About Dalai Lama Fellows

How Would You Change the World?

Dalai Lama Fellows (DLF) offers a one-year fellowship program for emerging changemakers aiming to cultivate leadership practices rooted in awareness, compassion, and integrity. The interdisciplinary and deeply contemplative program provides a curriculum, coaching, group learning, and additional forms of support to help Fellows apply what they are learning in the fellowship to their important work in the world.

During the fellowship year, each Fellow implements an original field project addressing a local challenge. With the program’s support, Fellows cultivate capacities of self-awareness, mindfulness, emotional intelligence, listening and communication, systems-thinking, and much more to help their work make a genuinely positive impact on the communities they serve. Fellows’ learning is also supported by instruction in a range of contemplative practices that foster a deeper connection to self, others, and ecosystems.

DLF integrates the local and global, helping its Fellows carry out important work in their local communities while connecting them to a global network of kindred spirits. Upon graduation, Fellows join the community of LifeLong Fellows, with whom they connect in mutually supportive ways while continuing to advance their leadership journeys.

To date we have awarded 266 Fellowships. See where our Fellows come from!

University Partnerships

In 2021, DLF entered a phase of joint stewardship between the University of Virginia Contemplative Sciences Center and the University of Colorado Boulder Renée Crown Wellness Institute. Faculty and staff at both universities work together to deliver the global fellowship program as well as create interlinked academic programs for undergraduates at each university.

Stanford University also participates in DLF as an affiliate partner by delivering a Head, Heart, and Hands leadership development program to its university students. In the future, DLF hopes to expand its affiliate partner network to bring the Head, Heart, and Hands leadership model to additional universities around the world.

About the University of Virginia Contemplative Sciences Center

The mission of the Contemplative Sciences Center (CSC) is combining contemplation, connection, and research to enhance flourishing. We pursue this mission through a variety of programs and initiatives in academic classrooms, residential life, research, scholarship, and social innovation.

About the University of Colorado Boulder Renée Crown Wellness Institute

The Renée Crown Wellness Institute envisions every young person thriving, supported by the caring relationships and inner resources required for a lifetime of wellness. Its mission is to promote the wellness of young people and the systems and adults who support them through interdisciplinary research-practice partnerships.

History

Dalai Lama Fellows was founded in 2010, with the support of the 14th Dalai Lama, as an independent, non-sectarian, and inclusive organization. Beginning with a fellowship program, DLF has become a pioneer in integrating contemplative practices and personal flourishing with social innovation.

To-date, the fellowship program has reached 266 individuals across 59 nationalities, constituting an active global leadership network that serves as a continuing resource of human flourishing for next generation social innovators.

In September 2018, DLF entered into a strategic partnership with the University of Virginia Contemplative Sciences Center (CSC)—a leader in the field of flourishing and contemplation in education—to ensure its long-term sustainability and maximize its impact and reach. In 2021, the University of Colorado Boulder Renée Crown Wellness Institute joined CSC in a joint stewardship of DLF. Each university contributes faculty and staff to deliver the global fellowship program while also operating interwoven local academic programs for students on each university’s campus.

In 2021, DLF also launched an affiliate partner program with Stanford University. Faculty and staff at Stanford University deliver a Head, Heart, and Hands leadership development program to their university students. In the future, DLF hopes to expand its affiliate partner network to additional universities around the world.

Core Values

We embrace and advance five core values as we conduct our work:

• Integrity — We strive to be wholly honest and to have consistent alignment between our values and actions
• Interdependence — We work in the interest of present and future generations because we are all connected and mutually dependent
• Resilience — We meet challenges with optimism, ingenuity, flexibility, and grace
• Humbition (Humility + Ambition) — We live with the questions rather than presume the answers, and ground social change with respect for others
• Courage — We have strength to take action for moral reasons, despite doubts, fears, or risk of adverse consequences

Meet the Team

Leadership Team

2026–2027 Community Fellows

This select group of DLF alumni participate in the fellowship for a second year, serving as culture keepers and community weavers for the current cohort of Fellows.