Dr. Hala Alyan is a licensed clinical psychologist in New York City specializing in the assessment and treatment of trauma, substance abuse, anxiety, mood and relationship concerns, and cross-cultural issues. Currently, she works as a part-time psychologist at the New York University Student Health Center’s Counseling and Wellness Services, where she is based within the Islamic Center. In addition, Dr. Alyan is an Adjunct Assistant Professor at New York University, and teaches graduate-level courses on cross-cultural counseling and individual counseling practices.

Dr. Alyan is also the author of the novel “Salt Houses,” winner of the Dayton Literary Peace Prize and the Arab American Book Award and a finalist for the Chautauqua Prize. Her latest novel, “The Arsonists’ City,” was published in March 2021 and was a finalist for the 2022 Aspen Words Literary Prize. She is also the author of four award-winning collections of poetry, most recently “The Twenty-Ninth Year.” Her work has been published by The NewYorker, The Academy of American Poets, LitHub, The New York Times Book Review and Guernica. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and daughter, where she works as a clinical psychologist.

Yael Shy is the Founder and CEO of Mindfulness Consulting, LLC, where she teaches and consults on mindfulness for universities, corporations, and private clients around the world. She is the author of the award-winning book, What Now? Meditation for Your Twenties and Beyond (Parallax, 2017), and the founder of Mindful NYU, the largest campus-based mindfulness initiative in the US. Yael is an Adjunct Faculty Member at the Wagner School of Public Service at New York University. She has been featured on Good Morning America, CBS, Fox 5 News, and in Time Magazine and the Harvard Business Review.