This weekend, a host of remarkable women and men will meet in Carlsbad, California to explore how to create a more peaceful, just, and sustainable society through a variety of means, including social media and technology.
Deepak Chopra and friends invite the global community on a fantastic journey into the intersection of science and spirituality at its fourth annual Sages and Scientist Symposium, August 16–18, 2013, in Carlsbad, California.
Moderated by Deepak Chopra, the event brings together distinguished experts in science, business, healthcare, and humanity on an exploration into the intersection of science and spirituality. Presenters address humanity’s progress and difficulties in achieving a more peaceful, just, and sustainable society. The three-day forum concludes with an examination of potential solutions.
This year’s Sages and Scientists Symposium pays tribute to the 50th anniversary of the civil rights movement. It is also packed with presentations from some of the most remarkable women of our time. They include media mogul Arianna Huffington, civil rights icon Diane Nash, and Haile Thomas, a 12-year-old who is helping other young people fight childhood obesity by teaching them how to eat healthier.
The Chopra Foundation is proud and grateful to welcome the following female presenters to this year’s symposium:
Arianna Huffington
Listed as one of the world’s 100 most influential people by Time Magazine, Arianna Huffington is the chair, president, and editor-in-chief of the Huffington Post Media Group, a nationally syndicated columnist, and author of thirteen books. Launched in May, 2005, the Huffington Post quickly became one of the most widely-read, linked to, and frequently-cited media brands on the Internet. The online publication won a Pulitzer Prize for national reporting in 2012.
Claudia Gonzalez
Claudia Gonzalez is Head of Marketing at The Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB and Malaria. Her history includes leading public relations and special projects for the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and eight years leading PR, media, and special projects for the World Economic Forum.
Claudia has braved the world’s most extreme war and crisis zones and launched programs and campaigns to build public awareness and support social causes. Claudia speaks six languages and has earned degrees in media, communications, and philosophy and a master’s degree from the London School of Economics in media and political communications.
Erica Ford
Erica Ford is uncompromisingly devoted to improving of the lives of black and Latino youth and of the community-at-large. For over 20 years, this tenacious leader and internationally recognized peace activist has led the effort to combat violence and inspire youth in devastated communities. Her current service is centered on LIFE Camp, a youth-based nonprofit organization that promotes the value of life and develops teens and adults into peer leaders, so they avoid becoming perpetrators or victims of violence.
Charity Sunshine Tillemann-Dick
Charity Sunshine Tillemann-Dick is a soprano, blogger, and advocate. Her stage performances have moved audiences on three continents and have been broadcast around the world on CNN, CBS, PBS, and the BBC. She contributes to FIVE and The Huffington Post, where she blogs about life, music, health, religion, and organ donation.
Charity was diagnosed with idiopathic pulmonary hypertension in 2004, and she has undergone two double lung transplant procedures. She became national spokesperson for the Pulmonary Hypertension Association and has testified before Congress to raise awareness and seek increased federal research funding to help others and find a cure.
Diane Nash
Diane Nash is a civil rights legend. Her campaigns were among the most successful of the civil rights movement. They include the first successful civil rights campaign to desegregate lunch counters in Nashville; the Freedom Riders, who desegregated interstate travel; the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC); and the Selma Voting Rights Movement, which helped African Americans gain voting and political power throughout the South.
Dolly Lenz
Dubbed “New York’s Real Estate Queen” by the Economist Magazine, Dolly Lenz is a real estate executive with over 25 years of sales, marketing, and branding experience. She has sold over $8.5 billion in properties, an achievement that has made her the sole recipient of the Stratosphere Award.
Dolly is a member of the US Trust-Bank of America Business Advisory Board and the Lincoln Center’s Women’s Leadership Council. She is known for her philanthropic contributions to the Ronald McDonald House, Kips Bay Boys & Girls Club, the Central Park Conservancy, the New York Police Foundation, and Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. She is also a member of the board for the NYC Police Athletic League (PAL), an organization devoted to the growth and prosperity of over 40,000 inner city youth.
Kathy LeMay
Kathy LeMay is the founder and chief officer of Raising Change, an organization that helps groups raise capital to advance social change agendas and individuals create generosity plans to help change the world. She is author of “The Generosity Plan.”
Kathy began her global activism in war-torn Yugoslavia where she worked with women survivors of the siege and rape-genocide camps. She has raised more than $150 million dollars to support women’s human rights, relieve hunger and poverty, and build social change movements over the last 15 years.
Isabel Molina Botran
Guatemala native Isabel Molina Botran is the first female executive board member of Industrias Licoreras de Guatemala. She is active in Fundacion Licorera, the social arm of the company, which works to improve the lives and education of women, petate weavers, and children.
Isabel is also a founding member of Vital Voices Guatemala, a women’s empowment organization, a board member of Asociacion de Amigos del Hermano Pedro, a group that supports the third-largest nonprofit hospital in the country, and a board member of Fundacion de niños quemados de Guatemala, an entity that helps children who have been burned. Isabel has a bachelor’s degree in business administration and an MBA with specialization in finance from Harvard University.
Mallika Chopra
Mallika Chopra is the founder of Intent.com, a website focused on personal, social, and global wellness. Her intent is to harness the power of social media to connect people from around the world to improve their own lives, their communities, and the planet.
Mallika has written two books inspired by her children Tara and Leela Mandal: 100 Promises to My Baby and 100 Questions from My Child. She has served as a spokesperson for UNICEF, where she worked to raise awareness for orphans affected by HIV and AIDS, and helped launch the Heal the World Foundation with Michael Jackson. Mallika graduated from Brown University, where she earned an MBA from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management.
Haile Thomas
Haile Thomas is an Alliance for a Healthier Generation Youth Advisory Board Member and an active 12-year-old from Tucson, Arizona. She is the cofounder and director of the HAPPY Organization, a nonprofit with the mission to improve the health and wellness of Arizona youth through education, outreach, and advocacy about proper nutrition and healthy lifestyle choices.
An advocate for the voice of youth in discussions and initiatives aimed at solving the childhood obesity epidemic, Haile has presented her work at TEDxKids@BC in Vancouver, TEDxTucson, the Partnership for a Healthier America Summit, and the Clinton Foundation’s Health Matters Conference.
Madison “Peach” Steiner
Twenty-two-year-old Madison “Peach” Steiner is the founder and president of Peach’s Neet Feet, a nonprofit organization that recruits artists to donate shoes and paint them with images that depict brave children living with disabilities and fighting serious illnesses.
Madison’s mission is to build awareness of these children and celebrate their courage and individuality. Each brush stroke is filled with soul, inspiration, and hope. More than just a pair of decorated shoes, each pair is a gateway to connect people and creates a ripple of kindness that Madison often sees grow into a wave of compassion and engagement.
Tara Mandal
Tara Mandal is an 11-year-old youth Ambassador for the US Fund for Unicef, where she helps raise money to put a stop to maternal and neonatal tetanus. Fascinated by the interesting history of her country and her world, Tara believes in the importance of being conscious in one’s surroundings, and that every person can make changes in the world regardless of their age.
Dr. Vandana Shiva
Dr. Vandana Shiva is a trained physicist and earned her Ph.D. on the subject “Hidden Variables and Non-locality in Quantum Theory” from the University of Western Ontario in Canada. She later shifted to inter-disciplinary research in science, technology, and environmental policy, which she carried out at the Indian Institute of Science and the Indian Institute of Management in Bangalore, India.
Time Magazine identified Dr. Shiva as an environmental hero, Asia Week calls her one of the five most powerful communicators of Asia, and Forbes Magazine listed Dr. Shiva among the seven most powerful women on the globe. Her books, “The Violence of Green Revolution” and “Monocultures of the Mind” have become basic challenges to the dominant paradigm of non-sustainable, reductionist Green Revolution Agriculture.
Miri Ben-Ari
Israel native Miri Ben-Ari is a Grammy-Award-winning violinist, composer, and producer who has created her own unique sound—a revolutionary fusion of classical soul and dance music.
The classically trained violinist, who once studied under the late classical master Isaac Sterni, has collaborated with Kanye West, Jay Z, Wyclef Jean, Alicia Keys, Wynton Marsalis, Britney Spears, Maroon 5, Akon, Patti Labelle, Brandy, Donna Summer, Janet Jackson, John Legend, and Armin Van Buuren. Her album “The Hip Hop Violinist” features many of these collaborations.
First Lady Michelle Obama invited her to perform at the White House in 2011 at an event where she was honored as a “Remarkable Woman.” She now serves as Goodwill Ambassador of Music at the United Nations Association-Brazil.
ABOUT SAGES AND SCIENTISTS
The Chopra Foundation’s Sages and Scientists Symposium is an exploration of the mergence—or (e)mergence—of the stream of fantastic new discoveries flowing from the scientific community with ancient—and still relevant—spiritual beliefs in anticipation of discovering a single reality.
Symposium presentations fall into five major categories:
- Science and Consciousness—Qualia: Going Beyond Quantum Mechanics and Quantum Physics
- Leadership—Defining a New Leadership: Serving a New Humanity
- Well-being—Conscious Living ~ Sustainability, Environment, Health, Technology, Education, Economy, Relationships
- Peace and Justice—Living Harmoniously
- World Transformation—Challenges and Creative Solutions: It’s Time to Do
The symposium takes place at the La Costa Resort and Spa, August 16–18, 2013. Capacity is limited, and advanced registration is strongly encouraged.