Dr. Bethell is a Professor in the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University, where she serves as the founding director of the Child and Adolescent Health Measurement Initiative (CAHMI) within the Department of Population, Family, and Reproductive Health. The CAHMI was established in 1996 as a national collaborative to advance a family-centered, population based framework and common measurement and family engagement methods to promote the early and lifelong health of children youth and families. This work has led to the development, validation and national, state, and local implementation and reporting of measures with a focus on early childhood development, children with special health care needs, adolescent preventive services, medical home, and a variety of family centered care topics. She leads the National Data Resource Center for Child and Adolescent Health (www.childhealthdata.org), supported through HRSA’s Maternal and Child Health Bureau as well as efforts to develop, test, and disseminate family-driven quality measurement and improvement tools such as the Well-Visit Planner. She is passionate about enabling data-driven partnerships and leveraging the new brain sciences, mindfulness and other mind-body methods to transform health and related services, with a focus on addressing childhood trauma, promoting positive health and advancing High Reliability Organizations. She earned an MBA and an MPH from the University of California, Berkeley and PhD in public policy from the University of Chicago.
Holly Carter
Holly began her career as a writer and editor at The New York Times and was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. Since then she lived in Korea as a Henry Luce scholar and print and television journalist; produced the award-winning documentary, Margaret Sanger; co-founded North Carolina’s Full Frame Festival; served as a consultant for The After-School Corporation; produced the PBS series Media Matters; and most recently was the Executive Director of The Global Film Initiative.
Jim Brasher
Jim has served as chief development officer and consultant to a number of highly successful national and global institutions. Jim was also a pioneer in developing intergenerational learning for HNW philanthropic families as the Founding Director of the Global Philanthropists Circle at the Synergos Institute. His in-depth understanding of the substantive issues of global health, peace and conflict resolution, human rights, and agriculture comes in part from serving as Special Assistant to President Jimmy Carter in the founding, development, and expansion of The Carter Center.
As a senior non-profit executive and consultant to more than 40 leading national and global organizations, Jim has provided a broad range of professional services including organizing and managing comprehensive development and communications divisions, directing historic capital campaigns, designing branding and positioning strategies, and building highly effective institutional development staffs.
His early work in directing capital campaigns including those for the UNCF and The Carter Presidential Library and Museum; helping to build organizations like the Carter Center from the ground up; manage fundraising in turn-around and spin-off situations like the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS); diversifying the donor bases for global research institutes like icddr,b in Bangladesh, The International Vaccine Institute in South Korea, CIAT in Colombia; and building and staffing comprehensive development functions at other institutions.
Ali Jawaid
Dr. Ali Jawaid is a physician-scientist with training in both clinical and basic neuroscience. He completed his medical studies from Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan in 2007, and followed it up with clinical/research training in Neurology from Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA. He then proceeded to complete an MD-PhD in Neuroscience from Switzerland (simultaneous PhD degrees awarded by UZH/ETH International Program in Neuroscience and UZH MD-PhD program). Ali has worked extensively in the fields of memory, dementia, neurodegenerative disorders, neuroepigenetics, neurodevelopmental disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, and addiction. He has authored 60+ pubmed publications and four book chapters, and has received awards and honors from multiple academic organizations. He has published in Science, Nature Neuroscience, Neuron, Nature Communications, and Molecular Neurobiology and has a current H-index of 16 (he has 16 papers, which have been cited at least 16 times). He also chaired the European MD-PhD association between 2016 and 2018, and is a fiction author outside of scientific work.
Ali is a very strong proponent of translational science, mechanistic and ‘proof of concept’ research, innovation in medical sciences, and using science for humanitarian causes that are not only limited to disease prevention and therapeutics, but also for resolution of human conflicts and peace building. His work has been widely featured in internationally renowned magazines, scientific blogs, and TV channels.
Dr. Patricia Gerbarg
Patricia L. Gerbarg, M.D., Assistant Clinical Professor in Psychiatry, New York Medical College. Dr. Gerbarg has lectured and taught about a wide range of topics in psychiatry, psychoanalysis, women’s issues, trauma, neurobiology, natural treatments (herbs, nutrients ), and the integration of mind-body practicesin psychotherapy for the American Psychiatric Association (APA) Meetings and many other conferences, academic centers, and community organizations.She serves on the APA Caucus on Complementary and Integrative Psychiatry and is a board member of the American Botanical Council.
Dr. Gerbarg practices Integrative Psychiatry, combining standard and complementary treatments. Her research focuses on mind-body practices for reducing the effects of stress and trauma, particularly in survivors of mass disasters, including the Southeast Asia Tsunami, 9/11 World Trade Center attacks, 2010 earthquake in Haiti, war in Sudan, Gulf Horizon Oil Spill, veterans, and stress-related medical illnesses.
Meera Seshadri
Meera is a health communications specialist, researcher, and activist working at the intersection of gender-based violence prevention and sexual health promotion. She has spent over a decade working to increase access to, and utilization of, comprehensive sexual health resources for adolescents in communities worldwide, developing violence prevention and education programs at Emory, Georgetown, and Harvard Universities and working as a consultant and curriculum development specialist for Soteria Solutions, the Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the World Bank.
She is passionate about confronting the ideological and institutional challenges that affect young people’s health, wellness, and autonomy. Meera works in coalition with university, non-profit, corporate, and community stakeholders to create policies and environments that prioritize gender equity, intersectionality, and social justice.
Sahar Hafeez
Sahar practices international trade, sanctions, and human rights law at Pillsbury law firm. Sahar is passionate about using global rules/mechanisms to create economic opportunities for people all over the world.
John Balkam
John is an author, social entrepreneur, and sports marketing professional. He’s the author of 3-Win Sponsorship: The Next Generation of Sports & Entertainment Marketing, published by New Degree Press in December 2019. In addition to his writing and consulting work, he is helping to build a new purpose-driven sports marketing agency called 17 Sport, which operates at the intersection of sport, business, and purpose.
Gretchen Steidel
Founder and President of Global Grassroots, an international organization that leads a social venture incubator and mindful-leadership program for women and girls in East Africa. She has an MBA from the Tuck School at Dartmouth and a BA in Foreign Affairs from the University of Virginia. She is author of the recently published: Leading from Within: Conscious Social Change and Mindfulness for Social Innovation, and lectures and teaches on mindfulness and social change worldwide.
Dr. Richard Brown
Dr. Richard P. Brown is an Associate Professor of Clinical Psychiatry at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons where he obtained his medical degree 1977. The recipient of numerous awards, he has authored over 100 scientific articles, books, and book chapters on pharmacological treatments, clinical studies, and complementary and integrative treatments in psychiatry.
Dr. Brown developed a comprehensive neurophysiological theory of the effects of breathing exercises on the mind and body, particularly its benefits in anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Dr. Brown gives over 100 lectures and courses every year. Since 1998, he has taught full-day courses on complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) as well as Mind-Body trainings for the American Psychiatric Association, other national and international conferences, veterans, and community service programs.
