COMPASSIONATE EDUCATION across TWO CULTURES

OUR TEAM

GESHE LOBSANG TENZIN NEGI - Executive DIRECTOR, CCSCBE

Geshe Lobsang Tenzin Negi, PhD, is the co-founder and Director of the Emory-Tibet Partnership (now called the Center for Contemplative Science and Compassion-Based Ethics, CCSCBE), a multi-dimensional initiative launched in 1998 to bring together the foremost contributions of the Western scholastic tradition and the Tibetan Buddhist sciences of mind and healing. Additionally, he is the founder and director of Drepung Loseling Monastery, Inc., in Atlanta, GA, and a Professor of Practice in Emory University's Department of Religion.

As director, Dr. Negi oversees the Emory-Tibet Science Initiative (ETSI), an educational program created at the invitation of His Holiness the Dalai Lama to design and implement a comprehensive modern science curriculum specifically for Tibetan monastics. Additionally, Dr. Negi developed Cognitively-Based Compassion Training (CBCT), a compassion meditation program based on Tibetan contemplative methods and taught as both a research protocol and to the public for personal enrichment. A systematic method for gradually training the mind until compassion becomes a spontaneous response, CBCT is currently utilized in a wide variety of research studies, including an NIH-funded study examining the efficacy of compassion meditation on the experience of depression. He also created and leads the Tibetan Mind-Body Sciences Summer Study Abroad program, a unique experiential learning opportunity for undergraduates.

Dr. Negi was born in Kinnaur, a remote Himalayan region adjoining Tibet. A former monk, he began his monastic training at The Institute of Buddhist Dialectics in Dharamasala, India and continued his education at Drepung Loseling Monastery in south India, where in 1994 he received his Geshe Lharampa degree—the highest academic degree granted in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. Dr. Negi completed his Ph.D. at Emory University in 1999; his interdisciplinary dissertation centered on traditional Buddhist and contemporary Western approaches to emotions and their impact on wellness. His current research focuses on the complementarity of modern science and contemplative practice.

CAROL BECK - ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS AND COMMUNICATIONS, CCSCBE

Carol Beck is the associate director of operations and communications for the Center for Contemplative Science and Compassion-Based Ethics. In this role, she supports research initiatives, facilitates partner programs, and spearheads outreach, marketing, and communications for CBCT^® and other center programs. With an MFA in filmmaking, Beck has had a diverse career as both an assistant professor and a self-employed media professional working on five continents. She has studied and practiced various types of meditation, especially within the Tibetan tradition, and has faciliated meditation practice for the past 18 years. Beck has taught CBCT^® to parents of autistic children through the Marcus Institute, students at Emory University, nurses, and the public. Recently she began offering CBCT^®to doctors and nurse practitioners at the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit of Children's Hospital of Atlanta.

Contact: carol.beck@emory.edu

TSETAN DOLKAR- ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR, ETSI

Tsetan Dolkar, Ph.D. is the Associate Director of Emory-Tibet Science Initiative. In this capacity, she oversees the implementation of the ETSI program and supervises the daily operations of it. Prior to that she served as the Senior Program Coordinator. She holds a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in political science from Panjab University, Chandigarh, India and completed her Ph.D. in political science from Philipps University in Marburg, Germany. She served as a program coordinator and a teaching assistant for Emory’s Tibetan Studies Program and traveled with the students to Dharmsala in Spring 2014. She is deeply passionate about fulfilling His Holiness’ vision of bringing science education to the monastic communities.

Contact: tsetan.d@emory.edu

KARMA TENZIN- PROGRAM COORDINATOR, ETSI

Karma Tenzin Khangsar completed his bachelor’s degree in Tibetan Studies at the College for Higher Tibetan Studies, Sarah-India. Upon graduation, Karma served as the administrative secretary and program coordinator for the College for Higher Tibetan Studies, Sarah from 2007-2011. In 2011, he joined Sherab Gatsel Lobling School (the adult Tibetan learning center) where he implemented correspondence courses for secondary and senior secondary academic courses from the National Institute of Open Schooling.

Karma then moved to the United States and joined the Emory-Tibet Science Initiative as an assistant translator in 2015. For over two years, he worked closely with two senior ETSI translators to translate program materials and assisted in organizing the annual international conferences on the standardization of scientific terms. He is the co-translator of the English-Tibetan Modern Science Dictionary, published by ETSI in December 2019. In 2017, he extended his responsibilities with ETSI by also joining the administrative team and currently serves as an ETSI program coordinator.

Outside of the office, Karma currently teaches Tibetan language and culture to local Tibetan children and serves as an executive member for the Atlanta Tibetan Association.

Contact: karmatenzin@emory.edu

FOREST OLIVER - ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT, ETSI

Forest Oliver Forest is the Administrative Assistant for the Emory-Tibet Science Initiative, supporting the Associate Director and Program Director by facilitating the needs of faculty, staff and students. Forest previously worked administration at Emory’s Political Science department, and Georgia Tech’s School of Interactive Computing. Before that, Forest worked in wine sales in Virginia, where he regularly hosted tastings and planned events, and is always happy to recommend wine pairings anytime. Forest grew up in St Petersburg, Florida but now calls Atlanta home.

As an alum of New York City’s Hunter College, Forest studied Religion and Creative writing and is currently working on his MFA in Writing at the Vermont College of Fine Arts. His dream is to teach someday soon.

Contact: forest.raybon.oliver@emory.edu

KELSEY GRAY - SENIOR INSTRUCTIONAL CONTENT DEVELOPER, ETSI

Kelsey Gray, Ph.D. is the Senior Instructional Content Developer for the Emory-Tibet Science Initiative. She serves as the project manager for the ideation, creation, and assessment of online courses in topic areas including math, biology, neuroscience, physics, and philosophy of science. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Biomedical Science from the Ohio State University and completed her Ph.D. in Genetics and Molecular Biology at the University of North Carolina. As a postdoctoral fellow with the Emory-Tibet Science Initiative, she taught science pedagogy courses and conducted discipline-based education research. To build on this work, she was awarded a Fulbright-Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence Fellowship to continue these projects at Drepung Loseling Science Center in south India.

Contact: kgray8@emory.edu

TSONDUE SAMPHEL - SR. TRANSLATOR/INTERPRETER

Tsondue Samphel received his BS in physics from Emory College in 2006. Prior to that, from 1992-2000, he studied at the Institute of Buddhist Dialectics, India where he obtained his MA and BA equivalents in Buddhist Studies. While studying at the Institute, Tsondue started contributing translations of articles on science and western philosophy for the Institute's literary journal called Lhagsam Tzepga. Later, he served as its editor for six years and brought out two books and several journals. He also taught language classes at the Institute.

In 2006, when the Emory-Tibet Science Initiative (ETSI) was in its initial stage of inception, Tsondue joined ETSI as a translator-cum-research assistant. He has ever since been working for the ETSI and its science education project. He has translated, reviewed and edited two books, Brain Facts and Philosophy of Science, as well as translating numerous scientific articles into Tibetan. Tsondue is also involved in an ongoing effort to create and build up scientific lexicon in Tibetan. Working closely with his colleagues at Emory and the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, he has been organizing an annual conference, for the past five years, to coin and standardize scientific vocabulary in Tibetan. Their efforts have resulted in coining new of and standardizing thousands of scientific terms in Tibetan.

Contact: tsamphe@emory.edu

DAWA TSERING- SENIOR TRANSLATOR/INTERPRETER, ETSI

Dawa Tsering is a translator for the Emory-Tibet Science Initiative. After receiving his BS in physics from Emory University in 2014, he worked as a science instructor at Drepung Losel-Ling Science Center and Drepung Gomang Science Center in South India for two years, teaching basic mathematics and physics. Before joining the ETSI translation team, Dawa was actively involved with the ETSI translation works serving as an intern to help develop the bilingual glossary project at Emory and was one of the main translators for the ETSI Summer Intensive Science Workshops at Drepung. As a translator, his main tasks involve the translation of primer readings, slides, exams, activities, and in class teachings primarily used for the science education at Tibetan monasteries and nunneries. His translation works include two physics primers and an English-Tibetan Modern Science Dictionary. Dawa is also responsible for managing and updating the bilingual contents of the ETSI Science Resource website.

Contact: dawa.tsering@emory.edu

SHERUB TENZIN - TRANSLATOR/INTERPRETER, ETSI

Sherub Tenzin is the first Tenzin Gyatso Science Scholar hired as a fulltime interpreter for Emory-Tibet Science Initiative. Sherub completed his formal monastic studies at Drepung Gomang Monastery. A well-known author and a Buddhist scholar, Sherub has been an active member of the Tibetan literary world: writing stories, translating scientific and non-scientific works, serving as an editor for magazines and journals. He has won prizes in numerous writing competitions. After completing the Tenzin Gyatso Science Scholars’ Program at Emory University, he co-founded Gomang Science Center and taught science to monastic students for several years. He has also taught Tibetan literature at Pematsal School for several years.

Contact: sherub.tenzin@emory.edu