Chip Conley

Co-founder of Modern Elder Academy

Chip Conley is on a mission. After disrupting the hospitality industry twice, first as the founder of Joie de Vivre Hospitality, the second-largest operator of boutique hotels worldwide, and then as Airbnb’s Head of Global Hospitality and Strategy, leading a worldwide revolution in travel, Conley co-founded Modern Elder Academy in January 2018.

Inspired by his experience of intergenerational mentoring as a ‘modern elder’ at Airbnb, where his guidance was instrumental to the company’s extraordinary transformation from a fast-growing start-up to the world’s most valuable hospitality brand, Modern Elder Academy is the first-ever ‘midlife wisdom school.’ Dedicated to reframing the concept of aging, Modern Elder Academy supports students to navigate midlife with a renewed sense of purpose and possibility. Modern Elder Academy has more than 3,000 alumni from 42 countries and 26 regional chapters globally and is expanding to the United States with a new campus and regenerative community slated for Santa Fe, New Mexico to open in 2024.

Conley is also the award-winning author of New York Times bestseller Emotional Equations, alongside Peak: Great Companies Get Their Mojo from Maslow, The Rebel Rules, Marketing That Matters: 10 Practices to Profit Your Business and Change the World, and Wisdom at Work: The Making of a Modern Elder, which forms the core of the Modern Elder Academy’s curriculum. Conley’s book A Year of Wisdom coming out this year is based on daily inspiration and insight from his Wisdom Well blog. Learning to Love Midlife, a book about rebranding midlife to help people understand a life stage that is misunderstood, will be released in January 2024.

A near-death experience survivor, Conley is the recipient of hospitality’s highest honor, the Pioneer Award, and was named the Most Innovative CEO in the San Francisco Bay Area by the San Francisco Business Times. He is the founder of the Celebrity Pool Toss which supports families in the Tenderloin neighborhood where he opened his first hotel and San Francisco’s Hotel Hero Awards. Chip holds a BA and MBA from Stanford University and an honorary doctorate in psychology from Saybrook University. He serves on the board of Encore.org, and the advisory board for the Stanford Center for Longevity.

Silvia Haba de Merlo

Regional Summit & Network Senior Manager at The Wellbeing Project

Panama

Silvia is a deep believer in the power of community, connection, and inner growth as the paths for social transformation. She has spent over a decade working in NGOs and social enterprises, leading social and emotional learning programs for children, young adults, and change-makers. In the midst of the pandemic and experiencing [what she later came to understand as] symptoms of burnout, she understood the importance of taking care of oneself in order to keep taking care of others and promoting social impact. She founded Coimpacta, an online community for Spanish-speaking changemakers to cultivate their wellbeing and self-development by accessing international experts and peer-support spaces. You will often find her out in nature (especially the ocean), dancing or learning something new. She was born and raised in Madrid, Spain, and has lived in France, China, and Belgium before moving to Panama in 2014. She is thrilled to be a part of The Wellbeing Project movement and community. In collaboration with The Wellbeing Summit and the Networks Teams, her work enables expanding the messages and experiences of inner wellbeing for social change to a regional and local level.

What does inner wellbeing mean to you?

Feeling at peace, with yourself and with others, while striving to keep evolving and contributing.

How would you define wellbeing in one word?

Love.

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

Meditation, stretching, Qi gong, yoga, playing music (piano, guitar, singing), walking in nature, and spending time with loved ones. Watching sunrise and/or sunset.

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

“We cannot practice compassion with other people if we do not treat ourselves kindly.” – Brené Brown

“Peace between countries must rest on the solid foundation of love between individuals.” – Mahatma Gandhi

Do you have any favorite books, podcasts, or articles that you believe support, promote or educate on wellbeing and related themes?

Online course: The Power of Awareness – Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach

App: Richard Davidson’s “Healthy Minds”

Book: “The Gift: 12 Lessons to Save your Life” – Edith Eger

Connect with SILVA HABA DE MERLO on social media :

Alana Chávez

Senior Manager of Digital Marketing at The Wellbeing Project

Mexico City,

Mexico

Connect with Alana Chávez on social media :

Alana Chávez is a Digital Marketing and Content professional hailing from Mexico. With over eight years of experience in the industry, Alana has honed her skills in creating compelling content and crafting effective marketing strategies for a wide range of mass consumer goods, government agencies, technology companies, fintech startups, and more.

Alana is a true storyteller at heart. She has a passion for anything that tells a story, whether it’s a captivating novel, a thought-provoking film, or a great conversation. She firmly believes that human beings connect best through stories and that storytelling is the key to creating content that resonates with audiences. This enthusiasm for storytelling is reflected in her work, where she creates content that not only informs but also entertains and engages her audience.

As the Senior Manager of Digital Marketing for the Storytelling team, Alana is dedicated to creating a captivating and inspiring narrative that motivates others to embark on their own wellbeing journey.

What does inner wellbeing mean to you?

Feeling at ease with being a work in progress.

How would you define wellbeing in one word?

Awareness.

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

Long walks in nature.

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

Because well-being inspires well-doing.

Do you have any favorite books, podcasts, or articles that you believe support, promote or educate on wellbeing and related themes?

Brené Brown’s podcast “Unlocking Us” taught me everything I know about self-awareness, the key to inner wellbeing.

Celina de Sola

Glasswing International

New York, NY,
USA

Celina de Sola is co-founder and president at Glasswing International, an El Salvador-based organization that combines community-based initiatives with strategies to strengthen public education and health services. Her work focuses on designing and implementing innovative, community-based initiatives that bring together institutions and people for joint action. Prior to Glasswing, de Sola worked as a crisis interventionist for Latino immigrants in the US and led humanitarian crisis response projects in Liberia, Sudan, Afghanistan, Iraq and Indonesia. She is a Fellow of the Obama Foundation, Ashoka, LEGO ReImagine Learning, Penn Social Impact House. She is also an Audacious Project and Skoll Foundation Awardee, and a Tallberg Global Leader. Celina holds a master’s degree in Public Health from Harvard University and one in Social Work from the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Social Policy and Practice.

Matilde Siman Kim

Mental Health Specialist

Glasswing International

Miami, FL,
United States

Licensed mental health clinician with 10+ years of experience, focused on helping democratize mental health access in Latin America. Leverages clinical expertise to partner with private and public organizations to build programs. Passionate about strengthening the intersection between practice and policy. Matilde currently serves as a Mental Health Specialist for Glasswing’s Strategic Partnership team, working to align industry standards, research, and services in the mental health sector that are relevant to Glasswing’s work. At the beginning of her career, Matilde focused on Latino and migrant mental health by providing clinical psychotherapy to Spanish-speaking youth and families. Matilde holds a masters degree in Counseling Psychology from Boston College, a Foundations in Mental Health Certification from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, a Psychological First Aid Certification from John Hopkins University, and a Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy Certification from the PESI Institute.

Connect with Matilde Siman Kim on social media :

Co.act Detroit

Detroit, Michigan,
United States.

Co.act Detroit is a hub that accelerates transformative impact with nonprofit and community organizations in southeast Michigan through collaborative idea generation, cross-sector resources, and equitable access to world-class programming and learning opportunities.

Co.act Detroit is the home of the Nonprofit Wellbeing series, which celebrates the vital connection between self and community care and pushes for a culture shift around wellbeing at the organization and sector level. Through a quarterly series of workshops, activities, and conversations, we provide access to virtual resources and best practices that equip nonprofit professionals with strategies to support their teams and wellbeing.

Nonprofit mental health and wellbeing is also a frequent topic of conversation in our podcast, Natural Collisions. Past episode topics include creating cultures of wellbeing at work and the impact of the pandemic on women’s careers and the mental health of women in the nonprofit workplace.

Connect to Co.act Detroit on social media :

Website

Chris Underhill

Social Entrepreneur and Professional Mentor

Chris Underhill MBE is a social entrepreneur and professional mentor. He has worked in the field of the Wellbeing, Resilience, and Mental Health since he started Thrive in 1978 (www.thrive.org.uk). The organisation provides to this day an opportunity for many people with different needs to benefit from gardening and horticulture whether as a hobby or a vocation. Chris is a serial social innovator and has established many organisations over the years in addition to Thrive. To give several examples: Action on Disability and Development (ADD), working in the developing world with disabled people creating systems of representation, advocacy, and policy creation. BasicNeeds in the field of community mental health worldwide, and citiesRISE in the field of mental health and the big city.

He has founded several other organisations as well, but coming up to date, he Chairs the Mental Health Collaboration of Catalyst 2030 and is cofounder of the Elders Council for Social Entrepreneurs. The Elders Council for Social Entrepreneurs gives practical support to founders as they make successions within and away from their organisations as well as the encouragement of younger social entrepreneurs as they field the complex challenges and transitions that inevitably confront them.

Chris is a well-known and sought after professional mentor and his practice, Mentor Services, has been carefully nurtured since 2000. Chris has been married to Giselle for 52 years, and they have three grown-up children and six grandchildren. He is an Elder of the Wellbeing Project and attended the Wellbeing Summit in Bilbao working on both Eldership and Mental Health within the wider context of Wellbeing. He is a recipient of the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship, an awardee in Social Entrepreneurship of the Schwab Foundation, and a Senior Fellow of Ashoka. In 2000 he was honoured with an MBE by HRH the Queen for his work in disability and development.

Click here to learn more about Mentor Services.

Connect with Chris Underhill on social media :

Julia Hotz

Julia Hotz is a solutions-focused journalist currently writing THE SOCIAL PRESCRIPTION (2024), a book exploring the science and stories of social prescribing by chronicling how doctor-led interventions for nonmedical supports —like art, nature, exercise, volunteer service, conversation groups, and economic resources—are making healthcare more effective, equitable, and sustainable. Her stories have appeared in WIRED UK, The New York Times, The Boston Globe, TIME, Popular Science, Scientific American, and more. After studying sociology at the University of Cambridge, she joined the Solutions Journalism Network, where she helps other journalists and entrepreneurs do and spread rigorous, evidence-based reporting on solutions to today’s biggest problems.

Dan Morse

Dan Morse is the co-founder of Social Prescribing USA, a network of leaders working to advance the US Social Prescribing movement. His team of volunteers are coordinating a US grassroots physician movement, organizing a network of 400+ experts, and catalyzing prospective pilot studies in collaboration with professors at Harvard, Stanford, University of Michigan, reps from hospitals, Cleveland Clinic, and the NIH. Aimed to be the “public town square” of the moment, the organization is also building a free site to allow people to find social prescriptions by zip code.

Dan has spent the past decade focused on social determinants of health, from organizing place-based health interventions in Detroit to founding an award-winning health empowerment restaurant. Today, Dan is on the founding team of a new Bachelor’s degree-granting college in San Francisco, called Make School (now Dominican University). The college prepares students from disadvantaged backgrounds to get jobs at companies like Apple, Google, Tesla, and NASA. Dan has pioneered data-driven programs that address students’ social determinants of health and foster academic success. He graduated from the University of Michigan Ross School of Business with honors.

Dr. Ardeshir Z. Hashmi

MD, FACP, FNAP.

He is the Endowed Chair of Geriatric Innovation and Section Chief of the Center for Geriatric Medicine at Cleveland Clinic. Dr. Hashmi completed a two-year postdoctoral research fellowship at Yale University. He completed his Internal Medicine residency at the Yale-Saint Mary’s Hospital in Connecticut, where he served as Chief Medical resident. He then trained at Massachusetts General Hospital as a Clinical and Research Fellow in Geriatrics before becoming Faculty and then Medical Director of MGH Senior Health-Harvard Medicine. Dr. Hashmi subsequently transitioned to the Cleveland Clinic.

He is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians and the National Academies of Practice, a graduate of the Clinical Process Improvement Leadership Program and the Value Based Healthcare Delivery program via the Harvard Business School Institute of Strategy & Competitiveness. Dr. Hashmi is also certified as an Advanced Peer Coach through the Cleveland Clinic Center for Excellence in Coaching and Mentoring. He is Co-Chair of the national American Geriatrics Society (AGS) Patient Priorities Care Special Interest Group (SIG) and serves on the AGS Health Systems Innovation Economics & Technology Committee and the Society for General Internal Medicine’s Geriatrics Commission. Dr. Hashmi is also a member of the Association of Chiefs and Leaders in General Internal Medicine (ACLGIM). He is an alumnus of the prestigious Tideswell Emerging Leaders in Aging (ELIA) national leadership development program (in conjunction with the American Geriatric Society and the University of California San Francisco) and the ACLGIM LEAD programs. He is also a member of the American College of Healthcare Executives. Dr. Hashmi’s niche area of interest is the intersection of technology and population health in the service of our most vulnerable populations.