Dr. Michele Marie Desmarais is the Chair of the Religious Studies Program at the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO). She is an Associate Professor in Religious Studies, editor of the Journal of Religion and Film, and a member of the Native American Studies Faculty and Women’s Studies Faculty at UNO. Her book, Changing Minds, was included as one of 250 foundational texts in the field of Science and Religion by the International Society for Science and Religion.

Dr. Desmarais was born and raised in Vancouver, British Columbia and is Métis-Canadian with Dakota ancestry. She has a BA in Psychology from Simon Fraser University, an MA in Religious Studies from the University of British Columbia, and a PhD in Asian Studies also from U.B.C.

Dr. Desmarais' specialties include: Indian thought; Yoga Psychology; Religion and the brain; and Religion and film. She teaches courses on Hinduism, Buddhism, Eastern Religions, Mysticism, Religion and the Brain, Sanskrit, and Introduction to World Religions at UNO.