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Dr Christopher Willard (PsyD) is a psychologist and educational consultant based in Boston specialising in mindfulness. He has been practising meditation for 20 years, and has led hundreds of workshops around the world, with invitations to more than two dozen countries. He currently serves on the board of directors at the Institute for Meditation and Psychotherapy, and is the president of the Mindfulness in Education Network. He has presented at TEDx conferences and his thoughts have appeared in the New York Times, The Washington Post, mindful.org, and elsewhere. He is the author of Child’s Mind (2010), Growing Up Mindful (2016), Raising Resilience (2017) and eight other books for parents, professionals and children, along with six sets of cards and therapeutic games, available in more than ten languages. He teaches at Harvard Medical School.
On the personal side, he enjoys traveling, hiking, cooking, reading and writing, and being a father.
Dr John Francis, National Geographic Education Fellow, is nicknamed "The Planetwalker". For 22 years, he trekked and sailed around North and South America, carrying a message of respect for the Earth – not speaking for 17 of those years. During his monumental, silent trek, he earned an MA in environmental studies and a PhD in land resources.
Planetwalker is also the name of Dr Francis's autobiography. He is an author, traveler, student and teacher. He has traveled from coast to coast across the United States, visited Antarctica and sailed across the Caribbean over 22 years. He has done all this without the use of motorised transportation.
One of the most important things John learnt during his walks and not speaking, was the value of listening.
A/Prof Angie Chew is the first fully-certified Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction teacher in Singapore. She has taught mindfulness to more than 10,000 people. She also teaches mindfulness at the National University of Singapore.
She is the founder and mindfulness principal at Brahm Centre, a charity dedicated to happier and healthier living. It currently runs 3 centres with a 4th centre slated to open in 2020. Her unwavering dedication to helping and supporting people with mental health conditions has earned her the honour of being named The Straits Times Singaporean of the Year 2019.
Richard Burnett is co-founder and Chair of the UK charity, Mindfulness in Schools Project. He is also a teacher and Director of Admissions at Tonbridge School, the first school in the UK to put mindfulness on the curriculum, an event covered by press, TV and radio in early 2010. Richard co-wrote the highly-acclaimed 10 week course, .b (pronounced dot-b) which has been taught to tens of thousands of young people in a wide range of educational contexts in the UK, USA, Germany, France, Finland, Denmark, Holland, Thailand and Mexico. Richard’s TEDx talk helped define the landscape of mindfulness in education and he was an expert witness at the UK’s All-Party Parliamentary Group on Mental Health and Education.
Associate Professor Craig Hassed OAM has been working within the Faculty of Medicine at Monash University, Australia since 1989. He now also teaches into a number of other faculties and is coordinator of mindfulness programs across Monash. His teaching, research and clinical interests include mindfulness, mind-body medicine, lifestyle medicine, integrative medicine and medical ethics. Craig developed and integrated into the Monash medical curriculum the world-first mindfulness-based healthy lifestyle course called the Health Enhancement Program. He has authored over 100 papers in peer-reviewed journals and is regularly invited to speak and run courses in Australia and overseas in health, educational, government and corporate contexts. Craig has collaborated with a number of Australian and international universities helping them to integrate similar content. Craig was the founding president of Meditation Australia, is a regular media commentator, and has published 13 books and 14 book chapters. Craig featured in the documentaries, “The Connection,” and “My Year of Living Mindfully.” He co-authored with Richard Chambers the two free online Mindfulness courses in collaboration with Monash University and FutureLearn, both of which are rated by Class Central among the leading online courses in the world. In 2019 Craig was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for services to Medicine.
Sara W. Lazar, PhD is an Associate Researcher in the Psychiatry Department at Massachusetts General Hospital and an Assistant Professor in Psychology at Harvard Medical School. The focus of her research is to elucidate the neural mechanisms underlying the beneficial effects of yoga and meditation, both in clinical settings and in healthy individuals. She is a contributing author to Meditation and Psychotherapy (Guilford Press). She has been practicing yoga and mindfulness meditation since 1994. Her research has been covered by numerous news outlets including The New York Times, USA Today, CNN, and WebMD, and her work has been featured in a display at the Boston Museum of Science.
Dr Christopher Cheng is the CEO of Sengkang General Hospital. He spearheaded the project "A Minimally-Invasive Surgery (MIS)" research centre based on a robotic surgery unit da Vinci system. He has authored over 90 publications in local and international journals on prostate and bladder cancers and stone diseases. He has contributed to several book chapters on urology in local and international publications.
Dr Faith Chia is a Senior Consultant at Tan Tock Seng Hospital and Designated Institutional Official of National Healthcare Group Residency, where she oversees the training of doctors pursuing specialist training. Dr Chia is particularly interested in physician burnout and her foray into mindfulness stemmed from trying to find a solution to burnout. She is a mother to two children who have been enthusiastic companions on her mindfulness journey.
Dr Sally Ho is a Family Physician and Senior Consultant at SingHealth Polyclinics - Outram. She is a Core Faculty Member of the SingHealth Family Medicine residency program and Adjunct Assistant Professor with Duke-NUS Medical School. Concurrently, she holds the position of Director (Undergraduate Training & Residency) for the SingHealth Duke-NUS Academic Clinical Program for Family Medicine and serves as a Consultant with the Primary and Community Care Division, MOH. She serves on a number of committees, including the Family Medicine Training Advisory Committee and the Family Physicians Accreditation Board. She was previously Program Director of the SingHealth Family Medicine residency program and had worked with healthcare institutions and ACGME-I in the setup of residency programs in Singapore during a period of service at MOH.
She has interest in education, learner wellness, resilience and mindfulness.
Dr Ng Wai Chong is Chief of Clinical Affairs at Tsao Foundation, a non-profit organisation that develops and operates innovative community aged-care services, capacity building programs and advocacy platforms related to ageing and the sustainable care of vulnerable seniors.
He has been a practising community aged-care family physician for the last 20 years, working within a multidisciplinary team. His areas of interests include primary healthcare for the frail, elder abuse, dementia care, end-of-life care and the development of a sustainable community aged care system. Dr Ng is an avid meditator, having sustained his mindfulness practice for almost 20 years.
Dr Irene Tirtajana is a Consultant under the Department of Psychiatry of Ng Teng Fong General Hospital. She received both Bachelor and Master of Medicine degrees from the National University of Singapore and underwent specialist training comprising a range of clinical settings in general hospitals as well as the Institute of Mental Health. In her current role, she provides psychiatric consultation to medically ill as well as general psychiatry patients. Dr Tirtajana is a Clinical Lecturer at the National University of Singapore Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine. Her special interests include clinical ethics, trauma management, and mindfulness-based interventions.
A/Prof Mabel Yap is currently Director, Professional Training and Assessment Standards Division, MOH, where she oversees training and assessment standards for healthcare professionals. She is also Adjunct Associate Professor at the Signature Programme in Health Services and Systems Research, Duke-NUS. She received her PhD (Nutrition) from Wageningen University in Netherlands and her Post-Graduate Diploma (Human Nutrition) from Deakin University, Australia. A/Prof Yap also has a Master’s degree in Science (Public Health) and a medical degree from the National University of Singapore.
Her research interests are in the area of program evaluation, medical education, elderly assessment, obesity and nutrition.
Dr Christopher Cheok is a Senior Consultant with the Department of Forensic Psychiatry at the Institute of Mental Health. His past appointments include being Head of SAF Psychological Care Centre, Clinical Director of the National Addictions Management Service and Head of Psychological Medicine, Khoo Teck Puat Hospital.
Dr Chua Hong Choon is CEO of the Institute of Mental Health (IMH) and Deputy Group CEO (Clinical) of the National Healthcare Group (NHG) in Singapore.
A psychiatrist by training, Dr Chua is also the Chairman of the national Residency Advisory Committee for Psychiatry, and Adjunct Associate Professor at Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School, Yong Loo Lin Medical School and Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine.
Dr Chua has keen interests in the fields of public health, psychiatric epidemiology, depression and quality & safety in healthcare; and he was the first Patient Safety Officer at IMH, where he developed programs and initiatives to improve clinical quality and safeguard patient safety in mental healthcare.
Dr Victor Kwok is Head and Senior Consultant in the Department of Psychiatry, Sengkang General Hospital. He graduated with a Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery from National University of Singapore. He subsequently obtained his Master of Medicine (Psychiatry) and then his qualification as a specialist in Psychiatry.
He was previously the Director for the Early Intervention Program for Depression and Anxiety in Singapore General Hospital where he worked closely with patients with Irritable Bowel Syndrome. He has a special interest in mindfulness practice as well as eating disorders, and he undertook his fellowship training in the latter field at Stanford Health Care, California, USA.
Dr Ong is a Consultant with the Division of Supportive and Palliative Care at the National Cancer Centre Singapore. He obtained his M.B.B.S. from the National University of Singapore in 2008, completed his Masters in Medicine (Family Medicine) in 2012 and his specialty training in Palliative Medicine in 2016. His interests are in medical education, especially in the areas of professionalism, empathy, staff support and medical humanities. Dr Ong is a member of the Clinical Ethics Committee at the National Cancer Centre and an executive committee member of the Office of Medical Humanities under the SingHealth Medicine Academic Clinical Programme.
Dr Ong is actively involved in medical education at both undergraduate as well as postgraduate levels for doctors and allied health professionals. In July 2018, he started the Humanism Aspirations as a Propeller of Professional Development in Palliative medicine Education (HAPPE) research project for junior doctors rotating through his department to encourage humanistic patient-centered care and develop empathy to better cope with the rigorous nature of clinical work. This project is now open to all Internal Medicine residents and ongoing research continues to provide insight into the complex relationship between empathy, burnout and the medical humanities.
Ms Jennifer Davis is a licensed psychotherapist, having received a Master’s Degree in Psychology from the University of Chapel Hill; a leadership coach with certifications by The Coaches Training Institute and Duke Integrative Health Coaching; and a program designer and facilitator. Ms Davis worked at Duke University Health Systems for 11 years, before joining Duke-NUS in 2014. At Duke, she managed the Duke Integrative Medicine Health Psychology Department, helped create Duke’s Integrative Health Coaching for Professionals Training. She was the Project Manager for three NIH funded research studies exploring mindfulness-based strategies for behaviour change and promoting improved health and well-being.
Currently, she bridges her academic background with healthcare, corporate and community interests. Ms Davis is the Director of Curriculum at eMindful, a mindfulness-based wellness organisation. She is also the Director of Student Personal and Professional Development for Duke-National University of Singapore Medical School. Ms Davis joined Duke-NUS in 2014 to develop and implement a personal and professional development program (PPD) for students. The PPD thread at Duke-NUS includes workshops and trainings in Emotional Intelligence, Team Work, Personal Leadership, Resilience, and incorporates individual and team coaching.
Mr Eric Lim spearheads Brahm Centre’s curriculum development and research on mindfulness. He has delivered mindfulness courses, talks and workshops to over 5000 children, youth, adults, parents and seniors in both English and Mandarin. He is a qualified Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Teacher with the Centre For Mindfulness (CFM), University of Massachusetts Medical School; a certified .b and Paws b teacher from the Mindfulness in Schools Project (UK), and an MOE-registered instructor. In 2017, Mr Lim was awarded the Young Model Caregiver (Merit) Award by AWWA as well as a Social and Health Manpower Development Programme Fellowship by the Ministry of Health.
Mr Frank Singam has vast experience in helping people to overcome difficulties on their journey towards improving well-being, covering marital, parenting, individual and addiction counselling. He has also had a heartfelt journey both as a parent and a caregiver. Mr Singam started his career in the Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF) as a pioneer fighter pilot and Black Knight, and was General Manager of Bintan Resort Ferries following his retirement from the RSAF. Mr Singam subsequently undertook his Diploma in Social Work and Counselling with Edith Cowan University in 2010, and in 2014 completed a Masters in Social Science (Professional Counseling) from Executive Counseling Training Academy (Singapore) and Swinburne University of Technology (Australia).
A/Prof Nicholas Chew is a Senior Consultant Psychiatrist in Tan Tock Seng Hospital. He currently serves as the Group Chief Education Officer of National Healthcare Group (NHG) and was appointed Chairman Medical Board, Woodlands Health Campus in April 2017. His previous appointments include Deputy Head of Department, Psychological Medicine, where he started the HIV Psychiatry and the Post-Stroke Depression Programmes. In 2009 he started the Transitional Year Residency Programme in NHG and was subsequently Designated Institutional Official for NHG Residency. In 2013 he also served as the Assistant Chairman, Medical Board (Medical Manpower Development) at Tan Tock Seng Hospital.
Dr Daniel Fung is the President of the International Association for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Allied Professions, and Chairman Medical Board of the Institute of Mental Health. He is an Adjunct Associate Professor in all 3 medical schools in Singapore and teaches undergraduate and postgraduate students. Dr Fung’s research interests are in anxiety and disruptive behaviour disorders and their relationship with learning disorders.
Dr Julian Lim is Assistant Professor in the Centre For Sleep and Cognition in the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, and principal investigator of the AWAKE Lab. Dr Lim conducts experiments and trials on mindfulness, and how it affects sleep, fatigue, stress, and cognition. To explore the dynamics of the brain at work, Dr Lim uses a variety of approaches (fMRI, EEG and behavioral experiments) to investigate the brain bases of these psychological phenomena.
Dr Tanya Tierney is the Assistant Dean, Student Well-being, at the NTU Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine.
Through her various roles at LKCMedicine (student well-being, clinical communication teaching and medical humanities teaching), Dr Tierney aims to encourage students to practice with their hearts as well as their heads, be passionate about their work and aware of their own wellbeing. As head of student wellbeing, she was instrumental in the design and implementation of the LKCMedicine House system, which provides holistic pastoral care and student support. She is an advocate for mindfulness practice as a way to attend to one’s own wellbeing and also encourage students to be mindfully present when interacting with others (patients, learners or colleagues).
Dr Noorhazlina is a Senior Consultant in the Department of Geriatric Medicine at Tan Tock Seng Hospital, and has a subspecialty interest in cognition and memory disorders. She currently heads the Memory Clinic and is the Programme Director for the Dementia Care Integration Programme funded by the Ministry of Health. She is also the Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine at the National University of Singapore (NUS).
Dr Noorhazlina’s special interest is in advance care planning in dementia, and in advocating for the provision of quality care for advanced dementia patients. She is passionate about implementing the Namaste Care Program, a program originated from the USA that was created to help people with dementia not only exist, but live with love and integrity. To further develop her expertise and interest, Dr Noorhazlina underwent an overseas attachment in 2014 to South Florida under the mentorship of the esteemed Professor Volicer, an expert in the field of advanced dementia at the School of Aging Studies, University of South Florida.
Dr Kinjal Doshi is principal clinical psychologist at the Department of Psychology at Singapore General Hospital. Her clinical work involves neuropsychological assessments and providing psychotherapy for patients with neurological and chronic medical conditions, as well as for their family caregivers. She is frequently called upon to assist in mental capacity assessments of patients with cognitive and or functional impairments. Dr Doshi has been practicing mindfulness since 2007, and has been teaching mindfulness and delivering mind-body interventions for the last 7 years.
Beth Frates, MD, is trained as a physiatrist and a health and wellness coach. Her expertise is in lifestyle medicine, and she works to empower patients to reach their optimal level of wellness by adopting healthy habits. At Harvard Medical School, Beth created the first Lifestyle Medicine Interest Group in 2008, which is still thriving today. As a member of the Board of Directors of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine, Beth helped to shape the scope of this new specialty nationally. She is an award-winning teacher at Harvard Medical School, where she is an assistant clinical professor, and she developed and taught a college lifestyle medicine curriculum at the Harvard Extension School, which is one of the most popular courses offered at the school. She shared a lifestyle medicine syllabus, which can be downloaded through the American College of Lifestyle Medicine website, in hopes that her work can serve as a template for other instructors and professors hoping to teach a course in lifestyle medicine. As the Director of Wellness Programming at the Stroke Institute for Research and Recovery at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, United States, Dr. Frates has created and implemented a 12-month wellness program for stroke survivors and their caregivers. She is co-author of the book Life After Stroke: The Guide to Recovering Your Health and Preventing Another Stroke and co-author of three chapters on behavior change in different medical textbooks. And, most recently, she co-authored The Lifestyle Medicine Handbook: An Introduction to the Power of Healthy Habits which was ranked in the top 20 by Book Authority for medical book released in 2018.
Dr Koh Li-Wearn
Senior Consultant
Department of Rheumatology, Allergy and Immunology
Tan Tock Seng Hospital
Dr. Ganesh Kudva is an Associate Consultant from the Institute of Mental Health. He has a keen interest in Psychosis, in particular Early Intervention, and has authored a number of papers on topics ranging from stigma, to psychopharmacology, to medical education as well as mental health challenges during the current Covid-19 pandemic. Dr. Kudva is passionate about medical education, and avidly participates in the training of medical students and psychiatry residents.
Dr Naras has a PhD in molecular genetics. His career began as a research scientist investigating obesity and diabetes, at the prestigious Garvan Institute of Medical Research, Australia. He also has a Masters degree in nutrition and is an Accredited Practising Sports Dietician.
He observed that stress, sleep, fitness and state of mind have a significant impact on how people eat and how all these factors intertwine and affect one’s health. He is also an expert in gastro-intestinal health, pregnancy and sports performance. His interest in longevity and the recognition of the profound role that nutrition and lifestyle play on disease prevention and healthy aging led him to be certified in regenerative and anti-aging medicine by the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine.
Marisa Lim is currently a 2nd-year Biomedical Engineering major at National University of Singapore under the E-Scholars Programme. Having a strong passion for learning and volunteering, she is active in various organising committees and community engagement projects within her residential college at NUS. Her other interests include teaching, traveling, music and sports.
Associate Professor Jayanth Narayanan is Associate Professor of Management and Organisation at the NUS Business School. Dr Narayanan’s research and teaching interests are in the areas of decision-making, negotiations and influence. He has also researched the biological basis of human behaviour at the workplace, and done some of the earliest research on the role of mindfulness for organizational leaders. he was awarded the Teaching Excellence award in NUS for his expertise teaching Organizational Behaviour and Leadership, and his work has been published in numerous academic journals.
Dr Raveen Shahdadpuri is currently Program Director of the SingHealth Paediatrics Residency Program and Adjunct Associate Professor at Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School, Lee Kong Chian (LKC) – NTU School of Medicine and Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, NUS. He is also a Harvard Macy alumnus and is particularly passionate about the areas of burnout, wellness, resilience and the medical humanities in medical training.
Mr Chester Tan is currently a 3rd-year medical student at NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine. He is engaged in various medical community projects, and is an active member of the Scouting community. His special interests include philosophy, medical humanities & spending time in nature.
Dr Huang Wanping is a principal psychologist and Head of Department of Psychology at Tan Tock Seng Hospital. A clinical neuropsychologist by training, she is passionate about helping individuals cope with the multitude of psychological, cognitive, emotional and behavioral changes following traumatic brain injury, stroke, and neurological conditions in order to optimise recovery, rehabilitation, and quality of life.
Lorraine Yuen is currently a 3rd-year Geography major at the National University of Singapore. Being passionate about engaging with the people she interacts with, she organizes many events within her residential college in NUS whenever possible. Her other interests includes sports, reading and listening to podcasts.
Dr Ng Li Ling is a Senior Consultant Psychiatrist currently practising at the Department of Psychological Medicine, Changi General Hospital (CGH) who received specialist training in the field of Psychogeriatrics. Dr Ng is Chair of the National Dementia Network and Program Director of the Community Psychogeriatric Program with the Ministry of Health. She is a Clinical Senior Lecturer at Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore. She also serves as a faculty member for the National Psychiatry Residency Program and as an advisor for Dementia Shared Care (GRACE) and SingHealth Polyclinics (SHP).
For her contributions, Dr Ng has won several awards. Among these, in 2017, she received the National Day Awards Public Service Medal (PBM) and the Singapore Psychiatric Association Distinguished Psychiatrist award. She has also published research in various journals in her specialty area of Psychogeriatrics.