Gigi Otálvaro-Hormillosa (she/her)

Gigi Otálvaro-Hormillosa, aka Dr. Giggles, is an interdisciplinary artist, author, and educator. She began practicing laughter yoga in 2019 at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Osher Center for Integrative Health and soon after earned her Laughter Yoga Leader Certification, which inspired her to launch classes at Stanford University, where she completed her PhD. In the seven years since completing her doctorate, nearly 1,000 students, faculty, alumni, and staff have participated in her laughter yoga classes and workshops. In her most recent role as Associate Director of Stanford Living Education, she directed the LifeWorks Program for Integrative Learning, an interdisciplinary program combining scholarship, creative expression, mindfulness, and embodied practices.

 

During her time at Stanford, she designed and taught courses across multiple departments, including Theater and Performance Studies, Art History, Psychiatry, the Program in Writing and Rhetoric, Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity, and others. She also launched the Art & Well-Being Engagement (AWE) initiative, working with campus partners and museums to foster connection, belonging, and community health through creative expression.

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In addition to her laughter yoga work, she is a Certified Yoqi® Qigong Flow instructor, creating classes that integrate movement, meditation, theater, improvisation, and laughter for holistic mind-body well-being. In her award-winning publications and feminist scholarship, her research and pedagogy engage Latina/x and women of color feminisms, queer of color critique, mindfulness-based art practice, as well as art and activism.

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She currently teaches laughter yoga and qigong through the UCSF Osher Center for Integrative Health, as well as in corporate wellness and community health settings.

 

Check out her new site: laughandflow.com