Lonnie Ali's Case for Compassion at Aspen Ideas: Health 2025

By: Dustin Vogt, Senior Manager of Communications and Development

07.02.2025

The Muhammad Ali Index continues to expand its reach in making a case for compassion, with the Muhammad Ali Index team appearing in Aspen, Colorado on June 25 for the Aspen Ideas: Health Summit.

Lonnie Ali, Co-Founder of the Muhammad Ali Index, was invited to speak at a panel discussing “The Case for Compassion,” showcasing the 2025 Ali Compassion Report and how compassion is a skill that can be cultivated and practiced.

The full list of panelists can be seen below:

• Frederick Riley – Executive Director, Weave: The Social Fabric Project, Aspen Institute
• Lonnie Ali – Co-Founder, Muhammad Ali Center; Chair, Muhammad Ali Index
• Julianne Holt-Lunstad – Director, Social Connections Lab, Brigham Young University
• Sara Konrath – Director, Interdisciplinary Program on Empathy and Altruism Research, Indiana University

During the panel, Lonnie mentioned that her husband, Muhammad Ali, was someone who practiced compassion and took time to learn about others he was speaking with.

“It was part of his DNA,” Lonnie said. “He enjoyed it, he found pleasure in it, he got energy from it. He felt it was… not just a responsibility, but it was a joy for him to be able to connect with people.”

For younger generations, many connections are made online. Panelists agreed that making deeper connections in person is needed, as there is often a social need that individuals don’t receive through online engagement.

“The real issue is social disconnection,” Holt-Lunstad said. “We can be disconnected in a variety of ways, but loneliness is the signal that social needs are not being met.”

Konrath mentioned that a decrease in empathy can often lead to burnout, but learning to find ways to empathize through disagreements or different viewpoints can prevent this.

“If you are practicing empathy that you can sit compassionately with people, their feelings aren’t necessarily going to be the same as your feelings, but you can sit with their distress and imagine it and just be there for them, that’s actually associated with lower burnout,” Konrath said.

The 2025 Compassion Report’s study of 12 pilot cities identifies cultural and behavioral trends, highlighting the challenges and opportunities for fostering compassion. The Muhammad Ali Index uses this data alongside Index Partners to create resources for cities to increase compassion through spirituality, self-care, education, health care, sports, and politics.