Their generosity will drive scientific discovery, expand technological innovation, and help grow the Institute of Optics faculty by 50 percent within a decade.

Joe and Honmai Goodman

Optical physicist Joseph “Joe” Goodman and his wife, Honmai, have established a new endowed fund, the Joseph W. and Honmai Goodman Distinguished Professorship of Optics at the URochester’s . Their generous $800,000 gift is being matched by $1.2 million from the Wyant Challenge, amplifying its impact. This investment will strengthen the institute, support world-class faculty, and help meet the growing demand for trained optics graduates who will help drive advances in manufacturing, defense and aerospace, healthcare and medicine, communications and information technology, and other areas.

Established in 2022 through a $12 million gift from the late optics pioneer James C. Wyant ’69 (PhD), trustee emeritus, and his wife, Tammy, the Wyant Challenge is transforming the Institute of Optics. As the largest gift in its history, funds from the challenge and matching gifts, including the Goodmans’ contribution, will increase the number of full-time faculty at the institute from 20 to 30 over the next decade. The anticipated matching gifts will account for an additional $8 million, bringing the total impact of the challenge to $20 million.

This funding will ultimately support 10 endowed professorships—five for distinguished faculty and five for early-career scholars—along with a visiting professorship and a staff position. This growth will support the institute as it plans for its 100th anniversary in 2029. To date, four distinguished professorships and two early career professorships have been funded through the challenge, generating an additional $4.4 million in new donor funds.

“We are grateful to Joe and Honmai for their vision and generosity,” says Wendi Heinzelman, dean of the Hajim School of Engineering & Applied Sciences. “Their gift will strengthen our ability to recruit and retain top-tier faculty, ensuring that exceptional scholars have the resources to further discovery, mentor future optics leaders, and develop innovations that will benefit society.”

“I’ve dedicated my career to optics, and it’s important to Honmai and me to give back to the field as a way to recognize all it has done for us,” says Joe. “That’s why we’re excited about supporting faculty at the URochester’s renowned Institute of Optics. We are confident that they will continue to push the boundaries of optics research, education, and innovation far into the future.”

Jim Fienup, the Robert E. Hopkins Professor of Optics at Rochester, was one of Joe’s PhD advisees at Stanford. Fienup understands firsthand the significance of this kind of support. “Receiving an endowed professorship at the University’s Institute of Optics played a pivotal role in my decision to join its faculty,” he says. “The Goodmans’ gift will help attract top scientists who might otherwise go elsewhere, strengthening the institute, the University, and the broader Rochester community.”

Fienup adds, “Joe profoundly influenced many lives and careers, including mine. His problem-solving approach and structured thinking continue to shape how I work today. His first book, Introduction to Fourier Optics, is widely regarded as the best in our field—clear, exceptionally well-organized, and a model for communicating complex ideas. When I began teaching, I based some of my courses around his books. Even now, in my broader professional approach, I often ask myself, ‘What would Joe do?’ His influence continues to guide my work and will support many others into the future.”

“Professor Goodman, through his books and scholarly contributions, has had a significant impact on me both during my graduate student days and throughout my optics career,” says Tom Brown, the director of the Institute of Optics and the Mercer Brugler Distinguished Teaching Professor. “It is gratifying to see our current students still benefiting enormously from his contributions. Like his scholarly work, this gift represents an investment that will have an impact on them and our alumni for many decades.”

Brown adds that the Goodmans’ gift comes at a crucial time when demand for trained experts in optics continues to increase. “We are honored that the Goodmans are helping us shape the future of optics, and we are grateful to the Wyants for creating a fund that makes it possible for others to establish these professorships,” he says.

Ģ����ý the Goodmans

Joe is a highly regarded optical physicist recognized for his pioneering contributions to Fourier optics and optical information processing. He earned his AB in engineering and applied physics from Harvard University and his MS and PhD in electrical engineering from Stanford University. Joe joined Stanford’s faculty in 1967, later serving as chair of the electrical engineering department and senior associate dean of engineering.

Joe’s influential research spans holography, digital image processing, statistical optics, and speckle phenomena. He has authored several foundational textbooks, including Introduction to Fourier Optics. A leader in the optics community, Joe served as president of Optica (OSA), where he remains an honorary member. He has also held key roles in SPIE and IEEE. His contributions have been recognized with numerous honors, including election to the National Academy of Engineering and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Additionally, he has served as editor of the Journal of the Optical Society of America and given lectures internationally, including at the URochester. Joe has authored eight books, with a ninth pending.

Honmai was born in Macao and came to the US to attend Clarke College in Dubuque, Iowa. After earning her bachelor’s degree, she completed a dietetic internship at Stanford University Hospital and worked there as a dietitian until she and Joe married.

Since retiring in 2001, Joe has focused on writing and philanthropy through his and Honmai’s J.W. and H.M. Goodman Family Charitable Foundation, which supports the arts, education, the environment, and human services. In 2005, they endowed the Goodman Book Writing Award, recognizing influential works in optics and photonics, cosponsored by Optica and SPIE. They have also established professorships at the University of Arizona and Stanford.

The foundation’s generosity will create the Pluta Professorship in Breast Care and enhance the Pluta Comprehensive Breast Care Program at Wilmot

The has committed $4 million to . The investment will establish the endowed Pluta Professorship in Breast Care to support ongoing faculty excellence. It will also name the at Wilmot, providing immediate funds to advance recruitment and retention initiatives and clinical trials around Wilmot’s developmental therapeutics efforts.

“We are incredibly grateful to the Pluta Cancer Foundation for these investments and for its longtime commitment to cancer patients, survivors, and the community,” says David Linehan, MD, CEO of the Ģ����ý Medical Center, dean of the School of Medicine and Dentistry, and senior vice president for health sciences. “The foundation’s generosity will enhance research opportunities, support innovative teaching initiatives, and attract leading experts in cancer care.

“The Pluta Cancer Foundation and Wilmot are singularly focused on helping those with a cancer diagnosis at all stages of their treatment, care, and recovery,” says Ron Pluta, chair of the Pluta Cancer Foundation board. “We’re proud to make this commitment, which is possible through the generosity of all our donors over the years. This truly aligns with our mission to support cancer patients and invest in the professional development of those on the frontlines of patient care.”

The Pluta legacy began in 1975 when the family named the Pluta Cancer Center at Genesee Hospital. When the hospital closed in 2001, the family worked to establish what would be New York’s first independent not-for-profit cancer center. In 2012, the Pluta Cancer Center joined the Ģ����ý’s Wilmot Cancer Institute, and the Pluta Cancer Foundation was established. Today, the Pluta Cancer Center at Wilmot is home to the Pluta Comprehensive Breast Care Program and the , which optimizes health, quality of life, and clinical outcomes.

“We extend our profound gratitude to the Pluta Cancer Foundation,” says Jonathan Friedberg, MD, director of the Wilmot Cancer Institute. “This expanded partnership provides critical support to Wilmot’s bold strategic plan as one of the elite cancer centers in the United States.”

�ճ����Golisano IDD Institute will bring together a multidisciplinary team dedicated to innovation and bettering the lives of people with IDD and their families. The institute will expand into a new state-of-the-art space bringing together the leading programs in Ģ����ý’s IDD patient care, education, community outreach, and caregiver support that serve approximately 120,000 families in the region.

A second location of the  will support the growing population of adults living with an IDD and it will become a primary training site for health care providers specializing in this area of care.  (EIOH) will expand its Specialty Clinic and telemedicine services, allowing it to serve more IDD patients.  as well as the  (LEND) and  (UCEDD) will expand their integrated care and developmental disabilities training functions, and collaborate across the Institute to ensure advocacy, accessibility, and education are relevant to the needs of the IDD community. �ճ���� (IDDRC) will advance diagnostics and provide genetic testing to leverage our understanding of IDDs.

The University is one of only eight institutions in the US with the trifecta of federal awards that support the work of the LEND, UCEDD, and IDDRC.

The Golisano IDD Institute is named for entrepreneur, philanthropist and civic leader Tom Golisano, whose $50 million gift announced in June 2024 made it possible to bring together these programs to help close health care gaps, advance breakthroughs in diagnosis and treatment, expand educational opportunities, and inform local and national policy development, and improve the lives of individuals with IDD and their families.

—June 2024

Invest in our students

We’re setting the highest standards in medical education.

At the Ģ����ý School of Medicine and Dentistry (SMD), we are committed to setting the highest standards in medical education, serving as a model for innovation and continuous improvement.

Rochester’s nationally recognized biopsychosocial model teaches physicians to understand the whole patient, considering the complex interactions of biological, psychological, and social factors. This approach has transformed medical education, research, and care. An SMD education also emphasizes community outreach and research, both locally and globally, in keeping with our University’s mission to make the world ever better.

Make a gift today in support of scholarships to help us recognize outstanding scholars, recruit diverse candidates, and compete with institutions across the country for the very best students.

Our students must reflect the communities we serve.

While the Ģ����ý has always prepared well-rounded physicians, we acknowledge a new imperative to graduate physicians who are committed to transforming care for underserved populations. Diversity, equity, and inclusion are top priorities for SMD.

Our sets our course, which includes recruiting the most diverse students, faculty, and staff and providing the tools and support that encourage their success. Our students must reflect the communities we serve. We accomplish this by casting a wide net for the sharpest minds, then immersing them in an environment in which they learn to practice medicine with cultural humility. These students will go on to drive a national movement toward equitable, patient-centered health care.

As the cost of medical education continues to rise nationally, many of our peer institutions now offer scholarship programs that significantly reduce— and in some cases eliminate—student debt. To compete with these schools and ensure that the best and brightest students from a wide range of backgrounds can attend SMD, regardless of their financial circumstances, we must increase our available scholarship support.

Building a diverse and well-rounded student body:

Realizing a dream.

Bianca Audrey Duah’s family came from Ghana, West Africa. “When patients and their families talk about dealing with something really hard, I can relate to them,” she says, noting that she’s been the primary care provider in her family. “I owe so much to my medical school scholarship donors, who are making it possible for people like me to become physicians.”

Duah is the recipient of the Alice and Stewart Espey Scholarship Fund, the Dr. Robert P. Gulick ’57M (MD) Endowed Scholarship, and the Dr. Robert F. and Isobel P. Murray Scholarship.

ENDOWED SCHOLARSHIP GIFTS are invested and managed by the University in perpetuity, ensuring that resources will always exist for the best students. A portion of the investment earnings is spent, while the original gift is preserved as principal. A gift of $100,000 or more can establish an endowed scholarship. A gift of $1,000,000 or more can endow a full scholarship for one student.

IMMEDIATE IMPACT SCHOLARSHIPS provide current-use funds that can be disbursed as soon as the following academic year. A pledge of $5,000 or more annually for five years helps cover tuition and cost of living expenses for deserving medical students.

A URMC physician leads outreach and advocacy efforts that bring hope and joy to children and families around the world

A few months ago, Clinton Morrison, MD—the director of the at the URochester’s Golisano Children’s Hospital—had no idea he’d be spending one August afternoon in a chilly dunking tank at Jellystone Park, a campground located between Rochester and Buffalo, N.Y.

Morrison got dunked about 50 times that day. It was one of many activities—alongside wagon rides, sports, and crafts—that yielded a lot of smiles at the annual camp the center hosts for children who were born with cleft palates and other craniofacial deformities.

More than 300 children, teenagers, and their families attended camp this year. Some had surgery years ago, while others had it within the last few months or years. Many have never met others who looked like them or who have faced the same issues they have. Most couldn’t smile—or struggled to do so—for a long time, due to facial deformities. Still others had issues eating, swallowing, and just getting through the day. The camp brings them together for a full day of fun and camaraderie.

“Meeting and connecting with people who have a shared life experience is validating, and it builds community,” says Morrison. “It shows these kids and their parents that they aren’t alone, and it brings them hope.”

Reconstructive plastic surgery has changed their lives.

That’s also what Morrison has seen in Antigua, a quaint ancient city in Guatemala. For the last six years, he’s led URMC’s participation in an annual medical mission trip organized through the . HUGS is a Rochester, NY-based charity that facilitates surgeries around the world on children who have cleft lips, palates, and microtia (an underdeveloped ear).

Upon arriving in Guatemala this year, Morrison; Sara Neimanis ’10, ʼ20M (Res), an assistant professor within the plastic surgery division; and about 25 other healthcare professionals from around the U.S. transformed an empty building into a topnotch surgical center within about 12 hours. Then, after screening about 100 potential patients—many of whom have traveled days to get to them—the health care teams got to work. They start each day at 7 a.m., when they begin their first of 10 or so surgeries. They finish after dark. Over the course of the week about 75 deserving babies will receive new smiles.

“Working in Guatemala was, and continues to be, a tremendous opportunity,” says Neimanis. “I see firsthand the extent of craniofacial anomalies in other parts of the world. This underscores for me the importance of the work we are doing and that I can do something that addresses some of the health issues we, as a society, face globally.”

Adds Morrison, “The mission trip is exhausting, but so rewarding. These families don’t have the same kind of access to health care that we have here. They’ve heard ‘no’ often and they’ve just about given up. Many of the kids need multiple surgeries, too, which is why we go back to the same community year after year. We get to know the families, and they trust us. It’s a huge responsibility and an incredible joy and honor to help so many people smile.”

This generosity will help Simon recruit and retain top-tier faculty, bolster its position as a leader in entrepreneurial education, and cultivate an innovative mindset

Jackie and Bob Sperandio

A $3 million endowed gift from Jackie Sperandio establishes the Robert Sperandio Professorship in Entrepreneurship at the URochester’s Simon Business School. For 40 years, Robert (Bob) ran Sporting Dog Specialties, a Rochester, N.Y.-based direct mail company that PetSmart purchased in 1997. Jackie’s gift—a tribute to her late husband—will help Simon recruit and retain top-tier faculty, bolster its position as a leader in entrepreneurial education, and cultivate an innovative mindset among tomorrow’s business leaders.

“My husband loved being an entrepreneur and a business person,” says Jackie. “He often said that running a business was like painting a picture—it was a creative act. For him, business wasn’t just about the money, it was about building something from the ground up and interacting with people. He was a wonderful man and I think he would be happy to be honored in this way. And, for me and our two children and two grandchildren, it’s a way to celebrate his life and his work.”

Simon Dean Sevin Yeltekin says, “We are grateful to Mrs. Sperandio for her vision, partnership, and generosity. Gifts like this are exceptional and fuel our greatest ambitions for Simon Business School. Her support perfectly aligns with our new strategic plan——which focuses on enhancing our position as an intellectual and professional hub for business leaders and empowering our students with the innovative and entrepreneurial mindset necessary for professional success.”

Jackie adds, “Ironically, Bob didn’t think you could teach someone to be an entrepreneur—he believed that you have to have a fire in you. He also believed, as I do, that you must acquire the skills to be successful in business. You do this by learning from those with knowledge and experience, like the professors at Simon have. This is why I chose to endow this professorship.”

Bob was an active member of the community and a long-time volunteer at Lifetime Assistance and Hope Hall, two local organizations that support those with developmental disabilities. Jackie notes that throughout his career and life, he was committed to creating opportunities to help others flourish and contribute to society. “This gift ties in with that wish—to help people become successful entrepreneurs and positively affect the lives of those around them,” she says.

“Bob is a role model to our students and to us at Simon,” adds Dean Yeltekin. “He carried the mantle of entrepreneurship, was passionate about his community, and made a large impact on the Rochester area and in the business world. Jackie’s generosity builds on all of this and is truly inspiring.”

Read more about Jackie and Bob Sperandio and their spirit of entrepreneurship.

Their legacy will affect the community—and business education—forever

Bob Sperandio

For 40 years, Robert (Bob) Sperandio ran Sporting Dog Specialties, a Rochester, N.Y.-based direct mail company that PetSmart purchased in 1997. Along the way, he made a difference in many lives by providing jobs, modeling excellence and innovation, and building a spirit of entrepreneurship that has since inspired many.

“Bob made things happen—for our family and our community,” says Jackie. “For him, business wasn’t just about the money, it was about building something from the ground up, interacting with people, and being a source of sustenance for those who worked for us.”

In June 2022, Jackie and her two children made a gift to the Ģ����ý’s Simon Business School to serve as a tribute to Bob. Their hope: to foster the spirit of entrepreneurship that was so important to him.

That $3 million endowed gift establishes the Robert Sperandio Professorship in Entrepreneurship, which will help Simon recruit and retain top-tier faculty, bolster its position as a leader in entrepreneurial education, and cultivate an innovative mindset among tomorrow’s business leaders. It’s a gift that will make an impact on business education—forever. And, it all began with a dream.

Jackie and Bob Sperandio

The early days

Sporting Dog Specialties started out very small, a passion project of a friend of Bob’s father who wanted access to training products for his own dogs. The business grew and that friend brought on Robert’s father as an equal partner. After Bob graduated from the University of Windsor in Canada—where he met Jackie and would earn his MBA—he returned to his hometown of Rochester, with a dream to start his own business someday. First though, he joined Mobil Chemical as a marketing executive.

Meanwhile, Bob’s father bought out his partner. Then, a few years later, Bob and Jackie bought the business from him and eventually expanded it to four catalogs and five retail stores, with $70 million in annual sales.

“I remember the early days when it was just us,” she says. “We kept our inventory, including items such as dog collars and whistles, in my father-in-law’s family room. At our house, our kitchen became the direct mail and advertising hub of the company. That’s also where I designed the company catalog.”

A booming business

Soon, sales increased, which prompted the Sperandios to rent a small office space in Spencerport, where they lived. In the early 1970s, they then hired their first employee, an office manager. By 1989, the business had grown so much that it moved to a newly-built 90,000-square-foot warehouse in Brockport and, at its peak, employed 400 people.

Recognizing Bob’s business acumen, in 1997, the Greater Rochester Chamber of Commerce and its Small Business Council affiliate presented him with its Business Person of the Year Award. In 1990 and 1991, the company also placed in the top end of the chamber’s “Top 100” list of fastest growing small and large local, private businesses. Then, in 1992, it rose to #1.

“Bob had a great sense of humor,” says Jackie. “For instance, during his speech when he won the Business Person of the Year Award, he noted that running a small business was just like running a large one, just with fewer zeros.”

In the late 1990s, the Sperandios started thinking about retirement and began looking for a buyer. They found one—PetSmart, which purchased the company in 1997. Sporting Dog Specialties then became PetSmart Direct.

A giving spirit

In their retirement, Jackie and Bob grew their long-time relationships with two local organizations: Lifetime Assistance, which serves people with developmental disabilities, and Hope Hall, a private school designed for students with special needs. Over the years, clients from Lifetime Assistance became employees at Sporting Dog Specialties. Bob also served as member of its board in the early 1990s.

“Bob always believed in creating opportunities where everyone can flourish and contribute to society,” says Jackie. “That has been important to me, too. This gift to Simon ties in with that wish—to help people become successful entrepreneurs and positively affect the lives of those around them.”

Read more about Jackie Sperandio’s generosity.

The Max and Marian Farash Charitable Foundation recently established a $500,000 challenge to support the construction of the Greenbaum Center for Jewish Life on the Ģ����ý’s River Campus. The Farash Challenge is designed to encourage other donors to join in helping to build the center, which will be the new home for and a resource for all students and the broader Rochester Jewish community.

“We are grateful to the Farash Foundation for this inspiring and significant gift,” says Sarah C. Mangelsdorf, president and G. Robert Witmer, Jr. University Professor. “The Greenbaum Center will have a transformational impact on Hillel’s ability to best serve Jewish students, staff, and faculty, and it will offer expansive programming and services for the Jewish community on campus and in the surrounding area.”

“Establishing this challenge is a way for us to support Jewish life at the URochester, which plays such a vital role in the greater Rochester community,” says Jennie Schaff, chief executive officer, Farash Foundation. “It is also a way for us—and the collective Jewish community—to enrich the experiences of many Jewish students and others who study and work on campus or who visit there.”

Currently, Hillel at the URochester—an organization that serves as a catalyst for vibrant, inclusive, pluralistic Jewish life on campus—is housed within the University’s Interfaith Chapel. Built in 1970, the chapel was designed to welcome people of all spiritual traditions. Today, that space is too small for all it serves. The planned construction of the Greenbaum Center will help address this, providing Hillel more space to grow and flourish. Another building—the Catholic Center—is also being planned to serve as a new home for the Catholic Newman community.

Named for its generous lead benefactors, David Greenbaum ’73 and his, wife, Laureine, of New York City, the center will house a lounge, multipurpose program space, two state-of-the-art kosher kitchens, a conference room, staff offices, and a Beit Midrash study and prayer space. Construction is slated to begin in 2023, pending funding.

“Thanks to the vision of the Greenbaums, the Farash Foundation, and other donors, the Greenbaum Center will create a much-needed space for our Jewish students to celebrate, learn, and socialize,” says Joy Getnick, executive director of Hillel at the URochester. “The center is being intentionally designed to maximize flexible use, which will help us best meet students’ needs today and long into the future. ”

Jewish life on campus

Sheila Konar

The recently made a $1.5 million gift to establish the Sheila Konar Professorship at the URochester’s . The Konar Foundation’s gift will forever support a faculty member who has a strong focus on literacy learning, is engaged in community-based instruction programs, and is involved in partnerships that elevate reading and comprehension skills for marginalized students.

The Konar Foundation also made a $275,000 gift to support the Project READ Fund, which will provide immediate support for the program along with related literacy book pilot projects. Established in 2011 with Konar Foundation funding and support, is a partnership program with Rochester’s School 33 and East High School’s upper and lower schools. The program focuses on helping children approach literacy tasks with confidence and ability so that they are able to read and write better and improve their success at school. Project READ evolved out of a program that started with School 36, which has since closed.

Sheila Konar, who , attended School 36 as a child and volunteered there for years. She also supported literacy programs at School 33. “My mother was passionate about literacy. She knew first-hand the difference that excellent programs and teachers could make in the lives of young people,” says Howard Konar, president of Konar Properties, a Konar Foundation trustee, and co-chair for the advocacy council at the Warner School’s Center for Urban Education Success (CUES). “She wanted young people to love reading and learning. The foundation’s most recent gifts honor her passion for education—they are a part of her legacy.”

“Although we celebrate these recent gifts and the difference they will make in the lives of young people, we also mourn the loss of Mrs. Konar,” says Sarah Peyre, dean of the Warner School. “She was a true visionary. We are immensely grateful to her and her family foundation for their ongoing support here at Warner, at the Medical Center, and around the community.”

Over the last few decades, the Konar Foundation has established professorships along with research and program funds to support literacy and urban education initiatives at Warner, patient-centered care in geriatrics and palliative medicine, and Alzheimer’s disease research at the Medical Center. It has also provided funding that led to the creation of the Konar Center for Digestive and Liver Diseases.

Established in 1982 by William and Sheila Konar, the Konar Foundation is committed to supporting issues closest to the family, including education, health and human services, cultural and civic projects, and Jewish life and culture. The late was a Holocaust survivor who made his way to Rochester in the 1940s and graduated from Benjamin Franklin High School. Both William and Sheila Konar personally experienced the profound degree to which access to education and health care could improve lives.

Autumn Gallegos Greenwich, PhD
Assistant Professor of Psychiatry

The ups and downs of the past two years have left many feeling unbalanced and questioning what’s important in life. Some are rethinking their jobs, relationships, personal priorities, and more.

In this time of perpetual uncertainty, how can we clear our heads and stay mindful and focused on what’s most important? Autumn Gallegos Greenwich, PhD, licensed clinical psychologist, assistant professor of psychiatry at the URochester Medical Center, and an expert on mind-body interventions related to stress and trauma, shares her thoughts on mindfulness, gratitude, and the science behind it all.

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE MINDFUL?
You have to train your attention first. It’s like sitting in a chair and training yourself to understand what your sensory experience is—what does it feel like to sit in that chair? What does the air feel like? What is the story you tell yourself about this experience?

To truly be mindful, you then need to move from attention to acceptance. That’s allowing our experience to be what it is, allowing our body to feel just as it does. And that becomes the ability to direct our attention: to pay more attention to what we value and care about. This moves us towards prosocial behaviors—those that help and benefit others—like gratitude and compassion. This line from Mary Oliver’s poem, “Sometimes” sums it up well: “Instructions for living a life: Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.”

HOW CAN MULTI-TASKING CONTRIBUTE TO STRESS?
When we are distracted or multi-tasking, we aren’t paying attention, and we become more reactive and more distressed, because we are trying to do more than we are capable of doing. With multi-tasking comes the message of striving—you should do more. The reality is that we can’t do all the things and we can’t do them well, and people often become burned out. There’s a lie that we’re supposed to be productive at all times. Your worth is not what you produce—it is who you are.

Ultimately, when we pay attention to our behaviors, we can ask the big questions: do I need to do all these things at once? Do they align with my values? Is this what I really care about? The shift that mindfulness allows is the choice to show up to everything in our life—whether they are things that we enjoy, or things that are hard or overwhelming—and be present.

HOW ARE MINDFULNESS AND GRATITUDE CONNECTED?
Gratitude is a high-impact, prosocial behavior that is huge in therapy and positive psychology because it creates a lot of positive emotions. One really fascinating thing that happens when we have grateful thoughts is that we use words like “we” more often. Gratitude is prosocial in the sense that you see yourself connected to a bigger whole, which can combat things like loneliness and disconnection.

WHAT’S THE SCIENCE BEHIND MINDFULNESS AND GRATITUDE? WHY DO THEY “WORK?”
Mindfulness is considered a mind-body practice because there are both mental and physical benefits. It’s linked to changes in our brain: it increases activity in regions that control stress regulation and decreases activity in regions that control our brain’s stress alarm system, like the amygdala. Practicing mindfulness improves our mood, decreases our stress, and can help us better focus. It’s been shown to reduce chronic pain, decrease inflammation, and improve sleep. Practicing gratitude has a similar effect, because people find themselves more connected to other prosocial behaviors like compassion and empathy.

Mindfulness and gratitude also help us improve our relationships. Relationship issues are usually tied to poor communication. When we are mindful, we become better communicators: we’re more compassionate, more present, and more willing to hear the other person in the relationship.

PRACTICING MINDFULNESS AND GRATITUDE SOUNDS GREAT BUT HOW DO YOU GET STARTED?
It can be as simple as journaling. Every day, write down three things that you’re grateful for. Apps are also an easy on-ramp into the world of mindfulness. I recommend Headspace—it offers prompts at certain times of day, mediations of different lengths, and basic and advanced courses that really train people in mindfulness.

I also love the concept of “awe walks”—walking outside with a fresh perspective and noticing things that inspire gratitude. There have been initial studies that show that such walks help people become more upbeat and hopeful. There’s a  that describes one such study, noting that “the awe walkers felt happier, less upset and more socially connected than the men and women in the control group.”