
Resourcing, Reconnection, and Reemergence:
Centering Contemplative Practices in our Work and in our Healing
Main Conference: Friday – Saturday, Nov. 5th – 6th
Contemplative Workshop: Sunday, Nov. 7th, 11am – 2pm EST
All events are online; all times listed are Eastern time zone
Two full days of concurrent presentations, two keynote talks, a live musical performance, and an online poster session, plus a Sunday workshop and more! View the Conference Schedule.

Dr. Ron Bell
Keynote Conversation
Pastor and Author, The Four Promises: Journeying through Past and Present Trauma

Dr. Angel Acosta
Keynote Conversation
Chief Learning Officer, Acosta Institute and Fellowship Program Director, Garrison Institute

Allyn Johnson
An Evening of Live Music
Pianist and Director of the Jazz Studies Program, University of the District of Columbia

Conferences of the Association for Contemplative Mind in Higher Education (ACMHE) are biennial interdisciplinary forums for all aspects of scholarship and research on contemplative approaches in higher education.
For 2021, the conference will focus on how contemplative practices can support and sustain learning communities that resource and enhance resilience, connection, and healthy reemergence back into a more equitable and inclusive society. Acknowledging the ways in which the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the inequities and disparities created by systemic oppression, we are now faced with an even greater urgency to collectively move the societal needle of engaging with one another and the environment from health-compromising to health-enhancing, from unsustainable to sustainable, from unjust to just. This movement will be facilitated by a more compassionate understanding of the loss and grief we have experienced as individuals and communities, illumination of the resilience and wisdom that we have drawn upon, and the application of the diverse learning, healing, and transformative strategies that have emerged.
Therefore, the goals of the 2021 ACMHE conference are to explore the importance of the following areas of focus:
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- radical self and community care,
- acknowledging and sitting with our experiences of loss and grief,
- emphasizing the criticality of fostering a foundation of compassion between historically disparate communities, and
- learning how to be more intentional about demonstrating these goals across all aspects of education.
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2021 Conference Committee
Lenwood Hayman Jr., Committee Chair
Associate Professor, Department of Behavioral Health Sciences, School of Community Health & Policy, Morgan State University
Ericka Echavarria
Associate Director of Field Education & Adjunct Professor, Columbia School of Social Work
Darren Bernal
Assistant Professor of Psychology, UNC Asheville
Ann MacLellan
Program Coordinator, Anthropology/Sociology, Community College of Baltimore County
El Chenier
Professor of History, Simon Fraser University
Karolyn Kinane
Associate Director of Pedagogy and Faculty Engagement, Contemplative Sciences Center, UVA
Michael Kimball
Professor of Anthropology, College of Humanities & Social Sciences, University of Northern Colorado
Shelly Harrell
Psy.D. Research Coordinator & Professor, Pepperdine University
Gabrielle Cuesta
Faculty, SEEK Department, John Jay College of Criminal Justice
Conference Coordinator
Maya Elinevsky
Events & Outreach Manager, CMind
Thank you to all who submitted presentation proposals!
Proposals were accepted through September 7, 2021