Meet Our Team

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 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.

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 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 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 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 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.

Linda’s lives with her husband, Hans, in quiet Benicia and enjoys gardening, swimming, and hiking with her dog, Rita.

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’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 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.

Robert brings a unique set of skills and experiences to the role of Executive Director. He has been a committed mindfulness practitioner for nearly three decades. As meditation teacher for over fifteen years, he has given talks, taught classes and led meditation retreats internationally. Robert’s practice experience also includes bringing mindfulness to San Francisco jails, guiding a coming of age program for boys, and teaching online courses.

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.