The Being & Transforming Think Tank

About The Being & Transforming Think Tank

The Being and Transforming Think Tank is a joint initiative from The Wellbeing Project and Georgetown University. The Think Tank develops and mainstreams transformative new ideas for social change based on exploring the relationship between inner and outer work. It develops evidence-based research and new approaches to understanding and addressing intergenerational trauma and ecological belonging through a global, multidisciplinary, cross-sector, and participative approach. Diving into these subjects, it intentionally brings together perspectives from actors worldwide and continuously engages with The Wellbeing Project's global community in a fundamentally participative way.

The Think Tank’s work on intergenerational trauma has been undertaken by: 

  • A Research and Design Team which leads the development and production of the research and framework. The Research and Design Team is composed of a team from the Red House at Georgetown University, an incubator for innovation, as well as two neuroscience and political science experts from Connecticut College and the University of New Mexico. 

  • A Panel of 13 interdisciplinary academic and practitioner experts who help guide the research; 

  • Fourteen Associate Voices from various academic and changemaking backgrounds, have produced papers on the impact of intergenerational trauma in their respective areas of work and study; and 

  • Members of The Wellbeing Project's global community. Over three years, the Think Tank has engaged with this network in a fundamentally participative way to co-create its research through dialogue and collaboration.

Meet the Research & Design Team

  • Kate Barranco

    Network & Storytelling Coordinator

    The Wellbeing Project

  • Randy Bass

    Vice President for Strategic Education Initiatives

    Georgetown University

  • Kendall Bryant

    Research and Writing Associate

    The Red House at Georgetown University

  • Mays Imad

    Associate Professor

    Connecticut College

  • Ijeoma Njaka

    Senior Learning Designer for Transformational and Inclusive Initiatives

    Red House and Laboratory for Global Performance & Politics

  • Duncan Peacock

    Senior Program Developer

    The Red House at Georgetown University

  • Kathy Powers

    Associate Chair, Africana Studies and Associate Professor, Political Science

    University of New Mexico, External Faculty Member at Santa Fe Institute

Meet the Panelists

  • Clare Akamanzi

    Former Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer

    Rwanda Development Board

  • Sergio Bitar

    Former Minister of Public Works, Public Education, Mining & Senator of the Republic of Chile

    Chilean Government

  • Gary Cohen

    President and Co-Founder

    Health Care Without Harm & Practice Greenhealth

  • Dr. Richard J. Davidson

    William James and Vilas Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry & Founder and Director

    Center for Healthy Minds - University of Wisconsin-Madison

  • Dr. Eddie S. Glaude Jr.

    James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor

    Department of African American Studies, Princeton University

  • Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela

    Professor & Research Chair

    Stellenbosch University

  • María Eugenia Hirmas

    Former Director of the Sociocultural Area of the Presidency of Chile

    Chilean Government

  • Terrence L. Johnson

    Charles G. Adams Professor of African American Religious Studies

    Harvard Divinity School

  • Mischa Kuball

    Artist and Professor for Public Art

    Kunsthochschule Für Medien Köln

  • Rhonda V. Magee

    Professor of Law, Director

    Center for Contemplative Law

    Ethics & Mindfulness Teacher

  • Molly Melching

    Founder and Creative Director

    Tostan

  • Dr. Suraj Yengde

    Harvard & Oxford Scholar

    Harvard University

  • Nadine J. Kaslow, PhD, ABPP

    Professor of Psychology / Vice Chair / Chief Psychologist

    Emory University School of Medicine: Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences

    Director of Wellbeing, Resilience, and Flourishing

    Emory at Grady Dean’s Office

  • Kerry J. Ressler, MD, PhD

    Chief Scientific Officer / Chief, Division of Depression and Anxiety Disorders / James and Patricia Poitras Chair in Psychiatry / Director, Neurobiology of Fear Laboratory

    McLean Hospital

    Professor Psychiatry

    Harvard Medical School

Meet The Associate Voices

  • Laura Calderón de la Barca

    Senior Associate & Therapist, Facilitator, Trainer and Researcher

    Collective Change Lab & Terapia para México

  • Prof. Dr. Liesel Ebersöhn

    Centre for the Study of Resilience

    Full Professor

    Department of Educational Psychology, University of Pretoria

  • Joya Hampton-Anderson, PhD

    Assistant Professor

    Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences - Emory School of Medicine

  • Shruti Jayaraman

    Chief Investments Officer

    Chicago Beyond

  • John Kania

    Executive Director

    Collective Change Lab

  • Nat Kendall-Taylor, Ph.D.

    Chief Executive Officer

    FrameWorks Institute

  • Suzanne Koepplinger

    Founder

    Catalyst North Consulting

  • Katherine Milligan

    Director

    Collective Change Lab

  • Alisha Moreland-Capuia (AMC), M.D.

    Assistant Professor / Associate Medical Director

    Harvard Medical School / McLean Hospital

  • Dr. Nguyên Phan Quê Mai

    Awarded Author

    “The Mountains Sing” & More

  • Jahnavi Phalkey

    Founding Director

    Science Gallery Bengaluru

  • Dr. Abigail Powers Lott

    Associate Professor

    Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences - Emory School of Medicine

  • Daniel L. Shapiro, PhD

    Founder and Director

    Harvard International Negotiation Program

    Associate Professor of Psychology

    Harvard Medical School/McLean Hospital

  • Khatharya Um

    Associate Dean | Associate Professor| Coordinator of Asian American and Asian Diaspora Studies

    Department of Ethnic Studies College of Letters and Science - University of California, Berkeley