A Celebratory Evening Honoring Oliver W. Hill, Jr.
Dr. Oliver W. Hill, Jr. truly exemplified a contemplative mind in the many inspiring dimensions of his life. Join us online in a celebration of his memory through storytelling, music, meditation, and love!
Special guest speakers include Mirabai Bush, Dr. Michelle Chatman, Dr. Lenwood Hayman, Dr. David Levy, Rhonda Magee, and more to be announced.
Saturday, November 6th, 2021
7 – 8:30pm EST
Online, open to all
CMind is gratefully accepting donations towards the Oliver Hill Justice in Action Award fund. Beginning in 2022, the Oliver Hill Justice in Action Award will be shared by a faculty member and a community organization whose work together embodies the intersection of social justice, love, and contemplative practice, honoring Dr. Hill's vision of "transforming higher education to reflect contemplative values."
Dr. Oliver W. Hill, Jr., was a longtime CMind board member, friend, mentor, and source of continual inspiration and hope. Professor and Chair of the Department of Psychology at Virginia State University, he worked for the continued success of students of color in STEM fields. His life was a celebration of the power of contemplative living: his decades of dedication to his practices of meditation and yoga, to the work of social and racial justice, and to the expansion and transformation of consciousness toward integrating our hearts and minds for a more loving world. We will always be inspired by his wisdom, compassion, and humor.
Featured Speakers
Mirabai Bush is a co-founder of the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society and served as Executive Director until 2008. Under her direction, CMind developed many programs and a network of thousands of people integrating contemplative practice and perspective into their lives and work. Mirabai holds a unique background of organizational management, teaching, and spiritual practice. She formerly taught writing and English literature at SUNY Buffalo, in the Smith College School of Social Work, and orientation classes in mindfulness for first-year Amherst College students. She is co-author with Ram Dass of Walking Each Other Home: Conversations on Loving and Dying and Compassion in Action: Setting Out on the Path of Service, published by Random House; co-author with Daniel Barbezat of Contemplative Practices in Higher Education: Powerful Methods to Transform Teaching and Learning; and editor of Contemplation Nation: How Ancient Practices Are Changing the Way We Live.
Dr. Michelle Chatman, PhD, is Associate Professor of Crime, Justice, and Security Studies at the University of the District of Columbia. Michelle earned her doctorate in cultural anthropology from American University and teaches courses on urban inequality, youth development, and restorative and juvenile justice. A member of the Association for Contemplative Mind in Higher Education since 2011, Michelle has been active in leading numerous CMind initiatives and is the current President of the Board of Directors. Michelle is a vibrant leader on her campus and directs the UDC the Mindfulness & Contemplative Learning Initiative. She is enthusiastic about spreading culturally relevant and critical contemplative approaches that foster belonging, justice, and liberated learning.
Dr. Lenwood Hayman is Associate Professor of Behavioral Health Sciences in the School of Community Health & Policy, Morgan State University. As a teacher, he works to inspire social-justice-minded scholars to ask questions on the health issues situated in the communities from which they come. His research focuses on addressing the social, psychological, structural, and environmental influences of well-being in marginalized populations. Specifically, Lenwood’s practical scholarship is motivated by his drive to better understand how contemplative practices enhance well-being and social cohesion amongst emerging Native American adults, African-American men and boys, and first-generation and non-traditional college students. Lenwood’s theoretical scholarship, however, is centered on the scientific study of agaptic love in efforts to operationalize and ultimately cultivate Beloved Community. He is CMind’s Vice-President of the Board of Directors.
Dr. David Levy is a professor in the Information School (or iSchool) at the University of Washington. A technologist by training (PhD from Stanford in 1979), he also has a diploma in calligraphy and bookbinding from the Roehampton Institute in London (1983). David has taught at the iSchool since 2001, mainly investigating the challenge of achieving contemplative balance–how as individuals and as a society we might live healthy, reflective, and productive life while participating in an accelerating, information-saturated culture. Increasingly, he has been taking the fruits of his research and teaching beyond the walls of his own institution, and beyond the academy. These efforts include offering lectures and workshops at other universities and the publication of Mindful Tech: How to Bring Balance to Our Digital Lives (Yale, 2016). He is a former board member of CMind, the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society.
Rhonda V. Magee (M.A. Sociology, J.D.) is a Professor of Law at the University of San Francisco and an internationally-recognized thought and practice leader focused on integrating mindfulness into higher education, law and social change work. A prolific author, she draws on law and legal history to weave storytelling, poetry, analysis and practices into inspiration for changing how we think, act and live better together in a rapidly changing world. A student of a variety of Buddhist and other wisdom teachers, including Norman Fischer, Joan Halifax and Jon Kabat Zinn, she trained as a mindfulness teacher through the Oasis Teacher Training Institute of the University of Massachusetts Center for Mindfulness. She teaches mindfulness-based interventions, awareness, and compassion practices from a range of traditions. She is a former President of the board of CMind, the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society.