Front Line Aid Workers and Volunteers Responding to COVID-19 Benefit from Evidence-based Meditation that Energizes, Brings Joy and Reduces Burnout Washington, D.C., June 1, 2021 — To empower employees supporting various life-saving initiatives, including the response to the current COVID-19 pandemic, the Art of Living Foundation offered its flagship SKY Breath Meditation program to employees […]
William L. Hayden recently retired from his position at the Goddard Space Flight Center as the lead telescope systems engineer on the NASA James Webb Space Telescope. He was the technical lead for the $1B telescope for which he managed a team of government and industry engineers and scientists. William’s prior work at NASA and elsewhere has been as a technical manager and engineer notably the Branch Head for the Instrument and Mechanical Systems Branch, lead for the Instrument Development Lab, lead systems analyst for the Cassini Composite Infrared Spectrometer, and development of NASA’s space laser communications systems. He authored and co-authored several technical papers on his work at NASA. He was the creator and president for the Goddard Art of Living employee club, offering healthy lifestyle options to NASA employees for over 20 years.
William became an Art of Living teacher in 1994. He produced five Art of Living books, and has volunteered for many local Art of Living events. He had co-developed the Homes for Change program under IAHV. This program is now part of the 5H Program – the Association’s major community development program
Among other awards, William received NASA’s Distinguished Service Medal – NASA’s highest honor in 2015. Since 1988 he has been residing in Maryland with his wife and adopted son from India.
Filiz leads IAHV’s governance, strategic partnerships and public relations. Her engagements include serving on the Secretary’s Subcommittee for Women at the U.S. State Department’s ACIEP; Lessons Learned Working Group at USIP and Board member of Atatürk Society of America.
She partnered with the UN to engage students globally with service projects in her previous position as the executive director of an INGO. A former journalist, she was selected as one of the Nation’s Top 90 Women Mentoring Leaders at the Global Women Mentoring and Philanthropy Summit; recipient of the Capitol Hero Award from the American University; Vishalakshi Service Award from the Art of Living Foundation; and was nominated for People Who Make a Difference Award by the Helena Rubinstein Inc.
Filiz holds M.A. in Communications and Conflict Management from American University and teaches stress-management and meditation courses.
Jeff has over twenty five years working as the Director of Software Development and as a consultant in the information technology field for various Fortune 500 companies. Retiring in 2005, he has volunteered with various non-profits setting up good business practices based on his professional experience.
He has taught SKY Meditation for over 25 years and is now focused on bringing this practice more individuals through the Internal Association for Human Values. Jeff after growing up in Pennsylvania, enjoys living the “outdoor life” in Santa Barbara, CA with his family.
Jeffrey Houk graduated Magna Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and Accounting from Millersville State University.
Sneh Khanna has dedicated her life to the service of women, children, and families. She has had a diverse and illustrious career, starting as a teacher and Headmistress, and having worked in both industry and agriculture before starting her term in politics.
Sneh was an advisor and worked in promotion of international trade, as well as having served as the overseas Rep for the Bengal National Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BNCCI). As part of her work she traveled extensively around the world. She currently serves in numerous non-profit and religious organizations to support initiatives that drive education, opportunities, food, shelter and spirituality for those in need. She continues to serve as an advisor and consultant for multiple global/multinational companies. Sneh has served on the Board of Directors of IAHV for almost a decade.
Kapil Bhatnagar is a partner at Carlton Pace Wealth Management and is responsible for the Wealth Management division. He has provided personalized financial solutions to clients since 1992. Kapil has frequently moderated courses for American College in Estate Planning, Personal Insurance, Business Planning, Employee Benefits and Annuities.
Kushal is an entrepreneur with background in quantitative finance and technology.
He is the founder and CEO of Clavileno Capital. Kushal started his career with Goldman Sachs Asset Management. In 2005, he left Goldman Sachs as a vice president to join Athilon, an investment fund as one of the core members of the team. In 2009, he retired from Athilon as managing director and moved to India as senior vice president of fixed income business for BlackRock. He took a break from the Wall Street in 2011 to start a technology startup called Hubbl, which was acquired in 2013.
Kushal has been involved with various initiatives of IAHV and Art of Living foundation since 2005.
Kushal holds MS in information systems and also MS in computational finance from Carnegie Mellon University. He holds bachelors in structural engineering from Gujarat University. He is a CFA charter holder.
Katherine Sellery is CEO and Founder of Conscious Parenting Revolution, helps individuals minimize misunderstandings and melt-downs in order to communicate with more collaboration, cooperation, and consideration.
A creator of the Guidance Approach to Parenting, a program that applies conflict resolution skills to communicating more effectively with children, Katherine has positively influenced relationships for generations and brought about healing and reconciliation in families that were suffering from disconnection, retaliation, rebellion and resistance. For over 20 years, she has taught and coached thousands of parents, educators, social workers, and medical professionals in half a dozen countries through her popular workshops, coaching programs, TEDx talks, 250 page comprehensive training manual, and Ebook. Katherine is also a trained mediator, attended Law School, has certifications in different trauma models, is an Art of Living Foundation teacher, and ran her own commodities-trading business in Hong Kong for 30 years.
In 2018, following a suspected shooter on campus incident at USC (where her daughter was studying at the time), she was rattled and became passionate to bring the business, political, mental health care providers, schools and spiritual leaders together to create a national conversation to get to the front side of the mental wellness crisis in America. With main sponsors and collaborators IAHV & Art of Living, Katherine chaired the National Mental Health and Mental Fitness 3 day event that culminated in the largest meditation in US History at Denver’s city park summer of 2019. They also brought together leaders in all these areas to share best practices culminating in a white paper presented to US Congressman Ed Perlmutter (co-chair of the gun violence task force).
Madhu Kadari works with Jackson and Tull. Electrical Engineer by profession – with 15 years of experience in hardware design – Madhu is currently working on the Hubble Space Telescope vision system for the NASA Goddard.
He is also the National Coordinator for 5H program. In this capacity, he has overseen the participation of 42 countries in the first International 5H Serve-a-thon in 2002. The projects included food drives to organizing outings for children living in orphanages, community cleanups, and a blood donation camp. Mr. Kadari was also the coordinator for the International 5H Walk for Gujarat Earthquake that thousands participated from 30 countries. This walk was the first of its kind where thousands of people got united around the same cause and walked at the same time regardless of time and zone differences. Mr. Kadari organized national and local fundraisers since 1996 through 5H Concert Series that raises funds to support youth to train for the village empowerment programs.
Mr. Kadari holds M.S in Computer Engineering from University of Maryland, College Park.