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Dear friend,
Thank you for your enduring and incredible support to help the Center for Healthy Minds realize its vision of a kinder, wiser, more compassionate world (something we all need)!
With new research on the horizon, exciting upcoming events and the release of our 15th Anniversary Annual Report, we hope you’ll have a chance to relax and catch up on all the latest updates from CHM in our April newsletter.
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Community partners Deb Mejchar and Aaron Hicks along with CHM Assistant Research Professor Dr. Dan Grupe. (Photo Credit: Cultivating Justice CoLaboratory)
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Can Mindfulness and Community Break the Cycle? Study Seeks to Support Mental Health After Incarceration
More than 600,000 people leave U.S. state and federal prisons each year, with millions more exiting local jails. Despite the volume of people entering back into society, few support systems – especially when it comes to mental health – exist. What if a mindfulness-based, trauma-sensitive curriculum for formerly incarcerated people could improve mental health and wellbeing, and support their transition from prison back into the community? A new study by CHM researchers, in collaboration with community partners, will investigate this question.
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Rosenkranz Presents Research at WSU Mindfulness Symposium
CHM Core Faculty member Dr. Melissa Rosenkranz was a keynote presenter at the Mindfulness Symposium this winter at Washington State University. Over the two-day symposium, Melissa gave a research talk on how chronic inflammation can influence our emotions and how our emotional responses can, in turn, affect inflammation. It featured groundbreaking brain imaging studies that reveal the intricate dance between the brain and the immune system.
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Researchers to Study How to Navigate Climate Change Distress
A new CHM study seeks to understand the impacts of “Psychology of Deep Resilience” (PDR) – an online four-course program launched by the Loka Initiative last year about navigating climate change distress. People are welcome to access the free version of PDR and can also opt in to the study through the program.
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Celebrate Earth Day with ‘Climate Courage,’ Featuring CHM Experts
The UW–Madison Earth Fest Forum: Climate Courage, on April 23, brings together live screen printing, dance and art installations, along with community members and experts. From 3:45–5 p.m., join the Psychology of Deep Resilience panel discussion to learn about resilience in today’s landscape, ecological emotions and emotional wellbeing. CHM panelists include: Founder/Director Dr. Richard J. Davidson, Loka Initiative Director Dekila Chungyalpa, and Research Assistant Professor Dr. Christy Wilson-Mendenhall.
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Save the Date! OUT BEYOND: A Musical Journey Into Transformation and Healing on May 23
CHM is hosting the premiere performance of OUT BEYOND: A Musical Journey Into Transformation and Healing on Friday, May 23 at 7pm at Mead Witter Foundation Concert Hall in downtown Madison, WI. OUT BEYOND is a transformative experience by CHM visiting scientist and artist Dr. Dalal Abu Amneh and CHM Founder/Director Dr. Richard J. Davidson.
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The Mindful Brain at MIT
The Mindful Brain, an in-person event on May 7 on the MIT campus, will explore new insights into the effects of meditation and mindfulness on brain health. It will feature CHM Founder/Director Dr. Richard J. Davidson, Tibetan Buddhist master Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche and more.
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CHM x HMI Annual Report: Anniversary Edition! Out Now
Your contributions support the people, science, programs and innovations that make Healthy Minds possible. Read about key CHM and HMI highlights from 2023/24, realized through your support, and celebrate our 15th and 10th anniversaries with a special retrospective!
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Two CHM Professors Receive Vilas Research Award
Congratulations to Research Assistant Professors Dr. Dan Grupe and Dr. Christy Wilson-Mendenhall, who each received a Vilas Research Award through UW–Madison in 2024. The award provides seed funding for their programs of research, which will support the Cultivating Justice Co-Laboratory and research in partnership with the Loka Initiative.
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Arts for Healthy Minds Luncheon Brings Stakeholders Together
CHM and UW–Madison Division of the Arts hosted the Arts for Healthy Minds Luncheon in February. The gathering highlighted the progress of 2024/25 Arts for Healthy Minds grant recipients, solicited feedback to improve the program, and encouraged discussion of the landscape of global collaborations between science and the arts.
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Measuring What Matters: Wellbeing in the Workplace
In this free webinar for business leaders and innovators, the Healthy Minds Innovations team of research experts will help you explore how science can transform the wellbeing of your team and organization. Featured presenters include HMI Chief Science Officer Dr. Raquel Tatar, and Senior Scientists Dr. Tammi Kral, Dr. Sasha Sommerfeldt and Dr. Joanna Hong, hosted by the Director of Learning and Development Stephanie Wagner.
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Loka Director to Give Talk on ‘Learning to Build Deep Resilience’
Join us for a live virtual talk with Loka Initiative Director Dekila Chungyalpa titled “In Deep Water: Learning to Build Deep Resilience in the Anthropocene” on April 24 at 10 am (CST). The talk, which is part of Tricycle Magazine’s upcoming Buddhism & Ecology Summit, will include how learning to adapt with grace and fluidity will be essential for personal, community, and environmental resilience, as we navigate the challenges of our changing world and climate.
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Great Lakes InterTribal Council Gets First Look at Loka Documentary Film
Reflecting Loka's commitment to ensuring the project aligns with Indigenous perspectives and fosters meaningful collaboration, the Loka team presented the Sacred Wisdom, Sacred Earth documentary feature film project to the Great Lakes InterTribal Council executive committee in Madison, WI, this spring. Loka Director Dekila was joined by esteemed collaborators Carla Vigue, director of Tribal Relations at UW-Madison, and Dr. Brian D. McInnes, the film’s producer and a faculty member of the American Indian Studies Program at UW-Eau Claire. The film is set to launch this summer in the Menominee Indian Reservation in Wisconsin. Stay tuned for updates!
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Director of Well-being in Higher Education Susan Huber, along with students from Healthy Minds on Campus and the CHM Student Flourishing Ambassador program during a training session: (L to R) Stella Wickman, Katie Witebsky, Zoe King, Alaina Srivastav, Nicholas Shashko and Jack Estrin. Not pictured: Lamont Johnson and Amari Talluri-Boye.
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Student Flourishing Ambassador Program Expands in 2025
Five UW–Madison students who have taken the Art and Science of Human Flourishing (ASHF) course trained to become Student Flourishing Ambassadors this spring. They participated in wellbeing, mindfulness and meditation training with Director of Wellbeing in Higher Education Susan Huber and graduate student Lily Smith. The ambassador role recently expanded to include training, so student ambassadors can lead mindful awareness practices for campus student organizations, classes and residential communities. As ambassadors, they're excited about shifting campus culture around student wellbeing as they share the powerful, personal impact of the ASHF course at the UW and with the community through presentations and discussions.
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Are "fitting in" and "belonging” the same? Dig into this question with an illuminating flash talk from CHM expert Dr. Tony Chambers. Watch now!
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Dig deeper into building climate courage ahead of Earth Day in this inspiring article with interviews from Dekila Chungyalpa, Dr. Richard J. Davidson and Director of the Menominee Nation’s Department of Agriculture and Food Systems Gary Besaw. Read now!
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What does it mean to truly flourish vs. being happy?! Read our latest Psychology Today blog to learn more.
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Meet the people behind the Center in our CHM staff/faculty spotlight feature!
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A favorite mural of Virginia’s in New Orleans. (Photo by Virginia Medinilla)
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🔶 How long have you worked at the Center?
I started working at the Center during my addiction psychiatry fellowship in 2022 and joined as faculty in 2023.
🔶 What’s something about the Center or your role you think most people might not know?
I am a clinician as well as a researcher and something about my role at the Center I am passionate about is helping bridge the gap between the science of well-being and its clinical applications. I love to be fluent in both of those languages, so to speak, and help the two worlds communicate and understand each other better.
🔶 What’s something interesting about you?
I was born and raised in Argentina! Most of my family still lives there, and we visit as often as we can. I started traveling internationally as an 18-year-old and lived in and visited many places before settling in New Orleans, where I started a family and lived for close to 20 years before coming to Madison in 2022.
🔶 A favorite quote, lyric or saying?
“No Mud, No Lotus.”
This is a phrase and the title of a book by Thich Nhat Hanh, who was a Zen master, poet, and peace activist from Vietnam, and also the founder of the Plum Village Tradition of engaged Buddhism, which has been my practice home for the past 10 years. The phrase speaks about transformation. There is no true happiness (the lotus, the flower) without suffering (the mud, the compost).
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Our Center relies on the support of competitive federal grants and the generosity of donors and foundations.
A significant portion of our funding is from generous supporters like you who give to the Center to cultivate wellbeing and relieve suffering through a scientific understanding of the mind. To learn more about CHM giving, please visit our webpage and feel free to contact Taeli Turner at Tsturner3@wisc.edu or (608) 263-3672.
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