Valerie Malhotra Bentz, Ph.D., MSSW is Professor, School of Leadership Studies, Fielding Graduate University, having served as Associate Dean for Research. Her interests include phenomenology, somatics, social theory, consciousness development, contemplative research and Vedantic knowledge.  She is engaged in collaborative research leading to publications such as: Deathworlds to Lifeworlds: Collaboration with Strangers for Personal, Social and Ecological Transformation, (with James Marlatt); Handbook of Transformative Phenomenology (with James Marlatt) Expressions of Phenomenological Research (with David Rehorick); Contemplative Social Research (with Vincenzo Giorgino); Transformative Phenomenology (with David Rehorick). She is the author of Becoming Mature: Childhood Ghosts and Spirits in Adult Life and a philosophical novel, Flesh and Mind: The Time Travels of Dr. Victoria Von Dietz. Valerie directs the Doctoral Concentration in Somatics, Phenomenology and Communicative Leadership (SPCL) and co-founded the concentration in Creative Longevity and Wisdom. She is an experienced psychotherapist, yoga teacher, massage therapist, environmental activist and musician.