“We have to understand the families of knowledge that we can bring to bear on today’s complex challenges,” says Mind & Life Steering Council member Robert W. Roeser, who has served as co-creator, facilitator, and presenter at numerous Mind & Life events, and as a key advisor on initiatives such as the Education of the Heart Digital Dialogue.

In recognition of his invaluable contributions and countless hours of volunteer service, Rob is being honored with Mind & Life’s Annual Service Award. “Rob has brought great warmth and intellectual rigor to his many roles with Mind & Life—making people feel at home and creating the space for deep connections and powerful insights to emerge,” said Mind & Life President Susan Bauer-Wu, who will present the award on June 11 at the 2021 Summer Research Institute. “Rob deeply embodies our values of compassion, integrity, curiosity, inclusion, and excellence.”

“Rob has brought great warmth and intellectual rigor to his many roles with Mind & Life—making people feel at home and creating the space for deep connections and powerful insights to emerge.”

-Susan Bauer-Wu, Mind & Life President

“In my work with Rob, I’ve seen him grapple with his own humanity and challenging questions and issues in curating complex programs,” says Krista Weih, Mind & Life Director of Grants and Events. “He leads in a way that allows for ‘not knowing,’ and always puts first and foremost the question of how best to serve.”

How do you go about organizing spaces that facilitate creative emergence?

It begins with framing the inquiry. “The art of creating these spaces is trying to come to a generative question that’s equally accessible to different kinds of people and their disciplines,” says Rob. Next comes assembling diverse voices and perspectives that can speak to the issues at hand. Also critical is fostering an inclusive atmosphere where people not only feel welcomed and valued, but part of something larger.

Rob uses the metaphor of a forest with many types of trees to describe these transdisciplinary spaces—where the diversity of individuals creates a whole that is truly greater than the sum of its parts—where all have a place. “There should be mutual respect for diverse ways of knowing,” he says. “It’s important to keep a spirit of inquiry at the center of such meetings, a curiosity imbued with a sense of humility. ‘Not knowing’ is perhaps the key virtue.”

Part of what makes Mind & Life stand out, he adds, is this emphasis on diverse ways of knowing, including self-inquiry along with group inquiry. Events such as the annual Summer Research Institute offer participants ample opportunity to engage in contemplative practices in the context of larger thematic discussions that involve social issues, science, and philosophy.

Rob’s first encounter with Mind & Life was at the 2005 Dialogue with the Dalai Lama in Washington, DC. Not long afterward, he joined Mind & Life’s staff for a three-year stint as senior program coordinator. “It was an opportunity of a lifetime,” he says of the chance to build and plan programs that brought diverse people and voices together.

With schools serving as key cultural institutions shaping human development, Rob has devoted his career to exploring ways of promoting more equitable and compassionate school cultures—especially for adolescents, deepening his knowledge through two Fulbright Scholarships in India, where he studied holistic approaches to education in secondary schools.  As Bennett Pierce Professor of Care, Compassion, and Human Development at Pennsylvania State University, his research focuses on the impact of schooling on students’ academic, social emotional, and ethical development, as well as on the implementation and evaluation of mindfulness and compassion programs for parents, teachers, and students in pre-K all the way through college settings.

In 2018, Rob presented at Mind & Life’s 33rd Dialogue with the Dalai Lama, “Reimagining Human Flourishing.” His talk focused on the psychology of ethical development, and specifically, when very young children begin to make ‘us-them’ distinctions. His reflections on the event and the systems level changes needed to scale an ‘education of the heart’ are captured in SEL 2.0 and the Case for Education Renewal.