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  Anne Lamott

  Anne Lamott is the author of seven novels, Hard Laughter, Rosie, Joe Jones, Blue Shoe, All New People, Crooked Little Heart, and Imperfect Birds. She has also written several bestselling books of nonfiction, including Operating Instructions, an account of life as a single mother during her son’s first year; Some Assembly Required: A Journal of My Son’s First Son; and the classic book on writing, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life. She collaborated with her husband Neal Allen on the national bestseller Good Writing: 36 Ways to Improve Your Sentences (Avery Penguin Random House, March 17, 2026).

  Lamott has also authored several collections of autobiographical essays on faith: Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith, Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith, and Grace (Eventually): Thoughts on Faith. In addition, she has written Help, Thanks, Wow: The Three Essential Prayers, Stitches: A Handbook on Meaning, Hope and Repair, Small Victories: Spotting Improbable Moments of Grace, Hallelujah Anyway: Rediscovering Mercy, Almost Everything: Notes on Hope, Dusk, Night, Dawn: On Revival and Courage, and Somehow: Thoughts on Love, which was a #1 New York Times bestseller. She also has a podcast series with Neal Allen titled The Big Questions, available exclusively on the Ritual app. Lamott has been honored with a Guggenheim Fellowship and has taught at UC Davis, as well as at writing conferences across the country. Academy Award-winning filmmaker Freida Mock made a documentary about Lamott titled Bird by Bird with Annie (1999). Anne Lamott has also been inducted into the California Hall of Fame.

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  Barbara Fredrickson

  Barbara Fredrickson is Kenan Distinguished Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she directs the Positive Emotions and Psychophysiology Laboratory (a.k.a. the PEP Lab, https://peplab.web.unc.edu/). Dr. Fredrickson is an award-winning researcher most known for her Broaden-and-Build Theory of positive emotions, a foundational framework in both affective science and positive psychology. Having published > 160 peer-reviewed articles, in 2019 she was identified as in the top 0.01% of scientists (across 22 scientific fields) in terms of career-long scholarly impact. Her 2025 book, Positive Emotions (from Oxford University Press) sketches the arc of her career across five successive breakthroughs, which culminates in a novel scientific understanding of love as a transcendent state that creates measurable oneness across individuals. Dr. Fredrickson is also an award-winning teacher and her general audience books, Positivity (www.PositivityRatio.com) and Love 2.0 (www.PositivityResonance.com) have reached lifelong learners worldwide, as has her free, online course offered on the Coursera platform, which has attracted ~367,000 learners across nearly 200 countries. Through these and other means, her scientific work influences scholars and practitioners worldwide, within education, business, healthcare, the military, and beyond.

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  Eric Liu

  Eric Liu is the co-founder and CEO of Citizen University. He is the author of numerous acclaimed books, including Become America: Civic Sermons on Love, Responsibility, and Democracy — a New York Times New & Notable Book — and Live Like a Citizen: 8 Ways to Change Your Mindset and Our Country, to be published in October 2026. Liu served as a White House speechwriter for President Bill Clinton and as the President’s deputy domestic policy adviser. He was later appointed by President Barack Obama to the board of the Corporation for National and Community Service. A graduate of Yale College and Harvard Law School, Liu was elected in 2020 to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and co-chairs its Our Common Purpose commission. He lives in Seattle, where he has served on the boards of the Seattle Public Library and the Washington State Board of Education.

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  W. Kamau Bell

  W. Kamau Bell is a Peabody Award-winner, four-time Emmy Award-winner, documentary filmmaker, stand-up comedian, Celebrity Jeopardy! champion, Official Ambassador of the band Fishbone, self-proclaimed #1 Bruce Lee Expert (Non-Asian Division), podcaster, part-time activist, and full-time family man. Kamau is a two-time New York Times Bestseller with Do The Work! - An Antiracist Activity Book and Who is Government? - The Untold Story of Public Service. Kamau is best known for his CNN docuseries United Shades of America, his four-part Showtime docuseries We Need To Talk About Cosby, and his HBO documentary 1000% Me - Growing Up Mixed. Kamau is also known for scrawling HAHA! on his enemies' faces on his Instagram account. This year Kamau launched his new podcast Who's With Me? Kamau is also the ACLU Artist Ambassador for Racial Justice. Kamau is on the Board of Directors for several nonprofit organizations, including DonorsChoose and LiveFree. Kamau's next book is a children's book that he co-wrote with bestselling author Adam Mansbach, titled Rock, Paper, Scissors, Cheese, coming out October 27, 2026. Kamau is currently on his 2026 Who's With Me? stand-up comedy tour. Kamau cares too much and sleeps too little.

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  Valarie Kaur

  Valarie Kaur is the founder of the Revolutionary Love Project, a national movement to reclaim love as a force for justice. She is a lawyer, faith leader, bestselling author and civil rights leader. For 25 years, Valarie has led visionary campaigns for justice — in the wake of hate murders, inside America’s supermax prisons, at detention centers from Tijuana to Guantanamo, and most recently, at sites of state violence from Los Angeles to Minneapolis. The communities she serves have taught her an essential ingredient to birthing a healthy democracy:love . Since Fall 2024, Valarie has led the Revolutionary Love Tour, a healing odyssey to 75 cities across the United States, igniting one message: Revolutionary Love is the call of our times — the choice to leave no one outside our circle of care.

  We recommend Valarie's acclaimed books: SEE NO STRANGER, SAGE WARRIOR, and her children's book WORLD OF WONDER. Follow at @valariekaur 

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  Dacher Keltner

  Dacher Keltner, Ph.D., is the founding director of the Greater Good Science Center and a professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley. Dacher is the host of the Greater Good Science Center’s award-winning podcast, The Science of Happiness and is a co-instructor of the GGSC’s popular online course of the same name.

  One of the world’s foremost emotion scientists, Dacher has over 200 scientific publications and six books, including The Power Paradox: How We Gain and Lose Influence and Born to Be Good; he was a co-editor of the Greater Good anthology, The Compassionate Instinct. He has also written for many popular outlets, from The New York Times to Slate, and was the scientific advisor behind Pixar’s Inside Out.

Registration: Registration includes full event access, coffee, tea and water throughout the day and lunch. Please inform us during the registration process if you have any severe food allergies that we should be aware of. 

Continuing Education (CE) Credits: CE Credits for the Love Summit will be provided by CUE Management Solutions, LLC, the GGSC's CE partner for this event. CUE is currently determining the number of CE credit hours that this event will offer. We will announce this number after it has been finalized. 

Payment Methods: We accept all major credit cards. 

Scholarships: We will offer a limited number of scholarships for the Love Summit. You can apply for the scholarship here. The first deadline for scholarship applications is September 28, 2026. All scholarship applicants will be notified 2 weeks after the deadline. 

If we have any scholarship funds remaining after that date, we will open a second round of scholarship applications, with a deadline of January 4, 2027. Again, all sholarship applicants will be notified 2 weeks after that deadline.

We anticipate that the demand for scholarships will exceed the amount of scholarship funds that we have available. If attendance is not contingent on receiving a scholarship, we encourage you to register through the paid registration form now because space is limited. 

Group Discounts: Save more when you attend together! Email lovesummit@berkeley.edu to receive a group discount code. Please include “Love Summit - Group” in the subject line of your email.

• 10% off for groups of 5-9 registrants 
• 20% off for groups of 10 more more registrants

Cancellation Policy: To receive a full refund (less a $25 administrative fee), requests must be received by email no later than February 13, 2027. Refunds will not be processed for requests received after this date. 

Accessibility: The Greater Good Science Center is committed to creating an inclusive and accessible event. If you require a reasonable accommodation to participate in this event, please email lovesummit@berkeley.edu and note “Love Summit - Accessibility” in the subject line of the email.

Contact Information: For registration and CE questions or cancellation requests, email CUE Management Solutions, LLC at newell@sonic.net. For event specific questions, email lovesummit@berkeley.edu and note “Love Summit” in the subject line. 

Registration and CE administration support provided by CUE Management Solutions, LLC.