Barbara Fredrickson

Barbara Fredrickson, PhD
Professor, Department of Psychology, University of North Carolina

Barbara L. Fredrickson, Ph.D., is Kenan Distinguished Professor in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. At UNC-Chapel Hill, she directs the Social Psychology Doctoral Program and the Positive Emotions and Psychophysiology Laboratory (a.k.a., the PEP Lab, www.PositiveEmotions.org).

Dr. Fredrickson is most known for her “Broaden-and-Build Theory” of positive emotions, foundational within affective science and positive psychology for providing a blueprint for how pleasant emotional states, as fleeting as they are, contribute to people’s resilience, wellbeing, and health. She has published >130 peer-reviewed articles and her general audience books, Positivity (2009, www.PositivityRatio.com) and Love 2.0 (2013, www.PositivityResonance.com) have been translated into dozens of languages. Among the most highly cited scholars, she was recently identified as in the top 0.01% of scientists (across 22 scientific fields) in terms of career-long scholarly impact. She also teaches a popular and free online course (via Coursera) and, through this and other means, her ideas have influenced scholars and practitioners worldwide. Her scientific work has been recognized with multiple awards, and in 2017, she was honored with the Tang Prize for Achievements in Psychology, awarded to recognize exceptional career contributions to the well-being of humanity.

Judith T. Moskowitz

Judith T. Moskowitz, PhD, MPH
Professor, Medical Social Sciences, Northwestern University

Trained as a social psychologist, Dr. Moskowitz studies the impact of positive emotion on adjustment to health-related and other life stress. She is the Principal Investigator of several NIH-funded trials of an intervention designed to increase positive emotion and improve psychological and physical well-being in people experiencing various types of life stress. Her research team is currently conducting trials of the intervention aimed at improving health and health behaviors in dementia caregivers, high school students, people with type 2 diabetes, women with stage IV breast cancer, and people living with HIV. She earned her PhD from Dartmouth College (1993) and MPH from the University of California, Berkeley (1994).

Ryan M. Niemiec

Ryan Niemiec, PsyD
Education Director, VIA Institute on Character

Ryan M. Niemiec, Psy.D. is a leading international figure in the education, research, and practice of character strengths that are found in all human beings. He’s education director of the renown VIA Institute on Character, a nonprofit organization in Cincinnati that leads the global advancement of the science of character strengths. Ryan is an award-winning psychologist, certified coach, annual instructor at the University of Pennsylvania, special guest faculty at 5 coaching and positive psychology institutes, and author of 11 books, 90+ academic papers, and several-hundred user-friendly articles. His books include the bestselling consumer book, The Power of Character Strengths, the popular stress workbook The Strengths-Based Workbook for Stress Relief, the 2020 workbook The Positivity Workbook for Teens, and Positive Psychology at the Movies. He’s also author of the two leading practitioner-focused books in positive psychology – Character Strengths Interventions and Mindfulness and Character Strengths. The latter book contains the evidenced-based program he founded, Mindfulness-Based Strengths Practice (MBSP), used by practitioners across the globe.

Ryan has been interviewed by a number of luminaries including the legendary Larry King in 2020. He’s given nearly 1,000 presentations on positive psychology topics, including a character strengths world tour in 2009-2010, a TEDx talk in 2017, a speaking tour of Australia, a keynote at a Harvard conference, and invited presentations at conferences across the globe. He is Fellow of the International Positive Psychology Association (IPPA) and serves on their Council of Advisors. He is currently co-founder and president of the Spirituality/Meaning Division of IPPA.

Ryan lives in Cincinnati with his wife and three young, zestful children. His highest strengths are hope, love, honesty, fairness, spirituality, curiosity, and appreciation of beauty. He’s an avid chess player, zealot of Michigan State University, super-fan of The Walking Dead, and a collector of vintage Pez dispensers.

Liana Lianov

Liana Lianov, MD, MPH, FACLM, FACPM, DipABLM
President, Global Positive Health Institute

As an innovative global leader in lifestyle medicine, Liana Lianov, MD, MPH, FACLM, FACPM, DipABLM has advanced the movement for integrating positive psychology into health care. She led the development of the original lifestyle medicine core competencies for physicians and health professionals, which have recently been expanded to include positive psychology-based knowledge and skills. She serves as the chair of the Happiness Science and Positive Health Committee of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine (ACLM), lead faculty for the ACLM Physician and Health Professional Wellbeing Program, and vice-chair of the American Board of Lifestyle Medicine.

Dr. Lianov is the immediate past president of the Positive Health and Wellbeing Division of the International Positive Psychology Association, A few of her notable past roles include president of the ACLM, director for the Healthy Lifestyles Division of the American Medical Association and board regent for the American College of Preventive Medicine. She also directed programs in heart disease, stroke and cancer prevention at the California Department of Health Services.

In 2018, Dr. Lianov convened the inaugural Summit on Happiness Science in Health Care cosponsored by the ACLM and Dell Medical School, which led to scholarly publications and a groundbreaking book on how to integrate happiness science into medical practice, Roots of Positive Change, Optimizing Health Care with Positive Psychology. To further this mission, she founded the Global Positive Health Institute that provides positive psychology education and practical tools for health professionals to use in their clinical practices and support their personal well-being.

Darlene Marshall

Darlene Marshall, MAPP

Certified Personal Trainer, Wellness Coach

Darlene Marshall is a thought leader, author, speaker, and content creator at the intersection of fitness and Positive Psychology.  She’s a Certified Personal Trainer and Wellness Coach with additional certifications in nutrition, yoga, and mediation; and training in sleep coaching, motivational interviewing, and neurolinguistic programming.  She one of the few fitness professionals with a Masters in Applied Positive Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania, where her capstone explored the mechanisms that sustain upward spirals and self development towards lifestyle transformation.  She’s also the host of the Better Than Fine podcast and you can find her on Instagram @darlene.coach.

Jane Oh

Jane Oh, MD, DipABLM
Internal Medicine and Hospice Physician

Jane Oh, MD, DipABLM, is an internal medicine physician in primary care and practices hospice medicine and hospital medicine in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She is certified in Stress Management and Resiliency Training through the Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine at Harvard Medical School and has conducted research study with neuroscience clinicians in the use of the SMART program in counteracting stress, burnout and building resilience. This work naturally led her to become board-certified in Lifestyle Medicine. She has a special interest in the work of Kristin Neff on self-compassion and its importance in our outlook, sense of well-being and capacity to live a healthier, happier life.

Eddie Phillips

Eddie Phillips, MD

Founder and Director, Institute of Lifestyle Medicine

Whole Health Medical Director, Boston, VA Healthcare System

Edward M. Phillips, MD, is Assistant Professor of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Harvard Medical School and is Founder and Director of the Institute of Lifestyle Medicine (ILM) at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital.  He serves as Whole Health Medical Director at VA Boston Healthcare System and is integrating lifestyle medicine training for health professional trainees across the VA as National Whole Health Education Champion for Professional Trainees. Phillips is a Fellow of American College of Sports Medicine (FACSM) and serves on the executive council that developed the Exercise is Medicine global initiative. He co-hosted the NPR Daily Exercise Podcast, WBUR’s Magic Pill which was awarded an Edward R. Murrow award for Excellence in Innovation. Phillips is on the Advisory Board of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine, the Health Sector of the United States National Physical Activity Plan and is a founding committee member of the American Board of Lifestyle Medicine.

Rani Polak

Rani Polak, MD, MBA

Chef and Director, Sheba Lifestyle Medical Center, Israel

Director, Spaulding CHEF Coaching Program, Harvard Medical School

Rani Polak, MD, MBA, is the founding director of both the Culinary Healthcare Education Fundamentals (CHEF) Coaching program at the Institute of Lifestyle Medicine, Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, and the Center of Lifestyle Medicine at Sheba Medical Center, Tel Aviv, Israel; as well as an Assistant Professors, Part Time, at the Department of PM & R, Harvard Medical School. Dr. Polak’s focus, along with clinical care, is on clinical and translational research relating to the Culinary Coaching method which combine culinary training with health coaching principles. Dr. Polak is the PI of the Culinary CoRe (Culinary Coaching Research) group which aimed at expanding the culinary coaching as an effective, scalable telemedicine method to improve nutrition; and a course director of a medical education program at Harvard Medical School that disseminate culinary coaching to hundreds clinician worldwide. Dr. Polak work has been featured in many media outlets including Scientific American, Herald Tribute, US News and World Reports and USA Today.

Mark Rowe

Mark Rowe, MD
Family Practice Physician, Waterford Health Park

Mark Rowe, MD, has been a practicing family physician for over 20 years, having graduated from Medical School (UCD, Ireland) in 1991. He is the founder of the Waterford Health Park, which has become both the base for Dr. Rowe’s medical practice as well as the ‘Lifestyle Medicine Be Well Clinic’. The Healthcare Facility was a short listed finalist for World Building of the year at the World Architecture festival awards in 2010.

In 2013, the Waterford Health Park received the Global Health Improvement Award, ‘A Place to Flourish.’ Dr. Rowe is the author of two books – ‘A Prescription for Happiness: The Ten Commitments to a Happier, Healthier Life’ and ‘The Men’s Health Book’. Mark is also a regular contributor for a number of publications including the Farmer’s Journal, where he shares his thoughts on positive health and wellbeing practices.

As a Keynote speaker, Mark regularly delivers events and workshops for organisations around the world. His TEDx talk titled ‘The Doctor of the Future: Prescribing Lifestyle as Medicine’ took place in University College Dublin in 2017. Notable engagements to date have included UCD Smurfit Executive Development, the American House of Representatives and a number of Fortune 500 companies. Mark is among the first medical professionals globally to be certified as a Diplomate of the International Board of Lifestyle Medicine. Lifestyle Medicine is defined as an evidence-based ‘lifestyle first’ approach to prevention and treatment of chronic disease. Mark has always held a strong desire to change the culture of ‘a pill for every ill’. Instead he advocates lifestyle change as the best medicine for lasting wellbeing.

Gia Merlo

Gia Merlo, MD, MBA
Clinical Professor of Nursing and Senior Advisor on Wellness
New York University

Gia Merlo, MD, MBA, is Clinical Professor of Nursing, and Senior Advisor on Wellness at New York University (NYU). She is also Clinical Professor of Psychiatry in the NYU Grossman School of Medicine. Dr. Merlo is the author of the book Principles of Medical Professionalism, Oxford University Press, May 2021. She serves on the Editorial Board of the American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine in the area of Psychiatry and Mental Health. Dr. Merlo has been active on multiple national professional organizations including leadership roles of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine (ACLM) Pre-professional Member Interest Group (LMPP).  In 2020, she was elected to the Board of Directors of Plant Powered Metro New York after serving on the Advisory Medical Board in 2019. Dr. Merlo has served on various boards including as a board member of the Academy of Professionalism in Health Care where she served as the Chair of the 2017 Annual Meeting in Chicago, as a member of the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Alumni Board, as a member of the board of directors for Laurel House, and a member of the board of directors for Child Advocates of Houston.

Eric Kim

Eric Kim
Assistant Professor of Psychology
University of British Columbia

Dr. Kim is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at the University of British Columbia. He received his Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of Michigan, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in cardiovascular epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. His research focuses on older adults and aims to identify, understand, and intervene upon the individual and environmental determinants of psychological wellbeing that enhance healthy lifestyle behaviors and reduce the risk of age-related chronic conditions. He also investigates the mechanisms through which psychological wellbeing might influence our physical health. Around these topics, he has given invited lectures at Universities (e.g., Harvard University, University of Pennsylvania, MIT), policy organizations (National Academy of Sciences), corporations (UnitedHealth Care, IDEO, AARP, Samsung), and also been invited for international-level think-tank working groups (OECD, United Nations). He’s been recognized as: one of Forbes 30 Under 30 in Healthcare, an Association for Psychological Science Rising Star, and American Psychological Association Early Career Achievement Award (Division 20 – Adult Development and Aging). He enjoys spending time at the intersection of several disciplines and has published in a range of journals including: PNAS, JAMA Psychiatry, Circulation, Stroke, the American Journal of Epidemiology, and Milbank Quarterly.

Gina Duncan

Gina Newsome Duncan, MD, FAPA
Board Certified Psychiatrist, Psychotherapist, Author, Consultant

Dr. Gina Newsome Duncan is an adult psychiatrist in private practice at Eastover Psychological and Psychiatric Group in Charlotte, North Carolina. She earned her B.S. in Chemistry from Hampton University in Hampton, Virginia and her M.D. from the University of North Carolina School of Medicine in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. She completed her general psychiatry internship and residency at Harvard at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH)/McLean Hospital Adult Psychiatry Residency Program in Boston, MA. In her final year of residency she served as Chief Resident of Psychotherapy in the MGH outpatient clinic and received the MGH Ann Alonso Award for Psychotherapy. She was also a recipient of the American  Minority Fellowship and developed a church-based mental health promotion project called  Applied Resilience (A.L.T.A.R.)TM.

Prior to joining Eastover Psychological and Psychiatric Group, Dr. Duncan served as an Assistant Professor
of Psychiatry and as the Associate Dean for Admissions for the Medical College of Georgia (MCG) at
Augusta University in Augusta, Georgia. While at MCG she also served as the psychiatrist for Project
GREAT (Georgia Recovery-Based Educational Approach to Treatment). Dr. Duncan’s clinical focus is on the use of medication management and psychotherapy in the treatment of adult mood and anxiety disorders as well as ADHD. Her other areas of special interest include the intersection of spirituality and psychiatry, disparities in health and achievement that disproportionately affect underserved communities, strength-based approaches to building resilience, and faith- and community-based approaches to addressing disparities in mental health. She is a Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and served as a blogger on the APA’s HealthyMinds.org website. Dr. Duncan regularly presents and provides consultation to community and faith-based groups as well as academic and professional organizations. She has been a featured guest on Wisconsin Public Radio https://www.wpr.org/shows/how-handle-holiday-stress and on the television show QC@3 https://qclife.wbtv.com/psychiatrist-explains-the-mental-toll-of-the-coronavirus-crisis/. Dr. Duncan is the lead author of two book chapters: “Shared Decision-Making” in Handbook of Recovery in Inpatient Psychiatry (Springer, 2016) and “Culture and Minorities: Positive Psychology and Positive Psychiatry Perspectives” in Positive Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychology (Springer, 2020). She is also featured in the book What About Me? Staying Healthy and Whole (While You’re Helping Others) by Renée Hill Carter (Dream Releaser Publishing, 2019) in the chapter “Mental Health in the Church: In Conversation with Gina Newsome Duncan, M.D.  gina.n.duncan@gmail.com

Carrie Barron

Carrie Barron, MD

Director of the Creativity for Resilience

Associate Professor of Medical Education

Dell Medical School

Carrie Barron, MD, Director of the Creativity for Resilience at Dell Medical School in Austin, is an Associate Professor of Medical Education, a board-certified psychiatrist, psychoanalyst and a Positive Psychology Coach. In addition to her book The Creativity Cure, Carrie has published in several peer-reviewed journals and the Harvard Business Review. The Hektoen Journal of Medical Humanities awarded her story the Grand Prize in 2019. Carrie has been interviewed by many journalists in podcasts, radio shows, magazines and newspapers. She maintains a blog that has had over four million readers on Psychology Today where she covers a variety of well-being topics.

Cate Collings

Cate Collings, MD, DipABLM,
Director of Lifestyle Medicine for Silicon Valley Medical Development in the San Francisco Bay Area, California
President of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine

Cate Collings, MD, DipABLM, is director of Lifestyle Medicine for Silicon Valley Medical Development in the San Francisco bay area of California.  She serves as President of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine.

Dr. Collings has dual board certifications in Cardiology and Lifestyle Medicine.  She holds a graduate degree in exercise physiology, as well as professional culinary and wellness certifications.  She received her education from the University of California, University of Wisconsin, and Stanford University Medical Center.

After 25 years of clinical cardiology, she now focuses exclusively on lifestyle medicine consultations, culinary medicine, and developing clinical lifestyle medicine programs.   Her personal interests are having fun in sports, cooking, and adventure travel with family and friends.

Gail Ironson

Gail Ironson, MD, PhD,
Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry at the University of Miami
Board Certified Psychiatrist
President, American Psychosomatic Society

Gail Ironson, MD, PhD, is a Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry at the University of Miami and a Board certified Psychiatrist. She received her MD from the University of Miami, her PhD from the University of Wisconsin, and she did her residency training in Psychiatry at Stanford University.   She has more than 250 publications in the field of behavioral medicine and positive psychology.  She is past President of the Health Division of IPPA, past President of the Academy of Behavioral Medicine Research, and is President – Elect of the American Psychosomatic Society. She is also a current or past member of the editorial board of five journals. She has directed federally funded research studies investigating psychological factors in long survival with illness (especially HIV), stress management, and treatments for traumatized individuals. Her current areas of focus include examining positive psychological factors (including a focus on spirituality) in health and recovery from trauma.

Sam Manger

Sam Manger, MBBS, BSc, FRACGP, FASLM

General Practitioner/Family Physician

President of the Australasian Society of Lifestyle Medicine

Dr Sam Manger is a General Practitioner/Family Physician, Academic Lead for the Master, Graduate Diploma, Graduate Certificate in Lifestyle Medicine and Senior Lecturer with James Cook University College of Medicine and Dentistry. He is also a Senior Medical Officer in the Mental Health Services with Queensland Health, Ambassador for Equally Well Australia, President of the Australasian Society of Lifestyle Medicine (ASLM) and host of The GP Show podcast thegpshow.com.

Ingrid Edshteyn

The academic studies of Ingrid Edshteyn, DO, MPH, DipABLM, academic studies in cognitive science, eastern philosophy, and osteopathic medicine come together in her role as Founder and Medical Director at Valia Lifestyle. Her passion for wellness started in 2004, when she established Cornell University’s Meditation & Yoga Club and served as President of Cornell’s Seven Spirits Kung Fu organization. She saw the power of cultivating strength and health for both body and mind with these traditions. Her course of study continued to medical school and residency training in Preventive Medicine, when she simultaneously earned her Executive Masters in Public Health from Columbia University’s Mailman School. She now holds two additional Board Certifications, as a Diplomate of the American Board of Lifestyle Medicine and of the American Board of Obesity Medicine. Exploring and integrating the elements of wellness and fitness is her passion. Dr. Ingrid is fortunate to share her love for lifestyle as medicine with the Valia Team, crafting unique programs for authentic health of body and mind.

David Fryburg

David A Fryburg, MD
President and Co-Founder, Envision Kindness, Inc

David Fryburg, M.D., is the President and co-founder of Envision Kindness, a non-profit to promote kindness, compassion, joy, and love in health care and elsewhere through kindness media. Fryburg is also the author of a blog series entitled the “Science of Kindness” distributed by Psychology Today and other outlets. In his other professional work, Fryburg has led teams of scientists from academia, government and industry to solve problems in how we measure or diagnose disease for the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health Biomarkers Consortium. Fryburg was previously a faculty member of the University of Virginia as well as global head of translational medicine for cardiovascular, metabolic and endocrine diseases at Pfizer and the recipient of multiple awards and grants. He is a graduate of Johns Hopkins University and Albert Einstein College of Medicine and trained at University of Texas SW Medical School and Yale University.

Shagufta Feroz

Shagufta Feroz, MD, graduated in 1984 and started a private medical practice in 1988. She was inclined towards healing with nature since a young age and therefore specialized in Family Medicine, Holistic Nutrition, Lifestyle Medicine and Integrative Medicine. She is the founder of Synchronized Lifestyle Modification Program, and author of “Living as Nature Intended.” After 15 years of clinical practice she realized the role of a healthy lifestyle in the prevention and reversal of a disease. That realization forced her to switch from drug dependent medical practice to drug less integrative medicine. Now, for the past 16 years she is managing a variety of patients through Synchronised Lifestyle Modification. She uses her knowledge to convert table foods into a remedy by applying her 8-Rules of correct eating. She is a regular speaker at various academic institutes, health forums, doctors’ forums and training institutes. In 2015 she spoke at TEDx Lahore on the importance of a healthy lifestyle for the young. In order to spread awareness about correct eating she is using the power of print, digital and social media. She has also appeared in over 100 TV health shows. You can read more on her work at: https://www.picchls.com/

Prachi Garodia

Prachi Garodia M.D. ABIM, ABIHM, DipABLM
Integrative / Internal Medicine Practice
Whole Health Champion and National Education Champion at Puget Sound VA

Richard Tedeschi

Richard Tedeschi, Ph.D.

Professor Emeritus in the Department of  Psychological Science at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Distinguished Chair of the Boulder Crest Institute for Posttraumatic Growth

Richard Tedeschi, Ph.D. is Professor Emeritus in the Department of  Psychological Science at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, and Distinguished Chair of the Boulder Crest Institute for Posttraumatic Growth, in Bluemont, Virginia, where he has been one of the developers of  programs based on posttraumatic growth principles to help combat veterans and first responders. He has published several books and numerous professional articles on posttraumatic growth, an area of research that he developed while at UNC Charlotte. Dr. Tedeschi serves as a consultant to the American Psychological Association on trauma and resilience, is a Fellow of the Division of Trauma Psychology and the Division of Psychotherapy, and is Past President of the North Carolina Psychological Association.

Lisa Buksbaum

Lisa Buksbaum

CEO and Founder at Soaringwords

Lisa Honig Buksbaum is a passionary: a visionary driven by great passion and action.
An intuitive healer, well-loved inspirational speaker, workshop leader and facilitator, Lisa
has shared her wisdom with thousands of people throughout the world. Three
experiences with death and illness in her family during a ten-month period motivated her
to launch Soaringwords, a not-for-profit organization she founded to inspire ill children,
families, adults, and healthcare professionals to take active roles in self-healing.
Since 2001, Lisa has shared Soaringwords’ SOARING into Strength Positive Health
Initiatives with more than 500,000 people. She’s been featured as an expert on ABC
News, Fortune Small Business, USA Today, Delta Sky Magazine, and CEO to Watch in
The Chronicle of Philanthropy. Lisa graduated with honors from The University of
Pennsylvania; holds an MBA in Marketing from Columbia University Graduate School of
Business; and a Masters of Applied Positive Psychology from The University of
Pennsylvania. She has a certificate in Narrative Medicine from Columbia University
College of Physicians and Surgeons and a certificate from the American Institute for
Mental Imagery.

Lisa has been a keynote speaker, moderator, and panelist at dozens of professional
and scientific conferences including the International Positive Psychology Association
(2019, 2015, 2013), European Positive Psychology Conference (2018, 2016,
2014), Canadian Positive Psychology Conference (2018, 2016, 2014), and International
Positive Education Network (2018, 2016). Lisa has led workshops as a scholar in
residence and at grand rounds at leading universities, medical schools and nursing
schools, including University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, UVA School of
Medicine & UVA School of Nursing, NYU, Columbia University, Tecmilienio University in
Mexico, and Doshisha University in Kyoto, Japan. She has spoken at Advertising
Women of New York, 100 Women in Hedge Funds, MGM Grand Women of Color
Conference, and Working Mother Media Diversity & Inclusion Conference. She has led
professional development workshops at dozens of Fortune 50 companies such as
Accenture, Cigna, Cisco, Eli Lilly, Facebook, Google, Johnson & Johnson, JPMorgan
Chase, New York Life, SONY, Verizon, and Viacom.

Lisa lives in New York City with her husband, Jacob. Her pride and joy are her two
grown sons, Jonathan and Joshua, daughter-in-law Evelyn, and delicious grandbaby
Charlotte. She gets her energy from swimming each day and connecting with people in
meaningful ways.

Sandy Blaine

Sandy Blaine, MAPP

Sandy Blaine is an author and expert wellness consultant who works with the deep connection between physical health and emotional well-being. Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, she has worked with high-profile tech and wellness companies on well-being curricula and wellness program development. Sandy earned her Master’s in Applied Positive Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania in 2016. While at Penn, she was one of four graduate students selected to work on an in-depth consulting project for the country of Ireland’s national health service, and spent a semester advising them on incorporating positive psychology concepts and resources into the country-wide Healthy Ireland Initiative in development at the time. She specifically worked within her specialty, mind-body integration, developing and proposing scalable positive-psychology-based wellness recommendations. Being invited to work on a project with the potential to positively impact the well-being of an entire country was the opportunity of a lifetime, and is one of Sandy’s proudest and most fulfilling accomplishments. A life-long yoga practitioner, she is the author of two books, Yoga for Healthy Knees and Yoga For Computer Users, and is currently writing a third on mind-body integration and happiness.

Tamami Shirai

Tamami Shirai, M.S., Ph.D.

Researcher, Department of Radiology,

School of Medicine, University of California San Diego

Tamami Shirai, M.S., Ph.D., is a researcher at the department of radiology, School of Medicine, University of California San Diego, and a consultant in global research/healthcare research for major consulting firms. Dr. Shirai has a broad background in psychology, Mind-Body Medicine, research, and organizational development in global organizations. Dr. Shirai has worked on chronic disease management in interdisciplinary settings, and currently, she is working on a UCSD pilot study on a nutritional approach to affect cerebral blood flow among people with metabolic syndrome. Her dissertation focused on lifestyle and healthy behaviors among people with cardiovascular disease in the USA and Japan. She also brings lifestyle modification techniques to her practice: a mindfulness-based meditation class at a cardiac pulmonary rehabilitation center in San Diego. Dr. Shirai joined American College of Lifestyle Medicine (ACLM) in 2015. Since then she has worked with ACLM and Lifestyle Medicine Global Alliance (LMGA) and is now taking important leadership in Japanese Society of Lifestyle Medicine (JSLM). Dr. Shirai is integrating her research, clinical practice and role as a social advocate both to provide effective solutions to people with chronic conditions and to increase awareness globally of new knowledge and techniques for leading healthier lives. Dr. Shirai is originally from Tokyo, Japan, and now lives in San Diego with her husband. She loves dancing and nature.

Erika Jackson

Erika Jackson

VP, Training and Operations for Wellcoaches

Erika Jackson is the VP, Training and Operations for Wellcoaches, leading a team of 30 coaching leaders from all of the world who have trained over 13,000 coaches since 2002. She is co-author of critical health and wellness coaching texts such as The Coaching Psychology Manual, The Complete Handbook of Coaching (Chapter 22) and A Pilot Study of Health & Wellness Coaching for Fibromyalgia. Erika is also an instructional design consultant for ImprovEdge, combining neuroscience and improvisation, and volunteer instructional designer for Braver Angels, designing workshops that bring Americans together to bridge the partisan divide.

Maria Benzo

Maria Benzo

Physician and Clinical Researcher

Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine Division, Mayo Clinic

Dr. Maria Benzo is a Physician and Clinical Researcher currently working for the Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine Division in Mayo Clinic, Rochester MN. She has been actively leading pulmonary rehabilitation programs for chronic lung diseases for the past decade of her practice. As part of her practice she has incorporated integrative medicine, mindfulness and positive psychology, to improve patients’ quality of life and clinically significant health outcomes. She is also actively applying health coaching and motivational interviewing for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease as a valuable tool to advance the home-based pulmonary rehabilitation. She lead the Mindfulness-based Coaching for Behavioral Change Training for aspiring candidates that collaborate with Remote Patient Monitoring interventions in the Mindful Breathing Laboratory. She received her MD from Universidad Nacional de La Plata, La Plata, Buenos Aires, Argentina, her specialty in physical medicine and rehabilitation from Instituto Nacional Rehabilitacion Psicofisica del sur, Mar del Plata, Buenos Aires, Argentina, and her Master of Science in Positive Psychology from Life University, Marietta GA.

Chris Mackey

Chris Mackey

Clinical and Counselling Psychologist

Fellow of the Australian Psychological Society

Chris Mackey is a clinical and counselling psychologist and Fellow of the Australian Psychological Society with 40 years’ psychotherapy experience. He is the principal psychologist at Chris Mackey and Associates in Geelong. He was previously the Senior Clinical Psychologist at The Geelong Hospital and Heidelberg Repatriation Hospitals, where he played a key role in developing a PTSD program for Vietnam war veterans.

Chris has presented at numerous national and international scientific conferences over the past 25 years on such topics as psychological therapy for anxiety, depression, and trauma reactions and drawing on synchronicity in psychotherapy. He was on the local scientific committee for the 2016 World Congress of Behavioural and Cognitive Therapies.

Chris is author of The Positive Psychology of Synchronicity: Enhance Your Mental Health with the Power of coincidence, released internationally in 2019. He was the resident psychologist and a regular presenter for several seasons on the national TV wellbeing show, Destination Happiness. Chris received the Impact Achievement Award at the 2019 Australian Allied Health Awards.

Relevant website links

www.synchronicityunwrapped.com.au  (book website, with news and updated articles relevant to the book)

www.chrismackey.com.au  (Private practice website. The Resources section has videos and podcasts about synchronicity)

Elaine O'Brien

Elaine O’Brien, PhD, MAPP
Human Movement Psychology

Elaine O’Brien, PhD, MAPP, received her PhD in Human Movement Psychology, at Temple University in 2015. In 2008 she was one of the first one hundred graduates worldwide of the Master of Applied Positive Psychology, MAPP, University of Pennsylvania, under Dr. Martin Seligman and in 2010 studied cross cultural positive psychology/well-being, University of Oslo with Dr. Antonella Delle Fave, MD. Dr. O’Brien is a speaker who leads presentations, customized workshops and trainings on positive movement psychology, mental health and physical well-being, positive adult development, group leadership, fitness science, optimal experience and performance for academia, business, and the health/medical professions.

She has championed positive movement psychology, Meaning in Motion in her research and practice. Elaine has taught in France, Sweden, Hungary, China, Korea, Costa Rica, Canada, Mexico, Portugal, and throughout the United States. Elaine’s qualitative research demonstrated the power of combining music, movement, and community via group dance/exercise to lift up people’s hearts and health, promote generativity, lessen loneliness and reduce addictive behaviors in older adulthood. Elaine, a pioneer in the Health/Fitness Industry, led the development of the first Fitness industry leadership, standards, and certification guidelines. Elaine believes Positive Exercise Practices (PEP), including positive psychology, lifestyle as medicine, movement practices and fitness science, leads people to a happier Health Span and a flourishing life. Elaine’s website is: https://elaineobrienphd.com/