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 Trained as a U.S. historian, W. Andrew Achenbaum has spent most of his career applying the lessons of the past to current policy-relevant issues concerning the physical, social, and spiritual well-being of older Americans. He is the author of five books (most recently, Older Americans, Vital Communities [Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005]) and co-editor of eleven others. A past chair of the National Council on the Aging and secretary of the Gerontological Society of America, Achenbaum was founding dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Houston, where he currently teaches in the Graduate College of Social Work and the Honors College. Achenbaum currently serves as chair of the Gerson David Consortium on Aging, which collaborates with the McGovern Center on Medicine and Ethics, the Rothko Chapel, and the Interfaith Consortium on Aging.
Besides lecturing at ISH, Andy is currently composing two books at the Institute: one, with Rick Moody, discusses changes in social insurance and environmental reform that Baby Boomers may make between 2010 and 2030 in Leaving a Legacy. The other is a collection of Spiritual Healers, biographies of older Americans whose lives were transformed in touching the lives of others.
 Jon G. Allen holds the Helen Malsin Palley Chair in Mental Health Research and is Professor of Psychiatry in the Menninger Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Baylor College of Medicine and a Senior Staff Psychologist in The Menninger Clinic. Dr. Allen received his B.A. degree in psychology at the University of Connecticut and his Ph.D. degree in clinical psychology at the University of Rochester. He completed postdoctoral training in clinical psychology at The Menninger Clinic. He conducts psychotherapy, diagnostic psychological testing, consultations, psychoeducational programs, and research, specializing in trauma-related disorders and depression. He has taught and supervised students at the University of Rochester, Northern Illinois University, the University of Kansas, Kansas State University, and Washburn University of Topeka. He is past editor of the Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic, associate editor of the Journal of Trauma and Dissociation, a member of the editorial board of Psychiatry, and serves as a reviewer for several professional journals and book publishers. He is the author of Coping with Trauma: Hope through Understanding and Coping with Depression: From Catch-22 to Hope published by American Psychiatric Publishing, Inc. He is also author of Traumatic Relationships and Serious Mental Disorders, published by John Wiley and Sons, and coauthor of and Restoring Hope and Trust: An illustrated Guide to Mastering Trauma, published by the Sidran Institute. He is also coauthor of Borderline Personality Disorder: Tailoring the Therapy to the Patient and coeditor of Diagnosis and Treatment of Dissociative Disorders and Contemporary Treatment of Psychosis: Healing Relationships in the ‘Decade of the Brain. He has authored and coauthored numerous professional articles and book chapters on trauma- related problems, depression, psychotherapy, hospital treatment, the therapeutic alliance, psychological testing, neuropsychology, and emotion. He is also a jazz pianist and composer.
 Harvey Aronson is a licensed therapist in private practice, meditation teacher and translator with many years of involvement in Buddhist studies and meditation and is a founding director of Dawn Mountain.
He has been a student of Khetsun Sangpo Rinpoche since 1973 and received teaching authorization from him in 1995; a student of Adzom Paylo Rinpoche since 2000, has also studied extensively with a number of prominent Geluk and Dzogchen teachers in India, Nepal and the U.S. He has also studied extensively with Theravada teachers, especially Sri Satya Narain Goenka.
He received his PhD. in Buddhist Studies from the University of Wisconsin and an MSW from Boston University.
Harvey is the author of Love and Sympathy in Theravada Buddhism and Buddhist Practice on Western Ground.
 Anthony E. Brown, M.D., M.P.H. is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Family Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine. He received his medical degree from Baylor College of Medicine, completed residency at the University of California Irvine, and is certified by the American Board of Family Medicine. He completed his Bachelor of Science in Bioengineering from the University of California at San Diego, summa cum laude. Dr. Brown's research interests focus on evaluating the impact of spirituality on health and innovating beneficial applications for conditions such as substance abuse, end of life distress, and coping with chronic disease. For his MPH health promotion and behavioral science thesis during a research fellowship, he developed a spiritual behavioral intervention implemented along with AA Twelve Step Recovery to promote sobriety. He also studied spiritual mechanisms of behavior change in faith-based Twelve Step programs. Dr. Brown is in private practice at Baylor Clinic in the Texas Medical Center where he cares for the primary health concerns of his patients over time, collaborates with other specialists as needed, and aims to help patients enjoy a high quality of life and personal well-being.
 Dr. Bruera obtained his medical degree from the University of Rosario, in Argentina. He trained in Medical Oncology and relocated to the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada where he directed the clinical and academic palliative care programs until 1999.
In 1999 Dr. Bruera relocated to The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center where he currently holds the F. T. McGraw Chair in the Treatment of Cancer and is the Chair of the Department of Palliative Care and Rehabilitation Medicine.
Dr. Bruera's main clinical interest is the care of the physical and psychosocial distress of patients with advanced cancer and the support of their families. He developed and led, for the first five years of operations, the Edmonton Regional and Palliative Care program. This unique program provides access to palliative care to more than 85% of patients who die of cancer in the Edmonton Region. He also developed and leads the Department of Palliative Care and Rehabilitation Medicine at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center since 1999.
Dr. Bruera has been interested in the development of palliative care programs internationally, particularly in the developing world where he helped in the establishment of numerous palliative care programs in the Latin American region, India, and different areas of Europe. Dr. Bruera acted as the President of the International Association of Hospice and Palliative Care for a period of four years ending in January 2006.
Over the last 20 years Dr. Bruera has trained hundreds of physicians, nurses, and other health care professionals in the different aspects of the clinical delivery of palliative care. He established the first academic fellowship in palliative care at the University of Alberta in Canada and one of the first academic palliative care fellowships in the United States at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center.
Dr. Bruera has more than 700 publications and has edited twelve books. He has given more than 500 major invited lectures.
Dr. Bruera has received a number of national and international awards including the Lane Adams Quality of Life Award. The Canadian Society of Palliative Care Physicians has recently established the “Eduardo Bruera Award” as a career award for palliative care specialists.
 Nathan Carlin, PhD, is a magna cum laude honors graduate and holds degrees from Westminster College, New Wilmington, PA (BA); Princeton Theological Seminary, Princeton, NJ (MDiv); and Rice University (PhD). He is presently Assistant Professor of Medical Humanities in the McGovern Center for Humanities and Ethics. He also holds an appointment in the Department of Family and Community Medicine at UT Medical School. He teaches a number of courses, including Introduction to the Medical Humanities. He is a member of the Houston-Galveston Psychoanalytic Society, the American Society of Bioethics and Humanities, and the American Academy of Religion. He serves as a sub-editor of Religious Studies Review and as Book Review Editor for Pastoral Psychology. Dr. Carlin has published about 50 essays, most of which are full-length peer reviewed articles or book chapters, as well as dozens of book reviews. He also wrote "Beyond Silos: Enhancing Ethics Education in and across the Health Professions," an accreditation document for the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. “Beyond Silos” outlines a five-year interprofessional ethics program for the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. Dr. Carlin’s first book, co-authored with Donald Capps, is "Living in Limbo" (2010).
 Dr. Carroll directs the Boniuk Center for Religious Tolerance at Rice University in Houston, Texas where she is also Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Religious Studies. She is a recognized expert on issues of religious tolerance, philosophy of religion, American religion, and religion in public life. Her areas of specialty include: the role of religion in world politics, comparative world religions, trends in American religion, and the impact of religious diversity in global business.
Dr. Carroll earned her Ph.D. in Religious Studies from Rice University in 1994. She is the author of numerous articles and four books. A recent book, A Dialogue of Civilizations: Gulen’s Islamic Ideals and Human Discourse was a Publishers Weekly bestseller in religion, having been in a “Top 10” category on Amazon in May 2007. She is a frequent guest on radio and television programs, and has been interviewed by The New York Times, PBS, and Good Morning America. She combines her scholarly knowledge with a flair for “real world” application. Through her own consulting business, and in collaboration with others, she has conducted religious diversity training for individuals, groups and corporations. Her forthcoming book is Philosophy for Life: How Ideas from the Great Minds can Rock Your World.
Dr. Carroll is a dynamic speaker with a gift for simplifying complicated matters without stripping them of their substance and nuance, thus bringing the “ivory tower” to the “town square”. Moreover, she communicates in an informational, “faith neutral” and humorous manner that sets the appropriate context for discussing sensitive issues in a public setting.
 Dr. Cohen is an associate professor at M. D Anderson Cancer Center and Director of the Integrative Medicine Program. His primary faculty appointment is in the Dept. of Behavioral Science, with a joint appointment as in the Division of Cancer Medicine, and he serves as Chief of the Section of Integrative Medicine in the Dept. of Palliative Care & Rehabilitation Medicine. Dr. Cohen also has a cross appointment at the UT School of Public Health in the Department of Behavioral Sciences. Dr. Cohen is a founding member and Officer of the Society for Integrative Oncology.
Dr. Cohen is currently conducting a number of NlH4unded and non4unded randomized controlled clinical trials examining the biobehavioral effects of psychosocial interventions aimed at reducing the negative aspects of cancer treatment and improving quality of life (e.g., meditation, stress management, emotional writing, yoga, music therapy). He is particularly interested in examining different types of complementary programs that can be easily incorporated into conventional treatment to decrease the psychophysiological sequelae associated with treatment. Dr. Cohen has worked and published in the areas of psychosocial oncology, quality of life, stress, and psychoneuroimmunology. He recently received a large center grant from the National Cancer Institute to conduct collaborative research projects with Fudan University Cancer Hospital in Shanghai, China that will explore the use of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) for cancer.
 Thomas R. Cole is the Beth and Toby Grossman Professor and Director of the McGovern Center for Health, Humanities, and the Human Spirit at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston. He is also a Professor of Humanities in the Department of Religious Studies at Rice University. Cole graduated from Yale University (B.A. Philosophy, 1971), Wesleyan University (M.A., History, 1975) and the University of Rochester, (Ph.D., History, 1981).
Dr. Cole has published many articles and several books on the history of aging and humanistic gerontology. His book The Journey of Life: A Cultural History of Aging in America (Cambridge University Press, 1992) was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. He is senior editor of What Does It Mean to Grow Old? (Duke, 1986), the Handbook of Humanities and Aging (Springer, 1992, 2 edition 1999) and Voices and Visions: Toward a Critical Gerontology (Springer, 1993). The New Yorker noted his co-edited Oxford Book of Aging as one of the most memorable books of 1995. His most recent co-edited book is Practicing the Medical Humanities (2003).
Cole's interest in the life stories of older people has taken him into biography and film-making. In 1984, he encountered a hospitalized psychiatric patient who claimed he was the “original Texas integration leader.” While psychiatrists focused on the diagnosis, Cole embarked on a decade-long journey to recover the patient's story. The result was a book—No Color Is My Kind: the Life of Eldrewey Steams and the Desegregation of Houston (1997) — and an accompanying film, “The Strange Demise of Jim Crow”, broadcast nationally on over 60 PBS stations and internationally by the State Department. The documentary received numerous awards and was nominated for a regional Emmy and a National Humanities Medal.
Cole's most recent film, Still Life: The Humanity of Anatomy, was an official selection at the Doubletake Documentary Film festival in April 2002. This work explores the special yet unstated relationship between medical students in the anatomy lab and the people who donate their bodies for dissection. In 2001, Cole's writing workshop program for elders was featured in the PBS documentary Life Stories. Both films probe relationships between present and past, the living and the dead as crucibles of moral and spiritual development. Cole is co-producing a film about individuals and families recovering from stroke, while launching a project to study and support people frightened about memory loss and/or diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in advance of clinical symptoms.
Cole's work has been featured in the New York Times, National Public Radio, Voice of America, PBS, and at the United Nations. He serves as an advisor to the United Nations NGO Committee on Ageing, the Union for Reform Judaism's Department of Family Concerns, and various editorial and foundation boards. In 2004-2005, he served as a consultant to the President's Council on Bioethics project on aging, recently released in print as Taking Care.
 Lex Gillan has been a practitioner of yoga and meditation for nearly 40 years. He has studied with world-class teachers including Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Ram Dass, Stephen Levine, Father Thomas Keating, Andy Gold and James Ezelle, M.D. since the 1960s.
Mr. Gillan has been a full-time instructor since 1974 when he founded The Yoga Institute in Houston, Texas, one of the oldest yoga studio businesses in the country. Since its inception, he has taught more than 25,000 yoga classes, 100 ten day retreats and 300 meditation workshops.
Mr. Gillan now teaches, full-time, the Yoga Teacher Training and National Certification Course (YogaALLIANCE approved to 500 hours), is a founder and Trustee of Rose Mountain Retreat Center outside Las Vegas, New Mexico and is on the Faculty and is the Director of Development at The Institute for Spirituality and Health in the Texas Medical Center in Houston. He is also a partner and is on the Board of Directors of Brazos Bookstore in Houston. Mr. Gillan is degreed in Business Administration from Stephen F. Austin University (Texas) and spent five years as a commercial banker in Houston in the '60s.
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