I am Radhule Weininger, a psychologist, meditation teacher and co-founder of Mindful Heart Programs. I have a Buddhist meditation practice for 40 years and strive to bring this into my work as a psychologist and as environmental and social activist. Social, environmental, and racial justice are interconnected for me, and so is my response. I love to work with young people and to enable them to experience the interconnectedness of all life through contemplative practice. I have seen how this opens the heart and leads to a sustainable compassionate response.
Once a Neuroscientist studying brain systems, I now work to transform social systems like school cultures. I co-created the Kind Mind school program: weekly mindfulness, compassion and nature-connection practices, weaved into social-emotional lessons. We mentor teachers to guide Kind Mind lessons on their own when they are ready. I also create mindful experiences with art for SB Museum of Art. I envision incorporating nature immersion experiences in Kind Mind that lead organically to education and motivation toward wise climate actions and a sense of belonging.
Leslie Booker is the founder of Urban Sangha Project, a collective that supports
the sustainability of frontline change makers through mindful yoga, meditation, and dialogue. She is a senior teacher and the director of trainings for the Lineage Project, an organization that brings awareness-based practices like yoga and meditation to incarcerated and court-involved youth in New York City. She facilitated a mindfulness-based intervention with the adolescent population on Riker’s Island for two years through New York University, and has taught with the Prison Yoga Project in San Quentin Prison in Northern California. In 2013, she completed her 500-hour training in mindful yoga and meditation (MYM) through Spirit Rock, and will be on the faculty for the MYM training in 2014–2015. She offered Urban Sangha Project’s services at the 2012 democratic national convention, is a regular presenter at mindfulness conferences around the country, and is committed to collaborations that support bridging the gap between yoga, mindfulness, and grassroots activism. She is also a regular yoga teacher on meditation retreats at Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts.
