Advisory Council

Siri Abrahamsen is a passionate social entrepreneur working for human connection, belonging, and well-being.
Her unwavering commitment to creating a better world has proven results, as evidenced by the growth of Gleding, her family and educational concept that has spread across Norway. Over the past few decades, Siri has pursued studies in psychology, philosophy, sociology, and empathy.
As a bestselling author and professional speaker; she draws upon her expertise to empower individuals, families, schools and organizations to effect meaningful change. Siri resides in Norway and the UK with her family, including her three children.

“The purpose of education should be to give children days filled with meaning, connection and contribution – the best tools for a long and healthy life. The YMI will help us make this a reality.”

Dr. Pninit Russo-Netzer, Ph.d., is a senior lecturer and researcher, the Head of the Education Department and the Head of the Resilience and Optimal Development Lab at Achva Academic College. She is also the head of the ‘Compass’ Institute for the Study and Application of Meaning in life, and the founder and head of the Academic Training Program for Logotherapy (meaning-oriented psychotherapy) at Tel-Aviv University. She has published numerous academic articles and chapters and is the co-author and co-editor of books on the topics of meaning in life, positive psychology, existential psychology, positive change and growth. Dr. Russo-Netzer serves as academic advisor and consultant to both academic and non-academic institutions worldwide, including the World Trade Center (WTCHR). She is also the recipient of the International Positive Psychology Association (IPPA) Spirituality and Meaning Researcher Award.

“YMI provides a multidimensional, comprehensive, and culturally nuanced measure to map and explore the subjective experiences of children and youth in their sources of meaning in life. This is essential given the increasing mental health challenges in today’s uncertain and volatile world.”

Dr. Shruti Patil is an enthusiastic academician and an avid researcher . She has been an industry professional in the past, currently associated with Symbiosis Institute of Technology as an Associate Professor and with SCAAI as a research associate. She has expertise in applying innovative technology solutions to real world problems. Her research areas include applied artificial intelligence, natural language processing, acoustic AI, adversarial machine learning, data privacy, digital twin applications, GANS, multimodal data analysis.

“YMI is a very unique project which is focusing on understanding the meaningfulness quotient among the individuals which is one of the most important life skills in the 21st century! The YMI is leading the path of understanding the real essence of life with technology handholding.”

Habib Tiliouine is a Professor of Social Sciences and the founding Head of the Laboratory of Educational Processes & Social Context (Labo-PECS) at the University of Oran 2 Mohamed Ben Ahmed, Algeria. His research interests and publications encompass the quality of life in Islamic societies, well-being, meaningfulness, flourishing, and religiosity research among both adult and child populations.

On these topics, he has conducted more than six large surveys with adult populations, including the religiosity module of the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) in 2018. With children, he has undertaken the four-wave survey of the Children’s Worlds project (isciweb.org). He has been a regular collaborator with the International Society for Quality-of-Life Research (ISQOLS) since 2003 and served as one of its Vice Presidents from 2016 to
2020.

Dr. Tiliouine has authored over 80 publications in English, Arabic, and French and serves as an editorial board member and reviewer for numerous academic journals. He was the lead editor of ‘The State of Social Progress of Islamic Societies: Social, Economic, Political, and Ideological Challenges’ ; (Springer, 2016) and the ‘Handbook of Children’s Risk, Vulnerability and Quality of Life: Global Perspectives’ ; (Springer, 2022).

Dr. Tiliouine was honored with the 2015 Research Fellow Award from ISQOLS and the Algeria Scopus Award in 2022 for Psychology."

“Meaningfulness’ is a concept that has recently emerged to explore what imparts significance and purpose to human life. While current research on happiness and subjective well-being has begun to acknowledge individuals’; own aspirations, expectations, and emotions, the investigation of meaningfulness in young populations is pushing boundaries to delve deeper into the most worthwhile and psychologically rewarding activities. Cultivating a sense of meaning is thus anticipated to pave the way towards a healthier, more engaging, fulfilling, and satisfying life.

Toward this end, the Youth Meaningfulness Index (YMI) has been developed, extensively tested, and empirically validated by internationally renowned experts as a parsimonious tool to offer a quantitative understanding of the various facets of youth meaningfulness. Its utilisation for comparative purposes is expected to reveal the subtle discrepancies across genders, geographic locations, and cultural groups regarding these aspects.”