Symposium Speakers

Lewis Richmond, Buddhist minister and author

Lewis Richmond has been a meditation teacher, musician, and software entrepreneur. He is the author of four previous books, including the national best-seller, Work as a Spiritual Practice: A Practical Buddhist Approach to Inner Growth and Satisfaction on the Job and the more recent award-winning Aging as a Spiritual Practice: A Contemplative Guide to Growing Older and Wiser. In addition to these books, Richmond’s essays have appeared in such magazines as Tricycle, The Buddhadharma, Turning Wheel, and Shambhala Sun. While in retirement, he remains a musician and composer, and an editor and mentor to other authors. He writes a weekly column at The Good Men Project. 

Carla Dahl, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus

Carla Dahl is Professor Emeritus of Congregational and Community Care at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota. She has trained therapists and clergy since 1993 and also has a private counseling and consulting practice, working with individuals, couples, and groups around issues of grief, trauma, spirituality, relationships, and life transitions. In particular, Carla has studied the effects of ambiguous loss for thirty years and has coauthored several chapters on how to support individuals and families as they deal with this stressful experience. Her current research is focused on long-distance grandmothering, along with her 7-year-old research assistant Guthrie.

Sandeep Jauhar, M.D., Ph.D, cardiologist and author

Sandeep Jauhar became a contributing opinion writer for The New York Times in March 2015. A practicing cardiologist, he earned a Ph.D. in experimental physics at U.C. Berkeley before going on to study medicine at Washington University in St. Louis. He has been writing regularly about medicine for the Times since 1998.

In addition to his journalism, Dr. Jauhar has written three bestselling books, all published by Farrar, Straus, and Giroux. His first book, Intern: A Doctor's Initiation, was a national bestseller and was optioned by NBC for a dramatic television series.

His second book, Doctored: The Disillusionment of an American Physician, was a New York Times bestseller and was named a New York Post Best Book of 2014.

Heart: A History was named a best book of 2018 by the Mail on Sunday, Science Friday, Zocalo Public Square, and the Los Angeles Public Library, and was the PBS NewsHour/New York Times book club pick for January 2019; it was also a finalist for the Wellcome Book Prize.

My Father’s Brain (2023) is a memoir of his relationship with his father as he succumbed to dementia, but it is also about the history and science of brain degeneration. In the book, Jauhar sets his father’s descent into Alzheimer’s alongside his own journey toward understanding his father’s disease.

The book relates the complications that arise when family members must become caregivers, as well as the bonds of siblings—and the testing of those bonds. Though the conflicts are personal, they are also in many ways universal—conversations and conflicts that every family facing the mental erosion of an elder has. At the same time, the book explores everything from the history of ancient Greece to the most cutting-edge neurological―and bioethical―research. It delves into what happens in the brain as we age and our memory falters, how memory gives meaning to our lives, even as it changes with time, how dementia complicates our understanding of what it means to have a self — and what all this means for patients, their families, and society at large.

Dr. Jauhar has appeared frequently on National Public Radio, CNN, and MSNBC to discuss issues related to medicine. His essays have also been published in The Wall Street Journal, Time, and Slate. His TED Talk on the emotional heart was one of the ten most-watched TED Talks of 2019. To learn more about him and his work, visit his website at www.sandeepjauhar.com or follow him on Twitter: @sjauhar.

Stephen J. Shields, Co-Founder and CEO Action Pact Holdings, LLC

Stephen Shields is Co-Founder and CEO of Action Pact Holdings based in Kansas City, MO. Action Pact Holdings is known globally for innovative and high-quality standards in senior living, having introduced the Household Model to the senior living industry in the late 1990’s. Action Pact Holdings companies include Action Pact Development, Action Pact Design (architecture), Action Pact Interiors, and Action Pact Management. Services include project development, architectural design, interior design, operations management, financial modeling, and fund sourcing.

Shields has been an international thought and action leader in the creation of innovative models in senior living for decades. He has been a featured keynote speaker and workshop presenter across the nation and abroad and has done two Ted Talks. As a founding board member of the Pioneer Network of Rochester, NY, Shields was an early and prominent voice in the culture change movement.

Action Pact Holdings, under Shields direction, has developed and designed state of the art innovative senior living campuses across the United States. At the outset of Covid-19 in 2020, Shields repositioned the company to exclusively focus on rural senior living and healthcare development, holding the belief that ongoing societal trends have potential for small town revitalization and innovation.

Shields has authored many articles, editorials, and technical briefs regarding the Household Model and other senior living innovations. He and LaVrene Norton co-authored “In Pursuit of the Sunbeam- a Practical Guide to Transformation from Institution to Household “which is currently in its eighth printing.

Shields taught Leadership in Long Term Care at Kansas State University for 17 years, where he received the public advocacy award in 2007. He is a recipient of the Pioneer Network Vision and Leadership Award, Kansas Leading Age Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Fort Hays State University Distinguished Service Award, where he served as a Foundation Board Member for many years. He is a Rotary International Paul Harris Fellow.

Jason Flatt, Ph.D., MPH, Assistant Professor

Jason D. Flatt, PhD, MPH (Pronouns: He/Him/They/Them) is an Assistant Professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, School of Public Health, Department of Social and Behavioral Health. Jason is a dedicated researcher who is passionate about improving the lives of LGBTQIA+ individuals. Jason’s current research works to better understand concerns and needs of diverse LGBTQIA+ people living with Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and their care providers. By examining risk and protective factors, he aims to develop better screenings, treatments, and interventions to prevent and reduce the burden of these diseases within the LGBTQIA+ community. Jason’s research is funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Institute on Aging; American Federation for Aging Research; Alzheimer’s Association and The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research. Jason also works with several communities on www.theRISEregistry.org, the first NIH-funded registry for LGBTQIA+ people experiencing memory loss or caring for someone with memory loss. Jason’s work has been featured in the NPR, U.S. News and World Report, The Advocate, Newsweek, as well as at the Alzheimer's Association. Learn more about Jason’s research at www.RainbowsofAging.org. Jason and their husband live in Las Vegas, NV with their three pups, Tuna, Bowie and Elton.

Fabrice Jotterand, Ph.D., Professor of Bioethics and Medical Humanities

Fabrice Jotterand, Ph.D., MA, is Professor of Bioethics and Medical Humanities and serves as Director of the Graduate Program in Bioethics at the Medical College of Wisconsin. He is the Director of the Kern Philosophies of Medical Education Transformation Laboratory (P-METaL) at MCW and holds an appointment as Senior Researcher at the Institute for Biomedical Ethics, University of Basel, Switzerland. He has published more than 80 articles and book chapters as well as reviews in leading academic journals and has published 8 books. His scholarship and research interests include issues in the philosophy of medicine, neuroethics, ethical issues in psychiatry and mental health, neurotechnologies and human identity, the ethics of AI in medicine, and moral and political philosophy. He is the author of the recent monograph entitled The Unfit Brain and the Limits of Moral Bioenhancement (Palgrave, 2022) and the co-editor of The Routledge Handbook of the Ethics of Human Enhancement (Routledge, 2023).  He is currently working on a book project (tentatively titled The Human as a Project? Confronting the Zeitgeist of Modern Medicine) that examines issues at the intersection of philosophical anthropology, emerging technologies, and medicine, with a particular focus on what anthropological framework(s) should guide the education of future physicians and clinical practice considering the increasing integration of powerful technology in medicine. At the Kern Institute, his work examines the importance of character formation in the moral development of future physicians as well as how the philosophy of medicine contributes to medical professionalism.