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92NY’s Goldman Center for Children and Family provides an exceptional array of programs designed to support children at every stage of their development.
Happiness — the science of it, the pursuit of it, conquering the roadblocks to it are the focus of this forum, bringing together experts in the areas of positive psychology and mental health, authors and professors. Positive psychology and the elements that fuel emotional wellbeing and contentment has become a flourishing field, as mounting stresses have brought the prioritization of our mental health to the forefront. In a series of panels and workshops, our experts explore the roles of relationships, gratitude, resilience, spirituality, sleep and more, and how we can optimize them toward a life of greater optimism, purpose and joy.
Happiness — the science of it, the pursuit of it, conquering the roadblocks to it are the focus of this forum, bringing together experts in the areas of positive psychology and mental health, authors and professors. Positive psychology and the elements that fuel emotional wellbeing and contentment has become a flourishing field, as mounting stresses have brought the prioritization of our mental health to the forefront. In a series of panels and workshops, our experts explore the roles of relationships, gratitude, resilience, spirituality, sleep and more, and how we can optimize them toward a life of greater optimism, purpose and joy.
U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, Priya Parker
Loneliness has become an epidemic — a crisis deepened by the pandemic and its months of social isolation. But there are steps we can take to emerge from it. Dr. Vivek Murthy — US Surgeon General under both the Obama and Biden administrations leads a critical exploration of social connection, and how we can use it to strengthen our health and our communities. Dr. Murthy examines how strong social ties and contributions to something bigger than ourselves have a direct impact on happiness, offering strategies each of us can begin using right now toward a happier and more connected life.
Deepak Chopra, Jessica Clemons
“When you want to change your life in any way, one truth always comes first: You can only change what you are aware of. The choice is simple: expand your awareness or live without real change,” says Deepak Chopra, world-renowned pioneer of alternative medicine and personal transformation. He discusses the concept of happiness and mental health with Dr. Jessica Clemons, author and practicing board psychiatrist, as they explore ways to breaks down the stigma often associated with prioritizing mental health.
Dr. Chiti Parikh
Could the trillions of bacteria in the gut hold the key to our health and happiness? Research shows that more than 90% of serotonin, the happy hormone, is produced in the gut, not the brain. This segment takes a closer look at the gut-brain connection to find out how our diet can be one of our biggest allies in optimizing mental health.
Samantha Boardman, Dilip Jeste, Katy Milkman, James Pawelski
It is impossible to live a life untouched by stress, adversity or disappointment. The ability to move through these and rebound is one of the most critical skills in living a happy life, and inspiring examples abound, from hospital rooms to the world stage. Our panel of experts provides insights into how each of us can cultivate resilience and employ this skill to help us cope with anything that might come our way.
Liz Plosser
Women’s Health editor-in-chief Liz Plosser is the ultimate morning person. Liz believes that how you start your day is how you live your day, but everyone’s perfect morning looks different. Her new book, Own Your Morning, enthusiastically guides readers on their own journey to creating the healthiest, happiest morning for them. In this session, she shares easy-to-implement strategies to help transform your morning routine into one that will generate endorphins and positive energy to set you up for success.
Nina Garcia and Michael Clinton
What do you want the second part of life to hold for you? Retirement? Travel? A relocation? Volunteering? Learning something new? As humans, we are always thinking about what is next, but how do we prepare emotionally, logistically and financially for this new phase of life? This discussion will explore ways we identify goals and take meaningful action to achieve a happy and purposeful life … Part II.
Lily Dulan and Metta World Peace
With life comes loss — the death of a loved one, the loss of a relationship or job or ability, or other. We explore how to make sense of loss, how to transform grief into healing, and how to navigate through it all and find a path back to joy.
Lisa Miller, Dacher Keltner, Tal Ben-Shahar
What is the relationship between spirituality and mental health? In what ways does spirituality — in whatever form — help us confront challenges and achieve balance? A panel of scientists and psychologists look at the intersection of spirituality and neuroscience, its strong link to our mental health, and how we can use it to achieve greater well-being, resilience and positivity.
Dr. Jud Brewer
Anxiety levels are increasing individually and collectively in our modern day. Faced with uncertainty, an overabundance of information (and misinformation), among other challenges, our minds struggle to keep up. Dr. Brewer will teach you how your mind works, so that you can work with it, and how to use curiosity and kindness as your superpowers.
Dr. Vivek H. Murthy is the 21st Surgeon General of the United States as a returning role, previously serving as the 19th Surgeon General. As the Nation’s Doctor, the Surgeon General’s mission is to restore trust by relying on the best scientific information available, providing clear, consistent guidance and resources for the public, and ensuring that we reach our most vulnerable communities As the Vice Admiral of the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, Dr. Murthy commands a uniformed service of 6,000 dedicated public health officers, serving the most underserved and vulnerable populations domestically and abroad.
Raised in Miami, Dr. Murthy received his bachelor of arts degree from Harvard, his masters in business administration from the Yale School of Management, and his MD from the Yale School of Medicine. A renowned physician, research scientist, entrepreneur, and author of the bestselling book Together: The Healing Power of Human Connection in a Sometimes Lonely World , Dr. Murthy is among the most trusted voices in America on matters of public health. He lives in Washington, DC with his wife, Dr. Alice Chen, and their two children.
Dr. Jessica Clemons, MD, Board-Certified Psychiatrist, has recently been recognized by Forbes as a leader in making mental health and wellness apart of the current zeitgeist. Dr. Clemons received her medical degree from Weill Cornell Medical College of Cornell University and completed her residency training at NYU Langone Medical Center. While her work is primarily in providing direct clinical care, her mission is to reduce stigma associated with mental illness. Her efforts consists of using social media to educate her following which led her to be selected to provide the first live televised therapy session on VH1, “In Session Live: With Dr. Jess” along with recognition from medical societies, mental health and government organizations, and most importantly the community in which she serves. Having been featured on multiple networks as a mental health expert from CNN to ABC News, Dr. Clemons continues to impact the community. Even more so through her conversation series, #BeWell which has featured prestigious guests Swizz Beatz, Tobe Nwigwe, June Ambrose, Kerby Jean-Raymond and more.
DEEPAK CHOPRA MD, FACP, founder of The Chopra Foundation, a non-profit entity for research on well-being and humanitarianism, and Chopra Global, a modern-day health company at the intersection of science and spirituality, is a world-renowned pioneer in integrative medicine and personal transformation. 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 90 books translated into over forty-three languages, including numerous New York Times bestsellers. For the last thirty years, Chopra has been at the forefront of the meditation revolution and his 91st book, Total Meditation (Harmony Books) helps to achieve new dimensions of stress-free living and joyful living. TIME magazine has described Dr. Chopra as “one of the top 100 heroes and icons of the century.”
Nina Garcia is the editor-in-chief of ELLE and has been a judge on Project Runway since it launched in 2004. Her notable work in media for over twenty years has solidified her position as the elite authority on fashion. She serves as a style expert on prominent broadcast TV shows including Today, Good Morning America, The View, and more, and has been a celebrity red carpet correspondent for programs like ABC’s Oscar telecast. She’s written four New York Times bestselling books on style and has received numerous accolades including the Fashion Group International’s prestigious Oracle Award, the Hispanic Federation’s Individual Achievement Award, the Oliver Scholars’ Program Champion of Educational Excellence Award and The Daily’s Magazine of the Year Award. She is also a board member of the Breast Cancer Research Foundation (BCRF) advocating for breast cancer awareness and research.
Tal Ben-Shahar is an author and lecturer. He taught two of the largest classes in Harvard University’s history, "Positive Psychology" and "The Psychology of Leadership." His books have been translated into more than thirty languages, and have appeared on best-seller lists around the world. Tal consults and lectures around the world to executives in multi-national corporations, the general public, and at-risk populations. The topics he lectures on include leadership, education, ethics, politics, happiness, self-esteem, resilience, goal setting, and mindfulness. He is the co-founder and chief learning officer of The Happiness Studies Academy and Potentialife. An avid sportsman, Tal won the U.S. Intercollegiate and Israeli National squash championships. He obtained his PhD in Organizational Behavior and BA in Philosophy and Psychology from Harvard.
Samantha Boardman, MD is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and an Attending Psychiatrist at Weill Cornell Medical College. Samantha is the founder of PositivePrescription.com, a website that focuses on everyday wellness, combining her background in psychiatry and positive psychology. She received her B.A. from Harvard University, an M.A. in Applied Positive Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania, and a Medical Degree from Cornell University Medical College where she was awarded the Oskar Diethelm Prize for Excellence in Psychiatry. Dr. Boardman has published papers in journals including Translational Neuroscience, The American Journal of Psychiatry and The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry. Most recently she was elected to become a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and currently serves as Co-Chair of The Positive Psychiatry Section for the World Psychiatric Association. She is a board member at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Citymeals-on-Wheels, and The Chapin School. Samantha’s book, Everyday Vitality: Turning Stress into Strength, was released August 2021.
Jud Brewer, MD, Ph.D. (“Dr. Jud”) is a New York Times best-selling author and thought leader in the field of habit change and the “science of self-mastery,” who blends over 20 years of experience with mindfulness training and a career in scientific research. He is passionate about understanding how our brains work, and how to use that knowledge to help people make deep, permanent change in their lives — with the goal of reducing suffering in the world at large.
Dr. Brewer is the director of research and innovation at Brown University’s Mindfulness Center, where he also serves as an associate professor. Additionally, he is the executive medical director of behavioral health at Sharecare Inc., a digital health company, and a research affiliate at MIT.
As a psychiatrist and internationally known expert in mindfulness training for treating addictions, Dr. Brewer has developed and tested novel mindfulness programs for habit change, including both in-person and app-based treatments for anxiety, emotional eating, and smoking. He is the author of “The Craving Mind: From Cigarettes to Smartphones to Love, Why We Get Hooked and How We Can Break Bad Habits” and “Unwinding Anxiety: New Science Shows How to Break the Cycles of Worry and Fear to Heal Your Mind”.
Lisa Miller, Ph.D., is the New York Times bestselling author of The Spiritual Child and a professor in the Clinical Psychology Program at Teachers College, Columbia University. She is the Founder and Director of the Spirituality Mind Body Institute, the first Ivy League graduate program and research institute in spirituality and psychology, and has held over a decade of joint appointments in the Department of Psychiatry at Columbia University Medical School. Her innovative research has been published in more than one hundred peer-reviewed articles in leading journals, including Cerebral Cortex, The American Journal of Psychiatry, and the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.
Dr. Miller is Editor of the Oxford University Press Handbook of Psychology and Spirituality, Founding Co-Editor-in-Chief of the APA journal Spirituality in Clinical Practice, an elected Fellow of The American Psychological Association (APA) and the two-time President of the APA Society for Psychology and Spirituality. A graduate of Yale University and University of Pennsylvania, where she earned her doctorate under the founder of positive psychology, Martin Seligman, she has served as Principal Investigator on multiple grant funded research studies. Dr. Miller speaks and consults around The Awakened Brain and The Spiritual Child for the US Military, businesses (including tech, finance, HR and sales), personal development, faith based organizations, schools and universities, and for mental health and wellness initiatives.
Dacher Keltner is a professor of Psychology at UC Berkeley and faculty director of the Greater Good Science Center (greatergood.berkeley.edu). Dacher’s research focuses on the biological and evolutionary origins of compassion, awe, love, beauty, and humility, as well as power, social class, and inequality. Dacher is the author of several hundred scientific articles, several books, including Born to Be Good: The Science of a Meaningful Life, The Compassionate Instinct, and The Power Paradox: How We Gain and Lose Influence, and has written for popular outlets like the New York Times. Dacher has won many research, teaching, and service awards, and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has consulted for Apple, Pinterest, Google, the Sierra Club, and was a scientific consultant for Pixar’s Inside Out and for the Center for Constitutional Rights in its work to outlaw solitary confinement.
James O. Pawelski, Ph.D., is professor of practice and director of education in the Positive Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvania, where he also serves as adjunct professor of Religious Studies. Having won a Fulbright Scholarship and earned a doctorate in philosophy, he is the founding director of the Humanities and Human Flourishing Project, which has been designated a National Endowment for the Arts Research Lab. He is the author, co-author, or co-editor of five books and the editor of the Humanities and Human Flourishing book series with Oxford University Press. He is an award-winning teacher, the founding director of Penn’s Master of Applied Positive Psychology Program, the founding executive director of the International Positive Psychology Association, a member of the executive committee of the International Council for Philosophy and Humanistic Studies, and has served as a member of the Steering Committee of the International Positive Education Network and as President of the William James Society.
Metta World Peace. Born Ronald William Artest Jr. in Queensbridge, New York, Artest changed his name to Metta World Peace in September 2011 in an effort to encourage dialogue over physical violence and promote good will toward all. He is the father of four children.
World Peace played professional basketball for 19 years. In his career he played for 6 NBA teams, Chinese Basketball Association’s Sichuan Blue Whales and Italy’s Pallacanestro Cantu. He won the NBA World Championship with the LA Lakers in June 2010 and received the J. Walter Kennedy Citizenship Award — the NBA’s highest citizenship and community service honor — in April 2011. He was selected to the 2005-06 NBA’s All-Defensive Team, was voted by the media as 2003-04 NBA’s Defensive Player of the Year and was the only man with 271 steals in his first two seasons in the NBA, breaking Michael Jordan’s record. His autobiography, “No Malice: My Life in Basketball” was released in May 2018 with Triumph Publishing and a documentary on his life in basketball, “Ron Artest: The Quiet Storm” was released on Showtime in May 2019. World Peace is currently pursuing many entrepreneurial projects including the XvsXsports project which will launch to the general public January 29, 2021.
World Peace is also known as a prominent mental health advocate, pop culture personality and media favorite. He raffled off his 2010 NBA World Championship Ring with the proceeds going to his nonprofit, Xcel University (now known as Artest University). The online ring raffle raised more than $650,000. Funds were donated to nonprofits that provide mental health therapists and mental health services to their communities and to provide scholarships to underprivileged youth in the New York City area.
World Peace was part of the 13th season of ABC’s Dancing With The Stars and was a contestant on CBS’s first edition of Celebrity Big Brother, which aired in February, 2018.
Michael Clinton is the former president and publishing director of Hearst Magazines, and now serves as special media advisor to the Hearst Corporation’s CEO. He is also an author and photographer, who believes that everyone should strive to live their fullest life possible—particularly in life’s second half. From his working class roots to success in the New York magazine world, Michael shares his own journey as an avid traveler, having experienced 124 countries, and running marathons on seven continents. A private pilot, part owner of a vineyard in Argentina, and founder of a nonprofit foundation, Michael holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Pittsburgh, plus two master’s degrees (from Columbia University and Pace University). He serves on the boards of trustees of International Center of Photography and Pace University; and has written for The New York Times, Town & Country, and Runner’s World, among other outlets. He resides in New York and Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Lily Dulan is the author of Giving Grief Meaning. She is an MFT Psychotherapist with an MA in Psychology and an MFA in Creative Writing from Antioch University Los Angeles, where she played an instrumental role in starting the LGBT-Affirmative Psychology Specialization. Dulan is a certified Heart Of Yoga instructor and has studied spiritual coursework at Agape International Spiritual Center under the tutelage of Reverend Michael Bernard Beckwith. She has drawn on her studies of both Eastern and Western disciplines to create a heart-centered system of healing and moving through trauma which she calls The Name Work®. After her first daughter Kara died at home from SIDS at two months old, Dulan started a foundation in her memory called The Kara Love Project, which teams with organizations to serve marginalized youth and develops programming to benefit the mental and physical wellbeing of seniors in Los Angeles County. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and two daughters.
Dilip V. Jeste, M.D. is the Senior Associate Dean for Healthy Aging and Senior Care, Estelle and Edgar Levi Memorial Chair in Aging, Director of the Sam and Rose Stein Institute for Research on Aging, Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry and Neurosciences at University of California San Diego, and Co-Director of the UC San Diego-IBM Center on Artificial Intelligence for Healthy Living. He obtained his medical education in Pune, and psychiatry training in Mumbai, India. In the US, he completed psychiatry residency at Cornell, and Neurology residency at George Washington University. He was a research fellow, and later, Chief of the Units on Movement Disorders and Dementias at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) before joining UC San Diego. He started a Geriatric Psychiatry program from scratch at UC San Diego; today it is one of the largest Geriatric Psychiatry Divisions in the world. Dr. Jeste has been Principal Investigator on a number of research and training grants. His main areas of research include schizophrenia, neuropsychiatric interventions, and successful aging. He has published 14 books, including his most recent book entitled “Wiser” in November of 2020 which describes evidence-based findings on definition, measurement, and neurobiology of wisdom as well as its relationship with aging, and interventions to promote wisdom. Dr. Jeste has published over 725+ articles in peer-reviewed journals and 160+ invited book chapters. He is Past President of the American Psychiatric Association, American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry, the West Coast College of Biological Psychiatry, and Founding President of International College of Geriatric Psychoneuropharmacology. Dr. Jeste is a member of the National Academy of Medicine, and was a member of the NIMH Advisory Council and NIH Council of Councils. He is Past Editor-in-Chief of The American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry. He is currently the Editor-in-Chief of the International Psychogeriatrics. He was listed in “The Best Doctors in America” and in the Institute of Scientific Information list of the “world’s most cited authors” comprising fewer than 0.5% percent of all publishing researchers of the previous two decades. Dr. Jeste has received many awards including NIMH’s MERIT Award; Commendation for Dedicated Service from the Veterans Affairs; Asian Heritage Award for Excellence in Science, Technology, and Research; and awards from Society of Biological Psychiatry; APA; Institute of Living; American College of International Physicians; National Alliance on Mental Illness; National Alliance for Research in Schizophrenia and Affective Disorders; American College of Psychiatrists; International Psychogeriatric Association; Universities of Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, and Maryland, and Cornell. He has also received Honorary Fellowship, the highest honor it bestows, from UK’s Royal College of Psychiatrists; and Honorary Professorship from Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, Lima, Peru. He has been a TEDMED speaker. His work has been cited in Time, The Atlantic, New York Times, The Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, The London Times, Public Radio International, NPR, and various other national and international media outlets.
Katy Milkman is the James G. Dinan Professor at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, host of Charles Schwab’s popular behavioral economics podcast Choiceology, and author of the bestselling book How to Change. She is also the former president of the international Society for Judgment and Decision Making and the co-founder and co-director of the Behavior Change for Good Initiative , a research center with the mission of advancing the science of lasting behavior change whose work has been chronicled by Freakonomics radio. An award-winning scholar and teacher, Katy writes frequently about behavioral science for major media outlets such as The Washington Post , The New York Times, The Economist, and Scientific American. Over the course of her career, she has worked with or advised dozens of organizations on how to spur positive change, including Google, the White House, the U.S. Department of Defense, the American Red Cross, and Walmart. She earned her undergraduate degree from Princeton University (summa cum laude), where she studied Operations Research and American Studies and her PhD from Harvard University where, she studied Computer Science and Business.
Chiti Parikh, MD, is the Executive Director of Integrative Health and Wellbeing at New York Presbyterian Hospital, Weill Cornell Medicine. She is board certified in Internal Medicine and Integrative Medicine with additional training in Functional Medicine, Medical Acupuncture and Ayurveda.
In order to provide the highest level of compassionate and individualized care, Dr. Parikh combines cutting edge western medicine with ancient wisdom of eastern traditions into a truly holistic approach. She has co-founded the Integrative Health and Wellbeing program which offers modalities such as acupuncture, meditation, yoga, nutrition, and psychotherapy.
Her focus on prevention helps her address not just the physical but also psychological, social, spiritual and environmental influences on health and healing. Dr. Parikh has been featured on Dr. Oz show, NBC News, Rolling Stone, VICE news, Wall Street Journal.
Liz Plosser is the Editor-in-Chief of Women’s Health, where she oversees the brand across its print and digital platforms and various brand extensions, reaching an audience of 47+ million women monthly.
Liz has been in the wellness industry for more than 18 years, previously overseeing digital strategy as SVP of Content at Well+Good, and prior to that, serving as the Senior Director of Content & Communications at SoulCycle. She is the former Deputy Editor of SELF, and before that she helped earn Cosmopolitan its first-ever national magazine award at the helm of the global brand’s health coverage. Liz was also the Editorial Director of CosmoBody, an on-demand subscription fitness channel.
Today Liz appears regularly as a speaker and is a frequent guest on national television. Her first book, Own Your Morning, is available from Hearst Home in September 2021.
Liz graduated cum laude from Princeton University, and is a marathoner, triathlete and boutique fitness–lover. Liz lives in Brooklyn with her husband, three children and Bernese Mountain Dog. Find her on Instagram at @lizplosser.
Priya Parker is helping us take a deeper look at how anyone can create collective meaning in modern life, one gathering at a time. She is a facilitator, strategic advisor, acclaimed author of The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why it Matters and the host of the New York Times podcast, Together Apart. Parker has spent 15 years helping leaders and communities have complicated conversations about community and identity and vision at moments of transition. Trained in the field of conflict resolution, Parker has worked on race relations on American college campuses and on peace processes in the Arab world, southern Africa, and India.
Parker is a founding member of the Sustained Dialogue Campus Network, a member of the World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council on New Models of Leadership, and a Senior Expert at Mobius Executive Leadership. She studied organizational design at M.I.T., public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, and political and social thought at the University of Virginia. Parker’s The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters (Riverhead, 2018) has been named a Best Business Book of the year by Amazon, Esquire Magazine, NPR, the Financial Times, 1-800-CEO-READS and Bloomberg. She has spoken on the TED Main Stage, and her TEDx talk on purpose has been viewed over 1 million times. Parker’s work has been featured in numerous outlets including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, NPR, TED.com, Forbes.com, Real Simple Magazine, Oprah.com, Bloomberg, Glamour, the Today Show and Morning Joe. She lives in Brooklyn, NY with her husband, Anand Giridharadas, and their two children.
