Matthew D. Skinta, PhD, ABPP, is an assistant professor at Roosevelt University in Chicago, USA. He is board certified in clinical health psychology (American Board of Professional Psychology), is a peer-reviewed ACT trainer, and is certified as a trainer of functional analytic psychotherapy and compassion cultivation training. Matthew conducts research and provides clinical trainings on acceptance, mindfulness, and compassion-based therapy with sexual and gender minority clients around the globe. He and Aisling Leonard-Curtin co-edited Mindfulness and Acceptance for Gender and Sexual Minorities: A Clinician's Guide to Fostering Compassion, Connection and Equality using Contextual Strategies in 2016, and his most recent book, Contextual Behavior Therapy for Sexual and Gender Minority Clients, was released in November 2020.
An evolutionary biologist with a special interest in human biocultural evolution, DAVID SLOAN WILSON is SUNY (State University New York) Distinguished Professor of Biology and Anthropology at Binghamton University. He is a son of the author Sloan Wilson, and co-founder of the Evolution Institute, and co-founder of the spinoff nonprofit Prosocial World. His books include Evolution for Everyone, The Neighborhood Project, Does Altruism Exist?, and Darwin's Cathedral. He is the president of the Evolution Institute and editor in chief of the institute's magazine, This View of Life.
David Sloan Wilson
Uniwersytet Binghamton
New York, USA
Edmund Sonuga-Barke
King’s College London
London, Great Britain
Professor of Developmental Psychology, Psychiatry and Neuroscience at the Institute of Psychology, Psychiatry and Neuroscience, King's College London. He is Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry. Motivated by his own experience of growing up with learning disabilities, his research focuses on improving the lives of children and adolescents with neuro-developmental disorders. His work aims to develop new interventions by employing basic developmental science approaches to study underlying genetic and environmental risk and resilience sources and mediating brain mechanisms. He has been elected Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (2016) and Fellow of The British Academy (2018). He has been included in the Clarivate list of “most influential” in Psychology/Psychiatry for the high impact of his work.
Maria Karekla, Ph.D., licensed clinical psychologist, peer-reviewed Acceptance and Commitment Therapy trainer, and Associate Professor, University of Cyprus. She is heading the “ACTHealthy: Clinical Psychology and Behavioral Medicine” laboratory. She received her doctorate degree in Clinical Psychology from the University at Albany, SUNY. She completed her residency at the University of Mississippi Medical Center and Veterans Administration Hospital. Her research focuses on areas of health promotion and the investigation of individual difference factors (especially psychological flexibility parameters) as they relate to the development and maintenance of various behavioural difficulties (especially anxiety, eating, and health related problems). Additionally, she examines the treatment of these difficulties utilizing process-based and Contextual Behavioral Science-based principles and innovative delivery methods (e.g., digital interventions, virtual reality). Her research (>100 scientific peer reviewed publications) received numerous local, European and international grants, and awards by (among others) the European Council and Pompidou’s group, the Society of Behavioral Medicine, and the Association for the Advancement of Behavior Therapy. She is currently the chair of the Clinical Psychology Doctorate committee and program, University of Cyprus. She is also the convenor of the European Federation of Psychology Associations’ Psychology and Health committee and a member of the e-health task force. She recently completed terms in chairing the Cyprus Bioethics Committee on Biomedical Research and being a member of the Cyprus Psychologist Licensing Board. She presently serves as president-elect of the Association for Contextual Behavioral Science, from where she received the status of “Fellow” in 2019. In 2021 she became a fellow of the Society of Behavioral Medicine, whereas in 2018 she was nominated as Cyprus “Woman of the Year: Academic/Researcher category.” Her first psychotherapeutic children’s story book was nominated in 2017 for the National Literary Awards in the category Children/Adolescents and also for her illustrations for the book. She is a TEDx speaker and she has been hosted and interviewed for her work by numerous podcasts, newspapers, TV and radio stations nationally and internationally.
