The Karuna Center’s mission is to cultivate our shared humanity and collective responsibility for a more just, kind and compassionate world by supporting social, environmental and community impact spaces, building resilient communities, and making conflict generative and transformative.
About Us
Wendy and Thaïs have worked with international social and environmental impact organizations, in both governmental and non-governmental sectors, at the local, state, and federal levels including: International Workgroup for Indigenous Affairs, Mediators Beyond Borders International, The Parliament of World’s Religions, The Center for Dispute Resolution, The Compassion Institute, Mind andLife Institute, Ocean Conservation Research, The World Missions Council, Bioneers, Food Policy Council, Housing First, Indivisible Project, Aha Makhav Tribal Council, Gaden Shartse Tibetan Monastery, Friends of Tibet, Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Action Network, Fukushima Kids Project, The Peace Gong, Impact Foundry, Amnesty International, Child Trauma Academy, The Coalition for the Human Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Environmental Network, Buddhist Peace Fellowship, Bat Shalom, International Coalition of Women for a Just Peace, The Garden Project, Resologics, Young Women’s Leadership Conference, Hua Nani Partners, California Climate Leadership Dialogue, Brave New Us, Democracy Politics and Conflict Engagement Initiative, Omni-Win, the Human Science Institute, and prominent academic institutions.
Wendy Wood, PhD — is a social scientist, conflict engagement professional, mediator, narrative researcher, and author. She works internationally with organizations, communities, individuals, and systems spanning a wide range of contexts — social and environmental justice, strategic re-design, community engagement, environmental stewardship, and public policy. Wendy’s work specializes in resolving and transforming complex high-conflict multi-party disputes through dialogue and facilitation, mediation, de-polarization, and building trauma-informed practices. Wendy holds a doctorate in Human Science, a master’s degree in Public Health, and has advanced education and training in Leadership, Mediation, Dialogue and Facilitation, Neuroscience and Trauma, and Buddhist Psychology. She leads special projects supporting the culture, art, and teachings of Tibetan Buddhist traditions and is currently involved with Gaden Shartse Monastic College in Mungod, India — a prominent Tibetan monastery at the forefront of Tibetan monastic education — and Jangchub Choeling Nunnery, both in the Gelug tradition of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama.
Thaïs Mazur, PhD — is an international consultant, professor, social scientist, narrative researcher, and author. She works with communities and organizations on environmental and social justice issues through leading efforts to build cooperative problem solving, facilitate community engagement, and support integrative equity and inclusion. Thaïs has developed and implemented innovative projects, strategic designs, and policies for restorative and collective impact around issues of water rights, climate change, food security, and indigenous and tribal sovereignty. She works on the federal, state, and local level, designing and implementing strategies for a regenerative-living economy, affordable sustainable housing, community health care, clean renewable energy, and ecosystem restoration, blending practices for transformative systems change with local and global resilience.