Cultural anthropologist, executive, author, speaker, and educator with extensive experience in community and corporate settings. Her doctoral work focused on improving social vitality, human resilience, and cultural recovery after disasters has been applied to assist communities and corporations worldwide. She was also a close collaborator with Jonas Salk on issues of health policy and the science of hope, and has been a professor at different universities in Oxford, Kyoto, Heidelberg, Michigan, and California. She has developed innovative multidisciplinary programs and has published over 280 articles. She has also been a keynote speaker for various prominent organizations.

She holds a Master of Arts in Anthropology and Comparative Religion from Claremont Graduate University, a Bachelor of Letters in Social Anthropology from Oxford University, and a Bachelor of Arts, History and Comparative Religion from McGill University.

Author of several books, including «Against Terrible Odds», co-written with Saul Levine, which addresses individual resilience, and «Third Class Ticket», which has been translated into several languages and currently being adapted into a film.