FINDING NEVERLAND Musical Director Mary-Mitchell Campbell to Moderate U.N.'s 'Day of Happiness'

In celebration of the third annual International Day of Happiness at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, the NGO Relations and Advocacy Section of DPI will hold an expert global panel exploring scientifically proven data that demonstrates the inverse relationship that wealth (both national and personal) can have on happiness. The event takes place on Thursday, March 19, 2015, 11 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. and will be live streamed on webtv.un.org

New information will be shared by Jeffrey Sachs from Columbia University's Earth Institute (via video) previewing the upcoming World Happiness Report 3. This year's report will present the relationship of happiness to gender through the lens of culture, among other unique findings.

Broadway Conductor and Composer Mary-Mitchell Campbell, currently serving as musical director of Finding Neverland, and Founder of Artists Striving to End Poverty (ASTEP) will serve as the event's Moderator. Ms. Campbell's other theater credits include Company (Drama Desk Award, Orchestrations), Big Fish, The Addams Family, Sweeney Todd, Road Show, Next to Normal, Hello Again, Allegro. She has served as musical director of concerts with Kristin Chenoweth, Laura Benanti, Jonathan Groff, Raul Esparza. She is the founder of ASTEP-Artists Striving to End Poverty (www.asteponline.org) and is passionate about arts education/poverty reduction.

Speakers:

Dr. Kai Ping Peng - Berkeley Professor and founding member of International Positive Education Network (IPEN) will talk about the effect positive education has on children in China. In 2014, his discussion of the impact of positive education in China was viewed by more than 100 million in his native country.

Dr. Hector Escamilla - President of Tecmilenio University, México, is leading positive education and wellbeing in his country. He will focus on his work in the Jalisco province that is proving the impact of positive education in one of Mexico's poorest regions.

Jeffrey Sachs - The Earth Institute (via video) will unveil 5 points from his forthcoming World Happiness Index (due for release on 24 April). Guests will be treated to a "first look" before the global release of this renowned and anticipated research.

Deborah Heisz, COO, Co-Founder - Live Happy, the voice of the Happiness Movement, will discuss the proven impact happiness has in all areas of life - and how it can actually drive personal economic growth.

Alejandro Adler - Is a member of the International Expert Well-being Group comprising leading experts from distinct disciplines working with the United Nations to create a new development paradigm based on well-being and happiness set to go into effect in 2015.

Ami Dar - Founder of Idealist.org, the number one resource helping people searching for careers in nonprofits. Connecting more than 100,000 organizations and millions of users, his mission is to connect people who want to do good with opportunities for action all over the world.

Jeffrey Brez- Chief of the NGO Relations and Advocacy Section will host the event. He will announce the United Nations - MixRadio #HappySoundsLike campaign that marks the International Day of Happiness 2015.

Photo Credit: Jennifer Broski