Designing Longevity
with Barbara Waxman & Derek Gehl
Where the Science of Longevity Meets the Art of Living
January 11–16, 2027
Santa Fe, USA
From $5,000
Is a partial scholarship for you?
We believe in making personal growth and education accessible to everyone, which is why we offer partial scholarships on a needs-aware basis for many of our programs.
These scholarships support individuals facing financial challenges, including — but not limited to — members of underrepresented communities. If financial stress might prevent you from attending a workshop, we encourage you to apply.
Partial scholarships, provided through the Association for Growth and Education, are limited to 2–3 seats per workshop and reviewed in the order received. We recommend applying as soon as possible, as scholarship decisions are typically confirmed 90–120 days before the workshop date.
Early enrollment rate:
Book by Nov 12, 2026 and save 10%
Your labs can give you an idea of how long you might live. But they can’t tell you what you’re living for.
We have access to more information about our health than ever before: bloodwork, wearables, screenings, expert advice, and an endless stream of longevity protocols. Some of these tools can help us add years to our lives.
But longevity isn’t only about extending your lifespan. It’s about cultivating the energy, mindset, purpose, and community you need to build a life that makes you feel alive.
The data is half the picture. What you want your health to make possible is the other half.
Most programs give you one or the other. With Designing Longevity, you get both.
Over 5 days in Santa Fe, USA, you’ll capture a complete biological baseline and create your custom Longevity Lifeplan™ that turns insight into a personalized path forward.
You’ll leave with a full picture of where your health stands, and a Longevity Lifeplan™ built around what you want the years to hold.
As seen in:
The Location
Our 2,600-acre ranch in the New Mexico high desert, 25 minutes from Santa Fe, designed by MEA founder and renowned hotelier Chip Conley. Hike the winding arroyos at sunrise or ride across the range on horseback to stone ruins dating back to the 1800s. Climb to a ridge marked with ancient petroglyphs, where the view runs for miles in every direction. End the day around the fire under a sky thick with stars, then retreat to your room for a good night's sleep.
The Experience
Co-created and led by gerontologist Barbara Waxman and MEA CEO Derek Gehl, this five-day workshop combines the science of longevity and the art of living well with the physician-led clinical insights from Dr. Brad Jacobs and BlueWave Medicine.
It starts with a simple premise: you are a study of one. Your biology, lifestyle, goals, and definition of a life well-lived are unlike anyone else’s. No generic protocol will be the right answer.
With Barbara, you’ll build your own personal Longevity Lifeplan™ using her Seven Lifestyle Levers Assessment™. This practical framework looks at Movement, Nourishment, Renewal, Relationships, Cognition, Purpose, and Stress Management to help you identify the handful of changes most likely to move the needle in your life.
With Derek, you’ll learn to make better sense of the longevity landscape and know what information to trust. You’ll also learn how to use your health data, modern tools including AI, and sharper questions to become a more informed participant in conversations with your healthcare providers.
Through MEA’s partnership with BlueWave Medicine, you’ll complete a comprehensive biological baseline during the workshop. Afterward, Dr. Brad Jacobs will review your results with you in a one-on-one virtual consultation, helping you identify the clinical priorities most relevant to you.
You’ll leave with a clearer picture of where you are, what matters most, and a personalized plan for the years ahead.
What You’ll Leave With
- Your Longevity Lifeplan™. A working first draft built page by page with Barbara across the five days: your Trophy Years© Vision, your Study of One© Profile, your Seven Lifestyle Levers Assessment™ results, your Fulfillment Wheel, your Wellbeing Team Map, your Quick Win, your High-Impact Shift, and your North Star Statement. A living plan designed to evolve as you do.
- A complete biological baseline. DEXA, CIMT, VO2 max estimation, strength and movement analysis, and a full blood panel, collected on-site and sent to BlueWave Medicine for expert clinical review, so you have a clear picture of your health numbers and how they tie into the quantitative and qualitative work you'll be doing with Barb and Derek.
- A one-on-one consultation with Dr. Brad Jacobs from BlueWave Medicine. After the workshop, they'll review your complete results and provide a clear clinical assessment with specific priorities.
- The ability to advocate for your own health. You’ll learn to use modern tools, including AI, to organize your health data, prepare sharper questions, and have more informed conversations with your healthcare providers.
- A clear sense of where to focus. Not a 47-step protocol, but a concise list of the actions most likely to make a difference, grounded in your biology, values, circumstances, and the life you want to live.
- A peer community asking the same questions. The people in this room tend to become part of each other’s lives well beyond the workshop. That isn’t incidental. Social connection is one of the most well-documented contributors to a longer, healthier life.
The Diagnostic Pathway: Your Longevity Bio-Profile
In partnership with BlueWave Medicine, every participant receives a comprehensive set of clinical assessments: your biological baseline and the physiological lens of your Longevity Lifeplan™.
Live Immersions
DEXA Scan — Full body composition analysis including bone density, lean muscle mass, and visceral fat levels.
CIMT Scan — Carotid intima-media thickness, a non-invasive assessment of cardiovascular risk that can detect issues years before symptoms appear.
Strength, Power & Movement Assessment — A clinical-grade dynamometer measures how much force your hands and forearms can produce. It sounds simple, but grip strength is one of the most well-researched predictors of longevity, and it tracks closely with your overall strength.
VO2 Max Estimation — VO2 max is widely considered the single most powerful predictor of cardiovascular health and all-cause mortality. We use a validated, submaximal protocol specifically selected for safety and accuracy at Santa Fe's 7,000-foot elevation.
Blood Panel and Biomarker Analysis — A comprehensive blood draw completed on-site, then sent to the lab for full analysis.
After the Workshop
Your complete results – every scan, every marker – are sent to BlueWave Medicine. You’ll then schedule a dedicated virtual consultation with Dr. Brad Jacobs. This isn’t a surface-level review. He’ll walk you through your full picture, provide a clear clinical assessment of where you stand, and identify your top priorities for action.
It’s a pathway: collect the data, learn to navigate it, then receive expert clinical interpretation from a physician who specializes in exactly this.
What People Are Saying
Who This Is for
- You're ready to get intentional about how you spend your days, who you spend them with, and what gives your life meaning.
- You want a personalized health plan built around your actual life, not another list of generic advice.
- You want real data about your body and a framework that tells you what to do with that information.
- You value evidence over hype and are willing to look honestly at where you stand.
- You're ready to invest five days in building something you'll use for decades.
- You’re in your 40s – 70s and are moving through a transition or sensing that it’s time to become more intentional about the years ahead.
Who This Isn’t for
- You’re looking for a quick fix, a generic anti-aging protocol, or a list of supplements someone else says you should take.
- You’re not interested in building a personalized plan around your own body, values, circumstances, and goals.
- You’re unwilling to look honestly at your current habits, health data, relationships, and the choices shaping how you spend your days.
- You want to optimize your biomarkers but have little interest in the purpose, connection, meaning, and daily life that make added years worth living.
- You can’t commit to following through on the practical changes and ongoing reflection that make a Longevity Lifeplan useful over time.
The Schedule
Day One Monday, January 11
Day Two Tuesday, January 12
Day Three Wednesday, January 13
Day Four Thursday, January 14
Day Five Friday, January 15
Day Six Saturday, January 16
*Not all session time takes place in the classroom.
**Times are estimates; the agenda is meant to give you the general flow of the days.
Meet Your Hosts
Barbara Waxman, MS/MPA/PCC
Longevity and Leadership Advocate, Coach, Gerontologist
Barbara has spent twenty years proving something the longevity mainstream is only beginning to accept: how you think about aging changes your biology. She works with adults midlife and better, not to fight time but to design toward it, with intention, vitality, and the full expectation of getting better.
She’s a gerontologist by training, a credentialed coach by practice, and a counter-cultural voice by conviction. That combination is what makes her work different: the science is real, the coaching goes deep, and the perspective is unapologetically pro-aging.
Barbara serves on the Advisory Council for the Stanford Center on Longevity, co-leads Stanford’s Lifestyle Medicine Gratitude and Purpose pillar, and is a resident faculty member and advisor at the Modern Elder Academy. Her insights have appeared on CBS This Morning and Thrive Global. She is a sought-after speaker and author of The Middlescence Manifesto.
Barbara’s Website, LinkedIn and TEDxBoston talk
Derek Gehl
CEO, Modern Elder Academy
Derek spent over a decade as CEO of a health supplements company, deep inside the longevity industry: testing protocols, tracking biomarkers, and working with leading researchers and physicians on the cutting edge of human performance. Then he walked away, having learned the industry’s most valuable lesson from the inside: most of what’s sold as optimization is noise, and knowing the difference is worth more than any protocol.
That’s what he teaches here. At this workshop, Derek brings the biological lens: how to use the latest tools, including AI, to take control of your own health data, identify what actually matters in your results, and have informed conversations with any healthcare provider, so you’re never passive about your own health again.
He’s candid about what doesn’t work, including his own past mistakes. That willingness to say what most people in the industry won’t is part of what makes his guidance so practical.
BlueWave Medicine | Dr. Brad Jacobs
BlueWave Medicine is a physician-led practice focused on proactive, data-driven longevity medicine. Its founder, Dr. Brad Jacobs, MD, MPH, ABOIM, is a Stanford-trained physician and the former Endowed Chair and Founding Medical Director of the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine at UCSF. He has spent decades leading integrative clinical research and designing health-resilience frameworks used by Stanford and Harvard Business School.
Dr. Jacobs and his clinical team use advanced diagnostics that most primary care practices don’t offer to assess your metabolic health and cardiovascular risk. Their work centers on evidence-based medicine aimed at markers like ApoB, visceral fat and VO2 max.
For Designing Longevity, Dr. Jacobs designed the diagnostic assessment you’ll complete on-site. After the workshop, he’ll review your results with you one-on-one and help you fold your clinical priorities into your Longevity Lifeplan™.
Supported by
T'ai Jamar Hanna
Read bioWatch A Study of One: Cutting Through the Longevity Hype – A Conversation with Barbara Waxman
Eat, Rest, Explore
Every part of your stay is held to a standard you won't find at other retreats. Meals are cooked from scratch with organic ingredients, much of it from our own garden. The rooms are beautiful and spacious, with a hotelier’s attention to detail. And if you’re looking for adventure, explore our 2,600-acre ranch on horseback or bike, or go for a hike through our arroyos.
What Makes This Experience Unique
- A life plan and biological baseline, designed to work together. Most longevity programs focus on either clinical data or lifestyle change. This one connects both.
- Built for your Study of One©. Your biology, history, circumstances, values, and goals are unlike anyone else’s. Rather than hand you another generic protocol, Barbara’s methodology helps you identify the changes most likely to matter in your actual life.
- Barbara’s wayfinding sequence gives the work a clear structure. Through Get Your Bearings, Map Your Wellbeing, and Chart Your Course, you’ll build a practical personal plan, then refine it using your clinical data.
- Physician interpretation of your results. Some diagnostic results are available during the workshop, while others return after lab analysis. Once your complete profile is ready, you’ll meet one-on-one with Dr. Brad Jacobs of BlueWave Medicine for a dedicated virtual consultation focused on your clinical picture and top priorities for action.
- MEA’s hospitality makes room for the work. The setting, chef-prepared meals, accommodations, land, and staff support are designed to remove the logistics from your plate. You can focus on the questions that matter, alongside a cohort of people equally serious about designing the years ahead.
- You’ll do this work on a 2,600-acre regenerative ranch where the land gets the same care the people do, on ground where groups have gathered since 7,500 BCE.
More Kind Words
An excellent investment of both time and money — strong content, meaningful personal reflection, valuable diagnostics, and excellent facilitation. I'd recommend it without hesitation to anyone who wants to be more intentional about how they age, live, and continue to flourish.
Ivan Levi
Designing Longevity Participant
Barbara’s workshop helped to solidify my plan for a more vibrant and focused future. It really helped me think about my life and how it is made up of several distinct segments, the fulfillment wheel, and what I need to do to build up the areas I believe are lacking.
Carol Pouchie
Designing Longevity Participant
Before the workshop, I knew I needed a change, but I didn't have the motivation to go to the next level. The workshop flipped a switch for me. My cohort and the workshop content gave me the push I needed. I have learned SO MUCH about my personal health and the changes I need to make in order to flourish moving forward. I have met people who help me stay on track for my goals. I have gotten new insight into how I can change my habits sustainably moving forward to increase longevity. If you are considering whether or not the workshop is for you, stop thinking about it, and enroll. You will not regret the decision. I'm so glad I had this opportunity.
Tina Seelig
Designing Longevity Participant
I went in with a fairly strong background in longevity. I'd studied the subject, worked on my own health, and hired two longevity coaches. I wasn't expecting an entirely new world of ideas. What impressed me most was how effectively the program brought the many different dimensions of longevity into one coherent experience. This wasn't simply a workshop about living longer. It was about how to live better for as long as possible…
I left Santa Fe thinking less about how long I might live and more about how I want to live. That's a much more useful question.
Ed Robinson
Designing Longevity Participant
I walked in thinking I was pretty healthy and walked out knowing I had work to do, and that knowledge may have saved my life. The workshop raised my awareness of biomarkers I'd never known about. Three months out, I'm down 8 pounds, have an active fitness program, and am working with my doctors to resolve health issues identified by the medical tests during the workshop.
Bob Cavnar
Designing Longevity Participant
Before the workshop, I was in the middle of a real transition, one of those moments where you know something needs to shift but you're not quite sure where to start. Barbara and Derek brought a rare combination of rigor and humanity, and the clinical work gave the whole experience a grounding I didn't expect. Real data, about my real body, informing a real plan. That's not something most programs even attempt.
Meryl U
Designing Longevity Participant
What’s Included
- 5 nights at Santa Fe, USA, with all meals cooked from scratch, plus snacks and drinks
- Daily sessions and exercises that help you clarify what makes you feel alive, and how to organize more of your life around it
- A complete biological baseline with Humanaut Health. DEXA, CIMT, VO2 max estimation, strength and movement analysis, and a full blood panel, collected on-site and sent to Humanaut Health for expert clinical review.
- A one-on-one consultation with Humanaut's longevity physicians. After the workshop, they'll review your complete results and provide a clear clinical assessment with specific priorities.
- Mindfulness and somatic practices that settle your nervous system, so you can do the harder thinking
- Daily movement to keep your body in it: yoga, hiking, breathwork
- Time with a cohort of accomplished people asking the same questions you are, most of whom stay in touch long after
- Evening gatherings and rituals that mark where you've been and where you're headed
- Time on the land: hiking or biking the arroyos, visiting the horses, a wagon ride across the range
Book Your Spot Today
Designing Longevity
Where the Science of Longevity Meets the Art of Living
January 11–16, 2027
Santa Fe, USA
from
$5,000
$4,500
Is a partial scholarship for you?
We believe in making personal growth and education accessible to everyone, which is why we offer partial scholarships on a needs-aware basis for many of our programs.
These scholarships support individuals facing financial challenges, including — but not limited to — members of underrepresented communities. If financial stress might prevent you from attending a workshop, we encourage you to apply.
Partial scholarships, provided through the Association for Growth and Education, are limited to 2–3 seats per workshop and reviewed in the order received. We recommend applying as soon as possible, as scholarship decisions are typically confirmed 90–120 days before the workshop date.
Early enrollment rate: Book by November 12, 2026 and save 10%
Frequently Asked Questions
Most people considering Designing Longevity are asking some version of the same thing: Is this right for where I am right now? Here’s what we hear most often.
I’m managing health challenges. Will this still work for me?
Yes. The Lifeplan is built around your actual circumstances, not an idealized starting point, and the clinical assessments give you and your own physicians better information to work with.
Designing Longevity provides education, assessment, and planning support; it does not diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent disease. If you have health concerns, please consult your physician.
Should I attend solo or with a partner?
Both work. Solo participants tend to go deeper into their own design; couples leave with a shared vocabulary and complementary plans.
I’m in my 40s and 50s. Is now too early?
It’s the ideal time. The earlier you establish your baseline and design your trajectory, the more compounding you capture. It’s never too early or too late to start designing toward the years ahead.
I’m already deep into biohacking. Will this still challenge me?
Yes. You’ll get clinical-grade diagnostics and physician interpretation, and something most optimizers have never done: a rigorous, structured assessment of the qualitative factors (purpose, connection, fulfillment) that the mortality research says matter as much as your biomarkers. If you’ve optimized the engine, this is where you decide where the car is going.
I don’t know much about longevity science. Will I be out of my depth?
Not at all. You do not need a fitness routine, meditation practice, supplement stack, or prior knowledge of longevity science. This experience is designed for people who are ready to learn more about their own biology and get intentional about the years ahead.
Who else will be there?
Around 20 people, generally ages 45 to 75, from a wide mix of careers, backgrounds, and countries. Most come on their own. What everyone has in common is a willingness to look honestly at where they are, get intentional about the years ahead, and build a more personal path forward.
What clinical assessments are included?
Through MEA’s partnership with Humanaut Health, participants complete a comprehensive set of assessments that includes body composition, cardiovascular-risk assessment, VO2 max estimation, strength and movement analysis, and a full blood panel. Some results are available during the retreat; others require lab analysis and arrive in the following weeks.
What’s included in the tuition?
All workshop sessions, five nights of accommodations, chef-prepared meals, snacks, beverages, and full use of the campus are included. Tuition also covers the clinical assessments and a post-workshop consultation with a Humanaut Health physician. The only additional costs are travel and personal expenses.
How do I know if I qualify for a scholarship?
MEA offers scholarships on a needs-aware basis. If cost is a barrier, we encourage you to apply. Our goal is to make this accessible to the people who would benefit most.
What if I’m not sure this is right for me?
Book a call with one of our advisors. They’re all MEA alumni who’ve been through the programs themselves, and they’ll tell you honestly if Designing Longevity isn’t the right fit for where you are.
Materials and frameworks, including derivatives, Copyright © 2026 Barbara Waxman / Odyssey Group Coaching LLC. Used with permission. All rights reserved.
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