For the seventh consecutive year, the Edna Bennett Pierce Prevention Research Center (PRC) at Penn State will host ‘Compassion Week,’ which features a springtime series of free public events featuring nationally recognized experts in public health, mindfulness and compassion.

On April 12, University of San Francisco Law Professor and mindfulness teacher Rhonda V. Magee will conduct a two-hour workshop on ‘Deepening the inner work of flourishing together: The power of socially engaged mindfulness for compassionate action in troubled times.’ The event will start at 10 a.m. in 110 Henderson Building. Registration is required through this online form.

Participants will experience practices for cultivating ethically grounded, embodied mindfulness in support of personal and interpersonal well-being, empathy, forgiveness, and compassionate action.

“Through the practice of embodied mindfulness – paying attention to our thoughts, feelings, and physical sensations in an open, nonjudgmental way – we increase our emotional resilience, recognize our own biases, and become less reactive when triggered,” says Magee.

On April 13, Natalie Watson-Singleton, Associate Professor of Psychology at Spelman College, will present the PRC’s annual Lecture on Compassion, ‘Making room for our voices: Centering African Americans in mind-body intervention research and practice.’ The event will take place from 4-5:30 p.m. in in 110 Henderson Building, and a reception will follow the event. No registration is required.

Watson-Singleton is a clinical-community psychologist who works to bridge science and practice in order to develop and implement treatment programs that are innovative and culturally relevant. She will present data from several studies on mindfulness and compassion-based approaches with African Americans and offer recommendations for future research.

Mindfulness and compassion-based interventions “have been predominantly normed on white Americans, without attending to the salient sociocultural determinants of health that contribute to African Americans’ pervasive and persistent stress-related illnesses,” according to Watson-Singleton, who will highlight strengths and limitations of current research findings from a Black feminist, intersectionality framework.

Magee and Watson-Singleton will also meet with Penn State faculty and staff who are interested in the role of mindfulness and compassion in promoting the health and well-being of historically marginalized communities.

The April 12 workshop is made possible by support from the Barbara and Stephen Phelan Compassion Workshop Fund and the Kevin and Karen Lynch Fund for the Program on Empathy, Awareness and Compassion in Education (PEACE). The April 13 lecture is funded through an endowment established by PRC Founding Director Mark Greenberg and his wife, Christa Turksma, a researcher and teacher of mindfulness skills.