Hannah McLane, MD, MA, MPH is a physician, psychotherapist, and executive function coach in Philadelphia. She completed Brown Medical School in Rhode Island, attended residency at the University of Pennsylvania (Neurology and Occupational Medicine), and holds Master’s degrees in Public Health (Harvard) and Speech Pathology (Temple University). In 2010 she founded the SoundMind Project, and currently also conducts research at the VA Medical Center in Philadelphia which focuses on cognitive diversity, PTSD, and emerging alternative therapies for mental health issues.

Dr. Ekstrom has extensive training in meditation and a strong interest in developing meditation protocols for at-risk and underserved populations. She received her BA from Stanford University, her MA in clinical social work from Boston College, and her PhD in theology and education from Boston College. She is a certified teacher for CCARE.  She is also the Director of Contemplative Education & Scholarship at HopeLab. She has also been involved in working with veterans who suffer from PTSD at Stanford’s VA Hospital in Palo Alto California.

Nate studied Neuroscience and Educational Psychology in Vermont while drumming in several bands and learning biodynamic farming techniques. The better part of a decade spent as a public school chemistry teacher gave him an appreciation of the social determinants of health and the importance of finding ways to transcend the systemic barriers to optimal health outcomes. He now runs a digital design agency in Philadelphia, and in addition to developing our website and UX / UI elements, he has spearheaded our animation education series.

Yakub Grant is one of the original founders of the SoundMind Project, and functions as Director of Operations in Jamaica. He began his studies in design in England and spent almost a decade as a professor of Digital Media Editing at University of the West Indies and Edna Manley College (Kingston, Jamaica). He is firmly rooted in musical creation with a conscious message. He is also the man behind the camera.

Professor Dan Wikler is the Director of the Harvard Program in Ethics and Health (PEH). His current research interests are ethical issues in population and international health, including the allocation of health resources. Prior to his time at Harvard, he served as the first Staff Ethicist for the World Health Organization. He also served on the President’s Commission for the Study of Ethical Problems in Medicine in Washington, D.C., as Staff Philosopher for Biomedical and Behavioral Research. He has a particular interest in using simplified dilemmas to highlight the ethical issues involved in global health decision-making.

Professor Eyal works in the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at the Harvard Medical School. He holds a D. Phil in Politics from Oxford University and studied philosophy at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Tel-Aviv University. He served as a postdoctoral fellow at the Dept of Clinical Bioethics of the National Institutes of Health. Professor Eyal chairs the American Philosophical Association’s Committee on Philosophy and Medicine. He has a special interest in finding ethical ways to address critical health worker shortages and on certifying corporations for their level of global health awareness.

Dr. Ali has been working for 15 years as a neurologist in urban Jamaica. He has spearheaded the development of an epilepsy management program in Jamaica and was instrumental in the creation of the Epilepsy Society of the Caribbean. He served on the North American Regional Commission of the International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE) and he maintains an ongoing collaboration with the Departments of Neurology and Neurosurgery at Yale University, with regular cross-cultural teleconference meetings since 2010. He inspired our Stigma of Epilepsy video project and many of our ideas about global health.

Dr. Mateen is currently an attending Neurologist at Massachusetts General Hospital. She completed her medical degree at the University of Saskatchewan, residency at the Mayo Clinic, and fellowships in Medical Ethics at Harvard Medical School and Neuroimmunology and Neurological Infections at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Her PhD dissertation examined stroke risk factors in developing countries. She has consulted for the Polio Eradication Initiative, World Health Organization, and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. She has authored more than 200 journal articles in neurology and global health.

Thais is a prolific painter, designer, and public artist from São Paulo, Brazil. She has been integral to the vision and coordination of our collaborations in South America, including our most recent visit to the SETI institute in Salvador, Bahia.