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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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Empathy Is On the Decline in This Country. A New Book Describes What We Can Do to Bring It Back.
Written by Emma Seppala. Stanford neuroscientist Jamil Zaki’s new book, “The War for Kindness: Building empathy in a fractured world,” makes a powerful case for kindness and empathy — not only because they make the world a better place, but because the …
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Compassion in Business
Written by Susan Greene. Mention compassion to some leaders, and they recoil, visualizing a slide into poor productivity, lower performance and organizational entropy. The reality is quite different. Compassion isn’t a fluffy soft skill but courageous …
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Doctors Who Are Kind Have Healthier Patients Who Heal Faster, According to New Book
Written by Emma Seppala. Which doctor would you pick: a physician who is kind and warm, or one who is cold but graduated at the top of the class in medical school? A new book makes a strong argument for the ones who are kind and warm, not just because …
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Seven Different Ways Laughing Can Improve Your Prosperity/Wellbeing
Written by Valerie Cheers Brown. As per research at Standford Medicine, “Everybody appreciates a decent laugh, however, who really sets aside a few minutes for it in their lives? Without a doubt, we like hearing a clever joke, conversing with individua …
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Why Compassion Fades
Written by Joe Hefferon. One victim can break our hearts. Remember the image of the young Syrian boy discovered dead on a beach in Turkey in 2015? Donations to relief agencies soared after that image went viral. However, we feel less compassion as the …
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Expert Opinion: Four Steps to Reduce Workplace Stress
Written by Michael Stahl. As a manager or leader, the well-being of your staff should be of utmost importance. Workplace stress is detrimental to the overall health and productivity of employees. In recognition of April being National Stress Awareness …
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Shower Thought: How to Be Kind Without Being a Pushover
Written by Lara Mikocki. Having worked in various organizations with a blur of different personalities, I began to become fascinated with the important art of getting along, and the behavioral science behind it. One of the returning pieces of advice we …
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11 Signs You’re Going to Be Successful, Even If It Doesn’t Feel Like It
Written by Shana Lebowitz. If you’re pursuing your passions, if you’re learning, and if you’re forging meaningful relationships, you’re probably on track to do great things — even if you aren’t extraordinarily famous or wealthy. Below, we’ve listed a s …
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Time to Be Kind: Why Kindness Matters
Written by Gavin Haines. It was a quarter to midnight and Bernadette Russell was about to go to bed. But her hopes of an immediate date with the duvet were dashed when her partner asked a question: had she done her daily act of kindness? Weeks earlier, …
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Happiness Research: Being Too Busy is the Biggest Obstacle to Creativity
Written by Allen Zhu. Spending time each day to let your mind wander is one of the best ways to rekindle your inventive side. “The biggest breakthrough ideas often come from relaxation,” wrote Emma Seppala, Director of Stanford University’s Center for …
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Reconnecting By Disconnecting
Written by Sammi Sontag. In a world with relentless push notifications, text updates and breaking news alerts, releasing your self from the claws of social media is nearly impossible. Personally I’d love to break free from my social media sites, but it …
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How to Keep Your Cool at Work Like Gayle King
Written by Edie Ravenelle. When R&B singer R. Kelly jumped out of his chair and totally lost his cool in a recent interview with Gayle King, co-host of CBS This Morning, King became the real rock star. She unflinching held her composure and remaine …
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Spring Clean Your Routine: Four Ways to Boost Your Productivity
Written by Ernie Smith. Don’t just focus on your closet or your file cabinet: Spend some time this season working on ways to minimize distractions while maximizing productivity. You may think of spring cleaning as a phenomenon to do at home, but you mi …
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How Compassion Could Be the Cure for Chronic Stress
This much we know: Taking deep breaths relieves stress in your body; compassion relieves stress in your relationships. Both are psychophysiological phenomena. But what we’re learning beyond that may have far more global consequences. Current research l …
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Books That Move Us Forward
Written by Ken Trainor. In the past two years, I’ve been reading more. The following books were not only highly readable and influential, but in some cases even transformative. The Warmth of Other Suns, for instance, by Isabel Wilkerson, permanently al …
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The Art of Executive Feedback
Written by Rob Kramer. One of academe’s most glaring blind spots lies in how, and when, we evaluate our leaders. A recurrent problem, it’s even more acute now that higher education is constantly living under a microscope. We tend to leave gaping window …
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On Valentine’s Day, Learn to Love Yourself First
Written by Rhania Kamel. With Valentine’s Day being an unofficial American holiday, I understand that there’s this societal pressure to engage in romantic love and be part of a relationship that transcends the individual. For me, this day is an opportu …
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A Guide to Synthetic, AI and Human Voice for Your Brand
Written by Keaton. Fueled by the voice tech boom, everybody who’s anybody is building out a content audio strategy for their brand. Voice search and voice assistant technology using synthetic, artificial intelligence and human voices are becoming incre …
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Can Business Drive Meaning and Meaningfulness in the Workplace?
Written by Sesil Pir. Last week, the annual World Economic Forum (WEF) was once again held in Davos, Switzerland. A majority of us have the perception that the WEF is some kind of a billionaires’ club. In some ways, it is, though I discovered during la …
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Is Mindfulness Worthy of All the Hype?
Written by Emma Seppala. A British author friend, Ruth Whipmann, author of America the Anxious, was shocked by something when she moved the U.S.: Everyone was so busy going to their mindfulness class and yoga class that they didn’t have time to spend w …
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20 Things to Master Before You Turn 40
Written by Shana Lebowitz and Rachel Gillett. No one ever really feels like a “grown-up.” But if you’re approaching 40, well, you are one. And it’s high time you refined some crucial life skills, from staying healthy to saving money. Below, we’ve liste …
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8 Simple Steps to Improve Your Mental Health
Written by Doug Drinkwater. With one in four suffering a mental health problem in their lifetime, here are eight tips you can follow to improve your mental wellbeing. Check your diet We often assume that mental health problems may be triggered by relat …
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My New Year’s Resolution is Lovingkindness
Written by Stephanie Harper. I’ve always approached New Year’s resolutions with a certain level of discomfort. So often we resolve to quick fixes and instant gratification. Or we make goals that are either unrealistic or too nebulous, resolutions we’ll …
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Compassion is Good Medicine for Body, Mind, Spirit and Community
Written by Kory Wilcoxson and John Patterson. All religions share the common ethical principle of compassion, which is at the very heart of the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. The foundational precept of medicine and bio …
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When You and Your Friend Both Want the Same Promotion
Written by Emma Seppala and Christina Bradley. Research generally shows that having friends at work can increase productivity and engagement. However, a new study by Wharton researchers Julianna Pillemer and Nancy Rothbard finds that there can be a dar …
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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.