Our Benefactors

Donald and Nancy deLaskiThe Center for the Advancement of Well-Being—originally called the Center for Consciousness and Transformation—was made possible by a generous donation by the deLaski Family Foundation. Donald and Nancy deLaski’s dream was to create an entity where individuals could engage in an exploration around life purpose, meaning, and inner knowledge. The deLaskis and George Mason University made that dream a reality through the establishment of the Center for Consciousness and Transformation in 2009.

Donald deLaski had a deep and personal interest in the power of meditation, consciousness, and mindfulness, and their transformative effects on one’s life and society. His interest—and his personal experience as an undergraduate at Duke University taking an elective class that changed his own perspective on the world—inspired him to fund the Center so that other undergraduates and members of the public might have the same life-changing opportunity.

Donald’s interest in the work of the center was so strong that in its early years he regularly attended classes offered at Mason through the center—completing all the readings, writing all the required essays, and fully participating in classroom discussions.

Sadly, Donald and his wife Nancy have both since passed, but their vision of a center with deep and growing impact on individuals and organizations, including other universities, lives on.

As Donald explained in the Spring 2009 issue of Mason Spirit magazine, “Part of our vision is that a successful new center at Mason will lead to other universities providing similar courses, and thus a higher level of consciousness might be developed throughout the world.”

Nancy had similar dreams for the ripple effect of the center’s work, hoping that through the center, “students will attain more purpose-driven lives and thereby affect the world’s future in many fields—creative, medicine, government, research, and peace” (“Raising Consciousness”, Mason Spirit, Spring 2009).

If you would like to help us continue the work that the deLaskis started at Mason, please click here to find out more about giving to the center.