Serena Bian

Serena serves as a special advisor for the 19th and 21st United States Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy, bringing a spiritual inquiry to the public health crisis of loneliness and disconnection. Serena was recruited by Murthy after the Obama Administration to conduct research for Murthy’s New York Times bestselling book, Together: The Healing Power of Social Connections, where her own story of loneliness, solitude, and leadership is featured. As a chaplain-in-training, Serena is pursuing questions of how we chaplain the end of extractive systems that isolate communities from themselves and one another. 

She is joyfully involved with emerging multi-generational spiritual communities like the Nuns and Nones, collaborating with artists, ritualists, and seekers on Chinese diasporic ancestral healing efforts, and ending the prison-industrial complex locally. She also supports CoGenerate, the Nearness, and Springtide Research Institute as a Board or Advisory member. 

Today, she also serves on Commonweal’s Board of Directors, residing in San Francisco.