Emma Seppälä, PhD

Best selling author of The Happiness Track & lecturer at Yale

A best-selling author, Yale lecturer, and international keynote speaker. She teaches executives at the Yale School of Management and is faculty director of the Yale School of Management’s Women’s Leadership program.  A psychologist and research scientist by training, her expertise is the science of happiness, emotional intelligence, and social connection. Her best-selling book The Happiness Track  (HarperOne, 2016) has been translated into dozens of languages. Seppälä is also the Science Director of Stanford University’s Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education. 

Annelies Richmond

International Director,

SKY Campus Happiness

An international trainer of meditation, breathwork, leadership, and social connection, and has trained 1000+ certified teachers globally. She speaks and teaches at institutions such as Yale University, Purdue University, Texas A&M, Google, and the United Nations. She founded SKY Campus Happiness in response to the dire need for powerful well-being solutions in our universities and is passionate about empowering our young people.

Uma Viswanathan

Executive Director,

New Pluralists Collaborative

Uma Viswanathan is Executive Director of New Pluralists Collaborative, a funder and field collaborative that is strengthening the growing field of funders, practitioners, storytellers, researchers, and innovators who are working together to satisfy our deep cultural hunger to heal our social divisions and widen our circle of human concern. She brings 15 years of experience leading, advising, and investing in people and projects dedicated to creating positive social change. Uma is a certified meditation and breathwork instructor and received a BA in psychology and an MA in the history of science from Harvard University.

Dr. Sheila Caldwell

VP of Antiracism & DEI, Chief Diversity Officer

Southern Illinois University System

Dr. Sheila Campbell works across the campuses to strengthen equity and ensure a level playing field for all faculty, staff, and students. Most recently, she has received notable awards for championing diversity and inclusion efforts. Caldwell earned a Doctorate in Education from the University of Georgia. Her professional affiliations include memberships and board appointments with the National Association for Diversity Officers in Higher Education, NAACP, National Urban League, Springfield African American History Museum, and Complete College America. Dr. Caldwell  is intently focused on dismantling oppression, pursuing justice, and restoring balance among people.

Navin Goyal, M.D.

Physician & CEO

LOUD Capital

Navin Goyal, M.D. is a physician and entrepreneur who serves as CEO of LOUD Capital, an early-stage venture capital and alternative investment firm leveraging capital, entrepreneurship, and education to grow impactful companies across the globe. Before co-founding LOUD Capital,  he co-founded OFFOR Health (formerly SmileMD), a venture-backed mobile healthcare company that expands access to care across the US with a dedicated focus on lower-income and rural communities. His story, his experience, and what he sees as an opportunity for people to have a broader impact on themselves and society is the focus of his book, Physician Underdog.

Johann Berlin

Founding Partner,

Human Action Ventures

Johann Berlin is currently the Founder Partner of Human Action Ventures. He's a TLEX Institute Board Member, focused on training the trainers. In his previous role as CEO of TLEX, Johann worked with business schools at Harvard Business School and Yale SOM, as well leading companies like Amazon and Microsoft doing keynotes, leadership gathers & launching digital content supporting over a million users with evidence-based breathwork. He serves as an ongoing advisor to the CEO and Board of Cooper Investors. As a board member and community volunteer, Johann is passionate about growing resilient schools, local economies, and youth leadership.

Yasser Arafat Payne

Associate Professor

University of Delaware

Dr. Payne completed his doctoral work at the Graduate Center-City University of New York where he was trained as a social-personality psychologist.  Dr. Payne completed a postdoctoral fellowship funded by the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIH-NIDA) on a re-entry and intervention based research project in New York City’s largest jail, Rikers Island. Dr. Payne teaches courses on research methods, gangster rap music, Egyptian spirituality and other topics. He is also a filmmaker, meditator and animal rights activist.

Dara Ghahremani, Ph.D.

Research Professor & Neuroscientist

Department of Psychiatry, UCLA

Dara Ghahremani, Ph.D., is a research professor and neuroscientist in the Department of Psychiatry & Biobehavioral Sciences at UCLA. His research focuses on self-regulation, its brain basis, how it is weakened in people with mental health problems, and how it may be strengthened. He studies the impact of breathing techniques on behavioral and brain measures of self-regulation in adolescents and adults who are healthy and those who have problems with addiction.

Isha Sharma

Climate Business Strategy Unit

World Bank

Isha Sharma currently works at the World Bank’s Independent Evaluation Group and Climate Business Strategy Unit. Isha has worked in areas of macroeconomics, development finance, climate resilience and finance, infrastructure, sustainability, gender, digital development and skills training. With an upbringing in seven countries, her diverse cultural and professional background in the public, private and non-profit sector allows her to add multifaceted perspectives to international development issues. Passionate about youth leadership, Isha is a World Economic Forum Global Shaper and a United Nations Sustainable Development Fellow

Manda Wittebort

Program Coordinator,

University of Florida

Manda Wittebort earned a BA in Developmental Psychology and a Master's in Higher Education. She served two years in Baton Rouge schools as a CityYear AmeriCorps member, and then served in the Peace Corps Youth & Families sector. As an educator, she is committed to leveraging student voice through shared visions with students and community members. It is through this passion that she works at the University of Florida as a Program Coordinator in Brown Center for Leadership & Service (BCLS) focusing on Changemakers’ Dialogue, Path to Purpose, and Programs dedicated to Leadership through Social Change.

Honorable Julie M. Lynch

Honorable Judge,

Common Pleas Court, Franklin County

Judge Julie M. Lynch is an alumni of The Ohio State University, Cum Laude and has been a speaker for the Ohio Ethics Commission, the Ohio State Bar Association, the Columbus Bar Association, the Ohio Municipal Lawyers Association and Private Industry on Professionalism and Substance Abuse. Judge Lynch is currently leading the statewide initiative for the Prison Smart Program as well as the Power Breath breathing program for veterans.

Alex Morgan

4th Year Biology - Physics Student

University of New Brunswick

Alex is a fourth-year biology-physics student at the University of New Brunswick in Canada. He has partially devoted his university experience towards sustainable development projects in Latin American countries with Global Brigades, digging trenches for clean drinking water systems in Honduras. Further, he will have virtually designed 2 water systems as of May 2022. Alex has also acquainted his peers with mindfulness practices through organizing meditation retreats with his school’s GB chapter.

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