About Us
Our mission is to empower educators to spark change from the inside out by cultivating awareness, resilience, and compassionate action in community.
For almost 15 years, Mindful Schools has worked to create mindful and heart-centered learning environments where all community members can thrive. We’ve partnered with 500 schools, trained over 50,000 educators, and we’re just getting started.
Today we are proudly:
By Educators, for Educators, with Educators: our team supports school leaders, teachers, and staff. Together we develop their unique capacity to cultivate thriving school communities of belonging, inclusion, and well-being.
Designed to Meet the Complex Needs of Schools: we listen deeply to schools and deliver a program to suit the specific context and goals of each individual community.
Systemic in our Approach: we support our school partners to dismantle inequitable decision-making and structures and to build schoolwide cultures that nurture collective well-being, healing, and liberation.
Our Challenge
Schools are facing a mental health crisis among both teachers and students, and current solutions aren’t sufficient. Teachers are burning out and leaving the profession, and students are struggling with soaring rates of anxiety, depression, stress, and trauma.
- Stress
61% of teachers report being stressed out.
- Mental Health
58% of educators say their mental health is “not good.”
- Burnout
Public school educators are quitting their jobs at the highest rate on record.
- Trauma
Almost half of children in the U.S. have experienced at least one serious childhood trauma.
- Anxiety
Nearly 1 in 3 adolescents will meet criteria for an anxiety disorder by the age of 18.
- Stress
Nearly 40% of high school seniors report that they often feel lonely and left out.
Our Approach
Nurture collective well-being, equity, and belonging
Support Adult Well-Being and Empowerment
We begin by providing immediate support to the adults in the school community because their well-being and engagement is foundational to the school culture and learning experience. Our programs guide school staff, administrators, and teachers to address stress, reactivity, and negative habits, and to reconnect with their strengths, heal from stress, and become more intentional, grounded, and fully present.
Create Trauma-Sensitive, Culturally-Sustaining Classrooms
Our programming then deepens to sharing mindfulness with students. We guide teachers to make compassionate and mindful choices in their relationships, cultivating expansive learning experiences that foster a sense of belonging, trust, and agency in the youth they serve. Educators share mindfulness practices with students, which helps students to heal from trauma, manage stress, and develop inner-resilience tools to navigate their lives.
Build Equitable and Thriving School Systems
We partner with school teams to develop their capacity to recognize inequitable systems and decision-making, navigate difficult conversations with awareness and compassion, and work together to create school-wide change that supports all bodies and experiences. Our team is guided by our experience implementing mindfulness in various school settings, and has an approach that is grounded in mindfulness practice, builds on the strengths of the community, and complements the school’s existing initiatives.
“Our students are beset by all kinds of challenges born of poverty, dire racism and consistent inconsistency that has caused ongoing trauma to their young lives. Our school is embracing a comprehensive wellness approach that begins with the development of mindfulness. We need more help in this. Mindful Schools has been an invaluable resource to our administration, our faculty, our students.” – Partner School Principal
Our Impact
Nurturing change from the inside out
School Services
Mindful Schools partners with schools from across the United States to create inclusive school cultures that prioritize the healing power of relationships and well-being. We’re especially passionate about supporting under-resourced and Title I school communities. Surveys with our partner schools revealed the following outcomes:
- 100%
of teachers reported that mindfulness in the classroom creates changes in their students’ overall well-being, ability to pay attention, impulse control, and mental health
- 88%
of students surveyed said that mindfulness is helping their teacher
- 70%
of students reported using mindfulness to calm down when experiencing difficult emotions such as anger, sadness, or anxiety
Online Courses
Our online courses make training and resources accessible, while also integrating virtual, live touch points to build connection with peers and the Mindful Schools faculty. Over 50,000 educators have trained with us and 99% of participants say they would recommend our courses.
The outcomes below were collected from teachers who participated in Mindful Schools’ original course for bringing mindfulness into the classroom. For more comprehensive information on our impact, please visit our research page.
Benefits for Educators
- 90%
Report lower stress and greater self-compassion
- 82%
Connect better with students
- 80%
Deliver curriculum with more ease
- 77%
Are more satisfied with their jobs
Benefits for Students
- 89%
Improve emotional regulation
- 83%
Improve focus
- 76%
Demonstrate greater compassion
- 79%
Improve engagement
Excited to get started?
Our Team
We know what it’s like to be an educator, and we’re here to support you. Our diverse, dynamic team has decades of experience as school administrators, social workers, teachers, mindfulness instructors, and BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ affinity group facilitators. We’ve experienced the benefits of mindfulness in the classroom firsthand, and are passionate about sharing these simple and profound practices with you.
Seewan Eng
Executive Director
Seewan Eng
Executive Director
Driven by her experience as a middle school teacher in diverse, resilient communities, Seewan is a lifelong learner and educator with a deep commitment to leading for equity and reimagining education systems and cultures that support all students to thrive.
As the Executive Director, Seewan has been leading an inside-out organizational transformation so that Mindful Schools can better meet the unprecedented need for social and emotional well-being, mental health, and equity in schools.
Prior to leading Mindful Schools, Seewan served as VP of Digital Transformation at the New Teacher Center where she created tech-enabled, people-centered solutions to accelerate educator growth and districtwide systems change. At WestEd, she led fast-paced research and online product development to scale the implementation of promising teaching practices and reduce the predictability of educational outcomes in charter schools, magnet schools, and community colleges. She spent nine years in the classroom, most recently as at San Francisco Community, a teacher-run school in SFUSD implementing rigorous project-based learning. She began her career working at Providence Summerbridge, now Breakthrough Collaborative, where she learned that teaching is a fundamentally creative, joyful, and collaborative process. She has also taught at two start-up charter schools in the Coalition of Essential Schools network where she learned to navigate issues of equity and access as part of a community building operational infrastructure and designing instructional programs that intentionally challenge the status quo.
Seewan is passionate about empowering educators and building cultures and systems that sustain resilience, compassion, liberation, and justice in schools. She believes that mindfulness was a missing piece for her as a teacher, and that a practice would have empowered her to foster a braver and more loving classroom community where all students were thriving. She received a B.A. in American History/Educational Studies from Brown University, an Ed.M from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and National Board Certification. She is also a 2023 Pahara Fellow.
The firstborn daughter of two Chinese immigrants, Seewan was raised in the New England area of the United States and currently resides in Berkeley, California, with her husband and daughter. She enjoys hiking, snowboarding (which she learned as an adult), and deepening her lifelong passion for ballet, which gives her many opportunities to practice curiosity and kindness with each passing year.
Recent interviews, news, and writing include:
A Recent Study Found a School-Based Mindfulness Program Doesn’t Work—Let’s Unpack That, Mindful Magazine
Be Curious, Be Kind, Be Brave, School 180 Podcast
Nurturing Change from Within, Mindful Schools
For speaker inquiries please contact Shannon Baker at shannon@mindfulschools.org.
Mia Arakaki
Head of Program
Mia Arakaki
Head of Program
Mia has been a kindergarten and middle school teacher, teacher coach, and assistant principal. As Head of Program for Mindful Schools, Mia oversees our Product Development engine and leads our Program Faculty. Since joining Mindful Schools in 2020, her work includes ensuring our programs align with our Theory of Change–creating equitable, trauma-sensitive, and culturally sustaining school systems in which every member of the community is supported to thrive.
As an educator and nonprofit leader, Mia has centered the needs of historically marginalized and resilient communities focusing on health education, social and emotional wellbeing, and mindfulness. After serving as Chief Program Officer for Girls Leadership for over 3 years, she continues to facilitate educator professional development and girls programming as a Girls Leadership Educator. Mia has practiced mindfulness for over a decade, with formal training in transcendental meditation practices. Mia has a passion for developing and facilitating healing-centered, culturally responsive learning experiences and curricula.
Mia is a proud Uchinanchu (Okinawan) and seeks to embody the Mindful Schools Core Value “We Grow Love” by listening to the wisdom of the Okinawan proverb “choo kukuru ru dee ichi” / “the heart is the most essential quality” in her daily life. Mia received her Bachelors Degree in Political Science and East Asian Studies from Yale, her M.A. in School Leadership from Columbia Teachers College Summer Principals Academy, and began her career as a Teach for America 2005 Greater New Orleans corps member.
Shannon Baker
Director of Strategic Partnerships
Shannon Baker
Director of Strategic Partnerships
Shannon is passionate about supporting diverse and dynamic leaders in their work to build a more equitable and just future. She spearheads our fundraising and communications efforts, including designing partnerships with leading foundations and corporations and cultivating a beloved community of donors.
Her deep leadership experience draws from impact-driven organizations––including New Media Ventures where she elevated the work of women entrepreneurs and founders of color to strengthen movements and build power with and for BIPOC communities; State PIRGs; Stanford Law School; and The Nature Conservancy. Through this work, as well as her leadership on DEI initiatives and her personal study around anti-racism and white supremacy, Shannon pushes herself to center equity and challenge unjust power structures.
Shannon has a B.A. from Stanford University and an M.B.A. from University of Michigan, where she focused on strategy and social innovation. When not at work, she enjoys travel and photography, the East Bay’s best eats and treats, time with her family, and walking her rescue pup Hamilton and pandemic puppy Quincy.
Martha Brown
Senior Director, People & Operations
Martha Brown
Senior Director, People & Operations
Martha is a heart-centered and pragmatic leader with more than 20 years of experience in operations, communications, and human resources management. As the Senior Director of People and Operations, Martha oversees Mindful Schools’ human resources, technology, project management, school enrollment, and customer care efforts.
Martha has been with Mindful Schools since 2013, and has been a key contributor to the organization’s continued growth and success. Under her leadership, Mindful Schools has grown to include a diverse team of staff members and teaching faculty, cultivated a values-driven culture with a commitment to educational equity, and reorganized internally to better serve the growing needs of schools.
Prior to joining Mindful Schools, Martha had an eclectic career spanning hospitality and tourism; TV and film production; PR and media communications; and performing arts education. She also spent several years running after school programs for the City of Oakland, working as a substitute teacher for OUSD, and serving as a one-on-one aide for autistic children.
Martha received her BA in Communications and Ethnic Studies from U.C. Berkeley. She holds a credential in copy-editing and a Society for Human Resources Management Senior Certified Professional (SHRM-SCP) credential.
Martha continues to be inspired by working with a diverse team of passionate, powerful change-makers. She is a Bay Area native and currently resides in Richmond with her husband and son.
Ray Bolton
School Support Specialist
Ray Bolton
School Support Specialist
Ray brings more than 15 years of experience in K-12 education as a teacher, coordinator, and coach. He is dedicated to supporting students and teachers that have been historically underrepresented and often ignored by the dominant culture. He joined Mindful Schools in 2022 and is passionate about meaningful systemic change and leveraging positive energy as a powerful tool to motivate, inspire, and heal. As a School Support Specialist, he helps introduce schools and districts to mindfulness while building relationships with administrators and teachers. He holds a Master’s Degree in Education from William Carey University. Ray has been practicing mindfulness for more than a year now, and describes mindfulness as a much needed grounding experience. As a former athlete, coach, and teacher, Ray understands the importance of using his experience to lead and create an environment of connection and inclusivity.
Argos Gonzalez
Head of Instruction
Argos Gonzalez
Head of Instruction
Drawing on more than 13 years experience as a high school English teacher in the Bronx, Argos is an equity-driven educator and thought leader who leverages his mindfulness practice to engage communities in creating positive systems change. Argos became part of the Mindful Schools family in 2013 when he joined our inaugural Mindful Teacher Certification Program. Argos was searching for practices to support his high school students and the pre-service and inservice teachers he worked with at Hunter College, CUNY. During his certification program, Argos discovered a network of educators he could trust to begin his own healing and to strengthen his work in supporting others to cultivate loving, thriving communities. Inspired to share the transformative practice of mindfulness further, Argos’ work grew to consulting and teaching in many NYC Department of Education schools, and in various school districts in Westchester and New Jersey.
Argos joined Mindful Schools in 2014 as a guiding teacher for our online courses. He’s also held various roles as community content editor, mentor, and a lead teacher for our Mindful Teacher Certification Program. Currently Argos serves as Head of Instruction, where his experience as an educational leader helps him shepherd the internal learning journey and shapes our program delivery. Argos recognizes the power of love as a radical tool for personal and community change and shares mindfulness to foster healing and transformation, especially for school communities most impacted by systems of oppression.
Argos immigrated from Venezuela when he was young, grew up in Queens, New York, and currently lives in the New York City area with his wife, son, daughter, and two cats. Argos enjoys going on long walks with his family, and as his children have gotten older, he has rediscovered skateboarding, playing video games, and watching superhero movies.
Darius Ingram
Head of Technology
Darius Ingram
Head of Technology
Darius Ingram is an IT professional with more than 15 years of experience in systems administration and database management. He has worked almost exclusively in education-based nonprofit organizations, choosing to devote his energies to the support of his community. His relationship with Mindful Schools began as the business analyst. As the head of technology, he brings strategy, logic, and empathy to his work. When not overseeing tech, you’ll find him mixing his own music or volunteering his tech-spertise to other nonprofits.
Alison Lee
Head of Marketing & Project Management
Alison Lee
Head of Marketing & Project Management
Alison is a Bay Area native and passionate about sharing the Mindful Schools story with the global community of educators. She brings more than 15 years of marketing experience–from product marketing and sales roles in Bay Area tech and at Warner Bros. in Southern California. When she returned to Oakland to raise her children near family, she immediately engaged in the community. Prior to joining Mindful Schools, Alison managed Development and Communications for one of the largest nonprofit parent organizations in the Bay, and also co-founded a children’s apparel brand. Alison received her B.A. in International Economics from UCLA. She is excited about progressive and bilingual education and is trying her best to raise her two daughters with resilience, joy, and kindness.
Sarah Rudell Beach
Curriculum & Research Manager
Sarah Rudell Beach
Curriculum & Research Manager
Sarah Rudell Beach taught high school social studies for 17 years in the Wayzata Public Schools in Plymouth, MN, where she continues to teach mindfulness to adolescents. She has taught mindfulness to educators nationwide, and to students aged pre-K to college throughout the greater Twin Cities. Sarah completed the Mindful Teacher Certification Program in 2015, and began working for Mindful Schools as a Guiding Teacher in 2018. As Curriculum & Research Manager, she oversees and produces content for Mindful Schools’ courses and workshops and supports schools implementing mindfulness programming. Sarah holds a Master’s Degree in Education from the University of Minnesota. Sarah has had a personal mindfulness practice for many years, and describes mindfulness as life-changing. She firmly believes that teaching compassionate attention and self-care to students, teachers, parents, and families can change the world.
Laura Schrier
Schoolwide Implementation Manager
Laura Schrier
Schoolwide Implementation Manager
Laura has experience teaching mindfulness, SEL, and social justice in K-12 schools in the US, UK, and Palestine, as well as conducting research on how mindfulness can support social justice pedagogy in schools. As the Schoolwide Implementation Manager, Laura supports partner schools to implement mindfulness and foster a culture of well-being in their community. Laura has been practicing mindfulness for 15 years and is deeply passionate about helping people discover how mindfulness can support them. After years of working with refugee communities in the Middle East and witnessing the impacts of conflict and trauma on the body, mind, and spirit, Laura came to understand mindfulness as a path to healing, re-connection, and liberation.
Laura holds an MA in Social Justice and Education from University College London and a bachelor’s degree in Peace and Justice Studies and Arabic from Tufts University. Laura is also a certified yoga teacher and enjoys hiking, surfing, and backpacking.
Brooke Sever
Course Ops & Group Enrollment Specialist
Brooke Sever
Course Ops & Group Enrollment Specialist
Brooke brings over fifteen years of customer service and membership management background to her role as Course Operations & Group Enrollment Specialist for Mindful Schools. Since receiving her BA in Psychology from UCLA, she has worked almost exclusively in the nonprofit community. She joined the Mindful Schools team in 2017, and is passionate about aiding the empowerment of younger generations and interacting with diverse communities. A Bay Area native, Brooke can most often be found rooting for the local sports teams, spending time with her large family, and crafting throughout the year.
Molly White
Office Manager
Molly White
Office Manager
Molly has dedicated her career to serving the community – from experience working with the state as a civil servant and the county teaching people how to keep kids safe in cars and bikes, to working with nonprofits in facilities. She is a mother to an elementary school student and enjoys working at her child’s school as a parent volunteer. Molly attended Holy Names University in Oakland where she earned her International Relations Bachelor’s Degree. Molly has been practicing mindfulness since 2019 when she attended a Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction course. She is excited by the work of Mindful Schools and feels fortunate to be a part of this important work.
Beth Williams
Accountant
Beth Williams
Accountant
Beth has spent her career in nonprofits administration and public accounting. As a parent and volunteer PTA board member, she’s worked closely with teachers, parents, and children to support public schools. She is now excited to combine her finance and nonprofit experiences to support the Mindful Schools mission – giving children the positive tools they need to handle their complex emotions and supporting educators with professional development opportunities.
Neena Barreto
Program Facilitator
Neena Barreto
Program Facilitator
Neena comes to this work with over 20 years as a public school teacher and teacher leader. She has taught mindfulness in more than 30 classrooms from transitional kindergarten through sixth grade. Neena has coached teachers, provided staff training, parent classes, as well as educator retreats and public speaking engagements. She joined Mindful Schools in 2019 and is a 2015 graduate of the Yearlong Program. Her most impactful work has been to create a trauma-sensitive and inclusive curriculum that gives students agency and voice to make mindfulness meaningful to them. Neena is also the founder of Inner Flourishing, an organization that seeks to implement mindfulness into school districts through intimate and relational professional development experiences.
A San Francisco Bay Area native now living in Southern Oregon, Neena draws upon the natural world as a deep resource to embody her mindfulness practice. She currently teaches elementary school in the Rogue Valley and is a Mindfulness Director with the nonprofit Whole School Mindfulness, where she integrates mindfulness at a K-8 Outdoor School in Ashland, Oregon. Neena identifies as Punjabi-Salvadoran American, as well as multi ethnic, second-generation, mother and poet. . Her most powerful teachers continue to be her three boys.
Alan Brown
Program Facilitator
Alan Brown
Program Facilitator
Alan Brown has more than 15 years experience working in public and private K-12 schools as a classroom teacher and administrator. Alan has led mindfulness & positive education programs for students, faculty, and for parents at multiple schools, and he has served in many administrative and instructional roles, including assistant principal, dean of student life, curriculum supervisor, and humanities instructor.
A proudly queer educator, Alan served on the National Advisory Board as a member and trainer for GLSEN, and is currently a crisis counselor for LGBTQ+ youth with The Trevor Project. 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. He has a keen interest in working with students with TS, ADHD, OCD, and other nervous system vulnerabilities; he has also been involved in multiple clinical trials to validate the benefits of mindfulness for people with tics.
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. He has a BA from Johns Hopkins, an MA from the University of Chicago, and was a Fulbright Fellow to Italy.
Fontashia Johnson
Program Facilitator
Fontashia Johnson
Program Facilitator
Fontashia is a lifelong learner and founder of FACTS, a North Carolina nonprofit organization that is committed to serving underserved communities by offering mindfulness programs and financial literacy, meeting individuals where they are in their mental fitness and financial journey.
After working in the banking and management industry Fontashia decided to switch careers to walk in her purpose and has more than 10 years experience working in K-12, Title 1 public schools, and alternative education. She has led mindfulness programs for students and parents in addition to professional development for faculty and staff within schools and community recreational centers. Fontashia has served in various roles as an educator including: Business Education Teacher, Career Development Coordinator, Parent Facilitator, and Restorative Justice Teacher. She is also a Co-Creator for a BIPOC mindfulness community group, Mindfulness with People of Color.
Fontashia has been practicing mindfulness for many years and believes that it has changed her perspective on life–not only does it allow her to be fully present for her four boys (and yorkie), it has also transformed her mindset to welcome abundance, practice self-love, and be grateful for all that life has to offer. As a graduate of the Mindful Schools Teacher Certification Program and completion of MBSR training, she is excited to work for Mindful Schools because she gets to share her experiences, while empowering others in the present moment. She holds a Master’s Degree in Education from Regent University, a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Management from Norfolk State University, and is a licensed teacher in the state of North Carolina. She enjoys spending time with her family, traveling, cooking, listening to music, and dancing.
Dia Joyce Penning
Program Facilitator
Dia Joyce Penning
Program Facilitator
Dia has served as a K-12 curriculum developer, teacher trainer, arts specialist, mindfulness coach, DEI professional, and program administrator. In all her roles, she finds the themes that connect teams and organizations to a greater whole. Dia is committed to developing skills and resources that allow us to show up as our authentic selves in support of our community.
Holding a Master’s in Interdisciplinary Studies from Columbia College, Dia leads international yoga and social justice workshops through Love Light Yoga out of Vancouver, BC. Additionally, she serves as board Co-President for the YWCA of Berkeley Oakland. Dia helped develop the Empathy Lens project out of San Diego State University. This virtual reality experience allows a viewer to take another person’s perspective to gain insight into bias and privilege. She also coaches nonprofit leaders in somatic awareness for social transformation.
With 20 years of experience in systems change and a lifetime committed to mindfulness, Dia is grateful to use her skills as a Mindful Schools Program Facilitator. She lives with her kiddo, wife, and Labrador Retriever in Oakland, CA. She likes doing yoga, gardening, making pottery, and sewing in her free time.
April Frazier
Program Facilitator
April Frazier
Program Facilitator
April has served as a middle school teacher at an under-served school in the South Bronx. She considers herself a lifelong learner of mindfulness and yoga as a tool for self-empowerment and social justice in diverse, resilient communities. In 2010, she completed her 200-hr teacher certification through Dharma Yoga certification and has since held space for yoga in under-performing schools, trauma centers, and addiction centers to cultivate inner healing. She believes, regardless of background, we are all in our breath and body, so might as well tap back into our inner wisdom to navigate life’s challenges.
April was part of the first year cohort at the Spirituality Mind Body Institute at Columbia University where she combined education, social activism, entrepreneurship and mindfulness. April has also been certified in laughter yoga, yoga for 12 step recovery, off the mat and into the world, restorative justice, and various trauma-informed and mindfulness in-schools programs. These days, her main mindfulness practice is being a foster mom.
She earned her bachelor’s degree with a focus on Anti-Racist education from Mount Holyoke College and her master’s degree from Columbia’s Spirituality Mind Institute Masters in Education.
Lucy MacGregor
Program Facilitator
Lucy MacGregor
Program Facilitator
As an educator, Lucy has taught children and youth in a variety of classroom and therapeutic settings from instructing teens at North Carolina Outward Bound School to educating young people in preschool. She is currently the Director of Teaching and Learning at Shalom Children’s Program.
As co-founder of Design to Connect, LLC, Lucy facilitates professional communities of practice focused on cultivating restorative school communities and increasing capacities of mindful well-being in students, educators, and families.
Lucy holds a Masters In Education, Mindfulness for Educators, from Antioch University New England, an Early Childhood Montessori Credential form the Center for Guided Montessori Studies, and a Bachelors Degree in Sociology from Oglethorpe University.
Nathalie Monin Voelker
Program Facilitator
Nathalie Monin Voelker
Program Facilitator
Before joining Mindful Schools, Nathalie worked for 15 years in nonprofit organizations where she developed community projects and educational programs for low income communities. Most of her work was under the European label “Education for All”, which emerged in 1990 as a social justice movement.
Born in Paris with a Caribbean background, she came to New York 15 years ago with her husband, Markus and her daughter, Louliana. She started teaching yoga and mindfulness in public schools as an outside provider in 2016.
Nathalie currently offers mindfulness and self-care practices to youth and adults in the United States and France. She collaborates with the School Yoga Project in various public schools in NYC impacting approximately 600 students per year.
She is also the founder of Creating Mindful Communities LLC whose purpose is to offer well-being tools to students, parents, educators, and any one in need of a more balanced life. Tapping into her former study of philosophy, she loves to make mindfulness a simple and practical tool for our everyday life.
Jelena Popovic
Program Facilitator
Jelena Popovic
Program Facilitator
Jelena is a school psychologist by training and a peacebuilder by heart. As a mom and Teaching Peace in Schools Leadership Council Lead for The Peace Alliance, Jelena aspires to educate, advocate, and mobilize others in co-creating a culture of peace. Her passion is facilitating dialogs that are grounded in mindful awareness and empathy.
Jelena spends most of her time in circle with educators and students, is a facilitation trainer for Soliya and Erasmus + Virtual Exchange where she guides others in facilitating virtual cross-cultural exchange dialogs. She serves on the advisory board for Cities4Peace, facilitates virtual circles for Millennium Forum and the Peace of Mind, and hosts weekly Hope Story Circle podcast series for the Peace Alliance. She guides mindfulness retreats for educators at the Copper Beech Institute, leads international At Home In the World family retreats, and is co-founder of Design to Connect LLC, an educational consulting organization, that assists schools in their efforts in skillful, integrated and sustainable schoolwide implementation of mindfulness and peace education practices. She believes in the power of storytelling, single-tasking, and the importance of starting conversations that create genuine connections, move us toward transformation and help us foster a culture of nonviolence.
Devon Sangster Rath
Program Facilitator
Devon Sangster Rath
Program Facilitator
Devon served as a social worker at a San Francisco public high school for ten years. She is a queer woman who cares deeply about the power of mindfulness practice to heal and liberate. Devon is especially passionate about making mindfulness accessible to all, specifically people who have experienced trauma, are recovering from addiction, and historically marginalized populations, including people of color, LGBTQ, and people of size and different body abilities. She has practiced meditation since 1997, has been formally teaching mindfulness since 2010, and currently lives in New Mexico with her little dog Chulito.
Board of Directors
Anne Roise, Board Chair
Anne Roise, Board Chair
Anne oversees planning for retreats and classes at Spirit Rock. Earlier, Anne was an instructor of Urban Studies and Planning at Savannah State University, and the CEO of Roise & Associates, a consulting firm in Savannah, GA, specializing in strategic planning, project development and organizational coaching. For several years, Anne developed and managed community and economic development initiatives in collaboration with non-profit organizations, community groups, law enforcement organizations, the private sector and educational institutions. She is a Certified Economic Developer and former Director of Economic Development for the City of Savannah. She has served on numerous boards and community task forces, and was a trustee for the Historic Savannah Foundation. Anne has a master’s degree in City Planning from MIT, and a B.A. from Antioch University.
Tony Shen, Treasurer
Tony Shen, Treasurer
Tony Shen helps mission-driven organizations thrive. He advises social ventures, non-profits, schools, and governmental institutions on wide-ranging business, operational, and strategic issues. Formerly as the Chief Operating Officer of EdTec, a social venture supporting charter schools nationwide, he directed client services and served as the outsourced CFO for schools. He also managed an economic development fund formed by landmark environmental legislation to facilitate economic development in rural California. Tony has a daily meditation practice and volunteers as a mindfulness teacher in public schools. He holds an MBA from UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business and a BA in Economics from Stanford University.
Spencer Sherman, Secretary
Spencer Sherman, Secretary
Dani Bowling
Dani Bowling
Dani is a mediator, conflict resolution trainer, and meditation teacher. They also identify as non-binary and given their childhood in South Carolina in the forties and fifties as the son of a Southern Baptist minister, their path to self-awareness and acceptance was challenging. They are a former staff attorney, mediator, and trainer for the US District Court for Northern California. They began mediating in 1986 and co-founded the first mediation organization in South Carolina and served as its first president for many years.
Dani was also the first Public Defender for Charleston County, SC, from 1974 to 1978, never losing a client to the death penalty. They previously were a staff attorney for the very first public interest law firm in the US, the Urban Law Institute in Washington, DC. They served as Chair of the ABA Section of Dispute Resolution’s Publications Board from 2005 to 2017 and have taught meditation, mediation, and public policy dispute resolution worldwide.
Dani began practicing meditation and yoga in 1976 and began teaching both in 1980. They taught at Kripalu Yoga Center in the Berkshires from 1985 to 1995, served as its General Counsel, and founded the Kripalu Yoga Teachers Association. They are also a member emeritus and Past President of the Board of Directors of Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Woodacre, CA and continue to serve as Chair of its Ethics and Reconciliation (EAR) Council, as the first layperson to serve on that sensitive council. They graduated from Harvard Law School and from Furman University with Honors.
Ellie Burrows Gluck
Ellie Burrows Gluck
Ellie is the Cofounder and former Chief Executive Officer of MNDFL as well as a Vedic Meditation teacher, certified personal development coach and writer. After graduating magna cum laude from Northwestern University, Ellie served as an executive in the film business for a number of years, focusing on the business side of film: producing, selling, financing and finding new talent. When her meetings began to evolve into coaching sessions around effective communication and interpersonal relationships, she chose to pursue mindfulness in a more meaningful way. In 2014, she co-founded MNDFL, New York City’s premier meditation company which offered corporate programming, mindfulness training, an on-demand meditation channel and a non-profit arm, MNDFL Ed. In 2020, she launched MNDFL’s next iteration, MNDFL Certification & Training, with Rev. angel Kyodo williams and David Perrin. Along the way, Ellie was exposed to Vedic Meditation. What started as a daily practice turned into a full blown love affair, and beginning in 2017 Ellie completed her 2000-hour teacher training program under master teacher Théo Burkhardt.
Dr. Brian G Dias
Dr. Brian G Dias
Dr. Brian Dias is the Assistant Professor, Department of Pediatrics, Division of Research on Children, Youth and Families – USC Keck School of Medicine & Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. Brian studies how legacies of stress echo across generations, and his work has been featured in Nature and in the 10 Most Important Discoveries of 2014 . Most recently, he was quoted about the legacy of trauma (BBC), the neurobiology of family separation (BrainFacts), and gave a TEDx talk on Halting Legacies of Trauma. A recipient of a CIFAR Azrieli Global Scholar Award from the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, Brian is a Fellow in CIFAR’s Child & Brain Development Program. Brian has also participated in Sci-Foo Camp at Google and as a faculty member of the Emory-Tibet Science Initiative discussed “Consciousness” with the Dalai Lama.
Valorie K. Hutson
Valorie K. Hutson
Valorie K. Hutson is the Founder and CEO of Hutson Solutions LLC, a global leadership consultancy designed to help small business owners and leaders build strong infrastructure to promote scalability and growth. Hutson has over 25 years of experience in nonprofit management, organizational development, and strategic educational change initiatives. She is passionate about empowering young people from diverse backgrounds with the tools and skills to be change agents in their communities. She was the Founding Executive Director of a nonprofit leading an initiative to open access to resources and services to improve the health and well-being of students, families, and school communities. This work supported the creation of one of the first Full-Service Community Schools in the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD). Working in partnership with the National Organization for the Professional Advancement of Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers (NOBCChE) and OUSD, Hutson also developed and implemented a STEM project that helped establish the pilot Middle School Science Academy in Oakland, California. Hutson is also an active member of the Spirit Rock Meditation Center community. She earned a Master’s degree in Educational Leadership from Mills College in Oakland, California where she is currently a Doctorate Candidate in the Educational Leadership Program.
Denis Udall
Denis Udall
Denis is a senior program officer with the George Lucas Education Foundation where he manages the strategic direction of the Foundation’s research related to project based-learning in the humanities. Prior to joining Lucas, Denis was a program officer at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation for eight years where he managed strategy and grants related to a wide range of areas including improving the quality of curriculum and instructional materials, California education policy, and classroom/school-level formative assessment, and at the Walter S. John Foundation where he focused on vulnerable, disconnected youth. Denis has also had a 10-year history with Outward Bound including helping to found Expeditionary Learning (now EL Education), a national school improvement network, and the New York City Outward Bound Center, Outward Bound’s first urban center. Denis is the founder of the North Oakland Community Charter School, and received an Ed.M. from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Our School Partners
What does a mindful school look like?
Schools are where children learn, grow, heal, build community, and practice new ways of being. That’s why Mindful Schools is proud to be a partner of choice for schools across the country.
We’re especially committed to supporting under-resourced Title I public schools like Milner Middle School and Passaic High School, featured in the videos below. You can visit the Video section under Resources to see more of our work in action.
Reflections from Passaic High School, New Jersey
By Graciella Romero
Assistant Principal at Passaic High School
And Mindful Schools Graduate
“We started our first cohort of 101: Mindfulness Foundations just months before we went into a pandemic. If you can imagine, folks are at home dealing with their own anxiety, with the world changing just minute by minute.
What ended up happening was, not only did the individuals who took 101 want more, they wanted to share and practice what they were learning. Every Monday and Friday morning, we practiced mindfulness together online, as a school community. We didn’t force anyone to come, it’s was volunteer-based, and it grew super organically. It wasn’t a huge commitment. It wasn’t a great deal of time–and the benefit that you felt was instantaneous.
There was a great deal of loss in our school community due to COVID-19. Our mindfulness practice gave us the ability to show up very honestly, candidly. Although we were sad or even a little depressed, we were able to sit with those feelings and share them as a community.
These meetings were a mix of adults and students. The roles—whether someone was a teacher, an administrator, a student, a parent—that all fell away. We were just a community of people coming together to be mindful, and sometimes to grieve, and sometimes to find joy in those moments; and Mindful Schools gave us the tools to do that.
Before the pandemic, before we integrated Mindful Schools’ training, some folks wouldn’t stop by my office to share concerns, or to share good news, but that’s changed now. As someone that’s in charge of the social-emotional learning in the school, as someone that’s in charge of climate and culture, this program has paid dividends. It has shifted our relationships. It’s shifted the culture of the school. For me as an administrator, the idea of community and that everyone is valued and needed–I’ve tried to always message that, but there’s a difference between saying it and then knowing that people believe it and see it. I have felt it. Mindful Schools’ programs created that for our school.
I was an English teacher for a long time. I live and work in a community that is low on resources, that is low on beautiful spaces. Everyone doesn’t have a backyard. When I was a young teacher, my dream was that every child had a backyard, that everyone had a space to play, a beautiful space. I feel like mindfulness has allowed me to give that to our kids. We’re not going to change the lives of our children–the physical space that they exist in. But we’re going to help them find their breath. We’re going to help them find that space within themselves so that they can deal with whatever life throws their way–and that’s greater than any playground.“