Minds of Mammals is a collaboration between innovative thinkers with diverse backgrounds in mental health, public health, education, and animal rights, focused on exploring mammalian evolution in a quest to learn about the human experience, and relatedly, nonhuman animal rights. 

Lead quester (yup, that’s a word):

Kavitha (Kolappa) Porchet, MD, MPH: Kavi has a penchant for exploring the brain/body connection and evolution. Born and raised mostly in North Carolina, she attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she got bitten by the travel bug and received her BA in International Studies in 2005 (yikes, time flies!). She crawled her way through medical school with the help of more intelligent friends at Johns Hopkins and apparently liked the cold weather so much (j/k, j/k!) that she continued up the coast for her training in global public health at Harvard. She stayed there for her many years-long apprenticeship in psychiatry (AKA residency) at the Massachusetts General and McLean Hospitals. In 2016, she was awarded an NIH-funded grant to study social connection and metabolic disease in PTSD, which set her on a path to study evolutionary psychiatry. She has consulted extensively for the World Health Organization over the years and most recently, was the lead author of WHO’s paper, “Optimizing brain health across the life course.” She lives with her husband and children (both of the human and furry varieties) between Switzerland and the United States.

 

Fellow explorers (and guest writers):

Lauren Chapalee, M.Ed: Lauren is an education innovator with nearly two decades of K-12 expertise, guides the birth of large-scale learning initiatives. At Great Minds PBC, she led the design and pilot of the company’s ground-breaking whole-school educator training program, forging new links between school culture and high-quality instruction. As the instructional design lead for PhD Science K-5 and Wit & Wisdom K-8, award-winning instructional materials generating $44M in annual sales nationwide, her impact spans all 50 states. A Teach for America alum, she taught kindergarten and trained teachers in DC Public Schools. Recognized as a national Truman Scholar for public service leadership, a Hope Street Group National Teacher Fellow, and a DC Public Schools Distinguished Teacher, Lauren is passionately dedicated to empowering every student and educator. She lives in small-town West Virginia with her husband, two daughters, a dog, a cat, and a tortoise. 

Sarah Johnson, Founder and CEO, Vegan For the Animals: Vegan FTA is a 501(c)(3) non-profit dedicated to working for the animals in order to help bring about a world where animals’ lives are valued and treated with the respect they deserve. Find out more here!

Kate Loveys, PhD, Expert on artificial intelligence and social connection

 

Tech (and moral) support: 

 

Nicolas Porchet, MSc, EMBA: Nicolas Porchet is a social entrepreneur and researcher in social innovation. Interested in sustainable food systems, he focuses his research on inclusive governance strategies used by social enterprises to improve smallholder producers’ livelihood and ability for self-determination. He also is co-founder of Choba Choba, a farmer-/consumer-owned chocolate venture.

 

 

Partners: (Under construction)