Biology
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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
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
Director
Al’ai Alvarez, MD is a Stanford emergency physician and recognized national leader in clinician well-being, compassion, and high-performance teams.
He is a Clinical Professor in Stanford Emergency Medicine and Director of Stanford’s Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education. He also serves as Director of Well-Being for Stanford Emergency Medicine, Co-lead of the Human Potential Team, and Fellowship Director for the Physician Wellness Fellowship. At the Stanford Medicine WellMD/WellPhD Center, he chairs the Physician Wellness Forum and directs the Physician Resource Network Support Program, Stanford’s peer-to-peer support program for faculty and trainees.
Dr. Alvarez’s work focuses on humanizing physician roles and supporting teams in high-performance clinical environments. He challenges the false divide between compassion and performance, showing how human-centered systems can strengthen trust, learning, safety, and team effectiveness. His work connects clinician well-being, process improvement, clinical operations, quality, peer support, leadership development, and professional fulfillment.
From 2016 to 2021, Dr. Alvarez served as Assistant and Associate Residency Program Director for the Stanford Emergency Medicine Residency Program. He regularly gives grand rounds and leads national and international lectures and workshops on self-compassion, clinician well-being, leadership, mentorship, compassion, and high-performing teams.
His recent honors include the 2022 John Levin Leadership Award at Stanford Health Care, the 2024 Sharp Index Physician Leader of the Year Award, and a 2025 Excellence in Our Workplace Award Honorable Mention through the Stanford Health Care Medical Staff Awards. He was also selected as a Fulbright Distinguished Scholar in Medical Sciences for Brazil through the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program for 2026-2027 and received the 2026 Distinguished Alumni Award from the College of Arts and Sciences at the University at Buffalo.
Dr. Alvarez is a member of the inaugural cohort of ambassadors for CCARE’s Applied Compassion Training and has completed several compassion-based education programs, including Compassion Cultivation Training and Awakening Humanity at Work.
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
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 effectively, work together efficiently, and create healthier learning and care environments.
What we study
- Compassion as a measurable human capacity
- How interaction quality shapes performance, resilience, and decision-making
- The role of listening, trust, and stress regulation in complex systems
- Individual, interpersonal, and systems-level processes
How we translate this work
- Strengthen relational quality in teams and organizations
- Examine how compassion shapes attention, judgment, coordination, and collective problem-solving
- Develop practical approaches that strengthen trust, reduce friction, and support high performance
Why it matters
- Clearer judgment, stronger teamwork, healthier cultures
- Reduced costs from burnout, conflict, and miscommunication
- Impact from individuals to teams to entire institutions
Work with us
We partner across research, health care, education, technology, industry, sport, and public leadership to meet complexity with skill and humanity.
📩 Inquire about research partnerships
Featured Research: Dual-Brain Neuroscience in Real-World Teams
CCARE applies dual-brain (inter-brain) neuroscience to examine how compassion and coordination emerge in real time during high-stakes interactions.
🎥Explore dual-brain research in action
Press
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The Neuroscience of Compassion
A recent flood near where I live put many people’s homes and businesses under three metres of water. The natural disaster left the community devastated, and left me scratching my head at the judgement that came from some people towards the victims of t …
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In an Angry America, a New Remedy Emerges: Compassion
Written by Michelle Boorstein. As the head of a big-city hospital’s emergency department, Susan O’Mara has always focused on providing quick answers to people in crisis: A relative desperate for information. An injured person facing a very long wait. A …
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The Science of Compassion
Written by Amanda Tust. The field of compassion science has surged in the past decade. Today, researchers are studying a myriad of powerful ways compassion practices can improve health and strengthen relationships. Here, we look at the latest findings, …
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School’s Got You Stressed Out? Here are Some Tips for Teens, Parents and Schools
Written by Jenny Brundin. Problem: Teens who feel like they’re under constant academic pressure are at greater risk of developing depression or anxiety. Pushing teens to excel also can hurt self-esteem and increase sleep deprivation. These are things t …
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Our Bodies are Chronically in “Threat Mode” – But Being Kind Recalibrates Our Nervous System
Written by Jaimee Bell. Kindness is a virtue that is admired and applauded, in most cases. But did you know that being kind can also be good for your health? In fact, being compassionate to others can actually reset our consistently stressed systems ba …
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How to Aim for an Energetic Start to the New Year and Avoid Slipping into the Workaholic Trap
Written by Naz Beheshti. Many of us return from the holidays inspired to start the year strong. Whether or not we commit to New Years Resolutions, a new year brings with it a sense of possibility. Our relatively unmarked calendars feel like a blank sla …
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Are We Morally Obligated to Meditate?
Written by Sigal Samuel. Eight weeks ago, I started meditating every day. I knew I’d be going home to visit my family at the end of December, and well, I have a bad habit of regressing into a 13-year-old whenever I’m around them. All my old immaturitie …
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Saying ‘Good Morning’ to a Co-Worker Can Make Them Feel Valued
Written by Chloe Tejada. Today’s habit: Say ‘Good morning’ to a co-worker every day. What it is: Have you ever noticed that when someone says “Good morning” to you that you feel a little bit better? Well, I’ve made it a habit to start saying it more of …
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Practice Self-Kindness During the Holidays to Decrease Your Stress
Written by Chloe Tejada. Today’s habit: Be kind to yourself. For whenever you’re feeling: Overwhelmed by the holidays or by life in general. What it is: It’s Christmas day (or maybe not, depending on when you’re reading this), and, if you celebrate, yo …
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Why You Need to Completely Switch Off to Succeed
Written by Manar Al Hinai. I had an extremely busy work period before our National Day last week, and so as the holiday approached, I was fantasising of travelling to my second home, sitting in my beautiful garden overlooking the lake, and planning my …
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Can Compassion Help Heal Patients — and Providers?
Written by Stacy Weiner. This summer, the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), School of Medicine received a massive $100 million donation. The gift wasn’t for cancer research. It wasn’t for HIV/AIDS, Alzheimer’s disease, stroke, or the opioid e …
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Why Showing Compassion is Good for the Bottom Line. It Might Even Make You Happier.
Written by Janet MacDonald. It was the late nineties and one of many performance reviews I would have in my career. There they were, three words that were never written down but somehow always got conveyed, “you’re too nice.” They were career crippling …
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South Bay Answers ‘What is One Kind Thing You’ve Done Today?’ on World Kindness Day
Written by Amanda del Castillo. In any effort to build a Better Bay Area, one cannot overlook the simple act of being kind to one another. In the South Bay and around the globe, many celebrated World Kindness Day on Wednesday. ABC7 News set out with a …
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Your Tone Might Need a Tune Up
Written by Lorig Purutyan. It was a Saturday morning, and I was sitting in a nail salon letting my gel manicure soak off. A young woman walks in, “I need a pedicure,” she bluntly states to the entire nail salon. The manicurist instructs her to pick out …
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Good Social Relationships Are the Most Consistent Predictor of a Happy Life
Written by Thomas Oppong. Humans are ultra-social species. It’s our nature, and we can’t live our lives without interactions. Ultimately, other people play a crucial role in our happiness. Psychology says that part of human nature’s default mode is to …
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The Reason Busy Professionals Don’t Need to Choose Between Family, Wellness and Work
Written by RYOT Studio. In today’s corporate culture, there is a prevalent mindset that success is the result of an unrelenting commitment to our jobs. To get ahead, the thinking goes, you have to be willing to make sacrifices, work longer hours and be …
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How Self-Compassion Can Help You Cope with Adversity: 3 Steps to Improve Your Resilience
Written by Hanna Hart. Innovators talk about the importance of being willing to “fail fast and iterate.” Like coaches, they espouse a growth mindset that embraces failure as part of the learning process. I am a big proponent of the growth mindset, but …
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The 1 Law of Leadership That Will Make People Want to Follow You
Written by Marcel Schwantes. There are so many leadership books, podcasts, TED Talks, and articles such as this all vying for our attention, each trying to point the way forward to compelling leadership approaches that work for competitive advantage. S …
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What Wellness Programs Don’t Do for Workers
Written by Charlotte Lieberman. The idea of employee wellness is not new, but it has not always been an $8 billion industry in which employer-subsidized fitness memberships, meditation classes, and catered meals are the norm. In 1864, the Pennsylvania …
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Research Reveals a Surprising Solution for Anxiety
Written by Diane Dreher Ph.D. Millions of Americans are suffering from chronic anxiety, the most common mental illness in the United States. Anxiety affects over 40 million adults and over 25% of children between 13 and 18 (Anxiety and Depression Assoc …
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How to Avoid Compassion Burnout
Written by Patricia Corrigan. Caregivers, both professional and personal, often suffer from compassion fatigue — a syndrome also known as “secondary trauma stress.” But navigating any close, personal relationship also can lead to emotional stress and b …
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13 Changes to Make in Your 30s That Will Set You Up for Lifelong Success
Written by Shana Lebowitz. Sam Walton founded Walmart at age 44; Julia Child published her first cookbook at 60. Your best years may be way ahead of you . It’ll depend a lot on how you spend the next decade or so will you start saving or rack up credit …
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The Case for Building Resilience Through Conscious Leadership
Written by Artemis Evangelidi. There can be no doubt, resilience is on the tip of everyone’s tongues these days. Resilience for students; CEO’s; athletes; new parents. The category doesn’t matter – the desire to meet a ‘resilient state’ is high. Resili …
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The World is Broken—and Human Kindness is the Only Solution
Written by Anne Kingston. In February, Canadians received a rude wake-up call about the lack of compassion of some Ontarians. After a late-night Amber Alert chimed on cellphones signalling the abduction of 11-year-old Riya Rajkumar, some people turned …
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Two Ways to Your Corporate Mental Health
Written by Dr. Pooja Shrivastava. The best ways to create a winning corporate culture is to treat organization as a one whole unit, build a sense of unity and community, which promotes culture. The strongest leaders are team players who fosters bond of …
About
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.
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.