About the contributors
Contributors appear in alphabetical order by first name. External contributors (those who contributed to the OER but are external to the contemplative pedagogies faculty interest group) are listed at the bottom.
Anne Archambault
Anne brings 30 years of experience as a seasoned educator, yoga teacher and trainer, and recreation therapy specialist in mental health. She is a part-time faculty member in the Department of Applied Human Sciences at Concordia University, where she integrates trauma-informed principles and contemplative practices into experiential learning. Anne also facilitates yoga and personal development workshops in corporate and community settings. Her approach fosters safety and connection, creating inclusive spaces for reflection and growth. She is known for her gentle, embodied presence and deep commitment to meeting people where they are.
Anne lives in Montréal, on the island of Tiohtià:ke, the unceded territory of the Kanien’kehá:ka, with her family.
Pages:
Amy Cooper
Co-editor
Amy Cooper is a PhD candidate and part-time lecturer at Concordia University, Montreal, Canada. She has 20 years of experience as a human rights educator, designing and facilitating rights-based programs for NGOs, community-based partners, and government institutions in Canada, Egypt, Japan, Sri Lanka, and Ukraine. Previously, she sat on the education advisory committee for the Ontario Human Rights Commission and was a contributing expert to the UNODC youth initiatives. Through community-based action research and arts-based methods, her doctoral dissertation considers analytical and practical opportunities for human rights education to address systemic racism in Canadian youth-serving organizations.
Pages:
Cristina Galofre Gomez
Cristina is an Educational Developer at Concordia’s Centre for Teaching and Learning. She has 20 years of experience in education with a multi-disciplinary background in human-centred design, instructional design, educational technology, and project management. She holds an MA in Educational Technology.
Cristina is interested in designing inclusive learning experiences and opportunities to build and share knowledge together, deepen relationships and connections with one another and nurture positive human qualities for flourishing.
Cristina has been co-facilitating Concordia’s faculty interest group on contemplative pedagogies at with professor Rosemary Reilly since 2018.
Pages:
Donetta Hines, Ph.D.
Donetta coordinates McGill Writing Centre’s Thesis Writing Program, comprising thesis writing groups, workshops, writing sessions, and retreats. Recipient of her faculty’s Award for Distinguished Teaching in 2020/21, Donetta has taught academic and research writing for graduate and undergraduate students across the disciplines, conducted writing workshops and retreats for students, post-docs, and faculty, and convened a long-standing Peer Writing Group for graduate students and post-docs at the MWC since 2013.
Donetta began teaching and training in language and writing pedagogy during her graduate studies at the University of New Mexico and Cornell University. Having earned her PhD in the Department of Romance Studies at Cornell University, Donetta’s research and teaching in graduate communication encompass practices and pedagogies that foster inclusivity, diversity, equity, accessibility, and well-being; contemplative practices and pedagogies; scholarship of teaching and learning; and interdisciplinary humanities.
Pages:
- What are contemplative practices and pedagogies?
- Core principles of contemplative pedagogy
- Arriving/breathing/focusing practice
Erika O’Hara
Research assistant / student-partner
Erika is a master’s student in the Educational Studies (Adult Education Concentration) program at Concordia. She is currently researching epistemic fragility as it manifests within university professors who have participated in decolonial professional development education. This has cultivated an interest in understanding how and why educators might resist change in their teaching practice, as well as a desire to explore the embodied experience of epistemic fragility more closely. Contemplative pedagogies, as alternatives to hegemonic Western teaching styles centered on reflection and connection, are intertwined with this research.
Erika’s other areas of interest include queer studies/theory, feminist studies (particularly care, vulnerability, and community), Mad studies, and leisure education for liberation and critical consciousness.
Erika lives in Guelph, Ontario, the traditional lands of the Attiwonderonk and the Haudenosaunee, held as treaty lands with the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation. She studies and conducts her research at Concordia University on the island of Tiohtià:ke, unceded territory of the Kanien’kehá:ka.
Pages:
Gabriela Petrov
Gabriela Petrov was raised in Toronto by Czech immigrant parents and now lives in Tiohtià:ke/Montréal. She is a faculty member at Concordia University’s School of Performance and a doctoral researcher working in the development of critical somatic pedagogies as frameworks for performance research-creation. She has taught artists independently and at institutions including McGill, and Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado where she received her MFA in Contemporary Performance. For fifteen years, Gabi has practiced postmodern approaches to performance, including Mary Overlie’s Six Viewpoints. She has studied Body-Mind Centering® for over a decade in five different countries and will graduate in spring of 2026 with her certification as a Somatic Movement Educator. In her artistic practice, Gabi uses somatic movement and improvisation to explore how we inhabit spaces of performance and everyday life. As a research associate with the Performative Urbanism Lab for Spatial, Social and Scenographic Experimentation (PULSE), Gabi is expanding her inquiry to include how we embody spaces of encounter with emerging technologies.
Pages:
Jennifer Bourque
Rev. Jennifer Bourque is the Chaplain and Coordinator at Concordia’s Multi-faith and Spirituality Centre (MfSC). She oversees the MfSC’s work and runs programs and workshops, consults on questions of religious inclusion and provides spiritual care to students. She holds a B.A. in Religious Studies and a Masters of Sacred Theology (STM). Prior to Concordia, she worked as a chaplain/spiritual care professional, primarily in hospital and long term care.
Pages:
Joseph Siddiqi
Joseph Siddiqi is a Montreal-based artist and educator. His recent work—including oil on linen and colored pencils on paper—explores abstraction, color, and the contemplative side of painting and drawing. He has received grants from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, and the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation. His paintings are held in public and private collections, including the Canada Council Art Bank (Ottawa), Colart Collection (Montreal), and Athabasca University Art Collection (Northern Alberta). His work has appeared in solo exhibitions in Toronto, Ottawa, Calgary, and Montreal. He holds an MFA in Painting from Boston University and teaches in the Department of Studio Arts at Concordia University. Alongside his studio practice, he writes and teaches on contemplative pedagogy, mindfulness, and the inner life of artistic work.
Pages:
- Instructor and student testimonials
- What is mindfulness?
- Two approaches to mindfulness
- Noticing the movement of attention
- Centering stillness practice
Josephine Guan
Josephine Guan is an Educational Developer at Concordia’s Centre for Teaching and Learning. In her role, she supports professional development for graduate students and teaching assistants, and consults with instructors on accessible pedagogy and Universal Design for Learning. She also leads the CTL’s open educational resource initiatives such as this resource, A guide to embedding education for sustainability in higher education courses and Teaching and learning guide for teaching assistants.
Josephine has an MDes in Inclusive Design from OCAD University, and previously taught and worked in the field of illustration and design.
Pages:
Katrina Grabner
Katrina is a Registered Canadian Art Therapist (RCAT), Registered Clinical Counsellor (RCC-BCACC), educator, artist, and Somatic Experiencing Practitioner (SEP). Her practice integrates nervous system–aware, trauma-informed approaches in art therapy. Katrina brings a special interest in trauma-informed, neurodivergent-affirming teaching pedagogies, fostering safety, belonging, expression, and play in higher education. Katrina grew up on Treaty Six Territory (central Alberta) and for over fifteen years she supported adults, youth and children at several non-profits on Coast Salish Territory (Vancouver). She now lives, studies and teaches on the island of Tiohtià:ke, unceded territory of the Kanien’kehá:ka. Grabner is faculty with the Creative Arts Therapies Department, is a PhD student in Individualized Studies at Concordia and is currently facilitating Concordia’s faculty interest group on Trauma-Informed Pedagogy and “Healing Centered Engagement” in Higher Education.
Pages:
Naj Sumar
Naj Sumar is an educational developer specializing in Inclusive Pedagogies at Concordia’s Centre for Teaching and Learning. He supports the development of inclusive practices in the classroom and provides tools to sustain these changes. His approach draws on critical frameworks that examine interlocking systems of power in order to understand adult learning and the context in which learning occurs. Driven by a desire to make learning more accessible, fun, and collaborative, Naj designs meaningful experiences and resources that engage different learning backgrounds, styles, and abilities. In the past, Naj has worked in community development, organizational development, and student life.
Pages:
Ridge Shukrun
Ridge Shukrun is an educator and facilitator dedicated to creating inclusive and reflective learning environments. With a background in Theological Studies (MA) and instructional design (C-TEACH), his research focuses on the intersection of authentic spirituality, ethics, and the secular age, with a particular interest in the work of philosopher Bernard Lonergan. Ridge specializes in transformative learning strategies and dialogue facilitation. He has served as an Interfaith Facilitator at Concordia’s Multi-faith and Spirituality Centre (MfSC).
Pages:
Rosemary Reilly, Ph.D.
Rosemary C. Reilly is a distinguished professor affiliated with the Department of Applied Human Sciences at Concordia University. She has made notable contributions and is known for her teaching and research. Her contributions have helped shape contemporary understanding in her area of expertise and creativity, the use of contemplative and arts-based practices in the higher education classroom, and the impact of trauma on adult learning and community relationships. She is a 2024 recipient of the 3M National Teaching Fellowship award.
Pages:
- Trauma-informed contemplative practices
- Metta (loving-kindness) meditation
- Xi-xi hu breathing practice
- Vagus nerve breathing practice
- Box breathing practice
Stephen Yeager, Ph.D.
Co-editor
Stephen Yeager is a Professor of English at Concordia University with a specialization in medieval literature. His articles have appeared in journals like Pedagogy and Profession: New Chaucer Society, Critical Inquiry, English Language Notes, and The Journal of Medieval and Early-Modern Studies, and his most recent monograph is Chaucer’s Problem of Prose: History, Media, and The Canterbury Tales (University of Toronto Press, 2025).
Theodore Klein
Theodore Z. Klein develops and facilitates programs in Empowerment, Flourishing Leadership, Effective Communication, Creative Collaboration, and Next-Level Networking at the John Molson Executive Centre, the Leadership Institute, and What Comes Next, LLC; and he is a Senior Instructor at Concordia’s Continuing Education, where he teaches Communicating with Emotional Intelligence, Influencing with Integrity & Impact, Refining Management Reflexes, and Innovation & Problem Solving, among other courses. Originally from California, he completed his MBA at HEC Montréal and his Soto Zen lay ordination in the lineage of the San Francisco Zen Center. His dharma name is Hokugen Ryushin (“North Source Dragon Mind”).
Pages:
External contributors
Beth Berila
Beth Berila, Ph.D. is the author of Integrating Mindfulness into Anti-Oppression Pedagogy: Social Justice in Higher Education (2nd ed., Routledge, 2024). As a long-time contemplative and yoga practitioner, she integrates mindfulness into her social justice teaching and work. She is the Director of the Gender & Women’s Studies Program at St. Cloud State University. She is also a transformational leadership coach and facilitator. Learn more about Beth at her website here.
Pages:
Clarissa de Leon, Ph.D.
Clarissa de Leon is an educator with over a decade of experience spanning elementary and post-secondary teaching, as well as education development. Her expertise lies in fostering diversity, equity, inclusion, and anti-racism within educational spaces. Clarissa has taught in the Queen’s University Faculty of Education and has worked as an Educational Developer at Queen’s University and St. Lawrence College. She also works as an independent anti-racism and anti-oppression education consultant. Her past projects have included collaborations with the Limestone District School Board and The Critical Thinking Consortium.
Clarissa completed her PhD in Education. Her doctoral research focused on supporting BIPoC graduate students in their anti-racist teaching development.
Pages:
David W. Robinson-Morris, Ph.D.
Dr. David W. Robinson-Morris is an author, scholar, and strategic advisor working at the intersection of imagination, equity, contemplative practice, and institutional transformation. He is the Founder & Chief Reimaginelutionary of The REImaginelution, a strategic social impact consultancy that helps organizations design liberatory futures through imaginative inquiry and values-driven strategy.
With nearly two decades of cross-sector leadership, his career spans higher education, healthcare, philanthropy, and nonprofit administration. He most recently served as the inaugural Executive Director of the Institute for Black Intellectual and Cultural Life at Dartmouth College and is the founding Executive Director of The Center for the Human Spirit and Radical Reimagining, a dream-think tank activating collective imagination to dismantle systemic inequity.
In service to advancing contemplative pedagogy and practices in higher education and society, Dr. Robinson-Morris led the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society (CMind), an international community of contemplative scholars and practitioners. Under his leadership, CMind deepened its mission to integrate racial, social, and environmental justice into contemplative education before sunsetting in 2022.
The author of Ubuntu and Buddhism in Higher Education (Routledge, 2019) and co-editor of Contemplative Practices and Acts of Resistance in Higher Education: Narratives Toward Wholeness (Routledge, 2025), his scholarship draws from the South African philosophy of Ubuntu, Eastern contemplative traditions, and the belief that imagination is humanity’s most powerful tool for transformation. A respected academic and thought leader, his work has appeared in Lion’s Roar, academic journals, and public forums across the country. He is a frequent lecturer and consultant across sectors, nationally and abroad.
Pages:
Emil Briones
Emil Briones (en: they/them; fr: ael/elle) is an organizational development consultant, community-based researcher/facilitator/mediator/educator, and musician based in Tiohtià:ke, unceded Kanien’keha:ka territories (“Montréal”). They are a settler and mixed-race member of the Filipinx diaspora (Southern Tagalog, Hiligaynon, Chavacano), and is also of part Western European ancestry. Born in the Philippine islands and moved to Turtle Island as a child, they use the words transfeminine, non-binary, and bakla to further describe their identity and experiences of gender. Since 2009, their practice has been informed, nourished, and challenged by community care/organizing, the performing arts, ancestral inquiry, the critical social sciences, and non-profit management. They are trained in various group facilitation and learning approaches, and conflict mediation, including through programs by St. Stephen’s Community House and the Lewis Method of Deep Democracy. From 2016 to 2021, they served as Faculty Lecturer at McGill University’s Faculty of Oral Medicine and Dental Sciences, where they taught a course on critical social topics in oral health. They continue to support groups and organizations in their learning and change journeys through the power of connection, relationships, and collective leadership.
Pages:
Kariwentha Lee Scott
Lee is passionate about the wellness of women and girls.
Over the years, she has initiated community learning opportunities including Satatenó:ronk (Care for Yourself), Konwati’shatstenhsherawis (Women supporting Women), and participated in Oheró:kon (Girls Rite of Passage) along with other women. All in the hope to expand awareness of female transitions/rites of passage from girl to womanhood and the power to be themselves.
These included the development and delivery of important yet practical pieces of cultural knowledge and the female cycle.
She has completed both the Barbara Brennen School of Healing and the Wilderness Fusion 4yr. programs along with other Hands On modalities including Cranial Sacral Therapy.
Pages:
Karonhiaktatie David McComber
is from Kahnawake, which is part of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. I’m a husband, father and grandfather and am a retired high school teacher. I continue to be active in education in our community, working part-time at the First Nations Adult Education center, helping to teach trades to our youth. I’m also part of Iontionhnhéhkwen Wilderness Skills, whose goal is to share skills and raise awareness with the intention of fostering and deepening a relationship with the land.
Pages:
LeeRay Costa, Ph.D.
LeeRay is a lifelong contemplative practitioner and has been actively integrating contemplative practices into her teaching since 2012. Trained as a feminist cultural anthropologist, she currently serves as Executive Director of the Batten Leadership Institute, and Professor of Gender and Women’s Studies / Anthropology at Hollins University in Roanoke, Virginia. She is co-editor of the book Contemplative Practices and Acts of Resistance in Higher Education: Narratives Toward Wholeness (Routledge, 2024). Her current interests include engaging spirituality, contemplative practices, and creative expression in the service of leadership, human flourishing, and transformative social change.
Pages:
Sandra VanderKaay, Ph.D.
Sandra VanderKaay is an assistant professor in the School of Rehabilitation Science at McMaster University, a CanChild Scientist, and the Director of Clinical Education for the MSc OT program. Her current program of research is focused on trauma-informed pedagogy, and clinical reasoning and ethical decision-making in occupational therapy practice, including ethical decision-making in school-based occupational therapy. Sandra’s most recent research study involves exploring the OT role with children and youth with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. Sandra’s teaching foci include pediatric OT practice, clinical reasoning, and ethical decision-making. Sandra has been a registered occupational therapist since 1996.
Pages:
