Marc Brackett, Ph.D., is the founding director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence and a professor in the Child Study Center at Yale University. His research focuses on the role of emotional intelligence in learning, decision making, creativity, relationships, health, and performance. He has published over 150 scholarly articles, received numerous awards, and is featured regularly in popular media outlets such as the New York Times, Good Morning America, CBS This Morning, and The Today Show. Marc serves on a number of boards, including the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL), the nonprofit that founded the field of social and emotional learning (SEL).

Marc Brackett, Ph.D., is the founding director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence and a professor in the Child Study Center at Yale University. His research focuses on the role of emotional intelligence in learning, decision making, creativity, relationships, health, and performance. He has published over 150 scholarly articles, received numerous awards, and is featured regularly in popular media outlets such as the New York Times, Good Morning America, CBS This Morning, and The Today Show. Marc serves on a number of boards, including the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL), the nonprofit that founded the field of social and emotional learning (SEL).

Marc is the lead developer of RULER, an evidence-based approach to SEL that has been adopted by over 2,500 public, private, and charter schools across the United States and in other countries, including Australia, China, England, Italy, Mexico, and Spain. Research shows that RULER boosts academic performance, decreases school problems like bullying, enriches classroom climates, reduces teacher stress and burnout, and enhances teacher instructional practices.

Marc also consults regularly with corporations including Facebook, General Electric, Google, Microsoft, and Pinterest on integrating emotional intelligence principles into employee training and product design, and is co-founder of Oji Life Lab, a digital emotional intelligence learning system for businesses.

Marc is the author of Permission to Feel: Unlocking the Power of Emotions to Help our Kids, Ourselves, and our Society Thrive, published by Celadon (Macmillan), which is being translated into 15 languages.

Dr. Alfiee M. Breland-Noble (Dr. Alfiee) is an internationally recognized scientist, author, speaker and media contributor.  As Founder of the AAKOMA Project, Inc. (an innovative 501(c)(3) mental health nonprofit) she translates complex scientific concepts (developed over 25+ years as a disparities researcher at Duke and Georgetown Psychiatry) into useful, everyday language for communities of color.

A sought-after mental health expert, Dr. Alfiee’s media work includes hosting her video podcast “Couched in Color with Dr. Alfiee”, which is currently airing Season 2, and addresses mental health issues in BIPOC youth, young adults across all marginalized identities (i.e. LGBTQ+ and disabilities).  She regularly appears on media platforms like CNN, NBC, Refinery29, Black Enterprise, Dr. Oz, Shape Magazine, Roland Martin Unfiltered, Areva Martin’s Special Report, National Press Foundation, NPR, and others.  Widely recognized for her ability to draw in audiences and inspire, she embodies her belief that there is enough love and light (informed by strong culturally relevant science) to help everyone achieve #optimalmentalhealth.

Tom lnsel, M.D., a psychiatrist and neuroscientist, has been a national leader in mental health research, policy, and technology.  From 2002-2015, Dr. Insel served as Director of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). More recently (2015 – 2017), he led the Mental Health Team at Verily (formerly Google Life Sciences) in South San Francisco, CA.  In 2017 he co-founded Mindstrong Health, a Silicon Valley start-up building tools for people with serious mental illness.  In 2020, he co-founded Humanest Care, a therapeutic online community for recovery. Since May of 2019, Dr. Insel has been a special advisor to California Governor Gavin Newsom and Chair of the Board of the Steinberg Institute in Sacramento, California.   He is the author of the forthcoming book Healing: Our Path from Mental Illness to Mental Health, to be published by Penguin Random House.  He is currently developing MindSite, a non-profit digital publication focused on mental health issues.  Dr. Insel is a member of the National Academy of Medicine and has received numerous national and international awards including honorary degrees in the U.S. and Europe.

Dr. Sonali Sharma, known to her friends and colleagues as Allie, is a Cornell-trained board-certified Adult Psychiatrist and has had a private practice in Manhattan for over ten years, is currently co-host of the podcast Model Mentality, and works in health tech where she is program building for the Medicaid population.

Dr. Sharma’s approach is broad and open-minded, drawn from her professional experiences working in various settings and across cultures throughout New York City and around the world. Her goal is to ensure that her patients’ experience is valuable, therapeutic, and grounded in best practice standards and clinical excellence.

Dr. Sharma has held various clinical positions, including Emergency Psychiatry at Columbia University, Student Mental Health at Columbia University’s health science campus, and supporting mental health of the homeless population across shelters in New York City.

In addition to providing direct clinical care, Dr. Sharma has had significant experience in Global Mental Health and in leadership positions within Public Psychiatry including at an NGO in Europe advising at the country level for two post-conflict countries on how to integrate mental health into primary care, as a World Health Organization (WHO) consultant on projects in Libya, Ethiopia, for WHO’s mhGAP Intervention Guide version 2.0 and various other WHO projects, in a Bronx primary care system starting a collaborative (integrated care) care program, and more recently as a Director of a Thrive NYC initiative designed to expand the mental health workforce in NYC’s highest need communities.

Dr. Sharma completed her Psychiatry Residency at New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center at Payne Whitney Clinic and her Internship in Psychiatry at University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). She holds a Medical Degree from Weill Medical College of Cornell University and a Master’s Degree in Social Policy and Planning from the London School of Economics. She is a member of professional organizations and societies including the American Psychiatric Association and the American Medical Association and has received honors including the Faculty Council Resident Teaching Award during her residency in Psychiatry at Cornell and Phi Beta Kappa Honor Society in college. She has been an APA Fellow of the World Psychiatric Association’s Young Psychiatrist Council, a Bristol-Myers Squibb Public Psychiatry Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, and a Rosenbluth International Fellow at Weill Medical College of Cornell University.

Dr. Sharma is a mother of two children and currently lives in Brooklyn, NY.

Naomi Torres-Mackie, Ed.M, Ph.D. is a Brooklyn-based psychologist who focuses on the integration of wellness into everyday life. Dr. Torres-Mackie practices at Lenox Hill Hospital, is the Head of Research at the Mental Health Coalition, an Adjunct Professor of Psychology at Columbia University, and Co-Founder of Nascent Consulting – a social justice and psychology-focused strategy consultancy. Dr. Torres-Mackie earned her doctorate from Columbia University, where she completed her dissertation on stigma management and strength construction. She is also the author of the Psychology Today column, Underdog Psychology.

Dr. Jenny Wang is a Taiwanese American, licensed psychologist and national speaker on the intersections of Asian American identity, mental health and racial trauma. She is the founder of the Instagram community @asiansformentalhealth that promotes awareness regarding Asian American mental health needs and unique immigrant experiences. She spearheaded the Asians for Mental Health therapist directory to help AAPI communities more effectively access mental health care that is culturally reverent and compassionate. She also launched an AAPI mental health trainee scholarship fund in 2021 to help support the next generation of AAPI mental health providers. She is currently writing a book on Asian American mental health to be published May 2022 by Grand Central Publishing of the Hachette Book Group.