Juan Pablo Andrade, a prominent Costa Rican pianist, enjoys a dynamic presence both on stage and in the academic realm. Recognized with several prestigious awards, including the Costa Rican National Prize of Music— the highest honor bestowed upon a musician by the Costa Rican Ministry of Culture. He has also received top honors at international competitions like the Artlivre International Piano Competition in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and the Carlos Enrique Vargas National Piano Competition in Costa Rica. With a performance schedule that spans several continents, Andrade has played as a soloist with orchestras such as the South Bend Symphony in Indiana, the Greensboro Symphony in North Carolina, the Powder River Symphony in Wyoming, and the Bolivian National Symphony. He’s a familiar face with the Costa Rican National Symphony, performing there on numerous occasions. His recital tours have taken him through the Americas and Europe, with standout performances at the Yehudi Menuhin Forum in Bern, Switzerland, the World Piano Conference in Novi Sad, Serbia, and a recent solo recital tour in South America. His CD “War to Peace” with violinist Betul Soykan, has been warmly received by critics, including a notable review in Fanfare magazine. In the academic realm, Andrade serves as a Professor of Piano at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, where he brings his rich performance experiences into the classroom. His educational journey spans prestigious institutions, including the University of Costa Rica, Arizona State University, Indiana University-South Bend, and the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. His commitment to music education extends beyond his university role, frequently serving as a guest faculty at international festivals and founding the La Frontera International Piano Conference in Brownsville, Texas. This event underscores his passion for enriching the cultural tapestry of the region and providing platforms for musical exchange.
Linda Chávez is a distinguished Mexican-American pianist. She holds degrees from the University of Texas at Brownsville and Longy School of Music in Cambridge, Massachussetts. A laureate of an impressive array of awards, grants, and scholarships, Miss Chávez has crafted a career that epitomizes excellence in both performance and education. Her talents have garnered her coveted invitations to international festivals as diverse as Costa Rica, Italy, Aruba, Austria, Puerto Rico, and Lincoln Center in New York City. There, she participated in the exclusive Teaching Artist Program, a curriculum which aims to activate the artistry in others, including the listener. Currently, Ms. Chávez is the principal pianist for the Valley Symphony Orchestra. Additionally, she is the visionary founder and enthusiastic proprietor of the Brownsville Piano Studio, South Texas’ premiere institution dedicated to piano education. Under her guidance, the studio provides instruction to over 225 students each week. Her entrepreneurial spirit also led to the creation of Ananda Music Experience, an innovative online music program tailored for adult women who aspire to learn music in a mindful and enriching environment. Linda Chávez continues to inspire and make a profound impact in the world of music; fostering positive change through music is a hallmark of her distinguished career.
Kevin Mills is a cellist from Orange County, California who studied under Darrett Adkins at both The Juilliard School and Oberlin Conservatory receiving his Masters in Cello Performance and Artist Diploma respectively. Kevin received his Bachelor of Music in Cello Performance from California State University of Fullerton and has toured, taught, and performed nation-wide and abroad in Denmark, Korea, Germany, Italy, Spain, France, and Hungary.
Ángel López is a founding partner of “Casa de los Cirios” in Tecate, Baja California. This project is dedicated to the promotion of food culture through gastronomic experiences focused on traditional Mexican cuisine. With a solid background in nutrition, Ángel graduated from the Nutrition Therapy Institute in Denver, Colorado. Additionally, he has gained profound knowledge of food culture through his training at the National School of Anthropology and History in Mexico City. His commitment to preserving Mexico’s culinary traditions has led him to undergo multiple training sessions with traditional cooks and explore various states in central and southern Mexico, enabling in-depth research into the customs and culinary knowledge of different regions of the country. Ángel has also successfully completed his internship to become a certified garden master, collaborating with the Ecology Action project in Willits, California. His current work focuses on being a chef and cultural promoter, through which he shares valuable workshops with the community. These workshops cover topics such as cacao, chili, corn, nixtamalization processes, and ancestral Mexican beverages. Ángel López is a staunch believer in food sovereignty and advocates for the importance of growing our own food. His passion lies in sharing the culinary roots of Mexico with those drawn to the flavors and aromas of Mexican cuisine. His work is essential for preserving and spreading Mexico’s gastronomic heritage.
Iris Gold, OMD, L.Ac, is an Oriental Medicine Doctor and Licensed Acupuncturist, with extensive experience in natural and integrative medicine. Throughout her 40 years in clinical practice, she has specialized in the issues of women’s health, guiding women through all the decades of adult life. Originally trained as a microbiologist, and then attending Naturopathic school and Acupuncture school, Iris blends the traditional wisdom of eastern medicine, with the science of western medicine. She is particularly focused on providing clinical strategies to influence the processes of aging and improve health outcomes. When she is not in her office, you will find her in her garden, being with family and friends, or happily playing with her grandkids.
MARY GAUTHIER (Songwriter, guitarist, vocalist, author, activist) “Writing helps me sort out confusion, untangle powerful emotions, and ward off desperation. It helps me navigate the powerful emotional weather systems of life.”– Mary Gauthier, Saved by a Song. As she has so eloquently accomplished over the past 25 years, Mary Gauthier has used her art once again to traverse the uncharted waters of the past few years. “I’m the kind of songwriter who writes what I see in the world right now,” she affirms. Thankfully, amid dark storms of pandemic loss, she found and followed the beacon of new love. Her gift to us, the powerful Dark Enough to See the Stars, collects ten sparkling jewels of Gauthier songcraft reflecting both love and loss. Her eleventh album, Dark Enough to See the Stars, follows the profound antidote to trauma, Rifles & Rosary Beads, her 2018 collaborative work with wounded Iraq war veterans. It garnered a Grammy nomination for Best Folk Album, as well as a nomination for Album of the Year by the Americana Music Association. Publication of her first book, the illuminating Saved by a Song: The Art and Healing Power of Songwriting, in 2021, brought her more praise. Brandi Carlile has said, “Mary’s songwriting speaks to the tender aspects of our humanness. We need her voice in times like these more than we ever have.” The Associated Press called Gauthier “one of the best songwriters of her generation.”
JAIMEE HARRIS (Guitarist, vocalist, songwriter, storyteller) When Jaimee Harris alighted upon the scene in Austin, TX, the jaded music city, replete with (and weary of) singer-songwriters, woke up and took notice. Here, finally, was a new voice. Her singing voice is noteworthy: rich, sonorous, and full, delivering a uniquely stylized, throaty tone; the voice of a writer and performer. When you watch her sing, she’ll break, cradle, and win your heart, then break it all over again. Harris turned 30 during the pandemic. It’s a milestone that is a rite of passage even during normal times. But for this Texas-born singer-songwriter, it came in the midst of one of the strangest and most tumultuous periods in American history. When the world stopped during lockdown, Harris, like many others, found herself gazing back into the past, ruminating on the nature of her hometown and family origins, and reckoning with their imprint on her. The term ‘nostalgia’ derives from the Greek words nostos (return) and algos (pain), and if Harris’s new album Boomerang Town can be regarded as a nostalgic album, it is only nostalgic in the sense that the longing for home is a desire to return to the past and heal old wounds. A poet and stunning vocalist, Harris has created an arresting, ambitious song-cycle that explores the generational arc of family, the stranglehold of addiction, and the fragile ties that bind us together as Americans.
Dana Dean, OD, is a behavioral optometrist who specializes in holistic optometry and vision intelligence. Dr. Dean has had a private optometric practice in San Diego for the past 25 years. Originally from South Africa, she completed her studies in San Diego as well as attending the New England College of Optometry in Boston. She treats her patients holistically performing vision therapy on both children and adults. Her patients also include brain injuries, stroke victims and adults who want to achieve maximum success in life and reach their true potential. Not only does she see patients performing eye-brain-body connection and building visual efficiency, she also lectures on the topics of vision and brain integration, vision and the aging eyes, vision and spirituality, vision with balance and coordination, as well as vision intelligence. Dr. Dana Dean is also a passionate advocate for educating teachers on the importance of vision and learning in a school setting.
Patti T. Milligan, PhD, RD, CNS, has been in the nutrition field for 40 years. She just completed her doctorate in Neuroscience of Taste with her thesis on saliva and its impact on jet lag and kids’ taste buds. She has conducted nutritional research with US national athletes, as well as created and taught corporate wellness programs throughout the US and Europe. She has authored hundreds of articles and has appeared on numerous national TV news segments. She consults with high level executives and C level leadership on human resilience, performance brain nutrition and regenerative nutrition protocols. She has developed a travel resilience kit — Personal Jet Fuel to keep you well (renewal kit.com).
Dr. Steve Katz has been a lifelong athlete (including professional baseball) and yoga/chiropractic practitioner. His passion for mindful swimming was ignited after experiencing a Total Immersion workshop in 2015. He experienced such immediate improvement in the ease, efficiency, and pleasure of swimming freestyle that he dedicated himself to certifying as a Total Immersion coach and achieved coach certification in 2021. He believes swimming is the perfect means to safe and mindful fitness at any age.
Violinist Kate Hatmaker is the founder and Executive/Artistic Director of Art of Élan, a San Diego-based chamber music organization committed to bringing innovative classical music to diverse audiences (www.artofelan.org), and has been a violinist with the San Diego Symphony since 2006. She has played with a wide variety of American orchestras, including the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and the New World Symphony. She completed her Master of Music degree at Carnegie Mellon University and her undergraduate training at both the University of Iowa and the Sorbonne University in Paris, France.
Music and spirituality have always been intertwined in the artistic vision of trumpeter, bandleader, composer, educator, and activist Sean Jones. Mr. Jones sang and performed as a child with the church choir in his hometown of Warren, Ohio, and switched from playing the drums to the trumpet at the age of 10.
Chloé Doutre-Roussel is an author, consultant, educator, and internationally recognized expert with more than 35 years of experience in fine cacao and chocolate. A former buyer at Fortnum and Mason, shop manager at Ladurée, author of The Chocolate Connoisseur, and creator of Chloe Chocolat in Paris, she has also worked with El Ceibo, a cooperative of cocoa farmers in Bolivia, to launch a vertically integrated tree to bar to bonbon brand. Chloe is a regular juror at the Academy of Chocolate Awards (AOC) and at the Northwest Chocolate Festival. She is member of honor of the AOC, founding member of the Academia del Chocolate of Ecuador, member of the Advisory Board of the Fine Chocolate Industry Association (FCIA), and co-chair of the Chocolate Committee for the Good Food Awards. Find her online at 
Melissa Kravetz is an Associate Professor of History and Co-Director of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Longwood University, where she has worked since 2013. She also teaches K-12 teachers in the Alexander Lebenstein Teacher Education Institute at the Virginia Holocaust Museum every summer. Her first book, Women Doctors in Weimar and Nazi Germany: Maternalism, Eugenics, and Professional Identity was published by the University of Toronto Press in 2019.
Laura Liswood, JD/MBA is a passionate advocate for leadership, diversity and inclusion and is a sought-after speaker, author, and global thought leader on these topics. She particularly enjoys highly interactive sessions with her audiences and uses humor and research to convey her message. She created a PBS documentary and book on her interviews with women presidents and prime ministers and was appointed Managing Director for Global Leadership and Diversity at Goldman Sachs. After 9/11 Laura decided to become a first responder, and became a police officer in the Washington DC Metropolitan Police Department, retiring as a sergeant. She is the author of four books, including The Loudest Duck: Moving Beyond Diversity, and The Elephant and the Mouse: Moving Beyond the Illusion of Inclusion
Li Huai received her BA in fine arts at the Beijing Film Academy and her MFA in art at the California Institute of the Arts. She is on the faculty of the Visual Arts Department at the University of California, San Diego. Li Huai’s specialties include installation, painting, drawing, multimedia, and Chinese calligraphy. In thematic terms, her work deals with various issues related to East-West cultural interaction in an increasingly transnational age, including issues involving the Asian diaspora. Her major one person shows include Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego Chinese Historical Museum, The Arts House (Singapore), The Substation Gallery (Singapore), Carroll Gallery (Tulane University), Hong Kong City University Gallery, Edinburgh University Matthew Architecture Gallery, Galleria Ninapi (Ravenna, Italy), Primo Piano Gallery (Rimini, Italy), Art Center (National Chung Hsing University, Taiwan), Forum (Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon, France), California Center for the Arts, Faculty Club (University California San Diego), National Taiwan University (Riran Hall, Taipei), and Schwarzman College (Tsinghua University, Beijing). Her work has been shown in group exhibitions in various national and international venues including the San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art, Morlan Gallery (Transylvania University), the Tijuana Cultural Museum (Mexico), the Centre Internationale d’Art Contemporain (Montreal), the Third Chengdu Biennale (Museum of Contemporary Art, Chengdu, China), the Chinese American Museum (Los Angeles), Biennale Disegno (Rimini, Italy), Institute of Contemporary Art (San Diego), California Center for the Arts, and in various contemporary art spaces in South Africa, Japan, and Italy. 
Paul Pickowicz is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of History at the University of California, San Diego, and inaugural holder of the UCSD Endowed Chair in Modern Chinese History. He has produced 20 books (authored, coauthored, and coedited) including Chinese Village, Socialist State (winner of the 1993 Joseph Levenson Prize of the Association for Asian Studies). Another book, China on Film: A Century of Exploration, Confrontation, and Controversy, examines the history of Chinese cinema. He has won three distinguished teaching awards: UC San Diego Alumni Association (1998), Chancellor’s Associates (2009), and Academic Senate (2003). Pickowicz has graduated 38 PhD students. He has held visiting appointments at Oxford, National University of Singapore, University of Edinburgh, University of Heidelberg, East China Normal University, City University of Hong Kong, Ecole Normale Supérieure, Hong Kong Institute of Education, Renmin University, and Schwarzman College (Tsinghua University). He is associate producer of the documentary film China in Revolution, 1911-1949 (1989). Pickowicz was honored by the German government in 2016 with a Humboldt Research Award for lifetime accomplishments in research and teaching.
Aleck Karis has performed recitals, chamber music, and concertos across the Americas, Europe, Japan, and China. As the pianist of the new music ensemble Speculum Musicae, he has participated in over a hundred premieres and performed at major American and European festivals. His appearances with orchestra have ranged from concertos by Mozart, Beethoven and Chopin to those of Stravinsky, Messiaen and Carter. His seven solo discs on Bridge Records are: Chopin/Carter/Schumann, Mozart, Stravinsky, Cage, Feldman/Webern/Wolpe, Poulenc, and most recently, Debussy. His two discs on Roméo Records are Music of Philip Glass and Late Chopin. He has studied at the Manhattan School and Juilliard, and his teachers include William Daghlian, Artur Balsam and Beveridge Webster. He is a Distinguished Professor Emeritus of the UC San Diego music department.
Keith Macpherson, a Canadian mindfulness coach, speaker, and author, has dedicated over two decades to empowering individuals through mindfulness practices. His transformative breakthroughs guide people toward their best lives. In 2018, he authored the bestselling book “
Radha Botofasina is a well-known Afro-Cuban American harpist, pianist, music producer and vocalist from Brooklyn, New York. Botofasina was mentored by Alice Coltrane, the wife of jazz legend John Coltrane, and sang background vocals on four of Coltrane’s sacred music albums:Divine Songs, Infinite Chants, Glorious Chants, Sacred Language of Ascension.
Sohailla Digsby is a registered dietitian, author, and international speaker. She has been a group exercise instructor since she was a teenager. She is a voice of reason – bringing clarity amidst all the nutrition fads and confusing misinformation that abound in the health and fitness space. She partners with fitness professionals to help them launch 8-week challenges that help their clients get the results that workouts alone won’t deliver. Sohailla is the recipient of several awards, including the 2018 Outstanding Alumnus of the Year for Augusta University’s Dietetic Internship, 2016 SCW Presenter of the Year Award and the Georgia Academy of Nutrition & Dietetics Media Award in 2014. She’s a mom of two boys, now 17 and 20, and a 14-year-old diva she adopted from China. She married the fella that asked her to the Senior Prom: though she said no to Prom, they’ve been married for over 25 years.
Beth Ricanati, MD, has spent her career focused on improving the well-being of her patient’s lives, in traditional medical clinics, wellness programs, and now as an author/speaker. She has worked at the Center for Women’s Health Center at NY Presbyterian/Columbia Medical Center and at the Cleveland Clinic’s Women’s Health Center and in the Clinic’s Wellness Institute as Medical Director for a lifestyle modification program. Today she volunteers weekly at the Venice Family Clinic in Los Angeles, the largest clinic in the country for the underserved. For the last several years, she has been speaking (both live and digitally) around the country, based on the premise of her award-winning book, Braided: A Journey of a Thousand Challahs. Dr. Ricanati lives and works in Southern California.