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Amrita Chaturvedi, Ph.D.
Chair

Amrita Chaturvedi, Ph.D., is an assistant professor in the School of Education at Â鶹´«Ã½. Her area of interest includes flourishing/overall well-being in the context of education at both Pre-K-12 and higher education levels. Chaturvedi received her Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction, with a specialization in special education from the University of Arkansas.

How she connects to flourishing: "Schools and universities provide a natural context to promote students’ flourishing. I am interested in investigating practices and policies that can enable schools and universities to actively foster the flourishing of their students and that of the communities at large. More specially, I am interested in designing school and university curricula to promote flourishing — both at the individual and community level."

Joanne Kraenzle Schneider, Ph.D., R.N.
Co-Chair

Joanne Kraenzle Schneider, Ph.D., R.N., has expertise in health psychology. She originally started her research program with National Institute of Health funding for exercise in older adults. Realizing that dietary behaviors are also very important, she incorporated dietary interventions into her research activities. Most recently, she combined her personal journey with a holistic view of health to include human flourishing. She also brings to her research expertise in psychometric analysis and meta-analysis as well as biomedical ethics. 

Whitney Linsenmeyer, Ph.D., R.D., L.D.

Whitney Linsenmeyer, Ph.D., R.D., L.D., is an assistant professor and the DPD director in the Department of Nutrition and Dietetics at Â鶹´«Ã½. She is a three-time alumna of Â鶹´«Ã½ with a Bachelor of Science in Nutrition and Culinary Arts, a Master of Science in Nutrition and Culinary Entrepreneurship, and a doctoral degree in higher education administration. Her research and clinical practice centers on nutrition care for the transgender population. She is passionate about the unique role that nutrition care plays in the health and well-being of transgender and non-binary individuals.

How she connects to flourishing: Food is both nourishment and a daily pleasure. My own interest in nutrition and cooking came from the realization that it simply feels good to eat well, both in mind and body. For those that love food, the whole body benefits of a healthy diet and the enjoyment of food is requisite to flourishing.

William Rehg, S.J.

William Rehg, S.J. is a professor of philosophy and completing his last year as the dean of the College of Philosophy and Letters at Â鶹´«Ã½. He received his Ph.D. from Northwestern University and has written in the areas of ethical-political theory, argumentation theory, science and technology studies, computer ethics, and Jesuit spirituality.

How he connects to flourishing: "My interest in flourishing arises out of its connection with ethics and the good society. In the Aristotelian-Thomistic tradition, the idea of the common good refers to a just society whose institutions provide the means and opportunities for each person to flourish as a free and unique individual in relationships of mutual respect. Much of my research has focused on spelling out the concrete implications of that ideal in today’s technological society."

Dan Haybron, Ph.D.

Dan Haybron, Ph.D., is the Theodore R. Vitali C.P. Professor of Philosophy at Saint Louis University. He received his Ph.D. in philosophy at Rutgers University. His research focuses on ethics and the philosophy of psychology, with an emphasis on well-being, as well as related issues in political philosophy. He has published numerous articles in these areas. In 2015, he was awarded a $5.1 million grant for a three-year project, Happiness and Well-Being: Integrating Research Across the Disciplines, funded by the John Templeton Foundation and Â鶹´«Ã½. He is the author of The Pursuit of Unhappiness: The Elusive Psychology of Well-Being (Oxford University Press, 2008), and Happiness: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press, 2013).

How he connects to flourishing:  "My work touches on a wide range of topics, both philosophical and scientific, relating to flourishing. This includes, more narrowly, the psychological condition of happiness or emotional well-being, and more broadly, the good life, of which flourishing is one aspect. It also includes questions about the measurement of well-being and its pursuit and promotion. I have suggested that human psychology is ill-suited to the individualized pursuit of happiness; for the most part, flourishing is a social question, and our present means of answering it are failing. The central task facing humanity, in my view, is to build a civilization that serves the flourishing of human beings and the natural environment alike."

Erick Messias, M.D., Ph.D.

Erick Messias was born and raised in Brazil, where he completed medical school and practiced family medicine in rural areas before moving to Baltimore for residency training. He completed a psychiatry residency at the University of Maryland, in 2001, and preventive medicine training at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, in 2003. While at Hopkins he also received a master's in public health and a Ph.D. in Psychiatric Epidemiology. Since graduation he has held academic positions at his alma mater in Brazil, and later in Georgia and Arkansas, where he was medical director of the Walker Family Clinic and responsible for the House Staff Mental Health Service at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) in Little Rock. Dr. Messias served as VP and medical director for Beacon Health Options, overseeing the mental health care received by Arkansas Medicaid recipients. At UAMS, he also served as associate dean for faculty affairs and was the inaugural program director for the Baptist-UAMS psychiatry residency program. Dr. Messias has over 45 publications in scientific journals, has published several book chapters, and edited a volume on schizophrenia for psychiatrists and a textbook on Positive Psychiatry, Psychology and Psychotherapy. He also launched and was editor-in-chief of the medical literary journal Medicine and Meaning. Dr. Messias has been the recipient of many research and teaching awards. He is currently the chair of psychiatry at the Â鶹´«Ã½ School of Medicine. 

How he connects to flourishing: "After many years caring for persons with mental disorders, it is clear that they want more than symptom relief — they want, like us all, to flourish. As such, my work as a psychiatrist is now more than diagnosis and treatment of mental disorder also including conversations about happiness, flourishing, and meaning."