Friends Association for Higher Education’s Quaker Leadings
in Higher Education series presents:
Cultivating Skillful Hope:
Buddhist and Quaker practices that support transformation and liberation.
Tuesday, May 23rd, 2023
7:30-9 pm, eastern
On Zoom
To register: tinyurl.com/FAHE-05-23-23
Daily we are asked to move in the direction of bravery, to stretch in the direction of goodness, kindness, forgiveness, patience, and vulnerability. Yet life’s tender fragility, fear, and anxiety, and our own practiced self-sabotage can derail us from growing and thriving, leaving us fractured and afraid.
In this virtual event, we explore the wisdom of Buddhist mindfulness practices and Quaker faith and practice that support individual and collection transformation and liberation. Centering practices to promote self-discovery, delight, spiritual discernment, compassionate inquiry, and renewal, you’ll leave the session with practices to support you in courageous and compassionate action to live with greater clarity and purpose.
Your voluntary contribution in support of FAHE and this lecture series is greatly appreciated.
https://www.sagepayments.net/eftcart/forms/donate.asp?M_id=643961219535
Presenter:
Valerie Brown
Author, Facilitator, Coach
Founder and Chief Mindfulness Officer
Lead Smart Coaching, LLC
Moderator:
David R. Ross
Research Professor
Department of Economics
Bryn Mawr College
Bio:
Valerie Brown is an author, Buddhist-Quaker Dharma teacher, facilitator, and executive coach specializing in leadership development and mindfulness practices with a focus on diversity, social equity, and inclusion. A former lawyer and lobbyist, Valerie transformed her high-pressure, twenty-year career into serving leaders and nonprofits to create trustworthy, authentic, compassionate, and connected workspaces.
An award-winning author, her latest book is Hope Leans Forward: Braving Your Way toward Simplicity, Awakening, and Peace (Broadleaf, 2022), as well as The Road that Teaches: Lessons in Transformation through Travel, The Mindful School Leader: Practices to Transform Your Leadership and School (with Kirsten Olson, PhD), and Cultivating Happiness, Resilience, and Well-Being through Meditation, Mindfulness, and Movement: A Guide for Educators (contributor).
She is an ordained Buddhist Dharma teacher in the lineage of Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh and the Plum Village tradition and facilitates national and international gatherings and retreats for nonprofits and corporations and leads an annual pilgrimage to El Camino de Santiago, Spain to celebrate the power of sacred places. She is a certified Kundalini yoga teacher (500 hours), engaging leaders to embody somatic wisdom and creativity.
An accredited leadership coach, she is the Founder and Chief Mindfulness Officer of Lead Smart Coaching, LLC, supporting leaders to apply and integrate leadership and mindfulness for greater resilience, clarity, and compassion, and is a co-director of Georgetown’s Institute for Transformational Leadership.
Valerie’s unique and extensive training blends social justice, evidenced-based mindfulness practices, leadership development, and spiritual growth. She holds a Juris Doctor from Howard University School of Law, Master of Arts from Miami University (Ohio), and Bachelor of Arts from City University of New York.
Of Afro-Cuban descent, Valerie is a member of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) and lives and tends a lively perennial home garden in New Hope, PA.
