Speakers
Gabby Agin-Liebes
Yale School of Medicine
Dr. Agin-Liebes is a licensed clinical psychologist and Instructor. She currently serves as the lead investigator at Yale on a Connecticut state-funded psilocybin trial examining the safety and efficacy of psilocybin therapy in a real-world, transdiagnostic population. Her research, which has been supported by the National Institutes of Health (i.e., NIDA and NIAAA), combines quantitative and qualitative methodologies to investigate psychological mechanisms underlying psychedelic-assisted therapy. She has also explored the therapeutic potential of ceremonial plant medicine use in indigenous community settings for trauma-related disorders.
Dr. Agin-Liebes brings extensive expertise in treating substance use and trauma disorders and is certified in psilocybin, MDMA, and ketamine-assisted therapies.
Julia C. Basso
Virginia Tech; The Science & Art of Movement Laboratory
Dr. Julia C. Basso is a neuroscientist and assistant professor, known for her pioneering work on the connections between movement, social interaction, and brain function. Holding a PhD in Behavioral and Neural Science and a BA in dance, she utilizes advanced methodologies such as mobile EEG and hyperscanning to explore how dyadic movement practices enhance social connection and emotional well-being. As the Director of The Embodied Brain Laboratory and Co-Director of the Science & Art of Movement Laboratory at Virginia Tech, Dr. Basso spearheads innovative research focused on the physiological and psychological benefits of embodied practices. Her work bridges the arts and sciences, producing outcomes that advance both fundamental understanding and practical applications of the novel field of Neuroarts.
Dr. Basso’s scholarly contributions have been published in journals such as Cell Reports, Behavioral Neuroscience, Brain Plasticity, Journal of Neuroscience Methods, and Scientific Reports. Her insights have been highlighted in media outlets such as The New York Times, US News and World Report, Dance Magazine, and NPR. A Renée Fleming Neuroarts Investigator, she also appears on the PBS series Mission Unstoppable, sharing her expertise on the transformative effects of embodied practices.
In addition to her research, Dr. Basso is passionate about scientific outreach and educates through courses like "Moving Body, Moving Mind,” webinars, and podcasts. Her presentations inspire audiences to view movement as a vital tool for enhancing connection and well-being in our rapidly evolving world. For more information, visit The Embodied Brain Laboratory.
Morris Bell
Yale School of Medicine
Morris Bell, Ph.D. is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Psychiatry and Senior Research Scientist at Yale University School of Medicine and Senior Research Career Scientist for the Rehabilitation Research and Development Service of the Department of Veterans Affairs, USA. Dr. Bell has been a clinical researcher for 50 years exploring ways to restore cognitive and work capacity for people with persistent mental illness and substance abuse. He was among the first to study the beneficial effects of work activity and to explore determinants of work capacity. He is the founder and director of the VA/Yale Learning Based Recovery Center.
Dr. Bell has developed a number of learning-based interventions to promote recovery in schizophrenia and substance use disorders. He has conducted studies that combine new methods of cognitive retraining with employment services to improve functional outcomes. He created a Virtual Reality Job Interview Training program with funding from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) that is now commercially available and widely used in vocational rehabilitation programs.
Dr. Bell has been an important contributor to studies of social cognition and is the co-developer of the Bell Lysaker Emotion Recognition Test (BLERT), which is recommended by NIMH for clinical trials involving social cognition, the Social Attribution Test (SAT), the Bell Object Relations Reality Testing Inventory (BORRTI) and the Bell Relationship Inventory for Adolescents (BRIA). He also developed the Work Behavior Inventory which is used nationally and internationally in rehabilitation programs. Dr. Bell has developed a measure of embodied cognition (Automated Test of Embodied Cognition; ATEC) that uses cognitively demanding physical tasks for children and adults, motion capture technology and AI for scoring performance.
Dr. Bell’s research activities are supported by grants from NIMH, NIDA NIAAA, NSF, DoD, and the Department of Veterans Affairs. He also serves as chairman of his Institutional Review Board at VA CT and consults to industry and other research groups internationally on rehabilitation interventions.
Zach Bell
Body Wisdom Coaching
Zach Bell, M.Ed, is a certified somatic coach from the Strozzi Institute for Somatics, who delivers workshops throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. He weaves together somatics, Nonviolent Communication, and role play to help purpose-driven professionals stay centered in triggering moments, set boundaries compassionately, and communicate effectively through conflict. His background spans management consulting, education technology, journalism, and education.
In Oakland middle schools, his roles included PE teacher, Restorative Justice facilitator, SEL teacher, boys basketball coach, and Dean of Students. He is the founder of Camp Common Ground, an empathy-based overnight summer camp that brings young leaders from diverse racial and economic backgrounds together to build relationships across difference, by employing experiential simulation-based and drama-based pedagogy.
He is an avid athlete himself, having played basketball at the semi-pro level, and also delights in contact improv and yoga.
Sarah-Jayne Blakemore
University of Cambridge
Professor Sarah-Jayne Blakemore is Chair of Psychology in the Social Sciences (2000) at the University of Cambridge, where she leads the Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience Group. Her research focuses on the development of the social brain during adolescence, particularly social cognition and peer influence.
She has published over 250 peer-reviewed papers, which have been cited more than 70,000 times, and has received multiple international research prizes. She is the author of Inventing Ourselves: The Secret Life of the Teenage Brain, which won the Royal Society Book Prize, and is a Fellow of the British Academy, the Association for Psychological Science, the Academy of Medical Sciences and the Royal Society.
Adam Christoferson
Musical InterventionTM
Adam Christoferson is the founder and director of Musical Intervention™, a program that uses collaborative songwriting, performing and music production as tools for connection, expression, and mental health recovery. Through Musical Intervention™, Christoferson facilitates mobile music groups in a wide range of clinical, educational, and community settings.
Over the past 25 years, Christoferson has facilitated music based groups with diverse populations, including individuals navigating mental illness, addiction recovery, homelessness, and youth development programs. His approach emphasizes collaborative songwriting, rhythmic engagement, and shared music making as embodied practices that support emotional regulation, identity formation, and social connection. In addition to this mobile facilitation model, Christoferson founded Musical Intervention™ Studios, a community based creative space in downtown New Haven that opened officially in 2016. The studio provides sober environment where participants can write, record, and perform original music while building community through ongoing creative engagement.
Christoferson’s work also intersects with academic research through collaborations with investigators at Yale School of Medicine’s Belief Lab, Program for Recovery and Community Health, and the AZA Lab. Musical Intervention has contributed to research exploring how song making can support individuals experiencing psychosis and auditory hallucinations through the Song making IN a Group(SING) study supported by the Sound Health Initiative, a partnership between the National Institutes of Health, the National Endowment for the Arts, and The Kennedy Center. Through both its mobile facilitation model and its community studio environment, Musical Intervention™ explores how collaborative music-making can help individuals reconnect with agency, identity, and community through sound.
Philip Corlett
Dr. Philip Robert Corlett trained in Experimental Psychology, Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychiatry with Professors Trevor Robbins and Paul Fletcher at the University of Cambridge. He won a Wellcome Trust Prize Studentship and completed his PhD on the brain bases of delusion formation in the Brain Mapping Unit, Department of Psychiatry. After a short postdoc, he was awarded the University of Cambridge Parke- Davis Exchange Fellowship in Biomedical Sciences which brought him to the Yale University Department of Psychiatry to explore the maintenance of delusions with Professors Jane Taylor and John Krystal.
He was named a Rising Star and Future Opinion Leader by Pharmaceutical Marketing Magazine and joined the Yale faculty in 2011 where he will continue to explore the cognitive and biological mechanisms of delusional beliefs as well as predictive learning, habit formation and addiction.
Félix M. Cortés
Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico
Vice president Planning Development and Institutional Research
Areas of study: Entrepreneurial Networks, Market Development and Marketing
Chunxin Dong
Shanghai University
Deepak Cyril D'Souza
Yale School of Medicine
Deepak Cyril D’Souza, M.D. is the Vikram Sodhi Professor of Psychiatry at the Yale School of Medicine and a staff psychiatrist at the VA Connecticut Healthcare System, where he has served since 1992. An active clinician, educator, and investigator, Dr. D’Souza brings over three decades of experience at the intersection of clinical care and translational neuroscience.
Dr. D’Souza’s research program has focused on understanding the acute and chronic effects of various drugs including psychedelics and cannabinoids on human behavior, cognition, and brain function. Using a combination of experimental and observational approaches, his work has advanced our understanding of the neurobiological mechanisms underlying cannabis effects, including pioneering contributions to the study of cannabis and psychosis.
His research has been continuously supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the National Institute of Mental Health, the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, and private foundations. He has published extensively in leading journals, including Molecular Psychiatry, JAMA, Lancet Psychiatry, Biological Psychiatry, The American Journal of Psychiatry, and Neuropsychopharmacology.
Dr. D’Souza is the Principal Editor of the journal Psychopharmacology, serves on the Physician Advisory Board for the State of Connecticut’s Medical Marijuana Program, and is the inaugural Director of the Yale Center for the Science of Cannabis and Cannabinoids.
Tom Froese
Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST)
Tom Froese is an Associate Professor at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST) in Japan, where he leads the Embodied Cognitive Science Unit. With an interdisciplinary background spanning computer science and cognitive science, his research investigates the interactive foundations of social cognition and the role of the environment in shaping the human mind. His work is a synthesis of artificial life, evolutionary robotics, human-computer interaction, and 4E cognition, focusing specifically on how agent-environment dynamics give rise to meaning and sense-making.
He is currently spearheading the development of Irruption Theory, a formal framework aimed at addressing the long-standing problems of intentional agency, mental causation, and subjective experience through the lens of thermodynamics and entropy. Beyond theoretical development, his unit conducts empirical studies on social interaction, the neural correlates of optimal timing, and the physics of life. He is also the lead organizer of the upcoming ECogS 2026 conference, which explores the intersections of embodied cognition and artificial intelligence.
Ana L. Gratacós
Alzheimer Iberoamerica AIB
Ana Lourdes Gratacós Rodríguez, PsyD, is a Puerto Rican leader in dementia education whose work blends scientific rigor, human sensitivity, and community action. With more than forty years of service in health, pastoral care, and social development, she has helped transform how Puerto Rico and Ibero America understand and support people living with Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias. She holds a Doctorate in Psychology from the Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico, where she also completed a Bachelor of Science and is currently pursuing a Master’s in Neuroscience. Her international preparation includes certification as a Cognitive Coach from the Universidad de la Mística in Ávila, Spain.
Her leadership spans local and international platforms: she serves as Executive Director of Alzheimer Iberoamérica (AIB) and founded the Rotary Psy Club of District 7000 of Puerto Rico, integrating mental health advocacy with humanitarian service. Since 2016 she has directed Dementia Friends Puerto Rico, a movement that has trained thousands in empathy, inclusion, and dignified support. She also contributes to the Puerto Rico Alliance for Chronic Disease Control as President of the Board, advises AARP Puerto Rico on aging and caregiving, and participates in multiple coalitions and advisory committees dedicated to neurocognitive health and community wellbeing. Her career includes roles as educator, pastoral health agent, support group facilitator, and advocate for public policies grounded in dignity and compassion.
She is widely recognized for uniting science, spirituality, and strategic leadership to advance a movement of awareness, respect, and hope for people living with neurocognitive conditions and their caregivers.
Ana Isabelle
Ana Isabelle is an award-winning Puerto Rican actress, singer, dancer, and producer with over 20 years of international experience across film, television, theater, and music. She recently produced and starred in her first feature film, Fight Back, marking a milestone as the first Puerto Rican film to be released on the global Netflix platform. The project represents a significant step forward for Puerto Rican cinema on the international stage.
Ana gained global recognition portraying Rosalia in Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story and became the first Puerto Rican actress to star in a Spanish series for two seasons (Marbella). Her film and television credits include Imprisoned, Dementia 13, FBI: Most Wanted, Younger, Will Trent, The Eyes, Seasons of Love, and Killing Castro, sharing the screen with acclaimed talent such as Al Pacino.
A trained musical theater performer, Ana has starred in award-winning stage productions in New York and beyond, including I Like It Like That, Evita, and West Side Story. She has performed on iconic stages such as Carnegie Hall and Citi Field, collaborating with artists like Plácido Domingo, Gilberto Santa Rosa, José Feliciano, and Luis Fonsi.
Ana is the winner of Univision’s Viva el Sueño, has released multiple successful albums, and was named an “Artist to Watch” by Billboard. She made history as the first Latina artist to perform the official NBA All-Star Game song for TNT and currently serves as a judge on the #1 musical reality show Objetivo Fama.
Born and raised in Puerto Rico, Ana Isabelle is a graduate of the Caguas Children’s Choir and remains deeply committed to arts education, community impact, and cultural representation.
Marat Israelian
Yale University
Marat Israelian is the Head Coach of the fencing program at Yale University, where he leads one of the nation’s most competitive collegiate fencing teams. With extensive international experience as both an athlete and coach, he has developed a reputation for cultivating high-performance fencers through a holistic approach that integrates technical precision, tactical intelligence, and psychological resilience.
At Yale, Coach Israelian has guided numerous athletes to national and international success, while also emphasizing the role of cognitive and emotional control in elite performance. His coaching philosophy aligns closely with emerging research in embodied cognition, highlighting how perception, decision-making, and motor execution interact in fast-paced competitive environments.
At ISEC 2026, he will contribute to the session “Fencing: The Embodied Cognitive Sports,” sharing insights on how training strategies can enhance both athletic performance and cognitive function.
Hong Jiang
University of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences
Dr. Hong Jiang is a Professor at the School of Life Science and Health at Shandong Rehabilitation University and a doctoral supervisor with extensive expertise in neurodegenerative disease research. She has been recognized as a recipient of the Program for New Century Excellent Talents of the Ministry of Education and is a Distinguished Expert of the Taishan Scholars Program of Shandong Province. She is also an Outstanding Young Scholar of Shandong Province.
Dr. Jiang actively contributes to the scientific community as an Executive Member of both the Chinese Society for Neuroscience and the Chinese Physiological Society. She currently serves as Director of the Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Neural Rehabilitation.
Her research focuses on the pathogenesis, early diagnosis, and prevention and treatment strategies of neurodegenerative diseases. Her work also explores proteomics and transcriptomics in neurodegenerative conditions, as well as innovative rehabilitation therapies and technologies.
As a corresponding author, Dr. Jiang has published widely in leading journals, including Acta Pharmacologica Sinica, Advanced Science, Cell Death & Disease, and Redox Biology. She has led numerous major research initiatives, including projects funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the National Key Research and Development Program of China, and several key provincial research programs in Shandong.
Mike Kuczala
Kuczala Consulting, Inc.
Mike Kuczala has delivered keynotes, given presentations, facilitated professional development and taught graduate courses on 4 continents. His presentations, courses, books, and videos have reached more than 200,000 teachers, trainers, corporate executives, and parents. He is also the coauthor of the Corwin Bestseller and Association of Educational Publishers’ Distinguished Achievement Award nominated, The Kinesthetic Classroom: Teaching and Learning through Movement, a book and philosophy that has changed the view of teaching and learning around the world. His 5th book, Move More, Learn More! Harnessing the Brain/Body Connection in Early Childhood, was released in February by Columbia University’s Teachers College Press.
President of Kuczala Consulting and Chief Executive Officer for Reginal Training Center in partnership with La Salle University and The College of New Jersey, Mike's presentations have been experienced in such diverse settings as The Educational Collaborative for International Schools, The East Asia Regional Council of Schools, The Francis Marion University Center of Excellence to Prepare Teachers of Children of Poverty Summer Institute, The American Society for Training and Development, The Forum for Innovative Leadership, The Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, and the Society for Health and Physical Educators.
Kun Liu
Yale School of Medicine
Dr. Kun Liu is an Assistant Professor Adjunct in the Department of Psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine and the Founder and Director of the Brain Peace Science Foundation (BPSF), a nonprofit organization dedicated to research, education, and clinical innovation in brain health.
He is a pioneer in Sports Neuroscience, integrating neurochemistry, clinical psychiatry, and sports science to improve cognition, emotion, and athletic performance. Dr. Liu leads the Physical Exercise Affecting Cognition and Emotion (PEACE) and Therapeutic Dance Improving Cognition and Emotion (TDICE) programs, which have benefited communities in the United States, Puerto Rico, and China.
Dr. Liu has authored over 40 peer-reviewed publications in journals such as PNAS, Neuropsychopharmacology, and Journal of Neurochemistry. He directed the Performance Training and Physical Therapy Team for Chinese Olympic athletes at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games and currently leads the International Symposium on Embodied Cognition at Yale.
Sandra Marchant
Rogue Fencing Academy
Sandra Marchant, Epee World Team Champion 2022-Zadar, Croatia. Silver World Team medalist 2025-Manama, Bahrain. Two-time National Champion Veteran Women's Epee USA 2019, 2025. Eight-time North American Cup Champion. Founder of Athena Project the FIRST girls/women only fencing camps/clinics in the world, global project. Mom, wife, athlete and leader.
Edith Meeks
Herbert Berghof Studio
Edith Meeks was Executive and Artistic Director of the Herbert Berghof Studio (“HB Studio”) from 2005-2025, guiding the transition from its founders. Before taking the lead at HB, she was Senior Officer, Information and Research, for the New York Foundation for the Arts, managing the performing arts component of a national resource on funding, services and support for independent artists. An actor and teaching artist, she has performed featured roles on many professional theater stages and in films by Todd Haynes, Michael Gitlin, and Dan Sallitt.
Edith received her B.A. in Theater and History from Yale College. She trained as an actor with Herbert Berghof and Uta Hagen at HB Studio and joined HB’s faculty in 1987 at Berghof’s invitation. She has taught acting for Swarthmore College, the New York State Summer School for the Arts, and for the film programs of The New School and Hunter College of the City of New York. She has served as a grant panelist for the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, the Thayer Fellowship/Patricia Kerr Ross Award of the State University of New York, and the J.M. Kaplan Foundation’s J.M.K. Innovation Prize. She serves on the Board of Directors of The Village Trip, an annual festival celebrating the arts and culture of Greenwich Village.
Angelo Molino
Athena Music & Wellness Therapy Corp.
Professor Angelo Molino is a mental health counselor, board-certified music therapist, neuroscientific researcher, and classical composer whose work integrates music, brain science, and embodied cognition to advance emotional regulation, leadership resilience, and human sustainability.
A former Italian concert pianist associated with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Professor Molino combines artistic mastery with nearly two decades of clinical and subclinical practice, academic research, and applied neuroscience. He is Co-Founder and Chief Science Officer of Athena Music & Wellness Therapy Corp., where he develops evidence-informed music-based interventions for emotional regulation, cognitive enhancement, and digital mental health integration.
Professor Molino has worked with over 3,000 clients and advised global organizations on the neurobiological foundations of performance, stress modulation, and executive functioning. His scholarly publications have been released by Cambridge Scholars Publishing (UK), Teachers College, Columbia University (U.S.), and Dorrance Publishing (U.S.), and his research explores how rhythm, sound, and structured musical experience modulate brain states and embodied emotional processes.
He is the creator of Symphony of Mind™, an immersive performance-science platform, and the visionary behind SonoArk™, a digital health technology integrating therapeutic sound protocols and neuroacoustic design.
His forthcoming book, Emotions in Music, further develops a neuroscientific and embodied framework demonstrating how music functions not merely as art, but as a regulatory architecture for affective experience, cognitive integration, and adaptive human behavior.
Elise Morrison
David Geffen School of Drama at Yale
Elise Morrison is an Assistant Professor of Theater and Performance Studies at Yale, where she teaches courses such as Feminist Theater, Theater History, and Digital Media in Performance. She received her PhD in Theater and Performance Studies from Brown University and held a postdoctoral fellowship in Interdisciplinary Performance Studies at Yale from 2012–2015. She has taught at Texas A&M University and at Harvard University, where she served as the Associate Director for Speaking Instruction at the Bok Center for Teaching and Learning.
Morrison’s first book, Discipline and Desire: Surveillance Technologies in Performance was published by University of Michigan Press in 2016. Morrison edited a special issue on “Surveillance Technologies in Performance” for the International Journal of Performance Arts and Digital Media (Routledge, 11.2) and has published on this topic in IJPADM, Theater Magazine, and TDR. Her current research focuses on theatrical performances that stage technologies of contemporary warfare – from military drones to virtual reality interfaces used to train and rehabilitate soldiers – in ways that intervene in habits of passive spectatorship and immobilized ethical responsiveness that have been induced by spectacular representations of war fought “at a distance.”
Morrison is also a singer-songwriter, theater director, and has created and performed multiple intermedia cabaret performances that focus on gender, surveillance, and mediatized culture.
Christopher Pittenger
Yale School of Medicine; Yale Center for Brain and Mind Health
Christopher Pittenger, MD, PhD is Mears & Jameson Professor and Deputy Chair of Psychiatry, Professor of Neuroscience, Psychology, and in the Child Study Center, and a Director of the Center for Brain and Mind Health, among other roles. His PhD work with Nobel Prize winner Eric Kandel focused on the mechanisms whereby experience leads to lasting physical and functional change in the brain.
His basic, translational, and clinical work seeks to understand how alterations in brain function associated with a range of psychiatric symptoms and mental phenomena arise from genetic, developmental, somatic, and social sources, and how we can use our growing understanding to develop new strategies for the prevention and treatment of mental illness and for the enhancement of human thriving. One important recent focus has been on the potential healing effects of psychedelic agents.
Robin Raju
Yale School of Medicine; Yale New Haven Health
Dr. Robin Raju is a board-certified physiatrist (a doctor who specializes in physical medicine and rehabilitation) and treats problems with the muscles, joints, and nerves without surgery. He is fellowship trained in chronic pain and interventional spine. He takes a holistic approach to care, treating the “whole person,” with the understanding that pain and injury in one part of the body can impact other areas as well. The most common problem Dr. Raju sees is musculoskeletal pain, but he also treats chronic pain, overuse injuries, and sports and trauma-related problems. He uses nonsurgical methods such as medication, injections, physical therapy, and/or alternative/holistic modalities.
In addition to clinical practice, he serves as the Medical Director for Yale New Haven Health (YNHH) Rehabilitation Services, and Chair of the YNHH Medical Executive Administration Committee for Rehabilitation Services, where he is responsible for overseeing and providing recommendations regarding the quality and performance of rehabilitation services across the Health System. His expertise extends to the national level as a committee member of the International Pain and Spine Intervention Society (IPSIS) – Health Policy Division where he provides input on regulations, legislation, and rules that impact the field of spine care. As a core faculty member of the Yale PM&R Residency program, he was instrumental in establishing the inaugural program at Yale, conducting the first site visit, and securing its initial ACGME accreditation.
Dr. Raju focuses his research on regenerative medicine, including stem cells and biologics (treatments that have been found to stimulate musculoskeletal healing), and the effectiveness of various kinds of spine and joint injections. He also serves as the main faculty advisor for the YNHH Rehabilitation Research Committee, which oversees several research projects within rehabilitation services conducted by PT/OT/speech therapists.
Freddy Ramírez
Brain Peace Science Foundation
Freddy M. Ramírez is a Puerto Rican clinical researcher, educator, and artistic producer. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Biology with a concentration in Microbiology and Biomedical Sciences from the Interamerican University of Puerto Rico. He completed 23 years of clinical research at Yale University School of Medicine, where he collaborated across disciplines including epidemiology, psychiatry, pulmonary medicine, and infectious diseases. His research contributions include studies on pediatric asthma and HIV, with recognition in international scientific publications.
He is the Executive President of the Brain Peace Sciences Foundation and the creator of T-DICE (Therapeutic Dance Improving Cognition and Emotion), an innovative, evidence-informed program that integrates movement, music, and emotional engagement to enhance cognitive and emotional health. The program is grounded in principles of neuroplasticity and embodied cognition and incorporates 100% Latin music to strengthen cultural identity, emotional activation, and memory engagement as part of its therapeutic model.
T-DICE has been implemented in clinical and community settings, particularly in Hartford, Connecticut, focusing on older adults, including individuals with Alzheimer’s disease, dementia, and mental health conditions. The intervention uses structured group sessions combining rhythmic movement and social interaction. Preliminary outcomes have shown improvements in cognitive function, mobility, mood, balance, and social engagement, along with reduced isolation.
In parallel with his scientific career, Ramírez has developed a significant artistic trajectory as a choreographer, director, and producer. He has created and led large-scale theatrical and dance productions, collaborating with internationally recognized Latino artists and contributing to high-profile artistic projects presented in prominent venues across the United States and Puerto Rico. His work in the performing arts bridges cultural expression and community engagement, using artistic production as a tool for education, identity, and social impact.
He continues to lead initiatives that integrate science, culture, and the arts to develop innovative, community based approaches to brain health and emotional well being across the United States, Puerto Rico, and internationally.
¡Let's dance for a healthy brain!
Megaera Regan
Southern Connecticut State University
Megaera Regan is a retired elementary Physical Education teacher from Port Washington, New York. She is currently working as an adjunct at Southern Connecticut State University. She also works with the Connecticut Cadre of Physical Education Trainers.
Megaera is the 2020 SHAPE America Eastern District Elementary PE Teacher Of the Year, and received the 2022 NYSAHPERD Joy of Effort Award. Megaera is a strong believer of Meaningful PE, Child Directed Play, and the brain-body connection.
Ektor Rivera
Ektor Rivera is a multidisciplinary artist and actor working across painting, theater, and film. His career includes performances on Broadway and in television, alongside the development of large-scale visual artworks.
Rooted in Puerto Rican identity, his work explores themes of history, memory, and cultural narrative through both visual and performative mediums.
Jessica Savner
Rogue Fencing Academy
Jessica Savner is a fencing and strength & conditioning coach and a 2024 Olympian. A standout in modern pentathlon and épée, she is a three-time national champion in modern pentathlon and a Division I-A national champion in women’s épée.
Savner has also earned Pan American gold and bronze medals, bringing an elite competitive resume and high-performance expertise to her coaching work.
Annabelle Shanks
Yale School of Medicine
Annabelle Shanks is a Clinical Research Associate in the Department of Neurology at Yale School of Medicine. Her work focuses on stroke recovery and bedside neuroimaging, with a particular interest in traumatic brain injury. She is currently collaborating with Dr. Rummana Aslam on a pilot program exploring dance therapy for individuals living with the long-term effects of brain injury.
Through this work, she is interested in the role of embodied interventions in neurorehabilitation and recovery. She plans to pursue a career as a physician, integrating clinical practice with research in brain health and rehabilitation.
Rajita Sinha
Yale Stress Center
Rajita Sinha is the Foundations Fund Professor of Psychiatry, and Professor of Neuroscience and of Child Study at Yale University School of Medicine. She is Deputy Chair for Psychology in Department of Psychiatry and Chief of Psychology in Psychiatry at Yale and the Founding Director of the Yale Interdisciplinary Stress Center. Her research focuses on the interactions between stress biology and risky health behaviors and their impact on wellness, illness risk and overall health. Her lab has also developed and tested novel pharmacological and behavioral interventions to break the cycle of stress, risky addictive health behaviors and development and recurrence of chronic diseases, including alcohol use disorders, substance use disorders, chronic pain, PTSD and other chronic illnesses.
She has been supported by a series of NIH funded research projects continuously for over 30 years and she has published over 400 scientific peer reviewed publications in these areas. She has served on a number of Scientific Advisory Boards and panels for the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) including as a member of several National Institutes of Health Scientific Expert and Advisory Panels. She has presented at numerous national and international conferences, and her work is widely cited.
She has been featured as an expert on stress and trauma and its effects on memory, cognition, emotion and health behaviors for numerous news outlets including the NBC Nightly News, CNN Health, Wall Street Journal, HBO Documentaries, Dr. Oz Show and USA Today to name a few. She conducts workshops, lectures and retreats on stress management, self-care for the stressed professional and for senior executives, and on ways to reduce stress to enrich and enhance work, family and life.
Eric Soyka
USA National Para Fencing Team / The Phoenix Center
With over two decades of coaching experience at both the national and international levels, Eric has developed a reputation for building high-performing athletes across all weapons and age groups. His work spans grassroots development through elite competition, with athletes achieving success on national points lists, in International Competition, and within NCAA competition.
Eric’s coaching philosophy integrates biomechanics, motor learning, and tactical systems to create adaptable, individualized pathways for skill development. He emphasizes not only technical proficiency, but also the ability to apply skills dynamically under the pressure and variability of high-level competition. His approach is designed to support a wide range of learners, from beginners to elite athletes, with specializations in the Paralympic pathway.
In addition to his coaching roles, Eric collaborates with coaches and athletes around the world, contributing to the advancement of both Olympic and Paralympic fencing. Through education, mentorship, and program development, he continues to play an active role in shaping modern coaching practices and supporting long-term athlete development across the sport.
Dietrich Stout
Emory University
Dietrich Stout is Professor and Chair of Anthropology and Director of the Center for Mind, Brain, and Culture at Emory University. Professor Stout’s interdisciplinary research on the biological and cultural evolution of cognition integrates methods ranging from archaeological survey, excavation, and artifact analysis to experimental tool replication, psychometric testing, and brain imaging. Dr. Stout has authored more than 50 peer-reviewed publications including articles in journals ranging from Science to Current Anthropology, The Journal of Human Evolution, and The Journal of Neuroscience.
He is editor on a recent (August 2024) theme issue of the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B entitled “Minds in Movement: embodied cognition in the age of artificial intelligence” arising from a May 2023 workshop held at the Center for Mind, Brain, and Culture.
Xiaobo Su
Beijing Normal University
Xiaobo Su is an Assistant Professor of Vocal Art at Beijing Normal University and a guest teacher at the Central Conservatory of Music and Tsinghua University. She began singing at age six, performing Handel and Bach in a children’s chorus. In 2007, she moved to the United States to study at the USC Thornton School of Music.
An accomplished soprano, she has performed leading roles such as Donna Anna (Don Giovanni), Micaëla (Carmen), and Liù (Turandot). She was an awards winner of Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, Mu Phi Epsilon International Music Competition and a NATSLA Young Artist stern fellowship in SongFest , and has received multiple international awards and scholarships.
She has appeared in major concerts and venues internationally, collaborating with distinguished artists. Since returning to Beijing in 2019, she has focused on teaching and research, earning Outstanding Mentor Awards，and Excellence in Teaching Award. Her academic interests include vocal pedagogy, embodiment in singing, diction, and poetry study.
Florencia Velázquez
Universidad Interamericana
Dr. Florencia Velázquez Morales is an Associate Professor in the Department of Social Work, where she serves as a faculty member in the Graduate Program in Clinical Social Work. She currently serves as Director of the Interactive Center, Practicum Coordinator, and mentor to the Student Association, and actively participates on various departmental and institutional committees. As a member of the Academic Senate, she has served on the Faculty Committee, the Executive Committee, and the Graduate Studies Committee, which she currently chairs.
She holds a Doctor of Philosophy from the Complutense University of Madrid and a Master’s degree in Social Work, with a concentration in Families with Children and Adolescents, from the University of Puerto Rico. She also completed a certification in the Management Development Program at the Harvard Institutes for Higher Education Knowledge in Boston.
Dr. Velázquez Morales has delivered numerous academic presentations at the international level, including in Spain, Argentina, Panama, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and the United States. She is a member of the Executive Committee of the ARRP, serves as an advisor on aging-related matters for the municipalities of San Juan and Toa Baja, and collaborates with various nonprofit organizations.
She maintains active collaborations with multiple media outlets, regularly participating in radio programs such as Alianza Solidaria and La Juntilla de AARP, as well as television programs broadcast by the country’s major networks. In addition, she has served as a contributor to the newspaper El Nuevo Día and has published in peer-reviewed academic journals, contributing to scholarly dialogue and the dissemination of specialized knowledge in social work, aging, and health.
As part of her commitment to social responsibility, she is a member of several boards of directors and is the founder of Proyecto Plenitud, Inc., an organization dedicated to providing services to individuals with Alzheimer’s disease. She also belongs to various missionary groups, which has enabled her to impact local and international communities, including those in Santo Domingo, Mexico, and Haiti.
Over the past seven years, she has organized the symposium “Alzheimer: A Perspective from Academia,” a high-impact academic and community-focused event held at the campus. She has also actively participated in the development of academic programs, accreditation processes, and the preparation of institutional proposals.
Veronica Weser
XR Pediatrics
Veronica Weser, PhD, is the Associate Director of XR Pediatrics within the Yale Center for Immersive Technology in Pediatrics and a Research Scientist at the Yale School of Medicine. Her work centers on understanding how virtual and augmented reality can meaningfully improve the health, wellbeing, and daily experiences of youth and young adults.
Dr. Weser earned her PhD in Cognitive Psychology from the University of Virginia, where she used extended‑reality technologies to investigate fundamental mechanisms of human perception. Because many aspects of embodiment—such as one’s height, body size, or limb length—cannot be altered in a controlled or ethical way in traditional laboratory settings, she turned to virtual reality as the only viable method for experimentally manipulating the body itself. By using VR to systematically change these otherwise immutable features, Dr. Weser was able to study how the structure and geometry of the body shape low‑level perceptual processes: how we judge distances, understand spatial layouts, and interpret the physical world from within a particular body. Her work demonstrated that perception is not only influenced by sensory input, but is deeply constrained by the body we inhabit—and that VR provides a uniquely powerful tool for revealing these relationships.
Building on this foundation in perception science and experimental psychology, Dr. Weser now focuses on developing translational VR and AR tools that support pediatric patients and their caregivers.
Emily R. Weiss
Yale School of Medicine
Dr. Emily R. Weiss is a licensed Clinical Psychologist, Associate Research Scientist in Yale School of Medicine’s Department of Psychiatry, and recipient of a Yale Center for Clinical Investigation Scholar Award. Dr. Weiss earned her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from The New School for Social Research and completed her clinical Internship and Postdoctoral Fellowship at Yale School of Medicine. Dr. Weiss’ research and clinical interests focus on understanding and treating transdiagnostic impulsive and compulsive behaviors (ICB). Specifically, she aims to examine the neurobiological underpinnings of these behaviors using positron emission tomography (PET) imaging, including a pilot study examining the kappa opioid receptor in individuals with hoarding disorder.
Her work also focuses on effective alternative and adjunctive treatment strategies for those who struggle with ICB, such as the inclusion of mindful movement in treatment protocols. This work includes an ongoing program examining a Taekwondo-based mindful movement group as adjunctive component to Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT).
Yanfeng Zhang
China Institute of Sport Science
Zhang Yanfeng is the Deputy Director, Researcher, and PhD Advisor at the National Research Institute of Sports Science, National Physical Fitness and Scientific Fitness Research Center. He is a selected candidate for the State General Administration of Sport's "Hundred Talents Program for Outstanding Young and Middle-aged Professional and Technical Personnel" and serves as the Deputy Director of the Office of the National Physical Fitness Monitoring Center.
He concurrently serves as the Deputy Secretary-General of the Physical Fitness and Health Research Branch of the Chinese Society of Sports Science, a technical expert of the first Committee of the Standardization Working Committee, a member of the Professional Committee on the Development of Sports for Persons with Disabilities in China, a council member of the Sports and Public Health Branch of the Chinese Biophysical Society, and Deputy Leader of the Developmental Coordination Disorder Study Group in the Pediatric Rehabilitation Professional Committee of the Chinese Rehabilitation Medical Association.
Research directions: exercise and brain science, multimodal assessment and exercise rehabilitation for children with neurodevelopmental disorders.
Ping Zhou
University of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences
Ping Zhou is a Professor in Biomedical and Rehabilitation Engineering at the University of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, a newly founded university located in Qingdao, China. Prior to his current role, he was a Professor of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) and TIRR Memorial Hermann Hospital, Houston, USA. Before that, he spent 15 years at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago (now Shirley Ryan AbilityLab) and Northwestern University, Chicago, USA. His research interests span biomedical signal processing (with emphasis on EMG), motor unit pathophysiology, neuromuscular electrophysiology, myoelectric control, and neurorehabilitation robotics.
He has authored/co-authored over 200 peer-reviewed journal articles and currently serves as Chief Editor or Associate Editor for 8 international journals.