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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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Branson’s B Team – Show Me Numbers!
Written by David Erasmus. Branson posted yesterday about his intentions for his B Team, a high velocity group of people including Arianna who have a real shot at helping us reshape our expectations of business in society. Branson writes…. “We will addr …
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Stanford Rolls Out Compassion Cultivation Training
Written by Sara Schairer. The Dalai Lama is now touring through the United States until May 21st, 2013 with the next stop in Portland at Maitripa College on May 7. I personally have a special affinity for his presence, as I’m nearing the end of the ina …
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Can Meditative Breathing Relieve PTSD Symptoms for Vets?
Written by Rebecca Ruiz. Post-traumatic stress disorder is one of the signature wounds of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars; according to one estimate, as many as 20 percent of the service members who were deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan have the psychiatr …
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The Question that Ends Tension
How Compassion and Being Present to End Tension from First for Women magazine. For the first part of the article, click here. For the second part of the article, click here.
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Compassion and the Bottom Line
Written by Michael Kinsman. Compassion isn’t a word that is easily digested in the business world. More often, we like to define our businesses as results-oriented, hard-driving and able to steamroll any obstacles that stand in the way of an objective. …
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The Promise of Yoga-Based Treatments to Help Veterans with PTSD
Written by Michelle Brandt. A close friend recently told me about the post-traumatic stress disorder research of Stanford’s Emma Seppala, PhD, whom she knows from the yoga community in Madison, Wisc. (Seppela did her postdoctoral work there.) It was am …
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Breathing Exercises Help Veterans Find Peace After War
Written by Brooke Donald. Post-traumatic stress disorder affects about one in five veterans, and traditional treatments that can include medication and therapy only relieve symptoms in about half of those who seek it, experts say. But new research by S …
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Compassion Will Make You Happy
Marketing executives want us to believe that happiness lies in a product that will taste delicious, magically fill our bank accounts, or transform us into a supermodel that looks not a day past 20. Our social norms promise that happiness will lie in st …
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Compassion, the Workplace, and Leadership
Written by John Ballard, Ph.D. When we list leadership characteristics, compassion is probably not first on the list, or even on the list, but perhaps it should be. Emma Seppala has an excellent article on compassion in the May/June issue of theObserve …
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Offra Gerstein, Relationship Matters: The Wonders of Altruism
Written by Offra Gerstein. The recent acts of heroism seen immediately following the Boston Marathon explosions may have rekindled our public amazement at the courage of untrained strangers who put themselves at risk to aid others. What is the source o …
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How the Stress of Disaster Brings People Together
Written by Emma Seppala, Ph.D. Ever feel that stress makes you more cranky, hot-headed or irritable? For men in particular, we think of stress as generating testosterone-fueled aggression – thus instances of road rage, or the need to “blow off steam” a …
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Business and Compassion
Written by Paula Pyne. I just returned from The San Francisco Bay area where I attended the inaugural Business events-science-of-compassion-conference-thumb2and Compassion Conference at Stanford University, School of Medicine. It was hosted by CCARE, t …
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Stanford Center Highlights the Benefits of Compassionate Workplaces
Written by Brooke Donald. The Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education at Stanford brought together leaders in business and academia to talk about the role of compassion in business. The latest research suggests that a more compassiona …
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On Grudges and Forgiveness
Written by Jayanth Narayanan, PhD. One of the most difficult things to do when we feel wronged upon is to forgive those who have inflicted harm on us. Great leaders are able to channel such anger to bring about social change. In fact the very reason wh …
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International Compassion Summit Launches Year-Long Effort in Anticipation of a Visit by the Dalai Lama
Written By Karen Armstrong. The 2013 International Summit Conference on Compassionate Organizations will bring an international group of representatives together on May 16th through the 18th to Louisville, Kentucky in anticipation of a visit by the Dal …
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Boston Marathon’s Heroes and the Science Behind Compassion
Written by Tamarra Kemsley. The acts of heroism seen even within seconds of the detonation of the bombs at Boston Marathon included people who seemed to utterly forget fear for their own wellbeing in order to protect that of others. However, Tuesday’s …
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Compassion Important for Our Survival
Written by Agneta Lagercrantz. James Doty, the son of an alcoholic, became a neurosurgeon and founded a research center for compassion and altruism at Stanford, USA. At 13, his life changed – thanks to a woman who taught him positive thinking. Follow o …
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Compassion and Business?
Written by Scott Kriens. When first asked to speak at the upcoming Compassion and Business conference, I was struck by how seldom we hear those two words in the same sentence. Why? I think it’s because we think of compassion too abstractly, and we’re p …
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Sustaining Compassion in Health Care
Written by Robert McClure. As demands on health care providers increase, compassion becomes more difficult to sustain. But a new training holds the promise of helping them meet those challenges. After 30 years in health care, I was ready to retire. But …
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Mainstream Media Missing Mark on Mind-Body Medicine
LOS ALTOS, CA, February 21, 2013 – Dr. James Doty is a world-class neurosurgeon and professor at Stanford University. He’s an inventor, entrepreneur, and philanthropist who supports a number of global health initiatives; a member of the Board of Direct …
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How to Turn Gang Members into Ex-Gang Members
Written by Bonnie Tsui. What is it that finally makes a gang member renounce his violent ways? Or a former Hamas extremist turn to reconciliation instead of suicide bombs? The answers are remarkably similar, based on a recent study from researchers at …
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The Magic of Compassion Science
Written by Janis Daddona. Have you ever sat down with your doctor and talked about your brain—heart to heart? Neither have I. But that’s exactly what happened in our Forest Call with Dr. James Doty. Apparently he is capable of living several lives si …
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Surviving PTSD: Helping Your Military Loved Ones Get the Help They Need
Written by Ericka Souter. It’s frightening to watch a loved one go off to war, but what many military families have discovered is that another battle begins once they return home. Nearly 30 percent of the 834,463 soldiers who served in Iraq and Afghani …
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What’s Your Meme? Changing the Climate Change Conversation
What’s the counterpoint to “Drill, baby, drill”? In the emerging field of meme science, researchers try to figure out what language and ideas resonate when it comes to the warming of the planet.
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Mitt Romney, Man of Compassion?
Somewhere between his traditional social circle and the broader world — a place inhabited by strangers whose jobs might require elimination in pursuit of profit — Romney seems to lose emotional regard for the troubles of others
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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.