UC San Diego

Lucas attended his first meditation retreat in 2002 and has been cultivating a mindfulness practice ever since. He has a teaching credential and has been a teacher, trainer, and group facilitator for many years. For Lucas, mindfulness has been integral to learning new ways of relating to the inevitable stresses of teaching, work, parenting, and daily life, as well living life with more presence, connection, and ease. With two kids at home, he explores daily how mindfulness and compassion inform his role as father and husband. Lucas has found a calling in the work of sharing mindfulness with others. He feels especially passionate about providing ongoing support to those who've completed courses at the center or are beginning to explore, and wish to deepen the practice in their daily lives. 

Shannon has spent 30 years helping people thrive in their personal and professional lives. She specializes in translating the science underlying mindfulness, wellbeing and human flourishing into insightful, interactive learning experiences for employees, leaders, teams and organizations. Shannon has designed and delivered global programs for Fortune 100 companies through her work with the Potential Project. Working closely with client companies has provided her an upfront view of stress in our modern workplaces and the positive effects evidence-based mindfulness interventions can have on performance, change resilience, innovation, and inclusive cultures. Her work is informed by her years in executive and career coaching, talent management, leadership development, and academic teaching.

Shannon holds a B.A. in Business and an M.A. in Counseling Psychology, is a Board Certified Coach, an ICF Professional Certified Coach (PCC), and a National Certified Counselor. She completed certification as a Lifestyle and Wellness Coach through Harvard Medical School. As someone who cares deeply about the health of our planet, people, and ecosystems, Shannon completed the MBSR Eco-Awareness pilot program through the Bess Family Foundation, and certification as a Mindfulness Based Sustainable Transformation teacher through the Inner Green Deal in Europe. She serves as mindfulness faculty for the UC wide Climate Resilience course.  Shannon provides holistic leadership development and 1:1 support through her work as an executive coach and has taught mindful leadership for UCSD Rady School of Management Executive Programs and served on the evening faculty at USD School of Leadership.

Although she’s had a meditation practice for 20 years, Shannon only began teaching after a rare and life-threatening skin cancer diagnosis in 2014. Shortly after that she left the corporate world to share the transformative practices of mindfulness and compassion on a broader scale. She is active with the North County Insight San Diego sitting group and has a passion for sustainable design, qigong, yoga and global travel.  

Born and raised on Canada’s beautiful West Coast, with deep family roots in Punjab, India, Amandeep embarked on his mindfulness journey in 2015. He discovered the transformative power of meditation and went on to receive teacher training in Mindful Self-Compassion from the Center for Mindful Self-Compassion, and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction from the UC San Diego Center for Mindfulness.

Amandeep graduated from the University of British Columbia, where he earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology and a Master’s in Clinical Social Work. Drawing on his extensive training and experience, he provides compassionate, tailored therapy to teens, adults, and families. His work spans diverse settings, including post-secondary institutions, government agencies, non-profits, and private practice.

Learn more about Amandeep and his services at www.mindclinic.ca.

Dr. Anish Dhamija is a full-time psychiatrist and family medicine practitioner in San Diego County. He has been practicing mindfulness-based methods since 2010. With a passion for educating others regardless of background, he has had experience teaching mindfulness and self-compassion courses to a wide range of folks, from the unhoused to physician trainees. He has found the skills learned from these classes to significantly enhance his own life, and he is eager to share them so others may hopefully have the same benefits as well. His philosophy as a teacher is to be approachable and be realistic with the busyness of life, so one could more naturally integrate these teachings into one's routine.

Anish lives in Poway with his wife and a young son, and enjoys outdoors, woodworking, and soulful music.

Anish looks forward to hopefully connecting with you in class soon!

Helen E. Davis, PhD, LMFT. is a licensed psychotherapist in group practice in Rancho Bernardo. Helen began her journey in meditation over 30 years ago. It transitioned to Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) in 2013 when she took the 8-week MBSR class at UC San Diego Center for Mindfulness. She has completed the MBSR Teacher Training Intensive under the direction of Susan Woods, LICSW and Char Wilkins, LCSW and attended the Advance Teacher Training facilitated by Dr. Steven Hickman and Beth Mulligan, PA-C.

Helen teaches mindfulness programs in her group practice and has incorporated mindfulness-based treatment for anxiety, emotion regulation, depression, trauma and self-esteem into her practice where she has worked as a therapist for over 23 years. Helen's intent and passion is to offer MBSR and mindfulness to help individuals with emotional and physical pain find greater peace, contentment and wellness. Helen is married to a wonderful man and they have one beautiful daughter.

Margaret Cullen is a licensed psychotherapist and was one of the first ten people to become a Certified Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) teacher.  For over 20 years, she has pioneered secular contemplative programs for a wide variety of populations including physicians, nurses, HIV positive men, cancer patients, overweight women, military spouses college students, clinicians and educators.  She has developed and taught contemplative interventions for research studies at Stanford, UCSF, Portland State, Penn State, University of Michigan, and University of Miami.  In 2013, she developed a mindfulness and compassion program (MBAT - Spouse) for military spouses that she piloted at Ft. Drum, Maxwell Air Force Base, and Joint Operations Special Command.  In 2015, she co-authored a book on Mindfulness-Based Emotional Balance (MBEB), an evidence-based program that she piloted across the US and Canada.  She has also designed and co-delivered teacher trainings for both MBAT-Spouse and MBEB.

As a clinician, Margaret has been a facilitator of support groups for cancer patients and their loved ones for 25 years.  In 2010, she was invited by Thupten Jinpa to contribute to the development of the Compassion Cultivation Training, first through the Center for Compassion, Altruism, Research and Education at the Stanford School of Medicine and currently as Founding Faculty for the Compassion Institute.  A meditator for over 35 years, she has sat dozens of intensive retreats ranging from ten days to three months and has written extensively on mindfulness. Nothing brings her greater joy than contributing to a more compassionate world.

Michelle is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, the developer of the Compassion for Couples program, and the founder of Wise Compassion- a company specializing in teaching compassion in various relational contexts. She is a teacher trainer, mentor and co-founder of the Mindful Self-Compassion Teacher Training, as well as a senior teacher of Compassion Cultivation Training, certified Daring Way Facilitator and a Senior Trainer at the UCSD Center for Mindfulness. She teaches and speaks on the topics of compassion internationally. You can listen to her podcast: Well Connected Relationships wherever you like to listen to podcasts or on her website. Her book Compassion for Couples: Building the Skills of Loving Connection is due out February 2023. For more information please visit her website: WiseCompassion.com.

Renée is the Acting Director of the Youth, Family & Education Programs at UC San Diego Center for Mindfulness. With education as her background, Renée is very interested in mindfulness for teens and adults alike.  In 2013, Renée was hired as the Administrative Coordinator for the Center for Mindfulness. During this time, Renée attended her first MBSR class. Since then she has been practicing daily and has developed a passion for teaching mindfulness. She attended the MBSR Teacher Training in 2015 and since has become a Certified MBSR teacher.

Noriko Morita Harth is a Certified Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Instructor, Certified Mindful Self-Compassion Instructor and served as the Managing Director of the UC San Diego Center for Mindfulness for many years. Noriko has been teaching MBSR and MSC since 2014. She also offers mentorships for MBSR and MSC teachers, MBSR Teacher Training programs, and practicum at the Mindfulness-Based Professional Training Institute at the UC San Diego Center for Mindfulness.

Born in Japan, she moved to the States in 1985. Noriko feels that her life transforming journey of discovering and exploring mindfulness practices has allowed a more balanced life and identity between these two cultures. Noriko strongly believes practicing mindfulness and compassion, and bringing its principles into her life has and continues to help her grow as a person. She feels passionate about bringing these practices to other people's lives. It is her mission to share what she has learned, what she continues to learn to our community. In addition, Noriko sees an opportunity, based on her own integration experiences, to introduce mindfulness & compassion programs to the Japanese community.

Lorraine M. Hobbs, M.A., is Founding Director of the Youth, Family & Education Programs at the UCSD San Diego Center for Mindfulness. She is a family therapist and former clinical director of adolescent treatment programs. Lorraine is certified to teach Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), Mindful Self-Compassion (MSC), and Compassion Cultivation, Altruism, Research & Education (CCT), a Stanford University accredited program created by contemplative scholars and endorsed by H.H. The Dalai Lama. She is a certified teacher of the Humanize Contemplative Dyad Foundational Program – based on the research of social neuroscientist Tania Singer, Ph.D.

Lorraine is co-author of two books: Teaching Self-Compassion to Teens (Guilford Press, 2022) and The Self-Compassion Workbook for Kids (New Harbinger, 2023). She is also a mentor for the MBSR certification pathway at the UCSD Mindfulness Based Professional Training Institute.

During her tenure at the Center for Mindfulness, she designed and implemented curricula in mindfulness-based interventions for multiple age groups, including a program in Mindful Compassionate Parenting for Parents of Kids with Autism and Other Neurodiverse Conditions. She is a pioneer in self-compassion training for parents, teens and kids and is co-author of the Mindful Self-Compassion Program for Teens & Young Adults, adapted from the adult program created by Kristin Neff, Ph.D. & Chris Germer, Ph.D. Lorraine is co-founder of the MSC-T teacher training program and provides teacher training in the MSC-T curriculum throughout the U.S. and internationally.

Her new curriculum for kids, A Friend in Me: An AI supported emotional strength training program for kids has been adapted into a classroom model, using an avatar to help kids cultivate skills in self-compassion.

Lorraine trains NGO staff through UNHCR in Ecuador. She has trained psychologists and mental health workers in Nicaragua and Mexico through a USAID program, Mentte Cedat and serves on the Mentte Cedat Advisory Board.