ART THERAPIST & VISUAL ARTIST

Kate Van Doren is an American contemporary artist, registered art therapist, human rights advocate, and founder of the Healing Words Project, an internationally recognized collaborative art initiative exploring the transformative power of healing through art. Drawing on more than two decades of experience in art and psychotherapy, she combines portraiture, photography, healing words, and self-authored storytelling to amplify lived experience through collaborations with more than 2,000 participants worldwide. Her paintings, drawings, photography, and films have been exhibited internationally and are held in private collections around the world, demonstrating how creativity can transform personal adversity into collective change.

RESEARCHER IN PSYCHEDELIC WELLNESS & INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE

Pukar Lund is a researcher and student at Johns Hopkins University whose work explores the intersection of neuroscience, traditional medicine, Indigenous knowledge, and global health. His research examines how ancestral healing practices can engage with modern science while protecting cultural sovereignty and ensuring that Indigenous communities remain active participants in the systems built around their knowledge. At Johns Hopkins’ Map the System Competition, Lund and his team examined the rapidly growing psychedelic wellness economy in the Peruvian Amazon, advocating for a shift from extractive models toward Indigenous-led governance, reciprocity, and regeneration.

AUTHOR & TRANSFORMATIONAL TEACHER

Debra Poneman is a transformational teacher, author, and founder of Yes to Success, whose work has helped people around the world reconsider what it means to live a truly successful life. For more than 40 years, she has taught principles of inner clarity, purpose, consciousness, and meaningful achievement, encouraging people to look beyond conventional measures of success and toward a life guided by deeper values. Her work explores the relationship between inner transformation and the choices we make in the world, inviting us to consider how purpose, generosity, and service shape the legacy we leave behind. At the heart of her message is a powerful idea: success is not simply what we achieve, but who we become and what we contribute along the way.

HISTORIAN & CITY CHRONICLER

Dr. Eleazar Romero is a historian, educator, and city chronicler whose life’s work has been dedicated to preserving the memory and cultural identity of San Miguel de Allende. He played a decisive role in the city’s recognition as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2008, helping articulate the historical and architectural significance that makes San Miguel extraordinary. Through decades of research, public service, and deep devotion to his community, Dr. Romero continues to protect the stories, traditions, and heritage that give San Miguel its soul.

SOPRANO, SONGWRITER & SOUND HEALER

Daniela de Mari is an Italian-Colombian soprano, songwriter, and sound-healing artist whose work explores the transformative power of music and the human voice. Blending classical, world music, and ancestral vocal traditions, she has performed internationally and shared stages with renowned figures including Deepak Chopra and Deva Premal. Her work bridges music, consciousness, and well-being, creating immersive experiences designed to deepen human connection.

ROBOTICS & STEAM EDUCATOR

Marcy Marrero is the founder of DivertRobots, an educational initiative that introduces children to robotics, programming, and STEAM through hands-on learning and creative problem solving. Her work focuses on helping young people move from being passive users of technology to becoming curious builders, thinkers, and creators capable of shaping it. Through workshops, competitions, and immersive learning experiences, Marrero explores how early access to science and technology can strengthen confidence, imagination, and the skills children will carry into the future.

ARTIST & GRIEF COUNSELOR

Ian McCartor is an artist, certified grief counselor, hospice RN, and founder of The Ash Rose Project, a deeply personal practice exploring the relationship between art, loss, memory, and healing. Drawing from his experience in end-of-life care, Ian transforms cremated ashes into hand-created portraits, creating an enduring way for families to preserve stories, honor those they love, and engage with grief through creative expression. His work creates space for remembrance not as something fixed in the past, but as an evolving relationship between memory, love, and those who remain. At the intersection of caregiving and art, Ian asks a profoundly human question: how can what remains after loss become a source of connection, beauty, and meaning?

AI GOVERNANCE & PUBLIC INTEREST TECHNOLOGY LEADER

Cristina Martínez Pinto is the founder and CEO of PIT Policy Lab, working at the intersection of public interest technology, artificial intelligence governance, inclusion, and trust. Her work examines how AI and other emerging technologies can be designed, governed, and implemented in ways that better serve people, institutions, and communities, particularly across Latin America and the Caribbean. Through research, policy, and cross-sector collaboration, she explores how participation, accountability, and human-centered approaches can shape the systems being built today. At the heart of her work is a vital question: how can we ensure that artificial intelligence strengthens society while keeping people at the center of the future it is helping create?

FINANCE PIONEER & ANIMAL WELFARE LEADER

Sudhir Amembal is a lifelong animal protection and welfare advocate whose work spans more than five decades and several countries. Through leadership, education, advocacy, and direct support for animal welfare initiatives, he has devoted his life to reducing suffering and strengthening the relationship between people and the animals who share our communities. His work reflects a belief that compassion is measured through consistent action and responsibility. From supporting sterilization programs to helping build stronger animal welfare movements, Sudhir has focused on creating lasting change. At the heart of his work is a deeply human question: what does the way we treat animals reveal about who we are?

CROSS-CULTURAL PURPOSE EDUCATOR

Doreen Cumberford is an intercultural trainer, author, coach, and host of the Nomadic Diaries podcast, whose work explores the human experience of living across cultures. Having lived in eight countries across four continents over more than four decades, she examines how global mobility shapes identity, belonging, relationships, and our understanding of home. Through her writing, coaching, and conversations with globally mobile people, Cumberford explores the often invisible emotional landscape of crossing cultures, including adaptation, reinvention, repatriation, and reverse culture shock. Her work invites us to consider how the places we inhabit become part of who we are, and how a life lived across cultures can fundamentally reshape our sense of belonging.