Dr. Felipe Mercado, Ed.D., MSW, is a Certified Compassion Cultivation Training (CCT™) Instructor, Assistant Professor of Social Work at California State University, Fresno, and founder of Wise Souls LLC. Raised in Sanger and deeply rooted in California’s Central Valley, his work bridges contemplative science, social work, education, and healing-centered systems change.

A former K-12 principal, school counselor, and social work practitioner, Felipe brings compassion practice into spaces where people are asked to care for others under extraordinary pressure. He has shared CCT and compassion-based practices with graduate social work students, educators, public health professionals, behavioral health leaders, and community-serving organizations.

Through the Global Compassion Coalition’s Compassion Corps initiative, Felipe brought the full eight-week CCT program to graduate social work students at Fresno State. His teaching and scholarship explore compassion, self-compassion, belonging, resilience, and how helping professionals can remain present with suffering without becoming depleted by it.

Felipe is also the creator of the Wise-Compassionate Framework and author of A Journey to Compassion and Rethinking Education Together. His work asks how compassion can move beyond an individual practice and help shape more humane schools, organizations, and systems.