To Bless the Space Between Us
Celebrating the Life and Legacy of John O'Donohue

Dan Siegel, M.D.

As a scientist and physician, my own mind was lit up with a spark of connection with John, ignited by our contrasts, and joined by the integration emerging in our mutual interests in exploring the nature of reality. John and I were working on a living bridge linking science and mysticism, finding common ground in the poetic study of the soul and the empirical explorations of the mind and brain. John’s insights into the nature of the invisible world, what he would call the “mystical,” resonated powerfully in new ways with the emerging science on the deep nature of reality—of our brains, our bodies, our minds, and our relationships with people and the planet. John’s work was grounded in contemplative and scholarly study and we discovered it to be consistent with rigorous cutting-edge research. His insights continue to inspire me each day, as they may do for so many, old and new to his life’s work, through John’s powerful presence on the visible page and audible recording, opening a window to awaken us to a deeper, more joyful, and meaningful life filled by the "surprise of its own unfolding."

Daniel J. Siegel received his medical degree from Harvard University and completed his postgraduate medical education at UCLA with training in pediatrics and child, adolescent and adult psychiatry. He served as a National Institute of Mental Health Research Fellow at UCLA, studying family interactions with an emphasis on how attachment experiences influence emotions, behavior, autobiographical memory, and narrative.

Dr. Siegel is a clinical professor of psychiatry at the UCLA School of Medicine and the founding co-director of the Mindful Awareness Research Center at UCLA. An award-winning educator, he is a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and recipient of several honorary fellowships. Dr. Siegel is also the Executive Director of the Mindsight Institute, an educational organization, which offers online learning and in-person seminars that focus on how the development of mindsight in individuals, families, and communities can be enhanced by examining the interface of human relationships and basic biological processes. His psychotherapy practice includes children, adolescents, adults, couples, and families. He serves as the Medical Director of the Lifespan Learning Institute and on the Advisory Board of the Blue School in New York City, which has built its curriculum around Dr. Siegel’s Mindsight approach.

Dr. Siegel has published extensively for the professional audience. He is the author of numerous articles, chapters, and the internationally acclaimed text, The Developing Mind: How Relationships and the Brain Interact to Shape Who We Are (2nd. Ed., Guilford, 2012). This book introduces the field of interpersonal neurobiology and has been utilized by a number of clinical and research organizations worldwide. Dr. Siegel serves as the Founding Editor for the Norton Professional Series on Interpersonal Neurobiology which contains over sixty textbooks. The Mindful Brain: Reflection and Attunement in the Cultivation of Well-Being (Norton, 2007) explore the nature of mindful awareness as a process that harnesses the social circuitry of the brain as it promotes mental, physical, and health. The Mindful Therapist: A Clinician's Guide to Mindsight and Neural Integration (Norton, 2010), explores the application of focusing techniques for the clinician’s own development, as well as their clients' development of mindsight and neural integration. Pocket Guide to Interpersonal Neurobiology: An Integrative Handbook of the Mind (Norton, 2012), explores how to apply the interpersonal neurobiology approach to developing a healthy mind, an integrated brain, and empathic relationships.

The New York Times bestseller Mind: A Journey to the Heart of Being Human (Norton, 2016) offers a deep exploration of our mental lives as they emerge from the body and our relations to each other and the world around us. His upcoming book Aware: The Science and Practice of Presence (Tarcher/Perigee, August 2018) will provide practical instruction for mastering the Wheel of Awareness, a life-changing tool for cultivating more focus, presence, and peace in one's day-to-day life. Dr. Siegel's publications for professionals and the public have been translated into over forty languages. Dr. Siegel’s book, Mindsight: The New Science of Personal Transformation (Bantam, 2010), offers the general reader an in-depth exploration of the power of the mind to integrate the brain and promote well-being.

He has written five parenting books, including the three New York Times bestsellers Brainstorm: The Power and Purpose of the Teenage Brain (Tarcher/Penguin, 2014); The Whole-Brain Child: 12 Revolutionary Strategies to Nurture Your Child's Developing Mind (Random House, 2011) and No-Drama Discipline: The Whole-Brain Way to Calm the Chaos and Nurture Your Child's Developing Mind (Bantam, 2014), both with Tina Payne Bryson, Ph.D., The Yes Brain: How to Cultivate Courage, Curiosity, and Resilience in Your Child (Bantam, 2018) also with Tina Payne Bryson, Ph.D., and Parenting from the Inside Out: How a Deeper Self-Understanding Can Help You Raise Children Who Thrive (Tarcher/Penguin, 2003) with Mary Hartzell, M.Ed.

Dr. Siegel's unique ability to make complicated scientific concepts exciting and accessible has led him to be invited to address diverse local, national and international groups including mental professionals, neuroscientists, corporate leaders, educators, parents, public administrators, care providers, policy-makers, mediators, judges, and clergy. He has lectured for the King of Thailand, Pope John Paul II, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Google University, and London's Royal Society of Arts (RSA). He lives in Southern California with his family.

Ellen Wingard

Ellen Wingard consults to leaders from Fortune 100 companies, government, social enterprise, academic and non-profits who seek to connect “soul to role” in making a significant impact in their organizations and society. Ellen began as an early innovator in the leadership development field, linking mindfulness to presence-based coaching practices in the early 1980s, expanding her practice in the 1990s to address gender disparities through global women’s empowerment and evolving in the past 20 years to address gender, privilege, and race bias in the workplace.

Throughout her career, Ellen has been a key contributor to transformational practices that elevate a leader’s sense of purpose to positively disrupt “business as usual” of top-down, patriarchal practices to create workplace communities that foster shared purpose through a sense of belonging and imaginative freedom to invent and create solutions. Currently, Ellen works to build multi-stakeholder collaborations of “leader coalitions of the willing” who see their leadership as a sacred calling to address social injustice, gender/race inequities and environmental degradation as urgent and critical issues.

From 1994 to 2003, Ellen was fortunate to bring John O’Donohue into numerous workplace environments at Harvard Medical School, the Museum of Science, the International Coaching & Mentoring Conference, Linkage Inc. and multiple financial service institutions to address the responsibility of leadership as a sacred calling.

Ellen is currently a member of the Executive Coaching pool at the Harvard Business School Executive Education Program. She serves as Board Chair Emeritus of World Pulse, a digital media channel linking 60,000 grassroots global leaders in 190 countries. Ellen is also a board member of Auburn Seminary, a leadership development center dedicated to preparing the next generation of social justice leaders.

A graduate of Boston University and Antioch University, Ellen has extensive post-graduate training in systems thinking, mindfulness practice, culture change, team development, and executive assessment. Ellen received certification from the Harvard Negotiation Project in mediation. She is the coauthor of Strengthening Leadership Skills Through Coaching in Culture Shift, AHA, 1997, co-editor of the Jossey-Bass book Enlightened Power: How Women Are Transforming the Practice of Leadership, released in April 2005 and the forthcoming The Global Coach, 2018.