Our Team
Chip Conley
New York Times bestselling author Chip Conley is the boutique hotel entrepreneur who helped Airbnb's founders turn their fast-growing tech start-up into a global hospitality brand. Chip is the founder of the Modern Elder Academy, where a new roadmap for midlife is offered at a beautiful oceanfront campus in Mexico. MEA will be opening up their first two U.S. Academies and Regenerative Community in Santa Fe, New Mexico soon.
Michael Hebb
Michael Hebb is the founder of Death Over Dinner, Generations Over Dinner and Drugs Over Dinner. He is the author of Let’s Talk About Death (Over Dinner) - Hachette 2018. He currently serves as a Board Advisor at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts, is the primary editor of the COVID Paper; and in the recent past served as a Partner at RoundGlass and Senior Advisor to Summit Series, Theo Chocolate, CreativeLive, Architecture For Humanity, and Mosaic Voices Foundation.
Martha Deevy
Martha Deevy joined the Stanford Center on Longevity in January, 2009 and serves as Associate Director and Senior Research Scholar. While at the Center, she has led the financial security research program which has focused efforts on retirement readiness, working longer and the detection and prevention of fraud. Prior to joining Stanford, Martha had a long career with Silicon Valley firms.
Ethan Lipsitz
Alongside friends and strangers, I started Love Extremist with a simple heart symbol in 2015. It has since blossomed into a platform for media, products, experiences and projects that inspire new definitions and actions oriented around love. When I was diagnosed with brain cancer in 2017 it became my mission to use creative expression in all forms to inspire love for my personal healing, my community and the world. I host salons, facilitate workshops, support leaders, make art, host a podcast, create mantra videos, write about healing and share music.
Tanya Watia
Tanya has over 20 years experience leading lifestyle and luxury brands in creative strategies, digital marketing, branding, community building and wellness programming. She has worked for brands such as Six Senses Resorts, Soho House & Co, Club 21 (Balenciaga, Paul Smith, Dover Street Market & DKNY), wellness brand COMO Shambhala, COMO Hotels & Resorts, and several tech companies.
Marc Freedman
Marc Freedman is Founder and CoCEO of Encore.org. A member of the Wall Street Journal’s Experts group, he is the author of five books, including most recently, How to Live Forever: The Enduring Power of Connecting the Generations. Freedman co-founded Experience Corps to mobilize people over 50 to improve the prospects of low-income elementary school, and the Purpose Prize, an annual award for social innovators in the second half of life. He was named a Social Entrepreneur of the Year by the World Economic Forum, and has been honored with the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship.
Kari Cardinale
Kari is a digital intimacy master, creating deep connections IRL and URL. Curious about everything, she’s a lifelong entrepreneur and expert in the longevity industry. Kari developed and facilitates our MEA Online programs. She and her husband live in California.
Lilly Griffin
With over 15 years experience in the hospitality industry, Lilly brings a high level of leadership and business administration experience, combined with an approachable attitude and a deep heart for service. She is the Senior Project Manager for Modern Elder Academy and Secretary/Treasurer for Association for Growth and Education (AGE). She lives in Northern California and runs a small family farm.
Leslie Bartlett
Leslie is the Director of Alumni Programs at MEA and has a passion for service, bringing people together....and adventure! She danced on Germany’s Brandenburg gate, rode a Balinese elephant, and witnessed Africa’s Big 5 up close. A lifelong seeker, with a Masters in Spiritual Psychology, Leslie is often found hiking near her Colorado home.
Thomas Socha
Thomas J. Socha, PhD. is Professor of Communication in the Graduate Program on Lifespan and Digital Communication in the Department of Communication & Theatre Arts at Old Dominion University (Norfolk, Virginia). He has published and presented extensively and internationally (in China, Costa Rica, Cuba, Europe, and South Africa) about family communication, children’s communication, positive communication, communication and ethnic culture, and more.
Our Advisors
Dr. Ken Dychtwald
Since 1986, Ken has been the Founder and CEO of Age Wave, an acclaimed think tank and consultancy focused on the social and business implications and opportunities of global aging and rising longevity. His client list has included over half the Fortune 500. He has served as a fellow of the World Economic Forum and was a featured speaker at two White House Conferences on Aging.
Dr. Deogratias “Deo” Niyizonkiza
Deo is the co-founder and executive director of Village Health Works, a grassroots non-profit organization providing compassionate, quality health care to vulnerable community members in rural Burundi. Strength In What Remains depicts Deo’s journey from being a medical student in Burundi, to a struggling immigrant in New York City, to an Ivy League-educated global health practitioner and doctor-in-training. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including a 2013 honorary degree from Williams College, the 2011 International Medal Award of St John’s University and the 2010 Women Refugee Commission’s Voices of Courage Award.
Monica Guzman
Monica is the Director of Digital and Storytelling at Braver Angels, a nonprofit working to depolarize America, host of the Crosscut interview series Northwest Newsmakers, and author of the upcoming title from BenBella Books: I Never Thought Of It That Way: How to Have Fearlessly Curious Conversations in Dangerously Divided Times. Moni was a 2019 fellow at the Henry M. Jackson Foundation, where she studied social and political division, and a 2016 fellow at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University.
Richard Leider
Internationally bestselling author and coach, Richard is founder of Inventure – The Purpose Company, where the mission is to help people to “unlock the power of purpose” and answer that question. He is ranked by Forbes as one the “Top 5” most respected coaches.
Ashton Applewhite
Ashton Applewhite would like us to think differently about growing older. As she writes: "Aging is a natural, lifelong, powerful process that unites us all. So how come so many of us unthinkingly assume that depression, diapers, and dementia lie ahead? Because of ageism -- the last socially sanctioned prejudice." She's the author of This Chair Rocks: A Manifesto Against Ageism and is the voice of the Yo, Is This Ageist? blog.
Bruce Feiler
Bruce Feiler is one of America’s most thoughtful voices on contemporary life. He is the author of seven New York Times bestsellers; the presenter of two prime-time series on PBS; and the inspiration for the NBC drama series COUNCIL OF DADS. Bruce’s three TED Talks have been viewed more than four million times. A former columnist with the New York Times, Bruce writes the popular newsletter The Nonlinear Life about navigating life’s ups and downs.
Michael Franti
Michael Franti is an American rapper, musician, poet, activist, documentarian, and singer-songwriter, known for his participation in many musical projects, most with a political and social emphasis, including the Beatnigs and the Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy. His band, Michael Franti and Spearhead have several songs hit #1 on the pop charts.
Elissa Epel
Elissa Epel, Ph.D, is a Professor, and Vice Chair, in the Department of Psychiatry, at University of California, San Francisco. She is the Director of the Aging, Metabolism, and Emotions Center, and the Consortium for Obesity Assessment, Study, & Treatment, (COAST), and Associate Director of the Center for Health and Community. She co-authored "The Telomere Effect" (2017) with Elizabeth Blackburn, a NYT bestseller under the category of Science.
Justin Michael Williams
When he was younger, Justin always wanted to be a singer, but a lifetime of being bullied, teased, and abused, made him give up his dream. Then after a seminal moment with his dying grandmother, Justin woke up—and his debut album premiered in the top 20 of the iTunes charts next to Britney Spears and Taylor Swift. He has since been featured by Billboard, Grammy.com, SXSW®, and shared on stages alongside some of the most compelling leaders of our time, including Marianne Williamson, Deepak Chopra, and Chaka Khan.
Dr. Karl Pillemer
Dr. Karl Pillemer is the Hazel E. Reed Professor in the Department of Psychology, Professor of Gerontology in Medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine, and Senior Associate Dean for Research and Outreach in the College of Human Ecology. Pillemer also directs the Cornell Legacy Project and is author of the book 30 Lessons for Living. His major interests center on human development over the life course, with a special emphasis on family and social relationships in middle age and beyond.
Barbara Waxman
Barbara Waxman, the founder of Odyssey Group Coaching, is an aging advocate who helped define the life stage Middlescence. She is passionate about building leaders’ personal and professional skills so they can thrive while maximizing their effectiveness in the face of change and complexity. Her leadership in the coaching field has culminated in the transformative coaching model, Entrepreneurship Turned Inward©, and her science-based Five Essential Elements© process.
Ari Wallach
Ari Wallach is a futurist and social systems strategist. He is the founder and Executive Director of Longpath Labs, an initiative focused on bringing long-term thinking and coordinated behavior to the individual, organizational, and societal realms in order to ensure humanity flourishes on an ecologically thriving planet Earth for centuries to come. Ari is the author of Longpath: Becoming the Great Ancestors Our Future Needs by HarperOne.
Ari Graynor
Ari Graynor is an acclaimed stage, screen and television actor who’s many credits include Nick and Norah’s infinite playlist, For a Good Time Call; The Disaster Artist; I’m Dying Up Here, Mrs. America, and Hello Sunshine’s new show Surface. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Cut and InStyle. She will make her directorial debut with a film she wrote called ALMA, which is being produced by Cate Blanchett's company Dirty Films.
Dana Griffin
Dana Griffin is the Co-Founder and CEO of Eldera.ai, a health tech company built as a global platform for wisdom sharing and intergenerational connection. We are on a mission to unlock the time and wisdom of 1 billion elders around the world as a new natural resource for all generations to thrive. We started by applying this new natural resource to the social emotional resilience of kids with huge success, and this is just the beginning.
Donald Byrd
Donald Byrd has been the Artistic Director of Spectrum Dance Theater since December 2002. Formerly, he was Artistic Director of Donald Byrd/The Group, a critically acclaimed contemporary dance company, founded in Los Angeles and later based in New York, that toured both nationally and internationally. His career has been long and complex, and his choreographic and theatrical interests are broad. He is a Tony-nominated (The Color Purple) and Bessie Award-winning (The Minstrel Show) choreographer.
Tim West
Tim West is a Slow Food chef turned Social Entrepreneur and Food Futurist. In 2013 he was recognized as one of Zagat’s 30 under 30 Food-World Up-and-Comers for his work producing Food Hackathons and has since served as a Fellow4Good at the Institute for the Future and Global Ambassador to the Future Food Institute. Tim now leads the Sundial Foundation, a new venture philanthropy group, aimed at tackling some of the world's toughest social and environmental challenges by iginighting a more diverse landscape of entrepreneurial changemakers.
Amanda Saab
Amanda was born and raised in Dearborn Michigan, where she learned her love for cooking and baking from her mother and grandmother. Amanda’s passion for food and sharing led her to compete on MasterChef; the world’s largest food competition.
Dr. Lewis Lipsitz
Director, Hinda and Arthur Marcus Institute for Aging Research & Chief Academic Officer Irving and Edyth S. Usen and Family Chair in Medical Research. Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School and Chief, Division of Gerontology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and the chief academic officer at Hebrew SeniorLife.
Matthew Heineman
Matthew Heineman is an Academy Award-nominated and Emmy Award-winning filmmaker. His films include A Private War, Cartel Land, The Trade, Escape Fire, Tiger, City of Ghosts, The Boy from Medellin, The First Wave and a new film coming soon Retrograde.
Sandy Cioffi
Sandy Cioffi has founded starts-ups, led community college programs, and produced convenings to move the needle on pressing social and political issues. An interdisciplinary artist, Sandy’s film credits including the critically acclaimed documentary Sweet Crude (2010) and Crocodile Tears (1997); and she was pivotal in supporting human rights organizations in Northern Ireland, using video as a documentation and verification tool during the 1998 Marching Season. She documented the Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride led by now congresswoman Pramila Jayapal in 2003. Sandy is currently the founder and Chief Creative Officer at Fearless Creative and True Story Laboratory.
Arif Khan
Arif Khan has designed and managed refugee camps and initiated relief projects that supported hundreds of thousands of people in the Middle East, South Asia, and East Africa. In the US, he founded Depave, an award-winning organization that transforms underused parking lots into greenspaces and gardens. He also spearheaded the creation of the first-ever community food garden on international territory in the ‘back yard’ of the United Nations Headquarters in New York. He currently lives in the New York Hudson Valley where he owns and manages a small restaurant, is a volunteer firefighter, and advises nonprofits and public agencies.
Marshall Jones
Marshall Davis Jones is the founder of MindBodySpeak; a leading authority in vocal communication for high stakes discussion. His techniques have won negotiations, deescalated conflicts and acquired business relationships across multiple industries. He has worked with renowned speakers, industry leaders and various organizations from youth development to law enforcement. Besides writing and performing poetry globally, he has played a narrative consultant role for two documentaries and for industry strategy via think tanks.
Adam White
Bestselling author Adam White grew up in Damariscotta, Maine, and now lives with his wife and son in Boston, where he teaches writing and coaches lacrosse. He holds an MFA from Columbia University. The Midcoast is his first novel.
Working Group
Nancy Kessler
Nancy Kessler, founder of Memoirs Plus, (memoirsplus.com) has a passion for listening and capturing the essence of a life. Formerly a Curator at the Museum of the City of New York, she often tells clients that she is making an exhibit out of their lives. Nancy is a frequent speaker for civic organizations and teaches Memoir Writing. She has a passion for intergenerational projects.
Yasmin P. Khan
Yasmin believes we can find better ways to care for ourselves and each other as we grow older. Coming from a diverse background in art making, education and caregiving, Yasmin is working with organizations creating inter/multi-generational community with a focus on life-long learning, centered around the care of the whole human being and the earth.
Julia Campbell
Julia has worked in the field of elder care and aging for over 15 years currently serving as Director of Marketing and Business Development for Concierge Health NY, a private care management firm. Previous to that, Julia enjoyed a career in private banking in New York City and co-owned an investigative and security firm serving high net worth individuals and businesses for over 30 years.
Meg Barnhart
Meg Barnhart is the Founder/Co-creator of the Zen of Slow Cooking. She created the business with the intention of helping people slow down and reconnect over the shared meal.
Karen Erbacher
Karen has built a rewarding career as a versatile business professional with a passion for mission-driven organizations, professional membership associations and helping enterprises succeed. Broad-based experience working in both corporate and entrepreneurial worlds -- applying strengths in Strategy, Communications, HR/Organizational Design, Relationship Building and Operations -- have afforded several rich, diverse opportunities to add value.
Pat Whitty
Health and Life Transition Coach, Technology Trainer for Seniors at Senior Planet/AARP
Van Hutcherson
Van has 30 years of trading experience, specializing in derivatives, capital markets, and block executions. He is currently a Managing Director at JonesTrading. Prior to JonesTrading, he was a Managing Director at Goldman Sachs and a member of their Chicago Leadership Team. In 2019, Van received his Executive Leadership LGBTQ+ MBA from Stanford’s Graduate School of Business.