Faculty Bio

Jon Kabat-Zinn, Ph.D. is a scientist, writer, and meditation teacher. He is Professor of Medicine emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, where he was founding executive director of the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society (1995), and founder (in 1979) and former director of its world-renown Stress Reduction Clinic. He is the author of Full Catastrophe Living: Using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain and Illness (Delta, 1991), Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life (Hyperion, 1994), Everyday Blessings: The Inner Work of Mindful Parenting (co-authored with Myla Kabat-Zinn; Hyperion, 1997), and Coming to Our Senses: Healing Ourselves and the World Through Mindfulness (Hyperion, 2005). He is also co-author, with Williams, Teasdale, and Segal, of The Mindful Way Through Depression: Freeing Yourself from Chronic Unhappiness (Guilford, 2007), and the forth-coming, Arriving At Your Own Door: 108 Lessons in Mindfulness (Hyperion, 2007). Dr. Kabat-Zinn’s work has contributed to a growing movement of mindfulness into mainstream institutions in our society such as medicine, and psychology, health care and hospitals, schools, corporations, prisons, and professional sports. He received the Art, Science, and Soul of Healing Award from the Institute for Health and Healing, California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco (1998), the 2nd Annual Trailblazer Award for “pioneering work in the field of integrative medicine” from the Scripps Center for Integrative Medicine in La Jolla, California (2001), and a Pioneer in Integrative Medicine Award from the Bravewell Philanthropic Collaborative for Integrative Medicine (2007). He is the founding convener of the Consortium of Academic Health Centers for Integrative Medicine, and Vice Chairman of the Board of the Mind and Life Institute, a group that organizes dialogues between the Dalai Lama and Western scientists to promote deeper understanding of different ways of knowing and probing the nature of mind, emotions, and reality. He was co-program chair of the 2005 Mind and Life Dialogue: The Clinical Applications of Meditation, held in Washington DC.