David Whyte

The author of eight books of poetry and four books of prose, David Whyte holds a degree in Marine Zoology and has traveled extensively, including living and working as a naturalist guide in the Galapagos Islands and leading anthropological and natural history expeditions in the Andes, Amazon, and Himalayas. He brings this wealth of experience to his poetry, lectures, and workshops.

David Whyte is one of the few poets to take his perspectives on creativity into the field of organizational development, where he works with many European, American, and international companies. He is the recipient of two honorary degrees: from Neumann College in Pennsylvania and Royal Roads University in Victoria, British Columbia.

Learn more here. 

Yehudit Sasportas

Yehudit Sasportas is one of the most prominent and prolific Israeli artists working in the local and international art scene today. Her work is focused on site-specific installations, which include sculptures, drawings, video, and sound works, and calls for an intense and overwhelming sensory experience. Her installations have gone through a process of adapting and responding to the architecture of various museum spaces while forming into artworks that present a new way of reading architecture itself, as well as the wider cultural context it was created in.

Her sculptural installations deal with a fascinating correspondence taking place between subconscious materials, unspoken and unseen, and the way these layers of information activate conscious areas across the surface. Sasportas’ Active Consciousness films, which were made over the course of more than seven years, present relatively simple actions, yet such that provoke a deep and condensed discussion about the manner in which we experience, understand, and project our own personal stories onto reality. This series as well as others have brought Sasportas’ works to receive meaningful recognition as an artist with clear political relevance.

Sasportas represented Israel in the 2007 Venice Biennial and has presented more than ten international museum solo exhibitions during the last decade, in venues such as The Arter Museum, Istanbul, The Kunsthalle Basel, The Berkley Museum of Art, San Francisco, The Kunstverein Braunschweig, DA2 Domus Atrium, Salamanca, and The Israel Museum, Jerusalem.

Learn more here.

Iya Affo

Most importantly, Iya Affo is a wife, mother, and grandmother. Professionally, she is an international lecturer and Historical Trauma Specialist. She earned Western certification as a Trauma Specialist and is the Director of Training and Development for the Arizona Adverse Childhood Experiences Consortium. Iya serves as a member of the Arizona State University Disparities in the Justice System Advisory Board, she is the author of the trauma-informed curriculum taught to educators in many Arizona and Native American schools and developed the only 48-hour 6-level Historical Trauma Certification training.

She is an Adjunct Faculty member at the Trauma Institute International and Arizona Trauma Institute, the founder of Heal Historical Trauma Culture & Wellness Academy, and the International Historical Trauma Association. Iya has visited more than 30 countries; spending extensive time in Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu, Taoist, Native American, and West African communities, embracing aspects from each culture for personal evolution. Through her lectures on trauma and subsequent neurological dysregulation, Iya strives to facilitate healing and self-healing communities all over the world.

Learn more here. 

Dr. Lobsang Sangay

Dr. Lobsang Sangay is a senior visiting fellow as part of the East Asian Legal Studies Program at Harvard Law School. He was the first President (Sikyong) of the Tibetan Government in exile, serving two terms from 2011 to 2021. Dr. Sangay completed his BA and LLB from Delhi University. He obtained his LLM ’95 and SJD ‘04 from Harvard Law School and received the Yong K. Kim ‘95 Memorial Prize for excellence in dissertation and contributions to the understanding of East Asia at Harvard Law School.

Dr. Sangay has written numerous op-eds in major newspapers including The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal, and has appeared on many international TV networks such as the BBC and CNN. He was profiled by CNN (Asia) and the New York Times. He was awarded the Gold Medal for Outstanding Contribution to Public Discourse from the College Historical Society (CHS)of Trinity College, Dublin in 2014, and the Salisbury University Presidential Medal for Distinguished Community Leadership in 2015.

Dr. Sangay has visited numerous capitals and parliaments around the world and played an important role in the passage of the Tibetan Policy and Support Act of 2020, signed by the U.S. government.

Learn more here.