Valerie Brown is a Buddhist-Quaker Dharma teacher and executive coach. A former lawyer and lobbyist, she is co-director of Georgetown's Institute for Transformational Leadership as well as the founder of Lead Smart Coaching. She is an ordained Dharma teacher in Thich Nhat Hanh's Plum Village tradition.

Marisela B. Gomez, MD, is a community activist, public health professional, and physician-scientist. She received her MD-PhD and MPH from Johns Hopkins University Schools of Medicine and Public Health. Drawing on 17 years of activism-research in East Baltimore, her writings address mindfulness practices in community organizing and development.

Kaira Jewel Lingo lived as a nun for 15 years from the age of 25 under the guidance of Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh. Also a teacher in Spirit Rock Meditation Center's Vipassana Insight lineage, today she sees her work as a continuation of the Engaged Buddhism developed by Thich Nhat Hanh as well as her parents' work with Martin Luther King Jr.