). Through his 12-year research on the subject of happiness, he created a well-designed algorithm and repeatable model for reaching a state of uninterrupted happiness regardless of life circumstances. Mo’s happiness model proved to be very effective. And, in 2014, it was put to the test when Mo lost his son Ali due to a preventable medical error during a simple surgical procedure. Solve For Happy is the cornerstone of a mission that Mo has committed to as his personal mission, a mission to deliver his message of happiness to 10 million people around the world. #unbillionhappy
Dr. Chatterjee is regarded as one of the most influential medical doctors in the UK and wants to change how medicine will be practiced for years to come. His mission is to help 100 million people around the globe live better lives. He is Professor of Health Communication and Education at The University of Chester and hosts the most listened-to health podcast in the UK and Europe, ‘Feel Better, Live More’ – which was the 7th most listened to show on Apple podcasts for 2023 and is listened to and watched by over 8 million people every month. Chris Evans calls ‘Feel Better, Live More’ ‘One of the best podcasts on the planet.’
Dr Chatterjee launched the Three Question Journal in January 2024. He is the author of 5 books, all of which have been Sunday Times Bestsellers in the UK and international bestsellers across the globe and has been featured in numerous international publications including The New York Times , Forbes, The Guardian and Vogue. His TED talk, How To Make Disease Disappear, has been viewed almost 6 million times.
He is the co-creator of the widely acclaimed RCGP accredited ‘Prescribing Lifestyle Course’ which has taught thousands of clinicians how to actually implement ‘lifestyle medicine’ with their patients in busy clinical practice.
Dr Chatterjee is known for his ability to simplify complex health advice and find the root cause of people’s health problems – he highlighted his methods in the ground-breaking BBC One television show, Doctor in the House, which has been shown in over 70 countries around the world.
Sonja Lyubomirsky is Professor of Psychology at the University of California, Riverside. Originally from Russia, she received her A.B., summa cum laude, from Harvard University and her Ph.D. in Social/Personality Psychology from Stanford University. Sonja currently teaches courses in social psychology and positive psychology and serves as the Department of Psychology’s graduate advisor. Her teaching and mentoring of students have been recognized with the Faculty of the Year (twice) and Faculty Mentor of the Year Awards.
Sonja’s research has been awarded a Templeton Positive Psychology Prize, a Science of Generosity grant, two John Templeton Foundation grants, a Character Lab grant, and a million-dollar grant (with Ken Sheldon) from the National Institute of Mental Health to conduct research on the possibility of permanently increasing happiness. Her research has been written up in hundreds of magazines and newspapers and she has appeared in multiple TV shows, radio shows, and feature documentaries in North America, South America, Asia, Australia, and Europe.
She has lectured widely to a variety of audiences throughout the world, including business executives, educators, physicians, entrepreneurs, military officers, mental health professionals, life coaches, retirees, students, and scholars. Sonja’s best-selling The How of Happiness: A Scientific Approach to Getting the Life You Want (Penguin Press) is now translated and published in 23 countries, and The Myths of Happiness: What Should Make You Happy, But Doesn’t, What Shouldn’t Make You Happy, But Does (Penguin Press) is translated (or will be) in 16 countries.
TJ Abrams is the Vice President, Global Wellbeing at Hyatt Hotels. He currently leads a cross-functional team with P&L accountability for developing and driving the commercialization of wellbeing products and experiences. In this role he also serves as the co-chair of Hyatt’s Global Wellbeing Steering Committee.
Prior to joining Hyatt, he served as the Chief Marketing Officer for Exos, a high-growth human performance company long known for its work with elite athletes and 30% of Fortune 100 companies. At Exos he transformed the marketing organization from B2B to a B2B2C company with a 360 brand refresh and campaign (Greatness is a Team Sport) and record-setting performance of digital experiences amongst other accomplishments.
Before Exos, he was the Head of Global Brand Strategy and Performance for Holiday Inn at InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) where he was accountable for multi-billion dollar brand growth in 80 countries around the world. While at IHG, TJ worked across the Mainstream hotel portfolio leading IHG’s biggest brand campaigns including the Holiday Inn “We’re There” Masterbrand campaign and launching growth brands, avid hotels and Atwell Suites.
He also has experience working in marketing at The Coca-Cola Company as a brand leader across the Sparkling portfolio in both Global and US roles of increasing responsibility, and at Lowe’s Home Improvement where he built the initial multicultural marketing consumer strategy in early 2000’s.
TJ is a standout people leader and company executive in every organization he serves. At IHG he led one of the company’s largest ERG’s and served on the executive Diversity & Inclusion Board. At Coca-Cola he led MBA recruiting amongst many other activities.
TJ has been named a Top 50 CMO Innovating the Business World by Forbes and a 40 Under 40 leader by the Atlanta Business Chronicle. He earned his bachelor’s degree in journalism and mass communications from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and MBA with a concentration in marketing from Duke University.
Jan-Emmanuel De Neve is a Belgian economist and professor at the University of Oxford where he directs the Wellbeing Research Centre. He is best known for his research on the economics of wellbeing which has led to new insights into the relationship between wellbeing and income, productivity, economic growth, and inequality. De Neve is also an editor of the World Happiness Report. His research was selected among “The Management Ideas that Mattered Most” by Harvard Business Review and he was awarded the inaugural Ruut Veenhoven Award for his contributions to the scientific study of happiness. He is a frequent advisor to governments and businesses, including Gallup, Unilever, and jobs site Indeed, as well as start-ups such as Psychological Technologies and Butterfly AI. Jan obtained his PhD from the London School of Economics and was a Fulbright Scholar at Harvard University. His research and commentary regularly feature in the media, including in The Economist, Financial Times, Harvard Business Review, and on the BBC. He is a frequent speaker at academic and non-academic conferences, including at PopTech and TED.
Jim Clifton is the Chairman of Gallup, a global analytics and advice firm. Jim served as the organization’s CEO from 1988 until 2022. Under his leadership as CEO, Gallup expanded from a predominantly U.S.-based company to a worldwide organization with 30 offices in 20 countries and regions.
Jim is the creator of The Gallup Path, a metric-based economic model that establishes the linkages among human nature in the workplace, customer engagement and business outcomes. This model is used in performance management systems in more than 500 companies worldwide. Another of his innovations, the Gallup World Poll, gives the world’s 7 billion citizens a voice on virtually all key global issues.
In June 2015, the Clifton Foundation and Gallup announced a $30 million gift to the University of Nebraska to establish the Don Clifton Strengths Institute. The gift supports the early identification and accelerated development of thousands of gifted entrepreneurs and future business builders.
Jim is the author of The Wall Street Journal bestseller, Culture Shock. Released in 2023, the book offers Gallup’s solution to the biggest leadership issue of our time. He is also author of The Wall Street Journal bestseller, Wellbeing at Work, as well as the The Wall Street Journal No. 1 bestseller, It’s the Manager, the bestseller, Born to Build, and The Coming Jobs War. He has also authored many articles on global leadership. His blog appears regularly in the influencer section of LinkedIn and on the Gallup.com Chairman’s Blog.
Jim serves on several boards, including the U.S. Council on Competitiveness. He is Chairman Emeritus of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund and Chairman of the Dr. N. Joyce Payne Center for Social Justice. He has received honorary degrees from Medgar Evers, Jackson State and Bellevue Universities. He is also a distinguished visiting professor at UNC-Chapel Hill and Duke University. Mr. Clifton lives and works in Washington, D.C.
Tal Ben-Shahar is an author and lecturer. He taught two of the largest classes in Harvard University’s history, Positive Psychology and The Psychology of Leadership.
Tal is a serial entrepreneur and has created and delivers the online Certificate in Happiness Studies.
HSA is the first and only program of its kind, with students from all around the world.
Today, Tal consults and lectures around the world to executives in multi-national corporations, the general public, and at-risk populations. The topics he lectures on include leadership, happiness, education, innovation, ethics, self-esteem, resilience, goal setting, and mindfulness. His books have been translated into more than twenty-five languages, and have appeared on best-sellers lists around the world. An avid sportsman, Tal won the U.S. Intercollegiate and Israeli National squash championships. Today, for exercise, he swims, dances, and practices Yoga. He obtained his PhD in Organizational Behavior and BA in Philosophy and Psychology from Harvard.
Dr. Kelli Harding wants to make the world a kinder and healthier place. She believes everyone deserves to be treated with dignity and kindness.
Dr. Harding is a Columbia University trained board certified psychiatrist. She is based in New York City and specializes in the interplay between mental and physical health. Her goal is to care for every patient with a comprehensive, holistic approach. Dr. Harding is the author of THE RABBIT EFFECT: Live Longer, Happier, and Healthier with the Groundbreaking Science of Kindness (Atria Books, Fall 2019).
In her work as a physician, writer, and educator, Dr. Harding explores the science of kindness and the social dimensions of health. These hidden factors affect the body in profound ways, altering metabolism, immune functioning, mental health, and the course of disease. In her work as a doctor, she combines the latest biomedical advances with big-picture public health research to help people live well, even with chronic disease or serious illness.
Dr. Harding works with individuals, groups, and the general public to foster emotional wellbeing. Her warm engaging style focuses on compassion and connection. She’s appeared on Today, Good Morning America, NPR, The New York Times, Medscape, BBC, Oprah.com, Thrive Global, Psychology Today, mindbodygreen, Refinery 29, Tracy Anderson’s PER4MANCE PROGRAM, Parents Magazine, Inc. and U.S. News and World Report.
Gus O’Donnell was Cabinet Secretary and Head of the British Civil Service from 2005-2011 and in 2010, he oversaw the introduction of the first coalition government since the Second World War. He oversaw the introduction by the Office of National Statistics of the UK’s national wellbeing data. After retiring as Cabinet Secretary he has worked intensively on wellbeing issues, helping to establish the What works centre on wellbeing and writing on how to use wellbeing as a guide to policy. This includes ch.6 of the World Happiness Report, 2013, chairing the report on Wellbeing and Policy produced by Sir Angus Deaton, Lord Layard, Martine Durand and David Halpern ( commissioned by the Legatum Institute). Most recently, as Co- chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Wellbeing, he has overseen a report on what a Spending Review based on Wellbeing would look like.
Cayley is a problem-solver dedicated to serving her country. She excels at developing inventive and tailored approaches to address complex tasks and connecting individuals with disparate perspectives toward a shared mission.
Cayley has over a decade of experience within the Federal Government where she served in operational and strategic roles in the United States and abroad. During this time, she served as a Program Manager responsible for the collaboration across several matrixed offices to develop operational frameworks and provide strategic guidance on a special foreign program.
Cayley’s primary professional expertise is Iran, and she has had unique exposure to various related geopolitical issues including U.S. sanctions against Iran, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, and other security and economic issues. Cayley is proficient in several languages including Farsi and Spanish, which she has utilized to achieve mission success in challenging environments.
In early 2022, Cayley transitioned from her national security work into the private sector to design and lead her family’s nonprofit work worldwide, in the form of The Tullman Family Office (TFO). As President of TFO, Cayley determines philanthropic, political, business, and social impact investments. She works directly with senior business leaders and political officials in order to develop creative, scalable solutions to tackle our nation’s most pervasive problems in the economic, education, public health, and security spaces.
Fred Luskin serves as Director of the Stanford Forgiveness Projects, an ongoing series of workshops and research projects that investigate the effectiveness of his forgiveness methods on a variety of populations. The forgiveness project has successfully explored forgiveness therapy with people who suffered from the violence in Northern Ireland, Sierra Leone as well as the attacks on the World Trade Center on 9/11.
In addition, Fred’s work has been successfully applied and researched in corporate, medical, legal and religious settings. He currently serves as a Senior Consultant in Health Promotion at Stanford University and is a Professor at the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology. He presents lectures, workshops, seminars and trainings on the importance, health benefits and training of forgiveness, stress management and emotional competence throughout the United States. He offers presentations and classes that range from one hour to ongoing weekly trainings.
Craig is the founder and CEO of happy®. Along with his co-founder Robert Downey, Jr., happy launched in early 2024 with a mission to elevate the everyday. In a record-breaking 5 months, happy went from zero to over 13,000 retail doors and over 50,000 individual brand points of distribution. Priding itself on using only the best, selectively sourced green beans produced by thoughtful growers and opting for a slow roasting process to protect the finest of flavor, happy not only delivers a seriously delicious™ cup of coffee but they care about the person drinking it. In an effort to de-stigmatize mental health, happy partnered with NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, the nation’s largest grassroots mental health organization, with a dedication to building better lives for millions of Americans. In an effort to reimagine the relationship between entrepreneurship and philanthropy, hello brought NAMI in as an equity stakeholder in the company.
Prior to happy, Craig was the founder of hello® products, and former Chief Innovation Strategist of Colgate-Palmolive. hello, the world’s first naturally friendly™ oral care brand, was acquired by Colgate in January of 2020. hello became the fastest-growing oral care brand in North America, with products available in over 55,000 food, drug, and mass retailers. hello was named by Inc Magazine as one of the Best Places to Work, as well as “One of the 25 Companies That Are Changing the World.” Dubitsky himself was named to Advertising Age’s Creativity 50, the publication’s annual list of the most influential and innovative creative thinkers, and one of the 100 Most Inspirational Marketers in the World by The Internationalist.
Prior to hello, Craig was a co-founder and creative lead at eos (makers of the ubiquitous lip sphere), a founding board member at transformational household cleaning brand method, and a strategic advisor to Seventh Generation, Boots, and various private equity funds.
Craig is an inductee in the Collegiate Entrepreneurs Organization (CEO) Hall of Fame, an Entrepreneur in Residence at Babson, and serves as an Advisory Council Member at the Ain Center for Entrepreneurship at The Simon School of Business at The University of Rochester. Craig loves people, design, brand, packaging and people. Yes, he said people twice.
DR. SUE VARMA is a distinguished psychiatrist and cognitive behavioral therapist based in New York City. With over two decades of private practice experience, Dr. Varma has made significant contributions to the field of mental health, including serving as the pioneering Medical Director and Psychiatrist for the esteemed 9/11 mental health program at NYU for which she was awarded the Mayoral Proclamation. Alongside her clinical work, Dr. Varma holds the position of Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at NYU Langone Health where she teaches and is a distinguished fellow of the American Psychiatric Association (APA) Distinguished Fellow- the highest honor bestowed upon its members. Dr. Varma is a recipient of two Sharecare Emmy Awards and the Ivan Goldberg Award for Outstanding Service for her work as a keynote speaker and nationally acclaimed medical contributor discussing breaking news on shows including the Today Show, CBS Mornings, GMA, Nightly News. Her advice has been featured in the Washington Post, Time Magazine, NY Times, the Associated Press, and she has given over 2000 interviews across platforms on mental health. She was recognized as one of the world’s top five leading health experts by Global Citizen for her contributions during the pandemic. She is the author of the book, twice featured in the NY Times, Practical Optimism: The Art, Science and Practice of Exceptional Well-Being-now being translated in 10 languages and counting with rave reviews. According to Publishers Weekly , Practical Optimism is “Studded with catchy pearls of wisdom (‘Our self-worth exists simply because we do’), this can-do guide uplifts.” Dr. Varma recently kicked off Mental Health Awareness Month at Asia Society in New York City in conversation with US Surgeon General, Dr. Vivek Murthy and continues spreading practical optimism in talks nationwide- to corporations, hospitals, schools and beyond.
EMMA SEPPÄLÄ, Ph.D., is an international keynote speaker, research scientist, and author whose book The Happiness Track (HarperOne, 2016) has been translated into dozens of languages. She is currently a Lecturer at the Yale School of Management and Faculty Director of the Yale School of Management’s Women’s Leadership Program. She is also the Science Director of Stanford University’s Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education.
Seppälä’s expertise is positive leadership, emotional intelligence, positive psychology, and social connection. Her research has been published in top academic journals and featured in major news outlets like The New York Times, The Washington Post, NPR, and CBSNews.
Seppälä speaks and consults internationally for Fortune 500 companies like Google and Facebook and contributes to Harvard Business Review, The Washington Post, Psychology Today, and TIME among others. She has also spoken at several TEDx events.
A repeat guest on Good Morning America, her research on breathing for military veterans with trauma was highlighted in the documentary Free the Mind. She is also featured in documentaries like The Altruism Revolution, What You Do Matters, and Bullied.
Seppälä is the recipient of a number of research grants and service awards including the James W. Lyons Award from Stanford University for founding Stanford’s first academic class on the psychology of happiness and initiating other well-being programs for Stanford students.
She graduated from Yale (BA), Columbia (MA), and Stanford (Ph.D.). Originally from Paris, France, she is a native speaker of French, English, and German and conversant in Spanish and Mandarin Chinese.
Joe Daly is the Managing Partner of Gallup’s Global Analytics Group and member of the company’s board of directors. Joe leads a growing business division focused on helping organizations leverage research and analytics to help better societies and workplaces. Gallup’s Global Analytics Group works with a broad range of institutions including global philanthropies, K-12 schools and universities, government agencies and mission-driven corporations.
Joe and his team partner with organizations to create the world’s official statistics of work and life. Current examples include wellbeing, loneliness, financial inclusion, digital connectedness, food insecurity, global risk and modern slavery. The global statistics are all enabled by the Gallup World Poll. Since 2005, the Gallup World Poll has collected the voice of the world in more than 160 countries and regions, representing over 98% of the world’s population.
In addition, Joe is a passionate advocate for accelerating the impact of higher education and government through CliftonStrengths® and building thriving workplaces in the public and education sectors. This far-reaching mission continues to make a positive impact on the lives of educators, government workers and hundreds of thousands of high school and college students every year.
In addition to his work at Gallup, Joe serves as chairman of the board of directors for Lemonade Day, a national philanthropy dedicated to youth entrepreneurship and financial literacy. Lemonade Day operating more that 100 communities across the United States and Canada. Joe also serves on the board of trustees at the Meridian International Center, focused on strengthening U.S. diplomacy around the world.
Joe received his master’s degree in business administration with a focus on international business from the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University and a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Pennsylvania State University.
Kristin Barry is Director of Hiring Analytics at Gallup. Kristin serves as a thought leader and strategic adviser for Gallup clients and consultants on the science of analytics-based and talent-focused hiring. She is an expert at understanding, identifying and quantifying talent that leads to measurable performance outcomes.
Kristin’s expertise also includes strategic interventions that elevate talent across organizations. She works with Gallup’s clients to build and implement talent acquisition systems that lead to increased productivity and sustainable financial performance. Kristin leads a team of researchers and consultants to advance Gallup’s talent-based hiring research, products and intellectual property, and she serves as a leader on Gallup’s talent resources team, advising on the attraction, selection and retention of talent at Gallup.
Before her current role, Kristin built her expertise by interviewing thousands of candidates to provide talent analysis, feedback and hiring consultation to Gallup and client managers. She then led learning and development for talent management consultants, teaching Gallup’s talent-based hiring research and the science of talent analysis. She served on the research team that built several talent-based interviews and guided the creation of Gallup’s talent-based hiring course, Employing Top Talent.
Kristin received her bachelor’s degree in secondary education mathematics from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
LaFawn Davis is Senior Vice President of Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG) at Indeed. She leads teams that focus on Responsible AI; Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging; Accessibility; Social Impact; Equitable Hiring Products and Environmental Sustainability. The ESG commitments towards the year 2030 are to reduce the environmental footprint, make job search faster and simpler, remove bias and barriers to employment, and build internal sustainable equity. LaFawn is a globally-recognized operator with over 20 years of experience serving in leadership roles at innovative Fortune 50, 100 and unicorn technology companies. She is a frequent advisor, contributing writer and public speaker. LaFawn has been named to Entrepreneur Magazine’s 100 Women of Impact, Fast Company’s Queer50, San Francisco Business Times’s Most Influential Women in Business and Business of Pride Outstanding Voices, and counted among Fortune’s Most Powerful Women. She serves as a Board Director of the World Wellbeing Movement, an Advisory Board Member of Lesbians Who Tech and Power to Fly, a Limited Partner in Operator Collective, an Angel Investor and a Fellow of the Black Venture Institute.
Robert Biswas-Diener is widely known as the “Indiana Jones of positive psychology” because his research on happiness, empathy and other topics has taken him to such far-flung places as Greenland, India, Kenya and Israel. Robert’s interest in happiness focuses on culture, material simplicity, and public policy. He has written more than 50 scholarly articles on these topics and is author of eight books including Happiness (2008), The Courage Quotient (2012), and The Upside of Your Dark Side (2015).
Robert is also a leading authority on positive psychology coaching and widely recognized as a pioneering voice in this field. Robert occupies a unique position in the world of positive psychology as he is both a published researcher and a practicing ICF certified coach. He regulatory trains professionals around the world in the application of positive psychology. His clients have included Standard Chartered Bank, Kaiser Permanente, Australian Department of Defense, Deloitte, and many others.
Dr. Jose L. Dotres is the Superintendent of Miami-Dade County Public Schools (M-DCPS), the third-largest school district in the nation with over 40,000 employees and 350,000 students.
At the age of five, he arrived in Miami, Florida—an immigrant student from humble beginnings. He enrolled in M-DCPS as an English Language Learner, graduated high school, and embarked on a rewarding career serving the school community that embraced him as a child.
Dr. Dotres initially pursued a career in the private sector; however, feeling a call to serve the community that had supported him upon his arrival, he felt drawn to the classroom.
Having held multiple instructional and administrative leadership roles throughout his career in M-DCPS and other educational organizations, Dr. Dotres is a proven and experienced educator. He has served in the capacity of Teacher, Reading Coach, Principal, District Administrator, Regional Administrative Director, Region Superintendent, Chief Academic Officer of Broward County Public Schools, Chief of Staff, Chief Human Capital Officer, and Deputy Superintendent of Collier County Public Schools.
Teaching the whole child and ensuring optimal conditions for teaching and learning are at the forefront of his decision-making and serve as his guiding philosophy. As a strategic and visionary leader, he is committed to building leadership capacity in others. A champion of professional learning, Dr. Dotres strongly believes in providing professional growth and career opportunities for the entire workforce. He envisions positioning M-DCPS as a school district of choice for students and parents and an employer of choice for the community.
At the national level, Dr. Dotres has contributed to organizations such as the Council of the Great City Schools and the Florida Association of District Superintendents, where he currently serves as Vice President of the Board of Directors. Additionally, he is the co-author of several educational publications and has presented to the Florida Senate’s Appropriations Subcommittee on Education and the Florida House of Representatives PreK-12 Quality Subcommittee on Education on teacher recruitment and retention and early literacy interventions. Dr. Dotres has presented on a range of topics including innovative strategies for talent recruitment and retention, teacher evaluation, and human capital investments at prominent conferences such as the Council of Great City Schools Annual Conference, Learning Forward’s Annual Conference, and the Florida School Boards Association. His presentations have addressed challenges and opportunities in education, aiming to foster growth and improvement in urban school districts.
In 2013, he was inducted into the Miami Dade College Alumni Hall of Fame. In 2023, he received the Distinguished Alumni Award from Barry University. Dr. Dotres holds a doctorate in Leadership and Innovation from St. Thomas University, an educational specialist degree in Teaching English as a Second Language from the University of Miami, a master’s degree in Reading from Barry University, and a bachelor’s degree in Public Administration from Florida International University. In May 2024, Dr. Dotres received an honorary doctoral degree in Humane Letters from St. Thomas University.
Dr. Ella F. Washington is an organizational psychologist whose research examines conditions of workplace cultures that best support inclusion, diversity and equity while contributing to employees’ individual development. She is Professor of Practice at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business, founder of Ellavate Solutions, host of Gallup’s Center of Black Voices Cultural Competence Podcast and author of The Necessary Journey.
Raj Sisodia is Distinguished University Professor of Conscious Enterprise and Chairman of the Conscious Enterprise Center at Tecnologico de Monterrey in Mexico. He is FW Olin Distinguished Professor of Global Business (on leave) at Babson College, and Co-Founder and Chairman Emeritus of Conscious Capitalism Inc. He has a Ph. D. in Business from Columbia University. Raj is co-author of the New York Times bestseller Conscious Capitalism: Liberating the Heroic Spirit of Business (2013) and Wall Street Journal bestseller Everybody Matters (2015). He was named one of “Ten Outstanding Trailblazers of 2010” by Good Business International, and one of the “Top 100 Thought Leaders in Trustworthy Business Behavior” by Trust Across America for 2010 and 2011. Raj received an honorary doctorate from Johnson & Wales University in 2016 and the Business Luminary Award from Halcyon in 2021. He has served on the boards of Mastek and The Container Store.
Raj has published fifteen books, including Firms of Endearment: How World Class Companies Profit from Passion and Purpose, which was named a top business book of 2007 by Amazon.com. His most recent books are The Healing Organization: Awakening the Conscience of Business to Help Save the World and The Global Rule of Three: Competing with Conscious Strategy, and the forthcoming Awaken: A Journey to Purpose, Wholeness and Healing. Raj has consulted with and taught at numerous companies, including AT&T, Verizon, LG, DPDHL, POSCO, Kraft Foods, Whole Foods Market, Tata, Tesoro, Siemens, Sprint, Volvo, IBM, Walmart, McDonalds and Southern California Edison.
Alberto is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of VTG GmbH. In his current role, he oversees the management and business development of more than 50 locations in 20 European countries, providing services that span the entire rail-based logistics chain.
Prior to his current role, Alberto served as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of DHL Express Europe. Alberto was responsible for almost 50 countries and territories. He was with the company for 15 years. First, he served as the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of DHL Express Italy, then as the CFO of DHL Express Europe and later – the CFO of DHL Express Global.
In 2013, Alberto took over as the CEO of DHL Express Italy. He is a graduate in Economics from the University of Bologna, Italy, where he obtained his management education. His mission as a leader is to ensure that everyone around him maximizes their own potential. He is very proud of the many accomplishments that DHL Express has attained including being named World’s Best Workplace in 2021 by Great Place to Work.
In his free time, Alberto loves to live in touch with nature, embrace his passion for yoga, practice sports and listen to podcasts. He was a volleyball player for the Army National Team.
Aldo Cicchini graduated with top honors, receiving special recognition at the Milan Conservatory. He later refined his studies at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna with Dora Schwarzberg. Since 2014, he has been a member of the RAI National Symphony Orchestra (Italy).
Between 2010 and 2013, he was a member of the String Sextet of the “Accademia Teatro Alla Scala di Milano”, touring across Italy, Asia, and South America, and recording live for Radio3 in Italy, Limen TV, and Hong Kong Radio.
Driven by an unbounded love for music, he goes beyond the violin, playing multiple instruments and creating interpretations that blend the elegance of classical music with the vitality of contemporary sounds. His innovative string trio, OP3, brings these elements to life in a truly unique experience.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Aldo Cicchini performed daily from his balcony, offering hope to those nearby and livestreaming his music on social media to share its beauty with those in quarantine. His concerts quickly went viral worldwide, reaching over 300,000 people daily across the globe. This became a lesson in reinvention and stepping out of one’s comfort zone when all concert halls were closed, making traditional musical performances impossible.
He has participated in TEDx conferences, where he has moved thousands of people through a combination of words and music, performing in various auditoriums and events across Europe and Latin America.
As a speaker, Aldo Cicchini shares his journey and the secrets of mastering music with audiences worldwide, both in person and online. He inspires others to discover their potential through the transformative power of music.
Recognized as a Change Agent in Lifestyle magazine and a Leader in the NonProfit Times 2022 Power & Influence Top 50 List, Dan Gillison provides strategic leadership to NAMI with more than 30 years of professional experience and a deep passion for mental health advocacy fueled by personal lived experiences with mental illness and its ripple effects on families. He also currently serves on the National Institute of Health (NIH)’s Advisory Mental Health Council, the Lululemon Global Wellbeing Advisory Board and the National Health Council Board of Directors.
Dan has received numerous awards for his work advancing mental health equity, including the 2022 Hope in Action Award from Hope Center Harlem, the Honor of Distinction Award from the Bowman Foundation Annual Global Impact Awards, the American Mental Health Counselors Association 2022 President’s Award and more. Since joining NAMI in 2020, he has appeared in a variety of panels, keynote presentations, op-eds and programs around the country to raise awareness and educate the public about the most pressing mental health issues of our time. He has authored more than 20 blogs for NAMI’s website, started and serves as host for NAMI national’s first podcast in its 40+ year history, and spearheaded the creation of the CEO Alliance for Mental Health, which brings leaders across the mental health field together to meet the needs of diverse populations affected by disparities in the mental health care system.
Under Dan’s leadership, NAMI has expanded its national HelpLine’s reach through texting services, produced its first nationally bestselling book, and formed its first-ever youth advisory group, NAMI Next Gen. The direction he has provided to NAMI during the COVID-19 pandemic has allowed the organization to not only adapt but actually grow through the unprecedented challenges of the past several years.
Before coming to NAMI, Dan led the American Psychiatric Association Foundation (APAF), where he was responsible for strategic planning, personnel management, board communications, oversight of APAF’s public education programs and outreach, and formulating strategic alliances and partnerships to further APAF’s mission.
Prior to APAF, Dan led County Solutions and Innovation for the National Association of Counties (NACo), where he was instrumental in repositioning the organization’s programs to provide expertise in health and human services, justice and public safety. He also has previously held leadership positions at Xerox, Nextel and Sprint.
Dan holds B.A. degrees from Southern University and A&M College and has completed executive education through the University of Richmond and Harvard University. A native of Washington, D.C., he lives with his wife and two children in Virginia, where he enjoys playing golf and tennis in his free time.
A cardiologist, researcher and public health expert, Garth Graham previously served in two US administrations as US Deputy Assistant Secretary for Health, and was Assistant Dean for Health Policy and Chief of Health Services Research in the department of medicine at the University of Florida School of Medicine. Most recently, he served as President of the Aetna Foundation as well as Vice President & Chief Community Health Officer at CVS Health. He currently sits on several boards, including the Advisory Council to the Director of the NIH, the Institute of Medicine Board on Population Health, and the board of the National Quality Forum.
An elected member of the National Academy of Medicine, Garth obtained his MD at Yale University School of Medicine, MPH at Yale School of Public Health, Internal Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital and Cardiology fellowship at Johns Hopkins. He holds three board certifications including internal medicine, cardiology and interventional cardiology. He also holds an honorary doctorate of laws from Regis College & an honorary doctorate from Eastern Virginia Medical School. In 2021, the Satcher Health Leadership Institute at Morehouse School of Medicine inaugurated the Garth N. Graham Distinguished Lectureship Award, which spotlights trail blazers who are leading the creation and advancement of health equity.
Monika co-founded Altura Capital in New York in 2005. Altura is a values and results-driven business enabler and investment platform, with a 19-year solid history of delivering results and keeping promises. Altura is based in Miami since 2020. The firm is playing a pivotal role in developing an ecosystem of entrepreneurs, investors, advisors, and corporations working together to harness opportunities and build value. Led by a team with vast collective experience in private equity, private debt, and company building, Altura teams up with institutional investors, entrepreneurs, corporations, and accomplished executives to cultivate scalable enterprises by providing them with private credit and private equity and a specialized growth toolkit. Altura’s purpose is to transform and improve societies through enabling entrepreneurial success. Altura adds value to its portfolio companies and supports their growth through a systematic value add model, which includes pairing them with Executive Operating Partners and Advisors and helping them develop unique competitive advantages and preferred partnerships with leading corporations across America. Altura specializes in the U.S. small and lower-middle markets with an emphasis on investments located in low- and moderate-income (LMI) communities, those with diverse ownership, and those that create high quality jobs. Altura focuses on the consumer products, business services, specialty manufacturing, and healthcare industries.
In her 30-plus year career, Monika has focused on building solid institutional products that deliver above market investment returns along with economic and social impact to communities. Monika has won numerous awards and recognitions for her work building financial capacity and strong, scalable businesses in minority and underserved communities. In multiple years, Latino Leaders Magazine recognized her as one of the 101 Most Influential Leaders in Hispanic U.S.A. and one of the Top 15 Latinos in Finance. In 2010 she became the first Latina to ever receive the Hispanic Heritage Foundation Award in Business, the highest honor for Latinos by Latinos.
Monika is a trusted advisor to many CEOs, corporations, industry and civic leaders and government agencies, through which she lives her deep belief in the power of collaboration to build stronger communities and companies.
Prior to Altura she held leadership positions in investment management consulting and investment banking firms, and had a 9-year corporate career in international logistics, including P&L responsibility and senior roles in operations, finance and marketing, as well as corporate lawyer.
Monika sits on the board of directors for companies including Cidrines, AVS, Rocket Health Partners and Coastal Painting. She also serves on the boards of the Stanford Latino Entrepreneurship Initiative (SLEI), where she teaches a capital seminar; the Hispanic Heritage Foundation; the USHCC Educational Fund Foundation, which she chairs; and serves as a Capital Advisor to the Billion Dollar Roundtable. She is a fellow member of the Aspen Latinos in Society program and the author of a chapter in the book “Advancing U.S. Latino Entrepreneurship.”
She has an MBA from Columbia Business School in New York and a J.D. from the Universidad del Rosario in Bogotá, Colombia.
Mei Xu is an Asian American entrepreneur with over twenty years of experience in the consumer product and wellness industries. Passionate about innovation and infusing a founder’s spirit into conglomerates, universities, and hospitals, Xu is a sought-after speaker, corporate board member, and award-winning author.
Xu created one of the fastest-growing privately-owned companies in the United States. Her passion for innovation and design-driven growth has made her a public spokesperson on entrepreneurship and reshoring since 2012 when she joined twelve other blue-chip CEOs at President Obama’s Insourcing American Jobs Forum at the White House.
Her business achievements have garnered her many awards and accolades, including,
She has served on many corporate and nonprofit boards, including the University of Maryland, the Baltimore Foundation, Children’s National Hospital Foundation, and the Sandy Spring Bancorp Inc.
In 1994, Xu began experimenting with fragrance and chemicals in her Bethesda basement, starting a global enterprise employing 1,400 workers and operating five global design, development, and production facilities. She began focusing on candles when she spotted a trend, believing that this product category contained the highest innovation potential. Xu believed that one day she would bring fragrance-infused candles into the health and wellness space.
As she grew Chesapeake Bay Candles into a lifestyle brand and diversified its product line, transforming rather bland and drab slender candle offerings into fragrance-infused fashion statements, she and her team traveled the world to anticipate and forecast trends. She incubated various product ideas in development centers in China, Vietnam, and the American seaboard in the United States, manufactured them in her factories, and sold them to Bloomingdale’s, Target, Bed Bath & Beyond, Amazon, and other top retailers.
Chesapeake Bay became the first American brand to invest in Vietnam following the reinstatement of its trading relationship with the United States. It was also among the few to onshore nearly one hundred jobs to the United States in 2011, following the opening of its first US factory in Maryland. Xu’s capstone achievement at the company came in 2016 with the launch of the “Mind & Body” collection. Generating $20 million in annual sales, Mind & Body was the first fragrance line in the wellness category. With her vision to unite the fragrance-based consumer product and wellness industries, Xu successfully negotiated the sale of Chesapeake Bay Candle to Newell Brands in 2017, a conglomerate with a $14 billion portfolio of consumer goods. A Columbia University Business case study detailing Mei’s leadership in trend forecasting, managing resilient global supply chains, establishing manufacturing facilities in new countries, reshoring jobs to the United States, and establishing strategic partnerships with major retailers is now required reading for all MBA students.
Deeply committed to helping female entrepreneurs, Mei launched the social impact venture called Yes She May in 2020. Originally designed to help small female business owners weather the difficulties of the coronavirus pandemic, the venture began informally with Xu mentoring business owners, advising on design innovation-style thinking, and giving keynote speeches about doing business in the United States. The venture soon scaled into a global e-commerce platform that elevated women-owned companies in the beauty, fashion, and wellness sectors. Partnering with FedEx, Facebook, Square, and Santander Bank UK, Xu curated and helped launch nearly 100 innovative brands.
While scaling Yes She May, Xu became reflective on her entrepreneurial journey and wrote Burn: How Grit, Innovation, and a Dash of Luck Ignited a Multi-Million Dollar Success Story. Geared to founders, entrepreneurs, and anyone interested in applying innovation to non-traditional business categories, the memoir details her childhood in communist China and her experience in a reeducation camp following the Tiananmen Square massacre. It follows her journey to the United States, where she spearheaded and scaled a multi-million-dollar fragrance and wellness business.
Leveraging her industry leadership in fragrance and her passion for wellness and environmental stewardship, Xu founded Concord Fragrances in 2023. Launching at Bloomingdales’ stores and website, Blueme, the newly founded brand, is a first-in-class “functional fragrance” company. Blueme uses the latest science-based research and formulas to provide a whole new way to strategically layer scent into consumers’ lives, allowing them to enjoy physiological and emotional benefits and increase their well-being! Not only will her new collections help consumers to elevate and fragrance their personal space, they will also further address the consumer’s drive for sustainability by offering recandle (refill candles) to encourage reusing the candle vessels. This approach promises to become the new global standard in fragrance-based wellness. As Xu continually works on unlocking the power of our senses’ smell, she is constantly thriving in design, innovation, and social entrepreneurship!
Follow Mei on social media:
LinkedIn: @Meixu1
Instagram: @Meixu0001
Facebook: @Meixuandcompany
Twitter: @Meixuandcompany
Website: www.meixu.com
TedTalk:https://www.ted.com/talks/mei_xu_how_to_use_design_thinking_to_create_objects_of_desire?language=en
Follow Blueme on social media:
Website: www.bluemefragrance.com
Instagram: bluemefragrance
Facebook: bluemefragrance
TikTok: bluemefragrance
Twitter: bluemefragrance
LinkedIn: bluemefragrance
Dr. Sood is a former Professor of Medicine at Mayo Clinic, Director of the Mind-Body Medicine Initiative, and the current CEO of the Global Center for Resiliency and Wellbeing. He is internationally known for his work on stress management, resilience, wellbeing, mindfulness, and burnout. Dr. Sood has authored or co-authored over 80 peer-reviewed articles and has authored multiple books including The Mayo Clinic Guide to Stress-Free Living, The Mayo Clinic Handbook for Happiness, Immerse: A 52-Week Course in Resilient Living, Mindfulness Redesigned for the Twenty-First Century, Stronger, and SMART with Dr. Sood. Dr. Sood received the 2010 Distinguished Service Award, the 2010 Innovator of the Year Award, the 2013 Outstanding Physician Scientist Award and the 2016 Faculty of the Year Award from Mayo Clinic. He also was honored as the Robert Wood Johnson Health Care Pioneer in 2015. The Intelligent Optimist (formerly Ode Magazine) selected Dr. Sood as one among top 20 intelligent optimists helping the world to be a better place. Dr. Sood serves on the wellbeing advisory board for Everyday Health, scientific advisory board for Thrive Global, and is a fellow with the Atria Academy of Science and Medic
Designer and Art Director. He has designed for clients as diverse as the Rolling Stones, HBO, and the Guggenheim Museum
Dr. Neha Sangwan, CEO of Intuitive Intelligence is an Internal Medicine physician, international speaker and corporate communication expert who empowers people toward better health by teaching them practical communication tools to strengthen their relationships, decrease their stress, improve their health and save them time.
Neha earned a B.S. in Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering from Michigan State University, attended the State University of New York at Buffalo for medical school, and completed her residency training at Temple University Hospital. She worked in the hospital for a decade before founding Intuitive Intelligence, her private practice and corporate consulting firm, where she integrates the science of medicine and the art of communication to empower her clients to improve their health and their lives.
Neha is also the author of TalkRx: Five Steps to Honest Conversations that Create Connection, Health and Happiness. To learn more, visit Doctorneha.com.
Embracing his unconventional path in academia and life, Sandro Formica, Ph.D., lives every day in full commitment to his Life Purpose, “To integrate the science of happiness in firms, educational institutions and governments.” For that reason, he created a business format that aligns personal development processes with the goals and mission of positive organizations. Sandro’s work aims at increasing individual and organizational performance based on applied, scientific evidence.
Sandro contributed to the development, analysis and testing of a strategic management model named “Co-Alignment” and modified it to integrate values, talents, imagination and purpose in the context of positive organizations managed by self-aware executives.
Sandro has provided consulting and executive education services to global and regional hotel corporations such as ACCOR and Intercontinental, coordinated transnational European Union projects in hospitality and tourism, and conducted “Think Tanks” with leading decision-makers in the Middle East, New Zealand, France, Spain, Italy, and the U.S.
As an academic, he published in international peer-reviewed journals on human motivational factors and behavioral decision-making in the context of travel, executive education needs, United States vs. Europe education systems, and predictability of human preferences in future global travel. His research papers were presented at several international conferences, such as the World Business Congress and the Quality of Life World Conference.
Currently, Sandro teaches The Science of Happiness and Personal Empowerment at Florida International University. Also, he teaches The Economics of Happiness in selected European universities.
Get the book: Personal Empowerment: Empower the Leader Within You
Alla Klymenko is known in Eastern Europe and abroad as a psychologist and happiness educator who has been studying well-being, goal setting, and mindfulness for over ten years. Her lectures, workshops, and seminars help thousands of people become more successful, happier and radically change their outlook on life. Her goal is to make a billion people around the world happier.
Alla believes in cultivating equal access to education on positive psychology, depression prevention, and well-being for populations across the globe. Being a pioneer in Eastern Europe’s happiness movement, her every speech and presentation is an inspirational show. As a motivational speaker with live audiences ranging from hundreds to tens of thousands, her unique presentations and classes touched the hearts of thousands of people.
Alla is the author of workshops, seminars, and online courses attended by participants from Eastern and Western Europe, the Middle East, and Northern America. She also published several unique self-improvement workbooks and inspirational journals – Happy Me Journal, Thank You Diary, and Dream Year Book. She is the co-founder and head coach of Eastern Europe’s largest self-improvement summer camp, Upgrade Yourself Camp.
A featured guest on a variety of podcasts, she hosts Alla and Happiness YouTube channel (with 158 thousand followers) with motivational speeches and interviews with the world’s leading experts in the fields of happiness and well-being – Karen Guggenheim, Tal Ben-Shahar, Mo Gawdat, Fred Luskin, Sonja Lyubomirsky, Michael Roach, Joe Vitale, John Gray, and many others.
Shortly after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Alla joined forces with the world’s leading speakers, Tal Ben-Shahar, Marci Shimoff, and others, to create the Two Happy Weeks online course aimed at maintaining a positive attitude amidst challenging global events to support the affected population during the period of turbulence.
Ricardo Sunderland is a Transformational Coach with Egon Zehnder, a global leadership advisory firm. His life’s purpose is to help leaders connect to and manage their energy to become humane leaders. He shows senior leaders how to bring coherence to their leadership, unlock their full potential, and become a better version of themselves. He also collaborates with the Chair and Nominating Committee responsible for CEO and C-suite successions and supports newly appointed CEOs in their processes of transition and integration. Prior to joining Egon Zehnder, Ricardo was a Senior Partner at BearingPoint (formerly KPMG Consulting). Earlier Ricardo held various management roles for Citigroup, including Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Citi’s Global Consumer e-commerce business. Ricardo earned a BS in finance & marketing from Iberoamericana University and an MBA from the IPADE University.
Ricardo’s book “The Energy Advantage, How to go from Managing your time to Mastering your Energy” comes out on June 2024. It has the intention to inspire aspiring leaders to live an integrated live of fulfillment, purpose and success.
A graduate of Harvard College and a former teaching fellow for Tal Ben-Shahar’s Positive Psychology class, Sara Blanchard has been melding the worlds of happiness and social justice for the better part of a decade. She is a facilitator, writer, certified life coach, and TEDx speaker, author of Flex Mom, co-author of Dear White Women: Let’s Get (Un)comfortable Talking About Racism, and the co-founder of Dear White Women, a social justice platform. Sara is both Japanese and white, is married to a white Canadian man, and is raising their two multi-ethnic girls to be compassionate, thoughtful advocates. They live in Denver, Colorado with their incredibly lovable dog.
James Pawelski is Professor of Practice and Director of Education in the Positive Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvania, where he co-founded the world’s first Master of Applied Positive Psychology Program with Martin Seligman in 2005. The Founding Executive Director of the International Positive Psychology Association, James is currently leading a three-year, multi-million-dollar grant investigating connections between the science of well-being and the arts and humanities. He launched a new interdisciplinary undergraduate course at Penn this spring called “The Pursuit of Happiness” to help students learn how to increase their well-being. An international keynote speaker who regularly makes presentations in Spanish as well as English, he has given talks in more than 20 countries on six continents, including “Romance and Research”™ workshops with his wife Suzie. He is the author of The Dynamic Individualism of William James, co-editor of On Human Flourishing: A Poetry Anthology, and co-author (with Suzie) of Happy Together: Using the Science of Positive Psychology to Build Love That Lasts. He has a Ph.D. in philosophy and has been featured in major U.S. and international media, including The New York Times, Time magazine, U.S. News and World Report, The Philadelphia Inquirer, the Chronicle of Higher Education, People’s Daily (China), El Norte (Mexico), and Perfil (Argentina), and has appeared on various television networks such as NBC (The Today Show), Globo and Univisión.
Coffee to propagate coffee knowledge, and developing the first-ever third-party sustainability certification for a value chain. illycaffè has been recognized as the most sustainable company in the coffee sector (ICRT, 2014), as one of the World’s Most Ethical Companies (Ethisphere Institute, 2013-2018). The company won the Italian Best Performance Award in 2017.
Mr. Illy’s numerous appointments outside of his company include:
Recognized as a coffee authority, Mr. Illy’s writings are published on a regular basis, and he serves as a speaker at major conferences throughout the world. In 1995, he published Espresso Coffee: The Chemistry of Quality (Academic Press), now in its second edition, and his memoir, A Coffee Dream, was published in 2015 (Codice Edizioni). He was the main contributor to Altagamma: Strategie per l’Italia d’Eccellenza, published in 2018 (Skyra).
He is a passionate supporter of the stakeholder company business model, and firmly advocates for corporate responsibility as as means to improve society. A “humanist chemist,” as he likes to define himself, Mr. Illy also promotes culture and art, a sphere in which illycaffè has always been active. Under his leadership, the Altagamma Foundation was officially recognized as an ambassador of the Italian lifestyle in the world.
His numerous professional recognitions include Marketing Superstar (Advertising Age, 1996); Entrepreneur of the Year (Ernst & Young, 2004); Capo d’Orlando (2013), and Guido Carli (2014). He was named Cavaliere del Lavoro by the President of the Italian Republic in 2018.
Mr. Illy received a degree in Chemistry from the University of Trieste, and an Executive MBA from SDA-Bocconi in Milan. Additionally, he earned a certificate from the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School, and studied Total Quality Management in Japan, Innovation at MIT, Exponential Technologies at Singularity University and Complexity Science at the University of Oxford.
Born in Trieste in 1964, he is married and has three daughters.
Dr. Tomasulo is the academic director/core faculty member at the Spirituality Mind Body Institute (SMBI), Teachers College, Columbia University, and honored with their 2021 Teaching Award. He holds a Ph.D. in psychology, an MFA in writing, and a Master of Applied Positive Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania. He is a Review Editor for Frontiers in Psychology, on Positive Psychology, and The Journal of Positive Psychology. He is the author of the best-selling book Learned Hopefulness and recently co-authored with Dr. Ryan Niemiec, Character Strengths and Abilities Within Disabilities: Advances in Science and Practice. He received the prestigious 2024 Gardner Award for his work applying positive psychology and psychodrama with individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. His screenplay adaptation of his award-winning memoir, American Snake Pit, has won over 40 screenplay contests.
Photo credit: Nono Judit Sipos | Nonoartphotography
Romero Britto, founder of the Happy Art Movement, is an internationally renowned artist who has created an iconic visual language of happiness, fun, love and hope all its own inspiring millions worldwide.
Brazilian-born and Miami-made, Romero has made it to the top and is considered one of the most famous and celebrated living visual artists in the globe.
Britto’s appreciation of the masters Pablo Picasso, Henry Matisse, Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, and Roy Lichtenstein influenced him to create a completely new artistic style by using vibrant, bold and colorful patterns to reflect his optimistic view of the world around him.
His work has been exhibited in the most prestigious galleries and museums in over 120 countries, including the Louvre Museum and he was the first living visual artist to present his work at the Soumaya Museum. Romero Britto has also created innumerous public and private art installations, not to mention the largest in the history of London’s Hyde Park. He did the opening of the Super Bowl XLI in collaboration with the Cirque Du Soleil, was the official artist for the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa, ambassador to the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil, honorary torch bearer and ambassador for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.
Romero’s 60,000sqft studio in Miami has already hosted dignitaries, celebrities, innovators and art patrons from all over the globe. Amongst his collectors are HM Queen Elizabeth II, HRH Prince Charles, HM Queen Silvia, Tim Cook, Sir Elton John, Anna Wintour, Richard Branson, Carlos Slim, Alice Walton, Howard Buffett, Micky Arison, Wyatt Koch, Muhtar Kent, Ramon Laguarta, Jim Clerkin, Jean-Claude Biver, Alan G. Hassenfeld, Klaus Schwab, Leonardo Dicaprio, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, Martin Scorsese, HM Queen Silvia, HRH Prince Charles, HRH Princess Madeleine, HM King Juan Carlos I, Tom Brady, Gisele Bündchen, Natalia Vodianova, Paulo Coelho, Pelé, Neymar Jr., Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, Andre Agassi, Roger Federer, Michael Jordan, Kris Jenner, Kim Kardashian, Maluma, Dj Khaled, Justin Bieber, Marc Anthony, Shakira, Michael Jackson, Gloria and Emilio Estefan, Julio Iglesias, Oprah Winfrey, Sir Evelyn Rothschild, Eileen Guggenheim, Leonard Lauder, Steve Wozniak, Nobu Matsuhisa, Wolfgang Puck, Emeril Lagasse, Bobby Flay, Donatella Versace, Stefano Gabbana and Domenico Dolce.
Britto, considered the most licensed artist in history, is a frequent speaker at the World Economic Forum (Davos, Switzerland) and is an activist for more than 250 charitable organizations, but most of all, he is an artist who believes that “art is too important not to share” and that he has a role as an agent of positive change.
Gopi Kallayil is the Chief Evangelist, Brand Marketing at Google. He works with Google’s sales teams and customers and helps grow customer brands through digital marketing. In his prior roles he worked as Chief Evangelist for Google+, led the marketing team for the Company’s flagship advertising product, AdWords, in the Americas and Asia Pacific, and the marketing team for AdSense, Google’s publisher-facing product.
Before joining Google, Gopi was on the management team of two Silicon Valley venture funded startups. While a consultant with McKinsey & Co., he worked on engagements helping the management teams of large corporations improve business performance and maximize revenues. He has also led large Information Technology projects for global corporations in India, China, and the US. Gopi earned his Bachelors degree in electronics engineering from the National Institute of Technology in India. He received his Masters in Business Administration degrees from the Indian Institute of Management and The Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. He is an avid yoga practitioner, triathlete, public speaker, global traveler and Burning Man devotee. He has spoken at TEDx, Renaissance Weekend, The World Peace Festival and Wisdom 2.0. He hosts a TV program on cable and YouTube called Change Makers.
“Focusing on gratitude shifts my mind and heart away from seeing areas of my life as problematic, worrisome, or lacking and toward acknowledging the abundance, what is working well.”
Dr. Joseph is a renowned scientist and clinician who has markedly impacted chemosensory (taste and smell) science, genomics, and precision health. She serves as a Lasker Clinical Scholar at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and a Distinguished Scholar at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) and the National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR). She is Chief of the Sensory Science and Metabolism Section (SenSMet) at the Division of Intramural Clinical and Biological Research. A testament to her diverse skill set, Dr. Joseph’s educational background encompasses both nursing and the biological sciences. She received an AAS in Nursing at Hostos Community College, a BSN from the College of New Rochelle, a Master of Science with a specialty as a Family Nurse Practitioner from Pace University, and an Executive MBA from Quantic School of Business and Technology. She completed her Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania and conducted her Ph.D. work at the Monell Chemical Senses Center (the only center in the world dedicated to training on taste & smell), where she focused on sensory biology and genomics. She then completed a Clinical and Translational Postdoctoral Fellowship at the NINR supported by the Office of Workforce Diversity. With over 100 publications, she is a recognized figure in sensory science research. Her work has been showcased in top-tier academic journals and captured the media’s attention such as TIME, NPR, New York Times. She is particularly interested in understanding how sensory function and dysfunction influence wellbeing and health outcomes, especially in populations that are disproportionately affected by health disparities. Her insights have been highlighted in various media outlets, reflecting her role as a leading voice in her field. Her research explores how taste and smell influence health & wellbeing, especially in those with chronic illnesses. Specifically, she investigates the neurological mechanisms of chemosensation and its relation to ingestive behaviors, especially in those with obesity and substance use disorders. Notably, during the COVID-19 pandemic, she examined the effects of the virus on taste and smell and co-founded the Global Consortium for Chemosensory Research. Dr. Joseph is a devoted advocate for diversity in science. She mentors and fosters inclusivity, especially for underrepresented individuals and women in science. She also leads initiatives such as the Amazing Grace Children’s Foundation in Ghana and the African Research Academy for Women. Honored with multiple awards from several global organizations such as the Friends of the National Institutes of Nursing Research, National Minority Quality Forum, the National Association of Hispanic Nurses, the Johnson & Johnson- American Association of Colleges of Nursing, and The Rockefeller University Heilbrunn Nurse Scholar. She has been recognized with the Ajinomoto Award for Young Investigators in Gustation from the Association of Chemoreception Sciences. She is a fellow of the American Academy of Nursing, a Fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine, Fellow of the Transcultural Nursing Society, and a member of the Royal Society of Medicine, United Kingdom. She is also the Inaugural American Academy of Nursing Fellow at the National Academy of Medicine in the United States of America. Dr. Joseph’s commitment to advance awareness, research and health of the Chemical Senses and her exceptional skill in integrating complex scientific concepts into clinical practice, public awareness and policy make her a valuable contributor to share insights on the intersection of sensory experiences (smell) and overall well-being.
Mandy Seligman is the founder of SeeingHappy.org , a nonprofit whose mission is to promote wellbeing through photography using positive psychology. She is a psychologist who believes that we can all benefit from using positive psychology at every stage of life. She is also a fine arts photographer and a member of Soho Photo Gallery in NYC. She believes that slowing down, seeing and capturing beauty is a spiritual journey that enriches all our lives – both of the artist and the viewer. She seeks to promote photography as a path to finding happiness and well-being through attending to and sharing what we see as beautiful in our lives.
Isaac Prilleltensky was born in Argentina and has lived and worked in Israel, Canada, Australia, and the United States. He is the Former Dean of Education and Human Development at the University of Miami, the inaugural Erwin and Barbara Mautner Chair in Community Well-Being, and the Vice Provost for Institutional Culture. He has published eight books and over 120 articles and chapters. His interests are in the promotion of well-being in individuals, organizations, and communities; and in the integration of wellness and fairness.
Isaac is the recipient of the 2014 “Lifetime Achievement Award in Prevention” by the Society for Counseling Psychology, Division 17 of the American Psychological Association. He is also the recipient of the 2011 “Distinguished Contribution to Theory and Research Award” of the Community Psychology Division of APA. In addition, Isaac received the John Kalafat Award for the Practice of Community Psychology from the same division of APA. He is leading an interdisciplinary team developing assessments and online interventions to promote interpersonal, community, occupational, psychological, physical, and economic (I COPPE) well-being.
Isaac is a fellow of the American Psychological Association and of the American Educational Research Association. In 2002 he was a visiting fellow of the British Psychological Society. He is a vegan and fitness aficionado. He speaks several languages and has given keynote addresses in 26 countries. His humour columns have been published in the Miami Herald and Miami Today. His latest book is The Laughing Guide to Well-Being: Using Humor and Science to become Happier and Healthier, and The Laughing Guides to Well-Being, Change, and a Better Life.
Cassie Holmes is a professor at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management and author of Happier Hour: How to Beat Distraction, Expand Your Time, and Focus on What Matters Most. Trained as a social psychologist, Professor Holmes earned her PhD at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business and her BA at Columbia. An award-winning teacher and researcher on the role of time in cultivating happiness and satisfaction in life, Professor Holmes’s work has been widely published in lead academic journals and featured in such outlets as NPR, the Economist, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Atlantic, and the Washington Post.
Saul Blinkoff is a Hollywood filmmaker who has worked for many high profile clients including; THE WALT DISNEY STUDIOS, NETFLIX and AMAZON. He started his animation career on the hit DISNEY films Pocahontas, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Mulan and Tarzan. Currently, Saul is a Supervising Producer at DREAMWORKS on the new hit show MADAGASCAR: A LITTLE WILD. Saul speaks around the world empowering audiences to reach their goals and live a more inspired life. He also hosts the high energy, motivating, podcast, ‘LIFE of AWESOME!’ that is not only jam packed with practical tools for success, but also has a depth of finding meaning and fulfillment in all aspects of life! Saul lives in Los Angeles with his wife and four children.
Shannon Allen is the creator of grown™, the first ever 100% USDA organic certified fast food restaurant with a drive thru on the East Coast. Shannon lives in Miami with her husband, Ray Allen (two-time NBA champion) and their five children. Shannon created grown™ after searching unsuccessfully for an organic, nutrient dense meal on-the-go for her children, including middle son Walker who lives with Type 1 Diabetes. The Allen’s are passionate advocates for research for a cure for Type 1 Diabetes in honor of Walker and the millions of children and adults that are living with this potentially life threatening medical condition. The grown™ concept evolved, in part, from her television show, The Pre-Game Meal which was inspired by 18 years of preparing optimal game day meals for her husband Ray. The show featured professional athletes and chefs preparing healthier versions of tailgate food in hopes of inspiring soccer moms, student athletes and sports fans alike to embrace a healthier diet & exercise.
After opening the doors to their flagship grown™ location two years ago on a busy stretch of highway in South Florida, the concept has grown to include five units, including one at Wesleyan University, two non-traditional locations at HardRock Stadium, and a location inside of a Walmart Supercenter in Orlando. grown™ is widely recognized as a market disrupter for providing convenience without compromise and for stretching the perceptions associated with traditional fast food options. Providing busy people everywhere with delicious, freshly prepared, nutrient dense breakfast, lunch and dinner from a scratch kitchen using strictly 100% USDA organic certified ingredients and delivered with the optimal conveniences we’ve all grown accustomed to is grown’s passionate mission.For more information on how to join the grown mission and own a grown™️, visit grown.org.
Rob Stephenson is an international keynote speaker and wellbeing advocate who is on a mission to help
create happier, healthier and higher performing workplaces. He experiences bipolar disorder personally.
Rob is the founder of The InsideOut LeaderBoard, a charity with the mission of smashing the stigma of
mental ill-health in the workplace by showcasing senior leader role models with lived experiences of mental ill-health. As a consultant, Rob works with senior leadership teams to help elevate wellbeing as a
performance enabler.
Rob is the Founder of FormScore, a technology platform that helps managers understand the wellbeing and performance readiness of their teams with real-time people analytics. Rob is also co-founder of the InsideOut Awards, an annual celebration of those championing workplace mental health and wellbeing. In his keynote talks, Rob inspires audiences to think differently about mental health and wellbeing. Themes include: treating mental health and wellbeing as a strategic priority; leadership inspiration; the future of workplace wellbeing; wellbeing as a performance enabler; getting started on a personal wellbeing journey. Rob grounds his talks in his personal story of living and working with bipolar and always gives practical tips and ideas. See Rob’s TEDx here. Rob has also developed an innovative concept – a Music & Mental Health performance which combines live DJ elements and public speaking to get people thinking differently about mental health & wellbeing via the medium of music. See this short promo video.
Dr Mark Williamson is Director of Action for Happiness, a movement of people taking action to create a happier and kinder world, with an active community of over a million supporters. He is passionate about creating a more balanced and caring society that focuses more on helping people and communities thrive. Mark has a diverse range of experience across private and non-profit sectors, from start-ups through to large multi-national companies. He was previously Director at the Carbon Trust and Senior Manager with Accenture and has also worked for HP Labs and Orange. He holds an MBA from IMD in Switzerland, and a PhD in Engineering from the University of Bristol. He is a Sainsbury Management Fellow, a Chartered Engineer and a member of the Institute of Directors.
Andrea Minski is a bilingual TV host, lifestyle expert, brand spokesperson, conference speaker, entrepreneur and mom of two who seeks every day to do more of what makes her happy as she shares tips, tricks and hacks to find the ever elusive balance for all aspects of a woman’s life.
No stranger to daytime television, Andrea Minski is known as a TV host, most recently as the face of the DIY home improvement series, “Fix My Fail” on HGTV, as well as “Flipea con Andrea” on the Discovery Go app, SOS: Salva Mi Casa (Telemundo), celebrity guest judge on “Girl Starter” (TLC), as well as lifestyle and fashion contributor on numerous national and international programs including hoy Día (Telemundo).
An avid public speaker, she has been orator at the Disney Social Media Moms Conference, “What She Said” women’s empowerment panel hosted by Sports Illustrated, as well as speaking engagements at We All Grow, Hispanicize, CRA Travel, and Ocean Drive magazine.
Using her platform for advocacy, she has served as U.S. spokesperson for the Venezuela Aid Live benefit concert, Fundacion NU3 in Colombia and Kids Kindness Project in Miami. She was also an organizer of the “Finding My Virginity Experience” at Necker Island with Sir Richard Branson.
A spinoff from the Mujer Balance blog is the MBalance Store, which offers products with a purpose. All the merchandise comes with an empowering message and each purchase feeds a child in underserved communities in her native Colombia.
Minski juggles many hats, but thanks to the power of social media she is able to document all facets of her fast-paced lifestyle.
DeAnne is a trailblazing business leader with a passion for creating thriving workplace cultures that prioritize positive leadership, peak performance, well-being, and a deep sense of community and belonging. With nearly 30 years of experience empowering individuals, teams, and organizations across the globe, she’s a force in creating environments where people feel seen, valued, respected and motivated to perform at their best.
A dynamic, sought-after thought leader and magnetic keynote speaker and facilitator, DeAnne continues to grace the stages of major industry events like the Great Place to Work Summit, O.C. Tanner Influence Greatness and WBECS, where she was named a ‘Leading Coaching Luminary.’ Her insights have been featured in top publications such as Forbes, The New York Post, Thrive Global, Working Mother, Huffington Post and Quartz at Work, earning her a reputation as a game-changer in the space of leadership, culture and well-being.
As a professional Executive/Leadership Coach, National Board-Certified Health & Wellness Coach (NBC-HWC), credentialed Coach Supervisor, and Chief Happiness Officer, DeAnne brings an impressive range of results-focused business expertise in leadership, well-being, and professional development. Her certifications span Positive Psychology, Lifestyle Medicine, Mental Health First Aid, Mindfulness and include tools like HBDI, MBTI, and TLC360.
In her personal life, DeAnne strives to exemplify harmony and happiness. Together with her wife Jodie and their children, they share a love for travel, adventure, and nature. From surfing to skiing, or immersing in different cultures, DeAnne approaches life with the same vigor and intent she applies to her profession—always accentuating the positive and fully embracing every experience.
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/DeAnneAussem
Facebook: www.facebook.com/DeAnneAussemLeadership/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/deanne_aussem/
Howard C. Cutler, MD, is a psychiatrist, New York Times best-selling author, and leading expert on the science of human happiness. He is coauthor with the Dalai Lama of the internationally best-selling series The Art of Happiness. Dedicated to helping people find happier, more rewarding lives, Howard works with individuals privately and has given presentations on happiness throughout the United States and abroad. He has been interviewed on hundreds of radio and television programs, and in Time; O, The Oprah Magazine; and Psychology Today. He holds degrees in art and zoology, and a medical degree from the University of Arizona College of Medicine.
James Wallman is a bestselling author, entrepreneur, futurist, keynote speaker, and government adviser.
He has written 2 bestselling books about the experience economy, Stuffocation (Penguin, 2015) and Time And How To Spend It (Penguin, 2019).
He runs strategy, innovation, and futures consultancy The Future is Here. Recent clients include KPMG, HSBC, IDEO, Avis, Facebook, and Marriott International. He has given talks from TEDx at the London School of Economics to the Collision Conference in Las Vegas, Google HQ in California, and 10 Downing Street.
His opinions have appeared in the New York Times, the Financial Times, the Economist, and Wired. He has appeared on TV and radio from Australia to Brazil and the US.
He advises the British government on the experience economy: he is a ‘Sector Specialist, Experience Economy’ at the UK’s Department for International Trade.
He holds an MA in Classics from the University of Oxford; an MA in Journalism from the University of the Arts London; and a Diploma in Entrepreneurship from the Judge Business School at the University of Cambridge.
James lives in London with his wife and two children, who are 8 and 5 years old and make him very happy 🙂
Anthony Seldon, Vice-Chancellor of The University of Buckingham since 2015, is one of Britain’s leading contemporary historians, educationalists, commentators and political authors.
Anthony was a transformative head for 20 years, first of Brighton College and then Wellington College. He is author or editor of over 35 books on contemporary history, including the inside books on the last four Prime Ministers, was the co-founder and first director of the Institute for Contemporary British History, is co-founder of Action for Happiness, honorary historical adviser to 10 Downing Street, UK Special Representative for Saudi Education, a member of the Government’s First World War Culture Committee, was chair of the Comment Awards, is a director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, the President of IPEN, (International Positive Education Network), is patron or on the board of several charities, founder of the Via Sacra Western Front Walk, and was executive producer of the film Journey’s End. He appeared on the Desert Island Discs in 2016. For the last fifteen years he has given all his money from writing and lecturing to charity.
Michelle Gielan has spent the past decade researching the link between happiness and success. She is the best-selling author of Broadcasting Happiness: The Science of Igniting and Sustaining Positive Change and was named one of the Top 10 authors on resilience by the Harvard Business Review.
Michelle is an Executive Producer of “The Happiness Advantage” on PBS and a featured professor in Oprah’s Happiness course. She formerly served as anchor of The CBS Morning News, and her research has received attention from dozens of media outlets including The Washington Post, FORBES, and The New York Times.
Dr. Greer, driven by Social Justice and the need for diversity, equity, and inclusion, joined Roseman University of Health Sciences University on June 1, 2020, with the goal of establishing an innovative mid-21st Century, Las Vegas-based medical school that will align students, educators, and community in designing and delivering an inclusive and collaborative environment for learning, healthcare and research.
Previously, Dr. Greer served as Professor of Medicine, Founding Chair of Humanities, Health, and Society, and Associate Dean for Community Engagement at Florida International University Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine in Miami, Florida. Working with various FIU colleges, Dr. Greer spearheaded the nationally recognized Green Family Foundation Neighborhood Health Education Learning Program (NeighborhoodHELP). This program prepares medical students and other health professions students to address the social determinants of health through a hands-on longitudinal experience caring for underserved households in Miami-Dade County.
Better known as “Joe,” Dr. Greer has been an advocate for health equity by engaging communities to create effective health and social policies and accessible health care systems. He established Camillus Health Concern, Inc. and Saint John Bosco, health centers for underserved populations in Miami-Dade County, Florida.
Dr. Greer has received numerous recognitions, including one of the 500 Most Influential Business Leaders in Life Sciences listed on the Florida Trend 2019; June 2019 AMA Foundation Pride in Profession Award; Bob Graham Center for Public Service 2017 Citizen of the Year; 2014 National Jefferson Award in the category of Greatest Public Service Benefiting the Disadvantaged; 2013 Great Floridian Award; the 2009 Presidential Medal of Freedom; 1997 the Presidential Service Award and in 1993, was honored as a MacArthur Foundation “Genius Grant” Fellow. He has published more than 30 articles and book chapters and wrote Waking Up in America, a book about his life experiences, including caring for homeless individuals and advising Presidents Bush Sr. and Clinton on health care policy.
Dr. Greer has served as a Trustee at the RAND Corporation (America’s oldest and largest think tank) and is a member of the Pardee RAND Graduate School Board of Governors and the RAND Health Board. He served as Chair for the Hispanic Heritage Awards Foundation from 2002 to 2012 and has been an independent board member of American Funds from 2016 to the present.
Dr. Cree Scott is the founder and CEO of Serenity Psychological Health & Well-being. She is a licensed psychologist with a background in consulting, employee well-being, DEI, and leadership development. She has worked in a range of settings including professional services, higher education, federal/government sectors, healthcare and private practice. With over 15 years of experience in clinical and consulting psychology, Dr. Scott specializes in working with organizations to design customized well-being strategies, programs, and curriculum to create a psychologically safe and healthy place to work. As a diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) consultant, she incorporates culturally relevant perspectives and solutions to help leaders and organizations create an environment in which all employees experience inclusion and belonging.
Dr. Michael Steger is the Founder and Director of the Center for Meaning and Purpose, and Professor of Psychology at Colorado State University. He also serves as an Extraordinary Professor by North-West University in South Africa. He received his B.A. in Psychology from Macalester College, his MS in Counseling from the University of Oregon in 1997, and his Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology and Personality Psychology from the University of Minnesota in 2005.
Chief Happiness Officer, Emotional Dj, Storyteller, Multifaceted Coach, Entertainer, Comedian, Filmmaker, Entrepreneur & Innovator
Founder of Joy, Inc, an American benefit corporation with a Nigerian subsidiary, which mainstreams the research and science on human emotions
Nathan Leigh Jones is a creative communicator who loves music. Having completed a Bachelor of Psychological Sciences (First Class Honours), Nathan is currently undertaking a PhD in Experimental Psychology at the University of Adelaide, exploring the impact of music and lyrics on emotional wellbeing.
An avid singer/songwriter, Nathan has taken his piano all over the world, including performances at Joe’s Pub in New York City, the Sydney Opera House, and even Google headquarters in Mountain View. He has also produced original music for Billy Porter, Alan Cumming and Rhonda Ross.
At heart, Nathan is a passionate teacher, and has delivered training for multiple Fortune 500 companies. Recent engagements include the Australian Leadership Coaching Conference, Mumbrella360, and the 6th World Congress on Positive Psychology. He has also been hired to speak for countless brands including Sony, Microsoft and Disney.
Nathan believes that lyrics matter. If we can harness the power of music, we can change our emotions, change our behaviour, and ultimately change the world.
Dara Padwo-Audick, MA, C.P.C., Producers Guild of America, is a seasoned media professional with thirty years of experience across a variety of genres in the media landscape. Her genuine passion for telling impactful stories has taken her around the globe. Dara’s journey to understand and share Himalayan culture took her to Bhutan in 2008 and again in 2017 to reveal the impact of Gross National Happiness in Asia and Europe through a series of short documentaries. Dara is the series creator of two nonfiction series, She’s Got Grit and 650,000 Hours, and the series producer of the fiction series, Vizions of Rock. She has written, produced, and directed multiple programs and series for such networks as Animal Planet, CBS, DARPA Channel, Discovery Channel, Discovery HD-Theater, Discovery Kids, ESPN, Fox, Home and Garden Television, Lifetime Television, Military Channel, National Geographic Channel, Outdoor Life Channel, PBS, and Science Channel. Dara is also an iPEC-trained Certified Professional Coach and Energy Leadership Master Practitioner who works with social entrepreneurs, executives, and those who want to explore and develop their creativity.
Giancarlo Molero is an innovator, marketing expert, sport and music lover with over 20 years of experience in different ventures along the Americas and Europe. He is an economist with a masters in marketing and a certificated happiness coach from the University of California, Berkeley. His entrepreneurial spirit and creativity distinguished and lead him, to provide excellent outcomes and value to different corporations where he has proudly served, including BellSouth, Telefonica – Movistar, The Cisneros Group and DLB Group prior to becoming a partner at AdmazingCo. and managing director at Gimbal.com.
Giancarlo has always thought that everything can be improved and that by using a creative and nontraditional approach things can change for better. He is an enthusiast about how technology impacts and changes our lives. Currently, he enjoys dedicating efforts and time to enterprises where the good and happiness can be spread among others, as part of his purpose of improving others’ lives one smile at a time. He is founder of ToyFeliz.net a community that promotes happiness in Spanish and fellow founder the World Happiness Summit.
Margarita Tarragona is a therapist, teacher and coach in Mexico City. She is a co-founder of Grupo Campos Elíseos and on the faculty of the Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City and of the Houston Galveston Institute. Margarita created and directed the diploma program in Positive Psychology at the Universidad Iberoamericana and is on the board of directors of IPPA, the International Positive Psychology Association. In her practice she is especially interested in collaborative and narrative therapies and the implications of Positive Psychology for therapy and consultation.
Chef Maria Loi is an internationally renowned entrepreneur, author, television personality and philanthropist working to change the world – one healthy bite at a time. Known as the Julia Child of Greece, she isthe founder and face of a lifestyle brand that nurtures a healthy body and soul, melds the inspiration of ancient Greece with a modern approach to the Mediterranean diet, cooks up a heaping dose of happiness, humor and joy and helps people boost their immunity and improve their health, wellness and longevity.
Chef Loi is passionate about sharing the magic of all things Greek – especially the culinary treasures, recipes and practices passed down through the generations and from her grandfather. Deeply popular and beloved inGreece and a food superstar in the U.S., she exudes kindness, friendliness and warmth, makes a friend of everyone she meets and lights up rooms with her bountiful energy, infectious smile and hearty laugh.
The founder of Loi Food Products, a specialty brand built on traditional ingredients from Greece; her pastas, beans, botanical herbs, refrigerated dips, honey and olive oil are sold on QVC, at Whole Foods Markets and in other stores.
The author of more than 36 cookbooks, she is also host of a new show, THE LIFE OF LOI, debuting on PBS in 2021. It aims to build an inspirational and educational movement around the Mediterranean diet and lifestyle – from ancient to modern, food to culture and everything in between.
The namesake of three restaurants, including the current Loi Estiatorio in Manhattan, Chef Loi has cooked for celebrities and Presidents. But she most enjoys gathering with a roomful of diners over a good meal filled with laughter and stories and passing out smiles and homemade cookies to children who visit her restaurant.
Named an official Ambassador of Greek Gastronomy by the Chef’s Club of Greece, Chef Loi is also a passionate and dedicated philanthropist who supports a wide variety of causes focused on children and the underserved.
Suzann (“Suzie”) Pileggi Pawelski is a well-being writer, consultant, and international speaker specializing in the science of happiness and its effects on relationships and health. Her 2010 Scientific American Mind cover story, “The Happy Couple,” was the catalyst for Happy Together: Using the Science of Positive Psychology to Build Love That Lasts, the best-selling book that she wrote with her husband James.
Happy Together was named a best book of 2018 by Business Insider, Success magazine, and The Greater Good Science Center.
Suzie pens a popular blog for Psychology Today and is a contributing editor for Live Happy. As a columnist for the Newsletter of the International Positive Psychology Association (IPPA), she profiled many of the field’s leading scientists and featured their groundbreaking research.
Suzie’s writing and work has been featured in numerous top-tier media including Time magazine, Inc. magazine, NPR, and The London Times.
Together, Suzie and James give Romance and Research™ workshops around the world.
Previously, Suzie directed award-winning media relations campaigns for Fortune 500 clients, worked in publicity at Radio City Music Hall and was an associate producer for HBO Downtown Productions and The Joan Rivers Show.
Allison Wagner is an Olympian in its original sense – she pursues excellence in all aspects of her life by continually working on developing her mind, spirit and body. By working to improve yourself with integrity and honor, everyone can be an Olympian. As a competitive swimmer, Allison won a silver medal in the 1996 Olympic Games in the 400 Individual Medley. The Individual Medley consists of all four strokes and combines all of the disciplines of the sport of swimming into a single race. She held the World Record in the 200 short course meter I.M. for 15 years.
She is a 13-Time National Champion and NCAA Champion, she has decided to speak out as an anti-doping advocate. Allison studies the body continually and uses her knowledge of body mechanics and health to help people improve efficiency, optimize their experience in sport, and rehabilitate injuries through correction of movement patterns. She uses this knowledge and experience in her practices of wellness coaching, body and movement analysis, pilates instruction and swim instruction. Allison is also an artist and is developing an outreach program called World-Wide Water Safe (WWS) for people and countries with high drowning rates and a need for water safety education. This effort stemmed out of the belief that everyone has the right to be safe in water. Wagner is a painter and founding member of the International Olympic organization called Art of the Olympians.
Social Entrepreneur and Former Senior Government Official
Steve Schwartz is a best-selling author, Master Tea Blender, and the Founder of Art of Tea, a hand-crafted tea purveyor based in Los Angeles. After studying at the Ayurvedic Institute in New Mexico, Steve was captivated by the field of preventative medicine. Since then, he has traveled around the world, cultivated relationships with farmers, and he has become enamored with the homeopathic impact plants can have on the body and mind. His passion for expanding people’s knowledge and history of tea is riveting. By combining herbs and botanicals to create unique wellness and flavor profiles, Steve and his team have been able to build an explosive brand that’s garnered national acclaim and awards.
Art of Tea offers customized tea programs for locations in North America, Japan, Singapore, Maldives for properties such as Huntington Gardens, Google HQ, Shutters on the Beach Hotel, Caesars Palace, Wolfgang Puck, The White House and Disney.
Headshot credit: Dane Deaner
Lucy Rattrie is a Chartered Psychologist and consultant, passionate about creating health, happiness and wellbeing in workplaces around the world. She is certified in psychological assessments, as a psychological profiler, risk assessor and psychological coach in health, stress, emotional intelligence, values and performance and loves applying this through coaching and programs to enable people to achieve wellness.
With a scholarship funded PhD in business travel wellbeing, completed from Geneva, she continues to lecture, research, write and speak on topics of positive psychology and wellness, particularly in the workplace or contexts of travel and is a fan of using her research skills to uncover new, inspiring insights for better organizational decisions, direction and sustainability.
Her work has been presented at various international conferences, she is a reviewer for and published in peer-reviewed journals, a member of the Institute of Travel Management, Global Business Travel Association, British Psychological Society, International Society Coaching Psychology, European Association Work and Organizational Psychology and a Community Leader for International Positive Psychology Association.
On a personal level, she has lived in 6 countries, traveled to 51 and day-to-day, lives and breathes wellbeing with everything from nutritional and lifestyle medicine, brain training, to feeding the soul planning an adventure. She is an occasional BBC TV presenter on adventure sports, even appearing on the front cover of the biggest selling triathlon magazine (220 Triathlon) and loves to clear her mind with endless remote trail running, mountain sports, adventure racing, bike-packing and long-distance triathlon, balanced with yoga, burying her head in books or exploring the world.
Anahita Moghaddam is the founder of Neural Beings, coach, organizational trainer and speaker whose experiential methodology is rooted in the Eastern contemplative traditions. She is continuously refined under the mentorship of leading scientists and academics in the fields of psychology, neuroscience, philosophy and physics.
Anahita is committed to serving organizations and individuals who aspire to have a substantial positive impact in the world. She is a coach to executives, entrepreneurs and emerging leaders, facilitates workshops and organizational trainings, and speaks at events around the world. She also serves as Chief Mindfulness Officer at an innovative NY-based investment firm and helps other organizations replicate this model.
She has been a student of the Eastern contemplative traditions for over a decade, primarily attending teachings with HH the Dalai Lama, and has pursued further training in contemplative neuroscience and psychology at the Nalanda Institute for Contemplative Science in NY. Anahita received her BA in Marketing & Advertising at the London School of Communications and her MA in Social Anthropology at The School of Oriental and African Studies, London.
Life and business strategist, best-selling author, journalist and international speaker specialized in personal development and mindful exponential leadership. He has received personalized training from renowned international leaders such as Robin Sharma, John C. Maxwell, Deepak Chopra, Brian Tracy, and Tony Robbins, and completed the Executive Program in Exponential Leadership at one of the most prestigious and advanced universities in the world, Singularity University in Silicon Valley. Through his conferences, workshops and inspirational retreats, he has touched the personal and professional lives of hundreds of thousands of people.
Cala has positively impacted more than 400 companies in over 25 countries. The New York Times has identified him as “the Latino Larry King”. A member of the National Speakers Association (NSA) in USA. Founder and president of CALA Enterprises Corporation, a content production company focused on leadership, mindfulness, happiness, productivity, and excellence as a culture. President & Founder of Ismael Cala Foundation.
In 2005, New York attorney Nick Katsoris authored a children’s book about a fluffy little lamb, named after the iconic candy, “Loukoumi”, that just wants to make the world a better place. The now 10 book series, including “Loukoumi’s Good Deeds” narrated by Jennifer Aniston, inspired The Loukoumi Make A Difference Foundation, a non-profit organization that unites over 150,000 children in 30 countries worldwide to make a difference for causes they are passionate about. Nick will be signing advanced copies of his new book “Inspiring Stories That Make A Difference 2” including essays by over 125 of these young adults, who are changing the world, one good deed at a time.
In March 2023, Nick left his job as General Counsel of the Red Apple Group, after 28 years, to be an Arbitrator at the American Arbitration Association and to follow his purpose as Executive Director of the Loukoumi Foundation, where he now brings his Good Deed Curriculum to over 300 schools and will unite students across the globe at the first annual Loukoumi Good Deed Summit in in New York next month. On Friday, Nick partnered with WOHASU for one of the Loukoumi Foundation’s Good Deed Buses in Miami.
Nick is a motivational speaker including at the World Happiness Summit in Lake Como (2023) and London (2024), at the Kiwanis International Convention, the Wellbeingr Forum, the Leadership 100 Conference and the Ideagen Global Impact Summit, and is the recipient of numerous awards including the Crain’s New York Business/Blue Cross Blue Shield Whole Health Hero Award, Tegna’s National Make A Difference All-Star Award, The Points of Light Award, the Visionary Humanitarian Award and the Coca-Cola Scholars Foundation Educator of Distinction Award.
Dr. Tayyab Rashid is a senior lecturer at the Centre for Wellbeing Science, University of Melbourne. Dr. Rashid is also a faculty associate with the Human Flourishing Program at Harvard University. For nearly two decades, as a clinical psychologist, Dr. Rashid has worked with individuals experiencing complex mental health and trauma including 9/11 families, survivors of the Asian Tsunami of 2004, refugee families and journalists who have worked in high-conflict zones and with survivors of mass shootings. Dr. Rashid has delivered more than fifty keynotes and invited talks and trained mental health professionals and educators internationally in more than 20 countries. Published in academic journals, Dr. Rashid’s book Positive Psychotherapy (2018), co-written with Martin Seligman, is considered one of the most comprehensive clinical resources in the field and has been translated into several languages so far. Dr. Rashid won the Outstanding Practitioner Award (2017) from the International Positive Psychology Association (IPPA).–
Co-Founder of GOGO. Through the universal language of music, he has unlocked a bridge to reach Miami and Chicago’s most disenfranchised youth
Elina is a dynamic and provocative speaker and leadership advisor who pushes the boundaries of conscious leadership. Through her innovative insights and practical strategies, she equips leaders with the tools they need to authentically and purposefully navigate the complexities of today’s rapidly evolving business landscape.
Elina’s forthcoming book, “Feminine Intelligence: How Billionaire Philanthropists, Unicorn Founders and Happiness Pioneers Are Changing Business for Good” draws on her extensive experience working with leaders in dynamic startups, nonprofits, investment funds, and large multinationals.
Passionate about the transformative potential of philanthropy and the synergy between business and social impact, Elina has previously served as a global philanthropic advisor for the Allan & Gill Gray Foundation. Her close collaboration with the Gray family on strategic investing and social entrepreneurship has provided her with a rare vantage point at the intersection of leadership, identity, and business as a force for good.
While Elina’s career began as a corporate attorney at Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP, a renowned global law firm, where she tackled intricate financial and corporate matters for private equity and hedge fund clients, she soon realized that her true calling lay in merging law, entrepreneurship, and psychology to offer a fresh and compelling perspective on leadership.
Elina’s educational background includes a Master’s degree in Psychology from Columbia University’s Teachers College, a Juris Doctor degree from Columbia Law School where she earned the distinction of being a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar, and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from New York University where she graduated Magna Cum Laude. She has also completed the Columbia University Executive Coaching Program and holds certification as an Associate Certified Coach (ACC) from the International Coaching Federation (ICF). Additionally, Elina is currently pursuing her certification in Psychedelics Therapy from the California Integral Institute, further expanding her understanding of alternative approaches to healing and growth.
Former professional player, Giacomo Sintini has 18 years of volleyball experience, 97 appearances for the Italian national team, and 18 gold medals won in Italy and around the world.
In 2011, at the age of 32, he was diagnosed with lymphoma cancer and underwent a year of treatment and a bone marrow transplant. Upon his return to the court in 2012, with the opportunity provided by Trentino Volley, he played for 4 more seasons in the top Italian series and won 5 additional gold medals.
Giacomo is the President and Founder of the Giacomo Sintini APS charity association, which raises funds for onco-hematological research. He has also written a book about his difficult experience to aid the cancer community.
At the end of his professional sports career at 37, Giacomo joined Randstad and took on a new challenge in training and consulting. Today, he heads the sports and corporate training division of Randstad Italy and serves as the commercial manager for the Adriatic region of Randstad HR Solutions.
Giacomo has been knighted by the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic and has been a UNICEF ambassador for 10 years.
Graduated in Literature and Philosophy, Valentina Sangiorgi has twenty years of experience in the Human Capital field, particularly in business consultancy.
In 2009, she started working for Randstad, whose mission is to help people and organizations develop their true potential. She began in business and later became the Chief Human Resources Officer in the Italian holding company. She manages the strategic people operations for companies in the group located in Italy, Greece, and Turkey and is a member of the Board of Directors.
“Making work meaningful” encapsulates the essence of her work: to make a positive impact on society through people.
She is a keynote speaker at events focused on ED&I, organizational wellbeing, leadership, change management, and culture management and has spoken at several human resources master’s programs.
She is also a director on the boards of two companies within the group.
Elisa is a Latina leader and inspiring voice in promoting happiness and wellbeing. In her consulting business, she excels at developing impactful wellbeing and employee engagement programs and creating effective DEIB strategies, earning national recognition for her work in diverse cultural settings.
As a dynamic speaker, Elisa engages global audiences at events like the World Happiness Summit, sharing her passion for happiness, wellbeing, and social impact from a Latina perspective.
She is also the best-selling author of “Sparkle On Changemaker, a Practical Guide to Equitable Social Impact,” offering actionable insights for creating inclusive and equitable environments.
Elisa’s academic credentials include an Executive Education Certificate from Harvard, an MBA from IAE Buenos Aires, and a BA from Brown University. Her accolades include HACR Young Hispanic Corporate Achievers and the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Champion award.
She serves as the Hispanic Heritage Foundation Board Chair and is a Miami Fellows Program Fellow.
Elisa balances her professional and personal life as a wife and mother to a curious 4-year-old, bringing her unique sparkle to every aspect of life.
Jen Fisher is a leading voice on the intersection of work, well-being, and purpose. Her mission is to help leaders move from the legacy mindset that well-being is solely the responsibility of the individual to the forward-thinking idea of human sustainability, which focuses on how organizations create value for people as human beings, leaving them with greater health and well-being, stronger skills and employability, good jobs, opportunities for advancement, more equity, and heightened feelings of belonging and purpose.
She’s the co-author of the bestselling, award-winning book, Work Better Together: How to Cultivate Strong Relationships to Maximize Well-Being and Boost Bottom Lines, the Human Sustainability Editor-at-Large for Thrive Global, and the host of the WorkWell podcast series.
As the first chief well-being officer of a professional services organization, Jen built and led the creation and execution of a pioneering holistic and inclusive well-being strategy that has received recognition from leading business media brands and associations.
Jen is a frequent writer on issues impacting the workplace today, including the importance of mental health and social connection to workforce resilience, happiness, and productivity. Her work has been featured in CNBC, CNN, Fast Company, Fortune, Inc, Stanford Social Innovation Review, and Harvard Business Review, among others.
She’s a sought-after speaker and has been featured at events including, TEDx, World Happiness Summit, Out & Equal Workplace Summit, Acumen Global Gathering, WorkHuman, The Atlantic Pursuit of Happiness event, and more. She’s also lectured at top universities across the country, including Harvard, Wake Forest, Duke, and George Mason.
Jen is passionate about sharing her breast cancer and burnout recovery journeys to help others. She’s also a healthy lifestyle enthusiast, self-care champion, exercise fanatic, sleep advocate, and book nerd! Jen lives in Miami with her husband, Albert, and dog, Fiona.
You can find her on LinkedIn or Instagram @JenFish23. You can also receive her personal insights and reflections by subscribing to her newsletter, “Thoughts on Being Well” @jenfisher.substack.com.
Dr. Itai Ivtzan is passionate about the combination of psychology and spirituality. It makes his heart sing. He is convinced that if we befriend both psychology and spirituality, and succeed in introducing them into our lives, we will all become super-heroes, and gain super-strengths of awareness, courage, resilience, and compassion. Isn’t this an amazing prospect? Itai is a Positive Psychologist, a Professor at Naropa University, teaching and researching at the MA Clinical Mental Health Counseling: Mindfulness-Based. He is also an honorary senior research associate at University College London (UCL).
Over the past 20 years, Itai has run seminars, lectures, workshops and retreats in the UK, US, and around the world, at various educational institutions and at private events. He is a regular keynote speaker at conferences. He published five books, as well as more than 50 journal papers and book chapters. His main areas of research are positive psychology, mindfulness, and spirituality.
Itai is confident that mindfulness meditation has the power to change individuals – in fact, whole societies – for the better. Accordingly, he has been investing much time in studying mindfulness academically, writing books about it, teaching it, and training mindfulness teachers.
His passion towards personal transformation and growth led him to establish the School of Positive Transformation.
Introducing Nic Marks, statistician, author, TED speaker and founder of Friday Pulse™. Nic specializes in using the science of wellbeing to help individuals, businesses, and governments to track happiness.
Nic is a unique statistician with an unusual specialty – happiness. He has been working to create measures of people’s quality of life for the past three decades, with an emphasis on their emotional experience and happiness.
Nic trained as a statistician, studying Mathematics, Economics and Management Studies at Cambridge University, and then completing his MSc at the University of Lancaster. Since then, he has been on a mission to measure wellbeing and create lasting, positive change.
You can find out more about Nic at his website: https://nicmarks.org
Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine & Director for Penn Program for Mindfulness and the Penn Medicine Abramson Cancer Center
Jacqueline Brassey (PhD, MAfN) is a co-leader at the McKinsey Health Institute and a Senior Expert in the area of People & Organizational Performance. Furthermore, she is a research fellow at VU Amsterdam, an Adjunct Professor at IE University in Spain in the area of Sustainable Human Development and Performance and serves as a Supervisory Board member of Save the Children in the Netherlands.
Jacqui has more than twenty years of experience in business and academia and spent most of her career before joining McKinsey & Company at Unilever, both in the Netherlands and in the United Kingdom. Jacqui holds degrees in both organization and business sciences, as well as in medical sciences. She has a bachelor’s in international business and languages from Avans University of Applied Sciences, a cum laude bachelor’s and master’s in policy and organization sciences from Tilburg University, a PhD in economics and business from Groningen University and a joint master’s in affective neuroscience from Maastricht University and the University of Florence. She has (co-)authored and presented close to a hundred articles, books, podcasts and scientific papers.
She has worked and lived in five different countries, loves running, hiking and a good glass of wine, and currently lives with her South African/Dutch family in Luxembourg.
Sarah Cunningham is Managing Director of the World Wellbeing Movement (WWM), and host of the ‘Working on Wellbeing’ podcast series by the World Wellbeing Movement, where she engages in meaningful conversations with the world’s leading wellbeing experts.
Housed within the University of Oxford’s Wellbeing Research Centre, the World Wellbeing Movement’s aim is to improve the quality of life of people across the world by putting wellbeing at the heart of decision-making in both business and public policy.
Sarah’s own expertise, which bridges both the corporate and academic worlds, strongly aligns with the World Wellbeing Movement’s approach. She is a workplace wellbeing expert with >26 years leadership experience, gained in companies including Accenture, Google and Mastercard. Immediately prior to being appointed to her current position, Sarah was Vice-President and lead of Mastercard’s European Technology Hub in Dublin, where she was focused on creating a great place to work with employee wellbeing as the cornerstone. Sarah graduated first in her year from LSE’s EMSc in Psychological & Behavioural Science. She is also a graduate of the Smurfit Business School Senior Leadership programme in partnership with Darden University, and she has a Bachelor’s Degree in Business & Law from University College Dublin.
Lynn Richards, is the Senior Vice President for Policy and Implements for Blue Zones, LLC. The holistic Blue Zones approach in communities focuses on People, Places, and Policy, which includes policy changes within the built environment, food, tobacco, and alcohol sectors. Policy changes can help achieve long-term sustainable change within the community and increase overall well-being for generations. As the Policy Chief for Blue Zones, Lynn is responsible for collaborating with national policy experts across all fields to ensure that our recommended policy changes not only represent the latest research and innovation, but also meet the community exactly where they are. Lynn also directs Blue Zones Policy Services, which is our stand-alone consultant services.
Prior to joining Blue Zones, she was the President and CEO of the Congress for the New Urbanism, whose mission is to champion walkable urbanism. In this role, she launched the Project for Code Reform that led to code changes in Michigan, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Wisconsin; started CNU Legacy Projects, which provided pro bono technical assistance in under-served communities from leading urban design firms and has a 95% implementation rate; and advanced highway removal and transformation and working with Congressional leaders on legislation that includes a $10 billion Highways to Boulevards effort. Prior to CNU, Richards had a distinguished career at the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), holding multiple leadership roles over 13 years including Acting Director and Policy Director in the Office of Sustainable Communities. She worked with dozens of state and local governments to implement placemaking approaches by developing policies, urban design strategies, and environmental solutions for vibrant, prosperous neighborhoods.
Junk Kouture began 13 years ago as a small independent fashion competition for local secondary schools in the northwest of Ireland by Buncrana-based entrepreneur Troy Armour a “highly driven” philanthropist and tech company founder. Armour set up the project to create a sport for creative kids and the circular engineers of tomorrow as they’re challenged to create fashion outfits recycled from everyday junk and discarded waste.
Tia Graham is an international speaker and TEDx, best-selling author and consultant on positive psychology and team performance. She has worked with dozens of global companies such as Marriott Hotels, Kellogg’s, and Hewlett Packard to elevate employee engagement and drive bottom line results. Prior to founding her company, Arrive at Happy, she led teams at luxury hotels in the United States and Europe for brands such as W Hotels, Westin, and The London. With multiple certifications in neuroscience, positive psychology, and employee retention, and over 14 years of leadership experience, Tia is widely regarded by business leaders in her field. Her insights have been featured in major media such as CNN, Forbes, and Fast Company to name a few. Her best-selling book, Be a Happy Leader, teachers her proprietary 8-step methodology on driving productivity and business growth through a culture of happiness.
Rosie Acosta Author of “You are Radically Loved: A healing journey to Self-Love” has studied yoga and mindfulness for more than 20 years and taught for over a decade. She hosts a weekly conversational on her show The Radically Loved Podcast. Rosie has traveled all over the world leading workshops, retreats and meditation teacher trainings. She works with a wide range of students, from those in her East Los Angeles community to Olympic athletes, NFL champions, NBA All-Stars and veterans of war. A first-gen Mexican-American, Rosie’s mission is to help others overcome adversity and experience radical love. She’s been featured in Yoga Journal, Well + Good, Forbes, Entrepreneur, The New York Post. She currently lives in the greater Los Angeles region known as The Valley.
Winner of VeryWellFit’s Streaming Award for Best Wellness Podcast “The Radically Loved Podcast” Top Rated Health Podcast on iTunes
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Helena Águeda Marujo has a PhD in Psychology (Psychotherapy and Educational Counseling) from Lisbon University. She is currently an Associate Professor at Instituto Superior de Ciências Sociais e Politicas (Institute of Social and Political Sciences), University of Lisbon, where she serves as the Chairperson of a UNESCO Chair on Education for Global Peace Sustainability. She is also the Scientific Coordinator of the Post-Graduate Course in Applied Positive Psychology. She is a Senior Researcher at Centro de Administração e Politicas Publicas (CAPP, Centre for Administration and Public Policies, University of Lisbon). She is a TAOS Associate, a TILAC and a TIE member (Taos Latin-America, Spain and Portugal, and TAOS Iberia) and member of the Board of Directors of the European Network of Positive Psychology. Additionally, she is a member of the Council of Advisors of the International Positive Psychology Association, of the Medical Advisory Council of Make-A-Wish International and a member of the Evaluation Commission of the Postdoctoral Internship Program of UNICOM, Faculty of Social Sciences of the National University of Lomas de Zamora, Argentina. Helena is a research member of the Hope Barometer, an international research project, coordinating the Portuguese chapter. She has more than 60 scientific publications and countless of scientific dissemination papers, and the authorship and co-authorship of nine books, highlighting the following: “Positive Nations and Communities: Collective, Qualitative and Cultural-Sensitive Processes in Positive Psychology” (Springer, 2013), “Humanizar as Organizações: Novos Sentidos para a Gestão de Pessoas (Humanising Organisations: New Directions for People Management, RH Editora, 2019) and “Educação para a Paz Global Sustentável: Complexidades e Contributos”, (Education for sustainable global peace: complexities and contributions”, Pactor/ISCSP, 2022). She is also a collaborator of the upcoming Springer book “Hope Across cultures”.
Nadim is a Parenting Coach, father of 3 and best-selling author of seven books. He founded the Happy Confident Company to develop cutting-edge programmes and products for children, schools, and families. He has worked with renowned therapists and teachers, drawing from the latest research in child psychology and neuroscience to develop a parenting and whole school wellbeing programme that’s already changed the lives of over 100K families. He is a regular speaker on parenting themes in corporates and schools and has been featured in leading media publications including Sky News, The Sunday Times, The Telegraph, The Guardian and the BBC.
Amy Blankson is Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of the Digital Wellness Institute, Founder of Fearless Positivity, and bestselling author of The Future of Happiness. A graduate of Harvard and the Yale School of Management, she’s the only person to receive a Point of Light award from two US Presidents. She is also a member of the UN Global Happiness Council, a Fellow of the World Innovation Organization, a featured professor in Oprah’s happiness e-course, and a regular contributor to Forbes. Her current work focuses on how to cultivate happiness and well-being in the digital era.
Tyler Rice is the Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of the Digital Wellness Institute. As a leading digital wellness innovator, Tyler’s work focuses on designing new tools, training, and data measurements to drive awareness of the importance of digital well-being for enterprise clients. Motivated to fill this need from his own feelings of digital burnout in a fast-paced corporate environment, Tyler completed coursework through Stanford’s “Idea 2 Market” business incubator – and is in the midst of receiving his Master’s Degree in Public Administration and Social Innovation at NYU – to design solutions that promote human flourishing. He has presented at Cisco’s Annual Tech Conference and Collision North America, and his written work has been published by the Global Network of Workplace Wellbeing Professionals.
Michael Edwards leads McKinsey’s function responsible for the way McKinsey works. The function is dedicated to creating the operating system for the world’s best teams.
Michael has spent 14 years at McKinsey. He was originally a client serving Partner focused on Lifesciences. He has spent the last 6 years leading different parts of the people organization. As well as his global role Michael is the Director of People for McKinsey in the UK, Ireland, and Israel.
Development of McKinsey’s operating system for high performing teams. This is underpinned by research and analytics to identify the distinctive practices of high-performing teams. Research on hybrid working during and post COVID-19 lockdowns, to understand the impact of different co-location models on performance, experience, and apprenticeship. Creation of the onboarding journey for all new joiners to the Firm, including their introduction to Firm ways of working. Reinvention of McKinsey’s problem-solving approaches, to embrace a much wider range of different client challenges and potential solutions. Research into human performance, particularly focused on populations with high intrinsic skills and motivation.
Michael has an undergraduate degree in Chemistry from University College London. He is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.
Satoko Yano has 20 years of experience in international education and is currently a Program Specialist in Section of Education Policy at UNESCO HQs, heading UNESCO’s Happy Schools Initiative. She also leads a team working on education sector-wide policy/planning and is involved in providing technical assistance and capacity development support in education policy review, sector plan development and monitoring. Prior to joining the current section in 2018, she worked at various UNESCO offices, including Beijing, Bangkok, and New Delhi. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in psychology from University of Tokyo, Japan and a Master’s and Ph.D. in Comparative Education from Columbia University, USA.
Heather White is a nationally recognized conservation and environmental policy expert and a frequent spokesperson in national media on climate, energy, and conservation issues. Heather is the founder & CEO of the nonprofit, OneGreenThing.org, and author of One Green Thing: Discover Your Hidden Power to Help Save the Planet (Harper Collins, 2022). OneGreenThing is a nonprofit that tackles eco-anxiety through joyful daily action, inspiring culture change for policy solutions.
White’s twenty-plus years experience of service including working as a litigator at a prominent Nashville law firm, a campaign staffer and recount attorney for Al Gore’s presidential campaign, the energy and environmental policy legislative counsel for U.S. Senator Russ Feingold, and adjunct law professor at Georgetown University Law Center and the University of Tennnessee College of Law. White directed environmental education advocacy at the nation’s largest conservation organization, ran an environmental health watchdog in Washington, DC, and the led the nonprofit partner to Yellowstone National Park.
Heather was named one of the “Top 20 Women Leaders in Sustainability” by Green Building & Design magazine and “100 Women to Watch in Wellness” by MindBodyGreen. Heather has been featured on Good Morning America, CBS News, MSNBC, KTLA5, ACB7 in San Francisco, WGN in Chicago, and quoted in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and Teen Vogue. She’s recently spoken at Clinton Global Initiative, TedXBoston, UTA, AllTech Corporation, Hearst Publications, VF Corporation, Arizona State University, Warner Music Group, the Nashville Bar Association, Amazon, TIAA and bookstores across the country including Diesel books in Brentwood, Green Apple in San Fran, and Novel in Memphis. She lives in Bozeman, MT with her husband and two teenage daughters.
Alexandra is arguably one of the most knowledgeable female presenters in the world of motorsport having presented the live coverage for Eurosport Worldwide of the World Touring Car Cup for the past 9 years and now a resident face for the Auto Trader youtube channel alongside Rory Reid.
Alongside this, Alex has been busy most recently presenting on many other projects including: GIMS Qatar Daily Show; LoveCars TV show ‘On the Road’ with Tiff Needell and Paul Woodman; The London Classic Car Show ’23 with Alex Brundle; the Official Car of the Year ’23 Awards Ceremony in Brussels; the live stream shows & in-house videos for Aston Martin F1 team; Sports Presenter for London Formula-e; host for the F1 Paddock Club; the Supercar Festivals at Goodwood; and numerous online events including the recent Women in Motorsport discussion for the FIA
Alex is also the creator of Mindset Group Ltd – a holistic wellbeing brand that organises large wellbeing festivals and events including the well attended Mindset Unlimited Festival taking place once again in Sept 2024. www.mindsetunlimited.co.uk.
A qualified yoga teacher and mental health expert, Alex is also the creator of and presenter of 6 top selling yoga dvds. With 5* ratings, three are in the ‘Top Ten’ in the fitness DVD market and can be found on Amazon, in WHSmiths, HMV and in many supermarkets (Yoga Made Simple)
Jackie Henry MBE is managing partner for people and purpose at Deloitte and the lead partner for Northern Ireland.
Since stepping into her new role in May 2021, Jackie has been providing strong leadership of Deloitte’s UK people strategy and purpose agenda, and focuses on inclusion and wellbeing. She has spent her career with Deloitte and started out in the Belfast office, her hometown, 34 years ago.
For the past ten years she been lead partner for the Deloitte Northern Ireland practice. Under her leadership, the practice has grown from 80 people to over 1,300 with plans to double again. Later this year they will be moving into the historic Ewart building at the heart of the Linen Quarter.
In 2017, she was honoured with an MBE for services to the economy – including setting up the Belfast Delivery Centre and the creation of Deloitte’s BrightStart Degree and Graduate academy programmes. In 2021 she received an honorary doctorate from Ulster University in recognition of the key role has played in the economic prosperity and growth of Northern Ireland, and for her advocacy of diversity, inclusion and social mobility. In 2023 she was recognised as the Northern Ireland Business Woman of the Year.
Jackie’s commitment to diversity, inclusion and social mobility has been a focus throughout her career, and in 2019 she ranked in the ‘OUTstanding 50 Ally Executives List’ which highlighted the non-LGBT+ executives who are outspoken in developing and supporting their diverse workforces.
Jackie is inspired daily by her family, her husband and three children, and she credits her late-father for teaching her about business with his corner shop in Belfast.
AJ Hess is a Staff Editor for Fast Company’s Work Life section where they cover the changing ways people learn, earn, and work. AJ previously covered work and education for CNBC.
Sammy Loh is on a mission to help professionals tap into the power of creativity and connection at work. By combining human centered design-thinking and elements of play, he helps leaders build and nurture more innovative and resilient teams, while also infusing workplace cultures with some much-needed joy! Originally from Singapore, Sammy started his career as a graphic designer, creating visual solutions that inform and inspire. He’s been combining his creative background with his personal passion for workplace wellness, leading the Deloitte US Well-being team in implementing strategies, and creating tools, resources, and learning opportunities that support people’s ability to thrive in both their professional and personal lives. As a certified LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY® (LSP) facilitator, Sammy is leveraging the LSP methodology to unlock new knowledge, break habitual thinking and develop problem-solving skills utilizing our imagination. From building models and metaphors to sharing meaningful stories that inspire, he is using one of childhood’s most beloved and cherished toys as tools to create a culture of shared enthusiasm and purpose in the workplace.
Dr Radha Modgil is an NHS GP, a television, radio and podcast broadcaster and author on a mission to bring about positive change in the world and empower people.
Listed in The Big Issue’s 100 Change Makers 2022 List, One of the Top 50 Cheeriest social media accounts (The Guardian) and one of the most inspiring people who are leading the way when it comes to mental health awareness, Positive News.
Radha is the medical expert for both BBC Radio 1’s daytime show, Life Hacks, and BBC 5 Live’s Mental Health Clinic, and was the presenter of the CBeebies show, Feeling Better, which highlighted the importance of talking to young children about their feelings. She also appeared as the medical expert for The Sex Education Show on Channel 4 and Make My Body Younger on BBC Three. She has written for Psychologies magazine, The Guardian, MSN Lifestyle, The Huff Post and the online platform Having Time, and is a weekly columnist for The i Newspaper, writing about how we can all live our best lives, as well as being a monthly columnist for BBC Science Magazine.
Radha is passionate about helping people feel that they are not alone in their struggles and challenges they face. She’s worked on several wellbeing campaigns with BBC Children in Need, Public Health England, MIND and the British Red Cross and is an ambassador for the National Academy for Social Prescribing, the Youth Sports Trust, National Careers Week and the mental health charity We Are Beyond.
Dr Radha is an experienced panellist, keynote speaker, event host, and panel host for charities, corporate clients and arts and cultural organisations. Radha is a regular speaker at wellbeing festivals including NHS Health & Care Innovation Expo, Camp Bestival, The Big Retreat, Mind, Body & Spirit Olympia London, Cheltenham Wellbeing Festival and Headstock Festival, amongst others.
Radha has been an advisor and consultant to charities (Shout, HUMEN), corporate clients (UCAS) and wellbeing (NHS, Nuffield Health) as well as for individual arts & cultural projects.
Radha delivers wellbeing workshops in the workplace and for corporate clients and has worked with Women at the BBC, ACS International Schools, The Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, BBC Children in need, The Princes Trust, Media City, Group GTI, arts & cultural groups as well as community groups, universities and schools globally.
Radha also brings her expertise in innovative communications strategies and has consulted with corporates, arts and cultural organisations, charitable bodies, healthcare organisations, universities, schools and colleges and professional bodies about how they can best communicate their ideas and wellbeing campaigns to their specific audience.
The spread and variety of different audiences Radha broadcasts to requires her to be creative in her approach and innovative in how she communicates advice and support. She has worked with Public Health England, charitable organisations including the British Red Cross and MIND, Nuffield Health, the Motability Scheme on the Rough Guide to Accessible Britain, the Children’s Media Conference, National Careers Week and UCAS amongst others.
Radha is also a Trustee for Action For Happiness, a charitable organisation and innovative movement of people taking action collectively to create a happier world, through promoting a culture that prioritises kindness.
Her debut book, ‘Know Your Own Power’ (Yellow Kite, Hachette) was published in January 2021 in the UK, the US and Canada, Australia and India and is available on Audible, narrated by Radha herself.
Her book has been featured on BBC Radio 2, Waitrose Health magazine, Action for Happiness, the ‘i’ newspaper, Scala radio, Happiful podcast, Channel 4’s Steph’s Packed Lunch and Damian Barr’s literary salon.
Radha has also contributed to and been a consultant for many other books over the last 14 years, including ‘It’s All in Your Head’ by Rae Earl, ‘Help your kids with …’ by Professor Robert Winston, ‘Dear Katie’by BBC Radio 1’s Katie Thistleton, ‘Open’ by BBC Radio 6’s Gemma Cairney and ‘The Book of Hope’ by Johnny Benjamin and Britt Pfluger.
Follow Radha on Twitter @DrRadhaModgil and on Instagram @dr_radha.
Dorota Stanczyk is a Polish transformational artist, creative director, conscious creativity trainer, speaker and writer. Her passion is to combine fine arts, personal growth and interactive technology to raise awareness of new models and paradigms of living, working and be-ing. She is the founder of Moonkava, a Conceptual Creative Agency and INNERART Ltd – Transformational Arts Consultancy Agency which advises on creating digital products, events and spaces in the wellness industry that merge art, technology and personal growth. Dorota has worked with brands that include Christian Dior, Mindvalley and Uptime.
Dorota directed a full-length documentary on Enhanced States of Consciousness in collaboration with Mindvalley, where she interviewed experts from all around the world on well-being and flow states. Her first book (Re)-Create Yourself will be published by Hodder & Stoughton in February 2021.
Dorota is currently working on a documentary series on Hacking Happiness with Kim Ross, the Director of International Productions for Warner Bros. She is also building a global happiness app – a digital marketplace experience for ‘acquiring knowledge on happiness’ that makes learning affordable, accessible and social, with Mo Gawdat, the former chief business officer for Google X and author of the book Solve for Happy.
Alice Law is a Stress Management Consultant, Reiki Master, Mindfulness Practitioner, Vedic Meditation Teacher, Akashic Records Practitioner, Speaker, Host of the 5* rated podcast Unstressable and Co-Founder of online membership platform Unstressable.com.
She works holistically with clients teaching them how to identify, limit and manage their stress through mind, emotions, body & soul. Helping people to become the calmest version of themselves so they can reach their greatest potential. Working both privately 1:1 with clients, as well as companies such as RBS, Coutts, Joe Media and The British Embassy. She has been featured as an expert on Good Morning La La Land, the Evening Standard Magazine, CNBC, ABC and Fox News.
Alice understands stress from a unique position after she went through chronic stress for an 8 -year period when she was faced with loss in every aspect of her life all at once. During this time, she discovered the most effective processes for not just managing stress, but how to prevent it going forward. Having lost her own father to stress related illness, it is now Alice’s mission to help as many people as possible to dis- identify from stress and return to their natural state of calm & happiness.
Megan McDonough is cofounder and CEO of Wholebeing Institute, an educational organization focusing on the science of whole-person wellbeing. She uses divergent thinking and creative perspectives to lead, harnessing the best in people for the greatest good. With a degree in nuclear medicine, senior leadership experience in health care, two decades as a yoga practitioner and teacher, and experience directing numerous online-learning start-ups, Megan focuses on how to get from point A to point B through whole-person engagement. She’s an award-winning author of three books on mindfulness.
Cesar Cervantes believes human connection is what makes life good. But in a world focused on constant contact, too often we miss out on actually connecting. Cesar speaks and teaches on communication skills that result in authentic connection — with other humans! Cesar is an expert communicator training people to share their stories whether from stage, communicating with teams at work or on campus, or reaching audiences for business goals. He taught in the theatre department at Colorado College, was on Comedy Central’s Open Mic Fight, can be seen in the movie Line of Duty and has two TEDx talks featured on the TED website. He currently lives in Santa Fe, NM with his wife, daughter and their australian shepherd, Mia.
Diann Newman has been an educator/administrator at Florida International University since 1975. She has had administrative responsibilities ranging from the Director of Admissions to Associate Dean of Undergraduate Studies to her current role as Vice Dean for The Chaplin School of Hospitality and Tourism Management. Professor Newman also teaches Leadership Training for Teambuilding and Emotional Intelligence. Dr. Newman is a professional speaker and workshop facilitator. She conducts seminars on topics such as self-esteem, and communication skills and a frequent presenter at Rancho La Puerta. Dr. Newman is licensed in Florida as a Mental Health Counselor. She has co-authored the book, Human Resource Management: A Customer-Oriented Approach (Prentice-Hall). She has received recognition in the University for her excellence in advising and teaching and for her work in promoting the appreciation of diversity.
Danielle is a TV host, journalist, and content creator known for her open-hearted + compelling interview style. The Queen of Questions also added founder to her resume with her best selling card game “Question Everything.”
Noted by Forbes as a “game changer,” she is best recognized as the host of “PRETTYSMART,” Hello Sunshine’s “The Bright Side,” and E!’s “While You Were Streaming.”
Just like her mentor Larry King, she’s interviewed Hollywood’s biggest names, Fortune 500 CEOs, politicians, entrepreneurs, and thought leaders. Danielle’s goal is that we learn to live better through each other’s stories.
I am a leading authority on living lives worth living. As a speaker, researcher, and author, I help people live squander-free lives while they’re lucky enough to still be above ground — while cleverly beginning with the “big end” in mind. I named my business Four Thousand Mondays because it shines the light on the finite number of weeks we have to live like we mean it.
I have a Master of Applied Positive Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania, where I am an Assistant Instructor in the Master’s program and a trainer in the world-renowned Penn Resilience Program. Through my research I created a model that helps people learn the interplay of living wider (with vitality) and deeper (with meaning) to truly live life to its fullest.
As a certified coach with 25 years of corporate leadership experience, I have coached hundreds of companies, teams, leaders, and individuals over thousands of hours to “carpe diem” at an advanced level of certification through the International Coach Federation.
My book, You Only Die Once: How to Make It to the End with No Regrets, made Adam Grant’s Summer Reading List and is a Next Big Idea Club must-read. My TEDx talk is called How Death Can Bring You Back to Life; with over 1.3 million views, it is the 14th most-watched TEDx talk released in 2022, out of 15,900.
Nataly Kogan is a best-selling author, keynote speaker, and entrepreneur whose superpower is activating people to imagine what’s possible and grow into the thriving future selves they aspire to become.
Nataly immigrated to the US as a refugee from the former Soviet Union when she was 13 years old. Starting her American life in the projects and on welfare, she learned English by watching “Who’s the Boss?” on repeat.
She went on to reach the highest levels of career success at McKinsey and Microsoft, as a Managing Director at a venture capital fund, and as founder or executive at 5 startups and tech companies.
But after years of chasing a non-existent state of nirvana, Nataly suffered a debilitating burnout that led
her to find a new way to live and work.
Nataly founded Happier Inc., whose gratitude sharing mobile app, courses, Happier @ Work and leadership programs have helped more than a million people lead more fulfilling lives.
She is a sought-after international keynote speaker and has appeared in hundreds of media outlets, including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Harvard Business Review,
Forbes, and Time.
Nataly is the author of Happier Now, The Awesome Human Project, and The Awesome Human
Journal, and hosts the REINVENT•ABILITY podcast to empower people to embrace change
with a mindset of possibility and purpose.
Nataly began painting when she turned 40 and is a self-taught abstract artist. She is
passionate about the power of art to fuel our well-being.
She loves yellow, overuses the word “awesome”, and is the funniest person in her family. (Just
ask her husband and daughter, her favorite awesome humans.)
For more, visit natalykogan.com.
Laura Marciano is a Research Associate at the Harvard Chan T.H. School of Public Health in the Department of Social and Behavioral Science, Lee Kum Sheung Center for Health and Happiness, and an associate at the Digital Wellness Lab at Boston Children’s Hospital. She is the Principal Investigator of digital media and well-being research projects, including the HappyB and HappyB2.0 projects, funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation and the National Institute of Health, and co-Principal Investigator on the Health and Happiness Study, in collaboration with Garmin. These projects use innovative methods like Ecological Momentary Assessments and digital biomarkers to explore the relationship between smartphone use, social media, and teen well-being. She also leads a science communication project on adolescent social media use and well-being by connecting research findings with practical activities combining arts and science. Among other translational activities, she co-organized the Lugano Happiness Forum.
Laura earned her PhD in Health Communication in Switzerland, where she received the best doctoral thesis award in Social Sciences. She previously studied Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience in Milan (Italy), where she graduated with Laude and Menzione ad Honorem. As a board member of the IBSA Foundation for Scientific Research, she promotes science dissemination and has authored the book Smartphone: Ally or Enemy? She is the author of more than 40 research papers and book chapters, and her recent research has been highlighted in the New York Times.
Caspar Kaiser is an Assistant Professor in Behavioral Science at Warwick Business School. He is also a Research Fellow at Oxford University’s Wellbeing Research Centre and chair of the board of the Happier Lives Institute. His research focuses on the measurement and determinants of wellbeing. Caspar is the author of numerous academic articles and has published in world leading journals including Nature Human Behaviour and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Micah Kaats is a PhD candidate in Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School. He also serves as a Research Associate for the Wellbeing Research Centre at Oxford University and Senior Analyst for the Happiness Research Institute in Copenhagen. His research focuses on the determinants and downstream effects of social connections and subjective wellbeing. He has designed, implemented, and supervised studies of more than 20,000 participants in over 24 countries. His research has been published in the United Nations World Happiness Report and featured in the Financial Times and the Economist. Micah holds Master’s degrees in Applied Ethics and Economic Policy from Utrecht University, and a Bachelor’s degree in Philosophy from UPenn.
Dr. Julie Radlauer is a leading expert in the social influences of mental health and uses her experience to create impact within communities, systems, organizations, and individuals. She has extensive experience in behavioral health, public health, and organizational development and speaks internationally, is a TEDx speaker, and a published best-selling author.
Websites:
Collectively
Dr. Julie Radlauer