Our Programs

Jonathan Schooler is Distinguished Professor of psychology at UC Santa Barbara and  Director of the Center for Mindfulness and Human Potential. 

Jonathan earned his BA at Hamilton College in 1981 and his Ph.D. at the University of Washington in 1987. He joined the psychology faculty of the University of Pittsburgh as an assistant professor that same year and became a research scientist at Pittsburgh's Learning Research and Development Center. Named a full professor in 2001, he moved on to the University of British Columbia (UBC) in 2004 as professor of psychology, Canada Research Chair in Social Cognitive Science, and senior investigator at UBC's Brain Research Centre. In 2007, he joined the faculty at UCSB. Jonathan pursues research on consciousness, memory, the relationship between language and thought, creativity, problem-solving, and decision-making. He is particularly interested in exploring phenomena that intersect between the empirical and the philosophical such as how fluctuations in people’s awareness of their experience mediate mind-wandering and how exposing individuals to philosophical positions alters their behavior. 

Tam Hunt is a lawyer, scholar and writer. He first fell in love with the Big Island when he trained in the Saddle area during his time in the U.S. Army in the 1990s. He went on to become an environmental lawyer specializing in renewable energy law and policy. He has developed a second career in the philosophy of mind and neuroscience and is, with Jonathan Schooler, the creator of the General Resonance Theory of consciousness. He is active on the Big Island as a volunteer on various environmental, local agriculture and good governance initiatives. He co-founded the Lokahi Institue in order to attract top-notch minds to Hawaii to focus on problems that have global implications but with local applications. 

Tam finished his law degree in 2001 from the UCLA School of Law and his bachelor's of science degree from UC San Diego in 1998.