Minds Across
the Vineyard

Voices shaping applied neuroscience.

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  No. 02 · Youngest speaker

  Shawn Letford

  Youth Author · Honorary Brain Health Actionist, Center for BrainHealth · Virtual recording

  Shawn Letford published his first book on creativity at three years old and is on a global mission to help the world be more creative with healthy brains. He goes through his daily life giving his parents pure examples of creative thinking and inventive associations.

  In July 2025, Shawn received a proclamation for World Brain Day in his hometown of Avondale, Arizona. He also helped establish the nation's first Brain Capital Awareness Month in Phoenix and Buckeye, Arizona — the fastest growing city in the US.

  He still enjoys sprinklers, but has sparked an interest in solving the Rubik's cube faster than his dad. He loves being observant and plays piano to exercise his mind, and speaks about creativity, curiosity and the brain at national events as an honorary brain health actionist at the Center for BrainHealth in Dallas, Texas.

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  No. 03 · Keynote

  George Vradenburg

  Chairman of the Board · Davos Alzheimer's Collaborative · Live in-person

  George Vradenburg is the Chairman of the Board of the Davos Alzheimer's Collaborative, a global public-private-patient foundation focused on linking and scaling Alzheimer's and Brain Health research and delivery systems around the world. DAC was launched in Davos in 2021 by the Global CEO Initiative on Alzheimer's Disease (CEOi) and the World Economic Forum. George is also the Chairman and Co-Founder of UsAgainstAlzheimer's (UsA2), a U.S.-based venture philanthropy and advocacy organization committed to increasing the scale and speed of therapeutic and risk mitigation initiatives to prevent Alzheimer's.

  In 2011, the United States Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services named George to serve on the National Alzheimer's Advisory Council on Research, Care and Services for the first-of-its-kind National Alzheimer's Strategic Plan.

  George received his B.A. from Oberlin College, magna cum laude, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, and his J.D. from Harvard Law School, cum laude.

  Visit davosalzheimerscollaborative.org→
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  No. 04 · Speaker

  Dr. R. Keerthy Sunder, MD, DFAPA, FASAM

  Founder · Karma Doctors & Karma TMS · Sunder Foundation · Live in-person

  Dr. Keerthy Sunder is an accomplished physician, researcher, and educator with three decades of clinical and academic work across Obstetrics & Gynecology, Psychiatry, and Addiction Medicine in the UK and the United States. Inspired by his mother's lifelong struggle with a treatment-resistant mood disorder, he has devoted his career to advancing neuromodulation and brain-health innovation.

  He is a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and the American Society of Addiction Medicine, Clinical Faculty in Psychiatry at the University of California Riverside School of Medicine, and an Adjunct Professor at Southern California University of Health Sciences. The U.S. Government awarded him the EB-1A Extraordinary Ability visa and citizenship for substantial contributions to his field.

  Dr. Sunder has worked as Investigator on more than 30 research protocols, has co-authored numerous papers on TMS neuromodulation, Reward Deficiency Syndrome, PTSD and TBI, and has served veterans and active-duty service members for over two decades — including as Principal Investigator on an FDA-sponsored PTSD clinical trial. He is the co-author of Outdance the Devil and the Amazon international best-seller Face Your Addiction and Save Your Life.

  Visit karmadoctors.com→
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  No. 05 · Speaker

  Jim Poole

  CEO · NuCalm · Live in-person

  Jim Poole is a seasoned healthcare and technology executive with more than three decades of experience at the intersection of science, innovation, and human performance. As CEO of NuCalm, he leads the world's only patented neuroscience technology clinically proven to lower stress, balance the nervous system, improve sleep, and enhance performance — safely, naturally, and without drugs.

  Since 2009 he has guided NuCalm's evolution into a global leader in applied neuroscience, backed by 36 years of research, $52M in development, and two patents. NuCalm has been used in 2.7 million medical procedures and is adopted by the U.S. military, professional athletes, physicians, and pilots.

  A recognized thought leader in neuropsychobiology, stress physiology and human recovery, Poole has lectured at the Royal College of Physicians in London, the World Congress for Brain Mapping and Therapeutics, the Pentagon, Quantico, the NFL Combine, and CES. He is a recipient of the President's Lifetime Achievement Award for servant leadership.

  Visit nucalm.com→
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  No. 06 · Speaker

  KJ Lavan

  CEO · Brain Matrix Alliance · Virtual recording

  KJ Lavan is a global brain health strategist, author, entrepreneur, and former senior biotechnology and pharmaceutical executive with more than two decades of experience spanning healthcare innovation, neuroscience, public policy, and international business development. Drawing from both professional expertise and personal caregiving experience, he focuses on the emerging relationship between brain health, economic resilience, workforce productivity, and human capital sustainability.

  Lavan is the founder of Brain Matrix Alliance and author of The Global Cognitive Resilience Economy: Dementia Policy, Prevention Economics, and the Infrastructure Architecture for 21st-Century Human Capital Stability. His work advances a new policy and economic framework that positions cognitive resilience, brain health, and dementia prevention as strategic infrastructure issues rather than solely healthcare concerns.

  His research explores how ageing populations, cognitive decline, artificial intelligence, workforce transformation, and longevity are converging to reshape global competitiveness, fiscal stability, and economic growth — bridging the gap between science, policy, capital, and implementation for the human capital challenges of the 21st century.

  Visit brainmatrixalliance.com→
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  No. 07 · Speaker

  Dr. Lawrence Jones

  ECOSYSTEM BUILDER · ENERGY-BRAIN NEXUS ENTREPRENEUR · FOUNDER, MINDS ACROSS THE VINEYARD · HOST, INFLUENTIAL MINDS · Live in-person

  Dr. Lawrence Jones is a polymathic thought leader, award-winning author, keynote speaker, and accomplished practitioner with over thirty years of global experience in the energy industry. Renowned for his interdisciplinary and cross-sectoral thinking, he brings a unique lens to complex global challenges, focusing on the intersection of energy, water, mining, brain health, brain economy, food, AI, urbanization, deep tech, and other sectors. He champions a strategic framework grounded in hindsight, insight, and foresight to harness opportunities across these domains and address emerging global challenges. A leading advocate for electricity diplomacy and mentorship for future leaders, he emphasizes the role of technology, demographics, geopolitics and geoeconomics in shaping global futures.

  He is an international ecosystem builder across critical industries, helping electric utilities, infrastructure owners and operators, investors, policymakers, and technology leaders navigate complex interdependencies between energy, health, mining, water, transport, digital infrastructure, and industrial sectors, while accounting for regional differences. Dr. Jones founded and hosts Global Circuit Exchange and Influential Minds, two global conversation series spotlighting prominent voices from across energy, finance, governments, and adjacent industries. He has welcomed Nobel Laureates, leading philanthropists, and best-selling authors as guests. Dr. Jones is also the founder and host of Minds Across the Vineyard: A Community Forum on Brain Health & the Brain Economy.

  In 2024, Dr. Jones was inducted as an International Fellow of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences. He serves on the global board of the World Resources Institute, is a Senior Associate (non-resident) at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and advises several organizations including Lyten Inc. and Radix Engineering LLC. From 2015 to 2025 he was Vice President and later Senior Vice President of International Programs at the Edison Electric Institute (EEI), where he significantly expanded international reach—growing membership to more than 70 electric companies with operations in over 90 countries, providing electricity to more than 3.5 billion people. Prior to joining EEI, Dr. Jones held leadership roles at Alstom USA, served as a visiting researcher at Électricité de France, and worked on special projects for ABB Power Systems in Sweden.

  In June 2014, he was appointed to the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Advisory Committee, and in 2010 to the National Institute of Standards and Technology Smart Grid Advisory Committee. Dr. Jones is the editor of the first and second editions of “Renewable Energy Integration: Practical Management of Variability, Uncertainty and Flexibility in Power Grids.” He has received numerous awards for leadership and contributions in renewable energy technology and integration, including the 2017 Global Excellence Award in Renewable Energy from the Energy and Environment Foundation of India, the Renewable Energy World Network 2012 Excellence Award for Leadership in Technology, and the Utility Variable Generation Integration Group 2012 Achievement Award. He holds several patents for technologies enhancing situational awareness of operators in energy control centers. Born in Monrovia, Liberia, Dr. Jones earned his MSc, Licentiate and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden. His recognition includes the Gen X Leaders in Energy Award (2021) and being named among Africa’s most influential power sector leaders (2020) by Africa Power and Energy Elites.

  Visit speaker profile→
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  No. 08 · Speaker

  David J. Norris

  Author of The Brain Commons · Senior Occupational Therapist · Founder, The Brain Health Clinic & CareLoom · Virtual recording

  David J. Norris is an Australian author and senior occupational therapist who works at the meeting point of brain health, human agency and care. Across more than twenty-five years in neurological and cognitive practice, he has sat with the people and families for whom memory, judgement and participation are changing — close enough to see what actually widens or narrows a person’s capacity to act in their own life.

  From that vantage he writes and convenes The Brain Commons: an inquiry into the shared conditions that allow people, communities and institutions to remain capable of attention, judgement, relationship, participation and care. It sits alongside the Brain Economy rather than against it — the question of what must hold beneath brain capital for capacity to become genuine human agency, and what we owe one another regardless of return.

  He is a co-author of a 2026 Nature Medicine paper on the social foundations of health systems, published to World Brain Day.

  He is the founder of The Brain Health Clinic and of CareLoom, an AI-supported platform that strengthens the judgement of carers and eases the load they carry. He follows all of this past the clinical frame in his publication, Notes on Human Agency — essays on attention, care, technology and the conditions of a more truthful life.

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  No. 09 · Speaker

  Harris Eyre, MD, PhD

  Executive Director, Global Brain Economy Initiative · Senior Fellow, Rice University · Presidential Senior Fellow, UTMB · Virtual recording

  Harris is a medical doctor and neuroscientist helping business leaders, policymakers, scientists, and the public navigate the Brain Economy.

  He leads the Global Brain Economy Initiative, the leading organization dedicated exclusively to advancing the Brain Economy across industries and sectors. GBEI collaborates closely with global institutions, including the WEF Brain Economy Action Forum, to accelerate the adoption of brain-positive strategies worldwide. He is an advisor to the McKinsey Health Institute and the MD Anderson Cancer Neuroscience Program, as well as a visiting senior fellow with the Wharton Neuroscience Initiative.

  He has authored more than 200 peer-reviewed publications spanning biology, medicine, and economics — in Neuron, Cell, Nature Medicine, and the Brookings Policy Paper Series — and is lead editor of Convergence Mental Health (Oxford University Press).

  He earned a PhD in neuroscience from the University of Adelaide, including a Fulbright Scholarship at UCLA, and received his medical degree from James Cook University in Australia. Earlier in his career he held senior positions with precision medicine ventures that achieved scientific and commercial industry firsts, earning recognition as a Forbes 30 Under 30.

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  No. 010 · Speaker

  Dr. Laura Jana

  Pediatrician · Social Entrepreneur · Award-Winning Author · Virtual recording

  Dr. Laura Jana is an Omaha-based pediatrician, social entrepreneur and award-winning author who has served as Director of Innovation for both Penn State University's Evidence to Impact Collaborative and the University of Nebraska's School of Public Health. After earning a degree in Cellular Molecular Biology from the University of Michigan and a medical degree from Case Western Reserve University, she collaborated with Dr. Benjamin Spock early in her career and, in 1999, co-founded one of the first online health and parenting websites.

  In addition to pediatric practice, she founded her own consulting company, was a 10-year owner/operator of a private educational childcare center, received a 40 Under 40 Business Award, and became internationally recognized as a trusted consultant for parents, news media, academic and government organizations, non-profits and corporations alike.

  She is currently a spokesperson for the American Academy of Pediatrics, head of Mattel's medical advisory council, strategic consultant to a $1.6B US-based system of educational childcare centers, advisor to multiple health-tech startups, and a member of Ready Nation/Council for a Strong America's Brain Science Speakers Bureau. Her work has been featured everywhere from the World Bank, Wharton, the US Chamber of Commerce and the British Parliament to The Today Show, CNN, NPR, Time and The New York Times.

  Author of more than 30 books, her latest series focuses squarely on the strategic, neuroscience-informed cultivation of the human skills needed to thrive in an AI-powered world. She has given more than 120 talks and keynotes, including three TED talks.

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  No. 011 · Speaker

  Linda Jarnhamn

  Founder & CEO · flow²thrive · Virtual recording

  Linda Jarnhamn is Founder and CEO of flow²thrive and one of the world's leading voices on workplace brain health and brain capital. Since 2018 she has pioneered science-based approaches that combine neuroscience, AI and workforce analytics to help organisations improve cognitive performance and organisational resilience.

  Linda is a sought-after international keynote speaker, host of the Sustainable Human Podcast, and advisor to the International WELL Building Institute, the Business Collaborative for Brain Health (US) and Business for Health (UK). Her work bridges science and business to help organisations prepare for the future of work.

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  No. 012 · Speaker

  Michael Southworth

  Co-Founder, Vitanya · Author of The Brain Capitalist · Live in-person

  Michael Southworth is a lifelong innovator with nearly four decades of experience in grassroots product development and entrepreneurial ventures. From his first invention — a snowboard prototype he created in high school — to pioneering the sport of duneboarding and launching the world's first software vending machine in the early 1990s, Michael has consistently been ahead of the curve in bringing visionary ideas to life.

  In 2011, driven by a deep passion for unlocking human potential, he co-founded Vitanya with the mission to revolutionize brain performance and resilience through neuroscience-based innovation. Under his leadership, Vitanya has developed proprietary technologies and scalable programs improving lives across sectors, from military and first responders to corporate and community partners.

  Michael is the author of The Brain Capitalist, which classifies the brain economy as the greatest global impact opportunity of our lifetime. He recognizes the most valuable asset of the 21st century not as technology, but as Brain Capital — the collective cognitive, emotional, and social capacity of the human brain.

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  No. 013 · Speaker

  Dena N. Holland-Newman, MBA

  Founder & CEO, D. Nicole & Company · Author · Caregiver Advocate · Live in-person

  Dena N. Holland-Newman is an accomplished strategic marketing and media professional with more than 25 years of experience in strategic marketing, public relations, brand development, and community engagement. A former Adjunct Professor and Associate Dean, she dedicated more than a decade to higher education, mentoring students and building partnerships between academia, industry, and the community.

  As Founder and CEO of D. Nicole & Company, Dena provides strategic marketing, branding, public relations, and media consulting for businesses, nonprofit organizations, and faith-based institutions. She is also the creator and host of Testimony Friday with D. Nicole, a featured segment on The Midday Praise.

  Her most profound life experience came through serving as the primary caregiver for her mother, who lived with advanced dementia and Parkinson's disease — a journey that inspired her book We Cared for Each Other: How Dementia and Parkinson Disease Took My Mother's Life and Changed Mine Forever.

  Today, Dena combines academic leadership, professional communications expertise, and lived caregiving experience to educate, inspire, and advocate for individuals, families, and communities affected by brain health disorders.

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  No. 014 · Speaker

  Tristan Siokos

  Founder & CEO · Recalibrate Inc. · Virtual recording

  Tristan Siokos is the Founder and CEO of Recalibrate Inc., a neuroscience-based platform reframing how chronic pain and chronic illness are understood and managed. His work is grounded in lived experience: as someone who lives with chronic pain, Tristan builds from the inside of the problem, not the outside.

  Recalibrate treats persistent pain not as a single site of damage but as a multisystemic issue rooted in central sensitisation and nervous system and metabolic dysregulation, where the pain system itself becomes amplified and protective long after any injury has healed. The platform turns that science into tools that give patients genuine agency in their own care.

  Working at the intersection of applied neuroscience, physiology and healthtech, Tristan focuses on translating rigorous pain science into clinical tools and patient experiences that hold up in the real world — driven by a conviction that the future of chronic care lies in education, self-regulation and connection, not intervention alone.