Instructor

Burrell Poe is a U.S. Army Veteran from the West Side of Chicago. Burrell is very passionate about social and environmental justice and dedicates his time to furthering solutions for these issues. Burrell is on the Board of Compassion It and the Anthropocene Alliance. Burrell works as the Director of the Chicago Peace Fellows at the Goldin Institute. Burrell is working with the Goldin Institute Global Associates in Colombia and Uganda to refine a new curriculum on the themes of peacebuilding and tools for forgiveness, compassion and reconciliation.

Lisa Marie is a Certified iRest Teacher, Yoga Teacher (500-RYT), Massage Therapist and owner of Oakes Healing Arts with her husband Jim Oakes in San Diego, California. Lisa Marie specializes in working with seniors, and clients facing health challenges that benefit from her decades of experience working with oncology clients and others with complicated health concerns leading several classes each week in the Rancho Bernardo area. Sleep and stress reduction classes are a favorite among her students. In addition to weekly Chair Yoga and Gentle Yoga classes, Oakes Healing Arts creates custom workshops to introduce and deepen students knowledge of iRest and other meditative and Yogic trainings. It's Lisa Marie's joy to create inclusive events where everyone is seen and welcome exactly as they are in that moment and creating space for their unique experiences. ​

Jim is a Certified iRest Yoga Nidra Teacher and Yoga Instructor (200 RYT) and owner of Oakes Healing Arts with his wife, Lisa Marie Oakes. He leads weekly Meditation and Movement classes, blending traditional yoga practices, iRest Yoga Nidra and somatic techniques to help align the body and mind as well as iRest Yoga Nidra Workshops. Jim came to yoga and meditation in the midst of seeking balance, connection and alignment in 2011. An athlete, coach and corporate executive at a crossroads of health and wellbeing Jim embraced yoga and meditation and sharing this pathway to health has been a passion of his ever since. Jim holds a Bachelor of Science from the United States Naval Academy and proudly served in the U.S. Navy for 8 years before joining the civilian workforce. He is a Program Director with BAE Systems, having worked there for over 25 years. He also coached Men’s Crew at UC San Diego and at San Diego Rowing Club, and continues to share his passion for coaching and guiding students to be the best they can be. ​

Mirjam Luthe is certified in yoga, Mindful-Self-Compassion, Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, and Awake in the Wild, complemented by Mindful Schools training, Council Practice and similar dialog techniques. She serves as International Affairs Manager at the Center for Mindful Self-Compassion, and a core team member of the European Network for Grateful Living and the annual Swiss ETH Cortona Week. Mirjam is also a teacher at Monviso-Institute in Italy, a real-world laboratory for research, education, entrepreneurship and new living on sustainability transitions and regenerative design.

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. 

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.