Elvina Charley, Ed.S. is Diné (Navajo) school psychologist practitioner and integrates mindfulness as a part of serving children and youth. Charley has been practicing mindfulness since 2013, introduced to her by Bonnie Duran, Ph.D. as a way to heal from historical trauma. She found parallels between her Diné philosophy of life – Sa’ah naaghái bik’eh hózhóón and Buddhism. Charley continues to cultivate her practice through people of color retreat programs through the Insight Meditation Society and Vallecitos Mountain Retreat Center. She recently taught alongside Bonnie Duran and Syra Smith at the first all Indigenous Retreat in Vallecitios in the mountains for Carson National Forest in New Mexico.

The Rev. Jacqui Lewis, Ph.D. uses her gifts as author, activist, preacher, public theologian toward creating an antiracist, just, fully welcoming society in which everyone has enough. After graduating with an M.Div. from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1992, Jacqui fell in love with urban ministry, leading two churches in Trenton, New Jersey. Fascinated with how faith heals the soul—so we can heal the world—she returned to graduate school, for a Ph.D. in Psychology and Religion from Drew University (2004). Jacqui came to study Middle Church, received a call, and joined the staff in January 2004. Middle is the church of her dreams and prayers, a multiethnic rainbow coalition of love, justice, and worship that rocks her soul.

Anu Gupta (he/him) is a lawyer, educator, scientist, and the Founder of BE MORE with Anu. His approach to speaking about science, technology, and imagining an inclusive future is rooted in his multifaceted, intersectional identities. He is a proud American who is also an immigrant, a cisgendered man, a person of color of Asian Indian descent, and gay.

He founded BE MORE in 2014 after seeing the social and financial harms of bias to individuals, organizations, and communities firsthand. He foresaw the numerous possibilities available when people have access to mindfulness practices and scientific wisdom. He synthesized his skills as an attorney, research scientist, and a meditation teacher to build programs centered on advancing equity and belonging unlike any that existed before.

Anu has logged over 10,000 hours of meditation and developed BE MORE’s approach after 15 years of research that was funded by the National Science Foundation, Nathan Cummings Foundation, the American Heart Association, among others. He has brought BE MORE’s data-driven, human-centered, and science-backed approach to over 300 organizations like the NALP, PBS, Google, the Innocence Project, and the American Medical Association reaching over 50,000 professionals – from lawyers, doctors, and engineers to rabbis, Buddhist monks, and frontline activists - impacting over 25 million lives. Anu has extensively written and spoken about this work, including on the TED stage, SxSW, the Oprah Conversation, Fast Company, and Newsweek.

Prior to founding BE MORE, he worked as an attorney, a research scientist, and a middle school teacher in the United States, Europe, and Asia. Anu is a trained mindfulness and yoga teacher (500-hours) and his meditations can be found on the Insight Timer, Open, and the Ten Percent Happier meditation apps. He obtained his JD from NYU Law, where he was a Root-Tilden Scholar, an MPhil in Development Studies from Cambridge University, and a BA in International Relations & Islamic Studies from NYU. Currently, he serves as a Systems Designer for Penn State Dickinson Law’s Antiracist Development Institute and a participant in “Exploring the Heart of Freedom,” a 16-month program on the liberating promises of ethical conduct and meditation. He lives in NYC with his partner. Follow him @bemorewithanu

As a former college athlete on the Pomona-Pitzer dive team, and life-long lover of movement and dance, Dr. King has always been fascinated with the relationship between wellness and embodied healing practices. She has been an avid student-practitioner of vinyasa yoga, as well as a student of Mahayana and Theravada Buddhism for 14+ years.

Her passion for studying contemplative practices and yoga led her to complete the 200 hr. Awakened Heart, Embodied Mind yoga teacher training at Exhale Yoga with Julian Walker and Hala Khouri. In this program she was trained to teach yoga in a trauma-sensitive way that incorporates an understanding of somatic therapy and neuroscience. Following her 200 hr. yoga teacher training, she completed a 6-week training in mindfulness meditation at U.C.L.A. through their Mindful Awareness Research Center.

Afterwards, she completed a 5-day Yoga, Purpose and Action Leadership Intensive with Off The Mat Into the World, with Hala Khouri, Seane Corn, and Susan Sterling where she deepened her understanding about the relationship between social justice practices and yoga.

Dr. King has also completed a year long 500 hr. Advanced Mindfulness, Yoga, and Meditation Teacher training at Spirit Rock in Marin, CA with Anne Cushman, Philip Moffitt and Jill Satterfield (to name a few of the core teaching staff).

In total, she has completed 86 days of vipassana/silent meditation retreat practice in the Buddhist/Insight Meditation lineage. She is dedicated to maintaining a daily meditation and yoga practice as an integral part of deepening her personal practice and ability to live what she teaches.

Dr. King is a proud wife and mother to one magical daughter – her family and sangha of friends inspire and motivate her to practice and to continue to open her heart more than anyone. She loves spending time in and around the ocean (pretty much anywhere) and especially hiking through the redwood and oak forests of Northern California.

Rashid Hughes seeks to bridge the worlds of contemplative practice and collective care. He is a proud graduate of the Howard University Department of Music and the Howard University School of Divinity. Rashid is a certified Mindfulness Teacher, a certified Yoga Instructor, a Restorative Justice Facilitator, and currently in training to become a Fire Pujari. All of Rashid’s perspectives flow from the two wisdom traditions of contemplative and restorative practices.

In 2019, Rashid co-founded the Heart Refuge Mindfulness Community, a community in Washington, DC that inspires Black, Indigneous, and People of Color (BIPOC) to live with love and courage in the face of systemic inequities and ongoing racial-violence. Out of his unwavering love for community care and healing, Rashid facilitates weekly mindfulness sessions to support BIPOC in living with joy, while also understanding and resolving the impact of trauma on their bodies and lives. Due to his interest in challenging the ideas and systems that uphold a culture of patriarchy today, he also facilitates mindfulness sessions for BIPOC masculine & male identifying people who are particularly committed to addressing issues of masculinity and the culture of patriarchy.

As a Restorative Justice Facilitator, Rashid holds the title of Restorative Justice Program Specialist at the non-profit SchoolTalk Inc. in Washington, DC. In that role, he collaborates with DC schools to create restorative spaces for youth to envision healing-centered approaches to school discipline, accountability and community building. When school classrooms went virtual in 2020, Rashid launched SchoolTalk’s Our School Our Voice initiative, a citywide collaboration between SchoolTalk and four schools in the District of Columbia. Our School Our Voice is student-designed, student-led, and rooted in Rashid’s vision of creating peer groups for students to engage with other students from different communities and elevate their voices.

In 2020, during the heart of the COVID-19 pandemic, Rashid created a contemplative practice, R.E.S.T.-A Practice for the Tired & Weary, to provide practical means for people to find clarity and confidence in the midst of such devastating and uncertain times.

In 2021, Rashid expanded the R.E.S.T. practice into a 5-Week Online Course & Practice Group. In collaboration with the Garrison Institute’s Fellowship Forum, Rashid joined Dr. Angel Acosta in conversation around the intersections of the R.E.S.T. practice, liberation and contemplative practice with a particular focus on how this practice is an antidote to the systems of capitalism and white supremacy.

Rashid’s writings have been published by Mindful Magazine, Lion’s Roar Magazine, and his first peer reviewed essay on R.E.S.T. was featured in the Journal for Contemplative Inquiry's volume, Transcendent Wisdom and Transformative Action: Reflections from Black Contemplatives, a “special edition focusing on the insights and wisdom of Black contemplative practitioners, researchers, scholars, educators and artists. Today, Rashid is devoting his time to a new interest, exploring the role of ceremony and contemplative practice in creating the conditions for a more just and caring world.

Alison McCrary (she/her) is a conflict resolution trainer, mediator, social justice movement lawyer, restorative justice practitioner, and an internationally sought-after speaker on social justice, spirituality, and liberation. She has also served as a Spiritual Advisor on Louisiana’s death row for 17 years. She formerly served as the Movement Capacity Building Strategist supporting about 50 formerly-incarcerated-people-led non-profits in the United States, the Statewide Campaign Manager for the Unanimous Jury Coalition abolishing a 138-year-old Jim Crow law in Louisiana, the founding Director of the Louisiana Re-Entry Mediation Program, the Executive Director of the National Police Accountability Project, President of the Louisiana Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild, and Founding Director of the New Orleans Community-Police Mediation.

She teaches Christian Ethics at Loyola University-New Orleans and served as the Practitioner-In-Residence at Wake Forest University’s School of Divinity. As a 2010 Soros Justice Advocacy Fellowship in New Orleans, she challenged and changed policing practices and policies to transform relationships between police officers and the bearers of New Orleans’ indigenous cultural traditions. She works on issues related to criminal justice reform, environmental justice, immigrant rights, international human rights, cultural preservation, voting rights, disaster recovery, housing rights, and provides support to various social justice movements and organizations locally, nationally, and internationally. Prior to law school, she worked at the Capital Post-Conviction Project of Louisiana providing litigation support on death penalty cases and at the United Nations monitoring the implementation of U.N. Security Council Resolutions relating to women, peace, and security. She received her J.D. from Loyola University’s College of Law in New Orleans and her B.A. in English at Georgia State University in Atlanta. She also completed coursework and programs at Johannes Gutenburg Universität in Mainz, Germany, University of Surrey in London, Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, Loyola University Chicago, and Catholic Theological Union. Alison is an enrolled tribal citizen of the Ani-Yun-Wiya Cherokee Nation.

Susan Jin Davis has 30 years of experience in the telecommunications, media, entertainment, and technology industries. She currently serves as Social Impact Officer for Al Roker Entertainment, a leading producer of TV, digital, branded programming and entertainment. She is also an advisor for ALO Advisors, a consulting firm specializing in areas of sustainability, diversity, and corporate social responsibility.

She also serves as faculty for the Center for Creative Leadership in the areas of organizational leadership, women’s leadership, and diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Most recently, Ms. Jin Davis was a senior executive at Comcast Corporation, where she held a multitude of roles over a 15-year career at the Company, including becoming the company’s first Chief Sustainability Officer, creating the framework for the company’s Environmental, Social, and Governance disclosures, operationalizing its renewable energy and energy efficiency strategy, and contributing to transforming its fleet to low-carbon vehicles. She also has deep experience in the areas of cyber security, privacy, and online safety and security.

Ms. Jin Davis is a well-experienced and well-respected executive in the area of diversity, equity, and inclusion (“DEI”). While at Comcast, Ms. Jin Davis negotiated a historic Memorandum of Understanding between Comcast and the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) national community as part of the company’s acquisition of NBCUniversal. This created ground-breaking diversity commitments in the areas of programming, supplier, employment, and community investment that are the foundation for the company’s current DEI strategy.

She led the launch of Comcast’s Internet Essentials Program, which offers affordable high-speed internet for low-income households. Now in its tenth year, Internet Essentials is Comcast’s largest, most successful community investment initiative, which has connected more than 10 million low-income Americans to all the opportunities of a digital world through low-cost, high-speed internet at home.

An advocate for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs) in business and corporate America, she is active in the AAPI community nationally. She serves as the Chair of the Board of the Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies (APAICS) and serves on the Board of the Asian/Pacific Islander American Chamber of Commerce & Entrepreneurship (National ACE). Additionally, Ms. Jin Davis is a past board member of Leadership Education for Asian Pacifics, Inc. (LEAP), the Asian and Pacific American Scholarship Fund (APIA Scholars), and the Juvenile Law Center. She was recently appointed to the Sustainability Advisory Board of Penn State University’s Smeal School of Business. Her other volunteer leadership service includes the Board of Directors of Chestnut Hill College and the Board of Trustees of her undergraduate alma mater, Bryn Mawr College where she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science.

She holds a Juris Doctor degree from Penn State University’s Dickinson School of Law. The active runner, arts lover, and foodie lives in Kennett Square, Pa. with her daughter, Sophia.

Janna Bilski works on the Investments team at the Ford Foundation, an international social justice philanthropy focused on advancing social justice and reducing inequality. Janna started a mindfulness and meditation program at the Ford Foundation in 2016 which she leads on a weekly basis. Janna sees the practices of mindfulness and meditation as integral components for long-term social change and advancing social justice. Janna is also a founding member of Mindful on Wall Street which seeks to amplify the reach of compassion and mindfulness in the financial services industry. Janna completed the Training in Mindfulness Facilitation (TMF) at the Mindfulness Awareness Research Center and Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA and also has been training as a Buddhist meditation teacher since 2017. Janna received her B.A. from New York University's Gallatin School of Individualized Study and completed post-graduate studies at Regent's College School of Psychotherapy and Counseling in London, England.

TaWanda Hunter Stallworth, MDiv, is the Program Manager for the Antiracist Development Institute at Penn State Dickinson Law. Over the course of her career, she has been actively involved in many racial justice projects throughout Pennsylvania's capitol region, including serving as the Criminal Justice Co-chair for the Lancaster NAACP, serving on the Boards of Directors for both the Lancaster and Carlisle YW’s, leading the effort to rededicate Lincoln Cemetery (Memorial Park), and currently serving as a Board Member for the LGBT Center of Central Pennsylvania and as the Co-Chair for the Truth & Reconciliation Commission for the Borough of Carlisle.

In her current role, Mrs. Stallworth has oversight of the "Building an Antiracist Law School, Legal Academy, and Legal Profession" book series project that will lay the foundation for the Antiracist Development Institute. Mrs. Stallworth holds a Bachelor of Science in Organizational Behavior and Applied Psychology from Albright College, a Master of Divinity from Lancaster Theological Seminary, and a Certificate in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the Workplace from the University of South Florida.

Wizdom Powell is Director of the Health Disparities Institute and Associate Professor of Psychiatry at UConn Health. She serves as the President of the American Psychological Association, Division 51 Men and Masculinities, and is an honorary professor at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban, South Africa. Formerly, Dr. Powell was Associate Professor at Health Behavior at UNC-Chapel Hill’s Gillings School of Global Public Health and Research Associate Professor in UNC’s Department of Social Medicine. Dr. Powell also served as Associate Director of the Center for Health Equity Research, faculty member at UNC’s Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, and Director of the UNC’s Men’s Health Research Lab.

In 2011-2012, she was appointed by President Obama to serve as a White House Fellow to Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta. In this role she provided subject matter expertise on Military Mental Health (e.g., PTSD, Suicide, and Military Sexual Trauma). Her community-based research focuses on of the role of modern racism and gender norms on African American male health outcomes and healthcare inequities. She has published numerous peer-reviewed articles and book chapters including ones in the American Journal of Public Health, Journal of General Internal Medicine, Behavioral Medicine, and Child Development.

In addition to being a White House Fellow, she is an American Psychological Association (APA) Minority, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Kaiser Permanente Burch, Institute of African American Research, and Ford Foundation Fellow who received a Ph.D. and M.S. in Clinical Psychology and M.P.H. from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor. She serves as chair of the APA’s workgroup on Health Disparities in Boys and Men and co-chair of the Health Committee for President Obama’s My Brother’s Keeper Initiative in Durham County.

In recognition of her public service to boys and men, she received the American Psychological Association’s (D51) Distinguished Professional Service Award. In 2015, she received the prestigious Phillip and Ruth Hettleman Prize for Outstanding Artistic and Scholarly Achievement by Young Faculty. Dr. Powell was awarded a 2017 academic writing residency at the Bellagio Center from the Rockefeller Foundation. During this highly competitive residency, Dr. Powell will work with other global leaders on strategies for transforming social and healthcare system landscapes to address gendered health inequities among vulnerable males. Most recently, she was selected as a Health Innovator Fellow by the Aspen Institute.

Helen Hyun-Kyung Park, LCSW, MFA (she/her) is an anti-oppressive, healing-centered family and couple therapist, social worker, artist, and meditation teacher. She draws upon her experiences in the arts, contemplative practice, and social justice activism to create a way of working with clients that is relational, creative, somatic, and decolonized. She is a practitioner of Tibetan Buddhism and student of Somatic Abolitionism. Helen received a Masters of Social Work from New York University, Masters of Fine Arts in Digital Art/New Media from University of California Santa Cruz, and completed her post-graduate clinical training in family therapy from the Ackerman Institute for the Family. Helen sits on the Board of Buddhist Peace Fellowship and maintains a small private practice in Lenape Territory, colonially known as New York, City.