Organization Name:
Coalition of Schools Educating Mindfully
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Established:
2018
Type:
501 (c)(3) public charity
Educating Mindfully is a grassroots organization, composed of educators, leaders, and community supporters who are aligned with our mission of mindful education.
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Formerly Known As:
COSEM
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Now Known As:
Educating Mindfully​
As of 2025, the Leadership Team voted for the name adjustment to advocate and share with clarity who we are and what we do.
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*Picture of our founder, Tracy Heilers, with her family
Our Founding Story
Educating Mindfully was founded by Tracy Heilers, a passionate parent from Illinois whose husband was a Physical Education teacher. After experiencing personal challenges that led her to discover the power of mindfulness and well-being practices, she was inspired to introduce teacher and student groups to mindfulness and yoga any chance she could get. When her kids' school district lost an 8th and 9th grader and her husband lost his co-worker/best friend to suicide during the 2017-18 school year, she felt called to host a conference focused on mindfulness in education.
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She shared in our Educating Mindfully book, "I couldn’t help but think that if [her husband's best friend] had learned as a child how the mind and brain worked, along with mindfulness and other healthy strategies for managing ruminating thoughts stemming from the trauma of his childhood, and later the stresses of being a high school English teacher, his life may have turned out much differently."
In planning for the conference, she realized the essential need for a collaborative “joining forces” organization with educator embodiment and mindfulness at its core...so she took the courageous step to create one. Read our full story in the introduction of our Educating Mindfully book.
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Who was involved with starting the organization?
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Tracy Heilers - Founder
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Barnaby Spring - Visionary Partner, Inaugural Conference Keynote, Director of Mindfulness in Education for the New York City Department of Education
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Original leadership team of passionate educators and leaders: Matt Dewar, Maria Bidelman, Jenny Franz, Gene Olsen, Mary Schmitz, Barbara Caines, Katie Wick, Jade Magiera, Tim Pedigo, Debra Vinci-Minogue, Andrea Hyde, Barbara Larrivee, Michele Kane, Miriam Ojaghi, Joan Tetrault
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When was it founded?
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Summer of 2018
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What was the original goal of the organization?
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A web-based community to learn about mindfulness and resources
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Organizing an annual mindful education conference
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Grassroots efforts for mindful educators and leaders
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Supporting each other in implementing holistic approaches to education, equipping the world’s educators and youth with skills to thrive and create a more equitable, inclusive, safe, and compassionate world. ​
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Our Present Story
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​Where We Are Going:
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In the fall of 2024, we developed our Educating Mindfully Mindfulness-Based Learning Framework (written by Lindsey Frank, Carrie Rohrbach, Kailyn Fullerton, and with feedback from the Educating Mindfully Board of Directors) to provide a foundation for mindfulness-based learning, advocating that mindfulness occurs across all learning domains and environments. Together, as we embody the framework as mindful educators and leaders, we can “educate mindfully” within and beyond education to become mindful global citizens. ​​​​
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​​Our goal is for the framework to become the leading guiding framework for mindful education as a proactive and adaptable response to the mental health concerns worldwide. As an organization, we provide a supportive community and avenues to embody the framework so it can become a natural and sustainable way of teaching, leading, and being.
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Maintaining Our Values In Honoring Our Story Through Changes:
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We recognize the impact that decision-makers have had in education and on our work, and we commit to staying within integrity while finding accessible ways forward. Our conversations around our organization's name, the title of our framework, and our core approach of mindfulness-based learning unfolded with pure intention. It naturally guided our leadership team, partners, and community members to recognize that although there are some communities that have taken action to restrict social and emotional supports, we are advocating that mindfulness is infused into ALL learning–no matter the content area–and elevates all human intelligence skill sets. Mindfulness-based learning is a proactive approach that starts from within (embodiment) and ripples out across our self, staff, students, society for us to become mindful global citizens. As a Leadership Team, we held true to our mission, vision, and values when making decisions that would benefit all, while advocating for the mental health and well-being in education.​
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Timeline of Our Story
2018-2019
2019-2020
2020-2021
2021-2022
2022-2023
2023-2024
2024-2025
2025-2026
Coalition of Schools Educating Mindfully was founded by Tracy Heilers
President: Matt Dewar
Executive Director: Tracy Heilers
Held Conference in St Charles, IL
President: Tovi Scruggs-Hussein (2019-2022)
Executive Director: Tracy Heilers
Created Local Chapters to support our reach with communities of practice.
Published our book: Educating Mindfully: Stories of School Transformation Through Mindfulness (a compilation of over 40 stories from educators and leaders in the field. Became known as a field guide for mindful education).
Held Conference in Itasca, IL
Created Membership Structure to support funding and build community.
Held Virtual Conference (per pandemic)
Developed our Micro-Credential Program to create a powerful and sustainable resource to provide quality foundational learning around mindfulness and social/emotional skills. (Originally called "Mindfulness-Based Social and Emotional Learning" - MBSEL).
Launched Voices blog as inspiration for educators and leaders.
President/Operational Team Director: Lindsey Frank (2022-current)
Treasurer: Tracy Heilers
Operational Team was formed to expand leadership supports and sustainability as an organization.
Held last Virtual Conference per organization budget and logistics.
Refined Systems and Structures much of the work was "behind the scenes" to get our organization ready to expand in service, become more efficient, and made data-based decisions to pivot how we supported mindful educators and leaders
Created Community Circles to expand our community virtually as the Local Chapters were not sustainable in all communities
Focused on Events to be our ongoing professional learning avenue in place of the conference
Continued to Refine Systems and Structures to build capacity (focus was to Grow, Nurture, Engage)
Developed the Educating Mindfully Mindfulness-Based Learning Framework to provide guidance in mindful education.
Developed the Mindfulness-Based Learning Embodiment Cards to support adult skill integration.
Attended the CASEL conference to share about Educating Mindfully's framework and supports.
Began Updating our Micro-Credential Program to align with the framework. Our program had its first team of educators take the program together.
Relaunched the Voices Blog to be aligned with our organization's theme and content for the month
Relaunched the Online Member Community to develop it as an engaged, supportive community along with accessing learning and our member benefits.
Voted on refining our name to Educating Mindfully
Voted on committing to "Mindfulness-Based Learning"
Our Story is Continuing to Be Written
President (Re-elected) & Operational Team Director:
Lindsey Frank (2022-current)
Relaunching Educating Mindfully into the world to become an essential support for mindful education (full strategic plan), focused on integrating our Mindfulness-Based Learning Framework ​
Relaunching our Mindful Partnership Option
Launching the Educating Mindfully Learncast
Launching the Brainstorming Sessions
Launching Member Intention Ceremonies
Launching the MBL Graduate & Specialist Directory
Focused on sustainability in leadership, funding, and supports: this is an important decision-making year for our organization. Every membership, group member, partner, and donation matters.