Board of Directors

 

Sophie Crichton Stuart

Sophie Crichton Stuart is founding director of the contemporary visual arts exhibition program, Mount Stuart Trust, Isle of Bute, Scotland www.mountstuart.com, a charitable trust founded 1989 to preserve, conserve and maintain the historically significant Victorian Gothic house, its collections, gardens and archives. Sophie is a board member of Public Art Fund New York, Location 1 New York and Fruitmarket Gallery Edinburgh. She is a student and supporter of SCA through her special interest in cancer care, and the integration of yoga and meditation into the medical community – patients and professionals – and into the wider community.

 

Jason Kessler

Jason’s path has led him from a Chemistry degree to NASA to business school and eventually to Vajra Yoga.  While teaching yoga, Jason launched the first Organic Agave Ketchup and took it nationwide.  A recession later Jason returned to NASA, this time at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, to help with the SERVIR project.  SERVIR is a unique partnership between NASA and the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and features web-based access to satellite imagery, decision-support tools and interactive visualization capabilities, and puts previously inaccessible information into the hands of scientists, environmental managers, and decision makers.  The Earth observation data is used to help the developing world address threats related to climate change, biodiversity, and extreme events such as flooding, forest fires, and storms.  Combining his previous NASA experience with his entrepreneurial success, Jason is helping guide the exponential growth of SERVIR.  While no longer directly teaching Yoga and Meditation, Jason integrates the practices into his work environment everyday.

Anne Moller

Anne began her study of yoga in 1998. She completed the 500-hour teacher training at Be Yoga in NYC in 2002. Jill Satterfield was a guest faculty member for that training and inspired Anne then – and now – to deepen her practice with a focus on meditation and mindful practice. Anne holds an MBA from NYU’s Stern of School of Business and runs a successful small business with her husband in Westchester County, NY. Anne is a current volunteer with the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE), an organization that teaches entrepreneurial skills to disadvantaged youth, Workshops in Business Opportunities (WIBO), for which she teaches business classes in low-income neighborhoods, and CASA, Court Appointed Special Advocates, that provides advocacy services for abused and neglected youth. Anne’s greatest delights are her two children, Tobey and Skye.    

 

Campion Platt

A member of the American Institute of Architects and the Architectural League of NY, Campion creates architecture and interiors that meld seamlessly. Campion is a tireless philanthropist who believes in giving back and building support with strong foundations. He is a student of the late Thai meditation teacher Venerable Ajahn Cha. campionplatt.com

 Jill Satterfield

Jill Satterfield is the Founder and Director of SCA and Vajra Yoga & Meditation.

Diana Slattery

Diana Slattery, OTR/L, RYT, is a certified yoga instructor through Yoga Alliance at the 500 hour level. She has also worked as an occupational therapist for over 15 years, specializing in the rehabilitation of adults with neurological deficits. An engaging speaker, Diana has provided lectures and workshops to several Occupational Therapy programs, including Dominican College, Mercy College, and The New York Institute of Technology. Her workshops often focus on integrating the best of western and eastern medicine to optimize health and healing. Diana fully embraces the powerful ways that we can impact our own physical and psychological wellbeing through the multi-layered gifts of yoga. She completed her training with Jill Satterfield’s Vajra Yoga Social Action Teacher Training in 2009. Through this program, she is working to bring the benefits of yoga and meditation into healthcare settings for those who suffer from chronic pain and illness. Her classes emphasize self reflection and compassion towards oneself to allow an intelligent and mindful deepening of our yoga practice.

 

Eric Swanson

A graduate of Yale University and The Julliard School Eric Swanson is the co-author, with Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche, of the New York Times bestseller The Joy of Living: Unlocking the Secret and Science of Happiness and the follow-up book, Joyful Wisdom: Embracing Change and Finding Freedom. After formally adopting Buddhism in 1995, Swanson co-authored Karmapa, The Sacred Prophecy, a history of the Karma Kagyu Lineage of Tibetan Buddhism. His second book on Buddhism, What The Lotus Said, is a graphic description of his journey to Tibet as a member of a team of volunteers developing schools and medical clinics in rural areas occupied predominantly by nomadic populations.