Dr. Sará King

Neuroscientist

Dr. Sará King is a neuroscientist, political and learning scientist, education philosopher, social-entrepreneur, public speaker, and certified yoga and mindfulness meditation instructor. She specializes in the study of the relationship between mindfulness, art, complementary alternative medicine, community health and social justice. She is currently a post-doctoral fellow in Neurology at OHSU , a Garrison Institute Fellow and Society for Neuroscience Associate, and a member of Google’s well-being think tank “Vitality Lab”. She is the Co-Director of the Embodied Social Justice Certificate Program, as well as she is the Director of Science and Healing for Mobius – an organization dedicated to stewarding the development of liberatory technology. She is the founder of MindHeart Consulting, a scientific consulting firm through which she offers up “The Science of Social Justice” framework and the “Systems Based Awareness Map” (SBAM) which she created to explore our capacity to heal intergenerational trauma and promote the well-being of “collective nervous systems”. She is currently partnered with the Museum of Modern Art in N.Y. to bring her applied neuroscience research on the (SBAM) to the world as a part of their “Artful Practice For Well-Being” Initiative.

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Dr. Eddie S. Glaude Jr

Educator, author and political commentator

Dr. Eddie S. Glaude Jr., is an educator, author, political commentator, and public intellectual who examines the complex dynamics of the human experience. His writings, including “Democracy in Black: How Race Still Enslaves the American Soul”, “In a Shade of Blue: Pragmatism and the Politics of Black America”, and his most recent, the New York Times bestseller, “Begin Again: James Baldwin’s America and Its Urgent Lessons for our Own”, takes an exhaustive look at Black communities and the democratic challenges we face. He is also a former president of the American Academy of Religion, with a number of best-selling books published on religion and philosophy. He is the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor and Chair of the Department of African American Studies, on the Morehouse College Board of Trustees, an MSNBC contributor and a columnist for TIME Magazine. Combining a scholar’s knowledge of history, a political commentator’s take on the latest events, and an activist’s passion for social justice, Glaude challenges all of us to examine our collective conscience.

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Thomas Blettery

Ashoka

Thomas is an enthusiastic intrapreneur in the fields of Social Entrepreneurship and Changemaker Education.

After launching a humanitarian non-profit serving Peruvian orphans at the age of 16, he realized 15 years ago the power of social entrepreneurship by contributing to the creation of a social bakery empowering Dalit people in Chennai, India. This transformative experience made him realize the power of learning how to fish compared to just giving a fish. Until he stumbled upon Ashoka – the world’s pioneer network of system-changing social entrepreneurs – and discovered how nearly 4,000+ women and men across the world are positively transforming entire fields to bring about lasting social change.

He joined Ashoka in 2010 and is, since then, investing his energy in making Ashoka’s vision a reality: creating a world where everyone is inclined and equipped to become a changemaker.

Jennifer Woodlard

Georgetown University

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A Professor of psychology and adjunct professor of law at Georgetown University, Jennifer Woolard began her career at the National Victims Resource Center. While obtaining her doctoral degree in developmental and community psychology at the University of Virginia she also served as a victim-witness volunteer in the county police department, a staff member to the Virginia Commission on Family Violence Prevention, and a consultant with Virginians Against Domestic Violence (now Virginia Sexual and Domestic Violence Action Alliance) . She then joined the MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Adolescent Development and Juvenile Justice and became an assistant professor at the University of Florida’s Center for Studies in Criminology and Law. In 2002 she joined the psychology faculty at Georgetown University. Her research and action laboratory, the Georgetown Community Research Group, studies individual and family experiences with systems of care and control in order to create fair, effective, and just legal processes. Projects examine how youth and parents understand the right to remain silent, the right to an attorney, and the right to a trial. Her lab is the evaluation partner for the Youth In Custody Practice Model initiative, which helps juvenile correctional institutions implement evidence-informed and developmentally-appropriate practices. Dr. Woolard has testified as an expert before federal and state legislatures as well as in juvenile and criminal cases. She has presented her research findings to a wide variety of academic, legal, and policy audiences, and won several awards for teaching excellence, including the Dean’s Award for Teaching Excellence. She currently serves as chair of the Psychology Department.

Bill Kelly

Co-Creation Team Advisor

Trained as a lawyer, and a social entrepreneur by instinct, over a long career I worked in government, practiced law, and co-founded a nonprofit affordable housing consortium. I was an Ashoka board member for many years and now serve on the board of the Low Income Investment Fund, a lender to and supporter of community facilities around the United States.

My wife Cindy, sons Pat and Brian in Minneapolis and Nairobi, and four grandkids continue to enrich my life in so many ways, with their diverse interests, their high ambitions, their ideas and their love. Cindy and I live among the trees in Washington DC, love the wilderness, and celebrate the fact that we are a part of nature, often by biking, canoeing, or hiking.  Avid readers of many genres, we learn from discussions in several book groups.

Claire Wathen

Skoll Foundation

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As Director, Network & Partnerships, Claire cultivates the global Skoll network of social entrepreneurs and innovators, funders, private, and public sector leaders. Animated by the power of connection, Claire works with partners across systems to help unlock resources and bridge ecosystems. To intentionally bring new voices into the network, Claire leads network engagement for the Skoll World Forum and supports other Skoll convenings. She launched and now oversees the Skoll World Forum Fellowship and TEDx Skoll Conversations programs.

Prior to Skoll, Claire managed the San Diego Zoo’s internal innovation lab under the CFO. She worked with corporate R&D teams, led organizational experiments, hosted tech community events, and prototyped field conservation and learning tools. An alum of Seth Godin’s altMBA and John Paul the Great Catholic University, she advises impact organizations on network building and growth strategies.

Dr. Julia Kim

Program Director, Gross National Happiness Centre Bhutan

Dr. Julia Kim is the Program Director of the Gross National Happiness Centre Bhutan. She joined the GNH Centre after serving as a member of the International Expert Working Group for a New Development Paradigm, convened by the Royal Government of Bhutan. Prior to living in Bhutan, Julia worked as a physician and HIV researcher in Africa and Asia, before serving with the United Nations (UNDP and UNICEF) in New York. She brings a background in leadership development, research, and policy in the fields of wellbeing economics, global health, and sustainable development, and is an Executive Committee member of the Club of Rome, and an associate of the Presencing Institute – a global network that views awareness-based systems change as a core capacity for 21st-century innovation and leadership

Kyla Carlsen

Co.act Detroit

Detroit,
Michigan

In her role as the Senior Director of Program Strategy & Innovation, Kyla oversees the co-creation of capacity building programs and community-centered grant-making for social change organizations with an emphasis on equity and access, network building and cross-sector collaboration.

Kyla is Lean Six Sigma Green Belt certified and has experience leading and managing teams, facilitating design thinking sessions to develop innovative approaches to solve problems, program strategy and implementation, project management, fund development and collaborating with stakeholders to scale impact. She previously served as Senior Operations and Financial Manager for the Detroit Economic Growth Corporation, overseeing small business programs with a combined annual budget of $8mm and supporting commercial corridor development, increasing resident access to goods and services, and economic mobility.

Kyla has a background in finance, facilitating access to capital, capital readiness, and closing the racial funding gap for entrepreneurs and social impact organizations. She is passionate about innovating alternative social and economic investment strategies to achieve more equitable outcomes.

Kyla is an alumnus of the Detroit Global Shapers hub, an initiative of the World Economic Forum that connects a network of young leaders driving dialogue, action and change in their communities. She enjoys traveling, supporting small businesses, spending time with her ten year old pitbull, wine and cooking.

What does inner wellbeing mean to you?

Feeling whole inside and out (mentally, physically, emotionally, spiritually), pouring from a full cup, listening to and prioritizing what my mind body and spirit need.

How would you define wellbeing in one word?

Care.

Are there any rituals or practices you use to enhance your wellbeing?

Meditation, journaling, gratitude, exercise, walking, laughing, spending time with people I love and my dog, enjoying sunshine or nature, writing, doing things that bring me joy, laughter and make me smile.

Why is it important that we prioritize individual, organizational and societal wellbeing?

We can’t heal our communities until we heal ourselves. Many of the social issues our organizations work to address – poverty, hunger, racial and social inequity, education and youth development – are rooted in system issues that require the collective healing of ourselves and our communities. Until this healing process happens at scale, we will continue to address these societal challenges reactively instead of actually eradicating them, and burning ourselves out while doing so.
Do you have any favorite books, podcasts, or articles that you believe support, promote or educate on wellbeing and related themes?

Coact has a wealth of wellbeing resources and webinars in our resource library, we are also launching a Wellbeing Toolkit. Personally I’ve used Beth Kanter’s resources, and Rachel Hollis’s podcast and practices to create my own wellbeing rituals.

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Co.act Detroit

Martin Kirchner

Pioneers of Change (Austria)

Cohousing Pomali,
Lower Austria

Designing and leading educational programs for Changemakers since 2010, producing the yearly Pioneers of Change Online Summit with > 100.000 participants since 2017, director of the NGO “Pioneers of Change” which integrates inner work and outer action, founder of Cohousing-Community “Pomali” where he lives happily with 30 other families with his wife and 3 wonderful kids, originally a software engineer and climate activist

What does inner wellbeing mean to you?

The foundation for contributing to “the more beautiful world” in the outside.

How would you define wellbeing in one word?

Interbeing

Are there any rituals or practices you use to enhance your wellbeing?

Yes, long nature walks, meditation and yoga with breathing exercise, eating well, cultivating friendships.

Why is it important that we prioritize individual, organizational and societal wellbeing?

To not repeat old patterns.
Do you have any favorite books, podcasts, or articles that you believe support, promote or educate on wellbeing and related themes?

The book “The Choice” from Dr. Edit Eva Eger (Auschwitz survivor)

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Pioneers of Change