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Brian M. Galla, Ph.D., is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. He holds degrees from the University of Notre Dame, Syracuse University, and a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology from UCLA. Brian studies how self-regulation—the ability to control attention and emotions and to inhibit impulses—helps shape healthy development, from improved social-emotional health to academic achievement. Currently, he is exploring the impact of self-regulation ability on college matriculation and persistence in a large sample of public high school students. He also has a strong interest in mindfulness-based approaches to promoting self-regulation and their potential to improve health and well-being. Along these lines, he is studying the impact of intensive teen meditation retreats to improve mindful attention, emotion regulation, and mental health. In addition to his research, Brian is a dedicated meditation practitioner and has spent several months in silent retreat practice. |
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Diana Winston is the director of Mindfulness Education at UCLA’s Mindful Awareness Research Center in Los Angeles. She has been teaching meditation to teens since 1993 and is the author of Wide Awake! A Buddhist Guide for Teens and the recently released, Fully Present: The Science, Art, and Practice of Mindfulness. She is a member of the Teachers Council at Spirit Rock Meditation Center in California and former associate director of the Buddhist Peace Fellowship. She is currently engaged in bringing mindfulness teachings to K-12 schools, medical education, mental health professionals, and the general public across the life-span. |
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David Ellner has 25 years experience in the music, television, and new technologies industries, with a focus on digital, marketing, business development, strategy, operations, and finance. He was President of Digital and Business Development for 19 Entertainment, home to the hit television shows American Idol and So You Think You Can Dance. Before that, he was Executive Vice President of Global Digital Initiatives at Universal Music Group, COO and CFO of Motown Records, and held various positions at EMI Music Publishing and Polygram Records. David earned his undergraduate degree from SUNY Albany and his MBA from NYU Stern School of Business, where he is an adjunct professor. Over the last decade, David has passionately pursued the practices of meditation and yoga. The physical, mental, and spiritual benefits he’s received inspired him to serve as a bridge between the worlds of commerce and expanding awareness. He also serves on the board of the Kripalu Center. |
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Philip Murphy is an advancement professional who has held senior leadership positions at national consumer advocacy and public interest groups like Public Citizen, Babson College (Wellesley, MA), the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the UCLA Anderson School of Management, and the USC Viterbi School of Engineering. Philip also maintains a fundraising consultancy practice under the auspices of Back Bay Philanthropic Partners. He supports Inward Bound’s efforts to craft and implement innovative fundraising strategies aimed at securing philanthropic support for the organization. In addition to serving as a development advisor to iBme, he also provides fundraising counsel to Against The Stream Buddhist Mediation Society in Los Angeles, CA, and the Shambhala Mountain Center retreat center in Red Feather Lakes, CO. Philip formerly served on the board at the Mindful Valley mindfulness community (West Hills, CA), as well as at the Cambridge (MA) Insight Meditation Center. He is a long-time member at CIMC, where he began his mindfulness meditation practice in 1997. |
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Willoughby Britton holds a B.A. in Neuroscience and a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology, and is currently an Assistant Professor in the Departments of Psychiatry and Public Health at Brown Medical School and Research Director of the Brown University Contemplative Studies Initiative. She received sleep/EEG training at Harvard Medical School and was a Research Fellow at the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA/NIH) and Andrew Weil’s Program in Integrative Medicine. She spent several years in Asia studying meditative techniques and received her mindfulness instructor certification training at the Center for Mindfulness at the UMASS Medical School. With the aim of investigating the link between contemplative practices, brain function, sleep, attention and affective disturbances, she has conducted federally funded RCTs on the neurophysiological effects of MBCT in depression; and education-based mindfulness training in middle school and university students in comparison to music and dance. |
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Patricia Broderick, PhD, is a Research Associate with the Prevention Research Center at Penn State University and former director of the Stress Reduction Center at West Chester University of PA. She holds a Master’s degree in Counseling from Villanova and a Ph.D. in School Psychology from Temple University. She is a licensed psychologist, certified school psychologist (K-12), certified school counselor (K-12). and certified teacher. She was trained in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) at the Center for Mindfulness (CFM) at UMASS Medical Center and has taught MBSR since 2003. Her developmental psychology textbook, The life span: Human development for helping professionals is now in its third edition. She is also the creator of Learning to BREATHE, a school-based mindfulness curriculum for adolescents. Visit her website at learning2breathe.org. |
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Tara Brach, PhD, is a beloved dharma teacher and the founder and senior teacher of the Insight Meditation Community of Washington, and teaches Buddhist meditation at centers in the United States and Canada (such as Kripalu and Omega). A clinical psychologist and author of Radical Acceptance, Embracing Your Life With the Heart of a Buddha. She has taught extensively on the application of Buddhist teachings to emotional healing. Visit her website at tarabrach.com. |
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Michelle MacDonald co-founded Vipassana Hawai’i in 1984 with Steven Smith. She has taught Insight meditation for thirty years. Beyond her commitment to the Vipassana Hawai’i Sangha, she teaches extensively throughout the United States, in Canada, Burma, and various locations around the world. Michele has been a quiet pioneer having being the first woman to teach a formal retreat in Burma, side-by-side with a senior monastic figure, Sayadaw U Lakkhana, Abbot of Kyaswa Monastery. She appreciates teaching at many levels of practice and has enjoyed teaching three-month retreats for experienced students as well as developing meditation retreats for youth. |
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Spring Washam has practiced meditation in various traditions since 1997. She is a founding teacher of the East Bay Meditation Center, located in Oakland, CA. She is a graduate of the Community Dharma Leaders program and is in teacher training with Jack Kornfield. Spring is considered a pioneer in bringing mindfulness-based meditation practices to inner city communities. She currently leads retreats and workshops throughout the US and teaches a weekly sitting group in Oakland, CA. |
