Panelists

	George H. Rutherford, Ph.D. Dr. Rutherford served for 30 years as the Principal of the Fletcher-Johnson Educational Center (K–8) in Washington, D.C., where he introduced the Transcendental Meditation technique to hundreds of students and teachers as part of the school’s “quiet time.” He is currently Principal of the Ideal Academy Public Charter School (K–8) in the Washington, D.C., where a two-year research study is under way on the effects of the TM program on student stress, behavior, and academic performance.
	Carmen N’Namdi Ms. N’Namdi is Co-founder and Principal of the Nataki Talibah Schoolhouse of Detroit (K–8); Chair of the Board of the National Charter School Institute; and Member of the Board of the Michigan Association of Public School Academies. The Nataki School is an award-winning middle school where hundreds of teachers and students over the past nine years have learned the Transcendental Meditation technique as part of Nataki’s Wellness Program.
	William R. Stixrud, Ph.D. Dr. Stixrud is a clinical neuropsychologist and Director of William Stixrud and Associates in Silver Spring, Maryland, a group practice specializing in the neuropsychological assessment of children, adolescents, and adults with learning, attentional/executive, and/or emotional disorders. Dr. Stixrud is also a member of the clinical supervisory faculty of the Children’s National Medical Center and holds an appointment in the Department of Psychiatry, George Washington University School of Medicine.
	Sarina Grosswald, Ed.D. Dr. Grosswald is an expert in cognitive learning; President of SJ Grosswald & Associates, a consulting firm in medical education in Arlington, Virginia; and Director of Continuing Medical Education for the American Medical Women’s Association. She is also Project Director for a major research study now under way on the effects of the Transcendental Meditation program on ADHD and other learning disorders.
	Fred Travis, Ph.d. Dr. Travis is a neuroscientist and an expert in the neurobiology of brain development and mind-body health among children and adolescents. He is currently Director of the Center for Brain, Consciousness and Cognition at Maharishi University of Management. Dr. Travis’s research on meditation and the brain has been published in Biological Psychology, Psychophysiology, Consciousness and Cognition, International Journal of Psychophysiology, Journal of Psychophysiology, and Psychosomatic Medicine.
	vernon a. barnes, ph.d. Dr. Barnes is a research scientist at the Georgia Institute for Prevention of Human Diseases and Accidents, Department of Pediatrics, Medical College of Georgia in Augusta; and principal author of a landmark study published by the American Journal of Hypertension showing lowered blood pressure in at-risk teens who practice the Transcendental Meditation technique.
	ashley deans, ph.d. Dr. Deans is a quantum physicist, lifelong educator, and director of the award-winning Maharishi School (K–12) in Fairfield, Iowa, where students and teachers practice the Transcendental Meditation technique as part of its “Consciousness-Based” curriculum. The school graduates ten times the national average of National Merit Scholar Finalists, has seen 95% of graduates accepted at four-year colleges, and has had grades 10–12 consistently score in the top 1% of the nation on standardized tests of educational development. The school has no entrance exams and offers open enrollment, accepting students from a wide diversity of backgrounds.

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