A Monday Meditation at the Rothko Chapel

Alejandro Chaoul, PhD

Dr. Alejandro Chaoul is the Huffington Foundation Endowed Director of the Mind Body Spirit Institute at the Jung Center of Houston, bringing a new approach for helping healthcare professionals flourish by reducing stress and burnout, and improving health, resilience, and nourish the human spirit.

He holds a PhD in Tibetan religions from Rice University, and has studied in the Tibetan tradition since 1989, and for almost 30 years with Yongdzin Tenzin Namdak and Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, completing the 7-year training at Ligmincha Institute in 2000, and also training in Triten Norbutse monastery in Nepal and Menri monastery in India.

Alejandro is a Senior Teacher of The 3 Doors, an international organization founded by Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche with the goal of transforming lives through meditation, and since 1995, he has been teaching meditation classes and Tibetan Yoga (Tsa Lung & Trul Khor) workshops nationally and internationally under the auspices of Ligmincha International.

In 1999 he began teaching these techniques at the Integrative Medicine Program of the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, TX, where he holds an adjunct faculty position and for the last twenty years has conducted research on the effect of these practices in people with cancer and their caregivers. He is also an adjunct faculty member at The University of Texas’ McGovern Center for Humanities and Ethics, where he teaches medical students in the areas of spirituality, complementary and integrative medicine, and end-of-life care.

Alejandro has taught at Rice University, the University of Houston, and the University of Maryland, Baltimore. In addition, he collaborates in the area of interfaith and contemplative practices at The Rothko Chapel and the Boniuk Center for Religious Tolerance at Rice University and has been an advisor to The Rothko Chapel since 2013.

His research and publications focus on mind-body practices in integrative care, examining how these practices can reduce chronic stress, anxiety, and sleep disorders and improve quality of life.  He is the author of Chod Practice in the Bon Tradition (SnowLion, 2009) and Tibetan Yoga for Health and Wellbeing (Hay House, 2018), and has also published in the area of religion and medicine, medical anthropology, and the interface of spirituality and healing. Dr. Chaoul has been recognized as a Fellow at the Mind & Life Institute.

David A. Leslie

David Leslie is the Executive Director of the Rothko Chapel—an interfaith sacred space dedicated to human rights, art and spirituality located in Houston, Texas.  Under his leadership, the Chapel has undertaken a $30 million capital campaign to support the Opening Spaces masterplan, which includes a once-in-a-generation restoration of the Chapel, as well as the expansion of the campus to support the organization’s mission. In this role, Leslie has also focused on furthering community partnerships and diversifying the Chapel’s programming.

Leslie has devoted his career to religious and inter-community engagement centered on issues related to peace, justice, social equity, interfaith relations and human rights.  He has created and been actively involved in numerous programs, policies and initiatives focused on the rights of refugees and immigrants, environmental sustainability, poverty reduction and economic justice, workers’ rights and Tribal sovereignty.  Prior to joining the Rothko Chapel, Leslie served as Executive Director of Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon (EMO) from 1997 to 2015 and Interfaith Ministries for Greater Houston from 1993 to 1997. He has also worked in leadership positions at Ohio Council of Churches, World Council of Churches, and Austin Habitat for Humanity.

Leslie currently serves on the Houston Museum District Association Board of Directors, the National Religious Campaign Against Torture Board of Directors, and is an active member in the Houston Coalition Against Hate. His previous community service includes the Nonprofit Association of Oregon Board of Directors, and Northwest Workers’ Justice Project Advisory Board. From 2002-2004 he served as a member of the Citizens’ Economic and Fish Recovery Forum convened by the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation and the Oregon Wheat Growers League that sought a consensus-based solution to address issues related to economic prosperity, social and cultural values, and environmental challenges in the region associated with salmon recovery in the Columbia River system. Leslie chaired the National Ecumenical Task Force on Immigration Reform from 2009-2010 convened by the National Council of Churches U.S.A. (NCC) and Church World Service. His public sector service includes Oregon Department of Human Services Faith and Community-based Advisory Group, Oregon Senate Interim Committee on Farmworker Issues, Oregon Governor’s Global Warming Advisory Group, and State of Oregon Ending Homelessness Advisory Council.

In 2009, Leslie received the Eugene Carson Blake Award for Ecumenism, presented by the National Council of Churches and Church World Service for his interfaith and peacemaking leadership. Dr. Blake, a Presbyterian, was a leading religious and civil rights leader.

Leslie is a consultant, speaker, and writer on a wide range of topics related to peacemaking, interfaith relations, social justice, and religion and society. He was a delegate at the World Parliament of Religions in Cape Town, South Africa; guest preacher at the Washington National Cathedral in Washington, DC; member of the NCC delegation for the dedication of the first Greek Orthodox Cathedral in Havana, Cuba; and presented at the Global Congress of Religions in Montreal, Canada.

Leslie received his Bachelor of Arts from The University of Texas at Austin and his Master of Divinity from Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary.

Marc Glimcher

Marc Glimcher has served as President and CEO of Pace Gallery since 2011. He joined the gallery in 1985 as Associate Director and became President in 1993. Under his leadership, Pace has greatly expanded the scope of its artist representation, adding major international contemporary artists such as Jo Baer, Tara Donovan, Adrian Ghenie, Loie Hollowell, Yoshitomo Nara, Adam Pendleton, and Lee Ufan. Glimcher has also added prominent artist estates, including The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation and Acconci Studio, to Pace’s roster, advancing the gallery’s mission to support the work of the leading artists of the 20th and 21st centuries.

Glimcher has opened galleries in London, Palo Alto, Hong Kong, Seoul, and Geneva over the last decade, spearheading Pace’s geographic expansion worldwide. In the process, he has introduced the gallery’s program to an increasingly international audience of private and institutional collectors and positioned Pace as a pioneer of the increasingly global and intercultural art world.

In New York City, Glimcher oversaw the design and construction of Pace’s recently opened new flagship gallery and headquarters at 540 West 25th Street in Chelsea. Designed by Bonetti/Kozerski Architecture, the eight-story, 75,000-square-foot building accommodates a broad range of installation styles and artistic mediums. He has assembled a world class team of curators to lead the launch of Pace Live, a new extension of the gallery, which presents media works by such artists as DRIFT and teamLab, live performances, and public programming.

With the 60th anniversary of Pace Gallery in 2020, the flagship building represents Glimcher’s vision for how galleries should operate. Open to the public, the gallery is intended to be experiential and inviting, not just to view a new exhibition, but to linger on the sculpture-filled terrace, among the shelves in the library and the open racks of art, or in the performance space that is home to Pace Live.

Glimcher has curated dozens of exhibitions including Jean Dubuffet: A Retrospective; Je suis le cahier—The Sketchbooks of Picasso, the only comprehensive exhibition of Picasso’s sketchbooks, which traveled to seventeen museums in eleven countries; Mark Rothko: The Last Paintings; Earthly Forms: The Biomorphic Sculpture of Arp, Calder, and Noguchi; Alexander Calder: From Model to Monument; and Logical Conclusions: 40 Years of Rule-Based Art, which chronicled the use of rules and systems in Modern and Contemporary art and included a catalogue essay by Glimcher.