Dr. Dianne M. Connelly
Co-founder and Chancellor Emeritus of Tai Sophia Institute, and a practitioner of traditional acupuncture since 1973, Dr. Dianne Connelly received her master's qualification from the College of Traditional Acupuncture (UK) in 1979. She earned a doctorate in crosscultural medicine from Union Graduate School in 1975, a master's degree from New York University School of Education in 1970, and her bachelor's degree from Le Moyne College in 1967. An international lecturer (she lectures regularly in Italy and Germany), Connelly is the author of Traditional Acupuncture: The Law of the Five Elements (1975), All Sickness is Homesickness (1986), Medicine Words: Language of Love for the Treatment Room of Life (2009), and with Katherine Hancock Porter, Alive and Awake: Wisdom for Kids (2003). Dr. Connelly is on the staff of wisdomwell family acupuncture in Columbia, Maryland. She is the mother of Blaize, Jade, and Caeli, as well as grandmother to Tamar, Lennox, Rianna, Roman, and Maxim.
Robert M. Duggan
Co-Founder and President Emeritus of Tai Sophia Institute, Robert Duggan has practiced traditional acupuncture since 1973. He holds a master’s degree in human relations and community studies from New York University as well as a master’s in moral theology from St. Joseph’s Seminary, and received his master’s certification in acupuncture from the College of Traditional Chinese Acupuncture (UK). A national leader in the development of the acupuncture profession and the emerging healing arts community, he has served as a commissioner of the Accreditation Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine, on the board of trustees of the Horizon Foundation (a community wellness foundation in Howard County, Maryland, which in 2008 honored him with its annual Leadership Award), and a panelist at meetings sponsored by the National Institutes of Health and the White House Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medicine. In February 2009, Duggan testified before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, and in November 2009, he was among 20 leading thinkers, innovators, artists, philosophers, and entertainers selected to present at the first TEDx MidAtlantic Conference. Mr. Duggan lectures throughout the United States and abroad, and is author of Common Sense for the Healing Arts (2003). Mr. Duggan is on the staff of wisdomwell family acupuncture in Columbia, Maryland.
Dr. John G. Sullivan
Dr. Sullivan is Maude Sharpe Powell Professor of Philosophy Emeritus and Distinguished University Professor Emeritus at Elon University in North Carolina. He holds two earned doctorates: a J.C.D. (canon law) from Lateran University in Rome (1966) and a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (1985). Dr. Sullivan is the author of four books: To Come to Life More Fully, Living Large: Transformative Work at the Intersection of Ethics and Spirituality, The Spiral of Seasons: Welcoming the Gifts of Later Life and The Fourfold Path to Wholeness: A Compass for the Heart. His abiding interest is the place where philosophy, psychology, and spirituality - East, West, and beyond - intersect and mutually enhance one another. He is currently working on issues of spirituality and later life.