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Cardinal Timothy Radcliffe OP

Cardinal, The Order of Preachers (The Dominicans)

Cardinal Timothy Radcliffe OP was born in 1945, a member of a Yorkshire family. He is one of six children. He was educated by the Benedictines at Downside, and then joined the Dominican Order (the Order of Preachers) in 1965, He studied in Oxford and Paris, and was a chaplain to Imperial College before returning to Oxford to teach from 1975 to 1988. He was Prior of Blackfriars, Oxford, and then Prior Provincial of the English Province. He was involved in ministry to people with AIDS as well as teaching and writing. He was President of the Conference of Religious for England. In 1992 he was elected Master of the Order of Preachers and moved to Rome. During his nine-year term, he spent 8 months a year visiting the Dominican Family, which is in more than a hundred countries, spending much of his time in places where the brethren and sisters are under pressure, for example Rwanda, Burundi, the Congo, Iraq, Vietnam, China, Mexico, Algeria and so on. In 2001, he returned to England and is again based at Blackfriars, Oxford, but spends more than half the year abroad. He has an honorary Doctorate of Divinity from University of Oxford and honorary doctorates from universities in France, Switzerland, Italy and the United States. He is an honorary fellow of St John’s College, Oxford, and a Sarum Canon of Salisbury Cathedral. They have been translated into 24 languages. He gave the presynodal retreats in 2023 and 2024, and was created a cardinal by Pope Francis in October 2024.

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Mallika Dutt

Program Director, Gender Equity and Governance, Hewlett Foundation

Mallika Dutt is the Program Director of Gender Equity and Governance at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. The portfolio addresses economic and reproductive equity along with inclusive governance in East and West Africa, Mexico and the United. States. Prior to joining the foundation, she founded and led INTER-CONNECTED, where she supported transformational change through an interplay of self, community, systems, and the earth. She draws from ancient wisdom, contemplative practices, storytelling, and spirit guidance in centering the well-being of people and planet. As the founder and leader of Breakthrough, she has employed culture to change culture through award-winning multi-media campaigns, music albums and videos, video games and more that have touched millions. She also headed a social justice and human rights program in South Asia with the Ford Foundation. A recipient of multiple awards, she received the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship in 2016. Mallika has served on several boards and committees and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Mallika is a graduate of NYU Law School and Columbia University’s School of International Affairs. She is also the recipient of an Honorary Doctorate from her undergraduate college, Mount Holyoke.

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Donna Kerridge

Chief Bottle Washer, Ora New Zealand

Donna Kerridge (Ngāti Tahinga, Ngāti Mahuta) is the founder and director of Ora New Zealand. She is a Māori healer, trainer and advocate of 20+years in Rongoā Māori. Donna is also a registered medical herbalist and qualified naturopath with a degree in Health Science. In a previous life Donna has led major IT projects for New Zealand and international corporations. Donna has co-authored a number of peer reviewed, published research papers on the subject of Māori healing and two of her own small publications. She currently serves on a number expert advisory groups representing the practice of rongoā;  ACC Rongoā Māori National Advisory Panel Member  Rongoā advisor on the University of Auckland School of Nursing Te Arai Kaumatua Advisory,  Kaihautū Rongoā for Nga Toki Whakarururanga, a mediation mandated organization established to ensure that New Zealand international trade agreements advance and protect Māori interests in accordance with the rights and responsibilities assigned in Te Tiriti o Waitangi.  Advisory Council for the Global Compassion Coalition, an organisation committed to building a world where people and planet are valued and cared for.  Elder Council for the Wellbeing Project, a global coalition advancing social and environmental change

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Tracy Ferron

Founder and Board Chair, Life On Art

Tracy Ferron is Founder and Board President of Life On Art (LOA), a Northern California-based non-profit using artmaking as a tool for well-being and community resilience. Life On Art’s offerings combine community artmaking, creative arts therapies, social action, and large-scale public art exhibitions. Their customized programs further social and environmental justice movements and transform the world through love, creativity, and community building. Tracy’s passion for mental health and arts equity emerged from her experiences with her two severely mentally ill brothers, and her personal journey of transforming childhood trauma into purpose and social action through art. With LOA, Tracy developed a platform to create large-scale art installations through participatory and therapeutic community processes with populations facing systemic injustices. Life On Art offers these community services through its center in Sonoma County, in Petaluma, CA. Through the symbology of winged hearts and cages, Ferron’s artworks have illuminated incarcerated rights at San Quentin Rehabilitation Center (2020) and gender equity and voting rights at the Sacramento Women’s March (2020). Large-scale installations at the Museum of Sonoma County explored medical experimentation on children (2018), the murder of global activists (2019), and community celebration of loved ones for Día de los Muertos (2021, 2023, 2024). Tracy conceived and produced Unbound (2021-22), an 80-foot community made sculpture of hundreds of paper mâché winged hearts flying free from a cage in an innovative year-long partnership at one of California’s largest psychiatric facilities. This project brought art-making engagement to over 1500 people:–500 psychiatric patients, 200 staff and 800 community participants–creating a sense of belonging and uplift. Unbound was recognized nationally with a first place award for Arts for Innovation by the National Organization for Arts in Health in November 2022. Tracy co-produced Visions of Hope (2024), a multi-media installation featuring the art of nearly 200 men and women incarcerated in California state prisons. Life On Art continues to run its Heart Stories art workshops in men’s and women’s prisons in 2025. Tracy lives in Northern California with her husband and their three dogs and loves depth psychology and storytelling.

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Hannah Rothschild

Head of Communication, Van Leer Foundation

Hannah is the Head of Communications at the Van Leer Foundation. Her experience merges diverse interests in urban policy, multi-stakeholder collaboration and strategic communication. Previous roles across environmental start-ups, innovation think tanks and international organisations, have deepened her belief that human storytelling, cross-sector partnerships and effective policies are essential for environmental and social change. Hannah holds a master’s in Urban Policy and Governance from Sciences Po Paris and a B.Com in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from the University of Cape Town.

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Dr. Nisha Sajnani

Director, NYU Graduate Program in Drama Therapy, New York University; Co-Director, Jameel Arts & Health Lab

Nisha Sajnani, PhD is the Director of the Graduate Program in Drama Therapy and the Theatre & Health Lab at the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development at New York University (NYU). She is also the founding co-director of the Jameel Arts & Health Lab, a global collaboration with the World Health Organization, where she leads an international research network focused on strengthening the evidence base for the health benefits of the arts. Dr. Sajnani’s work sits at the intersection of health equity, aesthetics, and cultural production. Her research investigates the therapeutic factors and outcomes of drama therapy and the creative arts therapies, as well as the broader public health value of the arts. She has received over $4 million in research funding and her scholarship has been recognized with awards from the American Psychological Association, the North American Drama Therapy Association (NADTA), the American Society for Group Psychotherapy and Psychodrama, and NYU. An active cultural producer, Dr. Sajnani creates and curates performances, exhibitions, and multimedia projects that examine social determinants of health and foster public dialogue on wellbeing. She curates the Arts & Wellbeing summer series at Lincoln Center and is the creator of Drama Therapy as Performance, a documentary series on contemporary approaches in the field. She also serves as editor-in-chief of Drama Therapy Review and is the founder of the World Alliance of Drama Therapy, supporting global collaboration and advocacy for the field. Dr. Sajnani is widely published across academic and professional platforms. Her co-edited volume, The Psychological and Physiological Benefits of the Arts, was recognized among the top 20 most-downloaded ebooks of 2022 by Frontiers in Psychology. Through her research, artistic work, and leadership, she continues to explore how aesthetic experience can advance equity, cultivate empathy, and promote collective human flourishing.

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Mai-Nadine Nguyen

Farmer-Activist, Farmer Mai

Mai Nguyen is a problem solver committed to healing the root causes of climate change and social inequality. As a climate scientist turned farmer, land justice advocate, and strategist for racial equity in agriculture, Nguyen brings systems thinking to the urgent work of restoring our collective relationship to land, labor, and one another. Their work centers ecological belonging–the understanding that environmental justice is inseparable from cultural stewardship, ancestral memory, economic sovereignty, and loving care. On the farm, Nguyen stewards over 100 varieties of climate-adapted, heirloom grains from around the world. Off the farm, they have led the development of farmer-owned cooperatives and co-authored policies that honor farmers of color and Indigenous sovereignty in the United States. Whether guiding worker cooperative farms or organizing agrarians, Nguyen speaks with clarity and care, weaving data and story into pathways for action. Educated at the University of California, Berkeley and the University of Toronto, they ground their work in both scholarly rigor and lived experience. They have been recognized by the James Beard Foundation, Grist 50, and Berkeley Food Institute for their vision of justice rooted in regeneration. Nguyen reminds us: the Earth is not a resource, but a home–and our liberation is bound to how we belong to place, each other, and the living world.

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Ken Elston

Professor of Theater and Dean of the Douglas S. Witcher School of Humanities and Behavioral Sciences, High Point University

Ken Elston, Dean of the Douglas S. Witcher School of Humanities and Behavioral Sciences at High Point University, has been a professor of theater for 28 years. He joined HPU’s faculty in 2019 as the associate dean of arts and sciences and director of performing arts, after serving as the founding director of the School of Theater at George Mason University and artistic director of the not-for-profit theater company, Footsteps in Time. He served as the resident theater artist at the Maryland Institute College of Art, in Baltimore, Maryland for six years. Ken has been part of the co-creative team for the Wellbeing Project’s Higher Education Network (WHEN), helping to curate and facilitate gatherings in Switzerland, Mexico, and Slovenia. There he has shared his skills in collaboration, with the Open Space Protocol, Augusto Boal’s Image and Forum Theater, and interdisciplinary arts integration. Experienced in teaching performance and new work development, with a specialty in movement for the stage, Ken has created and delivered curricula in art as social action at multiple institutions. An actor, with stage, television, and film credits, Ken also directs theater, with credits from off-Broadway, university and regional theaters, including work in London, Dubrovnik, and Nanjing, China. He has lectured across the United States and internationally on both performance and the arts as media for social dialogue and processing knowledge and discovery. Ken is a professional consultant in presentation skills and, as a playwright, Ken has had plays produced with universities and professional companies, as well as installations at historic sites and museums. His passion for redefining higher education as a primary and vital engine for social change and human flourishing continues to inspire his creativity and engagement in this space.

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Nallely Tello

Dirección colegiada, Consorcio Oaxaca; responsable, Casa La Serena

Nallely Guadalupe Tello Méndez: Member of the collegiate board of the Consortium for Parliamentary Dialogue and Equity Oaxaca and currently responsible for Casa La Serena, a space for rest and healing for women human rights defenders. She has authored and coordinated various publications, including:  “Journeys to Think and Act. Experiences of Self-Care in Mesoamerica”  “What Does Self-Care Mean for Women Human Rights Defenders? Dialogues Among Us”  “Self-Care as a Political Strategy. Sustainability and Well-being for Women Human Rights Defenders” (Sur. International Journal of Human Rights). She is a member of the self-care, collective care, and healing strategy of the Mesoamerican Initiative of Women Human Rights Defenders.

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Chilande Kuloba-Warria

Founder and CEO, Warande Advisory Foundation

Chilande Kuloba-Warria is a respected development leader with over two decades of experience working across Sub-Saharan Africa to strengthen the effectiveness, sustainability, and resilience of civil society organizations (CSOs). She is the Founder and Managing Director of the Warande Advisory Centre (WAC) and Co-founder of the Local Coalition Accelerator (LCA); two initiatives at the forefront of driving community-powered, locally-led development. Chilande’s work centers on shifting power dynamics in the global development and humanitarian sectors. She is a passionate advocate for equitable partnerships, trust-based philanthropy, and multistakeholder collaboration. Through both WAC and LCA, she supports local actors to take up leadership roles in shaping their development priorities, building institutions that are not only technically sound but rooted in the lived realities and aspirations of their communities. At Warande Advisory Centre, she leads a team providing strategic guidance, technical support, and capacity strengthening to CSOs navigating increasingly complex funding and political environments. Her focus spans organizational development, leadership, governance, and resource mobilization. Chilande’s approach emphasizes institutional resilience—ensuring that CSOs are equipped not just to survive, but to thrive and lead systemic change from within. Through the Local Coalition Accelerator, she plays a key role in supporting coalitions of grassroots organizations to work collectively, influence policy, and mobilize local and global resources. The LCA model fosters cross-sector alliances and uplifts locally-rooted innovation, enabling organizations to act in solidarity while addressing the structural and practical barriers that often limit collective action. Chilande is also known for her thought leadership on ethical storytelling, dynamic accountability, and reimagining power in the philanthropic ecosystem. She regularly contributes to national and international dialogues on localization, decolonizing aid, and the need to reframe development narratives. Her facilitation style is deeply relational and values-driven, creating reflective spaces where civil society, donors, and communities can grapple with complexity and co-create solutions. Over the years, Chilande has provided strategic support to organizations in more than a dozen countries including Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, Ethiopia, South Africa, and Rwanda. Her regional insights are enriched by global engagements with donors, INGOs, and multilateral actors, positioning her as a bridge-builder across contexts. Her leadership has been instrumental in shaping programs that center African agency and prioritize sustainability, even in highly constrained civic spaces. She believes that real transformation occurs when communities are not only consulted but entrusted as architects of their own futures. Her work is rooted in humility, trust, and a deep commitment to justice; championing the idea that local solutions, when properly resourced and respected, have the power to deliver lasting, systemic change. As development paradigms continue to shift, Chilande remains steadfast in her mission: to restore the sovereignty, dignity, and prosperity of Global South communities by strengthening their institutions, amplifying their voices, and disrupting systems that no longer serve.