Diana Winston is the Director of Mindfulness Education at MARC, the author of The Little Book of Being: Practices and Guidance for Uncovering your Natural Awareness, Wide Awake: a Buddhist Guide for Teens, "Glimpses of Being" audio course, and the co-author, with Susan Smalley PhD, of Fully Present, the Science, Art, and Practice of Mindfulness. She has taught mindfulness for health and well-being since 1998 in a variety of settings including the medical and mental health field, and in universities, businesses, non-profits, and schools. At UCLA she has developed the evidence-based Mindful Awareness Practices (MAPs) curriculum and the Training in Mindfulness Facilitation (TMF), which trains mindfulness teachers worldwide. She is also a founder of the International Mindfulness Teachers Association. Her work has been mentioned in the New York Times, O Magazine, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, Bloomberg, Women’s Health, and in a variety of magazines, books, and journals. The LA Times calls her “one of the nation’s best-known teachers of mindfulness.” Diana has been practicing mindfulness since 1989, including a year a Buddhist nun in Burma (Myanmar) and is the mom of a teenager.
Gael Belden, MA, Director of Intensive Practice Program
Email: [email protected]
Gael has been practicing and teaching meditation and mindfulness for over 40 years— in both Buddhist (she was lay-ordained by Thich Nhat Hanh 30 years ago) and secular contexts. She has an MA in Mythology and Depth Psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute and once worked with wild and exotic animals in education and conservation (wolves, elephants, and lions!). Gael has worked with the Mindful Awareness Research Center at the Semel Institute of Behavioral Neuroscience at UCLA, where she directs MARC’s online Intensive Practice Program for last 9 years. She completed the first teacher training in Mindful Self-Compassion with Kristen Neff, and weaves mythopoetics and social engagement (with an emphasis on the earth) into her mindfulness and compassion teachings. Gael is also trained in Trauma-Sensitive Mindfulness and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.
Email: [email protected]
Alem Makonnen (she|her) is an internationally recognized educator, insightful thought leader, engaged coach, and consultant. She brings a broad spectrum of experience designing multi-tiered collaborative, culturally inclusive programs, policies, and services in arenas of health, education, trauma, equity, social justice, cultural institutions, global peace initiatives, and leadership. She has provided nimble leadership and responsive private counsel to the public and private sector at critical inflection points. She is dedicated to the practice of compassion, justice, kindness, equality. She began meditating 35 years ago. Teaching mindfulness and compassion practices are a natural reflection and extension of her deeply held way of being in the world.For more information on our instructors, please visit»
MARC programs are co-sponsored by the Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology.
