Gayle D. Beebe, Ph.D.
黑料百科 president since 2007, Beebe has spent more than a quarter century in higher education. He has authored or edited more than 40 articles and 11 books including, 鈥淭he Shaping of an Effective Leader: Eight Formative Principles of Leadership鈥 and "The Crucibles That Shape Us: Navigating the Defining Challenges of Leadership." Leading unprecedented growth at 黑料百科 while facing significant challenges, he has loved attracting new resources to build out the campus, developing new academic and co-curricular programs, and pursuing the next horizon. Under Beebe鈥檚 leadership the college has raised nearly $500 million dollars for various projects and new academic programs and added more than 400,000 square feet in new or renovated facilities on campus and in downtown Santa Barbara.
New York Times Columnist & Author
Brooks is a New York Times columnist and author of several books, including the #1 New York Times Bestsellers, "The Road to Character" and "The Second Mountain: The Quest for a Moral Life." Brooks is one of America鈥檚 most prominent political and social commentators. He writes a bi-weekly, op-ed column for the New York Times and regularly appears on PBS News Hour and National Public Radio鈥檚 All Things Considered. His most recent book, "How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen," reflects on the topic of human connection and its importance in today's society.
鈥満诹习倏 has become my home away from home鈥nd the kind of conversations that we have here, the kind of people I鈥檝e gotten a chance to be with year after year have become valuable to me.鈥 - David Brooks
Global AI Advisor and Former Head of Go-To-Market at OpenAI
Zack Kass is an advisor, researcher, keynote speaker, and the former Head of Go-To-Market at OpenAI. At OpenAI, Zack led the teams responsible for sales, partnerships, and customer success, turning the company鈥檚 cutting-edge research into real-world business solutions. He has personally advised executives across dozens of industries on deploying AI at scale. As an executive business advisor, Zack now works with Fortune 1,000 boardrooms and leadership teams鈥攊ncluding Coca-Cola, Morgan Stanley, and Amgen鈥攖o help leaders navigate the rapidly evolving AI landscape. Zack鈥檚 mission is to ensure individuals, businesses, and governments are active participants in the AI-powered future by making the technology both understandable and actionable. He is recognized as one of the foremost thinkers in applied AI, with his insights featured in Fortune, Newsweek, Entrepreneur, AdAge, and Business Insider. Beyond his advisory work, Zack also supports AI education and research at the University of Virginia. He holds a BA from the University of California, Berkeley, and currently resides in Santa Barbara, California.
Director of The Human Flourishing Program
VanderWeele is the John L. Loeb and Frances Lehman Loeb Professor of Epidemiology in the Departments of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and Director of the and Co-Director of the at Harvard University. He holds degrees from the University of Oxford, University of Pennsylvania, and Harvard University in mathematics, philosophy, theology, finance, and biostatistics. His methodological research is focused on theory and methods for distinguishing between association and causation in the biomedical and social sciences and, more recently, on psychosocial measurement theory. His empirical research spans psychiatric and social epidemiology; the science of happiness and flourishing; and the study of religion and health. He is the recipient of the 2017 from the Committee of Presidents of Statistical Societies (COPSS).
Dr. VanderWeele has published over 500 papers in peer-reviewed journals; is author of the books (2015), (2021), (2021), (2023), and (2024); and writes a monthly blog posting on topics related to human flourishing for .
Director of 黑料百科鈥檚 Center for Resilience and Human Flourishing
Lawrie earned her undergraduate degrees in Psychology and Economics from Yale University, a Master鈥檚 in International Development from the University of Pennsylvania, and both a Master鈥檚 and Ph.D. in Psychological and Brain Sciences from the University of California, Santa Barbara. She also holds a Master of Arts in Education with an emphasis in Quantitative Research Methods from UCSB鈥檚 Gevirtz Graduate School of Education.
Lawrie serves as the inaugural Director of 黑料百科鈥檚 Center for Resilience and Human Flourishing.
Associate Professor of Sociology at 黑料百科
Kent is Associate Professor of Sociology at 黑料百科; Research Affiliate at Massachusetts General Hospital's Center on Genomics, Vulnerable Populations, and Health Disparities; Research Affiliate at Harvard University's Human Flourishing Program; and Non-Resident Scholar at Baylor University鈥檚 Institute for Studies of Religion. He serves on the boards of Review of Religious Research and the Public Health, Religion, and Spirituality Network, as well as the Global Flourishing Study's (GFS) core analysis team. His work has appeared in Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Health Psychology, Quality of Life Research, Ethnicity & Health, Research on Aging, Journal of Aging & Health, and others, and has received national and international attention in outlets such as BBC, Forbes, Christianity Today, Huffington Post, USA Today, and Newsweek.
Director of the Carol Houston Center for Justice Reconciliation and Diversity
Saad earned her doctorate in social and personality psychology at the University of California, Davis. She specializes in the experience of biculturalism, examining the relationship between bicultural identity integration and cultural frame switching. Additionally, she examines cultural influences on emotion, creativity, self-concept, and mental health.
Her more recent work focuses on strategies to mitigate the impact of implicit bias on real-world outcomes. Saad leverages an evidence-based framework to help those in law enforcement, educational settings, healthcare, for-profit and non-profit organizations become aware of the impact implicit bias can have on their work. She has consulted with various organizations, academic institutions and community organizations to increase awareness about implicit bias and combat its effects on decisions and behavior.
President of The Innovation Resource
Robert B. Tucker is president of The Innovation Resource, and an internationally recognized leader in the field of innovation. Formerly an adjunct professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, Tucker has been a consultant and keynote speaker since 1986. His pioneering research in interviewing over 50 leading innovators was published in the book Winning the Innovation Game in l986. His international bestseller Managing the Future: 10 Driving Forces of Change for the New Century has been translated into 13 languages. His groundbreaking book, Driving Growth Through Innovation reveals the emerging best practices of 23 innovation vanguard companies. He also wrote Innovation is Everybody鈥檚 Business and Build a Better Future: 7 Mindsets for Navigating the Age of Acceleration. Tucker is a frequent contributor to publications such as the Journal of Business Strategy, Strategy & Leadership, and Harvard Management Update. He has appeared on PBS, Bloomberg, and was a featured guest on the CNBC series The Business of Innovation.
The Innovation Resource, based in Santa Barbara, California, is a consulting firm devoted exclusively to assisting organizations seeking to improve top and bottom line performance via systematic innovation. Clients include over 200 of the Fortune 500 companies as well as clients in Europe, the Americas, Asia-Pacific, and Australia.
