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Leah Weiss Ekstrom – TEDx Traverse City 2012
Leah Weiss Ekstrom is a Contemplative Educator whose research and teaching focuses on the application of meditation in secular contexts. Leah has engaged in extensive retreat practice in the Kagyu/Nyingma traditions of Tibetan Buddhism. She is also trained as a clinical social worker, having worked with refugees in India, Nepal, and the United States.
She has taught clinicians in a variety of settings including Harvard-affiliated hospitals, the Boston Center for Refugee Health and Human Rights, the Alzheimer’s Association, and the National HIV/AIDS Conference. In 2008, Leah co-founded the Foundation for Active Compassion, a nonprofit organization that offers meditation practices to people involved in social service and social change work in an effort to provide tools for prevention and healing from burnout and compassion fatigue.
Currently, Leah is Director of Compassion Education at Stanford’s Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education (CCARE). She is on the cusp of completing her doctoral degree in Theology and Education.
In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TED has created a program called TEDx. TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. Our event is called TEDxTraverseCity, where x = independently organized TED event. At our TEDxTraverseCity event, TEDTalks video and live speakers will combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events, including ours, are self-organized.
Lectures: Michael W. Kraus
Michael W. Kraus presenting his talk, “Noblesse Oblige? Empathy, Compassion, and Social Class in America.”
Lecture: Dr. Philip G. Zimbardo
“Heroic Transformations from Violence to Peace Healing and Compassion in Wounded Communities,” presented by Dr. Yotam Heineberg, Dr. Philip G. Zimbardo, Dr. Rony Berger, and Mr. Rudy Corpuz Jr.
Festival of Faiths
James R. Doty, MD, speaks at Zócalo Public Square
Wisdom 2.0 Youth
TEDx Hayward
Request Dr. Weiss as a Speaker

Leah Weiss, PhD, LCSW
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Request Dr. Seppala as a Speaker

Emma Seppala, PhD
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Request Dr. Doty as a Speaker

James R. Doty, MD
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Request a Speaker
Want a member of CCARE to be a speaker at your next event? Send us a request below.
Al’ai Alvarez, MD
Interim Director
Al’ai Alvarez, MD (@alvarezzzy) is a national leader and educator on wellness, diversity, equity, and Inclusion. He is a member of the inaugural cohort of ambassadors for CCARE’s Applied Compassion Training and has successfully completed various other programs, including Compassion Cultivation Training and Awakening Humanity at Work.
• Clinical Professor, Stanford Emergency Medicine (EM)
• Director of Well-Being, Stanford EM
• Co-lead, the Human Potential Team, Stanford EM
• Fellowship Director, Physician Wellness Fellowship, Stanford EM
• Chair, Physician Wellness Forum, Stanford WellMD/WellPhD
• Director, Physician Resource Network (PRN) Support Program, Stanford WellMD/WellPhD [Stanford’s peer-to-peer support for faculty and trainees]
His work focuses on humanizing physician roles as individuals and teams by harnessing the individual human potential in the context of high-performance teams. This includes optimizing the interconnectedness between Process Improvement (Quality and Clinical Operations), Recruitment (Diversity), and Well-being (Inclusion). He is one of the 2021-2022 Faculty Fellows at the Stanford Byers Center for Biodesign.
Dr. Alvarez was the assistant/associate residency program director (APD) at the Stanford Emergency Medicine Residency Program [2016-2021], focusing on the intersectionality of residency well-being with performance improvement on patient experience, quality and patient safety, diversity, equity and inclusion, and medical education. Dr. Alvarez co-founded and co-chaired the largest diversity mentoring initiative in Emergency Medicine through ACEP and EMRA.
Dr. Alvarez gives several grand rounds and national/international conference lectures and workshops on relevant topics in self-compassion, physician well-being, and high-performance teams, including increasing leadership capacity and mentorship to enhance diversity and inclusion.
Dr. Alvarez received the 2019 ACEP DIHE Distance and Impact Award, the 2020 Society for Academic Emergency Medicine (SAEM) Academy for Diversity and Inclusion in Emergency Medicine (ADIEM) Outstanding Academician Award, the 2020 CORD Academy for Scholarship in Education in EM Academy Member Award on Teaching and Evaluation, the 2022 John Levin Leadership Award at Stanford Health Care, and the 2024 Physician Leader of the Year of the Sharp Index Awards.
James R. Doty, MD
December 1, 1955 - July 16, 2025
James R. Doty, MD was the founder and director of the Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education (CCARE) at Stanford, of which His Holiness the Dalai Lama is the founding benefactor. Dr. Doty was a neurosurgeon and neuroscientist who was on the faculty of the Stanford University School of Medicine in the Neurosurgery Department. Most recently, his academic focus was on meditation, compassion, and self-compassion for which he lectured throughout the world.
Dr. Doty attended U.C. Irvine as an undergraduate, received his medical degree from Tulane University and completed neurosurgery residency at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Dr. Doty served 9 years on active duty in the U.S Army attaining the rank of major. He completed fellowships in pediatric neurosurgery and electroneurophysiology.
He was an inventor, entrepreneur and philanthropist. He held multiple patents and was the former CEO of Accuray (ARAY:NASDAQ). Dr. Doty provided support to a number of charitable organizations supporting peace initiatives and providing healthcare throughout the world. Additionally, he supported research, provided scholarships, and endowed chairs at multiple universities.
Dr. Doty was a consultant to medical device companies and was an operating partner and advisor to venture capital firms. He served on the Board of a number of non-profits and was the vice-chair of the Charter for Compassion International and the former chair of the Dalai Lama Foundation. He was on the Senior Advisory Board of the Council for the Parliament of the World’s Religions and served on the Board of Governors of Tulane University School of Medicine and the President’s Council at Tulane University.
James R. Doty, MD was the New York Times bestselling author of Into the Magic Shop: A Neurosurgeon’s Quest to Discovery the Mysteries of the Brain and the Secrets of the Heart now translated into 40 languages. Dr. Doty was also the senior editor of the Oxford Handbook of Compassion Science. His final book, Mind Magic: The Neuroscience of Manifestation and How It Changes Everything was published by Penguin Random House in May of 2024.