Mindfulness and Compassion Grand Rounds at Harvard Medical School will be held about twice monthly, live online via Zoom, and is open to those within Harvard Medical School, Cambridge Health Alliance (CHA), and members of the CMC community, for free. Our Grand Rounds series has 3 main aims:

• Disseminate information about new cutting edge science and impactful clinical research findings

• Highlight best practices for enhancing the efficacy, accessibility, and safety of mindfulness and compassion delivery and applications for population mental health

• Provide opportunities for healthcare provider self-care and burnout prevention

Not able to attend live over Zoom? All registrants will receive a link to the recording.

2026/27 Academic Year

Subject of Lecture :

Expanding Compassion for Our Times

Date: Monday, September 21, 2026
Time: 1:00pm - 2:00pm (ET)
Presenter: Rick Hanson, PhD

Please note this session falls on Yom Kippur. We apologize for the scheduling conflict. If you are observing and cannot join us in person, a recording will be sent to all registrants afterward.

Topic Description:

In common forms of compassion, we extend empathy to those who are “like me,” we express caring in soft ways, and we’re motivated to relieve the immediacy of suffering and perhaps change its psychological or interpersonal causes. This is already beautiful and profound. And – to meet the challenges of our times, we will explore an expansive compassion, with:

• empathy for those who we dislike or oppose

• caring expressed in ways that are bold, penetrating, even “fierce”

• motivated efforts applied to the upstream, systemic causes of suffering, not just their downstream effects

Presenter Bio:

Rick Hanson, PhD is a psychologist, Senior Fellow at UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center, and New York Times best-selling author. His eight books have been published in 33 languages and include Hardwiring Happiness, Buddha’s Brain, Resilient, Neurodharma, Just One Thing, Making Great Relationships, A Happy, Healthy Mom, and Mother Nurture – with over a million copies in English alone. He's the founder of the Global Compassion Coalition and the Wellspring Institute for Neuroscience and Contemplative Wisdom, as well as the co-host of the Being Well podcast – which has been downloaded 30 million times. He offers free newsletters, and his online programs have scholarships available for those with financial needs. He’s lectured at NASA, Google, Oxford, and Harvard. An expert on positive neuroplasticity, his work has been featured on CBS, NPR, the BBC, and other major media. He began meditating in 1974 and has taught in meditation centers worldwide. He and his wife live in northern California and have two adult children. He loves the wilderness and taking a break from emails.

Learning Objectives:

At the conclusion of this session, participants will be able to:

1) Describe the three primary components of compassion;

2) Explain how prosocial capabilities and brain size fostered each other in positive cycles during evolution; and

3) Describe how the "caring-and-sharing" strategy for regulating social life in the human species differs from the "holding-and-controlling" strategy in other primate species.

Continuing Education Credits -

For those seeking CE credit, the link to a feedback form will be sent during the live lecture in the Zoom chat. This must be filled out to receive CE; credits are processed at the end of the academic year in June 2026 for the entire Grand Rounds series. CE certificates are issued after that time.

· Although these sessions are recorded, we can only offer CE to those who attend live.

· An attendance attestation form will be shared during each event

· The Harvard Medical School is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) to provide continuing medical education for physicians. The Harvard Medical School designates this live activity for a maximum of 1.0 AMA PRA Category 1 CreditsTM. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

· Cambridge Health Alliance, Division of Continuing Education in Psychiatry is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. Cambridge Health Alliance, Division of Continuing Education in Psychiatry maintains responsibility for this program and its content. This program offers 1.0 continuing education credits.

· Cambridge Health Alliance, Division of Continuing Education in Psychiatry has been approved by the National Board for Certified Counselors (NBCC) as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 5444. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. Cambridge Health Alliance, Division of Continuing Education in Psychiatry is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs. This program offers 1.0 continuing education credits and is also applicable for Commonwealth of Massachusetts Counseling/Allied Mental Health accreditation for 1.0 credits.

· As a Jointly Accredited Organization, Harvard Medical School is approved to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Organizations, not individual courses, are approved under this program. Regulatory boards are the final authority on courses accepted for continuing education credit. Social workers completing this course receive 1 clinical continuing education credit.

Further Reading -

• Angiolillo, F., Lundstedt, M., Nord, M., & Lindberg, S. I. (2024). "State of the world 2023: democracy winning and losing at the ballot." Democratization, 31(8), 1597–1621. https://doi.org/10.1080/13510347.2024.2341435

• Brulle, R. J. (2018). "The climate lobby: a sectoral analysis of lobbying spending on climate change in the USA, 2000 to 2016." Climatic Change, 149(3–4), 289–303.

• Cernadas Curotto, P., Halperin, E., Sander, D., & Klimecki, O. (2023). Getting closer: compassion training increases feelings of closeness toward a disliked person. Scientific Reports, 13(1), 18339.

• Chen, C., Martínez, R. M., & Cheng, Y. (2018). The Developmental Origins of the Social Brain: Empathy, Morality, and Justice. [Review]. Frontiers in Psychology, 9, doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02584

• Chetty, R., Hendren, N., Jones, M. R., & Porter, S. R. (2020). "Race and Economic Opportunity in the United States: An Intergenerational Perspective." Quarterly Journal of Economics, 135(2), 711–783. https://doi.org/10.1093/qje/qjz042

• Craemer, T., Smith, T., Harrison, B., Logan, T., Bellamy, W., & Darity, W. (2020). "Wealth Implications of Slavery and Racial Discrimination for African American Descendants of the Enslaved." Review of Black Political Economy, 47(3), 218–254.

• Dahlsgaard, K., Peterson, C., & Seligman, M. E. P. (2005). Shared virtue: The convergence of valued human strengths across culture and history. Review of General Psychology, 9(3), 203–213, http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/1089-2680.9.3.203.

• Fredrickson, B. L. (2013). Positive emotions broaden and build. Advances in experimental social psychology, 47(1), 53.

•  Gilbert, P. (2021). Creating a compassionate world: Addressing the conflicts between sharing and caring versus controlling and holding evolved strategies. Frontiers in Psychology, 11, 582090.

• Hanson, R., Shapiro, S., Hutton-Thamm, E., Hagerty, M. R., & Sullivan, K. P. (2023). Learning to learn from positive experiences. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 18(1), 142-153.

• Hickel, J., Sullivan, D., & Zoomkawala, H. (2021). "Plunder in the Post-Colonial Era: Quantifying Drain from the Global South Through Unequal Exchange, 1960–2018."

• New Political Economy, 26(6), 1030–1047. https://doi.org/10.1080/13563467.2021.1899153

• Hyland, M., Djankov, S., & Goldberg, P. K. (2020). "Gendered Laws and Women in the Workforce." American Economic Review: Insights, 2(4), 475–490. https://doi.org/10.1257/aeri.20190542

• Kuglerová, N., Popper, M., & Poslon, X. D. (2022). Intergroup trust as a mediator between compassion and positive attitudes toward sexual minorities. Frontiers in Psychology, 13, 1015595.

•  Martin, A. S., Harmell, A. L., & Mausbach, B. T. (2015). Positive psychological traits. In D. V. Jeste, & B. W. Palmer (Eds.), Positive psychiatry: A clinical handbook (pp.19–43). Arlington, VA: American Psychiatric Publishing.

• Park, N., Peterson, C., & Seligman, M. E. (2004). Strengths of character and well-being. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 23(5), 603–619, http://dx.doi.org/10.1521/jscp.23.5.603.50748.

• Schroter, F. A., & Jansen, P. (2022). Making peace with disliked others: the effects of a short loving-kindness meditation on implicit and explicit emotional evaluations. BMC psychology, 10(1), 110.

•  Singer, T. (2025). A neuroscience perspective on the plasticity of the social and relational brain. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences.

• Smith, M., Zidar, O. M., & Zwick, E. (2021). Top wealth in America: New estimates and implications for taxing the rich (No. w29374). National Bureau of Economic Research.

• Tørsløv, T., Wier, L., & Zucman, G. (2023). "The Missing Profits of Nations." Review of Economic Studies, 90(3), 1499–1534. https://doi.org/10.1093/restud/rdac049
  

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