“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.
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Festival of Faiths
Sacred Silence: Pathway to Compassion combines an interest in contemplative practice within an interfaith forum to explore the nature of sacred silence. The goal of this exploration is to provide an opportunity for spiritual growth for the largest possible assembly of people.
For more information and registration click here.
James R. Doty, MD, speaks at Zócalo Public Square
Location: Los Angeles, CA
CCARE’s Founder & Director, James R. Doty, M.D., will participate in a Zócalo Public Square series on healthy living. Panelists will discuss the latest in medical science and altruism and what the findings mean for us all.
See event website for more information.
Wisdom 2.0 Youth
Location: Computer History Museum, 1401 North Shoreline Boulevard, Mountain View, CA
Raising or working with children today is no easy task. Technology pervades our (and their) lives. We struggle to find our own balance, and at the same time navigate their use of cellphones, social networks, and computer games.
Our challenge is to harness the power of technology as parents and educators, while supporting wellness and balance that are essential for a healthy child and a sane society.
Join Wisdom 2.0 Youth September 17th in Silicon Valley for the first ever Wisdom 2.0 Youth Conference. Together we will explore living consciously and supporting wellness, wisdom, and mindfulness in young people today.
Read more or Register today
TEDx Hayward
The theme for this year’s TEDxHayward is Peace Innovation where we cast a spotlight on how technology and emerging social behaviors and insights are promoting new paths to global peace. We hope you will join us, the Stanford Peace Innovation Lab, CSU East Bay Peace Innovation Lab, and Associated Students Inc. of CSU East Bay @ TEDxHayward. Remember to reserve your space (tickets are free!) by clicking on the Tickets link above! http://tedxhayward.org/
Request Dr. Weiss as a Speaker
Leah Weiss, PhD, LCSW
Director of Education
Want Dr. Weiss to be a speaker at your next event? Send her a request below.
Request Dr. Seppala as a Speaker
Emma Seppala, PhD
Associate Director, CCARE
Want Dr. Seppala to be a speaker at your next event? Send her a request below.
Request Dr. Doty as a Speaker
James R. Doty, MD
Director and Founder, CCARE
Adjunct Professor of Neurosurgery, Stanford University
Want Dr. Doty to be a speaker at your next event? Send him a request below.
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.
History
CCARE was envisioned by Dr. James Doty, a Stanford neurosurgeon, entrepreneur and philanthropist. Dr. Doty had a longstanding interest in the fundamental motivations of individuals to do good. He originated the concept of a rigorous multi-disciplinary scientific effort at Stanford directed at understanding the neural, mental, and social bases of compassion and altruism, and he provided the initial funding for the endeavor.
This interest was further spurred by the historic visit by His Holiness the Dalai Lama to Stanford University in October of 2005, a visit hosted by the Stanford School of Medicine, through the leadership of Dean Philip A. Pizzo, and the Stanford Office of Religious Life, headed by Rev. Scotty McLennan. A high point of this visit was a dialogue between the Dalai Lama and Stanford scientists from the fields of neuroscience, psychology, and medicine. This dialogue, moderated by Dr. William Mobley, former Professor of Neurology and former Director of the Stanford Neurosciences Institute, had the important consequence of recognizing that a deep engagement between science, especially in the cognitive science disciplines of neuroscience and psychology, and Buddhism and other contemplative traditions could make significant contribution towards a deeper understanding of many important aspects of the human mind and emotion.
Recognizing the historic nature of the initial dialogue held at Stanford between scientists and the Dalai Lama, Dr. Doty organized an informal group of individuals with similar interests to further explore these areas. Subsequently, he provided the funding for Dr. Thupten Jinpa, a noted contemplative scholar and translator to His Holiness the Dalai Lama, to come to Stanford as a Visiting Scholar and join Project Compassion as the principal contemplative scholar. As the group expanded, it became evident that there was serious interest in formalizing what was informally called “Project Compassion.”
With the encouragement of Dr. Mobley and Dr. Gary Steinberg, Chairman of Neurosurgery and Director of the Stanford Institute of Neuro-Innovation and Translational Neurosciences, Dean Pizzo created The Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education at Stanford (CCARE). Thus, CCARE came into being with Dr. Doty as Director, Dr. Mobley (who has since left Stanford to work as Chair of Neuroscience at UCSD) as Co-Director, and Mr. Tenzin Tethong (Distinguished Scholar, Tibetan Studies Initiative at Stanford) and Dr. Steinberg serving as members of the founding Executive Committee.
Courses
Learn to develop the qualities of compassion, empathy and kindness for oneself and for others lorem
Videos
Research
CCARE Research: Compassion as Human Potential
For more than a decade, CCARE has advanced compassion as a rigorous, evidence-based field. Drawing on neuroscience and related disciplines, we study compassion as a measurable capacity that helps people lead more effectively, work together more efficiently, and create healthier learning and care environments.
Better collaboration, clearer decisions, and healthier teams depend on the quality of human interaction. The science of compassion demonstrates how listening, trust, and stress regulation directly influence performance, resilience, and outcomes in complex systems.
CCARE brings together neuroscience, psychology, health, engineering, and organizational science to understand compassion at the individual, interpersonal, and systems levels. Our research examines how compassion shapes attention, judgment, coordination, and collective problem-solving. These insights translate into practical approaches that help organizations strengthen trust, reduce friction, and sustain high performance.
The return on investment is tangible: clearer judgment, stronger teamwork, healthier cultures, and reduced costs associated with burnout, conflict, and miscommunication. As these approaches scale, benefits extend from individuals to teams and entire institutions.
We partner across research, health care, education, technology, industry, sport, and public leadership to help meet complexity with skill and humanity.
To explore research partnerships and practical applications, contact
Dr. Stephanie Balters, Director of Research | balters@stanford.edu
Featured Research: Dual-Brain Neuroscience in Real-World Teams
As part of our ongoing work, CCARE is advancing dual-brain (inter-brain) neuroscience to study how compassion and coordination unfold in real time during high-stakes interaction. Using portable brain imaging, we examine how teams communicate, align, and perform under pressure.
We are actively seeking collaborators interested in piloting and testing these methods within clinical, educational, organizational, or leadership teams.
▶️ Watch the overview video
📩 Inquire about research partnerships
Press
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Stanford Scholar Vies to Become Next Tibetan Prime Minister
Breaking news from the Farm since 1892
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Four Students Named Truman Scholars
Breaking news from the Farm since 1892
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Study: 20% of Americans Have Done Heroic Deeds
Written by Sharon Jayson. New research would seem to support President Obama’s observation Wednesday night in Tucson that “heroism is here, all around us.” Philip Zimbardo, a Stanford University professor emeritus and colleagues used a nationally-repre …
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Zimbardo Begins Heroic Imagination Project
Written by Ellora Israni. Three decades after his infamous Stanford Prison Experiment proved that “terrifyingly normal” individuals can commit alarming atrocities, Philip Zimbardo, professor emeritus in psychology, has set out to communicate the opposi …
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Dalai Lama Talks Meditation with Stanford Scientists
Dalai Lama Talks Meditation with Stanford Scientists
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The Dalai Lama and CCARE: The Compassion Report
Written by Jim Gimian. This is Dr. Paul Ekman, co author of Emotional Awareness with His Holiness the Dalai Lama and noted pioneer of facial expression and emotion research, talking with his student/colleague/emotions researcher and Stanford University …
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Dalai Lama Advocates a Secular Approach to Compassion
Written by Cynthia Haven. “I want to stand to see more faces,” the 75-year-old Dalai Lama said, refusing a chair to address the capacity crowd in Maples Pavilion Thursday. There were plenty of them to see. The spiritual leader spoke to about 6,300 peop …
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Why the Dalai Lama Comes to Stanford
Written by Cynthia Haven. The Dalai Lama returns this week on his third visit to Stanford in recent years, but it’s more than palm trees and sunshine that draw him to the heart of Silicon Valley. It’s the research. Stanford’s Center for Compassion and …
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A Quest for Compassion
Compassion and Altruism Research and Education (CCARE) will study the biological roots of benevolent…this area is tricky business, cautions CCARE co-founder William Mobley, a neurologist and…of the object of study.
About
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Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry’s standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into electronic typesetting, remaining essentially unchanged. It was popularised in the 1960s with the release of Letraset sheets containing Lorem Ipsum passages, and more recently with desktop publishing software like Aldus PageMaker including versions of Lorem Ipsum.
Pay it Forward Parties
When Paige McCarthy begin planning her annual dinner party for a small group of friends, she knew she wanted to create something unique, something with lasting impact. “I was really interested in how I could make something bigger out of the little that I have and create a good experience for everyone,” says McCarthy, a Portland, Ore., advertising executive.
Could she, McCarthy wondered, create an entire party around the notion of doing good deeds for others as payback for those received? That question sparked her to create a Pay It Forward Party, which, in the course of a few hours, transformed a small dinner party into a life-changing event for the guests and people throughout the community.
Preparing to give
The Pay It Forward philosophy was popularized in a book by Catherine Ryan Hyde in 2000, and in a subsequent movie. Yet, the idea has been around since the days of Ancient Greece when a play first talked of the concept of passing on kind acts. Benjamin Franklin wrote about it too, in a letter drafted in the late 1700s.
But, on that night in November 2010, McCarthy’s dinner guests knew little about what she had in store. After they arrived at her home, each of the four couples received $100 and partial instructions, plucked like leaves from a centerpiece cleverly designed as a giving tree. When combined with the instructions of the other guests, the group discovered that they were to use the money to help others.
To read the full article, click here.