Cultivating Empathy, Compassion, and Mindfulness in Schools and in Ourselves, presented by Jason Tackett and Christelle Estrada

Jason Tackett has worked with Mindful Schools (http://www.mindfulschools.org ) for nearly two years, and recently became certified through their Mindfulness Instructor certification program which is a year-long program with prerequisites of Mindfulness Fundamentals (10-weeks) and Mindfulness Curriculum Training (6-weeks). Mr. Tacket has been a teacher in the Salt Lake City School District for the past 11 years and currently teach in a behavior support unit with 4th-6th grade students at Franklin Elementary. Mr. Tacket has a Masters in Special Education through Utah State University and is currently finishing his Board Certified Behavior Analyst--certification. He received SLCSD's recognition as 2015 Special Educator of the Year. He has spoken at REACH trainings, the Utah NAME Conference, Student Services meetings, Primary Children's, and in multiple schools through a presentation titled, "The Power of Being Seen: Empowering Students through Recognition and Validation."

Christelle Estrada received her doctorate in Education and Religion from Claremont University after graduate studies in psychological sciences, comparative religion, and process philosophy. She was previously the Chief of Academic Officer for Stanford University, an Urban Senior Research Fellow at Brown University and a member of the Oxford Roundtable at Lincoln College at Oxford University. Her writings include academic presentations at the International Whitehead Conference at the University of Salzburg, Austria and the International Conference, Bounds of Ethics in a Globalized World, at Christ University in Bangalore, India. Christelle's interests are grounded in her interdisciplinary background in contemplative wisdom traditions, socio cultural ethics, and the emerging field of affective neuroscience as it applies to policy studies and project development, specifically in low-income communities.