Our Team
The Core Team is the heart of the Contentment Foundation, composed of international leaders dedicated to reducing suffering globally. We work every day to ensure that schools, families, educators, and organizations have access to powerful wellbeing practices based at the intersection of science and ancient wisdom.
Our Board of Directors are committed to sustaining the long term vision of the Contentment Foundation and mentoring our Chief Officers. Our Chiefs personally vet and select our Directors based on their exceptional, long-term support of our mission. Many of our Board Members also financially support large school systems in underserved communities, accelerating the impact of our mission.
The Contentment Foundation team is humbled to stand on the shoulders of giants. Our Growth Advisory Board is a group of dedicated mentors who support the individual growth of our Chief Officers. We believe in scaling our leaders personally, so we can scale our mission internationally.
Our Internal Advisory Board members are top industry experts with a passion for volunteering. Each member commits to donating service time at a minimum of two hours per week, and support critical projects that require high-levels of expertise. Our Chief Officers receive direct advisory and mentorship from this expert-led community.
Many of our former team members have moved on to do great things in the world. The Contentment Foundation serves as an incubator for future leaders, and the extraordinary contributions of past team members are recognized here.
Our Team
The Core Team is the heart of the Contentment Foundation, composed of international leaders dedicated to reducing suffering globally. We work every day to ensure that schools, families, educators, and organizations have access to powerful wellbeing practices based at the intersection of science and ancient wisdom.
Our Board of Directors are committed to sustaining the long term vision of the Contentment Foundation and mentoring our Chief Officers. Our Chiefs personally vet and select our Directors based on their exceptional, long-term support of our mission. Many of our Board Members also financially support large school systems in underserved communities, accelerating the impact of our mission.
The Contentment Foundation team is humbled to stand on the shoulders of giants. Our Growth Advisory Board is a group of dedicated mentors who support the individual growth of our Chief Officers. We believe in scaling our leaders personally, so we can scale our mission internationally.
Our Internal Advisory Board members are top industry experts with a passion for volunteering. Each member commits to donating service time at a minimum of two hours per week, and support critical projects that require high-levels of expertise. Our Chief Officers receive direct advisory and mentorship from this expert-led community.
Many of our former team members have moved on to do great things in the world. The Contentment Foundation serves as an incubator for future leaders, and the extraordinary contributions of past team members are recognized here.
Dr. Daniel Cordaro is the Founder and CEO of the Contentment Foundation. He is an Ashoka Fellow, Edmund Hillary Fellow, UBS Global Visionary, and former faculty member at UC Berkeley, Yale, and Columbia University.
Earlier in his career, Dr. Cordaro led three of the largest cross-cultural studies on human emotion ever conducted in the field of psychology, which are featured in the textbook Understanding Emotions. He has spent the last decade of his career studying what it means to live a flourishing life and sharing the findings with schools around the world. His research teams have studied over a dozen cultures across the globe, including making first contact with an isolated community in remote Eastern Bhutan.
Dr. Cordaro earned his Ph.D. in Psychology and M.S. in Organic Chemistry from UC Berkeley, and later spent two years as the Director of Wellbeing at the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence. While there, he and his team inaugurated a new area of research on contentment by publishing some of the first original research on what it means to cultivate unconditional acceptance of the present moment.
Above all, Dr. Cordaro is a lover of truth, wisdom, and indestructible wellbeing. Along his journeys around the world, he became a dedicated introspector and questioner of assumptions - as his studies in philosophy began to unlock the mysteries of human flourishing. The culmination of this work now expresses through the Contentment Foundation as a service to humanity. Daniel’s personal audacious goal is to significantly improve the lives of one billion children and one billion adults - 25% of earth’s population - within his lifetime.
As Chief Operating Officer of the Contentment Foundation, Navin Amarasuriya seeks to bring scientifically evidenced practices of wellbeing to schools around the world. He oversees the growth of the Four Pillars of Wellbeing curriculum across Bhutan, India, New Zealand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and the Netherlands. This includes the cross cultural adaptation of the curriculum, cultivating strategic partnerships and developing new sources of funding to serve educators and students.
He earned his BSc in Business Management from the University of Manchester, U.K. and has Diploma in Animation from Nanyang Polytechnic in Singapore. An engineer at heart, he has constantly been inspired by the quantified discoveries of wellbeing practices through the lens of science as well as the subjective experiences found in contemplative practice.
He is a non-executive director of the EtonHouse Community Fund ( which seeks to create pathways for vulnerable children to discover their unique gifts to the world. He serves on the board of the Center for Contemplative research that provides the training and ideal environment for full-time, dedicated contemplatives to engage in long-term meditation retreats and collaborate in rigorous research. Finally he is part of the fifth-generation ownership at the B.P. de Silva Group, established in Singapore in 1872.
EtonHouse Community Fund:
https://www.ehcommunityfund.org.sgCenter of Contemplative Research:
https://centerforcontemplativeresearch.orgB.P. de Silva Group:
http://www.bpdesilva.comDr. Marcia Goddard is a neuroscientist on a mission. She left her assistant professor position at Leiden University six years ago, to focus on building bridges between science and business. For the past six years she has used neuroscientific insights to help organizations with all issues related to work floor behavior. She advises small and large organizations on topics such as organizational culture, diversity & inclusion, and work floor well-being. In addition, she studies Formula 1 motor racing to learn more about high performance teams and resilience. She also regularly does 'neuroscience in the classroom' lessons at elementary schools. In December 2020 Marcia joined impact company Tony's Chocolonely as their Head of People & Culture.
Dave is an impact-driven visual storyteller who believes that stories have the power to create transformational change and help shape the future.
Prior to joining the Contentment Foundation, Dave worked in Global Marketing and Communications at The XPRIZE Foundation, where he served as Head of Video. Over his nine year tenure, Dave had the privilege of creating impact-driven projects for an incredible group of visionaries, including Peter Diamandis, The Roddenberry Foundation and Elon Musk.
Throughout his career, Dave has worked as a writer, director, producer and editor on hundreds of short films, documentaries, music videos, as well as two feature films. His work has premiered at Sundance and Cannes and played on Showtime, the Sci Fi channel, Discovery, Nat Geo, Pop Sci, PBS and Futurism. Dave also created the entire video curriculum for the foundation’s core teaching platform, The Four Pillars of Wellbeing. A Los Angeles native, Dave earned his B.A. in English Literature from UCLA.
As Chief Creative Officer of the Contentment Foundation, Dave commits to leverage his broad experience as a creator towards sharing the story of the foundation’s transformational work around the world. Because, in his own words —
Just as the stories of the past have shaped our present, it is also true that the stories we tell today are what will help shape our future. So, it’s up to us to use this power responsibly — to co-create the future we want to live in.
Dave is one of two Contentment Foundation Emissaries to the United States, where he is committed to scaling the Four Pillars of Wellbeing across the country.
Lorna is an accounting expert with over 28 years of experience working in various industries like non-profit, technology and finance. She’s held positions from Operations Manager for the Make-A-Wish Foundation of San Diego to Finance Analyst and Planner for PepsiCo.
Lorna is also the founder of Accounted Fore, Inc. where she uses her experience to support social causes focused on art, education, and health.
A firm believer that humanity is on the threshold of a new age, Robin has been on a mission to be in service and help give shape to the emerging new paradigm since a young age. He taught himself how to meditate in his early teens, from a book he found in the library.
Exploring several spiritual traditions, while studying Tibetan Buddhism with Rigpa in Amsterdam, he integrated mindfulness into his daily life through shamatha meditation, to the point of letting go of formal practice. Foregoing aspirations to become a monk, he pursued a career in arts and music.
After having studied at the Gerrit Rietveld academy of fine arts in Amsterdam, he became involved with the alternative underground counter culture, steeped in art, music and applied spirituality. He then went on to establish a music recording studio deep in the forests of Lithuania, and focussed on electronic music production while traveling the world for a decade, playing music and being involved in many festivals across the world, as a way to spread a message of positivity and transformation.
After moving to Bali, he became a volunteer at the Newearth Project, and was one of the core team members that built Akasha at Newearth Haven in Ubud. After its completion, he stayed on to manage the venue and coordinate events, curating the overall vision and mission. Creating a platform for the promulgation of art, beauty and consciousness while stewarding a burgeoning community around conscious celebration and dance, promoting positive mindset and wellbeing as opposed to the escapism and self-destructive tendencies of mainstream party culture.
Joining the Contentment Foundation, his focus is on creating community focussed events and intentful gatherings to promote and support the internal culture, as well transformational journeys, retreats and conscious celebration festivals rooted in the 4 pillars, to showcase and give more exposure to the mission at large.
Jennifer has enjoyed 25 years as an educator, dedicating the last 20 years to Corbett Preparatory School of IDS in Tampa, Florida - the Contentment Foundation’s International Model School. She is currently a First and Second Grade Multi-age Teacher, the Upper Primary Division Leader and also has the privilege of co-leading the implementation of the 4 Pillars of Wellbeing Curriculum as a Rollout Representative at Corbett Prep and other schools around the world. Jennifer is one of the original authors of the Four Pillars of Wellbeing Curriculum and co-created the Pre-K version of the Four Pillars with her team of collaborators in Tampa and Orlando as well.
Jennifer’s passion for bringing wellbeing and emotional intelligence to her classroom and schools around the world is driven by her personal relationship to the practices that she teaches as they bring her inner peace and a greater ability to be present in both her personal and professional life. She is constantly inspired by the growing curiosity of her students to explore the nature of their emotions through the lens of each one of the Four Pillars. Jennifer believes that the lessons and practices found within the Four Pillars of Wellbeing Curriculum empowers students to create sustained contentment and unconditional joy from within; gifts that every person deserves to begin cultivating at the youngest possible age.
With a deep passion for empowering individuals and elevating communities, Kristina is committed to leading meaningful change and impact at a global scale. Kristina has over a decade of experience developing programs, engaging communities, working with educational leaders, and supporting nonprofit organizations, with an emphasis on social and community development. Kristina was nominated by her community and selected for The Leading Women Building Communities Recognition Program, awarded by the Government of Ontario, for her community development work in Canada. With a background in social work and education, she has witnessed the inequities at a global level and has made it her mission to serve in creating a more sustainable and equitable future for all communities.
As an Implementation Specialist with The Contentment Foundation, Kristina is committed to bringing tools for indestructible wellness and emotional intelligence into the hands of every child and adult in this world. In this work, Kristina believes she has found her vocation, her mission, and her “raison d’être” (her purpose). Through this mission, Kristina is able to leverage individual and community strengths to ensure authentic and sustainable change for the world.
Kristin has been a professional educator for over twenty years. After discovering the benefits of Mindfulness for her own personal development, she recognized the enormous potential of the practice and has dedicated herself to sharing the benefits with others.
As an educator with experience teaching preschoolers, elementary, and middle school students in both the private and public sectors, Kristin saw an opportunity to bring Mindfulness practice to the children she taught and their families. Kristin first trained through the Mindful Schools Program where she acquired K-5 and Secondary curriculum training. Upon completion in 2016, Kristin began teaching Mindfulness in classrooms across the greater Los Angeles area and began privately coaching children and adults.
In 2019 Kristin connected with the Contentment Foundation and trained in their 4 Pillars of Wellbeing curriculum. She currently works as a Rollout Representative and Implementation Associate supporting schools in their 4 Pillars of Wellbeing curriculum implementation.
Kristin continues to be inspired by the benefits of Mindfulness. Currently, she balances teaching Mindfulness in schools with a growing private practice dedicated to wellness coaching, while continuing to work part-time as a fifth-grade teacher at Marengo Elementary in South Pasadena, CA.
Kristin holds a Bachelors’s degree in Health and Human Services from the University at Buffalo and a Masters in Elementary Education from Nazareth College.
Tshering Eudon
Senior Director
Bhutan Cities of Wellbeing
Tshering received a master's degree in public administration (MPA) in 2016 from the University of Texas at El Paso. While having spent the last five years working in education administration and management, her passions lie in grassroots transformation within the fields of education, mental health, women's empowerment and animal rights. Her background in public policy, together with her experiences as part of ELC’s management team and the greater education sector in Bhutan, are useful in understanding the work needed to pilot the Four Pillars of Wellbeing Curriculum in ELC and eventually lead the way in implementing it in schools across the country. Tshering is one of two Contentment Foundation Emissaries to Bhutan, where she is committed to scaling our Wellbeing Curriculum across the country.”
Tshering loves animals and all of her family's 11 cats and dogs, and spends as much of her free time with them.
Karma Doma Tshering
Program Director
Bhutan Cities of Wellbeing
You are the sky. Everything else is just the weather.
- Ani Pema Chodron
Born and bred in Bhutan, Karma Doma started working with children when she was 20. In the process she learned that the role of a teacher is to follow the child and not the other way around. The years on the job taught her that working on your inner climate enables you to embrace change with unconditional acceptance and great strength. Karma loves the outdoors and is currently exploring meditation,yoga, painting and sewing.
Dorji Wangchuk has an advanced laurea degree in electronics engineering from the University of Bologna in Italy and is the former Communications Director to His Majesty the King of Bhutan.
Dorji made history in the late 90’s, when he brought television and FM radio services to Bhutan for the first time ever. Subsequently, he made a career shift and moved to documentary filmmaking where he won three major international awards for School Among Glaciers. His other documentary, Blof - Rocking the Himalayan Kingdom was one of the top documentaries on Dutch TV for 2006. He is currently a visiting faculty with the Royal University of Bhutan while also teaching, and pursuing his second advanced studies in communication, at the University of Macau.
Dorji is the emissary of the Contentment Foundation to Bhutan. When he is not doing the well-being or professorial stuff, he does carpentry, writing and travelling - or works as a handyman in his cafe in Thimphu, which he built it himself.
Krystal Harris' life journey of well-being began ten years ago through her work serving communities. She has served multiple non-profits in areas such as suicide prevention education to teenagers, law enforcement, and assisting seniors and those with life-threatening illnesses including AIDS and HIV in obtaining Companion Animal Support. Her passion is in mentoring youth by giving them socio-emotional support through sports, specifically roller derby. She plays on the LA Derby Dolls as a formidable member and coaches the youth division. She believes that helping girls work collaboratively with others and recognizing their own strengths builds confidence and a positive self-image.
Krystal stays active, attends therapy, and meditates regularly. She believes that looking inward is key to strengthening one’s well-being. Through volunteering and her passion for communities, she affirms that we are all stronger together.
Nidhi has an intrinsic attentiveness in human behaviour which fuels her passion for connecting with people from different cultures. Her keen interest in how human psychology works took her on a journey of discovery with self hypnosis, allowing her to find a better work/life balance and a healthier appreciation for time management to benefit her mental health.
With a passion for learning and creativity, Nidhi supported a startup for handcrafted items which developed her skills in data management, effective working relationships and task management as well as broadening her experience of accountancy and social media development. Her most current work experience comes from supporting an IT organisation focusing on all aspects of payroll, billing and an opportunity to support the process of transition from manual to software.
With a Postgraduate Diploma in Human Resource Management and Guidance & Counselling psychology, Nidhi's people skills and desire to support organisations with onboarding procedures are one of her greatest assets.
Dipesh believes that there is no greater gift in this world than being able to use his talents to serve others and greater humanity. He is the Contentment Foundation’s Chief Technology Officer and is single-handedly responsible for building, architecting and designing from scratch every aspect of the Foundation’s platforms and website.
Dipesh created his first game in C language when he was 8 years old, and since then he has been leveling up his skills, while simultaneously, finding unique ways to use his technical knowledge to propel humanity forward. Dipesh can speak 3 human languages, 20 programming languages, and has experience with thousands of programming libraries and frameworks. He is the creator of the Open SUSE based Linux operating system, in which he wrote multiple device drivers and kernel programs. He has been awarded several accolades, including a notable design award by Codeacademy and is also a certified hacker and pentester. Dipesh likes to dive headfirst into challenges. He has a deep passion for writing algorithms. He has written several complex audio/video analysis algorithms for media licensing industry and artificial intelligent algorithms for self-driving cars.
Dipesh was awarded Thiel Fellowship from the Thiel Foundation for his startup in self-driving cars. He first presented the paper on Docker, Open Container Initiative, which was later put into practice by tech giants like Google, Facebook, Oracle, Amazon Web Services, IBM, Cisco, Intel, Red Hat, Microsoft, and others. Dipesh is a strong advocate of open-source, one of his contributions is in MIT License, which is being used to license millions of lines of open-source code across the planet to this day.
When Dipesh is not crunching codes or providing technical support to schools worldwide, you can find him traversing across the many depths of our planet, deepening his own mindfulness practice, supporting other people’s meditation journey or tending to the many loves of his life, including his three beloved cats.
Lakhan has a Master’s Degree in Information and Technologies and has been working as a full stack developer since college. With a keen interest in problem-solving and building better applications. Lakhan has growth mindset and is passionate about learning new tools and technologies.
Lakhan loves to be part of great communities and likes contributing to open-source projects. He is particularly interested in building platforms that are more accessible to the world. He is a Javascript junkie and web performance enthusiast, and you can find more about his contributions here. He is an occasional blogger too.
Somesh oversees data from many different projects spanning from technology, outreach, implementation, marketing, and finances. Somesh has an eye for detail and strongly believes in data-driven decisions. He is the direct point of reference for analyzing and providing reports on various KPIs to the Contentment Foundation’s core team members and other key stakeholders.
Somesh has earned his Bachelors in Technology in 2012, since then; he has worked as a Web Developer and Technical Support Executive at Sony Experia, Product Manager at eBay based e-commerce firm, and as a Senior Assistant in the Indian Government Energy Department. He has extensive experience working with the extremely complicated network of big data for the Indian Government across the entire state of Rajasthan. As Senior Assistant in the Indian Government, Somesh has to lead a cross-functional team of 250+ to identify, organize and process data for driving key decisions in the growth and expansion of energy by the Indian Government across the entire state.
As a human being, Somesh is a very kind, compassionate, and humble person who has an open heart. When he is not working, you can find him helping others in every capacity. He believes the true worth of living is by living for others.
With a deep rooted fascination for technology and a keen curiosity for how it functions, Anik was drawn towards a career in Software Engineering.
Completing a bachelor's degree in Engineering in 2012, his career has offered him opportunities in multiple sectors including travel, banking and education.
Anik has supported many start ups, performing crucial roles in various domains including operations, marketing and software development.
He is a strong advocate of Open Source Projects and refers to himself as a true 'crypto enthusiast'!
Pamila has worked globally with large organisations to provide risk-based audit and advisory services, across financial and operational areas of the business, bringing a lens over internal processes and controls. She has worked with corporations including EY, ISG, McDonald’s & Arrow Inc. Pamila currently sits on the Board of Trustees at Young Roots. Pamila was fortunate to have discovered The Contentment Foundation during its early years and previously contributed to core finance for over two years.
Pamila is passionate about projects that promote the collective wellbeing of people, our community and our planet. Pamila has a deep appreciation for wellbeing practices and teaches yoga, mindfulness and qigong to both children and adults. Recently, she has shifted towards her creative vision to support children’s wellbeing and is co-author of the children’s book Nature Flow.
Jessica David
Associate
Finance Team
Jessica currently works with EMAPTA as an Intermediate Bookkeeper. She is also a part-time employee at Crokers as an Account Assistant. Prior to this her work experience includes working for Jollibee Foods Corporation and at Rural Bank of Philippines. The experiences she has acquired from working with these organizations have greatly contributed to her productivity. She remains committed to seeking further knowledge to foster her career growth and enhance her capabilities for future roles. Her aspiration is to make valuable contributions to the organizations she is affiliated with.
She is known for her amiable personality which helps her create effective working relationships with colleagues. She is very fond of beaches and it brings comfort and tranquility to her. Beyond that, her utmost joy comes from spending quality time with her family and friends.
Jessica David
Associate
Finance Team
Jessica currently works with EMAPTA as an Intermediate Bookkeeper. She is also a part-time employee at Crokers as an Account Assistant. Prior to this her work experience includes working for Jollibee Foods Corporation and at Rural Bank of Philippines. The experiences she has acquired from working with these organizations have greatly contributed to her productivity. She remains committed to seeking further knowledge to foster her career growth and enhance her capabilities for future roles. Her aspiration is to make valuable contributions to the organizations she is affiliated with.
She is known for her amiable personality which helps her create effective working relationships with colleagues. She is very fond of beaches and it brings comfort and tranquility to her. Beyond that, her utmost joy comes from spending quality time with her family and friends.
Andrea had a privileged childhood and believes the deep rooted values and beliefs she was taught as a child have stood her in good stead for her life as an adult. Growing up surrounded by happiness and love has shaped her as a person and she is passionate about passing on these important traits to her two young sons.
Andrea’s early career was in Human Resources which allowed her the opportunity to work very closely with people from all walks of life, across all disciplines and enabled her to have a brief insight into what makes us work (and not work) as human beings. She is fascinated by human behaviour and how we respond to different situations and this passion was developed further when she spent seven years working as an Executive Assistant and Events Manager at a local Wellbeing Organisation.
Every cloud has a silver lining and due to Andrea’s own personal experiences, she has recently emerged from the most challenging period of her life and understands more so the value of inner peace and happiness. These key life skills are something Andrea wishes to share with her own children and she is eager to support the Contentment Foundation in continuing to grow and spread fundamental, core values across the world which every child should have the chance to experience.
Ryan Miller
Associate
Culture & Events
Ryan Miller is a self-taught, passionate learner fueled by curiosity toward the inner world of the human mind. He has worked his way up in the corporate world as an associate with LA Fitness International, where he developed a passion for bringing people together around health and wellbeing. After rising up the company ladder, he felt inspired to walk a nontraditional path to be of service to the world. He left his corporate role and began traveling the U.S, climbing some of the highest summits in the Rocky Mountains wearing only sandals.
After witnessing some of the most breathtaking places in North America and having the opportunity to work at a childhood development center in L.A., he fell in love with positive psychology and early education. After this paradigm shift Ryan began to see life through a new lense and felt inspired to build community while supporting the wellbeing of children globally. On the same day that Ryan made the vow to live beyond himself and support the wellbeing of children globally, he met the CEO of the Contentment Foundation and moved to Bali within the same week. Ryan now supports the foundation by maintaining a thriving, inspiring, and wellbeing-driven community.
Lisa Flynn is the Heart & Culture Specialist at the Contentment Foundation, where she champions an extraordinary community experience. Lisa has been contributing since the inception of the foundation during the first version of the Four Pillars of Wellbeing Curriculum. She knows that practicing even one pillar is enough to change a life. She has witnessed this happen again and again in herself and in others. Lisa passionately affirms that responsibly bringing this wisdom to humanity starts with the team and culture behind the work; nurturing their minds, bodies, and spirits. She believes that what we create in the outer world is a reflection of our inner world. Lisa brings her experience as a former researcher at the Yale Center of Emotional Intelligence where she co-authored Creating Emotionally Intelligent Schools with RULER (2016) among other peer-reviewed publications in the fields of social psychology, emotional intelligence, and education. Lisa is also trained as a vedic meditation and hatha yoga teacher and has facilitated over 50 week-long yoga retreats rated among the most popular offered in Bali. Lisa graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology.
Emmet is passionate about peace and sustainable wellbeing and is a Co-founder of the Contentment Foundation. He is also the Foundation’s Emissary to the United Kingdom, where he is committed to scaling the Four Pillars of Wellbeing across the country. His vision is to educate one billion children globally on how to access the peace that is already inside of them through contentment philosophy. He is also a Strategic Advisor to Peace One Day, which successfully inaugurated the Global Day of Peace with the United Nations. He is a Board Trustee at the Royal Society Southeast Asia Rain Forest Research Programme (SEARRP) and a Resident Expert at the Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford. Emmet holds a BA from the University of California at Berkeley. He lives in London and enjoys his family, driving Radical SR3’s, traveling, photography, skiing and playing drums in his blues rock band.
Emmet is a partner at Insight Ventures and the Founder of Insight IGNITE. In 1998, Emmet co-founded iRise with a vision to dramatically accelerate software delivery by transforming how business and IT stakeholders communicate about requirements for custom and packaged business software. iRise invented the market for “Collaborative Visualization” and pioneered the adoption of software visualization with nearly 1,000 customers worldwide. Emmet currently serves as Co-Founder and Board Director at iRise and remains passionate about the importance of leveraging visualisation at the inception of Digital products and services.
In 2005, Emmet founded the “Executive Roundtable Series” with a vision to deliver world-class thought leadership and networking opportunities to business and IT leaders at large global companies. The Roundtables have been attended by thousands of C-level executives globally and the program leveraged motorsports as an agility paradigm and networking platform.
Heidi Bianca Roddenberry (née van Lydegraf) embraces infinite diversity in infinite combinations. With an open mind, heart and spirit, she works to elevate the human condition, protect the planet, and secure a beautiful future for all people. At the helm of the Roddenberry Foundation, she draws inspiration from Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry in advancing big, bold ideas that can change the world. An explorer and global citizen, Heidi is a progressive leader in the realm of imagined possibilities, willing to take the risks necessary to realize a more inclusive, just, and collaborative society.
With a sense of wonder and eternal optimism that has guided her since childhood, she truly believes that if we can envision a future of hope and light, then we can achieve it, together. Heidi is a sales and marketing professional with over a decade of experience, who is now a dedicated philanthropist. Her goals are to help mobilize people to be socially and environmentally conscious in their daily decisions, and she dedicates countless hours to helping charities that are helping our planet and uplifting our consciousness.
Yossri has been practicing corporate and securities law for about 20 years. He loves helping his clients on their path to achieving their dreams, whether that means offering his business and legal expertise by leveraging his experience representing an array of clients in various industries and size, ranging from start-ups to billion dollar companies, or accessing his decade of personal development and inner transformational work to listen, support and counsel his clients. Yossri received his Bachelor's in Biology from the University of Southern California, his Juris Doctorate from Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California, Berkeley, and a Masters in Spiritual Psychology from the University of Santa Monica.
Dr. Daniel Cordaro is the Founder and CEO of the Contentment Foundation. He is an Ashoka Fellow, Edmund Hillary Fellow, UBS Global Visionary, and former faculty member at UC Berkeley, Yale, and Columbia University.
Earlier in his career, Dr. Cordaro led three of the largest cross-cultural studies on human emotion ever conducted in the field of psychology, which are featured in the textbook Understanding Emotions. He has spent the last decade of his career studying what it means to live a flourishing life and sharing the findings with schools around the world. His research teams have studied over a dozen cultures across the globe, including making first contact with an isolated community in remote Eastern Bhutan.
Dr. Cordaro earned his Ph.D. in Psychology and M.S. in Organic Chemistry from UC Berkeley, and later spent two years as the Director of Wellbeing at the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence. While there, he and his team inaugurated a new area of research on contentment by publishing some of the first original research on what it means to cultivate unconditional acceptance of the present moment.
Above all, Dr. Cordaro is a lover of truth, wisdom, and indestructible wellbeing. Along his journeys around the world, he became a dedicated introspector and questioner of assumptions - as his studies in philosophy began to unlock the mysteries of human flourishing. The culmination of this work now expresses through the Contentment Foundation as a service to humanity. Daniel’s personal audacious goal is to significantly improve the lives of one billion children and one billion adults - 25% of earth’s population - within his lifetime.
Cornelia Corbett
President
Corbett Family Foundation
Cornelia was born in New York City and grew up in the country, riding horses and developing a passion for athletics. She graduated from New York University in 1966, and later moved to Tampa, FL where began her career in education, inspired by her first child beginning first grade. Cornelia became the Chairperson of the Board for Florida Independent Day School, where she studied and attended many conferences on school structure and performance. Cornelia successfully revamped and revitalized the entire governance of the school system, and has been on the board now for over 30 years.
In partnership with Dr. Joyce Swarzman, Cornie helped concretize the philosophy and strategy of the school infrastructure, which has been deeply rewarding and fullfilling. Cornelia’s other community involvements have included The Tampa Museum of Art, Champions for Children, The Crisis Center, and owning and operating a professional soccer team, the Tampa Bay Rowdies. She is a mother of four children and enjoys playing golf, skiing, and living a full, happy life.
Eugene Wesley Roddenberry, Jr. is the co-founder and chairman of The Roddenberry Foundation. He is the son of the late Gene Roddenberry, whose Star Trek series revolutionized television and left a legacy of inspiration for our world. It is Rod's vision to be the guardian of the Roddenberry legacy and champion its timeless and universal ideals to new generations through creative and inspiring science fiction productions, merchandise, publishing, underwater adventures and philanthropy.
The Roddenberry Foundation funds innovative solutions to critical global issues in science and technology, the environment, education and humanitarian advances. Since 2001, Rod has continued to advance the Star Trek philosophy as CEO of Roddenberry Entertainment, where he has led a talented creative team in the evolution of the company’s groundbreaking science fiction into an innovative, multimedia portfolio of graphic novels, comics, television and film projects.
A scuba diver since 1993, Rod holds a Divemaster certification and has participated or led more than 1,000 dives from exotic locations around the world. Much like his father navigated the heavens through Star Trek, Rod founded and leads the adventure-based Roddenberry Adventures in its exploration of strange, new underwater worlds and strives to inspire stewardship of our oceans.
Bill Milliken, Founder and Vice Chairman of Communities In Schools, Inc., is one of the nation's foremost pioneers in the movement to give young people the help they need to graduate from high school and go on to rewarding lives.
Bill's activism began in 1960 when he joined Young Life, an ecumenical youth organization. He helped initiate “street academies” for young people who had dropped out of school and wanted a chance to resume their education, as well as live-in programs for substance abusers and youth in need of shelter and support. His experiences led him to search for a comprehensive approach to helping young people. This search culminated in the 1970s with the development of a model program that repositioned existing community resources into schools — the Communities In Schools network, which Bill led as President until May 2004. Communities In Schools is the nation’s leading community-based organization helping students achieve in school and prepare for life. Currently, the organization directly serves more than 1.26 million students and their families each year in more than 2,700 schools in 28 states and the District of Columbia. Mr. Milliken has served three U.S. presidents and has received numerous honors for his commitment to young people.
Most recently, he was the recipient of the Martin Luther King Jr. Legacy Award for National Service. Prior to that, he received the Visionary Ambassador’s Award from Usher’s New Look Foundation and the National Jefferson Award for Public Service, which is widely regarded as the “Nobel Prize” for outstanding community and public service. Bill serves on the boards of Leadership Foundations of America, PathNorth, and Communities In Schools of Northern Virginia. He is the author of four books: So Long, Sweet Jesus; Tough Love; The Last Dropout: Stop the Epidemic!; and From the Rearview Mirror: Reflecting on Connecting the Dots. He received an honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters in 2007 from Bard College.
David Simas,
J.D.
Managing Director of Research
Emerson Collective
David Simas is the Managing Director of Research and Impact at Emerson Collective, where he works to develop in-depth research projects and distributes findings and analysis in service of Emerson's priorities including democracy, immigration, education, and climate.
A native of Taunton, Massachusetts, David was appointed Deputy Chief of Staff to Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick in 2007. He then joined President Obama’s administration in 2009 as a Deputy Assistant to the President, working with senior advisors David Axelrod and David Plouffe. In 2012, he served as Director of Opinion Research for President Obama's reelection campaign. Following the reelection, Mr. Simas returned to the White House as Assistant to the President and Director of the Office of Political Strategy and Outreach. In 2016, President Obama selected Mr. Simas to serve as Chief Executive Officer of the Obama Foundation. Mr. Simas holds a B.A. in political science from Stonehill College and a J.D. from Boston College Law School. He is the son of two Portuguese immigrants and lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Shauna, and their two daughters.
Emilio Diez Barroso is the author of The Mystery of You, and sits on the board of over a dozen companies. He is the CEO of NALA Investments and is an active philanthropist, investor and entrepreneur. He has a master’s in spiritual psychology and resides in Los Angeles. Emilio was a lifelong seeker—seeking recognition, achievement, love, success, and finally, the ultimate carrot: enlightenment. In his pursuit of enlightenment, he was forced to face what all the seeking had been trying to avoid: his own sense of unworthiness. Defeated at the game of avoiding and humbled by the realization of his true nature, he is now dedicated to alleviating suffering in the world. Emilio is married and is a father to three incredible teachers.
Emilio studied Economics and Finance at Harvard, I.T.A.M. and Boston University and has an M.A. in Psychology from the University of Santa Monica with an emphasis on Consciousness Health and Healing. He is the Founder and CEO of NALA Investments, LLC, a private investment holding company with operations across various industries including communications, transportation, media, and technology. Emilio is a member of the XPRIZE Innovation Board, sits on the board of The UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television and of the Crossroads school for Arts and Sciences. He is an avid introspector and is dedicated to supporting people in recognizing their inherent completeness and being a beneficial presence in the world.
Emilio’s deepest intention in life is to alleviate human suffering. He currently chairs the board of The World is Just a Book Away and serves on the boards of UC San Diego Health Group. In 2016, he cofounded the Contentment Foundation, where he sits on the board and provides emotional, intellectual, and financial support to this day. Emilio is the father of three beautiful children, whom he has dedicated his life to serving through conscious expansion, love, and compassion.
Jeffrey is Founder and CEO of Beehive Technology, a software development company based in Asia. Prior to Beehive, he was Group Director for a multinational financial institution and responsible for digital and strategy implementation across the APAC region. He is a techie at heart and holds a Computer Engineering degree and MBA from Manchester Business School.
Jeffrey has always been passionate about traveling and has spent much of his life living around the world. Through his travels, he has come to realize that the true root to happiness and peace can in fact be found by journeying within oneself. He is inspired by mindfulness teachings and believes that the Contentment Foundation has the potential to change the world.
Widely recognized as one of the great creative minds of our modern world, John S. Couch is a prolific artist and designer working as an Entertainment and Technology Specialist focused on cross-platform content strategies. He is currently Vice President, Product Design for on-demand video service Hulu, where he lead its successful 2017 Hulu Experience redesign across mobile, living room and web platforms. His first job out of college was curating an art show in London of Beat writer William Burroughs’ “Shotgun Paintings” (as implied, shotguns and exploding cans of spray paint were involved). In classic young starving artist mode, he ambulated to Paris, Vienna and Tokyo before finally settling in San Francisco. He launched his design career at Wired Magazine, where he shared an office with Douglas Coupland (“Generation X”) and developed a love for technology, design and tech. Fluent in Japanese, he helped launch Wired Japan before moving to LA, where he took on leadership roles at The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), CBS and eBay, finally landing at Hulu. Couch lives with his wife and daughter in the Santa Monica Mountains, California, where, in addition to his day job, he writes every morning before sunrise and paints every evening.
Kara is the Founder & CEO of Harvest, and a skilled fundraiser with more than 20 years dedicated to helping non-profit organizations amplify their impact. By strategically focusing on increasing revenue, operational efficiency, organizational sustainability and talent development, she has successfully led clients through every aspect of private fundraising with enthusiasm, a sense of humor, and an eye for results.
Along with empowering the non-profit community, Kara is committed to growing, diversifying and training our next generation of Development leaders. After years of observing nonprofits struggle to build high-performing teams, Kara created the Harvest Development Boot Camp: an interactive and innovative approach to sharing development best practices and tools. Since 2012, hundreds of teams have utilized the Harvest Development Boot Camp curriculum to empower and focus talent on creating better funded and more sustainable organizations.
Prior to founding Harvest, Kara was a Major Gifts Officer and pro-bono Development Consultant at the Robin Hood Foundation, the Director of Development for DREAM (formerly Harlem RBI), worked in Special Events for New York Citymeals-on-Wheels and began her career as a Talent Recruiter. Kara is an experienced public speaker and an entertaining and effective workshop and retreat facilitator. She holds an MA and BA from Santa Clara University and lives in New York City with her husband and two hilarious children.
Stephanie Pace Marshall, Ph.D. is internationally recognized as an educational visionary, thought leader and pioneer. Her work is grounded in generative system leadership, transformative learning and schooling and the design and creation of life-affirming learning systems and environments that flourish and “learn as life does.” She is the founding president and president emerita of the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy®; founding president of the National Consortium of Specialized Secondary Schools of Mathematics, Science and Technology; and past president of the Association of Supervision and Curriculum Development International. She is the author of over 40 articles and author of The Power to Transform: Leadership that Brings Learning and Schooling to Life. In recognition of pioneering achievement that "contributed to the betterment of mankind,” Dr. Marshall received Illinois’ highest honor—election into the Lincoln Academy as a Lincoln Laureate.
Stephanie’s career and life’s work has been dedicated to a singular truth: “Learning must liberate the goodness and genius that resides within each child; and its design must ignite and nurture the power and creativity of the human spirit for the world.”
Wakanyi’s childhood was spent in an indigenous forest on the edge of the famed Ngong Hills on the outskirts of Nairobi, the capital city of Kenya. That experience of interacting with the natural world on a daily basis shaped her unique perspective of what it means to be human and to flourish alongside other life forms. She is a self-proclaimed nomad, and uses the term ‘independent world citizen’ to define her experience living in 7 countries on 3 continents. She is a mother to four children of mixed heritage aged between 9 and 17 years old. Alongside her husband she continually demonstrates the practice of inner wisdom seeking to help their children understand and embody the positive aspects of their cross-cultural identity. Two of the children are now exploring their education in Japan while the rest of the family is based in the Netherlands. For a family that is spread out in different physical locations, contentment is a word that resonates with their way of life and helps strengthen the invisible string that ties them together virtually.
As a professional storyteller and indigenous knowledge researcher specialised in Ubuntu philosophy, Wakanyi teaches children from K-12 ways of tapping into their inner wisdom through stories that were passed down to her by the grandmothers that raised her. She has collected many folktales from African wisdom keepers and has designed a unique curriculum that introduces the concepts of sustainable development using storytelling as the pedagogical approach to learning about Ubuntu. She credits the Ubuntu philosophy and the African art of oral storytelling as the practices that help her make meaningful connections with other cultures at the basic human level. Wakanyi is a bridge between ancient African knowledge and the modern world. She believes that every child is a member of the human family and that we each have the potential to become high functioning human beings through our shared humanity, which is the essence of Ubuntu practice. Wakanyi is on a mission to help children and educators find their inner voices to promote individual well-being that will ultimately amplify collective human flourishing. As a sought-after educator of the African indigenous knowledge system, she brings to The Contentment Foundation a wealth of knowledge about inner well-being as exemplified by the oldest living cultures.
In other capacities, Wakanyi is the founder of the African Folktales Project and a co-founder of Humanity Link. She sits on the board of The Kenya Education Fund and is a member of the circle of advisors at Seeds of Wisdom. She recently became a research fellow at The New Institute at the Walburg Ensemble in Hamburg and will be splitting her time between Germany and the family home in The Netherlands. When she’s not contemplating ways of solving complex human problems, she travels, often accompanied by her children as an opportunity to practice the art of inner wisdom seeking and knowledge sharing. In her spare time, she likes to plant trees, cook and socialize with their neighbours, take long walks in forests and volunteer for ServiceSpace where she sometimes sings to a large zoom audience.
Atima Joshi is an experienced educator who is passionate about play and inquiry as vehicles for meaningful learning. She is the Principal of Middleton International School, which is also the mothership school for the Contentment Foundation in Singapore.
Atima is regularly invited to speak in educational conferences, deliver professional development and is a member of various pedagogical committees and academic boards as an educational consultant. Atima holds a Masters in Education from Australia and is a firm believer in lifelong learning and continual growth. Her passion, creativity and enthusiasm have enabled her to create holistic learning environments that have nurtured and inspired her students, staff, parents and the extended community.
Atima is a strong advocate of the four pillars and Rollout Representative for the Contentment Foundation. Her personal journey on mindfulness has included exploration of practices from around the world, and their mindful synthesis in relevant contexts.
When not teaching or learning, you may find her curiously exploring bugs with children or splashing in puddles with them amidst joyful peals of laughter! A strong believer in the power of curiosity, positive psychology and mindfulness, Atima believes in savouring life as it comes.
As the heart-led leader of the Four Pillars of Well-being parent's platform, she brings our work from classrooms into homes. Melinda likes to call herself a “guide on the side”, but she is the beating heart of any room, connecting people through their stories and life experiences. Over the last 34yrs, Melinda has experienced 10 international and 23 house moves with her husband, their three incredible (now adult) children and a dog! Continual uprooting of the family highlighted the importance of social and emotional wellness and that it takes a village to raise a child! Her experience drives Melinda’s passion to provide every parent and child with access to the Four Pillars of Wellbeing. Living in Singapore since 2016, she continues to mentor and guide individuals and couples, and is part of a team that advises local charities, giving them the helping hand they need to take the next step in their journey. Melinda also recently became a volunteer EOL (End-of-Life) Doula and Grief Educator. She has a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology, is a Hoffman and MEA (Modern Elder Academy) Alum and aspires to master the Ukulele!
Petra is a Community Development & Communications Specialist with over 25 years experience managing national and international community education and development programs, primarily in Indonesia. She also designs, and produces high-impact educational programs and materials from her home in Bali, Indonesia. Over the years she has delivered dozens of projects for the United Nations, International Development Agencies such as USAID, AUSaid, GIZ and many others.
As a Canadian-born Indonesian citizen living and working in Asia for more than 30 years, Petra is especially passionate about bridge dialogue and building understanding between people at all levels of project implementation, in a range of cultural settings. She has extensive experience in communicating and building program plans, developing comprehensive educational tools, and conducting participatory monitoring and evaluation that provides program stakeholders with understanding of program needs, values and outcomes.
Petra currently runs her consulting firm PT Alam Santi Sustainable Design, that delivers re-generative systems consulting as well as creative design services for educational media production, while providing communications and curriculum materials support for the Contentment Foundation. She is deeply passionate about indigenous wisdom and education related to wellbeing for the plant and its people.
Ronald Elson,
M.D.
Former Chief of Psychiatry
UC Berkeley
Ron is a psychiatrist committed to integrating mindfulness, meditation, and non-dual wisdom into deep psychotherapy. He is a staff [and former Chief] psychiatrist at UC Berkeley University Health Services as well as maintaining a private practice. In addition to his interest in college mental health, he has special interests in meditation/mindfulness; health care policy; sculpture and art. He consults on health policy and planning. He is on the Editorial Board of the Berkeley Wellness Letter, a leading online and print resource for evidence-based wellness information; and on the Board of Bay Psychiatric Associates, the largest psychiatry group in the East Bay. For many years he was on the UC Berkeley faculty and the Director of a graduate Doctor of Mental Health Program. He has lectured and organized training in many areas of psychiatry and mental health. He is Board Certified in Psychiatry and in Preventive Medicine, completing residencies at UC San Francisco, UC Berkeley, and the US Public Health Service. He has particular interests in teaching and supervision, coordination of care, and integrating mindfulness and wellness practices into psychiatric practice.
Susan's journey into finding softness, joy and holistic grounding led her here. She is excited about helping others show up, summon the courage to grow and evolve, see through new lenses, prioritize their well-being, and be rooted in abundance and joy.
Technology & its potential for impact has been the focal points in Susan's career. She is passionate about contributing to causes that drive impact more so through programs that impart knowledge, empower, and elevate the youth, girls, women and the marginalized (particularly persons with visual impairment). Her journey in this realm began during university when she volunteered to help a school set up systems and I trained others. That exposure drew her into impact work where she met early social innovators dedicated to empowering young women & girls. Since then (+10 years), Susan has been mentoring, coaching and managing programs on a pro bono basis, working on causes in the education, technology, sports and health sectors helping hundreds of girls and youth remain in education and ease into sustainable careers.
Her +8 year career journey has been a tapestry of enriching experiences working across customer experience, digital marketing, communication, project & program management working on a myriad of diverse, agile, complex projects, initiatives & innovations with multi-national & multi-sectorial stakeholders across the globe.
Her superpowers? She is exceptionally organized, has sharp strategic thinking, and loves challenges, solving problems, and collaborating with diverse individuals on shared missions and goals to implement innovative solutions. Her curiosity, meticulousness, innovativeness, creativity, thirst for knowledge, myriad of passions and interests, enthusiasm, and commitment to excellence are her fuel.
Anne is a wellbeing and empowerment coach and a communication advisor. She helps people to courageously navigate and make sense of their inner terrains so that they can experience what every human being craves for in life -- love, freedom, and internal harmony.
Anne has had a wide range of experiences in her life. She spent 13 years doing corporate work supporting and leading global communications for tech companies, most notably Yahoo, Google, and Oscar Health. As a recovering workaholic, she was no stranger to work-related stress, anxiety and burnout. In 2018, she made a bold and courageous move to leave Corporate America and search for the meaning of life. Along the way, she stumbled upon the Contentment Foundation and for three years, faithfully committed her time, energy and love towards helping the organization grow and scale so that it could reach as many teachers and students worldwide as possible. Today, she feels a deep, sacred calling to take all of what she's learned about what it means to be well and as a coach, guide people through a similar path of bravely stepping into the authentic power.
Ultimately, her goal is to leave the world better than how she found it.
During her time with the Foundation, she served in a wide array of capacities where leadership was needed. She's most proud of the following achievements:
- Managed the Foundation’s marketing, social media and communications initiatives.
- Managed and oversaw the earliest frameworks of the Foundation's outreach and international efforts.
- Served as the Emissary in Bhutan, one of the Foundation's original and flagship schools and in partnership with the Geo lead, established a local subsidiary.
- Oversaw the Foundation's Covid19 Care Package for Families.
Asheena Baez is an Internationally renowned Mindful leadership Coach, Curriculum Developer, and Educational Consultant. After graduating from the Summer Principal Academy Administrative Graduate Program at Columbia University, she served the program as a Leadership Coach and Summer Instructor. She is a former Special Education teacher, School Principal, and Director of Pupil Personnel in New York.Internationally, Asheena provides Administrators and Directors with high-impact training in Mindful Leadership to promote whole-child increased learning outcomes globally. She is a former Special Education teacher and Director of Pupil Personnel in New York. She completed her doctoral studies centered on the impact of mindfulness in cultivating organizational sustainability at Sage College.
As a former Chief Implementation Officer, Asheena completed several milestone projects as part of the Contentment Foundation team.
Christian is an information systems and operations analyst. He helps organizations adopt and leverage technology tools at a strategic and operational level with a goal towards increasing employee productivity and impact so that they can achieve more with less time.
He is known for his open, positive and determined mindset which stems from his innate enthusiasm for life and serving his community. As such, he’s had an enriching set of work experiences across various sectors — technology, sales, marketing, and most recently, the wellbeing space. The common thread across all of his pursuits is that he strives to have clear purpose, meaningful learning and value creation — virtues that he’s grateful to have cultivated more deeply from having served through the Contentment Foundation.
Ultimately, he wants to continue to make an impact on humanity by creating a conducive environment where people can stretch the edge of their potential.
During his time with the Foundation, he helped scale the organization’s technology and operations. He’s most proud of the following accomplishments:
- Lead the creation, building, and maintenance of CRM leveraging Salesforce
- Worked closely with key leaders, including CEO and co-founder, to grow and deepen external partner relations
- Leveraged the power of various tech stacks to support the Global Team
- Consolidated and managed SSO and cyber security through Okta
- Provided global IT support and troubleshooting, in partnership with the tech team
Christina Bradley is a doctoral student in the Management & Organizations department at the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business. She studies how emotions affect the way we think, feel, and behave in situations at work. She hopes her research will help individuals and organizations become curious about and skilled with handling emotions, primarily in relational contexts. Christina believes that understanding and developing the various skills of emotional intelligence can help individuals both perform better at work and live healthier, more meaningful lives. Prior to joining the Management & Organizations PhD program at Michigan Ross, Christina completed her undergraduate degree in psychology at Yale University. During and after graduation, she conducted research on emotions and wellbeing with both the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence and the Contentment Foundation.
She initially began supporting the early creative stages of the Four Pillars of Wellbeing while she was an undergraduate and has been serving the Contentment Foundation ever since, primarily in a research capacity.
As our former Chief Research Officer, Christina has completed several milestone projects as part of the Contentment Foundation team:
- Co-authored the first, second, and third versions of the Four Pillars of Wellbeing primary curriculum.
- Co-authored the first version of the Four Pillars of Wellbeing preschool curriculum.
- Ideated, executed, and analyzed the data from multiple experiments exploring the impact of our work, and the psychological outcomes of contentment.
- Co-authored some of our first original research publications on the Four Pillars of Wellbeing and contentment.
- Designed many of the international studies that are still ongoing today.
- Co-designed our Wellbeing Analytics system for use in schools around the world.
- Contributed an Emotional Intelligence workshop at our 2019 international team retreat in Bali.
Franklyn is a graduate of Yale University and a former researcher at the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, where he was involved in psychometric test development and data analysis. Today, he applies his skillsets at a technology startup in San Francisco, and hopes leverage technology for social impact.
Franklyn supported the Contentment Foundation during its earliest days as an undergraduate researcher at Yale. While there, Franklyn collected, analyzed, and published data on the psychological outcomes of cultivating contentment in life. He also developed the first prototype version of our digital assessment engine, which is now housed in a more advanced form within the Four Pillars online platform.
Kelli Love, M.Ed is a leading educator and consultant in the mindfulness in education field. She has enjoyed 20 years as an educator in the roles of teacher, teacher leader, mentor, curriculum developer and trainer. She became a meditation practitioner when she was 17. Kelli is committed to empowering educators to bring mindfulness into their own lives and into their classrooms for the benefit of all students and future generations.
Kelli currently is a trainer, mentor and facilitator for Little Flower Yoga, Mindful Schools and MindKind Institute. She teaches at Girls Prep Bronx Elementary, where mindfulness and yoga are embraced as a school wide content area. In 2015 Kelli created a short film, Aliza and the Mind Jar, to demonstrate the impact of yoga and mindfulness curriculum on school communities.
Kelli believes all school communities have a right to experience the empowering life skills that mindfulness offers. She helped design and pilot test many of the original lessons now being used in the Four Pillars of Wellbeing Curriculum, and she continues to advise the Contentment Foundation in all matters related to school applications. Kelli has a Masters in Education from the University of Phoenix and a B.A. in Early Childhood Education from Naropa University.
As our former Four Pillars Author, Curriculum Advisor, and Rollout Representative, Kelli has completed several milestone projects:
- Core Curriculum Developer for Four Pillars
- Curriculum Developer and Editor for Families Platform
- Covid 19 Care Package For Families
Lauren is devoted to serving others in the highest degree possible. With experience in traditional Psychology, Philosophy, and Cultural Studies, Lauren co-authored one of the first theoretical papers on contentment and contributed to the development of the K-8 and High School Four Pillars Curriculum. She now leads and supports through her one-on-one practice, classes, and collaboration with others.
As a former Curriculum Developer and Implementation Fidelity Associate, Lauren has completed several milestone projects as part of the Contentment Foundation team:
- The Wellbeing Library
- The Four Pillars of Wellbeing for High School
- Family Activities for the Four Pillars for Families
- Implementation Fidelity Strategy and Support
Marla Vildostegui
Early Primary Division Leader
Corbett Preparatory School
Marla has been an Early Primary educator for 20 years and is currently a Kindergarten teacher, Division Leader and co-coordinator of the implementation of the 4 Pillars of Wellbeing Curriculum at Corbett Preparatory School of IDS in Tampa, Florida. She also serves as a Rollout Representative and Trainer for our National Pilot School, Corbett Prep, and schools worldwide. Marla is one of the original authors of the Four Pillars of Wellbeing Curriculum, and co-author of the Pre-K version of the pillars as well.
Marla’s personal practice reaffirms that indestructible wellbeing brings lasting benefits that begin with turning our attention inward. She is dedicated to sharing these practices with other educators, highlighting that when you are at your personal best, you can give your best to others. Marla is an advocate for the implementation of emotional intelligence and wellbeing in classrooms, as they provide students with a sustainable gift that yields long term benefits. She is passionate about investigating self-awareness with her students, and through the Four Pillars, she has seen firsthand how students become less emotionally reactive, better equipped to handle stressors and triggers, and more accepting of others.
Rachel Han is a Ph.D. candidate in Learning Sciences and Human Development at the University of Washington. After completing her B.S. in Psychology at Yale University, she sought to pursue her interest in early childhood education, especially in learning experiences that foster social-emotional, cultural, and community wellbeing for children and their families. Her current academic and research work are focused on nature-centered and land-based pedagogy for young children. In particular, she is interested in how these outdoor learning environments can be more supportive of children’s different culturally situated ways of knowing and being in nature as well as their caring relationships and practices within local ecological systems.
Rachel supported during the earliest days of the Contentment Foundation. Rachel was part of the original curriculum development team for the Four Pillars of Wellbeing v.1, and she also helped collect, analyze, and publish some of our early data on the efficacy and outcomes of wellbeing in the classroom.
Kathryn is an experienced education leader and director of designing approaches to inspire and collaborate with families on building emotional intelligence skills. For over a decade, she served as leader at the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, where she managed dozens of international projects with schools to establish trusting relationships among faculty, students, and the broader school communities. At the Contentment Foundation, Kathryn's legacy is participating as one of the original authors of the Four Pillars of Wellbeing curriculum during its initial ideation in 2015. Kathryn brings 25 years of educational experience and interpersonal communication training to her educational coaching. In her coaching role, she works with both individual school leaders and leadership teams to include education about emotions, and ultimately to transform the culture of their schools through emotionally intelligent leadership practices. She was trained as a coach for school leaders through Star Factor and Seedlings, and will be studying at the Harvard Institute of Coaching this fall. As the former director of RULER for Families at Yale, Kathryn set the vision, developed resources, and created pathways for engaging parents in cultivating wellbeing, while strengthening their relationships and the protective factors needed to bolster emotional resilience for children. Prior to her work at Yale, Kathryn was an educator and senior administrator at an independent school in California. Her most recent job title was the “Director of Innovation, Partnerships, and Service.” As a school leader, Kathryn spearheaded and developed an integrated K-8 service learning program, galvanized efforts to become an award winning green school, founded an alumni action award to celebrate graduates who were working for the greater good, kicked off a school-wide response to Hurricane Katrina, initiated a TEDx conference on Compassion in Education, and introduced RULER – all actions designed to boost optimism, a sense of agency, and an emotional climate of civic engagement and care. Kathryn graduated from the University of the Pacific with a B.A. in Human Development, and did her graduate work at Mills College in Early Childhood Education. She has a 26-year-old son who is a jazz musician, composer and educator in Los Angeles, California.
Yang Bai is a Professor of Psychology at Peking University, where she specializes in the study of Human Emotions. She was born in a small town in the southern part of China. Rooted in her traditional Eastern Asian background, she is always fascinated by how people from different cultures differ in their perception and experience of positive emotions. This interest motivated her to delve into cross-culture positive emotion research.
Yang's research mainly focuses on exploring how poignant positive emotional experiences are elicited, appraised and experienced across different cultures. Further, she also explores the relation between experiencing positive emotions and related wellbeing outcomes in different cultures. Yang is currently researching the the differences between contentment and other traditionally idolized positive emotions like happiness.
As a former Research Associate at the Contentment Foundation, Dr. Yang Bai has coauthored several scientific publications with our team, and helped inaugurate the field of Contentment research around the world.
Matt Melnick has been a part of the Corbett Prep family for over 15 years, first as an elementary school technology teacher and now as a middle school design teacher. He spent two years in between in Los Angeles teaching Art at a delightful little school called The Country School in the San Fernando Valley. This unique trajectory gave Matt the opportunity to share his two passions, art and technology with students of all ages on both coasts in the United States.
Matt’s journey with The Contentment Foundation began when Corbett Prep’s relationship with the Foundation initially sparked. Today, his practice has become a fabric of his life both in and out of school.
Matt’s impact with The Contentment Foundation is marked by his valuable contributions to the Curriculum Enhancement Project, along with playing a frontline position as a Rollout Representative in supporting Contentment Schools.
Sophia is a Master Facilitator, Educational Consultant, and Wellness Coach, taking care of communities by building sustainable practices of well-being.
Before joining the Contentment Foundation as a Rollout Representative, Sophia was an educator for five years in Brooklyn, NY. Since leaving the classroom she has worked for 10 years in support of creating systems of well-being in NYC schools. She knows the stress of finding balance as an educator who: cares deeply for the well-being of their students, while trying to prioritize their academic achievements, answer endless emails, care for yourself as an individual, and stay awake during staff meetings. She is proud to be a champion of genuine support for teachers who are called upon to do so much, and hopes to bring pockets of joy, rest, & resilience to all the educators she serves.
She holds a Masters of Education from Brooklyn College. Is a RISE for educators recipient from Kripalu’s Center for Yoga & Health and holds a teacher certification for Loving, Kindness from Nalanda Institute for Contemplative Sciences and is an NASM- Certified Wellness Coach.
In her tenure with The Contentment Foundation, Sophia’s involvement is most notably marked by her dedicated support to her schools as a Rollout Representative, along with her role in launching the milestone Cohort Model alongside the Core Implementation Team.
Veronica was born and raised in New York where she completed her Bachelors in Psychology. Shortly after, she began her journey working in International Education and Development. She had the opportunity to serve in both AmeriCorps and The PeaceCorps, working in education and youth projects and was then driven to complete her Masters in International Development.
After spending time abroad and being immersed within different cultures, Veronica began to recognize the universal educational gap that exists around emotions and well-being. This drove her to explore the areas of mindfulness, yoga and emotional intelligence, which allowed her to quickly recognize her calling for combining each within her work as an educator.
Veronica currently lives in Spain, where she works as an Educator and with non-profit projects focusing on social emotional learning. She also continues to expand her knowledge of well-being practices through attending reiki and yoga courses. Her passion is to work towards closing the education gap by spreading social emotional learning to both her students and educational curriculums around the world. Most importantly, she stays dedicated to her personal well-being practices each day, being aware that we cannot serve others if we are not first taking care of ourselves.
Veronica’s impact at The Contentment Foundation was profound, especially in her efforts to establish the cornerstone Cohort Model, and in her role supporting schools as a Rollout Representative.
Hanna is passionate about her work in education and energized by providing others with the tools they need to lead fulfilling, purposeful lives. Hanna’s interest in The Contentment Foundation stems from her personal experience as a teacher observing the daily void of emotional and wellness support for students, teachers, and families.
Hanna launched her career in education as a Teach For America corps member in Denver, CO. She began teaching Special Education at a charter school, and taught an array of different ages and subjects over the following years. She earned her Master's Degree in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Colorado, with a focus on Social and Emotional Intelligence in Global Education. Hanna then moved to The Bahamas to teach Environmental Art at The Island School, an experiential education semester school.
In 2018 Hanna joined Summits Education, a non-profit that serves a network of 40 schools and 10,000 students in the Central Plateau region of Haiti. As Director of Engagement, Hanna worked closely with the team based in Haiti to best meet the holistic needs of the students in Haiti.
Hanna has a drive for social justice and wants to play her part in making the world a safer and healthier place where people of different backgrounds have access to equal opportunities. She is committed to continual discovery and learning in her personal wellness practices and is increasingly drawn to the intersection of wellbeing and education.
Hanna played a central role with The Contentment Foundation’s Core Implementation Team in cultivating important partnerships such as Communities in Schools (CIS), NYC Department of Education, and Harlem Lacrosse. Her impact extended to the completion of a milestone Curriculum Enhancement Project, along with supporting a number of schools as a Rollout Representative.
Sammi is a passionate educator who has been teaching for almost 2 decades. Sammi is a First and Second Grade Multiage Teacher at Corbett Preparatory School of IDS in Tampa, Florida - the Contentment Foundation’s International Model School. She is an active member of the school’s Wellness Team, which has led her to her role with the Foundation.
Teaching at the pilot school for the Four Pillars of Wellbeing inspired Sammi to bring the curriculum to as many other schools as possible. She has experienced directly how meaningful the Four Pillars are for the students and adults at her school. Sammi believes that the wellbeing of a child is the most valuable aspect of learning at a young age.
Sammi’s personal practice has driven her to strive to be a better person, wife, mother, teacher, and friend. She realizes the Four Pillars of Wellbeing support balance in her personal and professional life. She joyfully anticipates extending wellbeing to families of students, faculty, and staff in schools around the world.
Sammi’s time at The Contentment Foundation was marked by her vital frontline position, providing essential support to our schools as a Rollout Representative, along with her role in the Curriculum Enhancement Project.
Mike is a lifelong educator and propagator of positivity. He is currently the Associate Head of School at Corbett Preparatory School in Tampa, Florida, the international model school for the Four Pillars of Wellbeing.
A native to Scotland, Mike moved to Chicago and spent many years teaching science and technology in public school. Currently a doctoral candidate at Mid Sweden University, Mike is seeking to significantly improve education through the lens of quality management. As Co-Director of Camp Wigwam, a summer camp in the state of Maine, Mike has also provided leadership and outdoor learning experiences to children and young adults.
Mike has presented at national conferences on education, most recently on the use of Virtual and Augmented Reality to increase student engagement.
Mike was involved in the early stages of The Contentment Foundation, editing and piloting the Four Pillars curriculum with students. Over the years, he was a central part of the Implementation Team, coaching schools in implementing the program as a Rollout Representative, along with playing a pivotal role in the Curriculum Enhancement Project.
Matthew is an experienced educational leader both in Melbourne and Singapore. He has a passion for lifelong learning which has seen him acquire a Bachelor of Education from Melbourne University, a Masters of Education from Monash University, a Graduate Diploma of Psychology from Monash University and a Graduate Certificate in Education (IB, PYP).
He is a Google Certified Educator, Apple Teacher and graduate of Positive Neuroplasticity Training. Matthew is an active member in the broader educational context, from speaking at conferences, to authoring eBooks and mentoring teachers and emerging leaders.
Matthew has experience working with multiple curriculum models, and has spent time developing national curriculum & wellbeing resources for Australian schools as well as being a consultant regarding 21st Century pedagogy across the state of Victoria.
Matthew’s ambition is to see all students flourish, through both academic and social/emotional learning. He is an active mindfulness practitioner and leader having led programs and research in Australia and Singapore.
During his tenure at The Contentment Foundation, Matthew was instrumental in the successful launch of the cornerstone Cohort Model for the organization, along with being a Rollout Representative, leading and coaching Contentment schools globally.
Victoria is a curious learner who is passionate about connecting to other minds and discovering new ways of thinking. She is currently pursuing her Master of Science in Sustainability Management from Columbia University. Victoria also holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration from Fundação Getúlio Vargas in Rio de Janeiro, where she participated in an international program through which she lived in Germany, the United States, and Singapore. This experience allowed her to explore different cultures and understand how people around the globe are connected.
She is specifically interested in sustainable economies and practices and was able to explore them by working in a consulting firm focused on devising long-term sustainability strategies for major corporations in Brazil. She understands, however, that the first step towards a healthy planet is a healthy mind, and is eager to explore what role mindful practices can play in this process.
Victoria believes that the path to finding content and wellbeing within oneself can provide the tools needed for taking risks and carving one's path.
In her time with The Contentment Foundation. Victoria played an integral role with the Implementation Team in launching its cornerstone Cohort Model, along with Outreach efforts in her native Brazil.
With over 20 years of professional fundraising experience, Carrie is passionate about connecting giving hearts to transformational impact. She has committed her career to nonprofit advancement and has held leadership roles at the YMCA, American Red Cross, Kentucky Science Center, Passionist Earth & Spirit Center, and St. Joseph Children’s Home. She has led strategies, initiatives, and campaigns that have helped these causes thrive, build capacity, and ensure sustainable futures.
Carrie holds a Certified Fundraising Executive (CFRE) accreditation, recognized worldwide as a standard for fundraising professionals showing knowledge, accountability, service, and a dedication to making a difference for good. She has also received a Certificate in Fundraising Management (CFRM) from Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, recognizing a dedication to fundraising leadership and best practices. An Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) global member, she also serves on the Board for her local AFP chapter.
Dreaming of a future world that thrives on compassion, curiosity, mindfulness, and loving-kindness has led Carrie to the Contentment Foundation. She is thrilled to be helping lead fundraising strategies that cultivate strong connections to build indestructible wellbeing for communities across the globe.