Our Board of Directors
Jaskaran Basran
Jaskaran is Foundation Manager and Research Coordinator at the Compassionate Mind Foundation (UK) and an associate professor at the University of Derby. She is currently completing a PhD on the use of compassion focused therapy for individuals with narcissistic traits.
James Doty
James is a clinical professor of neurosurgery at Stanford University and founder and director of the Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education. He is author of the widely popular self-help book “Into the Magic Shop” and senior editor of the Oxford Handbook of Compassion Science.
Paul Gilbert
Paul is professor of clinical psychology at the University of Derby and visiting professor at the university of Queensland. He has studied evolutionary approaches to mental health problems and compassion for over 30 years and is the founder of the Compassionate Mind Foundation. He was awarded on OBE for his services to mental health.
Rick Hanson, President and Founder
Rick is a psychologist, Senior Fellow at UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center, and a New York Times best-selling author. With his son Forrest he produces the Being Well podcast which is downloaded several million times a year and he has lectured at NASA, Google, Oxford, and Harvard.
Julia Kim
Julia is Program Director at the Gross National Happiness Centre Bhutan. She has worked as a physician and researcher in Africa and Asia, before serving with UNDP and UNICEF in New York. She brings a background in leadership development, research and policy in the fields of wellbeing economics, global health, and sustainable development.
James Kirby
James is Co-Director of the Compassionate Mind Research Group at the University of Queensland. He specialises in studying the effectiveness of Compassion Focused Therapy and the decision-making that underpins compassionate actions. He also works as a clinical psychologist in private practice.
Marcela Matos
Marcela is Clinical Psychologist and Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Coimbra, Portugal. She has written over 80 international peer-reviewed articles and book chapters on the topics of compassion, shame, self-criticism, emotional regulation, psychopathology and well-being.
Jennifer Nadel, Executive Chair
Jennifer is a qualified barrister, author, political strategist, speaker, activist and award winning TV journalist. Her Sunday Times Bestsller, WE, is a guide for individual and societal change. She’s run for the UK Parliament twice and co-founded the thinktank, Compassion in Politics.
Lobsang Negi
Lobsang is co-founder and Executive Director of the Center for Contemplative Science and Compassion-Based Ethics at Emory University. He is also a Professor of Pedagogy in Emory University’s Department of Religion and the founder and spiritual director of Drepung Loseling Monastery in Atlanta, GA.
Nicola Petrocchi
Nicola is a professor of Psychology at John Cabot University and a CFT therapist and trainer based in Rome. They are the author of several national and international peer review publications and book chapters on compassion, compassion-focused therapy, and the physiological correlates of prosocial motivations. They are also the founder of Compassionate Mind Italia which is linked to the Compassionate Mind Foundation in the UK.
Mamphela Ramphele
Mamphela is Co-Founder of ReimagineSA, the Chair of the Tutu IPTRUST, and Co-President of the Club of Rome. She is a medical doctor, social anthropologist, and was formerly Vice Chancellor of the University of Cape Town and a managing director at the World Bank.
Lynne Reeder
Lynne is an Adjunct Research Fellow at Federation University Australia. She is Founder of the Mindful Futures Network, the National Lead of the Australian Compassion Council, and the global coordinator of the Science and Research sector of the Charter for Compassion.
Lilli Ross
Lilli is a writer, mindfulness teacher, classical singer, and movement practitioner. She attended the University of Virginia and Columbia University and has studied the work of developmental psychologists and social scientists. Assisting others to prevent and heal trauma is her life mission.
Tania Singer
Tania is a professor for psychology and social neuroscience and scientific head of the Max Planck Society’s Social Neuroscience Lab in Berlin. She is principal investigator of the ReSource project, one of the largest longitudinal studies on the effects of mental training on compassion, prosociality, mental health and brain plasticity.
Marilyn Turkovich
Marilyn is Director of the Charter for Compassion. Her background lies in education and she previously directed teacher training programs for the Associated Colleges of the Midwest and was chair of Columbia College-Chicago’s Masters program in multicultural and global education.
Cheng Yi Heng
Yi Heng is a senior consultant to international financial institutions in clean coal technology and hydrogen production, as well as carbon neutrality strategy. He is also Asia Deputy Director of the International Ecological Development Union (EDUI) and a fellow of the World Academy of Arts and Science. Yi Heng is a practitioner of Information Healing.
Team
Khiteri Brown - Press and Membership Officer
Khiteriara Brown is the Founder and Director of Millennial Channel. Khiteriara is a xenophile, world affairs commentator, and philanthropist. She has a master’s in Chinese translation from New York University, a master’s in political management from George Washington University, and a bachelor’s in history from the University of Alabama.
Kristine Claghorn - Events Manager
Kristine is a certified educator of compassion & mindfulness through Stanford University CCARE’s Applied Compassion Training program. She has worked on several guides on compassion, mindfulness, and nonviolent communication and wrote an e-book titled “Taking Compassionate Action: A Compassionate Guide to Navigating Burnout, Imposter Syndrome, and Difficult Conversations to Further Resilience, Take Action, and Create Positive Change.” She's pivoted her marketing and production skill set since her time at a marketing agency to focus on education and translational science, creating tools to help others live more impactful, compassionate lives.
Matt Hawkins - Chief Communications Officer
Matt Co-Founded Compassion in Politics UK and Co-Edited the book How Compassion Can Transform Our Politics, Economics, and Society. He was part of the Nobel-prize winning team at the International Campaign to Absolish Nuclear Weapons and successfully led the campaign for mixed-sex civil partnerships in Britain.
Maura Paula Jiminez - Membership Development Coordinator
Maria is a Colombian contemplative instructor and therapist. She is a Senior Teacher and Teacher Trainer of the Compassion Cultivation Program developed at the Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education at Stanford University and a trained teacher of the Mindful Self-Compassion program.
Erin Romine - Social Media Manager
Erin is a digital marketing professional from San Diego, California. Erin graduated from San Francisco State University with her BA in Communication Strategies and represented her alma mater at the first Bay Area Communication Research Conference to present her original research study on how we use conversational strategies to convey relational closeness. When she isn’t behind her computer, you can find her soaking up the sunshine.
Dee Sandhu - Membership Officer
Dee has spent her professional career in strategic health communications and public policy. She has held senior leadership roles at Ogilvy Public Relations and Edelman PR and has led international teams for many healthcare initiatives. She developed and led a multinational program to form the first pan-European public health coalition in the disease area of COPD. She has worked in Europe, South East Asia and the US, spanning over 18 years.
Susana Novais Santos - Researcher
Susana is a neuroscientist, researcher, mindfulness teacher, record-holder ultramarathon open water swimmer, humanitarian athlete, motivational speaker, and personal chef. She started practicing meditation and studying Zen Buddhism at the early age of 16, when she first moved to Asia (in 1991).
Alex Wilks - Digital Lead
Alex has extensive experience as a digital campaign strategist and manager. He was previously Digital Manager for the European Movement and Head of Digital Campaigns for the People's Vote movement in the UK. He has also been a digital advisor to Compassion in Politics UK.
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