Discover Wellbeing 360°, an online summit where you will learn from world-class experts how to have better health and a positive emotional state.
Live transcendent experiences and gain practical knowledge based on what science has found about Wellbeing in the last two decades, we will help you to have tools to thrive in the new reality.
From October 26 to 30, 2020, you will join thousands of people, connect from the comfort of home or office, and enjoy a full no cost program with different keynotes, workshops, interviews, panels and many other live activities within five thematic axes: Positive Organizations, Wellbeing in Education, Meaningful life, Positive Families and Thriving Cities.
Be part of the first everywhere Summit and get your toolbox for a changing world.
Be part of Wellbeing 360!
With 8 years of experience organizing events on Wellbeing the Institute for Wellbeing and Happiness is joinded this year, to create an edition that will be as unique as the situation we are facing. For the first time, the Institute for Wellbeing and Happiness in alliance with IPEN (International Network of Positive Education) and Distrito Tec will hold the most impactful online global event in Wellbeing topics, with presence in 5 continents.
Father Leonel Narváez Gomez, born in Colombia in 1950, is a Consolata Missionary Priest, and a Sociologist. After working with Nomadic Tribes in Africa, he returned to his country to do peace work with hardened left wing guerrillas – FARC – during which time he realized that something was missing from conflict resolution theory: the importance of forgiveness.
Together with colleagues from Harvard University, he developed the concept of the Schools of Forgiveness and Reconciliation (ESPERE, for its acronym in Spanish) where those who have been victim of violence learn how to forgive and use pro-social behavior to resolve inter-personal conflicts.
ESPERE helps victims of violence transform their negative memories, generate new narratives and break free of the past in order to project their lives into the future.
Over 82,000 people have been trained by ESPERE and are part of an international network spanning Peru, Brazil, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Chile, Venezuela, the U.S, Canada, Bolivia, Argentina, and Uruguay.
Father Narváez has Postgraduate Degrees from the University of Cambridge and Harvard University. He won the UNESCO Peace Education Prize- Special Mention in 2006, and in 2007 received the Order of Democracy by the Congress of the Republica of Colombia for his reconciliation efforts.
Fr. Narvaez Gomez is author of Cultura Política de Perdón y Reconciliación, 2009 and The Political Culture of Forgiveness and Reconciliation, 2010, and La Rivoluzione del Perdono, 2010.
Marisa Salanova is Doctor in Psychology and Professor of Social Psychology,specializing in Positive Organizational Psychology at the Jaume I University (UJI). She is the director of "WANT_Research Team" of the UJI. She is a founding partner and outgoing president of the Spanish Society of Positive Psychology.
Author of books "Healthy Organizations: A Look from Positive Psychology", "Work Engagement", "Occupational Health Psychology", "Development of human resources through learning for change", "Techno-stress", between others. Researcher of competitive projects on Well-being at Work and Organizations, including in recent projects issues related to generational diversity (Active aging) and gender diversity. She has more than 300 national and international publications on occupational health psychology (work stress, burnout, techno-stress, work addiction ...) and more recently she has focused on Positive Psychology applied to work with publications on work engagement, flow at work, self-efficacy, positive and healthy organizations and organizational resilience.
She has published in impact journals such as Journal of Applied Psychology, Applied Psychology: An International Review, Anxiety, Stress & Coping, Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, Computers in Human Behavior, Group & Organizational Management, among others.
She actively participates in competitive research projects granted by public funds, and in consulting and advisory activities to companies on psychosocial risk prevention, training, applied positive psychology and HR development, executed through R + D contracts.
She has received recognition for her career, such as the Clara Campoamor Award in Valencia (2015), the recognition of October 9 for her professional career (2015), the recognition by the Valencian Courts for her career on the International Woman’s Day (2017) and the Ágora Bienestar award in the category of professional trajectory in research on well-being at work (2019).
She is a member of the editorial committee of the journals: Applied Psychology: An International Review, Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, Journal of Occupational and Organizational Behavior, European Journal of Work and Organizacional Psychology, Revista de Psicología del Trabajo y de las Organizaciones, Psicothema y Anxiety and Stress.
Finally, she is also a member of international Scientific Associations such as EAWOP (European Association on Work and Organizational Psychology), IAAP (International Association of Applied Psychology), SOHP (Society for Occupational Health Psychology), and IPPA (International Positive Psychology Association).
Ignacio de la Vega is an experienced and internationally seasoned senior managerin the education field, with experience in strategy formulation and implementation.
Dr. De la Vega currently serves as Dean of EGADE Business School and Dean of the undergraduate Business School system at Tecnológico de Monterrey, México, the leading Business School in Mexico and LATAM.
Nominated in 2020 “Educator of the Year” by the prestigious Academy of International Business. Previously,he served as Director of the Babson Global Center of Entrepreneurial Leadership (BGCEL)in the Middle East.
Ignacio was responsible for the strategic direction, tactical execution,and operational supervision of Babson Global Entrepreneurship centers in the region and around the worldand the management of different funders and stakeholders.
The Centers focus on expanding the practice of entrepreneurship through innovative co-curricular programs and global collaborative research initiatives.
Ignacio served for two periodsas global Chairman of the GEM (Global Entrepreneurship Monitor) consortium, the largest study of entrepreneurship in the worldcomprising 100 top universities.
De la Vega has authored 3 books on Entrepreneurial Management and published frequently in several mediaacross the world.Prior to coming to EGADE, Dr. De La Vega also served as the Chief Learning Officer for the global bank BBVA(at the time one of the 50 largest banks in the world) with responsibilities in 17 countries, and before that as Chief Corporate Entrepreneur at the large restaurant and retail Mexican-Spanish company SIGLA.
For 21 years Ignacio served at IEBusiness School (one of the world top BSchools), in different transformation projects: Director of Strategic Management, Member of the Board, founder of IE ́s International Boardand Chair of Madrid's IE Business School's Entrepreneurship Department and International Center for Entrepreneurship and Ventures Development, which he founded in 1998.
Dr. De La Vega has been a Senior Faculty member at IE Business School and has been teaching Entrepreneurial Management and Business Strategy for over 25 years in Business Schools and universities in more that 30countries, having won many teaching excellence awards.
Besides hisprivate sector positions, Dr. dela Vega has served at the Spanish government, holding several leadership positions.In addition to his Ph.D., Dr. de la Vega holds a Law Degree from Universidad Complutense in Spain and a master’s degreein International Relations from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University(US), sponsored through the highly prestigious Prince of Asturias Foundation scholarship.
In addition, he has taken part in training programs at Harvard Business School and Babson College among other institutions.Married to Carolina and proud father of 3 resides currently in Mexico
National director for Talent, Culture and Experience at Universidad Tecmilenio.
MBA from the Hult International Business School.
Expert in the fields of Organisational Psychology and Gestalt Psychology.
Considered to be one of the top 100 women leaders in Spain, in the category of Thinkers and
Experts according to Mujeres & Cía.
Gave classes at CETT, ESADE, EAE Ostelea and at the Garrigues Study Centre (Spain).
Was president for promoting diversity, innovation and growth at the TruthMark Foundation.
Notable for her performance as Human Resources Director at Inditex and CEO of the Great Place
to Work Institute.
Founded her consultancy Grooooow 10 years ago, which specialises in creating positive
experiences of change in organisations.
Meaning of life: “Create a better world for ourselves and our children to live in by transforming
workplaces.
Mathew A. White PhD is Deputy Head of the School of Education and an Associate Professor of Education at the University of Adelaide, Australia. He is also a Principal Honorary Fellow in Melbourne Graduate School of Education and an Associate Professor at the University of Melbourne.
Mathew is the President of the International Positive Psychology Association’s Education Division. His research focuses on character education, leading change, positive education, and strategic planning in education and wellbeing education.
Mathew has co-edited four books including Critical Perspectives on Teaching, Learning and Leadership: Enhancing Educational Outcomes (Springer, forthcoming 2020), Future Directions in Wellbeing: Education, Organisations, and Policy (Springer, 2017), Evidence-Based Approaches in Positive Education Implementing a Strategic Framework for Well-being in Schools (Springer, 2015), and Theology Encountering Positive Psychology (Wipf & Stock, 2017).
In 2020 he was given the Distinguished Contribution to Research in Educational Leadership Award by the South Australian Branch of the Australian Council for Educational Leaders (ACEL-SA).
Before his appointment to the University of Adelaide in 2018, Mathew held senior leadership positions in schools and has 20 years of teaching experience.
His next book edited with Professor Faye McCallum Wellbeing and Resilience Education: Covid-19 And Its Impact on Education Systems will be published by Routledge (2021).
Simon Murray, OAM, served as a Headmaster across three schools for 27 years, and an educator for over 40 years. Most recently he was the 14th Headmaster of St Peter’s College, Australia. In June 2018 he was awarded a Medal in the Order of Australia for services to education and professional associations. In June 2019 he was honoured for his pioneering work and internationally recognised leadership in the field of Positive Education by the Positive Psychology Centre, University of Pennsylvania and the Eisenhower Fellowships.
In February 2020 he was appointed Global Chair of the International Positive Education Network (IPEN).
He is a member of the Board of the Centre for Positive Psychology, The University of Melbourne and holds the position of Chief Advisor to the Positive Education China Academy. He is also a member of the Advisory Board for the School of Education at the University of Adelaide and a member of the Board at St Mark’s Residential College, Adelaide.
In February 2020 he was awarded the Australian Council of Educational Leaders (ACEL SA), Alby Jones Gold Medal for a significant contribution to education, educational leadership and the improvement of student and organisational outcomes at local, national and international levels.
He has co-edited two scholarly books on evidence- based applications of positive psychology and future directions in wellbeing. He has published scientific articles, book chapters and presented on positive psychology and positive education at numerous international conferences.
Ryan M. Niemiec, Psy.D. is a leading figure in the global education, research, and practice of character strengths that are found in all human beings. He’s education director of the renown VIA Institute on Character, a nonprofit organization in Cincinnati that leads the global advancement of the science of character strengths. Ryan is an award-winning psychologist, certified coach, annual instructor at the University of Pennsylvania, and author of 10 books, 90+ academic papers, and several-hundred user-friendly articles. His books include the bestselling consumer book, The Power of Character Strengths, the popular stress workbook The Strengths-Based Workbook for Stress Relief, the 2020 workbook The Positivity Workbook for Teens, and Positive Psychology at the Movies. He’s also author of two of the leading practitioner-focused books in positive psychology – Character Strengths Interventions and Mindfulness and Character Strengths. The latter book contains the evidenced-based program he founded, Mindfulness-Based Strengths Practice (MBSP), used by practitioners across the globe.
Ryan has been interviewed by a number of luminaries including the legendary Larry King in 2020. He’s given over 800 presentations on positive psychology topics, including a TEDx talk in 2017, a speaking tour of Australia, a keynote at a Harvard conference, and invited presentations across the globe. He is Fellow of the International Positive Psychology Association and serves on their Council of Advisors.
Ryan lives in Cincinnati with his wife and three young, zestful children. His highest strengths are hope, love, honesty, fairness, spirituality, and appreciation of beauty.
SUZANN (“Suzie”) PILEGGI PAWELSKI has a Master of Applied Positive Psychology degree from the University of Pennsylvania.
She is a freelance writer, well-being consultant, and international speaker specializing in the science of happiness and its effects on relationships and health. Her 2010 Scientific American Mind cover story, “The Happy Couple,” was the catalyst for Happy Together: Using the Science of Positive Psychology to Build Love That Lasts.
Happy Together was named a best book of 2018 by Business Insider, Success magazine, Fatherly and The Greater Good Science Center.
Suzie pens a popular blog for Psychology Today and writes the “Science of Well-being” column for Live Happy, where she is also a contributing editor.
Her writing and work has been featured in numerous top-tier media including Time magazine, Inc. magazine, NPR, the Los Angeles Times, Philadelphia Inquirer, and the (London) Times.She gives “Romance and Research” (TM) workshops around the world with her husband James.
Previously, Suzie directed award-winning media relations campaigns for Fortune 500 clients, worked in publicity at Radio City Music Hall and was an associate producer for HBO Downtown Productions and The Joan Rivers Show.
JAMES PAWELSKI, Ph.D., is Professor of Practice and Director of Education in the Positive Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvania where he co-founded the Master of Applied Positive Psychology Program with Martin Seligman in 2005.
The Founding Executive Director of IPPA, he is currently leading a three-year, multi-million-dollar grant investigating connections between the science of well-being and the arts and humanities.
In collaboration with Penn’s Campaign for Wellness, he recently launched a new interdisciplinary undergraduate course called “The Pursuit of Happiness” to help teach students how to increase their well-being.
An award-winning teacher and international keynote speaker, who regularly makes presentations in Spanish as well as English, he has given talks in more than 20 countries on 6 continents, including “Romance and Research” (TM) workshops with his wife Suzie. He is frequently featured in major U.S.
and international media, including the New York Times, Philadelphia Inquirer, Time magazine, U.S. News and World Report, People’s Daily (China), El Norte (Mexico), and has appeared on various television networks such as NBC (The Today Show), Globo, Univisión, and Toronto Public Television.
Ricardo Arguís Rey is a teacher of Special Education, Psychologist and Doctor in Education. He has been working for more than30 years in the educational field, alternating periods as a classroom teacher with other professional stages as a consultant andteacher trainer.
He coordinates the SatiTeam, a work group that, since 2009, has been dedicated to the study and promotion of Positive Education for students of preschool, primary and secondaryeducation.
In October 2010, this team published the “Happy Classrooms” Programme, the first handbook in Spanish addressing Positive Education with students aged 3 to 18 years, based on the principles of mindfulness and the education of character strengths.
In December 2014, the English translation of this book waspublished. This programme is completely gratuitous and for free distribution, and can be downloaded athttp://educaposit.blogspot.com.Ricardo combines his current work as a remedial teacher in a state secondary school,with his activity as a lecturer and consultant in the field of Positive Psychology applied to Education, both in Spainand abroad. Hecollaborates with various universities as an invited lecturer,and has delivered numerous lectures and workshops in Spainas well as in Argentina,Canada,Chile,Colombia, Czech Republic, Ecuador,Mexico, Peru, United States, Uruguayand Venezuela. He is a member of the International Positive Psychology Association(IPPA)and the Spanish Society of Positive Psychology.
Since January 2015, he is a Global Representative for the International Positive Education Network (IPEN) in Spain. Besides, since August 2017, he is a member of the steering committee of IPPA’s Education Division, where he co-leadsthe Research and Practice Programme.
In July 2019, hereceived the “Positive Educator Impact Award”, given at IPPA’s 6th World Congress on Positive Psychology (Melbourne, Australia), in recognition of the impact of hislong-standing work in the dissemination and application of Positive Education internationally.
Ricardo Arguís Rey is a teacher of Special Education, Psychologist and Doctor in Education. He has been working for more than30 years in the educational field, alternating periods as a classroom teacher with other professional stages as a consultant andteacher trainer.
He coordinates the SatiTeam, a work group that, since 2009, has been dedicated to the study and promotion of Positive Education for students of preschool, primary and secondaryeducation.
In October 2010, this team published the “Happy Classrooms” Programme, the first handbook in Spanish addressing Positive Education with students aged 3 to 18 years, based on the principles of mindfulness and the education of character strengths.
In December 2014, the English translation of this book waspublished. This programme is completely gratuitous and for free distribution, and can be downloaded athttp://educaposit.blogspot.com.Ricardo combines his current work as a remedial teacher in a state secondary school,with his activity as a lecturer and consultant in the field of Positive Psychology applied to Education, both in Spainand abroad. Hecollaborates with various universities as an invited lecturer,and has delivered numerous lectures and workshops in Spainas well as in Argentina,Canada,Chile,Colombia, Czech Republic, Ecuador,Mexico, Peru, United States, Uruguayand Venezuela. He is a member of the International Positive Psychology Association(IPPA)and the Spanish Society of Positive Psychology.
Since January 2015, he is a Global Representative for the International Positive Education Network (IPEN) in Spain. Besides, since August 2017, he is a member of the steering committee of IPPA’s Education Division, where he co-leadsthe Research and Practice Programme.
In July 2019, hereceived the “Positive Educator Impact Award”, given at IPPA’s 6th World Congress on Positive Psychology (Melbourne, Australia), in recognition of the impact of hislong-standing work in the dissemination and application of Positive Education internationally.
Professor Kristján Kristjánsson (PhD, University of St. Andrews) is Deputy Director in the Jubilee Centre for Character and Virtues and Professor of Character Education and Virtue Ethics at the University of Birmingham, U.K.
His interests lie in research on character and virtues at the intersection between moral philosophy, moral psychology and moral education.
He has published six books on those issues, the latest one is Flourishing as the Aim of Education (Routledge, 2020).
His previous books include Aristotelian Character Education, (Routledge, 2015) which won the SES Prize for the best Education book of 2015 in the U.K., and has since been translated into Japanese, as well as Virtues and Vices in Positive Psychology (C.U.P., 2013), which has a Korean translation.
Kristján was chair of the Programme Committee for the first IPEN conference in Texas. In addition to leading a number of the Jubilee Centre’s flagship projects, Kristján oversees all research activities in the Centre.
As a member of various international organisations, Kristján collaborates with colleagues in Asia, Europe and the U.S.A. on issues that relate to the cultivation of virtuous character in general and virtuous emotions in particular.
Kristján is Editor of the Journal of Moral Education.
Bachelor’s Degree in psychology and Master’s in education by Universidad Tecmilenio, institution in which has collaborated as social science professor with high school and university students, as mentor for high school students and National Leader of the Student Well-being and Development program.
Nowadays, he works as Instructional Designer at the Institute for Happiness and Wellbeing of Universidad Tecmilenio, in which has developed diverse educational experiences and interventions for the application of positive psychology in educational and organizational settings, promoting skills and tools that help people become their best self.
His life purpose is to design learning experiences with the objective of helping people in the development of academic and wellbeing skills that help them increase their levels of wellbeing.
-Director of the University of Melbourne Centre for Positive Psychology
-Has an MBA and a Ph D in Clinical Psychology from the University of Wollongong
-Has written over 100 articles related to coaching and wellbeing
Wrote the books: “Wellbeing, recovery and mental health” and “The handbook of the psychology of positivity and strengths-based approaches at work”.
-Her research fields are the applications of wellbeing in the workplace, health and educational systems
-She developed organisational intervention and development programmes to help the mental health services to focus more on recovery
-She received the prize from the Vice-chancellor for excellence in research commercialisation in 2015
-Co-editor of the International Journal of Wellbeing
-Formed part of the scientific advisory panel for the Institute of Coaching at Harvard University for four years
-Is on the Collaborative Wellbeing Leadership team for the Mental Health Centre of NSW (New
South Wales)
-Believes that wellbeing concerns us all
David Bott is the Associate Director of the Institute of Positive Education. David helps lead one of the world’s most experienced teams dedicated to research, development and training in the field of Positive Education; applied wellbeing science.
David has been involved in training thousands of teachers from hundreds of schools around the world in designing, implementing and sustaining individual and whole-school approaches to wellbeing. David is a sought-after speaker and education consultant who works with government organisations and some of the world’s leading schools to help guide wellbeing vision and strategy.
David sits on the Dubai Future Council for Education and has published in academic journals, industry periodicals, and co-authored the book, “Teach Positive”.
David’s current role is informed by his 15 years of practical teaching experience in Australia and the UK where he held senior pastoral and academic leadership positions. David lives with his wife, son and daughter on the Corio campus of Geelong Grammar School.
Vanessa is a Board member of Action for Happiness (AfH), the leading UK-based not-for-profit that focuses on proactively building skills for psychological wellbeing and resilience. She leads the translation of psychological research into practical action for individuals, organisations and communities as well as Action for Happiness’ consulting work with organisations. She is the architect of the evidence-based 10 Keys for Happier Living, which have engaged and inspired people around the world to take action for themselves and others and have been used in a wide variety of ways, including in school curricula, design schools, communities and workplaces.
She is one of a small group people globally to have completed a Masters degree in Applied Positive Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, studying under Martin Seligman and with many of the other leaders in this field and is trained as a facilitator on the University of Pennsylvania’s Master Resilience training programme.
She is an experienced leadership, talent and organisational development consultant, facilitator and has worked with a wide range of organisations around the world, in both the public and private sectors: CMS Cameron McKenna, Microsoft, Novabase, the UN, UK Government Departments for Education, Transport, The Foreign Office and Ministry of Defense, and the Dubai Government’s Knowledge and Human Development Agency (KHDA), NHS and The Royal Borough of Kingston and Devon & Cornwall Police, amongst many others.
She has led the design and implementation of a wide range of workshops and programmes focused on building happiness, wellbeing and resilience, innovation skills and developing talent. These include: The 10 Keys for Happier Living course for individuals in community, public health and education settings; the ‘Doing Well from the Inside Out’ programme for managers, leaders and teams in workplaces; the Mindful Leadership programme for executive teams and leaders; and most recently introduced a Happier Living movement at Microsoft UK, as well as many bespoke programmes for leadership and talent development.
Her book 10 Keys to Happier Living was published in 2016 in the UK, in the US in 2017 and has recently been translated into Spanish for the Latin American market. Her new book for children age 7-11 years, 50 Ways to Feel Happy, has recently been published in the UK, US and Australia.
Urban architect with international experience in urban planning, transport Systems and urban regeneration project management.
Since 2014, Juan works as an independent consultant, providing advice on urban transformation projects (management and planning) to public and private clients in México, Spain and Italy.
Juan works as a teacher and researcher at Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey and is an adjunct Professor of the subject "Urban Development and Land Regeneration" at the Master in Real Estate Development (MRED). He’s a member of Distrito Tec, his role is to provide advice on matters relating to urban regeneration, urban form and efficiency, and management and funding processes.
Juan Alayo has been studying cities for the last 25 years. After studies in Architecture and Urban Design and an MSc in Advanced Architectural Studies, he started his professional career as a researcher at University College London, analysing urban form and how people used it.
Then he worked at Ove Arup and Partners International for 15 years. Based at the Planning group in London, he acquired significant international experience on urban and regional planning issues, integrating transport systems and infrastructure in urban areas and developing Spatial Morphology models for a variety of cities.
After Arup, in 2005, he was invited to join Bilbao Ría 2000, a publicly owned urban regeneration company, as Development Planning Director. For the following eight years he was responsible for the planning of new development opportunities, integrating key transport infrastructures within dense urban environments, managing the interests and expectations of a diverse range of public administrations and ensuring physical, social and financial viability of the projects.
As an Associate Professor in the Department of Social and Behavioural Sciences at the City University of Hong Kong, my research mainly focuses on the family ecological and positive psychological factors that are related to anxiety, depression and suicide of children and adolescents.
I have published over50papers related to children and adolescent mental health problems, parenting and positive educationin international refereed journals.I have beeninvited as guest speaker and keynote speaker in 60conferences and symposiums.
As the convenor of the Positive Education Laboratory, we have collaborated with over 200local schools(from pre-primary schools to universities)to promote positive education for 75,000students, 7,500 teachers, 35,000 parents and the community.I was also granted about US$6 million research funding in the previous years.
Positive education is also extended to the social welfare agencies, including elderly services, school social work services, children and youth services, services for students with special education needs, service for ex-mentally ill patients in half way houses, and Mass Transit Railway Corporation staff.
Over 200 social workertraining, teacher training and parentworkshops have been conducted.
Music elements and experiential exercises have been integrated with positive education concepts in the programs. Moreover, tenpositive education manuals, both in Chinese and English, were uploaded to our laboratory website and downloaded by people worldwide.
In addition, online games and computer games to promote character strengths and positive parent-child communication, website to alleviate anxiety and enhance positive parenting, wereproducedwith the assistance ofthe university students.
Dr. Michael F. Steger is Professor of Psychology and the Director for the Center for Meaning and Purpose at Colorado State University.
He is an internationally recognized authority on the benefits of finding meaning in one’s life and in one’s work. Dr. Steger is a sought after speaker and enjoys providing keynotes, workshops, and retreats around the world on topics ranging from meaning and purpose, flourishing at work, positive education, effective leadership, and expanding clinical practice by incorporating meaning and purpose assessment and interventions.
He is the developer of the most widely-used measures of meaning and purpose in the world, including the Meaning in Life Questionnaire and the Work and Meaning Inventory.
He has published his research in more than 130 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters, and three books, including Designing Positive Psychology, Purpose and Meaning in the Workplace, and the Handbook of Positivity and Strengths-Based Approaches at Work.
Dr. Steger offers a number of online courses on elevating success in work and life, including his newest courses: Meaning in the Moment (https://wholebeinginstitute.com/meaning-in-the-moment/) and Mastering Your Motivation, available through www.michaelsteger.online.
Rosalinda Ballesteros Valdés is the director for the Institute for Wellbeing and Happiness at Universidad Tecmilenio, considered the first Positive University.
At Tecmilenio she previously had the position of Vice-president for High School Education, she designed the Positive Education Curriculum for 28 Tecmilenio High Schools (more than 15,000 students).
Dr. Ballesteros-Valdés holds a PhD in Humanistic Studies by Tecnológico de Monterrey in México and a Master of Applied Positive Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania.
She has 20 years’ experience in education and curriculum design.
Dr. Ballesteros-Valdés worked extensively in peace education programs, from Education for Peace International and Peace begins with children in México.
Dr Peggy Kern is an associate professor at the Centre for Positive Psychology within the University of Melbourne's Graduate School of Education.
Originally trained in social, personality, and developmental psychology, Peggy received her undergraduate degree in psychology from Arizona State University, a Masters and Ph.D. in social/personality psychology from the University of California and postdoctoral training in positive psychology at the University of Pennsylvania.
Her research focuses on understanding, measuring, and supporting wellbeing across the lifespan.
She works with schools and workplaces to examine strategies for supporting wellbeing, and bridging gaps between research and practice.
She has worked with many of the leaders across the positive psychology field. In 2016, she founded the International Positive Psychology Association’s Education division, and developed and leads the Professional Certificate in Positive Education at Melbourne University.
You can find out more about Peggy’s work at www.peggykern.org
Dora Gudrun Gudmundsdottir is Director of Public Health at the Directorate of Health in Iceland. Dora is trained clinical and organisational psychologist and holds a PhD in public health.
Her research interests focus on the epidemiology of wellbeing and finding reliable measures to evaluate the wellbeing of a population over time.
Dora´s passion lies in finding effective ways for individuals, institutions and societies to flourish. She has a special interest in enhancing evidence based knowledge in policy making and interventions.
She has served as a governmental expert on mental health and do represent Iceland in a Steering group for NCD prevention for the EU.
At the Directorate of Health in Iceland her division leads the work on health promoting communities – wellbeing for all, which collaborates with the prime minister´s office on UN´s Sustainable Development Goals and Wellbeing Economy.
Her current research projects focus on evaluating wellbeing programmes in schools and primary health care.
She is the author of a book on Wellbeing and Success in Icelandic.
She has also written a chapter for The World Book of Happiness (www.theworldbookofhappiness.com) as well as “Positive Psychology for Social Change”.
Dora has been an invited speaker at numerous conferences, e.g. at the World Health Organisation´s conference on Health in All Policies, the European Conference on Positive Psychology and the African Positive Psychology Conference.
She is affiliated with the Wellbeing institute, Cambridge University, Director of Graduate Diploma programme on Positive Psychology at the University of Iceland, and the current president of the European Network for Positive Psychology (ENPP) www.enpp.eu
Abdulla Al Karam, Chairman of the Board of Directors and Director General of the Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA), is responsible for a wide spectrum of education in Dubai’s private sector, spanning early learning, school, and higher education and training Institutes.
Abdulla has the distinction of holding key positions across the United Arab Emirates, as well as being a Board member of the National Qualifications Authority, of the UAE Federal Government. He was also appointed to the Board of the Social Sector, Government of Dubai. He has recently been nominated a member of the Higher Committee for Protection of the Rights of People with Disabilities in the Emirate of Dubai.
Previously, Abdulla held positions in various government sectors, including: Vice Chairman and Secretary General, Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Award for Distinguished Academic Performance; Chairman of the Dubai Government’s Human Resources Committee, which was set up as the link between human resources programmes and initiatives and Dubai’s goals and strategic priorities; Board member, Dubai Knowledge Fund, which seeks to effectively participate in developing Dubai’s knowledge capital through profitably managing funds. He was also a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Education 2010.
Prior to the formation of KHDA, Abdulla held the post of CEO of Dubai Knowledge Village, which ushered in the International Branch Campus, with a remit to diversify the educational landscape in Dubai. Before that, Abdulla headed the Research Unit at Dubai Internet City and began his career working as a software engineer in the United States and France.
Abdulla holds a PhD in computer engineering from the University of South Carolina.
Professor Ilona Boniwell is one of the founders of positive psychologist in Europe, working in the field for over 20 years, originally mentored by Martin Seligman.
She heads the International MSc in Positive Psychology at Anglia Ruskin University, teaches at CentraleSupelec and HEC, France, wrote or edited seven books, developed five educational curricula and twelve pedagogical tools, delivered over 200 keynotes, founded the ENPP and was the first vice-chair of the IPPA.
Nowadays, as a director of Positran, Ilona delivers advanced professional training in positive psychology, having trained thousands of professionals around the world.
She worked for the Government of Bhutan and currently consults the Government of UAE around the development of the toolkit for workplace positivity and organisational well-being assessment.
Her main research interests are around subjective time use, time perspective, eudaimonic well-being and applications of positive psychology to business, one-to-one work and education.
Fred Kofman is an executive coach and advisor on leadership and culture. PhD. in Economics from the University of California, Berkeley. He is founder and president of the Conscious Business Center. Fred founded his global consulting company, Axialent, which delivered leadership programs to more than 15,000 executives around the world. In 2018, Fred accepted a position as Vice President at Google in charge of advising the CEO's office on leadership and culture. And during the same year he partnered with Tecnológico de Monterrey to create the Center of Conscious Leadership. Previously, he was Vice President of executive development at LinkedIn. Fred is the author of the trilogy Metamanagement (2001), Conscious Business (2006) and The Meaning Revolution (2018).
Sir Anthony Seldon, Vice-Chancellor of The University of Buckingham since 2015, is one of Britain’s leading contemporary historians, educationalists, commentators and political authors. He is author or editor of over 40 books on contemporary history, including the inside books on the last five Prime Ministers, Chair of the National Archives Trust, was the co-founder and first director of the Institute for Contemporary British History, and is co-founder of Action for Happiness.
Martin Seligman is the Zellerbach Family Professor of Psychology and Director of the Positive Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvania, where he focuses on positive psychology, learned helplessness, depression, and optimism. He is a best-selling author of several books, including Flourish. He received the American Psychological Society’s William James Fellow Award for basic science and Cattell Award for the application of science, and two Distinguished Scientific Contribution awards from the American Psychological Association. In 1996, Seligman was elected President of the American Psychological Association by the largest vote in modern history. His current mission is the attempt to transform social science to work on the best things in life – strengths, positive emotion, good relationships, meaning, and human flourishing.
Angela Duckworth is the founder and CEO of Character Lab, a nonprofit whose mission is to advance scientific insights that help children thrive. She is also the Rosa Lee and Egbert Chang Professor at the University of Pennsylvania, faculty co-director of the Penn-Wharton Behavior Change for Good Initiative, and faculty co-director of Wharton People Analytics.
A 2013 MacArthur Fellow, Angela has advised the World Bank, NBA and NFL teams, and Fortune 500 CEOs.
Prior to her career in research, Angela founded a summer school for low-income children that was profiled as a Harvard Kennedy School case study and, in 2018, celebrated its 25th anniversary. She has also been a McKinsey management consultant and a math and science teacher at public schools in New York City, San Francisco, and Philadelphia.
Angela completed her undergraduate degree in Advanced Studies Neurobiology at Harvard, graduating magna cum laude. With the support of a Marshall Scholarship, she completed an MSc with Distinction in Neuroscience from Oxford University. She completed her PhD in Psychology as a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania.
Angela’s TED talk is among the most-viewed of all time. Her book Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance is a #1 New York Times best seller. Angela is also co-host, with Stephen Dubner, of the podcast No Stupid Questions.
Caroline is one of the world’s leading experts on the science behind successful goal setting and the use of ‘good grit’ to achieve hard things. For more than 30 years, she’s been sharing her research-backed, actionable strategies to help people cultivate more grit and dig deeper to clarify and achieve their toughest goals.
Caroline has a Masters of Applied Positive Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania, graduated magna cum laude from Harvard, and teaches at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton Business School’s Executive Education program.
Caroline is the author of six books, incluiding Creating Your Best Life. Live Happy Magazine named Creating Your Best Life one of the top 10 goal setting books ever published and Getting Grit one of the 10 books that would change your life in 2017. Caroline’s books have been translated into German, Korean, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese and Italian.
Achieving hard goals is one of the most rewarding things we can do in both our personal and professional lives.
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. Today, 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, happiness, education, innovation, ethics, self-esteem, resilience, goal setting, and mindfulness. His books have been translated into more than twenty-five languages, and have appeared on best-sellers lists around the world.
Tal is a serial entrepreneur, and is the co-founder and chief learning officer of Happiness Studies Academy, Potentialife, Maytiv, and Happier.TV.
An avid sportsman, Tal won the U.S. Intercollegiate and Israeli National squash championships. Today, for exercise, he swims, dances, and practices Yoga. He obtained his PhD in Organizational Behavior and BA in Philosophy and Psychology from Harvard.
Oriana works from a Positive Psychology perspective and finds that the Science of Happiness at Work is perfectly aligned with a people-focused approach that builds capability and capacity in others. Which is exactly how she likes to work. That’s because it’s the fastest and most enabling system for achieving results: everyone engages with the process.
She works as an organizational consultant, change expert, team and executive coach. With 20 years of experience in her field, she has developed profound knowledge by working with a wide range of clients, including manufacturing, financial services, retails, IT and logistics. She also teaches at Masters level at the University of East London, and at the Institute for Wellbeing and Happiness of Tecmilenio University in Mexico.
One of the things that gives her great Happiness at Work is seeing change occur and results delivered as people get reinvigorated by insights about themselves and their teams. She particularly enjoys supporting others inside organizations to use the Science of Happiness at Work™ to create an atmosphere in which people and organizations flourish. Her favorite quote in this respect is, “I never imagined we could cover so much ground in so little time.”
Oriana is the past president of the International Coach Federation Mexico chapter, and known as an authority on the profession. She and her business partner Mercedes Jahn co-authored a Spanish-language book on Sustainable Leadership. She works in both Spanish and English.
Tyler J. VanderWeele, Ph.D., is the John L. Loeb and Frances Lehman Loeb Professor of Epidemiology in the Departments of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and Director of the Human Flourishing Program and Co-Director of the Initiative on Health, Religion and Spirituality at Harvard University. He holds degrees from the University of Oxford, University of Pennsylvania, and Harvard University in mathematics, philosophy, theology, finance, and biostatistics. His methodological research is focused on theory and methods for distinguishing between association and causation in the biomedical and social sciences, and, more recently, on measurement theory and the importance of incorporating ideas from causal inference and analytic philosophy into measure development and evaluation. His empirical research spans psychiatric and social epidemiology; the science of happiness and flourishing; and the study of religion and health, including both religion and population health and the role of religion and spirituality in end-of-life care. He is the recipient of the 2017 Presidents’ Award from the Committee of Presidents of Statistical Societies (COPSS). He has published over three hundred papers in peer-reviewed journals, and is author of the books Explanation in Causal Inference (2015) and Measuring Well-Being (2020), both published by Oxford University Press.
Professor Lea Waters AM, PhD, is an Australian academic, psychologist, author and speaker who holds a PhD in Organizational Psychology and is an world expert in School Psychology and Parenting. She is the Director of the school program Visible Wellbeing and has developed several e-wellbeing resources for teachers to deliver to students via online and virtual classrooms.
Lea’s online family program the Strength Switch is based upon her acclaimed parenting book, 'The Strength Switch', which was the top release on Amazon in the parenting category, listed among the Top Reads for 2017 by Berkeley University’s Greater Good Science Center and one of the Top Five Books for Parents and Children in the UK’s Top Five site. It has been translated into Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Taiwanese, Hungarian, Arabic, Spanish, French and Russian.
Lea's work is featured in The Wall Street Journal, TIME, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, The Toronto Globe, The Guardian (UK and Australia), and more. Her TEDx talk, Warning: Being positive is not for the faint hearted!, explores how we can use social media to have a positive impact on others’ wellbeing and has been viewed more than 130,000 times.
Professor Waters is the Founding Director of the Centre for Positive Psychology, University of Melbourne, where she has held an academic position for 24 years. She also holds a position on the Science Board of The University of California, Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center.
Lea has published over 110 scientific publications and has been awarded academic prizes for research excellence by the American Academy of Management and the Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management.
In 2015, Professor Waters was listed as one of Australia’s Top 100 Women of Influence by the Financial Review. In 2020, Lea was honoured by the Governor General of Australia and named a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) which is one of the highest civilian honours in Australia. She was made a member based on her leadership to psychology, education and the mental health sector in Australia.
Lea is the recent Past President of the International Positive Psychology Association (IPPA) (2017-2019) and is currently a Board member of IPPA as well as being the Patron for Flourishing Education Japan and the Ambassador for the Positive Education Schools Association.
Masaya Okamoto works as researcher and Mindfulness instructor at the Institute of Wellbeing and Happiness at Tecmilenio University. Integrating his extensive teaching experiences across cultures in meditation and mindfulness with his past studies in Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychology at the University of Manchester and the University of Hong Kong, he serves to contribute to research and education in mindfulness integrated with character strengths and virtues for an integral flourishing of the Earth community.
He started the practice of Meditation at the age of 3, Yoga at the age of 6, Qigong and Tai Chi at the age of 12. In the last 10 years, he has taught and led numerous courses, workshops, teacher trainings, and retreats of Meditation and Mindfulness as well as related disciplines in integral wellbeing, holistic education and health, and integral human development in various countries, notably in Japan, Hong Kong, the UK, France, Switzerland, Finland, India, Australia, New Zealand, Chile, Argentina, the USA, and Mexico. In addition to daily meditation practices, he has completed numerous 12-day intensive Vipassana Meditation trainings and a 49-day intensive meditation training. In addition to Meditation and Mindfulness, he is also a teacher of Qigong, Tai Chi, and Yoga.
His life-long search on universal virtues as well as perennial and integral wisdom for the evolution of consciousness and culture led him to study MSc in Applied Positive Psychology and Coaching Psychology at the University of East London to contribute better to Positive Mindfulness Education and to the world’s first Positive University (Tecmilenio University). More recently he has been leading a massive train-the-trainer implementation of an 8-week program Mindfulness-Based Strength Practice (MBSP) and creating a new 16-week certificate program of Virtuous Mindfulness for Integral Wellbeing.
She was the director of the Positive Psychology School of the Metropolitan Unive rsity.
Doctorate in Psychology and Education from the University of Seville
Consultant for National and international companies with a specialization in organizational wellbeing.
Participated in lectures and workshops in organizations such as Coca Cola, Pfizer, Novartis and Procter and Gamble, among others.
Venezuela's representative for the Ibero-American Network of Positive Psychology and International Positive Psychology.
Co-authored five books.
She has developed her work in various contexts, such as new theories of positive psychology and how these bring a more peaceful coexistence with us and therefore with society.
Co-founder of the Center for Positive Organizations at the University of Michigan
Kim Cameron is William Russell Kelly Professor of Management and Organizations in the Ross School of Business and Professor of Higher Education in the School of Education. His past research on organizational virtuousness, downsizing, effectiveness, corporate quality culture, and the development of leadership excellence has been published in more than 130 academic articles and 15 scholarly books. His current research focuses on virtuousness in and of organizations--such as forgiveness, gratitude, kindness, and compassion--and their relationship to performance.
He is one of the co-founders of the Center for Positive Organizations at the University of Michigan and has served as Dean at the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University, Associate Dean in the Marriott School of Management at Brigham Young University, and Associate Dean and department chair at the University of Michigan. He was recognized as among the top ten organizational scholars in the world whose work has been most frequently downloaded on Google.
Anne is Principal of Ravenswood School for Girls in Sydney and Chair Elect of the Positive Education Schools Association (PESA).
Anne holds Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Laws (with honours) degrees, as well as a Graduate Diploma of Education and a Master of Applied Positive Psychology (MAPP) degree from the University of Pennsylvania, in which she achieved a distinguished capstone (thesis) award, under the supervision of Professor Martin Seligman. Anne is currently completing a PhD on applying positive psychology principles in education under the supervision of Professor Lea Waters and Aaron Jarden, through the University of Melbourne Graduate School of Education.
Anne is one of the pioneers of positive education having commenced work in this area as a recipient of a Churchill Fellowship in 2004, during which she conducted research while based at Cambridge University on how to foster resilience in learning. Anne has since led the implementation of Positive Education in three schools - as Deputy Headmistress of St Catherine's in Sydney, Principal of Seymour College in Adelaide and now as Principal of Ravenswood in Sydney.
This year, Anne was one of just five educators globally (including Sir Anthony Seldon, Simon Murray, Stephen Meek and Steve Pilch), as well as the only female recipient, awarded for her pioneering work and internationally recognised leadership in the field of positive education.
In 2018, Anne was awarded the prestigious Australian Speech and Communication Association Award for Excellence, and as a young teacher, was awarded The Teachers' Guild of NSW Award for Excellence in The Early Years of Teaching (2003).
Dr. Michael F. Steger is Professor of Psychology and the Director for the Center for Meaning and Purpose at Colorado State University.
He is an internationally recognized authority on the benefits of finding meaning in one’s life and in one’s work. Dr. Steger is a sought after speaker and enjoys providing keynotes, workshops, and retreats around the world on topics ranging from meaning and purpose, flourishing at work, positive education, effective leadership, and expanding clinical practice by incorporating meaning and purpose assessment and interventions.
He is the developer of the most widely-used measures of meaning and purpose in the world, including the Meaning in Life Questionnaire and the Work and Meaning Inventory.
He has published his research in more than 130 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters, and three books, including Designing Positive Psychology, Purpose and Meaning in the Workplace, and the Handbook of Positivity and Strengths-Based Approaches at Work. Dr. Steger offers a number of online courses on elevating success in work and life, including his newest courses: Meaning in the Moment (https://wholebeinginstitute.com/meaning-in-the-moment/) and Mastering Your Motivation, available through www.michaelsteger.online.
Self-actualization is the birthright of every human being and is the key to living a fulfilling life and contributing positively to our world. My life's mission is to play a catalyzing role in the global movement supporting the development of authentic and self-aware leaders, who are co-creating a shared vision for the betterment of society and our collective evolution.
I passionately advocate for Emotional Wellbeing and actively pursue its implementation in educational programs and parenting styles. Understanding our emotions allows us to embrace our humanity and connect to others from a common ground, bringing us together in magical ways. I believe every individual has innate strengths and great value to share in the world that can be discovered through conscious living; in pursuit of their Kyan - their Essence.
Enrique de la Madrid has a degree in Law of the UNAM and has a master degree in Public Administration of the Government School John F. Kennedy of Harvard University.
From 2015 to 2018 he held the position of Secretary of Tourism; from 2012 to 2015 he was the Director General of the National Bank for Foreign Trade, from 2006 to 2010, was Director General of Rural Financial; in addition to being a Federal Deputy from 2000 to 2003, and Technical General Coordinator of the Presidency of the Commission National Banking from 1994 to 1998.
In the private sector, he was Executive Chairman of the Mexican Industry Council Consumer
Products (ConMéxico) and Director of Institutional Relations and HSBC Corporate Communication for Mexico and Latin America.
Since 2019, is the Director of the Center for the Future of Tech Cities Monterrey. He is also an articleist in the newspaper El Universal, and conducts and directs the TV show "Now/Future; Mexico and the World" of ADN 40.
