Hi! I live in St. Charles, IL and I first discovered mindfulness when my husband Gary and I were at the end of a 7-year journey to starting a family. After trying many medical interventions, I ended up getting pregnant naturally after I started meditating and doing yoga daily.  When I got back from my month-long, ashram-style yoga teacher training in Sedona, AZ, in the spring of 2003, we got pregnant right away and now share our lives with 3 wonderful boys. 

My interest in mindfulness has since grown exponentially-first and foremost because of its transformative effect on my own mental health and parenting, but also because of the research studies that continue to come out regarding mindfulness' positive effect in education. 

For many years I have had the privilege of introducing high school student groups to mindfulness and yoga. I also expanded my teaching to K-8 students through the platform of sports.  Gary and I ran a really cool summer sports camp in 2014 and 2015 at Glenbard North High School, where he is Department Chair of PE and Health. It taught skills in both "outer game" with "inner game."

Since our camp days, I’ve come to have a strong opinion that we need to start teaching kids mindfulness practices as early as preschool...imbedded in their academic and social-emotional learning. Feeling so passionately about this, in 2016 I took Mindful Schools’ online courses, began researching and trying out different mindfulness programs for schools, started teaching mindfulness professional development sessions for teachers, and began leading fun school district events like Family Mindfulness Nights. My website is TheMindfulGame.com.

My initial mission was to inform, inspire, and guide schools in Chicagoland-helping them supercharge their SEL programs by adding mindfulness. Then I figured what better way to do this than by organizing a conference for everyone. Then the idea of expanding my vision and creating a Coalition of Schools was brought to me by Barnaby Spring from NYC DOE...to connect ALL who are starting to educate mindfully and increase the existing momentum of this important movement!

Can't wait to see where joining forces takes us! Don't hesitate to contact me if you have any ideas or questions. Hope you are as excited about all this as I am!!!