SHORT BIO
Born in Israel, I grew up in the US where I received a BA in psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a PhD in clinical psychology at the University of Vermont, clinical internship training at the Palo Alto VA, and postdoctoral research training at the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University School of Medicine and the Palo Alto VA Center for Health Care Evaluation. In 2008, I returned to Israel to join the School of Psychological Sciences at the University of Haifa, where I am now a Full Professor and Director of the Observing Minds Lab and the Moments of Refuge Project. At the university, my students and I work to deepen scientific insight into mental health through the study of mindfulness, compassion and internally-directed cognition. Within refugee communities, I direct an ambulatory research and social impact laboratory dedicated to the mental health and human rights of forcibly displaced people. Our university and community-embedded research led to the Moments of Refuge Project – a global science-based social impact initiative, using mindfulness and compassion training, to empower forcibly displaced people to cultivate moments of refuge and thereby resilience and recovery. I am fortunate that my group’s work has been recognized by the Israel Council of Higher Education Yigal Alon Fellowship, an EU Marie Curie Reintegration award, a Mind and Life Institute Research Fellowship, the Israel Young Academy of the Israel National Academy of Sciences and Humanities, and supported by a range of national and international scientific funding agencies and foundations.