OUR FACILITATORS AND SPEAKERS
Dr. Julia C Kim
Dr. Julia Kim is the Program Director of the Gross National Happiness (GNH) Centre Bhutan. She joined the GNH Centre in 2013, after serving as a member of the International Expert Working Group for a New Development Paradigm, convened by the Royal Government of Bhutan. Through local and international partnerships, the GNH Centre leads initiatives that promote a more happy, equitable and sustainable world - based on New Economics principles, alternative progress measures, the growing science of wellbeing, and sustainable development. Prior to living in Bhutan, Julia worked as a medical doctor and HIV researcher in Africa and Asia, before serving with the United Nations in New York. She brings a background in leadership develpment, policy, and research in the fields of global health and sustainable development. Julia is an associate of the Presencing Institute, and an Executive Committee member of the Club of Rome. She holds degrees from the University of Manitoba, Cornell University, Tufts University, and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
Julie Richardson
Julie is an educator and facilitator in transformative educational experiences that enable participants to connect with their deeper inner purpose in service of happiness and well-being of people and planet. She is currently undertaking doctoral research into economies of well-being at the University of Plymouth, UK. Previously she was Senior Lecturer in Holistic Economics at Schumacher College in England where she co-created the postgraduate programme in Economics for Transition, the Right Livelihood Programme, the Gross National Happiness Master Class and the Transitioning towards an Ecological Civilisation: Dialogues East and West. She has over 20 years international experience working across a range of sectors and organizations covering different aspects of sustainable development in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Europe. This includes teaching at undergraduate and postgraduate levels at the University of London and in the African and Asian School at the University of Sussex. She has worked as a senior environmental policy advisor to the Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit in the UK and as Principal Sustainability Officer for Jonathon Porritt’s Forum for the Future. Here her work included advising the business sector on how to incorporate sustainability issues into their corporate strategy including measuring and reporting their wider social and environmental impacts. Her co-authored book, The Triple Bottom Line: Does It All Add Up? highlights a fresh approach to organizational performance that takes account of environmental, social and economic impacts.
Khenpo Sonam Bumdhen
Khenpo Sonam is a Lecturer at the Institute of Science of Mind in Thimphu, and works as the Chief of Research and Translation under His Holiness the Je Khenpo of Bhutan. He also served as a Dharma teacher at Kailua Shambala Dharma Center in Hawaii, and Director of Research and Library and Secretary of Monastic Education, the Central Monastic Body of Bhutan. He also served as a Dharma Teacher at the Kailua Shambala Centre in Hawaii.
Sonam Tsoki Tenzin
Director
Tsoki has co-designed the GNH international programmes over the past 5 years and is in charge of planning, organizing, and delivering a Bhutanese perspective. As a local speaker, she shares how Bhutanese understand the philosophy, importance of culture and traditions of Bhutan and how the Centre develops local projects as GNH in Action.
Wesel Dema
Programme Officer
Wesel is the key focal point for handling logistics, managing budgets, driving client communications, and overseeing programme activities. She manages the promotional, business and key events for the Centre. As a local speaker, she shares how Bhutanese youth have started GNH activities and projects that have been self-inspired.