Daniel Gutierrez, Ph.D., LPC, CSAC, is Assistant Vice Provost for VCU Convergence and Professor of Counselor Education at Virginia Commonwealth University. An American Counseling Association Fellow, he works at the intersection of convergence, contemplation, and human flourishing, helping bring together faculty, students, disciplines, and community partners to address complex challenges through transdisciplinary collaboration. His scholarship focuses on mental health, spirituality, contemplative practice, addiction, Latine mental health, and culturally responsive approaches to healing. Supported by major grants from the John Templeton Foundation and Mind & Life Institute, Daniel’s work asks how knowledge can move beyond the page and into the service of people and communities seeking meaning, courage, and hope amid complexity, suffering, and change.

Tim Luckritz Marquis has worked throughout his career to connect researchers and students across barriers. This goal has brought him to lead operations at Convergence. Before coming to Convergence, he supported faculty through various roles at VCU’s LEDstudio. He also teaches in VCU’s Religious Studies program and is involved in a number of VIPs. A recipient of a Ph.D. in Religious Studies from Yale, Tim’s research interests include interdisciplinary education, online and hybrid learning, critical theory, ancient history, and travel and mobility.

Jen Allen is the program manager for Convergence AI at Virginia Commonwealth University. She holds a B.S. in Applied Physics, M.A. in Political Science and is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP). Prior to joining Convergence AI, she spent five years as a program manager with the Commonwealth Cyber Initiative at VCU, where she supported a statewide portfolio of projects and programs focused on advancing cybersecurity research, workforce development, and innovation and commercialization.

Earlier in her career, she worked in executive branch agencies managing federally funded grants, including contract and program management. Her work has focused on building partnerships across universities, government, and industry to support collaborative research and innovation that addresses complex societal challenges.

Dr. Becca Bruhl is the program manager for VCU Convergence Health Outcomes and Sustainability. She is an environmental policy and public health professional with more than twenty years of experience managing projects, building partnerships, and leveraging data to improve community health outcomes. Her professional experience includes serving as a tenure-track professor teaching and conducting research on community-based interventions to reduce environmental exposures and improve chronic disease management and as an advisor to the local health district leading system-level community health initiatives. She holds an undergraduate degree in biology from Carleton College, master’s degrees in public health and environmental policy from Yale, and a doctorate in public health from the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston.

Dr. Alison Breland is a research psychologist with 20+ years of experience, which has included leading transdisciplinary academic research programs, coordinating multi-investigator grant submissions, and managing educational programs at VCU. Most of her research has focused on the health effects of tobacco products. She has a Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology (concentration: Biopsychology) from VCU and an undergraduate degree in Psychology from the University of Mary Washington.