Kevin M. Trainor is associate professor of religion at the University of Vermont, Burlington. He can discuss attitudes toward animals in Buddhism.

Richard Davidson is a professor of psychology and psychiatry and director of the Center for Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He has studied the brain activity of meditators and since 1992 has collaborated with the Dalai Lama and Buddhist monks to study the effect of meditation on mental activity.

Satya Dev Negi is a senior lecturer at Emory University in Atlanta and chairman of the Emory-Tibet Partnership. He has written about traditional Buddhist and contemporary Western approaches to emotions and their impact on health, and he has done other research on the mind-body connection and health. He has studied whether meditation can reduce depression […]

The Rev. John Lundin is a Protestant minister. He has studied Buddhist practice in depth and is interested in using it to help others deepen their own religious practice, whether Christian, Jewish or Buddhist. He is co-author of The New Mandala: Eastern Wisdom for Western Living — a book on Buddhism for Christians — with the Dalai Lama.

Mind and Life Institute was created in 1987 to promote neuroscience research on the mind, Buddhism, health and meditation.

Bill Aiken is director of public affairs for Soka Gakkai International-USA, an American Buddhist association based in Santa Monica, California, that opposed the “Houses of Worship Free Speech Restoration Act of 2005.”

Sister Donna Marie Beck is professor emerita and former director of music therapy at the Mary Pappert School of Music at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, Pa. She is also a Catholic nun and the facilitator of a healing community drum circle.

Marc Anderson has a DVD/CD titled Drums in the Church: A Practical Guide for Percussion in Christian Worship. He teaches workshops and classes and is based in Minneapolis-St. Paul.

Ruben Habito is a professor of world religions and spirituality at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. He is co-editor of The Practice of Altruism: Caring and Religion in a Global Perspective. He specializes in Buddhism and wrote a chapter in Altruism in World Religions.