Meet Gigi — a.k.a. Dr. Giggles.

Gigi Otálvaro has spent her whole career studying what bodies can express. She designed her own major in hybridity and performance at Brown, earned an MA in Visual and Critical Studies at the California College of the Arts, and completed her PhD in Theater and Performance Studies at Stanford — a scholar of how movement carries meaning.

Somewhere along the way, the research turned personal: the practices she studied didn't just signify — they healed. That discovery reshaped her work. As Associate Director of Stanford Living Education, she directed the LifeWorks Program for Integrative Learning, an interdisciplinary program weaving scholarship, creative expression, mindfulness, and embodied practice. She created and taught Stanford's first-ever for-credit qigong and laughter yoga classes, and presented her work at Harvard Medical School's Science of Tai Chi and Qigong Conference.

In the seven years that she offered laughter yoga at Stanford, nearly 1,000 students, faculty, alumni, and staff participated in her laughter yoga classes and workshops.

Certified as a Laughter Yoga Leader and a YOQI® Qigong instructor, Gigi found that the contemplative and the comic aren't opposites — they're partners. Her students agree: they're the ones who started calling her "Dr. Giggles."

Today, she teaches public and tuition-based classes at the UCSF Osher Center for Integrative Health, bringing a scholar's depth and a playful spirit to every session. She also offers sessions for corporate wellness programs, community centers, churches, schools, and private gatherings.