How can we help children and families cultivate balance and well-being in today’s stressful world?

This conference brings together leading voices in mindfulness, education, and family support to explore this essential question. This year’s focus is on practical, evidence-based strategies to build resilience and foster well-being for children, caregivers, and educators alike. Through inspiring talks, dynamic panel discussions, and hands-on mindfulness practices, participants will gain actionable tools to incorporate into their daily lives. Together, we’ll explore ways to nurture both the hearts and minds of children, equipping them—and the adults who support them—with skills to support growth and connection in and out of the classroom.

Cost: $200

*More information coming soon.*

Meet the Speakers

Susan Kaiser Greenland

Susan Kaiser Greenland is a bestselling author, globally recognized mindfulness innovator, leader, and mentor. Her new book, Real-World Enlightenment: Discovering Ordinary Magic in Everyday Life, showcases her trademark accessible and joyful approach to mindfulness and meditation with 50 transformative ideas to help navigate the pressures of modern life. Drawing from global wisdom traditions and scientific insights, Susan shares stories from her lifetime of being a seeker, wife, and mother, into digestible strategies for everyone.

Her pioneering work in mindfulness education for both children and adults is showcased in her widely translated books, The Mindful Child and Mindful Games, a series of guided meditations, Mindful Parent, Mindful Child, and the Inner Kids model for educators.

Featured in media such as The New York Times and CNN, Susan continues to advance mindfulness globally as an Advisory Board member at the Tergar Schools Project in Nepal.

Mark Bertin

Dr. Bertin is a developmental pediatrician and author of How Children Thrive, Mindful Parenting for ADHD, Mindfulness and Self-Compassion for Teen ADHD, and The Family ADHD Solution, all of which integrate mindfulness into evidence-based pediatric care, and a contributing author for the book Teaching Mindfulness Skills to Kids and Teens. Dr. Bertin is a faculty member at New York Medical College and the Windward Teacher Training Institute and has served on advisory boards for APSARD, Additude Magazine, The Screen Time Action Network, Common Sense Media, and Reach Out and Read. His blog is available through Psychology Today and elsewhere. For more information, please visit his website at www.developmentaldoctor.com.

Ofosu Jones-Quartey

Ofosu Jones-Quartey, a meditation teacher, author, and musician hailing from the Washington DC area brings over 17 years of experience in sharing mindfulness, meditation and self-compassion practices with the world. Holding a bachelor’s degree from American University and certified by the Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification Program, Ofosu is a graduate of the Teleos Coaching Institute and is the male voice on the Balance meditation app, reaching over 10 million subscribers.

Ofosu leads meditation classes and retreats nationwide, having taught and led retreats at the Insight Meditation Community of Washington, The Insight Meditation Society, Spirit Rock, Brooklyn Zen Center, Cleveland Insight, Inward Bound Mindfulness and more. Ofosu has also worked with various organizations and schools, including co-writing a mindfulness-based suicide prevention curriculum for teenagers.

As an accomplished hip hop artist under the name “Born I,” Ofosu released the mindfulness-themed album “In This Moment” in 2021, earning a nomination for Best Rap Album at the Wammies. His unique fusion of hip hop and meditation has garnered attention, with performances at prestigious venues like the Kennedy Center. In 2023, Born I embarked on a music and meditation tour with the monks and nuns of Plum Village Monastery, coinciding with the release of his most recent Album “AMIDA”, a spiritual, Lo-Fi Hip Hop album exploring life, death and his Buddhist faith. His live events are considered a hip-hop and meditation experience and he is a member of the DC Chapter of the Recording Academy.

Beyond music, Ofosu is an author, releasing his self-published children’s book “You Are Enough” in 2020 and “Love Your Amazing Self” via Storey Publishing in 2022. His holistic approach extends to workshops, integrating music and mindfulness for young audiences. With an upcoming double album based on “Love Your Amazing Self” and a Grammy Museum performance, Ofosu’s diverse creative outlets emphasize self-compassion and mindfulness.

Residing in Rockville, Maryland, with his wife and four children, Ofosu continues to use creativity to guide individuals towards presence, stress reduction, and cultivating love and compassion for themselves and the world.

Valerie Brown, JD, MA, PCC

Valerie Brown is an author, Buddhist-Quaker Dharma teacher, facilitator, and executive coach specializing in leadership development and mindfulness practices with a focus on diversity, social equity, and inclusion. A former lawyer and lobbyist, Valerie transformed her high-pressure, twenty-year career into serving leaders and nonprofits to create trustworthy, authentic, compassionate, and connected workspaces.

An award-winning author, her latest book Hope Leans Forward: Braving Your Way toward Simplicity, Awakening, and Peace (Broadleaf, 2022) received the Nautilus Gold Award for Eastern Spirituality for 2023, and Healing Our
Way Home: Black Buddhist Teachings on Ancestors, Joy, and Liberation (Parallax Press, 2024). Her books include The Road that Teaches: Lessons in Transformation through Travel, The Mindful School Leader: Practices to
Transform Your Leadership and School (with Kirsten Olson, PhD), and Cultivating Happiness, Resilience, and Well-Being through Meditation, Mindfulness, and Movement: A Guide for Educators (contributor).

She is an ordained Buddhist Dharma teacher in the lineage of Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh and the Plum Village tradition and facilitates national and international gatherings and retreats for nonprofits and corporations and leads an annual pilgrimage to El Camino de Santiago, Spain to celebrate the power of sacred places. She is a certified
Kundalini yoga teacher (500 hours), engaging leaders to embody somatic wisdom and creativity.

An accredited leadership coach, she is the Founder and Chief Mindfulness Officer of Lead Smart Coaching, LLC, supporting leaders to apply and integrate leadership and mindfulness for greater resilience, clarity, and compassion, and is a co-director of Georgetown University’s Institute for Transformational Leadership.

Valerie’s unique and extensive training blends social justice, evidenced-based mindfulness practices, leadership development, and spiritual growth. She holds a Juris Doctor from Howard University School of Law, Master of Arts from Miami University (Ohio), and Bachelor of Arts from City University of New York.

Of Afro-Cuban descent, Valerie is a member of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) and lives and tends a lively perennial home garden in New Hope, PA.

Kaira Jewel Lingo

Kaira Jewel Lingo is a Dharma teacher with a lifelong interest in spirituality and social justice. Her work continues the Engaged Buddhism developed by Thich Nhat Hanh, and she draws inspiration from her parents’ lives of service and her dad’s work with Martin Luther King, Jr. After living as an ordained nun for 15 years in Thich Nhat Hanh’s monastic community, Kaira Jewel now teaches internationally in the Zen lineage and the Vipassana tradition, as well as in secular mindfulness, at the intersection of racial, climate and social justice with a focus on Black, Indigenous, and People of Color, and activists, as well as artists, educators, families, and youth. Based in New York, she offers spiritual mentoring to groups and is author of We Were Made for These Times: Ten Lessons in Moving through Change, Loss and Disruption and co-author of Healing Our Way Home: Black Buddhist Teachings on Ancestors, Joy and Liberation. Her teachings and writings can be found at www.kairajewel.com.

Dzung X. Vo

Dzung X. Vo, MD is a pediatrician specializing in Adolescent Medicine, founding Co-Director of the BC Children’s Hospital Centre for Mindfulness, and a Clinical Associate Professor and Division Head for the Division of Adolescent Health and Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, at BC Children’s Hospital and the University of British Columbia Faculty of Medicine in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. In partnership with Dr. Jake Locke, Dr. Vo co-developed MARS-A (Mindful Awareness and Resilience Skills for Adolescents), an eight-week mindfulness training program for adolescents with depressive symptoms, with or without other co-occurring chronic illness or chronic pain. Dr. Vo also developed a Mindful Healing course for health care providers, adapted from Mindful Practice (Ron Epstein and Michael Krasner) and other sources. He is the author of The Mindful Teen: Powerful Skills to Help You Handle Stress One Moment at a Time.

Chris Willard

Dr. Christopher Willard, (Psy. D.) is a clinical psychologist, author and consultant based in Massachusetts. He has spoken in forty-one countries, and has presented at two TEDx events. He is the author of twenty books, including Alphabreaths (2019), Growing Up Mindful (2016) and Feelings are Like Farts, (2024). His thoughts on mental health have been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, mindful.org, cnn.com, and elsewhere. He teaches at Harvard Medical School.