The Board of Directors
Jason Caplan is the Founder and President of The Bridge Institute. In 2004, Jason began to create and implement The Universal Language Room. He has devoted his life to interpersonal communication and bridge building through improvisational music.
Recently, Jason partnered with a team of professors and researchers at the University of Memphis. The team has run studies on The Universal Langu
Gwendolyn (“Gwen”) Wachtel is a graduate of Valdosta State University in Georgia. She was a Technical Assistant in Cell Surface Immunogenetics at the
Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research in New York, and Laboratory Supervisor in Pediatric Endocrinology at the Cornell University Weill Medical
College. After moving to Memphis, she became Company Administrator and Laboratory Supervisor at th
After serving as a jet instructor pilot in the U.S. Air Force, Stephen Wachtel earned a PhD for his work in Medical Genetics at the University of Pennsylvania. He was an Associate Member of the Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research in New
York with a joint appointment in Pediatrics at the Cornell University Medical College. He was Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Chief of Research
Gilbert Smith was born in Tennessee and grew up in St. Croix, Virgin Islands. He now lives in NYC and is working as an administrator at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health. A committment to community service has led him to work in public health. Gilbert is a founding member of the Universal Language Room. He has written dozens of poems and songs beginning in childhood and c
Janice Peterson, a Michigan native, has made Memphis her home for many years. Influenced by her Baha’i Faith, she believes that the appearance of the unity of humanity will be expedited by the institution of a universal language. A retired teacher of English as a second language, Janice recognizes that genuine communication often transcends vocabulary and syntax to reach the heart.