Old Page – Trainers
Robert Chender
Robert Chender
Robert Chender has been a hedge fund executive, lawyer, and mindfulness meditation teacher for 30 years, and frequently speaks to business groups about mindfulness, workplace efficiency, and corporate culture and morale. As an executive coach, he has successfully trained CEO’s and senior management in developing emotional intelligence at work through mindfulness practice. He is currently a senior meditation teacher both at the New York Shambhala Meditation Center, where he was formerly chair of the board, and at The Interdependence Project, where he sits on the board of directors. Robert is a graduate of Vassar College and the NYU School of Law, and is the founder of the New York City Bar Association Contemplative Lawyers Group.
“SIYLI is the manifestation of my long-time desire to implant mindfulness in the business world. The effect of widespread mindfulness practice and emotional intelligence training on corporate culture could be to significantly increase happiness, efficiency, and morale in the workplace. It is deeply fulfilling to be part of a team that has that as its goal.”
Mark Coleman
Mark Coleman
Founder of the Mindfulness Institute, Mark Coleman has studied mindfulness practices for over twenty five years in Asia, Europe and America with some of the leading figures in the field. Mark is a mindfulness consultant, executive coach and meditation teacher, specializing in teaching mindfulness in companies and to executives. He feels great satisfaction in teaching people to develop mindfulness and emotional intelligence through scientifically tested and accessible contemplative techniques. Mark brings a wealth of experience to his work that includes his Masters in Clinical Psychology, his training in Integral Coaching, and over 15 years of teaching mindfulness based trainings courses around the world.
“What appeals most to me about this work is the amazing possibility that these practices and techniques offer. They enable people to live to their true potential, to be the best they are able to be. These techniques can transform your work and your life, bringing happiness, focus and a profound sense of well being to everything you do. Teaching the wisdom and gifts that are distilled from neuro-science, contemporary research and ancient wisdom traditions is both a joy and a true gift to bring this opportunity to others.”
Linda Curtis
Linda Curtis
Linda combines twenty years of real world corporate experience with a decade of coaching and consulting entrepreneurs, business owners, corporate and community leaders. She has held senior positions at U.S. Bancorp and The Harris Bank of Chicago and led an award winning business development team at VISA (now Visa, Inc.). Linda has consulted with hundreds of private and corporate clients for such companies as MasterCard, NASDAQ OMX, Oracle, Walgreens and Yahoo, and introduced mindfulness and emotional intelligence whenever practicable.
Linda attended DePaul University where she studied organizational development and has done post-graduate work at the University of Chicago ‘s Graham School of Continuing Education, the American Management Association, and Visa’s Bank Card Management School. She is a graduate of the Integral Coaching Program at New Ventures West.
“What appeals to me about this work is that it is not work. It’s inspiring, pragmatic, simple without being simplistic. SIY combines the wisdom of the ancient sages with proven science and provides an accessible program that explores profound truths without diminishing them. I’ve watched the integration of these tools become a powerful game-changer for the individual and their communities inside and outside the office. Well-being and happiness increases, relationships improve, better decisions are made, leader’s discover sustainable ways of being out in front. The implications for peace are exciting to ponder.”
Dr. Laura Delizonna
Dr. Laura Delizonna
Dr. Laura Delizonna specializes in the fundamental skills that enable people to build extraordinary lives. She is an instructor at Stanford University where her courses in Emotional Intelligence, Social Intelligence, and Happiness are the three most popular courses in the Continuing Studies Department. She is an author of three positive psychology handbooks and a forthcoming book entitled, “Shift: Self-Coaching for Happiness.” Her passion is developing and delivering programs that equip people with the tools to thrive in their professional and personal lives. She consults with business leaders, conducts trainings and workshops in organizations, and coaches individuals. In her consulting and research work she has found that mindfulness is the core mechanism underlying excellent performance and well-being. She has developed several practices that help increase mindfulness and enjoys sharing insights from her own practice.
She has been a staff psychologist and a postdoctoral fellow at the Stanford School of Medicine. Laura received a PhD from Boston University. She serves on the advisory boards of Project Happiness and American Happiness Association. Laura loves to dance, ski, travel and laugh with abandon.
Lee Lesser
Lee Lesser
Lee has taught the mindfulness practice of Sensory Awareness for 36 years both nationally and internationally. She is bi-lingual in English and Spanish, and teaches in both languages. She has practiced Zen since 1978. She has a M.S. in education and facilitates national trainings with education leaders about emotional intelligence, family support and diversity and equity issues. She is an emotional intelligence coach working with educators of young children to help them develop their own emotional intelligence and to teach these tools to children. As a college instructor, she has developed and taught courses on social and emotional development and family support. In partnership with the Academy of Sciences, she has created tools and curriculum for teaching science to children.
Lee works with many different populations of people, sharing practices of mindfulness, attention and presence to create healing. She is co-founder of Honoring the Path of the Warrior, (HPW), a fiscal project of the San Francisco Zen Center. Honoring the Path of the Warrior works with returning veterans to offer tools of mindfulness and meditation and to create a community of refuge and support.
I am drawn to the work of SIYLI for the way it combines deep expertise in mindfulness, emotional intelligence and science. It is based on practical experience and scientific research and has been crafted by leaders in each of these fields based on work with thousands and thousands of people. I appreciate its depth and breadth, and the integration of simple tools that can have a profound impact on both individual and institutional transformation. SIYLI gives me an opportunity to share practices that I am most passionate about and trust most deeply; and to contribute to creating more presence and peace in our world that so sorely needs it.
Jackie McGrath
Jackie McGrath
Jackie’s experience as a line executive combined with her exceptional skills as a coach and consultant enable her to work in close partnership with senior management and their teams helping them to lead more powerfully and increase their effectiveness. She specializes in working with high-potential executives to access greater levels of executive presence and to maximize performance in environments of rapid change, ambiguity and high levels of stress. She is known for her ability to quickly identify core issues and support her clients in accelerating their self knowledge and self awareness so that they can develop personal mastery in all areas of their lives.
Simon Moyes
Simon Moyes
Simon Moyes specializes in offering the wisdom and practices of mindfulness to people living a modern urban life. He leads Young Urban Zen, a program in San Francisco which makes these ancient teachings accessible and relevant to a generation of people in their 20’s and 30’s.
Simon was born in Britain and studied and worked as an Architect before focusing on the study of the mind through meditation. After 15 years of intensive mindfulness training in India, Europe and North America, including 4 years as a Zen monk. His current work with the San Francisco Zen Center includes leading groups and retreats, and serving as project manager for the long-term vision of the organization.
“I am continuously inspired by the impact that the simple yet profound mindfulness techniques that are offered through SIYLI. The practices enable us to explore what it is to be more fully human, be present in our lives, engage skill fully in difficult situations, and work with a sense of meaning and purpose. It is a joy to see the transformative impact of these teachings that are a combination of neuroscience, psychological understanding, and the ancient mindfulness practices.”
Wiveka Ramel
Wiveka Ramel
Wiveka Ramel, Ph.D., is a licensed clinical psychologist with a psychotherapy and consulting practice in the heart of San Francisco. In her practice, she specializes in providing adults, couples, and groups with the most current evidence-based psychological interventions (e.g., Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) combined with Eastern spiritual approaches. Born and raised in Malmö, Sweden, she spent time working, volunteering and studying language, philosophy and contemplative practices in France and India before moving to the U.S. in 1995. She has practiced yoga and Tibetan and Theravadan (Vipassana) forms of Buddhism for 20 years and has taught Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and related mindfulness programs. She obtained her doctorate degree in clinical psychology with a specialty in neuropsychology from University of California San Diego and San Diego State University. This was followed by three years of postdoctoral research at Stanford University, where she used methods drawn from neuroscience and cognitive psychology to study emotion reactivity and regulation as well as risk factors and treatments for mood and anxiety disorders. Wiveka continues to collaborate on research projects, mostly with colleagues at Stanford University, where she also occasionally teaches. Outside work, the majority of her time is dedicated to being a mother and learning from her two young daughters.
Lucinda Rhys
Lucinda Rhys
Lucinda Rhys is the President of Centered Leadership, a consulting firm specializing in executive coaching, leadership and strategy. She brings over twenty years of organizational and executive management experience in the areas of sales, marketing and strategy. She has worked with both corporate and entrepreneurial organizations helping them create vision, articulate strategy and build consensus. In addition to her consulting work, Lucinda designs and teaches courses in Leadership Presence, Influence and Action Language.
As an executive coach, Lucinda’s bold, pragmatic approach to learned leadership creates immediate change and sustainable results for her clients. A master of non-verbal language, Lucinda quickly hones in on her client’s core strengths and hidden potential. She identifies and corrects the subtle cues that undercut personal impact, helping clients build a powerful and effective presence from the ground up.
When Lucinda is not involved in leadership, she is immersed in family, art and nature.
Marc Roudebush
Marc Roudebush
As CEO of Inspiring Workplace, Marc loves leading workshops that increase the level of awareness and choice that people feel in their workplace. In his 15 years as a business executive, then as an executive trainer and coach working in Fortune 500 and Global companies, Marc has witnessed the transformative impact of awareness regularly.
In these experiences, the shift that happens is at bottom a kind of opening of the heart and mind. Marc’s ability to produce this result for himself and others is rooted in his own spiritual practice, his social science training (U.C. Berkeley, Ph.D. 1995) and his first hand familiarity with the challenges of executive management.
“SIYLI hits a sweet spot at the intersection of personal and professional efficacy. It goes straight to the heart of leadership, which is the ability to self-reflect and get out of our own way for the sake of a higher purpose. In short, SIYLI rocks and I am proud to be a part of it!”
Dr. Kelly Werner
Dr. Kelly Werner
From a young age Dr.Kelly Werner pondered questions like: “What makes people truly happy?” “What does optimal functioning for a human being look like?” “How can I ease the suffering of others?” and “Why do people with the best intentions sometimes unwittingly undermine themselves and hurt others?”
To answer these questions, Dr. Werner started out studying human bio-dynamics at UC Berkeley and in 1995, she traveled to Africa to work on Nelson Mandela’s redevelopment projects. Upon returning to the US, she began exploring the realm of the psychological health, examining how emotions work in the brain and body while attaining a PhD in Clinical Psychology at UC Berkeley. Here she also trained as a psychotherapist. She then completed a post-doctoral fellowship at Stanford University, where she investigated how one’s brain and behavior are changed by mindfulness practices and cognitive behavioral therapy.
Currently working as a clinical psychologist, Dr. Werner runs San Francisco Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, where she helps people recognize and overcome their psychological barriers and allows their aliveness to truly flow. In addition, she leads meditation retreats, trains therapists, runs groups, and teaches classes and workshops throughout the Bay Area.
“SIYLI is directly in line with my mission in life. The world cannot be peaceful and happy until the individuals that make it up have clear minds and are flourishing themselves. Just as ‘physical exercise’ gained widespread support and resulted in longer and healthier lives over the last 70 years, I believe ‘mental exercise’ is the next frontier for human beings. Gaining better control over our attention, increasing awareness of our inner life, accessing our inner stability, and then interfacing with the world in more compassionate ways will become common training for optimal living in the next 100 years. SIYLI is at the forefront of making this happen. Combining ancient wisdom with cutting edge research to make the ideas more palatable to the western mind, and with practical current tools and skills, SIYLI offers this “mental exercise” of attention training and emotional intelligence to those that want to lead the world into more optimal living through the 21st century.”
