MAY 21
Reuniting a Global Community
Creating the Building Blocks for a New Mental Health Culture
Founder, The Chopra Foundation Author, Total Meditation
Chopra is a Clinical Professor of Family Medicine and Public Health at the University of California, San Diego and serves as a senior scientist with Gallup Organization. He is the author of over 89 books translated into over forty-three languages, including numerous New York Times bestsellers. His 90th book and national bestseller, Metahuman: Unleashing Your Infinite Potential (Harmony Books), unlocks the secrets to moving beyond our present limitations to access a field of infinite possibilities.
Comedian, Actor & Mental Health Activist Above the Noise Podcast
Russell Brand’s career spans stand-up comedy, acting, broadcasting and writing. He is the author of the Audible Original, ‘Revelation: Connecting with the Sacred in Everyday Life' and his weekly meditation podcast, 'Above the Noise', is available on Luminary Podcasts. Russell lives in the UK with his wife Laura, their two daughters, two dogs, two cats and chickens.
Singer-songwriter, Mental Health Advocate Founder, Never Broken
Jewel went from a girl who grew up with no running water on an Alaskan homestead, to a homeless teenager in San Diego, to an award winning, Multi-Platinum Recording Artist who released one of the best-selling debuts of all time. Through her career Jewel has sold over 30 million albums worldwide, earned 26 Music Award nominations, including The Grammys, AMAs, MTV Awards, VH1 Awards, Billboard Music Awards, and CMAs, winning 8 times. Jewel has been featured on the cover of TIME Magazine, Rolling Stone, performed on Saturday Night Live, at the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, for The Pope and The President Of The United States. Mental health and mindfulness has been a lifelong passion of Jewel’s. She offers free mindfulness exercises and an online mental health community at JewelNeverBroken.com.
Fashion Designer Diller-von Furstenberg Family Foundation
Diane von Furstenberg is a fashion designer, philanthropist and Founder and Chairwoman of the company that bears her name. In 1974, she created the iconic wrap dress, which became a symbol of power and independence for women and grew into a global brand. She’s been a champion of women her entire life, supporting and empowering emerging women leaders across the globe. In 2010, with the Diller-von Furstenberg Family Foundation, Diane established the DVF Awards to honor and provide grants to women who have displayed leadership, strength and courage in their commitment to their causes. She served as president of the Council of Fashion Designers of America from 2006-2019. In 2015, she was named one of TIME’s 100 Most Influential People and the following year, she received the CFDA Swarovski Award for Positive Change. In September of 2019, Diane von Furstenberg was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame honored for her leadership and achievements which have changed the course of history. She currently serves on the boards of Vital Voices, the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures and the Statue of Liberty–Ellis Island Foundation. She has written several books, including Diane: A Signature Life and The Woman I Wanted to Be and recent release, Own It: The Secret to Life.
NASA Astronaut, Aerospace Surgeon
Dr. Yvonne Darlene Cagle is an Aerospace Surgeon, entrepreneur and consulting professor for Stanford University’s department of cardiovascular medicine and its department of electrical engineering. In addition, Dr. Cagle also has served as a certified senior aviation medical examiner for the FAA and a qualified advanced cardiac life support instructor. Dr. Cagle has served as the innovative liaison for Google, Singularity University, and other Silicon Valley tech industries. Dr. Cagle has globally established groundbreaking work in fitness, STEAM outreach, space sustainability.
Dr. Cagle holds adjunct professorships with Stanford University, UC Davis, and UTMB, Galveston. Dr. Cagle was a Visiting Professor and earned an honorary Ph.D. from Fordham University and while investigating mitigating neurocognitive countermeasures to optimize long duration space crew behavioral health and performance.
After earning her undergraduate degree from San Francisco State University, Dr. Cagle earned an M.D. from the University of Washington. She completed an internship at Highland General Hospital in Oakland, Calif., and a residency in family practice at Ghent Family Medicine at Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk, VA.
A retired Colonel of the US Air Force, Dr. Cagle is a recipient of the National Defense Service Medal, Air Force Achievement Medal, United States Air Force Air Staff Exceptional Physician Commendation and National Technical Association Distinguished Scientist Award, Dr. Cagle began her medical career as a certified flight surgeon. She was actively involved in mission support of aircraft providing medical support and rescue in a variety of aeromedical missions.
Dr. Cagle has contributed ongoing data to the longitudinal study on astronaut health and served as a consultant for space telemedicine. She was a member of the NASA Working Group and traveled to Russia to establish international medical standards and procedures for astronauts.
Former U.S. Congressman Founder - The Kennedy Forum
During his time in Congress, Patrick J. Kennedy was the lead author of the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (Federal Parity Law). He is founder of The Kennedy Forum; co-founder of One Mind; co-chair of the Action Alliance’s Mental Health & Suicide Prevention National Response to COVID-19; a former member of the President‘s Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis; and author of “A Common Struggle: A Personal Journey Through the Past and Future of Mental Illness and Addiction.
President, Parmarth Niketan Ashram, Rishikesh
Touched by God at the age of eight, H.H. Swami Chidanand Saraswatiji left His home to live a life devoted to God and humanity, spending His youth in silence, meditation and austerities in the Himalayas. Today he is one of India’s most revered spiritual leaders. Pujya Swamiji is the President of Parmarth Niketan Ashram in Rishikesh, one of India’s largest and most renowned spiritual institutions. He is the Founder/Chair of the Global Interfaith WASH Alliance, as well as founder of numerous charitable organisations.
Author, Humanitarian, Speaker and Founder Govardhan Ecovillage
His Holiness Radhanath Swami is a New York times best selling author, philanthropist and speaker. His work of feeding 300,000 children per day in India and establishing several philanthropic projects has led him to meetings with former US President Barack Obama , Prime minister Narendra Modi as well as former UK prime Ministers Tony Blair and David Cameron.
His Holiness is famously known for guiding influencers, world leaders, CEOs and corporations around the world, and ability to inspire change and magic within large communities all over the world. His speaking portfolio includes the below:
Google HQ, Apple HQ US, Oxford Union, Cambridge Union, Houses of Parliament, HSBC HQ, Intel HQ, Facebook HQ, Princeton, MIT, Nasdaq HQ, Cheddar, Huffington Post to name a few.
ABOUT THE ORGANISATION
He is the founder of Govardhan Eco Village which is a 100 acre sustainable community just outside of Mumbai, India. This Eco village is a model which is equipped to combat some of the world’s largest issues including climate change, poverty, access to health care and other UN sustainable development goals as well as being a health and yoga resort. Radhanath Swami has also founded a hospital, an orphanage, a school and many other philanthropic projects.
Education Director of The Kennedy Forum
Amy is the Education Director of The Kennedy Forum where she pursues partnerships and collaborations that emphasize evidence-based research and programming to facilitate policy change in the areas of education and mental health.
With over 15 years of experience working in public schools, Amy has seen first-hand how a child’s mental health and mental health literacy impacts their ability to learn and grow—not only in the classroom, but in life. Her experiences as a teacher and as a mother of five propel her efforts and advocacy around social-emotional learning and mental wellness for children and adolescents. Each day, Amy challenges herself and others to learn to address ACEs and other developmental roadblocks head on through thoughtful interventions and skill building.
Amy knows that by supporting educators and working with community partners to create robust mental health systems within our schools, it is possible to identify students’ needs and intervene early, while neuroplasticity is at its peak. Through strategies like social-emotional learning and integrated systems of care that meet students where they are, we have the power to improve educational, emotional, and health outcomes for all kids.
Amy serves on the boards of Mental Health America, a leading national advocacy organization and Parity.org, which promotes gender parity at the highest levels of business.
She is an advisory board member of Interaxon, a mental health technology company; the JED Foundation which focuses on mental wellness and emotional preparedness for teens; and Brain Futures.
Amy holds a Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education from Pennsylvania State University and a Master of Science in Environmental Education from Nova Southeastern University. She was born in Atlantic City and grew up in Pleasantville and Absecon, New Jersey. Amy and her husband, former Congressman Patrick J. Kennedy, live in southern New Jersey with their five children.
Co-Founder of the Holistic Life Foundation
Atman Smith is one of the Co-founders of the Holistic Life Foundation. Since 2001, he has been teaching yoga and mindfulness to a diverse population including underserved and high-risk youth in Baltimore City Public Schools, drug treatment centers, wellness centers, and colleges. A native of Baltimore, Atman attended the University of Maryland, College Park where he was a letter award winner for the University’s men's basketball team. He graduated with a B.A. in Criminology and Criminal Justice. His work with the Holistic Life Foundation has been featured on Making a Difference on the NBC Nightly News, CNN, and CBS, as well as O the Oprah Magazine, The Washington Post, Upworthy, Mindful Magazine, Yoga Journal, Shambala Sun, and many other publications.
Co-Founder of the Holistic Life Foundation
Ali Smith was born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland, he is a graduate of the Friends School of Baltimore and the University of Maryland, College Park, where he received a BS in Environmental Science and Policy with a Biodiversity specialization. Ali started his journey with contemplative practices as a small child, learning meditation from his father and attending the Kriya Yoga based Divine Life Church of Absolute Oneness run by Swami Shankarananda. He deepened his practice as a young adult, learning yoga, meditation, mindfulness, and breathwork from his teacher and godfather Will Joyner.
Ali has almost 20 years’ experience teaching yoga, mindfulness, and meditation internationally to a broad demographic spectrum that includes schools, retreat centers, wellness centers, mental crisis facilities, detention centers, drug treatment centers, the corporate setting, as well as private one-on-one sessions. He co-founded the Holistic Life Foundation in 2001. During his tenure as Executive Director, his leadership helped guide HLF to grow an organization that employed over 50 people, and served communities worldwide. He is a published author, written several curriculums, and is a pioneer in the fields of yoga and mindfulness in education, as well as trauma informed yoga and mindfulness, developing best practices that are used around the world. Ali has taught in seven countries on three continents.
His work has been featured on CBS News, CNN, NBC Nightly News, PBS, as well as in Oprah Magazine and Forbes. Ali is also a co-host of the Look Again Podcast and Co-Owner of the Involution Group.
Founder Isha Foundation, Yogi, Mystic, Visionary
Ranked amongst the fifty most influential people in India, Sadhguru is a Yogi, mystic, visionary, and author. Absolute clarity of perception not only in matters spiritual but in business, environmental and international affairs places him as a speaker and opinion‐maker of international renown. Sadhguru’s celebratory engagement with life includes a deep involvement in fields as diverse as architecture, visual design, poetry, painting, sports, music, aviation and motorcycling.
Three decades ago, Sadhguru founded Isha Foundation, a non‐profit human‐service organization, with human wellbeing as its core commitment. Isha is supported by over 11 million volunteers in more than 300 centers worldwide. Sadhguru has been conferred the Padma Vibhushan, India’s highest annual civilian award.
Co-Founder, John W. Brick Mental Health Foundation
A serial entrepreneur, author, and motivational speaker, C. Victor Brick is the CEO of Planet Fitness Growth Partners (PFGP). With 85 health clubs in the United States and Australia, PFGP is the largest privately held Planet Fitness franchisee in the Planet Fitness system. He is also the co-founder, with his wife, Lynne, of Brick Bodies health clubs based in Baltimore, Maryland. Victor has presented workshops, lectures and keynote addresses in over 25 countries around the world. He serves on the Global Wellness Summit Advisory Board, the Mental Wellness Initiative of the Global Wellness Institute, and the Johns Hopkins Hospital Psychiatry and Behavorial Sciences Department Advisory Board. He was the inaugural Planet Fitness Franchisee of the Year and the 1990 IDEA (The Association of Fitness Professionals) Business Person of the Year. He and Lynne were the recipients of the 2020 Global Wellness Summit Debra Simon Award for leadership in furthering Mental Wellness.
Co-Founder, John W. Brick Mental Health Foundation
Lynne Brick is the co-founder, with her husband, Victor, of Planet Fitness Growth Partners, the largest privately held Planet Fitness Franchisee in the Planet Fitness system. She is also the co-founder, with Victor, of Brick Bodies, a chain of health clubs in the Greater Baltimore area. She has produced and starred in a dozen exercise videos and written several group exercise/aerobics instructor training manuals. She is the 2004 Ernst and Young Maryland Entrepreneur of the Year, 1992 European International Presenter of the Year, and 1990 IDEA (The Association for Fitness Professionals) international Instructor of the Year. In 2008, Lynne was the first woman inducted into the Baltimore County Chamber of Commerce Business Hall of Fame. She is also in the Maryland Top 100 Women Circle of Excellence. A former shock trauma nurse at the University of Maryland RA Cowley Shock Trauma Center, the first shock trauma center in the world, she is a member of the Johns Hopkins Hospital Psychiatry and Behavorial Sciences Advisory Board, and was the recepient, with Victor, of the 2020 Global Wellness Summit Debra Simon Award for leadership in furthering Mental Wellness.
QB, Seattle Seahawks, Founder of Limitless Minds and Why Not You Foundation
Russell is the Super Bowl-winning quarterback to the Seattle Seahawks and the Co-founder and Chairman of Limitless Minds. He is an entrepreneur and philanthropist and holds the highest winning percentage in NFL History. He was awarded the Walter Payton Man of the Year in 2021.
Russell has an unwavering belief that "Success Leaves Clues" and can teach your team the value of being on a constant Quest For Knowledge. Russell has proven to be the poster-child for neutral thinking and the utilization of strategic "inner-language" to impact one's behaviors, which will ultimately dictate elite results.
Actor and Producer
An actor who has never shied away from speaking his mind; a producer who doesn’t believe in the ‘formula’, a film curator with a keen eye for detail and good stories, a painter who’s not scared to experiment with colours, and a philanthropist who wishes to leverage his position to bring a positive change in society. Well, that’s in short Abhay Deol, if only the versatile actor could fit in boxes.
Despite coming from the most-filmy family of Bollywood- the Deols, Abhay is a man of few words who lets his work and films do the talking bit. You may call him a non-conformist but Abhay’s panache of portraying complex characters is matched by very few in the cinema world as evident from his filmography that includes films like Dev D, Raanjhana, Manorama six feet under, Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, Shanghai, and Oye Lucky Lucky Oye.
Whether it was acquainting Sunny Deol to Imtiaz Ali for his debut Socha Na Tha, raising funds for Manorama Six Feet Under, or giving Anurag Kashyap the idea to give Devdas a contemporary twist in Dev.D, Abhay always went beyond the traditional responsibilities of an actor even in the early days of his career.
Despite his success with films that have been termed “art-house” and “off beat”, Abhay – right from his first shot has continually balanced and found success both with artistic/indie cinema as well as hugely successful Bollywood blockbusters.
He has consistently taken chances with debutante directors from the start of his career. Be it Imtiaz Ali, Reema Kakdi or Navdeep Singh, just to name a few. He’s also carried the freedom, and his penchant for going against the grain, into his work as a producer — backing newcomers and new storylines.
He has also set up his own production house based in Canada, 'Bliss Point Entertainment' to make global films. His first film under this banner is a horror flick by the name The Son.
With a huge fan-following across the globe, Abhay has always stood for the cause of parallel cinema, which is one of the reasons he became a film curator. He also ventured into the digital medium with Chopsticks and Line of Descent. With a strong social media presence, his #makingwhatbollywouldnt get him thousands of eyeballs on social media where he regularly takes up issues that Bollywood wouldn’t want you to see or talk about. Abhay is known to take a stand divergent to the rest of tinsel town’s herd opinions.
Ultramarathon Runner Author, Running Man
Charlie Engle is one of the premier ultra-endurance adventure athletes in the world today. He’s run across more than 40 countries but counts his most important accomplishment as his 28 years living clean and sober. Charlie’s record-setting 4,500 run across the Sahara Desert, documented in the film RUNNING THE SAHARA, led to the creation of H2O Africa, which is known today as Water.org, co-founded by Matt Damon.
Charlie has been a featured speaker at the United Nations, at NATO Headquarters in Belgium and onboard the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier. He regularly trains Fortune 500 companies in strategies for resilience and addressing addiction issues. His best-selling memoir RUNNING MAN was published by Simon and Schuster in 2016.
Founder and CXO of X Fellows, NOVUS, and #WeThePlanet
Kunal Sood is an internationally renowned Social Impact Strategist and Entrepreneur. He is the Founder of X Fellows, X Summit and NOVUS. Sood is on mission to transform the world. From serving as Global Health Scientist in the slums of Mumbai with Harvard to building global movements at the United Nations General Assembly like #WeThePlanet in New York with iconic leaders like Marc Benioff and H.E. Prime Minister Narendra Modi – this extraordinary citizen is on a mission to make the impossible possible by uniting global leaders to solve our global grand challenges and create a better future and world for all.
Co-Founder of Never Alone Movement and Founder of Warrior Monk
Executive Director, John W. Brick Foundation
Cassandra Vieten is a clinical psychologist, Executive Director of the John W. Brick Mental Health Foundation, Scholar-in-Residence at the Arthur C. Clarke Center for Human Imagination at the University of California, San Diego, and a Senior Fellow at the Institute of Noetic Sciences, where she served as President from 2013-2019. She has authored three books, published numerous articles in scientific journals, and is an internationally recognized keynote speaker and workshop leader.
Co-Founder of Never Alone Movement, Actress, and Activist
Sound Artist, Futurist and Founder of Alchemic Sonic Environment
Satya Hinduja is a sound artist helping bridge ancient practices of sound and energy medicine with emerging technologies. Merging her mother culture’s origin of meditative sound and her passion for experimental electronica, Satya creates Alchemic Sonic Environments (ASE): site specific, multi-sensory, deep listening experiences designed to invoke states of reflection, receptivity and exchange.
Singer-songwriter, Mental Health Advocate Founder, Never Broken
Jewel went from a girl who grew up with no running water on an Alaskan homestead, to a homeless teenager in San Diego, to an award winning, Multi-Platinum Recording Artist who released one of the best-selling debuts of all time. Through her career Jewel has sold over 30 million albums worldwide, earned 26 Music Award nominations, including The Grammys, AMAs, MTV Awards, VH1 Awards, Billboard Music Awards, and CMAs, winning 8 times. Jewel has been featured on the cover of TIME Magazine, Rolling Stone, performed on Saturday Night Live, at the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, for The Pope and The President Of The United States. Mental health and mindfulness has been a lifelong passion of Jewel’s. She offers free mindfulness exercises and an online mental health community at JewelNeverBroken.com.
Singer/Songwriter
Jennifer Lee Snowden is a singer, songwriter, piano player, essayist, and public speaker. A two-time cancer survivor, she is as resilient as she is forceful—determined as she is dynamic.
Musician and Songwriter
Johnny Sansone is recognized by The Blues Foundation in numerous categories for his outstanding talent. "He has crept upon us slowly but surely, and now Johnny Sansone has become one of the best bluesmen/roots musicians on the scene" David Kunian, OFFBEAT MAGAZINE.
IONS, Esalen and TILT
Michael Sapiro, PsyD is a clinical psychologist, Dharma teacher, meditation researcher, and former Buddhist monk. He is on faculty at Esalen Institute and is a Fellow at the Institute of Noetic Sciences where he engages in research on meditation, transformation, and consciousness. He teaches nationally on the art and science of transformation, expanded human capabilities, self-care, and nondual meditation. He completed his postdoctoral fellowship in advanced psychology at the Boise VA Medical Center where he specialized in rural and integrated health, PTSD, and combat trauma. His work is dedicated to personal awakening for the sake of collective and planetary transformation. He can be found at michaelsapiro.com.
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