Dr. Michele Marie Desmarais is an Associate Professor in the Religious Studies Program and a member of the Native American Studies faculty at the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO). Her book, Changing Minds: Mind, Consciousness and Identity in Patañjali's Yoga-sūtra and Cognitive Neuroscience, 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.