2024 Lead
Piero Falci
Piero Falci teaches Mindfulness Meditation and Mindful Living. He is certified to teach the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program, the Center for Mind-Body Medicine (CMBM) model, and Mindfulness in Schools (MiSP) programs for teenagers. He received his MBSR teacher training at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, and at the Brown University School of Public Health. He is a board member […]
Jane Seaton
Jane Seaton PhD., at just two and half years old, declared to her mother that she would teach art. She grew up to become both a multimedia artist and a creativity guide for others. Since 1973, Jane has taught hundreds of people from all walks of life how to reawaken and explore the many dimensions […]
Dave Smith
For over 30 years, Dave Smith has held a practice rooted in the Insight Meditation (Vipassana) tradition. He was empowered to teach through the Against the Stream Buddhist Meditation Society, is a certified teacher for Cultivating Emotional Balance (CEB) which is combines contemporary emotion based scientific research with contemplative practices and psychology drawn from Buddhism. […]
Kirsten Rudestam
Kirsten Rudestam (she/her) believes that practices of (re)connection are crucial in maintaining our capacity to face and respond to ecological loss and to embrace our inherent interbeing. Kirsten holds a Ph.D. in environmental sociology from the University of California, Santa Cruz, where she studied water policy and management, feminist political ecology, and environmental justice. She […]
Emerson James
Emerson James (they/them) is imagining, articulating, and captivated by a world permeated with the possibilities of queerness. Nourished by contemplative practices, they find vocational calling in cultivating and offering skills in spiritual care and facilitation. After first being introduced as an undergraduate to the Church of the Brethren's deep commitment to pacifism and social justice, […]
Jade Sherer
Jade Sherer is a wild elder in the making, a “grief astronomer” (a la Andrea Gibson), and one who apprentices to death and joy. She has devoted her life to showing up to support others as they navigate the transitions of their lives, guiding others in nature-based transformational processes and ceremonies, a mentor to hundreds […]
Lama Rod Owens
Lama Rod Owens is a Black Buddhist Southern Queen. An international influencer with a Master of Divinity degree in Buddhist Studies from Harvard Divinity School with a focus on the intersection of social change, identity, and spiritual practice. Author of The New Saints: From Broken Hearts to Spiritual Warriors and Love and Rage: The Path of Liberation through Anger and co-author of Radical […]
Blake Hestir
Blake Hestir lives in Fort Worth, Texas, the unceded sacred ancestral land of the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes. He is professor of philosophy and the associate director of CALM Studies at TCU in Fort Worth, Texas. He is director and co-founder of The Mind Body Ecology Institute and a member of the Flourishing Academic Network, and an advisor […]
Ben Connelly
Ben Connelly is a Soto Zen teacher and Dharma heir in the Katagiri lineage. He also teaches mindfulness in a wide variety of secular contexts and leads wilderness meditation retreats. He works with multifaith groups focused on intersectional liberation, racial justice, and climate justice. Ben is based at Minnesota Zen Meditation Center, travels to teach across […]
Laurie Cousins
Laurie Cousins is a mindfulness teacher, integrative somatic practitioner, and trauma-informed educator based in Los Angeles. Part of her education and training include the mindfulness centers of UCLA & UCSD and she teaches their signature evidence-based programs of Mindful Awareness Practices and Mindful Self-Compassion. Laurie is mentored by Susan Kaiser Greenland and a lead teacher […]