Due Quach
Pioneering Social Entrepreneur,
Author & Founder of Calm Clarity
— A mindful leadership program
Master your mind. Be your best self.
Due Quach (pronounced “Zway Kwok”), author of Calm Clarity: How to Use Science to REWIRE YOUR BRAIN for Greater Wisdom, Fulfillment, and Joy (Tarcher/Perigee 2018), is a social entrepreneur who combines mindful leadership with science to empower people to master their mind, perform at their peak, and triumph over adversity. She is the founder of Calm Clarity, a pioneering program that combines mindful leadership with science to empower people to master their own mind and become their best self across the socioeconomic spectrum. She is also the founding chair of the Collective Success Network, a new non-profit to increase college success by building a platform for professions to support, mentor and empower college students from disadvantaged backgrounds. Due is also the author of the viral Medium piece “Poor and Traumatized at Harvard.”
As a young child came to America with her family as refugees from Vietnam. and grew up in a low-income area of Philadelphia where she experienced toxic stress, poverty, prejudice, violence, and crime. A living testimony to resilience and grit, Due graduated at the top of her high school and gained admission to Harvard University. As a first-generation college student, she conquered numerous obstacles, including turning to neuroscience to overcome post-traumatic stress disorder, and graduated with honors. She then earned an MBA from the Wharton School of Business, where she was a Joseph Wharton Fellow. After building a successful international business career in management consulting and private equity investments, Due decided to pay it forward by developing Calm Clarity, an original science-based approach to mindful leadership to help empower people across socioeconomic spectrum realize their potential. She gained a deep, direct understanding of mindfulness by studying a number of contemplative traditions in India.
Calm Clarity brings neuroscience into workplace and educational settings to help professionals, educators, and students manage stress and enhance performance, happiness, health and relationships. The program shows people how to strengthen brain structures for self-leadership, resilience, and interpersonal skills to overcome adversity and develop a mindset for growth, leadership and resilience. During Calm Clarity presentations, Due offers participants practical tools and insights to direct their own brain development and increase their capacity to:
• think clearly and make effective decisions
• be more creative, innovative and collaborative
• build resilience to bounce back quickly from stress
Due has run the “Calm Clarity Mindful Leadership Program” at New York University, the University of Pennsylvania, and Drexel University and at leading corporations such as Vanguard, M&T Bank, and Devereux Advanced Behavioral Health. Her inspiring story was featured in the New York Observer, the Philadelphia Inquirer, and the Seattle Times. Due's autobiographical article "Poor and Traumatized at Harvard" was viewed more than 250,000 times and republished in the New York Observer.
Author of the viral Medium piece, “Poor and Traumatized at Harvard,” Due Quach (pronounced "Zway Kwok") is the founder and CEO of Calm Clarity, a social enterprise that uses science to help people master their mind and be their best self. A refugee from Vietnam and a graduate of Harvard College and the Wharton MBA program, Quach overcame the long-term effects of poverty and trauma by turning to neuroscience and meditation. Her book Calm Clarity, scheduled for publication by Tarcher/Perigee on May 15, 2018, shares her Calm Clarity program to show readers how to deal with toxic stress and adversity.
See MoreHere, Due speaks about what "opportunity" means to her. To Due, opportunity means being a human bridge to join communities.
ACADEMIC:
“Due presented to a standing room only crowd at New York University. Her message and methods were resonant for a diverse range of people from freshman first generation students, to doctoral candidates, senior administrators and faculty alike. In just once short hour, she was able move people with her own personal story, convey the complex brain science behind her methods and enable people to experience the power of mindfulness...The practices Due shared can be easily applied in any life – no matter how busy you are – to increase focus, reduce stress and achieve high performance.”
~Bethany Godsoe, AVP, Student Leadership Initiatives, New York University
“Calm Clarity is an effective program geared at increasing mindfulness and reducing stress. This creates a more productive work environment. As a School Leader I deal firsthand with the effects of stress on staff and students...Calm Clarity is a vehicle to address the negative impacts of the greater society on our students in a systemic way. I highly recommend the program.”
~Aaron Bass, Chief of Staff, KIPP Philadelphia Schools
“I write to sing the praises of the “Calm Clarity” Program…In my view, all of our students—undergraduate and graduate, at-risk and honors—would benefit much from taking this program. The scaffolded and sequenced modules are clearly presented, intertwined with examples from across the disciplines, and offer a mix of scientific theories coupled with hands-on tools taught and practiced in each session: an impressive blend of meta-cognition meets mission statement; college success meets leadership studies; positive psychology meets lifelong learning…Indeed, there would be much gained by having it as part of an all-campus faculty, staff, and administrator development series, consonant with the College mission.”
~Nancy, Faculty observer of the Calm Clarity pilot at Cabrini College
“It’s a great program. I really enjoyed how the program was a mix of meditative activities and learning about the science behind why these activities work. I am calmer with my students and with my own children and family. I can take a deep breath and react less impulsively than before. I also feel reconnected with my passion and purpose in life… I am more committed to the importance of bringing these tools to students, and I realize how taking time to focus on well-being is not being lazy or soft, but rather essential for people to achieve great things in their lives.”
~Jenn, Teacher and pilot coordinator at Masterman High School.
“This model offers such an empowering potential; that entering more deeply into who we are and how we are feeling can actually lead directly to our sense of happiness and success. I have some exposure to mindfulness / meditation. but this was the most clear and comprehensive explanation of the science behind it (I loved all of the brain diagrams, etc.). I am really excited to use the resources (esp. the audio recordings) to help sustain the practice.”
~Emma, Medical Student, The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York
“Due brought the Calm Clarity techniques to a sold out Wharton Club & Penn Club event…She was an extremely engaging speaker with a unique ability to convey important ideas to the audience about brain science and how to bring more calm to our stressful lives. There were many positive comments from audience members after the program. I would highly recommend the program!”
~Heather Aspras, President, the Wharton Alumni Club of Philadelphia
CORPORATE:
“Devereux recently invited Due Quach to be the guest speaker at our most recent executive leadership council meeting. My senior executives and I found her mindful leadership training very inspirational. Her powerful personal story touched all of us, and her faithfulness to the science (and skipping the “woo”) impressed a very tough crowd (including the past president of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatrists.) Our senior executives not only found personal value in Calm Clarity’s training, we also expressed a strong desire to support Due in her efforts and to find additional ways to work with each other going forward.”
~Robert Kreider, President and CEO, Devereux Advanced Behavioral Health
“Engaging. Inspiring. These are just two words to describe Due Quach’s Mindful Leadership Program. M&T Bank invited Due to present to a diverse group...What resonated with each individual was Due’s compelling, personal story, which served to build not only credibility, but also an openness amongst the group. From there, Due taught us the tools that can be used to unlock the brain and build resilience. A number of attendees even declared to have a reduction in stress immediately!”
~Melissa Govette, Vice President, M&T Bank
“Calm Clarity gave us a common language when talking about maintaining presence in our work and with ourselves and each other. We’re even finding value in using what we’ve learned with Calm Clarity when thinking about big organizational questions like how do we help our staff grow and develop, what type of people do we look to hire, and what questions should we be asking of ourselves and of candidates as we grow as a company. It was definitely worth it!”
~John Silkey, Director, Milepost Consulting
“After years of wanting to add meditation into the [LEADERSHIP PHILADELPHIA] curriculum, we found the right person: Due Quach from Calm Clarity. Her approach offers scientific research combined with an easily understood framework to practice meditation.”
~Liz Dow, CEO, LEADERSHIP Philadelphia, February Newsletter
“I have personally witnessed the program transform a room full of skeptical individuals into believers. The key, in my view, is layering neuroscience on top of the meditation. By answering the “why”, the program allows people to more easily embrace the meditation exercises, greatly enhancing their effectiveness."
~Brett Topche, Managing Director, MentorTech Ventures
“The session was a powerful reminder that a few minutes of thoughtful meditation can have a significant impact on mental well-being and personal effectiveness. Calm Clarity seems well designed to fit into the realities of busy professionals.”
~Idehen Aruede, CFO, Whitney Museum of American Art
Due’s autobiographical article “Poor and Traumatized at Harvard” was viewed more than 250,000 times and republished in the New York Observer. Her inspiring story has been featured in the Philadelphia Inquirer, Philly Voice,
Streetwise, and the Seattle Times.
Editorial Reviews
Calm Clarity: How to Use Science to REWIRE YOUR BRAIN for Greater Wisdom, Fulfillment, and Joy
"Calm Clarity tells Due Quach’s story of transformation, weaving her rich life experience with in-depth scientific insights from across diverse fields. Due has created practical and accessible tools for readers to not just be inspired by her transformation, but to set off and experience their own profound changes as well."
Sharon Salzberg, New York Times bestselling author of Real Love and Real Happiness
"Calm Clarity is refreshingly readable, easily accessible, and understandable, a very valuable addition to contemporary books on transforming our minds and creating the foundation of a happy life."
Sylvia Boorstein, PhD, author of Happiness Is an Inside Job
"Our world is in need of healing because there is so much pain and negativity being transmitted. Calm Clarity provides a powerful, practical, science-based approach to healing and transforming our pain and cultivating compassion to enable others to do so also. The compelling story of Due Quach's personal modern-day metamorphosis from a skeptic into a mystic will touch the hearts and minds of seekers everywhere, and her ongoing efforts to bring these tools to low-income communities to end the transmission of toxic stress and trauma is inspiring."
Richard Rohr, bestselling author of Falling Upward
"This is an extraordinary work by an extraordinary woman."
Allan Lokos, author of Patience: The Art of Peaceful Living
"Due’s rich personal narrative is interwoven with deep research into the way our brains work, offering lessons and tools that all of us should embrace for our own good and for the good of the world we live in."
Philip W. Lovejoy, Executive Director of the Harvard Alumni Association
"One of the best books I have ever read. Yes, this book is about rewiring your brain for greater wisdom and joy, but it also shares Due's compelling story of resilience and grit, a very personal account of shifting from entanglement to enlightenment."
Rick Bellingham, EdD, CEO of iobility
