Meet Our Team
Leadership
Seewan Eng
Executive Director
Seewan Eng
Executive Director
Seewan is a lifelong learner and educator with a deep commitment to and experience in leading for equity in education non-profits, start-up charters, and urban public schools.
As Executive Director at Mindful Schools, Seewan has built organizational capacity, vision, and presence in order to meet the unprecedented need for social and emotional well-being, mental health, and equity in schools. Seewan joined the organization initially as Interim Executive Director in January 2020 with the charge of restructuring operations, assessing organizational strategy, and cultivating a culture of trust.
Prior to joining Mindful Schools, Seewan served as VP of Digital Transformation at the New Teacher Center where she led key initiatives to scale tech-enabled, people-centered solutions supporting teacher professional growth and teacher retention. At WestEd, she conducted fast-paced research, evaluation, and online product development as part of a new Innovation Studies team. She also has nine years of classroom teaching experience, most recently as a middle school teacher at San Francisco Community, a teacher-run school in SFUSD with a focus on project-based learning.
Seewan is passionate about empowering teachers and building a community of educators that drives for resilience, compassion, equity, and justice in schools. She received a B.A. in American History/Educational Studies from Brown University and an Ed.M from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Seewan also earned her National Board Certification as a middle school teacher in 2003.
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 young daughter. She enjoys hiking, learning to snowboard as an adult, and deepening her lifelong ballet practice.
Recent interviews, news, and writing include:
Be Curious, Be Kind, Be Brave, School 180 Podcast
Mindful Schools Announces Equity in Action Fund, Mindful Schools
Nurturing Change from Within, Mindful Schools
For speaker inquiries please contact Beck Engwerda at beck@mindfulschools.org
Mia Arakaki
Head of Program
Mia Arakaki
Head of Program
Before joining Mindful Schools, Mia was the Chief Program Officer for the national nonprofit, Girls Leadership. As Chief Program Officer, Mia led the organization in developing culturally responsive curriculum and training to address the needs of girls across the socioeconomic spectrum. Mia also introduced mindfulness and self-compassion as a foundation through which social-emotional learning skills would grow.
Mia received her Bachelors Degree in Political Science and East Asian Studies from Yale, and her M.A. in School Leadership from Columbia Teachers College Summer Principals Academy.
Mia is inspired to join Mindful Schools to build an expansive mindfulness movement in diverse schools and communities, where all young people thrive.
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’ technology, project management, school enrollment, and customer care efforts, in addition to leading the organization’s human resources and internal learning initiatives.
Martha has been with Mindful Schools since 2013, and has been a key contributor to the organization’s continued growth and success as it evolved from offering its first online course during her first year to serving more than 60,000 educators and schools by 2020.
Under her leadership, Mindful Schools has grown to include a diverse team of 34 staff members and teaching faculty, developed a competitive benefits package that encourages work/life balance, 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 young son. Martha enjoys singing, traveling, camping, and cooking.
Beck Engwerda
Director of Strategic Partnerships
Beck Engwerda
Director of Strategic Partnerships
Beck brings more than 15 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.
Argos Gonzalez
Head of Instruction
Argos Gonzalez
Head of Instruction
Argos is an equity-driven educator and thought-leader who leverages his lived experience and 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. It was his tenth year as a high school English teacher in a diverse, resilient community in the Bronx, and his second year working with pre-service and inservice teachers at Hunter College, CUNY. Argos was searching for practices to support his high school students and student-teachers in tapping into their resiliency and sense of agency. 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.
At Mindful Schools, Argos has been a guiding teacher for our online courses, community content editor, mentor, and a lead teacher for our Mindful Teacher Certification Program. Currently Argos serves as Head of Instruction, where he uses the power of storytelling and embodied leadership to share mindfulness as a tool for healing and transformation, especially for school communities most impacted by systems of oppression.
Argos 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
Bio coming soon …
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 over fifteen years of marketing experience – from product marketing and sales roles at a leading studio in Burbank, CA and in Bay Area tech. When she returned to Oakland to raise her children near family, she immediately engaged in the parenting 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 is excited about progressive and bilingual education and is trying her best to raise her two daughters with resilience, joy, and kindness.
Megan Sweet
Senior Director, Programs & Impact
Megan Sweet
Senior Director, Programs & Impact
Recent interviews and writing include:
- We Need Two Wings to Fly, Mindful Schools
- Tips, Resources, and Support for Learning in a Pandemic, Mindful Schools
- Healing our Hearts, Mindful Schools
- Schools bring mindfulness to the classroom to help kids in the Covid-19 Crisis, The Hechinger Report
- Inner-Resilience with Kristin Neff, Mindful Schools
For speaker inquiries please contact Beck Engwerda at beck@mindfulschools.org
Staff
Neena Barreto
Guiding Teacher & Online Course Guide
Neena Barreto
Guiding Teacher & Online Course Guide
Neena comes to this work with 20 years as a classroom teacher and teacher leader. She has taught mindfulness in over 30 classrooms from transitional kindergarten through sixth grade. Neena has also coached teachers, provided teacher and staff training, parent classes, as well as educator retreats and public speaking engagements.
A Bay Area native, she now lives in Southern Oregon, where she draws upon the natural world as a deep resource to embody her mindfulness practice. Neena is founder of Into the Forest Revelations, an organization that seeks to bring clarity and wisdom for those seeking their life’s purpose.
John Bowman
Accounting Associate
John Bowman
Accounting Associate
John is our kind-hearted Accounting Associate. He’s a Bay Area local and UC Berkeley graduate who brings over 30 years experience in accounting and finance. He first introduction to mindfulness was through a high school meditation class.
Alan Brown
Lead Teacher, SWIP
Alan Brown
Lead Teacher, SWIP
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.
April Frazier
Online Course Guide
April Frazier
Online Course Guide
April Frazier considers herself a lifelong learner of yoga and mindfulness 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.
Prior to being a yoga instructor, April was a middle school teacher at an under-served school in the South Bronx. 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, and various trauma-informed and mindfulness in-schools programs.
She earner 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.
Aáron B. Heard
Guiding Teacher
Aáron B. Heard
Guiding Teacher
A’aron B. Heard is an artist, learner, and educator rooted in love, curiosity, and community. Described as the ‘heart of the team,’ she is grounded in purpose, leads with enthusiasm, questions with a critical curiosity, and prioritizes learning, reflection and growth. A’aron started her teaching career in East Oakland teaching ELA, Social Studies, and Theatre and she now facilitates workshops for educators on the topics of Art, Healing, and Social Justice.
Aáron received her Bachelor’s Degree in English: Creative Writing from University of Southern California and her Master’s in Urban Education from Loyola Marymount University. In addition to this, Aáron holds a certification as an Arts Integration Specialist.
Megan Hook
Online Course Guide
Megan Hook
Online Course Guide
In addition to working at Mindful Schools Megan is a Teaching Artist teaching vocal music K-12 in multiple schools in the greater Los Angeles area. Megan also teaches mindfulness in schools and has been running her own mindfulness business for the past seven years. Megan is a GRIP facilitator teaching a transformational yearlong curriculum, created by Jacques Verduin, to incarcerated men at Avenal State Prison.
Megan has a Bachelors Degree in Music/Vocal Performance from Ithaca College, Ithaca, NY. She has trained at Mindful Schools and is a certified Mindful Schools teacher. Megan is currently enrolled in the UCLA/MARC 2020 TMF program.
Megan is a certified Kundalini Yoga teacher and certified sound bath practitioner.Megan loves connecting with students from all over the world on the practice, understanding, and transformational powers of mindfulness.
Stefanie Lachenauer
Online Course Guide
Stefanie Lachenauer
Online Course Guide
Stefanie brings 14 years of experience as a middle school educator in Montgomery Township School District, NJ. Specializing in global leadership and character education, she brings Mindful Schools curriculum to her classroom, conducts professional development for teachers and parents, and hosts before and after school sessions to support students. Stefanie is also active in sharing mindfulness locally and globally with the Mariposa Foundation DR, Girl Scouts, The Boys and Girls Club, and Health Body Healthy Mind Initiative. She frequently speaks on topics of wellness, leadership, and the global community. Stefanie is passionate about sharing mindfulness with youth and empowering her students to mindfully change the world one breath at a time. Her favorite pastime is engaging in sustainable travel where she has explored over 35 countries.
Stefanie received her Bachelor’s Degree in Sociology from Douglass College, Rutgers University, and her Master’s Degree from Rutgers Graduate School of Education in Elementary Education and a specialization in middle school social studies. Stefanie is a certified MBSR-T instructor, Mindful Schools teacher, and a certified yoga teacher through Little Flower Yoga and Rainbow Yoga.
Rachel Lewin
Mindfulness Educator
Rachel Lewin
Mindfulness Educator
Rachel is a school administrator and she creates and teaches mindfulness classes, workshops and retreats. She provides information, coaching and mentoring for organizations and schools seeking to create comprehensive mindfulness programs. Rachel has certificates in mindfulness facilitation from UCLA”s MIndful Awareness Research Center and Mindful Schools.
Kelli Love
Guiding Teacher & Online Course Guide
Kelli Love
Guiding Teacher & Online Course Guide
Kelli Love, M.Ed brings 15 years experience to the field of contemplative education since receiving her degree in Early Childhood Education from Naropa University in 2001, where mindfulness was integrated into the higher education experience. She develops mindfulness curriculum with a focus on self-awareness and emotion regulation and currently teaches at Girls Prep Bronx Elementary, where yoga and mindfulness are embraced as a school wide content area. In 2015 Kelli created a short film, Aliza and the Mind Jar, to demonstrate the impact of yoga and mindfulness curriculum on school communities. She is a former classroom teacher and believes all children have a right to experience the empowering life skills that yoga and mindfulness offer. Kelli is a national speaker at related conferences, is partnering with Columbia University and NYU to contribute to the research in mindfulness education, and consults organizations on implementation and curriculum development related to yoga and mindfulness in K-8 schools.
Lucy MacGregor
Online Course Guide Lead Teacher
Lucy MacGregor
Online Course Guide Lead Teacher
For over 20 years, Lucy has taught children and youth in a variety of classroom and therapeutic settings from instructing teens at North Outward Bound School to educating young people in preschool. She currently teaches Kindergarten.
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 received her Masters In Education, Mindfulness for Educators, from Antioch University New England and her Early Childhood Montessori Credential form the Center for Guided Montessori Studies.
Renee Metty
Online Course Guide
Renee Metty
Online Course Guide
Renee founded a mindfulness-based preschool in Seattle, WA in 2010 and has since transitioned to working with individuals, teams and organizations as an Executive Coach, Leadership Development Consultant and Facilitator using mindfulness as the lens. She began her corporate journey in several Fortune 100 companies. Renee has a Master’s in Early Childhood Education and a Master’s in Special Education. Currently she is a doctoral student studying Business Psychology pursuing her PhD on the impact mindfulness can have on leadership development, organizational effectiveness using change management.
Renee has a M.Ed in Special Education and an M. Ed in Early Childhood from Boston College with a B.S. in Business Administration from St. Joseph’s University. Renee loves working at Mindful Schools because it is the very place that kicked off her mindfulness journey and the foundation of her mindfulness based preschool.
Erica Marcus
Guiding Teacher & Online Course Guide
Erica Marcus
Guiding Teacher & Online Course Guide
Erica Marcus has over fifteen years of experience in formal and informal educational settings, serving as a mindfulness educator, middle school English teacher, outdoor educator, and wilderness youth therapy field guide. She has a MAT from Trinity Washington University, a BA in sociology from Haverford College, as well as Mindful Schools and Kripalu Yoga certifications.
She founded Wise Minds. Big Hearts. in 2015 to bring mindfulness to students, families, and faculty around New England. In the fall of 2020, she is transitioning to the role of Mindfulness Director for Cape Elizabeth Middle School in Maine.
Erica published a book about mindfulness for new mothers in the fourth trimester, and is currently working on a new project about mindful technology use for teens. She is invested in exploring the myriad of ways mindfulness can support us in actively working towards a more compassionate equitable world.
Crystal McCreary
Guiding Teacher
Crystal McCreary
Guiding Teacher
Crystal is registered with Yoga Alliance at the E-RYT-500 level, with a specialty RCYT for children’s yoga. She leads Yoga Alliance certified yoga teacher trainings, facilitates professional development workshops, and speaks nationally about the impact of yoga and mindfulness on the health and well-being of children, adolescents and adults. Crystal also teaches public classes in New York City and curates transformative wellness retreats which explore her own mindful vinyasa practice, her curiosity about anatomy, and her passion for intelligent sequences that sow vigor and softness in body, and a more peaceful mind through mindfulness meditation.
Aiming to build and strengthen community through a deeper understanding of our individual, complex human selves, Crystal teaches to who is in the room, making all of her programs accessible, relevant, inclusive and adaptive to the physical, emotional and social needs of a full spectrum of populations.
Nathalie Monin Voelker
Online Course Guide
Nathalie Monin Voelker
Online Course Guide
Before joining Mindful Schools Nathalie worked for 15 years for non-for-profits providing continuing education, and arts for all programs for low income and immigrant families. She also managed wide community service events with corporate foundations in NY
Nathalie is French with a Caribbean and Parisian background. She practiced dance for 7 years before taking her first yoga in 2003 just after her daughter’s birth. Yoga and meditation has been a long and interesting journey ever since. A journey where learning was not only about the body, but the self. Tapping into her former study of philosophy, she loves to make mindfulness a simple and practical tool for our everyday life.
She led “Education & Art For All” programs in France for many years before coming to New York. Combining her passion for movement and philosophy, she teaches yoga and mindfulness on a regular basis to young students, teachers and parents in NYC public schools with The School Yoga Project.
Em Morrison
Sr. Guiding Teacher, SWIP
Em Morrison
Sr. Guiding Teacher, SWIP
Em has taught mindfulness and served as a youth worker at after-school programs, summer camps, and on adult, young adult and teen retreats for the past 16 years. In Washington, DC, Em created a flagship restorative justice retreat for youth and made mindfulness practice a central piece of the experience.
Em has trained informally with many teachers over the years and has done trainings with Mindful Schools, Minds Inc., and iBme. Em focuses on Non-Violent Communication and restorative justice along with teaching the practices for personal AND collective liberation.
Angela Newport
Online Course Guide
Angela Newport
Online Course Guide
Angela is a long time high school teacher of language arts, drama, speech, and leadership in Oregon. She has also served as a district-wide instructional coach and new teacher mentor. About a decade ago she began building and teaching a yoga and mindfulness program that has become her full time assignment and serves hundreds of students each term.
Angela earned her BS in Speech Communication and Theatre Arts from Oregon State University in Corvallis, Oregon and then her Master of the Art of Teaching from Willamette University in Salem, Oregon. In 2011 she became a Registered Yoga Teacher after training with Sarahjoy Marsh of The Daya Foundation in Portland, Oregon. In 2018 Angela earned her Mindful Teacher Certification from Mindful Schools.
Angela enjoys working at Mindful Schools where mindfulness and the support it offers educators, students, and communities are at the core of every step toward our growth and service. Being able to participate in and contribute to this momentum keeps her learning, stretching, and enjoying the process.
Elizabeth Perryman
Online Course Guide
Elizabeth Perryman
Online Course Guide
She is a Qualified Teacher of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), a Certified Teacher of Koru Mindfulness (for college-age students), a Registered Yoga Teacher, and the founder of Upstream Mindfulness, a professional wellness consultancy specializing in mindfulness-based applications. She currently works with an independent school (Pre-K through Grade 12) as it seeks to prioritize the health and well-being of the whole-school community – students, families, and educators alike – to ensure a vibrant learning environment of kindness, curiosity, exploration, and discovery.
Elizabeth holds a PhD from Cambridge University. Her firsthand experience with the stressors that are endemic in rigorous academic environments inspires and informs her work with students, parents, educators, schools, and universities.
Jelena Popovic
Guiding Teacher & Online Course Guide
Jelena Popovic
Guiding Teacher & Online Course Guide
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.
Sarah Rudell Beach
Coordinator of Course Development
Sarah Rudell Beach
Coordinator of Course Development
Sarah Rudell Beach taught high school social studies for 17 years before founding Brilliant Mindfulness, LLC. She holds a Master’s Degree in Education from the University of Minnesota, and is a licensed teacher in the state of Minnesota. She served in the Wayzata Public Schools from 1998 to 2015, and was honored as an Esteemed Teacher seven times by the district. Additionally, she writes about mindfulness, mindful teaching, and mindful parenting for the Huffington Post.
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.
Matthew Schmookler
Customer Experience Specialist
Matthew Schmookler
Customer Experience Specialist
Matthew is a Bay Area native and brings over two decades of customer service to the Mindful Schools team. His experience spans a wide range of sectors including non-profit, hospitality, and wellness. Matthew has dedicated his life to serving people and communities through various not-for-profits including cultural, educational, environmental, humanitarian, and social justice organizations. His unique life path has helped him hone a diverse array of skills including Public Relations, Design, Technology, Event Management, Marketing, and Sales.
Before coming to Mindful Schools, Matthew co-founded a wellness company and managed corporate wellness accounts from end-to-end for small and large corporations throughout the Bay Area.
Matthew thrives on connecting and communicating with people. He has been practicing presence and awareness in his own life for over 15 years. He most enjoys mindfulness movement practices and is certified to teach unique forms of dance, yoga, and breathing exercises. In his free time you may find him gardening, camping, learning new skills, and most importantly, trying to model mindful behavior, together with his wife, for their young son and daughter.
David Selsky
Course Ops & Group Enrollment Specialist
David Selsky
Course Ops & Group Enrollment Specialist
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
Course Ops & Group Enrollment Specialist
Brooke Sever
Course Ops & Group Enrollment Specialist
Patti Ward
Online Course Lead Teacher
Patti Ward
Online Course Lead Teacher
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.
Erin Woo
Sr. Guiding Teacher, MTCP
Erin Woo
Sr. Guiding Teacher, MTCP
Erin Woo is a teacher at the Mindfulness Center at Brown University where she develops and leads mindfulness programs for K-12 educators and students. She is also an adjunct professor at NHTI Community College, where she teaches a Communicating Mindfully course to classes of diverse students. Her passion for teaching mindfulness to educators naturally grew out of her dedicated mindfulness practice and her experiences as a classroom teacher. Erin was the director of White Pine Montessori, the school she founded in 2005 and ran until 2018. Concurrently she taught mindfulness to students in elementary, middle and high schools as well as to teachers and interested adults. She has a Master’s in Education and has been practicing mindfulness since 2006. As a graduate of the Mindful Teacher Certification Program herself, one of the many sweet and lasting benefits, are the dear friendships she’s developed through a weekly online meditation group that she started in 2015.
Board of Directors
Anu Cairo, Board Chair
Anu Cairo, Board Chair
Anu is the Director of Programs at the Cowell Foundation. Previously, she served as Bay Area Director at the New Teacher Center, a national non-profit organization that works with school districts to build and sustain robust programs for teachers and school leaders to improve their instructional practice.
Anu also served as Senior Program Officer at Walter & Elise Haas Fund and Program Officer at the Bechtel Foundation. Earlier in her career, she worked in public school districts on the East and West coasts. Her prior roles included serving as Special Assistant to the Superintendent in San Francisco; establishing and directing the Washington, DC public school district’s Office of Parent Affairs; and serving as a Family Support Worker in the Seattle public schools.
Anu completed doctorate and master’s degrees in Administration, Planning and Social Policy at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She also holds a BA from Swarthmore College.
Anne Roise, Board Vice-Chair
Anne Roise, Board Vice-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.
Dani Bowling, Treasurer
Dani Bowling, Treasurer
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.
Richard Shankman
Richard Shankman
Richard is the co-founder of Mindful Schools. He has practiced mindfulness for 46 years, and has been a mindfulness teacher for more than 25 years.
Richard brings 25 years of management and individual contributor experience working for large corporations including Intel Corp., Cisco Systems and Advanced Micro Devices, as well as several startup companies. He managed engineering teams developing computer hardware at the computer chip and system levels.
Richard has been active in bringing mindfulness into prisons, jails and drug rehabilitation programs in California. He taught meditation in San Quentin State Prison, the Marin County jail Salinas Valley State Prison and the Men’s Correctional Training Facility.
Richard is the author of several books on meditation. He holds a BS degree in Electrical Engineering and an MA degree in Philosophy and Religion.
Dr. Nicole Shechtman, Secretary
Dr. Nicole Shechtman, Secretary
As an education researcher for over 18 years, Nicole leads multidisciplinary teams to create innovative solutions to complex educational problems, building deep understandings of educational systems from all stakeholder perspectives to discern, design, and communicate actionable insights and strategies for educators, administrators, employers, technology designers, policymakers, and researchers. She is currently the Director of Evaluation and the Vice Provost for Graduate Education at Stanford University where she received her Doctorate in Psychology. Additionally, Nicole is a Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction leader, teaching the research-based curriculum based on the work of Jon Kabat-Zinn for using mindfulness practices to take a proactive approach to mental and physical health and well-being.
Spencer Sherman, MBA
Spencer Sherman, MBA
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.
Patti has been teaching the Mindful Schools Curriculum since 2013. She has taught PS/K–12th graders in both private and public school settings. She has mentored Mindful Schools Yearlong Teacher Certification cohorts for 3 years and is now Lead Online Course Guide for Mindful Schools. She has had a personal mindfulness practice that formally began with a MBSR course. She has been practicing mindfulness for many years and will confirm that it has changed her life in immeasurable ways. She completed the yearlong program with Mindful Schools to become a certified Mindful Schools Certified Instructor. She has also received training from Patricia C. Broderick, Ph.D, author of “Learning to Breathe,” an adolescent mindfulness curriculum. She has completed the yearlong evidenced based, Koru Mindfulness Training program for Emerging Adults (ages 18 – 29) e.g. college-aged students. In July 2017 she completed a week long intensive training in Making Friends with Yourself, a self compassion training for adolescents and young adults. Recently, she completed a 6 month course with David Treleaven, Trauma Sensitive Mindfulness.
Before joining Mindful Schools Patricia worked as a special education teacher, a special education teacher consultant, a curriculum director, adjunct teacher at several universities, and as an educational consultant.
Patricia received her Associates Degree in Social Work from Ferris State University, her Bachelors Degree in Special Education from Grand Valley State University and her Masters Degree in Learning Disabilities from Grand Valley State University. She has teaching certifications in K-8 General Education, Cognitive Impairment, Emotionally Impaired and Learning Disabilities.