James O’Dea is award winning author of The Conscious Activist, Cultivating Peace, Soul Awakening Practice and other works. He is a former President of the Institute of Noetic Sciences, Washington office director of Amnesty International and CEO of the Seva Foundation.

He has taught peacebuilding to over a thousand students in 30 countries and mentored emerging leaders. He has also conducted frontline social healing dialogues around the world. He is a founding member of The Evolutionary Leaders group and on the Advisory Board of The Peace Alliance, and a Fellow of the Laszlo New Paradigm Institute. www.jamesodea.com

'James O'Dea is a modern day prophet who has journeyed further than anyone I know in the ways of peace' --Lynne Twist, Pachamama Alliance

'James O'Dea is indubitably one of the most evolved souls on the planet' --Ervin Laszlo author of over 40 books on cosmology, consciousness and new science.

James R. Doty, M.D. is the founder and director of the Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education at Stanford University of which His Holiness the Dalai Lama is the founding benefactor. He collaborates with scientists from a number of disciplines examining the neural, social and moral bases for compassion and altruism. He is also a professor in the Department of Neurosurgery at Stanford University School of Medicine, as well as an inventor, entrepreneur and philanthropist.

As a philanthropist, Dr. Doty supports a number of charitable organizations supporting peace initiatives and providing healthcare throughout the world. He also supports a variety of research initiatives and has provided scholarships and endowed chairs at multiple universities including Stanford University and Tulane University School of Medicine, his Alma Mater. He serves on the Board of Governors of Tulane University School of Medicine. He also serves on the boards of a number of non-profit organizations and is Vice-chair of the Charter for Compassion International and is a member of the Senior Advisory Board of the Council for a Parliament of the World’s Religions. He is a fellow of the Mind and Life Institute. 

Dr. Doty is the author of the New York Times bestseller, Into the Magic Shop: A Neurosurgeon’s Quest to Discovery the Mysteries of the Brain and the Secrets of the Heart, now available in over twenty languages. He is also the editor of the forthcoming Oxford Handbook of Compassion Science. His work has been cited in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and a variety of publications and media throughout the world.

Hereditary Chief Phil Lane Jr.,  a member of the Ihanktonwan Dakota and Chickasaw Nations, is an internationally recognized leader in human and community development. 

For more than 50 years, Brother Phil, as he prefers to be called, has worked with Indigenous peoples from North, Central and South America, Micronesia, South East Asia, India, Hawaii, and Africa. He served 16 years as an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Education at the University of Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada (1980-1996). 

With elders from across North America, Phil co-founded the Four Worlds International Institute (FWII) in 1982. FWII became an independent Institute in 1995. Phil is Chairman of the Four Directions International and First Nations Solar, Indigenous-owned companies that serve as Four World’s economic development arm.

With Phil’s guidance and applied experience, FWII has become an internationally recognized leader in human, community, and organizational development because of the Institute’s unique focus on the importance of culture and spirituality in all elements of human and community development.

Marilyn Turkovich started with the Charter for Compassion International (CCI) in 2013 as the education director and since that time has moved into a number of different roles with CCI. Marilyn's background has been primarily in higher education and most specifically in directing teacher education programs for the Associated Colleges of the Midwest, and chairing Columbia College-Chicago's master's degree program in multicultural and global education. She has done a considerable amount of curriculum writing through the years, much of it related to international and cultural topics. She worked with Independent Broadcasting Associates on a series for airing on National Public Radio, BBC and the Australian Broadcasting organizations. There was a period of time in the 1990s when she worked in organizational development and specialized in instructional design work, strategic planning and leadership development. She also wrote and developed training on race and social justice initiatives.

Sandra Djuvara Melone is the executive vice president of Search for Common Ground, one of the world’s leading international non-governmental organizations working in peacebuilding and conflict transformation. SFCG has headquarters in Brussels and Washington; 55 offices in 34 countries across Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East; 600 staff; partnerships with hundreds of organizations; and funding from a large, international platform of donors. Prior to becoming EVP, Sandra established SFCG’s headquarters in Brussels, and founded the Women's Peace Centre in Burundi. Sandra is a founding member of the European Platform for Conflict Prevention and Transformation (EPCPT), of the European Peacebuilding Liaison Office (EPLO), and of the Child Soldiers Initiative (CSI). She served on the Board of the International Federation of Associations in Belgium (FAIB), and as the vice-chair of the Board of Directors of the Alliance for Peacebuilding (AfP). Before working in conflict transformation, Sandra worked in human rights advocacy and international education.