MISSION BE - Key Persons
Adam Factor is a doctoral student at the University of Maryland, College Park pursuing his PhD in Social/Organizational Psychology. He received his undergraduate degree in sociology and psychology from UC Berkeley and went on to research healthcare management with the Department of Veterans Affairs. At Maryland, Adam is pursuing research questions related to the psychology of motivation, radicalization, and extremism, having previously examined burnout and emotion management in the field of healthcare.
Outside of the lab and classroom, he connects with the message of emotional wellbeing at Mission Be and puts his research skills to use strengthening its data-driven capacity to improve lives.
Adam Kohler is focused on making education the core of all his vocational and avocational endeavors. As a wealth management advisor for a firm whose majority of clients work in the public sector, he works closely with academics, hospital professionals, and individuals who dedicate their time to charitable organizations, to break down the complexities of financial planning, lead seminars for groups interested in taking control of their financial life, and also for families with loved ones who have special needs.
In addition to financial planning, Adam teaches courses on philosophy at local colleges. More specifically, he focuses on introducing the foundational branches of philosophy to students in order to foster keen critical thinking skills, as well as courses on biomedical ethics and business ethics so that students may learn to apply those skills to situations they face in everyday life.
In addition to the advisory board, Adam spent time as the director of research for Mission Be, tying contemporary scientific studies on the effects of mindfulness and the positive consequences of mindfulness-based programs to the work that Mission Be is cultivating throughout California and New York."
Job Titles:
- Community Member
- Treasurer
Barbara Vouris has been an active community member and school leader throughout her career and lifetime. Barbara has 34 years of education experience K-12, special education experience included many teaching assignments: resource room, self-contained, home instruction and consultant/inclusion teacher.
Earlier in her career, Barbara was a fifth grade elementary teacher in Deer Park School District. As a Special Educator in West Islip High School, Barbara was one of the first four special education teachers hired and a member of the Committee on the Handicapped. Since 1997, she has worked on Islip Community Health and Wellness Initiatives as one of the founding members of the Islip Drug Education Awareness Coalition. IDEA Coalition is a Drug Free Community Grant recipient where Barbara completes bi-annual reports for the Coalition's day to day prevention work, fiscal and data management in her role as co-program director. Her dedicated committee work includes Standards of Excellence at Islip Middle School and Islip High School, Community Council and local environmental groups such as Keep Islip Clean and Seatuck.
Since 1980, she has been an active civic member, Executive Board Member, and President of the Old South Islip Civic Association. For five years she was the Program Director of Islip School Age Childcare Corporation, a not-for-profit organization housed at Wing Elementary School in Islip. Barbara is a newly inducted Rotarian in Islip and Program Coordinator with The Great South Bay Coalition in West Sayville, Sayville, Bayport, and Blue Point communities.
Barry Margerum has over 30 years of executive and board of director level business experience in California high technology companies. As the Chief Strategy Officer of Plantronics and a long-term mindfulness practitioner, he introduced Search Inside Yourself (SIY), a mindfulness-based emotional intelligence for leaders program, to Plantronics in June 2012. Mr. Margerum became a certified SIY teacher in 2015 and currently teaches mindfulness classes to executives and workers around the world.
Mr. Margerum holds a Bachelor of Science in Engineering from Princeton University and a Master of Business Administration from Stanford University.
Job Titles:
- Intellectual Property Lawyer and Managing Partner
is an intellectual property lawyer and managing partner of his law firm. Brian graduated from Trinity College with a degree in chemistry. While working as a chemist at a pharmaceutical company, he attended the Maurice Deane School of Law at Hofstra University. Brian's law practice focuses on obtaining patents, trademarks and copyrights for small companies and startups.
Brian grew up in Islip and now lives in Sayville with his wife, Kelly, and two children, Gavin and Elisabeth.
Bruce has had a diverse professional career spanning Broadway (actor/singer/dancer), publishing, health and wellness, performance, leadership development, executive management, mentoring and photography.
As one of the founding directors of the HeartMath organizations he helped guide the development of programs designed to reduce stress and improve resilience and performance for both children and adults.
He has worked with teachers, parents, students, CEOs, managers, health care professionals, and everyday people to provide tools to enhance their life on all levels. He has written for Harvard Business Review and many business and health care publications. A two-year journey of major health issues culminated in his decision to step down as CEO of HeartMath in 2011 so he could pursue new creative projects including mentoring, keynote performing, and song-writing. He now consults and mentors visionary entrepreneurs and leaders in all fields. He believes all human beings are innately creative, though the creative energy of each individual is often discouraged by parents, siblings, employers, and society as a whole. His mission is to awaken the creative energy within all people, preferably starting with children (in whom it's already awake).
His work around Creativity is being taught at Stanford University, 1440 Multiversity (near Silicon Valley) and the New York Open Center. His most recent project is an album of original songs created with the Brothers Koren, released May 2018, called Renaissance Human. He graduated from Oberlin College and Conservatory of Music.
PhD is Canadian-American multi disciplinary scientist, designer, and author. Dr. Bruce Damer collaborates with colleagues developing and testing a new model for the origin of life on Earth and in the design of spacecraft architectures to provide a viable path for expansion of human civilization beyond the Earth. He began his career in the 1980s developing some of the earliest user interfaces for personal computers, led a community in the 1990s bringing the first multi-user virtual worlds to the Internet, and since 2000 supported NASA and the space industry on numerous simulations and spacecraft designs.
He has spent 25 years chronicling the history of computing in his DigiBarn Computer Museum. He currently serves as Principal Scientist at DigitalSpace; Associate Researcher in the Department of Biomolecular Engineering at UC Santa Cruz; Associate of the NASA Astrobiology Center; Member of the International Society for the Study of the Origin of Life, and Founding Director of the Contact Consortium.
He also served as Visiting Scholar at the University of Washington and as a member of the Faculty at Charles University, Prague. He received his PhD from University College, Dublin; MSEE from the University of Southern California and BSc from the University of Victoria.
Carin Winter - CEO, Founder, President
Carin Winter founded Mission Be, Mindful Education in 2013 and had brought their program to hundreds of schools in New York and California, trained thousands of educators and impacted over 148,000 students. Carin is a Licensed Master Social Worker, completing graduate school with the highest honors, Summa Cum Laude from Adelphi University. She has extensive clinical experience working with youth in schools, foster care and the juvenile justice system.
Carin founded and maintained Healing Arts of the South Shore, a private counseling and healing practice for over a decade, as well as Embrace Yoga Studio in NY for eight years. She also spent ten years as a school social worker in New York specializing in substance abuse. Carin co-chaired the Islip Drug Education and Awareness Task Force for 10 years combating substance abuse and the heroin epidemic on Long Island.
Since 2015, she has been a committee leader with the Jesse Lewis Choose Love Social Movement in Sandy Hook, CT. She is also an advisory member to GIFT, the Global Investment Foundation for Tomorrow and a member of the advisory board at Global Mana. She is a speaker for Safe and Sound Schools founded in Sandy Hook, CT.
Carin has presented at: The White House, The Palo Alto VA Hospital, Singularity, Facebook, Tiger 21, Americorp, CIIS, The NY Open Center, The Omega Institute, Wisdom 2.0, the Assemblage, Santa Clara University, Menlo College, St. Joseph's College and Long Island University. She has also served as a substitute teacher and guest lecturer at Stanford University.
She completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Yale University School of Medicine and has served as Coordinator of Mindfulness Programs at the Counseling and Psychological Services, Stony Brook University; Assistant Director of Counseling for Training at SBU; and Associate Professor of Psychology at SUNY/Empire State College. Over the past 30 years, Cheryl's commitment to bringing mindfulness training to the university community led her to develop a wide range of educational and clinical programs for students, staff and faculty at SBU and St. Joseph's College. Her interest in the integration of psychotherapy and mindfulness guides her own clinical work as well as her educational offerings for health care professionals. In 2010 she completed the Teacher Development Intensive Training in MBSR through the Center for Mindfulness at the University of Massachusetts Medical School and recently the Integrated Study and Practice Program at Barre Center for Buddhist Studies. Cheryl's study of contemplative practices includes yoga, Tibetan Buddhist (Shambhala) and Vipassana meditation, and East/West psychology with John Welwood, Ph.D. In 1987, she journeyed, under the guidance of Swami Rama of the Himalayan Institute to Gangotri and Gomuk, India, the source of the Ganges River.
Cheryl is an active member of the Mindfulness Meditation NY Collaborative
is an ordained interfaith minister whose passion is to help raise the consciousness of humanity towards inner peace. He has been working to bring awareness to healing racial, cultural, and religious prejudices which have plagued mankind. He is a spiritual teacher, counselor and adviser and has helped many in recovery from alcohol and drug addictions. He is also a long-time student and teacher of a Course In Miracles and is certified as a facilitator in Attitudinal Healing. Cliff has studied in Ghana, West Africa and was initiated as a Oneness Blessing Giver in 2010 at the Oneness University in India. Recently Cliff has been lecturing on the higher states of human consciousness and is currently writing a book about the power of acceptance, humility, and forgiveness.
Cliff is on the advisory team for the purposes of fundraising.
Daniel Kottke has been immersed in the world of mindfulness since the early 1970's when he became a close friend of Steve Jobs at Reed College in 1972, which led to a 4-month pilgrimage for the two friends to India in 1974. From there, Dan Kottke practically created tech, in Silicon Valley, with his two friends, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak by helping build the first Apple-I computer in Steve's garage in 1976. Kottke worked for Apple 1976-1984 as an early member of the Mac design team. From 1984-2008 Dan was involved in: Lucidity Research, EcheLON, General Magic, SleepTrace, Silicon Gaming, Vertical Networks, CubeRoot, Blinkenlabs, Fastmovie.tv.
Kottke earned his JD in 1998 and produced/hosted the cable tv show The Next Step 2005-2012. He was Gen'l. Partner for Cobb Mtn Partners 2010-14. Kottke is now in the marketplace for Smarthome products, where he is now working on a stealth startup aimed at multi-tenant and senior/eldercare market sectors. He has begun working on a memoir about his friendship with Steve Jobs prior to Apple
Job Titles:
- Member of the Advisory Board
Marriage and Family Therapist, is the author of The Way of Mindful Education: Cultivating Well - Being in Teachers and Students. He founded the Mindful Education Institute and the Omega Mindfulness in Education conference. He leads mindfulness in education trainings and conferences at institutions such as the Omega Institute, Esalen, and California Institute of Integral Studies. He has helped create curriculum for organizations such as Mindfulness Without Borders, Mindful Schools, and The Mindful Mothering Project. Daniel leads mindfulness trainings for schools and communities around the world, such as the South Burlington School District, The Paideia School in Atlanta, and Phucket International Academy in Thailand. He has had amazing results teaching mindfulness to high-school basketball and baseball teams. Daniel also has a private psychotherapy practice in the San Francisco Bay Area.
has been practicing Ashtanga Yoga since May 1976 and teaching publicly (and occasionally privately) worldwide since 1979. He teaches all levels of students and teachers and was in one of the earliest groups of westerners to learn all the classical sequences of Ashtanga Yoga. His first teachers were David Williams & Nancy Gilgoff. David was the first western Ashtanga adept. Danny began teaching with David Williams in 1979 and was asked to assist him at that time.
Danny introduces the forms to beginning students, experienced/advanced practitioners and teachers. Many people he has taught are now themselves teaching and have their own schools. He's also introduced the Ashtanga forms to many people who were Yoga teachers in other traditions and styles. He's taught numerous well known artists, musicians, dancers, sports champions and studied with K. Patabbhi Jois in 1978 in Hawaii and 1980 in Hawaii in the USA. This included K.P. Jois's first advanced series public classes in 1980 which were in Maui, Hawaii.
Danny is also a musician, songwriter and performer. He has produced two CDs and a music/Yoga DVD He's also studied and practiced with numerous teachers of other Yoga forms as well as various martial arts including Karate, Kung Fu and Tai Chi.
Danny will be advising the mindful music committee.
After founding, operating, and selling a small enterprise to a publicly traded company, David began a career that would take his humanitarian vision and executive leadership to ever-increasing levels of influence. He led mental health counseling and training programs for therapists and teachers, directed national programs to help micro-entrepreneurs, and served as executive of an international institute focused on advancing and promoting empathy and compassion throughout society. David is a strategic executive who has built a reputation and achieved exemplary results based on his natural ability to bring exceptional people together around topics of ethical decision-making, emphatic leadership, and promoting the values and science of compassion and altruism. Having earned an advanced degree in psychology and devoting years of leadership in service to others, David is currently Director of the School for Professional Development and Extended Studies at Naropa University.
has enjoyed 30 years of international experience as an executive producer, digital media educator, venture catalyst, fundraiser, grant writer, board member and/or advisor to numerous startups, institutions, multi-national and government entities. He's done this as an award-winning executive producer of multiple commercial feature film, digital media, mobile products, content and concerts; as a global business and economic development executive, consultant, and public speaker; as a digital educator - with the delivery of bio-psycho-social health education via entertainment as an underlying theme; and as a philanthropist.
Over the years he has consulted numerous ventures, with entertainment, digital media, digital education, telecom/cable, and renewable energy as the balance of his international portfolio. He has co-raised and deployed capital for over commercial 25 ventures.As a philanthropist David Traub has co-founded and raised capital for two non-profits. Current entrepreneurial projects in the content space include: Executive Producer/member of Producing team for multiple movies most recently the JOBS film, Co-Producer. As a repository for the above feature film and television projects Traub is co-developing Epiphany Film Fund, LLC. David also developing several digital publishing ventures for both teenagers and broad culture that address the current lack of ‘bio-psycho-social' health knowledge in modern life.
David is also an author of nearly 50 articles and reports on the evolution of the digital domain for trade publications, professional books and institutional clients; is currently writing the book: "17 Questions: The Ride of Your Life."David has worked with David earned a Masters in Education in 1990 from Harvard University with a focus on optimizing economic and career development and "human capital" via entertainment interfaces/informal media, while conducting simultaneous class-work at the MIT Media Lab and Harvard's Business School. In 1984 he earned his undergraduate degrees in rhetoric and film with honors from the University of California at Berkeley.
Dawn Bhat, MA, MS, NCC, RYT-500, holds graduate degrees in General Psychology from Queens College and in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from Long Island University, C. W. Post where she received the 2013 mental health counseling award. She is a national certified counselor, a limited permit holder in mental health counseling, and sees individuals, couples, and families for psychotherapy in private practices on Long Island. Dawn is registered as a yoga teacher with Yoga Alliance (RYT-500) and teaches at Embrace Yoga. She has been a member of the International Association for Yoga Therapists (IAYT) and was a peer reviewer for the IAYT journal. She studied traditional yoga with Georg Feuerstein, Ph.D. and she has been a yoga practitioner for almost 20 years.
Dawn is registered as a yoga teacher with Yoga Alliance (RYT-500) and teaches at Embrace Yoga. She has been a member of the International Association for Yoga Therapists (IAYT) and was a peer reviewer for the IAYT journal. She studied traditional yoga with Georg Feuerstein, Ph.D. and she has been a yoga practitioner almost 20 years.
As a clinician, Dawn takes an integrative, bodymind approach to counseling and psychotherapy. She utilizes standard approaches and more holistic ones such as mindfulness training, hypnosis, and somatic work. Dawn has worked with psychiatric and neurological patients, and has experience working with severely mentally ill patients in inpatient and community-based settings. She has treated individuals suffering from PTSD related to motor vehicle accidents and relational trauma. She has worked behaviorally with children and adults with autism, learning disorders and developmental disabilities. Dawn has counseled women during pregnancy and with post-partum mood disorders. She has special interests in parenting, adoptee issues, and infant development. Dawn's approach and her variety of experiences in research and the mental health field help her clients change, learn and grow personally, spiritually and relationally.
Professionally, Dawn has presented at national and international conferences and has published or contributed to scholarly research in addition to writing book reviews. Dawn is a regular columnist/writer for Somatic Psychotherapy Today. She works under the guidance of Jacqueline A. Carleton, Ph.D., with whom she has a book chapter in press on the role of the autonomic nervous system in psychotherapy. She and Dr. Carleton published a number of papers on the integration of the body in psychotherapy and treating attachment trauma. One of their 2013 presentations was entitled: Promoting Resiliency: Clinical Applications of Neuroscience, Attachment Theory and Mindfulness.
Dawn is a Mindful Educator and a Senior Researcher for Mission Be. In these roles, Dawn helps educators and clinicians translate and apply the large body of empirical research on mindfulness and related subjects to enhance child and adolescent development, improve parenting skills, and optimize overall mental health.
was awarded the NASP 2013 School Psychologist of the Year and is practicing School Psychologist of 34 years in the Elwood School District in East Northport, Long Island. His professional interests include the development of peer helping models, the assessment and treatment of personality disorders, the application of mindfulness and psychology practices to treatment protocols, and the preservation of the field of School Psychology.
As a School Psychology practitioner of thirty-four years, Dr. Pantaleno has been a lifetime advocate for social-emotional learning and the critical importance of how this facet of educational practice supports the academic and career goals of all children. Anthony was the founding member of Natural Helpers Program in Elwood in 1978, a peer helping model which trains nominated peer helpers in facilitative listening and crisis intervention skills. He went on to build the Natural Helpers of Long Island, a coalition of twelve Long Island high schools which modelled the philosophy and practice of peer helping, ran monthly advisor meetings for participating schools, and coordinated an annual NHLI conference.
After seventeen years of Natural Helpers work, Dr. Pantaleno moved on to bring a second major peer helping initiative to his district. Operation Respect began as a major outreach by Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul, and Mary Fame, and was designed to be transplanted locally around the theme of the program theme song "Don't Laugh At Me". Anthony began to recruit middle and high school disabled and non-disabled youth, and chartered monthly social outings. An annual event was also launched where secondary school youth were trained to deliver a lessons to second and fourth graders. In recent years, Anthony teamed with the Mentoring Partnership of Long Island (MPLI) and created teams of underclassmen paired with upperclass men mentors. Teams met weekly for one school year and developed that special bond of trust, support, and caring that characterizes all mentoring relationships.
Job Titles:
- Chairman of the Suffolk County Heroin / Opiate Epidemic Advisory Panel
- Executive Director of the Long Island Council
An experienced, dynamic and committed public health professional, Dr. Jeffrey L. Reynolds is the Executive Director of the Long Island Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence (LICADD). LICADD provides screening, brief intervention, referrals, relapse prevention and anger management. Under Dr. Reynolds' leadership, LICADD has pioneered the launch of "Too Good for Drugs, an evidence-based K-12 substance abuse prevention program in several schools, initiated a new mentoring program for children of incarcerated parents and re-branded its Employee Assistance Program, now called "Open Arms EAP."Dr. Reynolds worked for the Long Island Association for AIDS Care for 19 years, finished his tenure as Vice President for Public Affairs. In 1997, he co-founded BiasHELP of Long Island, an organization dedicated to assisting victims of hate crimes. He also secured federal, state and local grants and launched a wide array of crime victim services and school-based violence prevention.
Dr. Reynolds currently serves as Chair of the Suffolk County Heroin/Opiate Epidemic Advisory Panel, is on the Executive Committee of the Nassau County Heroin Prevention Task Force and serves on Suffolk County's Welfare-to-Work Commission, the Suffolk County's Sober Home Oversight Board and remains the longest serving member of the NYS AIDS Advisory Council. He has served as a consultant and grant reviewer for SAMHSA and is a presenter at NHHS conferences. He has authored more than 200 news and op-ed articles. Dr. Reynolds was named one of the "50 most influential Long Islanders" in 2010-12 by the Long Island Press.
Dr. Reynolds holds a Bachelors degree in psychology from Dowling College (1988), a Masters in Public Administration (MPA) with a specialization in health administration from Long Island University (1997) and a doctorate from Stony Brook University's School of Social Welfare (2007). He remains an Assistant Clinical Professor at Stony Brook, a Certified Anger Management Professional, a Certified Employee Assistance Professional (CEAP) and a U.S. Department of Transportation-qualified SAP.
Jeff is advising the business end of the project and the NFP aspects.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Advisory Board
Elena Moseng is a philanthropist, angel investor and a serial entrepreneur with passion for cutting edge technology and innovation. Elena's education is withinPsychology, Finance and IT from Altay State Technical University in Russia, where she was born and grew up.After university Elena moved to Norway where she forged a successful career at several multinational companies. Elena's naturally curious mind, which constantly questions the status quo of life has Brought her on a path of entrepreneurship. In 2012 she launched Irbiz, a creative venture company Irbiz that focuses on innovative technology businesses with an emphasis on VR/AR, computer vision and artificial intelligence. Irbiz believes in game - changing commercial technologies which produce major environmental and social benefits.
To date Irbiz has been supporting award-winning and revolutionary tech companies that focuses on education, accessibility, green energy and carbon footprint.In early 2016 Elena started to investigate the legacy that is being left to future generations both in terms of environmental impact and inequality for women. These have become driving factors in her life and her latest start - up SimplUP - a disruptive new technology that will revolutionise the way we buy clothes. SimplUP combines computer vision and artificial intelligence to provide consumers with sustainable fashion that always fits to battle the enormous environmental footprint of the second worst polluting industry next to oil. Elena is a strong believer of doing business for good.
For the past 10 years she has supported multiple international charitable and social enterprise projects with the focus on disadvantaged communities, education, and equality. Elena also serves as an advisory board member for Conspexit, an innovative tech company helping visually impaired people to experience the world without limitations. In her free time, she loves spending time with her family, training, dancing and travel the world.
Job Titles:
- Social Entrepreneur and the CEO and Co - Founder
is a social entrepreneur and the CEO and Co-Founder of Knowji, Inc. Knowji is an innovative education technology company that makes vocabulary apps that have been featured by Apple, and has helped countless students improve their vocabulary effortlessly. Emmie is the co-inventor of Knowji's learning algorithm, which is based on scientifically proven learning methodologies.
Emmie is passionate about education, and loves learning and design. She feels strongly that we must love what we do. For her, a big part of that means doing something that makes a difference in another person's life.
She is advising Mission Be in our digital application development.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Advisory Board
Is the director of the Stanford University Forgiveness Projects, an ongoing series of workshops and research projects that investigate the effectiveness of his forgiveness methods on a variety of populations. The forgiveness project has successfully explored forgiveness therapy with people who suffered from the violence in Northern Ireland, Sierra Leone as well as the attacks on the World Trade Center on 9/11. In addition his work has been successfully applied and researched in corporate, medical, legal and religious settings. He currently also serves as a Senior Consultant in Health Promotion at Stanford University and is a Professor at the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology. He presents lectures, workshops, seminars and trainings on the importance, health benefits and training of forgiveness, stress management and emotional competence throughout the United States. He offers presentations and classes that range from one hour to ongoing weekly trainings. He is the author of Forgive for Good: A Proven Prescription for Health and Happiness (HarperSanFrancisco, 2001) and Stress Free for Good: Ten Proven Life Skills for Health and Happiness(HarperSanFrancisco, 2005), with Kenneth Pelletier, Ph.D. Dr. Luskin holds a Ph.D. in Counseling and Health Psychology from Stanford University.
Is a seven time Emmy® award-winning composer, producer, performer and public speaker dedicated to making a difference in the world by creating music-driven media and experiences that inspire the heart and catalyze individual and societal healing. As a keynote presenter, he is passionate about the vital role music, media, and the arts can play during these extraordinary times of change as an innovative tool to enhance our humanity, deepen our sense of meaning in our lives, and cultivate greater emotional/social intelligence in an increasingly complex and distracted world.
As a composer for numerous award-winning television and film projects for nearly thirty years - as well as an Immersive Strategist/Artistic Director for conferences worldwide, Gary is known for participating in globally acclaimed projects that support environmental sustainability, spiritual tolerance, children's health and welfare, cancer research, and cross-cultural healing. He just received Hollywood Music in Media Award's Best Soundtrack Award (with music partner, Dan Alvarez) in the Indie Feature Documentary category, for his work on the groundbreaking film, Thrive: What on Earth Will It Take? He is the co-creator (with Michael Stillwater) of Graceful Passages: A Companion For Living and Dying, released by his media company, Wisdom of the World, which offers aesthetic ways to help face life transitions with greater mindfulness.
In 2011, he co-authored a CD/Book called Safe in the Arms of Love: Deepening the Essential Bond with Your Baby, which received an award for Best Contribution to the Field by APPPAH, an International organization focusing on Pre and Peri Natal Psychology. He has just released a new genre called
WisdomFilmsTM - Media for Human Being, short-format films for stress reduction and heart/mind integration In 2008, the CEO commissioned Gary and curator of TED, Chris Anderson, to create the theme music for the global broadcast phenomenon, Pangea Day. He also has served as Artistic Director for the Quest for Global Healing Conferences in Bali, Indonesia, (which featured Archbishop Desmond Tutu, among other Nobel Laureates) and was asked to present on the healing power of music on the stage of the Great Hall of China during the Beijing Olympics. An in-demand public speaker at places such as Google, Harvard's Conference on Spirituality and Health, Scripps Clinic, Kaiser Permanente, and The Institute for Functional Medicine. He was featured on the national PBS Series, Healing Quest, the Huffington Post, promoting a greater understanding of the power of music and the arts as an essential resource for inspiration, emotional intelligence, enhanced creativity and life/balance integration.
Gary will be helping create and advise our mindful music committee, our Mindful CD, digital application and videos.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Advisory Board
- Director of CCARE
James Doty, MD, is a Clinical Professor in the Department of Neurosurgery at Stanford University and the Director of the Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education as Stanford University School of Medicine. He completed his undergraduate education at the University of CA, Irvine and medical school at Tulane University. He trained in neurosurgery at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and completed fellowships in pediatric neurosurgery at Children's Hospital in Philadelphia (CHOP) and in neuroelectrophysiology focused on the use of evoked potentials to assess the integrity of neurological function. His more recent research interests have focused on the development of technologies using focused beams of radiation in conjunction with robotics and image-guidance techniques to treat solid tumors and other pathologies in the brain and spinal cord. He spent 9 years on active duty service in the U.S. Army Medical Corp.
As Director of CCARE, Dr. Doty has collaborated on a number of research projects focused on compassion and altruism including the use of neuro-economic models to assess altruism, use of the CCARE developed compassion cultivation training in individuals and its effect, assessment of compassionate and altruistic judgment utilizing implanted brain electrodes and the use of optogenetic techniques to assess nurturing pathways in rodents. Presently, he is developing collaborative research projects to assess the effect of compassion training on immunologic and other physiologic determinates of health, the use of mentoring as a method of instilling compassion in students and the use of compassion training to decrease pain.
Dr. Doty is also an inventor, entrepreneur and philanthropist having given support to a number of charitable organizations including Children as the Peacemakers, Global Healing and Family & Children Services. These charities support a variety of programs throughout the world including those for HIV/AIDS support, blood banks, medical care in third world countries and peace initiatives. Additionally, he has endowed chairs at major universities including Stanford University and his alma mater, Tulane University. He is on the Board of Directors of a number of non-profit foundations including the University of Southern California Brain and Creativity Institute, the Friends of New Orleans (FONO) and the Dalai Lama Foundation of which he is Chairman. He is also on the International Advisory Board of the Council for the Parliament of the World's Religions.
a Saratoga Springs, NY resident, is president of Rifenbary Training & Development, and author of the International Best-Seller, "No Excuse! - Incorporating Core Values, Accountability and Balance into Your Life and Career", awarded "Book of the Year" by the North American Book Dealers Exchange and his new release, "True to Your Core - Common Sense Values for Living Life to its Fullest" Jay is a professional speaker, trainer and consultant; and for the last 20 years has provided his expertise in the areas of personal development, leadership, and communication training to organizations, associations and schools across North America, Europe and Asia. Jay received his Bachelor of Science degree from the United States Military Academy at West Point, with a concentration in Nuclear Physics.
From being a former qualified Airborne/Ranger, Military Commander, Sales Professional, Corporate Manager and Entrepreneur, Jay brings a unique background of interpersonal skills and business experience to each of his training and speaking engagements. Within his community, Jay is a member of the Saratoga Springs City School District Board of Education, a member of the 20th Congressional District Service Academy Selection Committee, a member of the board of directors for Patriot Hills of NY, and a columnist for the Saratogian newspaper. He and his wife, Noni, have two children Nicole 29 and Jared 25. Jack Canfield, Best Selling Author of "Chicken Soup for the Soul", said of "No Excuse!" that, Jay has given the world a most generous gift. Anyone who applies the "No Excuse!" philosophy can create the life they want and make a difference.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Advisory Board
Jim McGowan is a legend in Bay Shore School District. He was the High School's social worker for the past 31 years before recently retiring. He coached girl's softball to multiple championships. He was the creator of Awareness Weekend, a program in which students spend the entire Saturday night at the high school, listening to inspirational speakers and one another discuss personal stories to help students cultivate compassion and empathy. Jim also started a Peer Leaders Program and a Cultural Exchange program across school districts.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Advisory Board
- Head of Social Impact Advocacy
Juanita Galvis is the Head of Social Impact Advocacy and Impact Travel for The Assemblage, a community providing co-working, co-living and social spaces for individuals seeking development, transformation and interconnection. She has 5 years of experience in the stock market, 4 in real-estate development and 6 years, as an entrepreneur, in the fashion industry. After working as a volunteer in a refugee camp in Greece, she was empowered to dedicate her life to raising awareness of our individual and collective potential to be of service to others. Her vision is to create meaningful opportunities for people to connect through compassion.
Kerah Cottrell is a mindful force-of-nature for good. She's a multi-award-winning, multi-patented user experience designer. As one of Google's first designers, she designed the premier Google News and iGoogle. She's also a mother, dancer, activist; as well as a former CEO, theater manager/actress, competitive cyclist, and award-winning flight attendant. Never one to sit idle, she's always looking for the next big challenge, and for ways to have a global impact. Whether online or in person, with every interaction, she aims to make the world a better place for everyone. Kerah advises us on user experience and strategy.
To explore the possibility of a speaking engagement or public appearance with one of our advisory members please contact us at carin@missionbe.org or call 631 513 6151.
Mission Be, Inc. ("Mission Be") (Federal Tax ID: 46-3670465) is a New York not-for-profit corporation recognized by the IRS with federal tax-exempt status as a public charity under Section 501(c)3. Contributions to Mission Be are tax-deductible to the fullest extent of the law.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Advisory Board
Lakiba Pittman is an educator, business consultant and creative artist with decades of leadership experience in corporate America/high tech, academia, and non-profit management. She is currently the Director for the Office of Diversity and an Adjunct Professor teaching Race & Ethnicity at Notre Dame de Namur University and also a Senior Adjunct Professor at Menlo College teaching Diversity in the Workplace & Culture in Media.
Louis Medina has worked with community-based not-for-profits for over 40 years. Lou started out as a career counselor. During that time he attended Adelphi University, where he received his Bachelor of Science Degree in Social Welfare. He was then employed as Program Director for a group home for boys in Riverhead, NY and later became the Executive Director for the Three Village Boys and Girls Club for 12 years. Lou attended Stony Brook University, where he received his Master of Social Work Degree and Columbia University's Graduate School of Business.
The Institute for Not-for-Profit Management Middle Management Program for Youth Service Organizations, as well as attending Clemson University's Executive Leadership Program. Lou was appointed to the Suffolk County Hispanic Advisory Board in 2004 by Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy. Lou conducted a community wide assessment of gang activity in Central Islip, where he developed a series of workshops for the youth, parents and community. He has also conducted numerous workshops on gangs throughout Suffolk County. In July 2006 Lou was appointed by County Executive Steve Levy as the Executive Director of the Suffolk County Youth Bureau, a position which he held until March 2012.
In 2007 Lou was appointed to serve as a member of the Independent Review Board by Commissioner Gladys Carrion from the Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS) and held that position until March 2012. Lou was elected President of the Association of NY State Youth Bureau's in 2011. Lou is currently a trainer at the Suffolk County Board of Elections. Lou continues to volunteer at not-for-profit community based organizations where he mentors and presents on issues relating to gang prevention, violence prevention and anti-bullying programs.
Job Titles:
- Vice President
- Founding Board Member for the WTC United Family Group
Mike Dempsey is a founding Board member for the WTC United Family Group, which is now known as The September 11 Education Trust. Mike coordinates programs such as the Oklahoma City/September 11th Family Exchange, which is a mutual peer support program, which unites the September 11th community with the members of the Oklahoma City bombing community held each year in April and September. Throughout each portion of the exchange, peer support activities are held to promote healing and connection that include support groups, panel discussions and visits to respective memorials and commemorative ceremonies.
Mike was also a member of the Coalition of 9/11 Families from 2003-2006. Mike Dempsey heads up enterprise risk management services for Dixon Hughes Goodman's Financial Services Group and is based in North Carolina. Mike was previously a director at KPMG for 7 and a half years in the regulatory safety and soundness team specializing in operational risk, enterprise risk, and third party risk management.
Mike also worked at the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, where he was the lead examiner and team leader for Large Bank Supervision based in Charlotte and a member of the inter-agency Basel Qualification Team. Prior to the Fed, Mike was regional head of Operational Risk and global head of business continuity at Hypo Real Estate Group based in Munich, Germany and Depfa Bank based in Dublin, Ireland from 2007-2009 and was head of investment banking operational risk for Credit Suisse from 2000-2007.
Mike holds a Master of Business Administration in Finance from Nova Southeastern University and a bachelor's degree from SUNY / Albany.
is a robotics engineer turned consciousness hacker. He envisions a present and future where technology supports psychological, emotional and spiritual well-being. Where our devices not only connect us to information, but also connect us to ourselves and each other, acting as a catalyst for individual and collective awakening. He is currently founder of BioFluent Technologies, Consciousness Hacking, and the Transformative Technology Conference. He received an MS from the MIT Media Lab.
Job Titles:
- CEO of September 's Mission
- Founder and Chair of the Board of September 's Mission
Monica Iken is the founder and chair of the board of September's Mission. Ms. Iken lost her husband Michael, a bond broker on the 84th floor of Tower Two, in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and channeled her grief into establishing September's Mission soon after September 11. In January 2002, New York Governor George Pataki appointed Ms. Iken to the advisory board of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation. In this capacity, Ms. Iken has met regularly with civic, business, political and family leaders to help establish a proper process for honoring the lives that were lost on September 11.
In addition, Ms. Iken has sought out the advice and support of families and groups around the world, including Oklahoma City and Hiroshima, who have undergone a similar memorial process. As one of the leading voices of the relatives of the victims killed on September 11, Ms. Iken has been a frequent speaker at civic alliance meetings, regional planning gatherings and other symposiums dedicated to the memorial process.
In addition, Ms. Iken has been featured in prominent news media outlets. Iken was born, raised and currently resides in Manhattan with her husband and has 2 girls 3 & 5. She graduated with a degree in education and sociology from Hunter College in 1995 and was an Elementary School Teacher for several years in the New York public school system prior to founding September's Mission. She is also a Board member of the National September 11th Memorial & Museum.
Monica is the CEO of September's Mission, our fiscal sponsor.
Paul Tapogna taught in Islip Public Schools for 34 years, mostly at the middle school level. While there he served on the founding committees of Islip Middle School, and he presented at two National Middle School Association conventions in St. Louis and Toronto on Middle School teaming.Paul also taught at Dowling College in the Education Department for twelve years as an Adjunct Professor.
Paul is a graduate of Fordham College and Stony Brook University. He met the love of his life, Kathleen, in a schoolyard in Brooklyn when she was a seventh grader and he an eighth. They have been married for 43 years, have three children, six grandchildren, and are still living in their "starter home" in East Islip. These days Paul is busy at St. Patrick's Parish in Bay Shore teaching and working in other ministries.
Praveen has studied mindfulness with Thich Nhat Hanh and the Plum Village community and is a Certified Mindfulness Facilitator through University of California Los Angeles's Mindful Awareness Research Center. He co-founded a residential mindfulness practice center in Austin, TX and has led mindfulness-based leadership programs at Dun & Bradstreet, National Wildlife Federation, Stanford University and a number of national and regional conferences. Praveen is currently Managing Director for YSP Ventures supporting startups with strategy and fundraising. Praveen holds an MA in Policy, Organization and Leadership Studies from Stanford University, and a BA in Economics from Pomona College.
received his undergraduate degree in psychology and sociology in 1975 from the State University of New York at New Paltz and his master's degree in social work in 1981 from Adelphi University in Garden City, New York. He is currently a licensed clinical social worker in the state of New York and a Board Certified Diplomate in clinical social work by the American Board of Examiners in Clinical Social Work. Scheinberg served as an executive board member of the Suffolk County chapter of the Society of Clinical Social Work from 1984 to 1995. Because of his work with graduate students in the 1990s, Scheinberg was recognized as an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the New York University School of Social Work in January 2000. As Mr. Scheinberg has evolved spiritually, he has chosen to devote more time and energy to professional development that is directly associated overall mind-body health. These experiences include ancient and modern forms of meditation.
Richard will be advising us on the therapeutic aspects of the program, as well as, advising us on the business end of the project.
Roseann Passiatore, M.Ed, a native New Yorker, has been an educator for the past 30 years. She taught 21 of those years in Glendale, AZ . Her career includes teaching 7-12 English, Journalism, Creative Writing, and Life Skills. She was the advisor for an award winning high school newspaper at Ironwood High School in Glendale, Arizona , where she also received an award for Journalism Advisor of the Year in her Community. Her passion for giving young people a voice compelled her to create Teen Talk - a talk show hosted by high school students. The show aired district wide and also had a regular time slot on the local cable access channel in Glendale, AZ. As a New Yorker, the September 11th tragedy struck her deeply as she watched from her Arizona home. Feeling helpless from afar, and wanting to bring understanding to the residents of Arizona, Roseann brought four of her Teen Talk reporters to Ground Zero on November 11, 2001 to record the devastation, and to deliver a message of unity from the students of Arizona. In their quest they made and distributed hundreds of unity bracelets to New York students, residents, and rescue personnel. They also met with Former Mayor Guiliani, Former President George Bush, Former NY Governor Pataki and Hillary Clinton at Ground Zero. After filming the streets of NY, Ground Zero, and interviewing families of victims, firefighter, police officers and MTA personnel, the crew returned home with enough footage to create a documentary . The documentary was aired on local cable channels and within school districts in the area.
The non-profit GIFT (The Global Investment Foundation for Tomorrow) is the vision of Sam Beard who has spent over a half century transforming ideas into impact, through tenacity and grassroots leadership. He has created and implemented programs for eight U.S. presidents from Nixon and Ford to Clinton, Reagan, Bush and Obama. His focus on social justice and elimination of poverty started with Robert Kennedy in Brooklyn in the mid 1960s. Among his most noteworthy accomplishments include the creation of over ten million jobs in low-income communities. With Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Senator Robert Taft, Jr., Beard launched the Jefferson Awards, an American Nobel Prize for public service and youth leadership.
In 2015, Beard won a lifetime achievement award from PeaceJam, the organization headed by 13 Nobel Peace Prize laureates dedicated to developing young leaders. In Delaware, Beard has been responsible for more than $800 million of economic development including helping to finance the Hercules, Wilmington Trust and Chase. Under Beard's leadership, the Jefferson Awards reports a $46.3 million community impact.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Advisory Board
Author of Gaia Codex, is a passionate explorer of culture and consciousness. She has traveled extensively around the world from the high peaks of Bhutan to the jungles of the Amazon. An experienced lecturer, who has taught at the graduate level and at organizations such as Google, Sarah is committed to the evolution of consciousness and the protection and revitalization of the earth at this critical turning point in history. Her professional background is as a cultural curator and creator of innovative media. She lives with her partner in Manhattan and on a lush forested farm in the Hudson Valley.
Sarah is honored to be part of the Mission Be family and feels that the future well being of all beings, the health of our culture and society is dependent on how we nurture and educate our children. Cultivating mindfulness and compassion from an early age is a powerful tool for nourishing the long-term health our culture at large. It is one true step we can take for change.
Job Titles:
- Executive Director of Luxury Sales at Douglas Elliman Real Estate
- Real Estate Expert and Media Contributor
Senada Adžem is internationally renowned as a luxury real estate expert and media contributor. She regularly appears on CNBC, Bloomberg Television, MSNBC and Fox Business News. Print appearances include The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes and Financial Times.
As the Executive Director of Luxury Sales at Douglas Elliman Real Estate, Ms. Adžem has sold over $525,000,000 and attained the Company's highly coveted Pinnacle Award and Top Producer title. Senada is recognized as a trusted advisor to global leaders and ultra-high-net-worth (UHNW) clientele who consistently delivers profit gains within highly competitive U.S. real estate investment markets. Ms. Adžem's utmost discretion and value-added approach to her discerning clientele secured her reputation as the pre-eminent power broker in the United States' luxury real estate market. She appears on CNBC's "Secret Lives of the Super Rich" and Bravo's, "Million Dollar Listing: Miami".