Mindfulness Directors
Alex Tzelnic
Alex Tzelnic (he/him) is a Mindfulness Director and Physical Education teacher at Belmont Day School in Belmont, MA.
Alex grew up in Concord, MA. As an avid athlete, he took an early interest in Zen practice, appreciating the way it stoked his curiosity by engaging both body and mind in asking the big questions. At Skidmore College he studied philosophy, religion, and Asian studies, spending a semester living in a Buddhist Monastery in India and deepening his study of mindfulness.
After college Alex pursued his passion for play by becoming a PE teacher. He also continued to explore his interest in practice by writing about mindfulness for publications like Tricycle Magazine. His thirst for insight and connection eventually led to an MA in Mindfulness Studies at Lesley University.
Alex lives in Cambridge, MA, with his wife and two kids, and is thrilled to engage in this work in such a diverse and dynamic hub. He has felt incredibly fortunate to have been exposed to mindfulness from an early age, and believes that nurturing wonder and presence in the next generation is one of the greatest gifts we can give.
Ashley Williams
Ashley Williams (she/her) is a Mindfulness Director at the Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School in Richmond, Virginia.
She is a MS, C-IAYT certified Yoga Therapist and Mindfulness Educator with 12 years of experience in the fields of education, behavioral and mental health and community programming in Richmond, VA.
As a builder and weaver, Ashley bridges mindfulness, diversity, wellness and inclusion on micro and macro-levels to achieve equitable, socially stable and conscious spaces for individual and collective care. She is the Founder of BareSOUL Yoga & Wellness, a community-based organization created to offer accessible yoga offerings. Ashley is also the founder of Mindful on Life and Mindfulness and Movement, two curriculum-based programs dedicated to transforming community through the practice of mindfulness education.
She is full of inspiration, light and experience to guide efforts in creating spaces for people of all ages and backgrounds to be educated and empowered through the practice of awareness. Ashley is a dog mom, an outdoor explorer and loves all things food-related.
Carrington Kernodle
Carrington is the Mindfulness Director at the University of Virginia. She graduated from the University of Virginia in 2018 with degrees in African-American and African Studies and Philosophy. She has practiced mindfulness for more than 11 years and led guided meditations for more than six years. At UVA she taught group exercise classes and was a personal trainer for IM-REC Sports. During her 4th year, Carrington was head chair for Sistahs Get Fit, a program created within the Office of African-American Affairs to help Black women on Grounds obtain support and resources for maintaining a healthy lifestyle. In March 2020, she completed her 200hr RYT training with FlyDog Yoga in Charlottesville and received the Black Yoga Leaders Scholarship, allowing her to obtain a Level One training certificate from the Baptiste Institute led by Baron Baptiste. She also received training in trauma-informed teaching for children with behavioral issues and disabilities from Baptiste.
Carrington became interested in mindfulness practices at the age of 14. Practicing and learning more about yoga philosophy led her to discover Ahimsa, the principle of non-harming, which inspired her to be vegan. Carrington’s mission is to uplift the oppressed so they can feel thought of, loved, and at peace within. Her teaching combines formal education with self-study and centers around cultivating a well-rounded lifestyle, applying lessons from yoga practice to all aspects of life. Her classes typically include self-inquiry, guided meditation, heart openers, and mind-body connections.
Christy Anana
Christy Lynn Anana (she/her), NBCT, RYT, M.Ed., is the Mindfulness Director at Quil Ceda Tulalip Elementary located on the land of The Tulalip Tribes in Washington State, north of Seattle. She is a doctoral candidate at the University of Washington’s Educational Leadership L4L Program.
She has been a yoga teacher for over 14 years while leading mindfulness with students as a school counselor. She became passionate about body-centered contemplative practices as a pathway to increase her own wellbeing as well as building educator resiliency. Mirroring Thich Nhat Hanh’s words, she believes that, “”Happy Teachers Change the World,”” Lifting up educators delivers positive outcomes for students. This work is relevant, rigorous, anti-racist and culturally responsive to transform and shift systems toward equitable learning and wellbeing. She has published some books: one book is on tapping or EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) using knowledge from Traditional Chinese Medicine to unblock stuck emotions so children, adolescents, and adults feel better; and another book is A Safe Place. This book guides children on how to process their feelings and then walks alongside them as they create a safe place in their brain to feel better. This resource became available as many students are dysregulated because of painful things happening in our world. Mrs. Anana was named Washington State School Counselor of the Year in 2016. She is a proud mom of two adult talented, multi-racial daughters, and partner to Mr. Anana.
Erica Marcus
Erica Marcus (she/her) is a Mindfulness Director at Cape Elizabeth Middle School in Cape Elizabeth, Maine.
Erica has lived her calling to work with youth as a wilderness youth therapy field guide in Utah, an outdoor educator in Maine, a middle school English teacher in DC, and a mindfulness educator based out of Portland, Maine. She is wrapping up a year as a Mindful Schools’ guiding teacher, along with putting the finishing touches on a book about mindful technology use for teens (to be released in the spring of 2022).
From past experiences on long backpacking trips and riding her bike across the country, to more recently raising a four year old and a baby, Erica loves adventures. She is drawn to contemplative practices— mindfulness, silent retreat, yoga, journaling, reading, music, and art—as methods to better understand herself and her place in the world.
Erica believes mindfulness can allow us to live with more authenticity, clarity, and compassion. Mindfulness practice offers us a way to examine, and stay with, reality as it is, both internal and external. Today, the world is demanding attention, and we need access to a fierce kind of love to care for one another and our world.
Jelena Popovic
Jelena Popovic (she/her) is a Mindfulness Director at the Minds in Motion Early Childhood Learning Center in Greenville, South Carolina.
Jelena is a school psychologist by training and a peacebuilder by heart. She is experienced in beginnings, grounded in mindfulness practice, deeply passionate about intergenerational community and igniting its enormous transformative power. Her passion is facilitating dialogs that are grounded in circle practices, mindful awareness and empathy. Jelena is dedicated to peace education, mindful educational leadership and healing centered pedagogy as a path that supports a shift toward a culture of belonging for all.
Jelena spends most of her time in a circle with educators and students and is a facilitation trainer for Soliya where she guides others in facilitating virtual cross-cultural exchange dialogues. She serves on the advisory board for the Peace of Mind and is Practicing Peace in Schools Leadership Council lead for the Peace Alliance. She is a Program Facilitator at Mindful Schools and a podcast co-host of Hope Story Circles for the Peace Alliance. Jelena serves as a mindfulness mentor, Awakening Joy facilitator, guides mindfulness retreats for educators, leads international At Home In the World family retreats, and is a 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.
Jelena’s guiding principle is summed up in saying “Peace begins with me.” Her daily practice consists of moments of silence, wonder, and everyday gratitude for small, seemingly ordinary yet extraordinary things.
Jordan Grinstein
Jordan Grinstein (he/him) is the Mindfulness Director for Shrewsbury Public Schools in Shrewsbury, MA.
He is a multifaceted educator with over a decade of experience creating and sharing trauma-informed and culturally relevant curricula to empower communities with wellness and equity education. He co-founded the social justice wellness program Breathe for Justice, for students and educators to learn embodiment practices as tools for collective liberation. He has been a member of Ivy Child International for seven years, specializing in the professional and personal development of teachers, administrators, and youth ambassadors. As a yoga teacher trainer, meditation coach, and Ayurvedic Practitioner, he facilitates youth and adults to lead social-emotional wellness experiences for their communities and integrate mindful routines into school culture. His mission is to inspire people to be leaders in their lives, cultivate community empowerment, and create access to social justice and wellness education.
Kara Cosby
Kara Cosby (she/her) is a Mindfulness Director at Englehard Elemtary School, part ofJefferson County Public Schools, in Louisville, KY.
She’s been an educator for 13 years and is currently a teacher with the Compassionate Schools Project at Engelhard Elementary. She graduated in 2008 with a Master’s in Teaching from the University of Louisville. She completed her second Master’s Degree in Educational Leadership in 2015 from Asbury University.
In 2017, Kara began her position teaching and leading mindfulness with K-5 students by integrating compassion and yoga-based practices. The curriculum focuses on mindfulness for stress management and self-control, while educating the whole child for self-awareness and self-understanding. Over the years, being a mindfulness instructor has caused a shift in her own life. Through her practice she has cultivated a passion for deep breathing and meditation, which has led to her becoming a more mindful parent and partner. She believes mindfulness is a way of life. Her mission is to equip children and families with the tools necessary to prevent stress and improve their personal, social, and emotional skills.
Kazumi Igus
Kazumi Igus (she/her) is a Mindfulness Director at As Black, female science teacher at the Westchester Enriched Sciences Magnet School in Los Angeles, California.
Kazumi Igus has, for the last 14 years, found herself dedicated to radical access to any and everything that would support students of color. Her love of the environment inadvertently brought her to a Thailand monastery where she experienced her first silent retreat. That experience solidified her path of integrating mindfulness into the school setting.
Kazumi is a UCLA Mindful Awareness Center trained meditation facilitator, who has had her own practice for the last eight years. She facilitates drop-in meditations and courses in various community and school settings to bring Mindfulness to everyone who may benefit from it (radical access). She runs her school’s Mindfulness Club and just before the “”COVID social remix”” she was designing a Mindful Athletes program for the school’s nationally ranked basketball team.
Affectionately known around west Los Angeles area as Ms. Igus, Kazumi is a Los Angeles native working at one of the only predominantly Black high schools in Los Angeles Unified where she wants to transform education to be inherently social-emotionally responsive; explicitly supportive of increasing the ability to focus; and empowering of the students’ ability to be emotionally resilient in this increasingly tumultuous time.
Kimberly Daniels
Kimberly M. Daniels is the Mindfulness Director at P.S. 41 (The Greenwich Village School) in New York City.
Kimberly holds a Master’s degree in Psychology, as well as a Certification in School Counseling. She has served as a School Counselor for over 15 years in New York City public schools. Additionally, Kimberly is a Board Certified Holistic Health Coach and the founder of Wellness by Kimberly, a Holistic Wellness and Mindset Coaching practice that transforms the lives of women through a combination of mindfulness work, practical psychology, and nutritional counseling. She has an unwavering commitment to justice and social emotional learning, as well as a passion for helping women and children become empowered in their lives through the practice of mindfulness.
Kimberly has been practicing yoga and meditation since she moved to NYC in 2000, when she stumbled into the Dharma Mittra yoga studio. She now attempts to use her mindfulness techniques to parent her two year old son and hopes to continue strengthening her skills in this new domain.
Laura Lenz
Laura Lenz (she/her) is a Mindfulness Director at Riverside Central Elementary School in Rochester, Minnesota.
She has been a public school teacher for 27 years, primarily teaching English to multilingual students, first in the Twin Cities area, and for the last fourteen years in Rochester Public Schools. For the last three years, Laura has served as an instructional coach and mentor to first-year and student teachers.
In 2016, Laura started teaching mindfulness to her middle school refugee and immigrant students at the Newcomer Center in Rochester. She found it to be so transformative for herself and her students that she has continued to teach mindfulness to students and also expanded to offering mindfulness to educators.
Laura is passionate about making mindfulness practices and concepts accessible to everyone in the community. She views mindfulness as a relationship-builder, enhancing inner knowledge, peace, and confidence as well as improving connections with others. Laura believes mindfulness is a vehicle for making the social change that leads to everyone in the community feeling a sense of belonging, love, and joy.
She has two young adult children and lives in Rochester, Minnesota with her husband, cat, and dog.
Marco MooYoung
Meet Yogi MooYoung (he/him) is the Mindfulness Director at IDEA Charter School in Tampa, Florida.
Having visited India and Central/South America, Marco returned to the US with a fresh perspective. Desiring to live life to its fullest, he dived all into adopting mindfulness as a lifestyle and not just a physical posture. Through travel, education, and self-awareness he realized that even when life has you flipped upside down you can still stand strong. In addition to his four years of personal yogic and contemplative practice, Marco has almost 20 years of professional medical experience.
Having overcome his difficult personal circumstances through mindfulness practices and self-discipline, Marco MooYoung has cultivated a passion for youth wellbeing; and even more specifically, the well-being of marginalized and disenfranchised youth. Through MooYoung’s integration of eastern and western philosophies and his application of “The Three M’s” (movement, mindfulness, and meditation), he is able to mentor youth exactly where they are at through the real-life application of self-awareness and emotional regulation techniques.
Nina Bryce
Nina Bryce (she/her) is the Mindfulness Coordinator with the Center for Wellness & Health Promotion at Harvard University Health Services. She has been involved in leading mindfulness programs for undergraduates at Harvard since 2018. Prior to her work at Harvard with WholeSchool, Nina worked with high school & college students in organizations focused on wellness, positive youth development, and community-building. Nina has been teaching yoga and meditation since 2009, having completed two 200-hour yoga teacher training programs, as well as supplementary teacher training in yoga for youth. She completed her Mindfulness Teacher Training with Inward Bound Mindfulness Education (iBme). Nina received her Master of Divinity (M. Div) in 2019 from Harvard Divinity School where she trained in facilitation of contemplative practices in both multi-faith and secular settings. She has worked as a TF for a graduate course on mindfulness at Harvard Graduate School of Education, and currently serves as a Resident Tutor at Mather House at Harvard College.
Staff
Ben Painter
Ben Painter (he/him) is a Partner and Co-Founder at WholeSchool Mindfulness, focusing on strategic growth. Ben works with WholeSchool’s supporters, Mindfulness Directors, staff, and Board to support the movement to integrate full-time Mindfulness Directors into school communities. In high school, Ben had the opportunity to take mindfulness classes with Mindfulness Director Doug Worthen. Since then, Ben has used his meditation practice to become a healthier, happier person and a more compassionate community member. Prior to serving in his current position at WholeSchool, Ben worked at New Profit, a venture philanthropy organization that partners with social entrepreneurs to break down barriers to opportunity in America, where he supported the Investor Relations team and held mindfulness classes for the New Profit team. Ben studied at Bowdoin College, where he served as the Vice President of the Student Body and co-founder of the Mindfulness Club. Ben has attended numerous meditation retreats, including two retreats at the Drupa Drong monastery in Northern Nepal. With WholeSchool, Ben enjoys continuing the work of making high-quality mindfulness teachings accessible to communities and fostering relationships with those interested in supporting this movement.
Charisse Minerva
Charisse Minerva is Consultant at WholeSchool Mindfulness, stewarding Community & Professional Development. She brings to the Mindfulness arena a background in Arts, Science, Youth and Community Development. She earned a bachelor’s degree in Medical Technology from Medical College of VA MCV/ VCU, and a master’s in performance studies with a concentration in Dance Anthropology from NYU Tisch School of the Arts. For 16 Years Charisse served as Director of a multiple award winning Performing Arts Academy which was an integral component of a Community Development Organization. She then spent 7 years designing and implementing a K-12 Mindfulness curriculum at Friends School, VA Beach, VA. Minerva then designed and continues to facilitate a community-based Dance, Drum & Mediation (DDM) program to introduce Mindfulness tools to communities not versed in Mindfulness pedagogy. Charisse has been in schools, corporate offices, detention centers, elite academies, counseling programs, health care facilities and college programs. She served as core faculty for the first two cohorts of the Inward Bound Mindfulness Education (iBme) Yearlong Teacher Training program and is presently a guest presenter. She worked with the Dalai Lama Project of University of VA Contemplative Science Center and does workshops, and conferences throughout the United States and abroad. She considers herself a 21 st century Griot, focusing on community building, using the ancient tools of creativity, culture, and contemplation.
“I believe Contemplative Practices are a human capacity that we have begun to reawaken. Its such a priceless gift to realize in these challenging and fruitful times.”
Jenna Spencer
Jenna Spencer (she/her) is a Partner at WholeSchool Mindfulness. Jenna works in partnership with our diverse community of stakeholders- schools, educators, and investment partners- to re-imagine and co-construct a more equitable and liberatory education system through mindfulness.
Jenna began her career as a high school English teacher with Providence Public Schools, where she had the privilege of working with the most brilliant group of young people. She is a fierce advocate for building systems that are student, educator, and family informed, responsive, and led and that center community power, justice, and healing.
Prior to her work at WholeSchool Mindfulness, Jenna was as an Investor Relations Manager with New Profit on the Education and Inclusive Impact teams. In this role, she worked closely with the investor community, building meaningful partnerships and targeted engagement opportunities, while working to catalyze the flow of dollars and capacity building supports to Black, Latinx, and Indigenous social impact leaders. Prior to her work with New Profit, Jenna was the Development Manager at DC Public Education Fund, a nonprofit organization and the sole philanthropic partner of DC Public Schools.
Jenna is a Teach for America alum, has an Ed.M. in Education Policy and Management from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and a B.A. in Africana Studies and Performance Studies from Brown University.
Marc Waxman
Marc Waxman (he/him) is a Senior Partner at WholeSchool – meaning, he has the pleasure to work with and support an amazing group of Mindfulness Directors, board members, WholeSchool staff, and staff of WholeSchool’s Partner Schools to transform school communities through the power of mindfulness. Marc has 25 years of professional experience in education, including becoming a National Board-Certified Teacher, and over 20 years of experience in non-profit development and management. He has been practicing mindfulness for many years and recently completed a year-long mindfulness teacher training program with iBme. Marc co-founded and co-led several progressive urban charter schools in New York City and Denver, where, in addition to his teaching and administrative responsibilities, Marc was accountable for board development, fundraising, business plan development, fiscal oversight, program design, and project management. As a school leader, Marc promoted opportunities for teachers to explore the power of mindfulness for themselves and their students. Additionally, Marc is a Certifed ChiRunning Instructor and regularly supports runners in enhancing their running experience through mindfulness.
Selena La'Chelle Collazo
Selena La’Chelle Collazo (she/her) is a Partner at WholeSchool Mindfulness, stewarding Mindfulness Director Recruitment & Selection to identify those with a demonstrated commitment to working at the intersection of education, justice, and mindfulness.
Selena holds degrees from the University of California (B.A., Psychology), Endicott College (M.Ed., International Education), Alliant International University (M.A., Counseling Psychology), and Brown University (A.M. & Ph.D., Theatre Arts & Performance Studies).
Before joining WholeSchool Mindfulness, Selena served as a K-12 educator in international schools, a youth speaker for the National Student Leadership Conference, and a founding member of both the Inward Bound Mindfulness Education (iBme) Communities of Color Leadership Team and the iBme Systems Committee. Through Pramana Wellness, Selena offers bilingual (English & Spanish), BIPOC & LGBTQIA+ affirming liberation and wellness practices including guided journaling sessions, mindfulness meditation training, narrative-based psychotherapy, yoga asana, and yoga nidra.
Board of Directors
Ashley Williams
Ashley Williams (she/her) is a Mindfulness Director at the Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School in Richmond, Virginia.
She is a MS, C-IAYT certified Yoga Therapist and Mindfulness Educator with 12 years of experience in the fields of education, behavioral and mental health and community programming in Richmond, VA.
As a builder and weaver, Ashley bridges mindfulness, diversity, wellness and inclusion on micro and macro-levels to achieve equitable, socially stable and conscious spaces for individual and collective care. She is the Founder of BareSOUL Yoga & Wellness, a community-based organization created to offer accessible yoga offerings. Ashley is also the founder of Mindful on Life and Mindfulness and Movement, two curriculum-based programs dedicated to transforming community through the practice of mindfulness education.
She is full of inspiration, light and experience to guide efforts in creating spaces for people of all ages and backgrounds to be educated and empowered through the practice of awareness. Ashley is a dog mom, an outdoor explorer and loves all things food-related.
Doug Worthen
Doug Worthen (he/him) is a Co-Founder of WholeSchool and is the Founder and Director of Mindfulness Programs at the Middlesex School in Concord, Massachusetts. Since 2010 he has been supporting and educating the Middlesex School community (students, staff, parents, and alumni) in mindfulness. Doug began practicing mindfulness meditation in 1999 as a member of the University of Virginia national championship lacrosse team and has been a dedicated practitioner ever since. Living through two bouts of lymphoma, including a bone marrow transplant in 2007, Doug has also experienced how supportive mindfulness can be when living with illness. Doug has attended many week- and month-long mindfulness retreats, led and attended a variety of teacher trainings, and is dedicated to supporting other schools in creating full-time staff positions in mindfulness.
Erika Mills
Erika Mills (she/her) serves as a Board Member of WholeSchool. Additionally, she is the Director of Financial Aid and Associate Director of Admissions at Middlesex School in Concord, Massachusetts, where she also serves as an English teacher, head of house, and varsity rowing coach. She co-teaches a class on Mindfulness in Literature with Doug Worthen, with whom Erika has been practicing mindfulness since 2010. Erika has been coaching, teaching, and working with teenagers since she graduated from Connecticut College in 2003. Prior to Middlesex, Erika worked at Choate Rosemary Hall and Harvard Business School, where she co-authored a number of business cases and later earned her M.B.A. She serves on the board of Cirtronics Corporation in New Hampshire, volunteers with Concord Prison Outreach, and lives in Concord with her family.
Marc Waxman
Marc Waxman (he/him) is a Senior Partner at WholeSchool – meaning, he has the pleasure to work with and support an amazing group of Mindfulness Directors, board members, WholeSchool staff, and staff of WholeSchool’s Partner Schools to transform school communities through the power of mindfulness. Marc has 25 years of professional experience in education, including becoming a National Board-Certified Teacher, and over 20 years of experience in non-profit development and management. He has been practicing mindfulness for many years and recently completed a year-long mindfulness teacher training program with iBme. Marc co-founded and co-led several progressive urban charter schools in New York City and Denver, where, in addition to his teaching and administrative responsibilities, Marc was accountable for board development, fundraising, business plan development, fiscal oversight, program design, and project management. As a school leader, Marc promoted opportunities for teachers to explore the power of mindfulness for themselves and their students. Additionally, Marc is a Certifed ChiRunning Instructor and regularly supports runners in enhancing their running experience through mindfulness.
Raed Khawaja
Raed Khawaja (he/him) serves as a Board Member of WholeSchool Mindfulness.
Raed is the CEO and Co-Founder at Open, a mindfulness studio designing a new way to practice wellbeing, together. Inspired by his love for music, fascination with art and architecture, and a practice of prayer cultivated while growing up Muslim, Raed began building Open in 2018 with a vision to amplify the benefits of meditation through community. With career foundations in global consumer goods and technology consulting, he first focused his strategic expertise on crafting the Open breathwork experience as the mindfulness studio’s inaugural teacher. Raed seeks to inspire millions to find presence and connection with themselves and with each other through Open.
Advisors
Adam Ortman
Adam Ortman (he/him) is the Mindfulness Director at St. Andrew’s Episcopal School in Austin, Texas.
He has been practicing mindfulness meditation since 2007, including over a year of intensive retreat practice. He received a Masters of Divinity degree from Harvard Divinity School, for which he focused on secular applications of meditative traditions. In addition to teaching and practicing meditation, Adam writes fiction, dances with his young daughter, and rides his bike through the streets of Austin.
Andra Brill
Andra Brill (she/her) is a Mindfulness Director with WholeSchool. She has worked in education for over 25 years as a teacher, leader, school and district coach, professor and consultant for several organizational change projects. Before joining WholeSchool Mindfulness, Andra served as a biliteracy coach in the public schools and as a facilitator for SMART in Education, an 8 week mindfulness course based on MBSR. In addition to her work helping teachers and students bring mindfulness to their classrooms, Andra now coaches parents and teachers to manage stress and cultivate emotional intelligence.
Andra is a passionate advocate for cultural responsiveness and equity in the communities she supports. Andra holds a B.A. in Politics from Brandeis University, and earned a M.A. in Language, Literacy and Culture and Ph.D. in Educational Leadership and Innovation from the University of Colorado, Denver.
Becky Acabchuk
Becky Acabchuk has a PhD in Physiology and Neurobiology and is consulting with WholeSchool in conducting research on its mindfulness programs across five school sites. Becky is a Post-Doctoral Research Associate at the University of Connecticut, where she holds a joint appointment in the Institute for Collaboration on Health, Intervention, and Policy and the Department of Psychological Sciences. Her research focuses on evaluating the mental and physical health benefits of yoga and mindfulness meditation, with a special interest in promoting scalability and acceptability of evidence-based mindfulness programs across diverse populations. Becky specializes in conducting systematic reviews and meta-analyses, and recently completed a randomized controlled trial comparing mindfulness tools to assist students in developing a meditation practice to self-manage stress.
Becky leads mindfulness workshops locally and internationally, tailored for a wide variety of audiences (e.g., schools, addiction groups, sport teams, workplace settings and more), she has been teaching meditation, yoga and o
ther wellness classes in the private sector for 15 years. Becky is also an Editorial Associate for two scientific journals, Social Science & Medicine, and Psychological Bulletin. Previously, she worked as an adjunct Professor at Connecticut College and UConn, where she taught the Neuroscience of Meditation and Health Psychology.
Enrique Collazo
Enrique Collazo (he/they) is a new generation Mindfulness meditation teacher. Born and raised in Los Angeles and has been teaching and living in the Bay Area for the last 8 years. His passion is teaching the practice of mindfulness to teens and young adults.
He is well-loved and respected for the inspirational work he did with Challenge Day during the school year where he facilitated social and emotional learning workshops for thousands of young people all over the country. Enrique’s skill with teens has led to teaching internationally for Inward Bound Mindfulness Education. He is on the Guiding Teacher Counsel and Equity and Interdependence Committee for iBme.
Jennifer Maddox
Jennifer Maddox (she/her) works joyfully to support communities in weaving a culture of mindfulness into the fabric of public education and youth wellbeing. She discovered the transformative power of mindfulness nearly 20 years ago while using it as a tool to support mental health and trauma recovery. She is also a Retreat Mentor for Inward Bound Mindfulness Education, a non-profit offering unique retreats and creative programming for teens, young adults, and caregivers. Jennifer holds degrees from Howard University and the University of Michigan; and brings her knowledge of family-based positive psychology and holistic health to her work with students of all ages. She studied in the Raja Yoga tradition at Frog Pond Yoga Center and has completed training to become a certified Children’s Yoga teacher and Level 2 Reiki practitioner. She is also trained to deliver evidence-based practices taught by Mindful Schools and the Center for Trauma and Embodiment at the Justice Resource Institute.
Sara Shapouri
Sara Shapouri (she/her) is an advisor to WholeSchool Mindfulness and served as a Board Member for WholeSchool between 2020 and 2022. Sara is an Iranian-American meditation and mindfulness instructor, artist, musician and lawyer. Sara’s experience with sharing mindfulness and meditation include curriculum development and instruction at Awake Youth Project, a program offering meditation and mentoring to teenagers in Brooklyn, and teaching meditation retreats with Inward Bound Mindfulness Education. She has completed teacher training programs with the Interdependence Project in 2016 and with Inward Bound in 2018. She has also trained in conflict mediation with the New York Center for Interpersonal Development, completed the year-long caregiver training program at the New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care in 2015, and in 2019 finished the Indigenous Focusing Oriented Therapy in Complex Trauma training. Sara is currently participating in the Dharmapala Training through Sacred Mountain Sangha. While she is retired from the practice of law, Sara remains committed to social justice, particularly issues related to human rights and children’s rights.
Taeya Boi-Doku
Taeya Boi-Doku (she/her) is a communications and development intern with WholeSchool supporting fundraising and branding efforts. Taeya is currently studying Human Rights and Justice at Drexel University, and is a Thrive Global Campus Editor-at-Large.
She has been an insightful mindfulness practitioner since high school. She has attended multiple week-long retreats, and has been a teen ambassador for Inward Bound Mindfulness Education (iBme).
She brings her passion for social advocacy into all her work especially as a photographer, meditator and yoga enthusiast. She sees mindfulness as the pivotal foundation on which strength, resiliency, and joy are built upon.