Sam Chase

Sam Chase helps make resilience and mindfulness programs for people who help make a better world. He has developed initiatives for The United Nations, The National Guard, The NYC Department of Education, Columbia Medical School, as well as dozens of universities, hospitals and nonprofits nationwide. At Kripalu Center, the nation’s largest yoga and retreat center, he serves as lead facilitator and curriculum developer for the School of Yoga as well as RISE — Kripalu’s evidence-based resilience training program. He is the author of Yoga & the Pursuit of Happiness, a book that brings the ivory tower research on mindfulness and happiness down to earth to help everyday people develop more flourishing lives. 

Cassandra Ghosh Ippen, PhD

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A child trauma psychologist specializing in working with children under age 6. She is co-developer of Child- Parent Psychotherapy and the associate director of the Child Trauma Research Program at the University of California, San Francisco, She spent over 30 years conducting clinical work, research and training in the area of childhood trauma and diversity informed practice. She is also and award-winning children’s book author and has written 5 children’s books as well as the free Trink and Sam disaster series, which has been translated and distributed to over 400,000 families around the world.

Heather Forkey MD

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Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School, and Vice-Chair of Pediatrics and Director of the Foster Children Evaluation Service (FaCES) of the UMass Memorial Children’s Medical Center. She serves as the Pediatric Director for Lifeline For Kids at University of Massachusetts Medical School, and was recently named the Co-Medical Director of the American Academy of Pediatrics National Center for Relational Health and Trauma-Informed Care.

She received her undergraduate degree from Cornell University and medical degree from the State University of New York at Buffalo School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. She completed her pediatric residency and chief residency at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

In addition to her clinical work, Dr. Forkey has been the recipient of local and federal grants to address issues of children in foster care and to translate promising practices to address physical and mental health needs of children who have been traumatized. She has published and presents nationally and internationally on the topics, and serves in leadership roles for the National Child Traumatic Stress Network and the Massachusetts Chapter and national American Academy of Pediatrics on issues related to foster care, mental health and child trauma. She coauthored the book Childhood Trauma and Resilience: A Practical Guide, available from AAP Press.

Noshene Ranjbar MD

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Born and raised in Tehran, Iran until immigrating to the US in adolescence, Dr. Noshene Ranjbar developed a passion for a holistic view of medicine and healing from early on in her life. Throughout her studies and life experiences, including her own illness as well as caring for her Mom who suffered from several autoimmune illnesses and cancer, to fostering refugee children with PTSD, to working with American Indian communities across the U.S., she developed a keen interest in approaches to healing trauma and advocating for holistic mental health in empowering, culturally appropriate ways.

Dr. Ranjbar completed undergraduate and medical school at the University of Virginia, followed by Family Medicine Internship at Middlesex Hospital/Hartford Hospital, Psychiatry Residency at the University of Arizona-Tucson, and Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Fellowship at Boston Children’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School. Board Certified in General Psychiatry, Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, and Integrative Medicine, Dr. Ranjbar currently serves as Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Director of the Integrative Psychiatry Program at the University of Arizona. She also serves on Faculty with The Center for Mind-Body Medicine, the Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine, and the Integrative Psychiatry Institute.

Her research focuses on training the next generation of psychiatrists to offer a holistic approach to mental health, while serving children and families most in need. As a Robert Wood Johnson Culture of Health Leader, she is expanding her work in integrative mental health and indigenous mental health nationally and internationally.

Karden Rabin

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Cofounder of Somia International, coauthor of international best seller The Secret Language of the Body: Regulate Your Nervous System, Heal Your Body, Free Your Mind, and a nervous system practitioner who specializes in treating chronic pain and illness. As an expert in the field of stress, trauma, somatics and psychophysiology, his work is dedicated to helping people heal the root causes of their symptoms so they can live productive and fully expressed lives.

Over the past decade, Karden has developed and led programming for The Wounded Warrior Project and Starbucks. He is also a regular contributor to Bessel Van Der Kolk’s Trauma Research Foundation.  

David Willis MD

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Professor of Pediatrics and Psychiatry at Georgetown University, within the new Thrive Center for Children, Families and Communities. There, he leads Nurture Connection, an impact network, to advance early relational health at the growing intersection of child health transformation and resilient community building in partnerships with families with a social justice commitment. He also is the current Co-Chair of National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine’s Forum on Children’s Wellbeing.  Dr. Willis was previously a Senior Fellow at the Center for the Study of Social Policies in Washington DC, the Inaugural Executive Director of the Perigee Fund of Seattle, WA, the Division Director of Home Visiting and Early Childhood Systems at HRSA during the Obama Administration, and an early brain and child development clinician and leader in Oregon and the American Academy of Pediatrics. He currently lives in Alexandria, VA with his wife in close proximity to his oldest son’s family.