Dr. Julia Kim is a leading expert in global health, wellbeing, and sustainable development, and the Program Director of the Gross National Happiness Centre in Bhutan. Prior to living in Bhutan, Julia worked as a medical doctor and HIV researcher in Africa and Asia, before serving with the United Nations (UNDP and UNICEF) in New York. Together with the Centre, she currently leads retreats and international programs that combine meditation and inner leadership, deep nature immersion, and action learning - to spark individual and social transformation towards an economy of wellbeing.

Julia has been an invited speaker at the “Wisdom Together” Conferences (Stockholm and Oslo), Schumacher College (UK), the School of Life (Australia), the Mind and Life Institute (USA), “ICLIF Leadership Summit Asia” (Malaysia), “Leadership Matters: Business and Politics as Drivers for Inclusive and Sustainable Development” (German World Bank Group Forum) “The Nature of Wonders Assembly” (Greece) and “Women4Impact” (Bhutan).

She is also an Associate of the Presencing Institute – a global network that views the integration of compassion and mindfulness-based practices as a core capacity of 21st-century innovation and leadership.  She holds degrees from the University of Manitoba, Cornell University, Tufts University, and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.