Mindful Schools transforms school communities from the inside out.
In 2007, a small, passionate team assembled their collective experience in education, social justice, and mindfulness and founded Mindful Schools on the belief that mindfulness provides young people with a compass to navigate their lives. The program began in a classroom at Emerson Elementary School in Oakland, CA.
Today, Mindful Schools is one of the key players in the movement to integrate mindfulness into the everyday learning environment of K-12 classrooms. The organization has trained over 50,000 educators, parents, and mental health professionals who work with youth. These graduates, spanning 100+ countries, have reached over 3 million children worldwide.
Join Mindful Schools in imagining the possibilities of a world where every young person has access to the gift of mindfulness.
Inaugural Mindful Schools in-class program
Mindful Schools gains significant presence in Bay Area, serving more than 50 schools
Mindful Schools achieves non-profit status and becomes an independent organization
Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn offers benefit talk for Mindful Schools, speaking to 1300 people
Room to Breathe – first professional documentary on mindfulness in education
Mindful Schools conducts study involving 937 students
Mindful Schools transitions to full-time training of educators and other professionals who work with youth
Launched first significant online training for mindfulness in education
Our team doubles to meet demand and launches Year-Long Certification
Documentary Healthy Habits of Mind features Mindful Schools
Through direct service and adult training, Mindful Schools curricula has reached more than 300,000 youth
Mindful Schools rebrands, launching new identity and website
For eight years, Robert served as President and Executive Director at the San Francisco Zen Center. In that role, he led the design and implementation of a 10-year strategic plan, directed a successful $22 million dollar campaign that established a $12 million dollar endowment, and guided the organization through many significant transformational changes.
Robert also has a successful track record as a Bay Area entrepreneur. Beginning in the 1980’s, he was a film director and founder of a Bay Area film production company, a magazine creative director and editor, and a San Francisco restaurateur. At the time of his appointment, Robert was a business consultant guiding a strategic planning process at San Francisco’s Hamlin School, and a founding teacher for N3XT, an international leadership development company focusing on mindfulness practice and offering retreats in the U.S. and Europe.
Amy Allum-Poon
Group Guidance
Amy Allum-Poon has over ten years of experience in the non-profit and education sector. She received her BA in Psychology and Sociology from UC Santa Barbara. Amy worked for an education non-profit in Washington DC and later taught English in Korea and Indonesia. Upon her return to the Bay Area, Amy worked for two local energy efficiency non-profits before joining Mindful Schools. Amy began her mindfulness practice in earnest after attending a 10-day retreat in India in 2009 and is grateful for the impact that it has had on her life. She is thrilled to be a part of the Mindful Schools team where she is able to combine her passion for education and meditation.
Martha Brown is a Bay Area native and received her BA in Communications and Ethnic Studies from U.C. Berkeley. She brings over fifteen years of experience in operations and human resources management from an eclectic career that has spanned hospitality and tourism; TV and film production; PR and media communications; and performing arts education. Martha has worked for a variety of companies, including Sheraton; The Shubert Organization; MTV Networks; and The Port of Oakland. She also spent several years running after school programs for the City of Oakland; she has been a substitute teacher for OUSD; and a one-on-one aide for autistic children.
After taking a year off to nest with her new son, Martha was seeking mission driven work and joined Mindful Schools in 2013. Going to work every day in service to the mission of bringing mindfulness to children while achieving personal and professional growth with a diverse, intelligent, and compassionate team has been and continues to be a gift.
Martha is an active Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM) member working toward advanced SHRM-SCP certification.
Ruben Cortez
Guidance Team
Ruben brings 10 years of experience in education, enrollment, and operations to Mindful Schools, most recently having served as Assistant Director of Admissions and Financial Aid at Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, CA. He holds a B.A. in Music from Westmont College in Santa Barbara, CA, and calls the Central Coast of California home.
He is excited to be a part of the Mindful Schools team, and looks forward to doing his part in assisting the organization in bringing the benefits of mindfulness to communities all over the world.
Christina Costelo received her MA in Sociology from the University of California, Santa Cruz and her BA in Psychology from San Francisco State University. With a passion in progressive and innovative learning environments, Christina has worked in education for 9 years in a variety of settings. Most recently, she worked as a Camp Director for 3 years for Camp Galileo during the summer and an afterschool program quality assessor for OUSD during the school year. She has also worked as a Program Director for a nonprofit afterschool program funded by No Child Left Behind where she managed academic programming and wrote extensive guided reading curricula for elementary and middle school students in San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley and Mountain View.
Christina moved from the Training Coordinator role to Community Program Manager, allowing her to continue to bring her love of connecting to people and her project management experience to the Year-Long Certification Program and Community Programming. She has cultivated her own mindfulness practice since joining the team in 2011.
Director of Growth
Beck brings more than 10 years of non-profit communications and development experience to the Mindful Schools team. She is passionate about creating positive change in the world through programs that develop mindfulness, self-awareness and social/emotional skills. Her previous experience includes managing communications strategy for nonprofits, including the GO Project and DREAM in New York City, and Inner-City Arts in Los Angeles. Beck also worked as a fundraiser for the Studio Theatre in Washington, DC, and for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation in Charlotte, NC.
Beck loves working within positive, mission-driven teams. She is originally from Australia, where she earned her B.A. in Arts/Professional Writing and Editing, and now resides in Oakland with her husband and two young boys.
Betsy Hanger
Community and
Betsy works as the principal writer across our social media channels, providing resources, research, and inspiration to practice for educators, parents, and new mindfulness practitioners. Long interested in collaboration with classroom teachers to create mindful classrooms, Betsy completed the Year-Long Certification Program at Mindful Schools in 2014.
As a Community Mentor in the Los Angeles Unified School District, Betsy has taught over 1400 children and teachers. Her chapter on working skillfully with diverse youth is featured in Teaching Mindfulness Skills to Kids and Teens (Guilford Press, October, 2015). She has presented nationally on mindfulness practices for youth, as well as to groups of parents, teachers, and graduate students in clinical psychology and social work.
A long-time ally in the LGBTQ movement for equal rights, Betsy received the Outstanding Trans Ally of 2014 Award from the Los Angeles LGBT Center, and consults with parents of transgender children and their teachers to insure a safe school experience for all children.
Her mindfulness practice started in 2004 and includes retreats and courses in MBCT.
Alison Lee
Alison brings more than 10 years of marketing experience to the Mindful Schools team. She spent several years at Warner Bros. Entertainment, managing marketing and promotions for film franchises such as Harry Potter. When she returned to the Bay Area to raise her children near family, she immediately engaged with the parenting community and managed Development and Communications for one of the largest parent organizations in the Bay Area for two years. Prior to joining Mindful Schools, Alison co-founded and launched Common Thread Kids, a locally-handmade children’s brand.
Alison is passionate about progressive education and raising happy and kind kids (she has two young daughters), and she is pleased to be applying her range of experience towards the success of the growing Mindful Schools community. She earned her B.A. in Economics at UCLA.
Nicole Naffaa
Director of Guidance
Nicole brings over twelve years of experience in recruitment and admissions to her roll at Mindful Schools. She received a BA in Sociology from the University of California, San Diego and an MDiv at the Jesuit School of Theology at Santa Clara University. Before joining the MS team, Nicole served as the Director of Recruitment and Admissions for Pacific School of Religion, in Berkeley, CA. Prior to that, she worked at Santa Clara University where one of her roles was as a retreat director for a variety of different types of retreats, including silent retreats. As a mother of three, she is thrilled to join an organization that has such a direct and positive influence on the lives of children. Through her work at MS, she is reminded of the benefits of a mindfulness practice and has slowly begun to reincorporate it into her own life. “It is wonderful to be a part of an organization that not only supports and nurtures the well-being of others (in direct and indirect ways), but also supports and encourages the well-being of its employees.”
Nicole’s favorite things are spending time with her family and friends, enjoying live theater, playing board games and cards, and practicing and performing with her comedy improv group in Berkeley – her favorite way of “being in the moment”.
Linda Newman
Linda has a long history in the financial management of social service non-profits including a 11 years as controller for a child welfare organization, 8 years as accounting director with a hospice provider, and 2 years with an affordable housing organization. AS such, Linda is well versed in the technical and cultural challenges of non-profit organizations.
Having raised 2 children in the rough and tumble environment of public and private schools she can appreciate the benefit students could derive from mindful practices and she looks forward to contributing her skills toward making the program accessible to as many educators as possible.
Kory O’Rourke
Training Program Coordinator
Kory O’Rourke has been a public high school teacher and school leader for over a decade. She believes that mindfulness is an essential tool for building equity in our schools and our communities.
She uses her personal practice to support the work she does with students, teachers, and school leaders/administrators in supporting mindfulness instruction in schools, and beyond.
Three years ago, Kory began developing a whole-school implementation program, which is now successful in her high school, with ties to the middle school.
Kory is passionate about mindfulness, and is eager to share her experiences and provide support to educators who also want to bring mindfulness to their students.
Kevin Sandness
Salesforce and
Kevin is a web developer that has worked on a variety of projects for Mom and Pop shops, non-profits and startups. With an interest in connecting more deeply to mission-based work, he joined Mindful Schools as a webmaster on a freelance basis in April, 2013. Over the course of the last couple of years, Kevin’s responsibilities have grown to include development, maintenance and implementation of our core technology platforms, namely WordPress, Moodle and Salesforce.
As a father and engaged citizen, he is thrilled to be doing work that is helping to make a positive impact on educators and young people. When not working on technology projects, Kevin enjoys losing himself in music, trail running, juggling, chowing down on chile relleno burritos and spending time with his kiddo.
Lacey Segal
Lacey’s mindfulness practice began thanks to an elective class offered in high school. This inconceivably influenced her life’s trajectory—she became a high school teacher herself, for ten years, and offered semester-long mindfulness electives. She helped to create online teacher-training curriculum, mentored new educators, participated in research studies, and presented best practices at conferences. She holds a Master’s Degree in English Literature and a Spanish/English Teaching Credential.
Lacey continues to study and teach mindfulness under the guidance of qualified masters, carving out time for retreat whenever possible. In 2019 she completed a two-year Mindfulness-Based Leadership Program with the Dharmata Foundation.
Lacey loves fundraising for Mindful Schools, drawing upon six years of partnership-building in the Bay Area philanthropic landscape, working within nonprofits and charitable foundations.
David Selsky
David Selsky joined Mindful Schools in May 2017 as a Group Enrollment Specialist, working with groups of educators to provide mindfulness trainings to youth K-12. He has worked in the nonprofit space since 2000 for a variety of arts, environmental, technology, and human rights organizations, most recently at VolunteerMatch where he helped businesses grow their employee volunteer and community engagement programs.
David received his BA in Film Studies from UC Berkeley and his MA in International Peace and Conflict Resolution from American University. He has explored a variety of mindfulness practices over the last two decades and is excited to be able to help bring the benefits to younger audiences. In his free time he enjoys photography, vegan food, long walks around cities and redwoods, and hanging with his cat Sufi.
Brooke Sever
Guidance Support
Brooke brings over twelve years of customer service and membership management background to her roll as Customer Care Specialist for Mindful Schools. After receiving her BA in Psychology from UCLA, she has enjoyed a varied professional career, including years in both the nonprofit and retail sectors. With a passion for aiding the empowerment of younger generations and interacting with diverse communities, she is delighted to be a member of the Mindful Schools team.
A Bay Area native, Brooke can most often be found rooting for the local sports teams, spending time with her large family, and crafting her way to Christmas.
Head of Practice
Dave Smith began practicing mindfulness in 1994 and is now our Head of Practice at Mindful Schools and an internationally recognized mindfulness teacher and published author on Ethical Mindfulness. Over the last decade he has brought mindfulness-based interventions into jails, prisons, youth detention centers and substance abuse treatment facilities. He has developed programs and trainings for mental health agencies, private high schools and non-profit organizations. Dave speaks nationally at behavioral health conferences as an advocate for the implementation of Mindfulness and Emotional Intelligence skills into fields the of mental health, substance abuse, and education.
Megan Sweet
Director of Training
Megan Sweet is an experienced Network Lead with a demonstrated history of working in the education management industry. She is skilled in Educational Consulting, Lesson Planning, Educational Technology, Instructional Design, and Curriculum Development. She is also a strong entrepreneurship professional with a Doctor of Education (Ed.D.) focused in Educational Leadership and Administration. Megan Sweet has experience as a school teacher, school and district administrator, and a leader in school transformation. Megan Sweet is also a published author, speaker, and experienced presenter.
Course Trainers
Matthew Brensilver
Course Trainer
Matthew Brensilver, PhD, holds a master’s degree in clinical social work and has done psychotherapy with adolescents, adults and groups. He received a PhD from USC, where his research investigated explanations of psychiatric comorbidity. Currently, Matthew conducts research on addiction treatment at the UCLA Center for Behavioral and Addiction Medicine. He also teaches at UCLA’s Mindful Awareness Research Center on the intersection of mindfulness and psychotherapy.
Co-Founder and
Megan Cowan is a co-founder of Mindful Schools and comes to this work with over 15 years of formal and intensive mindfulness training, a background in teaching and education, and a degree from UC Berkeley in Alternative Health. Megan is the primary author of the Mindful Schools Elementary School Curriculum, and created their first Adolescent Curriculum. She has taught more than 3500 youth via Mindful Schools’ in-class direct-service program, trained more than 2000 educators, mental health professionals, and parents in mindfulness practices and applications for youth, and lead our Mindful Educator Essentials domestically and internationally for seven years. In 2012, Megan was featured in “Room To Breathe,” the first feature-length film documentary on the effort to integrate mindfulness training into U.S. public schools.
Vinny Ferraro
Vinny Ferraro is a long-time mindfulness practitioner and instructor and a nationally recognized leader in designing and implementing interventions for at-risk adolescents. The child of an incarcerated father, Vinny spent the majority of his teenage life hustling and living on the streets. In 1987, after recovering from drug addiction, he began leading youth groups in drug rehabilitation centers, juvenile halls, schools and half-way houses through the Hospitals and Institutions Program of Narcotics Anonymous. Vinny continued this work for nearly a decade before transitioning to a more intensive focus on mindfulness and emotional intelligence work. In 2001, he began teaching for the Challenge Day organization, a nationally recognized, school-based emotional intelligence and life skills program, eventually becoming Challenge Day’s Director of Training and leading workshops for over 110,000 youth on four continents. In 2008, Vinny became Training Director of the Mind Body Awareness Project (MBA) and is the principle author of MBA’s mindfulness-based curriculum for incarcerated youth. Vinny has received national media coverage for his work with adolescents; he is the subject of the MTV series “If You Really Knew Me…” In addition to his work with youth, Vinny teaches mindfulness retreats to adults around the U.S. and the world.
Chris McKenna
Chris McKenna has served as Program Director at Mindful Schools and was Executive Director of the Mind Body Awareness Project, a nonprofit that pioneered the development of mindfulness-based interventions for high-risk adolescents with complex trauma. During his tenure, MBA published the first formal research on the impact of mindfulness programming on youth in the U.S. juvenile probation system. In collaboration with Colorado State University, MBA also developed mindfulness training programs that met the specific needs of diverse youth populations, including youth of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes in Montana, and military youth in Ft. Collins, CO.
Chris has spent over a decade working with diverse communities suffering from high incidents of trauma, including five years with an organization launched out of Amnesty International that provided legal and psychosocial services to victims of torture and war crimes from over 20 countries. He has an eighteen-year history with mindfulness meditation and has taught mindfulness practices to diverse youth & adult populations. He is on the Curriculum Advisory Committee of Dalai Lama Fellows and the Advisory Councils of the Mind Body Awareness Project, Inward Bound Mindfulness Education and Honoring the Path of the Warrior – a project which teaches mindfulness to veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. He holds a degree in Religion & Asian Studies from Columbia University.
Oren Jay Sofer
Author, Meditation Teacher
Oren Jay Sofer has had a dedicated mindfulness practice since 1997, and has taught classes, workshops and retreats for youth and adults nationally since 2007. He has extensive experience with mindfulness-based programs for children and adolescents; he was one of the first generation of teachers at Mindful Schools and made significant contributions to the development of the Mindful Schools curriculum. Oren also teaches Nonviolent Communication to individuals and organizations both locally and nationally. He is trained in Somatic Experiencing for healing trauma, holds a degree in Comparative Religion from Columbia University, and is the author of Say What You Mean: A Mindful Approach to Nonviolent Communication.
Guiding Teachers
Alan Brown
Alan Brown is Director of Integrative & Co-curricular Learning at Grace Church School in New York City, where he leads mindfulness & positive education programs for students, faculty, and for parents. He also consults privately for schools, providing professional development and plans to implement school- or district-wide mindfulness programs and speaks regularly on these topics. Diagnosed with Tourette’s Syndrome in middle school, Alan came to mindfulness through yoga and a search for stillness in the body and regulation in the nervous system, so he has a keen interest in working with students with TS, ADHD, OCD, and other nervous system vulnerabilities. Over the past 15 years, Alan has taught in both public and private settings as a humanities instructor and dean, and has worked with many other schools and districts as a trainer for GLSEN (the Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network), where he now serves on the National Advisory Board. Alan is a passionate advocate of personal development as professional development, and the possibility of building organizations in which the whole system inclines toward wellness.
Argos Gonzalez is a teacher, lecturer, mindfulness teacher and yoga instructor. He has 14 years of experience teaching high school in the Bronx and teaches pre-service and in-service teachers at Hunter College School of Education in NY. Argos is certified through both the Mindful Schools Year-Long Certification Program and Little Flower Yoga (LFY). Argos was a contributing editor to Best Practices for Yoga in Schools, and his work has been featured in national media including NPR and The Atlantic. As a frequent speaker at conferences including the Kripalu Yoga in Schools Symposium, Bridging the Hearts and Minds of Youth, the Omega Mindfulness in Education Conference and the Yoga Service Conference, Argos is an important contributor to the yoga in schools movement and a trusted expert with feet in the yoga, mindfulness, and education worlds. His deep passion for empowering children and adolescents and supporting other educators to do the same, comes through in all aspects of his work.
Nicole Libin
Dr. Nicole Libin is an adjunct professor of Religious Studies and General Education at Mount Royal University, and incorporates mindfulness as both a pedagogical and a contemplative tool in all of her post-secondary classes. Her work includes teaching courses on Yoga and Meditation as well as offering mindfulness to faculty and students. Outside of the university, Nicole is a mindfulness educator and coach for adults, adolescents, and children and is a children’s book author. Nicole has taught mindfulness in a variety of venues including corporations, government offices, cancer survivor wellness workshops, sport camps, prenatal groups, university campuses, and school classrooms. Nicole is a Mindful Schools certified instructor and has completed the U.Mass Center for Mindfulness Professional MBSR training in with Jon-Kabat Zinn. She has also trained with The Meditation Initiative and is certified in MBSR for teens. Her first children’s book on mindfulness, entitled Sticky Brains, will be published in 2019 and has been endorsed by Raffi, Amy Saltzman, and Dr. Chris Willard. Nicole lives in Calgary with her husband and five-year-old daughter Aria.
Daniel Yoel Cohen
Guiding Teacher,
Daniel Yoel Cohen (Danny) has a deep and abiding passion for practices that help people live with greater intimacy, joy, emotional balance, and connection. His experiences while finishing a degree at the Wharton Business School led him to spend the better part of a decade exploring the inner life, largely through NonViolent Communication and Mindfulness. Danny has benefited from intensive retreat and training with teachers in the United States, Nepal, India, Mexico, and Israel, where he was the founding director of a center for spirituality and meditation. Today he works as a psychotherapist and teaches mindfulness and communication courses and retreats for individuals, groups, and organizations. He is a life-long learner who loves people and teaching.
Devon Cresci
Guiding Teacher
Devon Cresci has been practicing mindfulness since 1997. She graduated with her Master’s in Social Work from the University of Pennsylvania in 2002. Currently she works part time for Mindful Schools as a Guiding Teacher for their Mindfulness Fundamentals online classes and full time as a Social Worker in a public high school in San Francisco. There, she teaches mindfulness to both students and staff. She is passionate about bringing these practices into SF public schools and has organized district wide trainings for employees who want to bring mindfulness into their work with students. In her summers, she teaches retreats with iBme and has assisted the Young Adult retreat at Spirit Rock Meditation Center. Devon is passionate about sharing the practice of mindfulness and hopes that it may help people find greater peace and happiness.
Kevin Griffin
Kevin Griffin is a longtime practitioner and leader in the mindful recovery movement. He is the author of four books, most recently, Recovering Joy: A Mindful Life After Addiction. Kevin has pioneered this influential approach to addiction treatment that incorporates mindfulness, self-inquiry and reflections. He has extensive teaching experience and offers retreats and workshops nationally.
Eric López-Maya
Eric López-Maya has an extensive background practicing mindfulness and integrating it into different scenarios. He directs REDEA, a leading Institution in Mexico City that offers mindfulness-based interventions for mental health, well-being and stress reduction, both for companies and the general public. He also collaborates with the UCLA Mindful Awareness Research Center as an Assistant Teacher in its Certification Program. He is a clinical psychologist and a PhD candidate in Health Psychology and has led and collaborated in contemplative research projects in Mexico, United States and Germany. He holds a certificate in Mindfulness Facilitation from UCLA and has completed professional training in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) through the programs offered by the University of Massachusetts Medical School. He thoroughly enjoys assisting others to learn and deepen their mindfulness practice.
Gene Lushtak
Gene Lushtak began meditation practice in 1997 and completed numerous long retreats before moving to Thailand in 2004 to practice intensively. Upon returning to the United States, Gene sought to bring the mindfulness teachings into everyday life. He taught mindfulness in grade schools as part of InnerKids in Los Angeles and has been leading a sitting group in San Francisco for more than ten years. Gene also sees clients as a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner for healing trauma.
Ali Miller is a psychotherapist in private practice, where she integrates mindfulness and Nonviolent Communication into individual, couple, and group therapy. She is the creator of the website Befriending Ourselves: Resources for Inner Peace and Compassionate Self-Care. She has been practicing mindfulness since 2001, studying with various teachers and attending silent, intensive retreats annually. In 2006 she discovered Nonviolent Communication and has been learning, practicing, and sharing this work ever since. Ali is a graduate of BayNVC’s Immersion Program and has been a member of that program’s leadership team for several years. She collaborates with the founder of the Communication Dojo, co-leading communication classes in San Francisco. Additionally, she provides “NVC in the Therapeutic Setting” trainings to mental health professionals at conferences, agencies, and out of her office in Berkeley, CA.
Peter Montminy
Dr. Montminy is a clinical child psychologist, family wellness coach, and national workshop presenter. As the founding director of MidStep Centers for Child Development, private practitioner, and school-based mental health consultant, he has worked passionately for 25 years to improve the emotional well-being of children and adolescents. Peter was educated at Dartmouth, Penn State University, and Yale Medical School’s Child Study Center, yet his ultimate training – and source of joy – come from raising his four children with his wife Mary in the woods of central Pennsylvania.
Keri Pederson
Year-Long Certification
Keri Pederson came to meditation in 1998, after beginning a yoga practice in her early 20‘s. She has spent many years practicing mindfulness in intensive retreat settings in the U.S. and abroad, and has taught retreats for youth and teens with Inward Bound Mindfulness Education (iBme). Keri currently leads a group for young adults at Seattle Insight Meditation Society, and teaches retreats and classes primarily in the Pacific Northwest. She has completed four years of training in teaching mindfulness and meditation retreats, and has worked in a variety of healthcare settings as well as privately in eldercare. Keri considers mindfulness practice to be vital and central to the intensive path of parenting. She has a four-year-old son, Jasper.
Heather Prete
Heather is a UCLA certified mindfulness facilitator and Self Compassion teacher. She has had the opportunity to share the practice of mindfulness in California and Chicago and has accumulated over ten years of teaching experience. She began her own formal practice in 1998, completing her first teacher training 5 years later. In 2007, Heather became interested in secular mindfulness and the neuroscience of practice. Soon after, she began training at UCLA’s Mindful Awareness Research Center, eventually completing the Certification in Mindfulness Facilitation and MAPs Teacher Training. Heather teaches throughout the Los Angeles area in many capacities including training PHD interns self compassion at Tarzana Treatment Center and physicians at UCLA hospitals, helping those in recovery at women’s sober homes, and teaching actors to have more joy in their careers through mindfulness practices. Since 2000 Heather has remained committed to training that includes yearly retreats ranging from 14 to 30 days in length. She is honored to be a guiding teacher for Mindful Schools.
Sara Schedler
Sara Schedler was introduced to mindfulness as an undergraduate at Brown University and has been a dedicated practitioner for almost 20 years. She completed numerous periods of intensive silent meditation retreat, ranging from one to three months. Sara taught mindfulness at the Cambridge Insight Meditation Center for two years and has taught teen mindfulness retreats since 2003. She spent years sharing the Mindful Schools curriculum in public schools with children in grades K-6. She holds a Certificate in Mindfulness Facilitation from UCLA and continues to work at UCLA’s Mindful Awareness Research Center. Prior to dedicating herself full-time to mindfulness, Sara worked in the environmental field on issues of climate change and clean energy.
Cheryl Slean
Cheryl Slean has practiced mindfulness for more than 20 years and is a graduate of UCLA’s Certificate Program in Mindfulness Facilitation. She has taught extensively since 2007, leading numerous sitting groups, class series and retreats at venues nationwide including Against the Stream, Seattle Insight, Santa Monica Hospital, Swedish Hospital, the Hammer Museum, Google, Michael’s House Drug & Alcohol Treatment Center, Refuge Recovery and Insight Community of the Desert, among others. She has collaborated with the healthcare community, participating in research and education on mindfulness and chronic pain, stress relief and substance addiction. Cheryl is also a filmmaker and theater artist and is interested in the intersection of the arts, mindfulness and sustainability.
Bart van Melik
Bart van Melik has been teaching mindfulness and communication practices since 2009, with a specific focus on working with diverse populations. Bart is a senior teacher at the Lineage Project, and teaches in both the U.S. and abroad. He also teaches mindfulness and yoga at a VA hospital, juvenile detention center, homeless shelters, and Public Schools in NYC. Bart holds an MA in Psychology of Culture and Religion from the Nijmegen University in The Netherlands. His passion is supporting people to discover how they can find new ways to relate to the stress created by our life circumstances.
Sarah M. Waxman is a youth mindfulness and mind/body educator. Since completing the Mindful Schools Mindful Educator Essentials in 2010 Sarah has been teaching mindfulness in schools, after-school programs, summer camps, and Jewish religious schools. She holds a 200-hr vinyasa teacher training certification as well as certifications from several youth mind/body courses. Her enthusiasm for mindfulness and other mind/body practices in schools comes from her own discoveries with contemplative practices, and from her experience teaching in the classroom. She firmly believes that educating youth in healthy self-soothing methods will greatly enhance our education system, reduce harmful addictive behaviors, and improve the character of our society. Sarah began practicing mindfulness and yoga while playing Goalkeeper in Lacrosse at the University of Pennsylvania, where she earned a BA degree in Sociology.