Masters of Mindfulness: Transforming Your Mind and Body

Shauna Shapiro, PhD, is a Professor of Psychology at Santa Clara University, an author, and an internationally recognized expert in mindfulness and compassion. Nearly a million people have watched her TEDx Talk “The Power of Mindfulness: What You Practice Grows Stronger.” Dr. Shapiro has published more than 100 journal articles and has coauthored two critically acclaimed books: The Art and Science of Mindfulness: Integrating Mindfulness into Psychology and the Helping Professions and Mindful Discipline: A Loving Approach to Setting Limits and Raising an Emotionally Intelligent Child.

is a psychologist, New York Times best-selling author, and senior fellow of the Greater Good Science Center at the University of California, Berkeley. His books are available in 28 languages. A summa cum laude graduate of the University of California, Los Angeles, and the founder of the Wellspring Institute for Neuroscience and Contemplative Wisdom, Dr. Hanson has been an invited speaker at Google and NASA, as well as the University of Oxford, Stanford University, Harvard University, and other major universities.

Kristine Carlson is passionate about spreading her message of waking up to life with joy and gratitude amid the ups and downs of this earthly existence. Her life mission expands on the phenomenal success of her late husband Dr. Richard Carlson’s work in the Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff series. She continues his legacy of peaceful and mindful living through her own best-selling books, including Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff in Love: Simple Ways to Nurture and Strengthen Your Relationships; Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff for Women: Simple and Practical Ways to Do What Matters Most and Find Time for You;  and Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff for Moms: Simple Ways to Stress Less and Enjoy Your Family More.

Juna Mustad is a corporate mindfulness coach, an author, and an expert in mindful anger. She works with companies, organizations, and individuals around the world, teaching and coaching emotional intelligence, mindfulness, and skills for building healthy and effective relationships. She is also a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner and has trained extensively in stress and trauma resolution. She offers an accessible, nonthreatening approach to creating a healthy relationship with the world’s most stigmatized emotion.

Mike Robbins is the author of four books: Focus on the Good Stuff: The Power of Appreciation; Be Yourself, Everyone Else Is Already Taken: Transform Your Life with the Power of Authenticity; Nothing Changes until You Do: A Guide to Self-Compassion and Getting Out of Your Own Way; and Bring Your Whole Self to Work: How Vulnerability Unlocks Creativity, Connection, and Performance. As an expert in teamwork, leadership, and emotional intelligence, he delivers keynotes and seminars around the world that empower people, leaders, and teams to engage in their work, collaborate, and perform at their best.

Amishi Jha, PhD, is a neuroscientist and an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Miami. She is also the director of Contemplative Neuroscience for the UMindfulness initiative, prior to which she was an Assistant Professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Cognitive Neuroscience. She received her PhD from the University of California, Davis, and completed her postdoctoral training in functional neuroimaging at the Brain Imaging and Analysis Center at Duke University. With grants from the U.S. Department of Defense and several private foundations, she has been systematically investigating the potential applications of mindfulness training in education, sports, business, and the military.

Elissa Epel, PhD, is a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco. She studies how chronic stress can impact biological aging, including the telomere/telomerase system, and how mindfulness interventions may buffer stress effects and promote psychological and physiological thriving. She also studies food addiction and obesity. Dr. Epel is a member of the National Academy of Medicine, a steering council member for the Mind & Life Institute, and the president-elect of the Academy of Behavioral Medicine Research.

Jessica Graham is a spiritual and sexual activist, a meditation teacher, an author, a sex and intimacy guide, an actor, and a filmmaker. She is a contributing editor of the meditation blog Deconstructing Yourself, in which her popular series Mindful Sex appears. She cofounded The Eastside Mindfulness Collective, dedicated to exploring secular spirituality through mindful living and learning. She also created Wild Awakening to help people evolve psychospiritually through private sessions, workshops, and retreats. In her book Good Sex: Getting Off without Checking Out, she demonstrates that a deep spiritual life and an extraordinary sex life are not mutually exclusive.

Dacher Keltner, PhD, is a Professor of Psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, and the faculty director of the Greater Good Science Center. His research focuses on the biological and evolutionary origins of emotion—in particular, prosocial states, such as compassion, awe, love, and beauty—as well as power, social class, and inequality. Along with several books, Dr. Keltner has published more than 200 scientific articles written for many media outlets and has consulted for the Center for Constitutional Rights (to help end solitary confinement), Google, Facebook, the Sierra Club, and Pixar’s Inside Out.

Wallace J. Nichols, PhD, is an innovative and entrepreneurial scientist, a renowned marine biologist, a wild-water advocate, a best-selling author, and a sought-after lecturer. In addition to being Chief Evangelist for Water (CEH₂O) at Buoy Labs, he is a senior fellow at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies’ Center for the Blue Economy and a research associate at the California Academy of Sciences. Dr. Nichols is a cofounder of Ocean Revolution, an international network of young ocean advocates; SEEtheWILD, a conservation travel network; Grupo Tortuguero de las Californias, an international sea turtle conservation network; and Blue Mind Works, a global campaign to tell the new story of water. Dr. Nichols has authored more than 200 scientific papers, technical reports, book chapters, and popular publications.

Daniel J. Siegel, MD, is a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry in the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he is also the founding codirector of the Mindful Awareness Research Center. In addition, he is the executive director of the Mindsight Institute, which focuses on the development of mindsight—our human capacity to perceive the mind of the self and others—in individuals, families, and communities. Dr. Siegel has published extensively for both professional and lay audiences, including five New York Times bestsellers.