L1 Facilitator Certification Course

Ruchi Ghose believes in ‘wellbeing for all.’ She works with educational institutions and a variety of organizations in the social sector to build an awareness and the skills for wellbeing. However, her heart lies in education. She is passionately convinced of the need to sensitize and teach children in school to be compassionate, self-aware and ethically responsible for themselves, their communities and the environment, to be able to bring about any sustained change.

She has worked for many years as a teacher educator and in her recent assignment with Azim Premji Foundation she was part of the team that conceptualized and set up the six demonstration schools run by the Foundation. Specifically, she worked with the school leaders on an on-going basis, developing their understanding, coaching and supporting them to realize their vision for their schools. She loves working with teachers and is passionately committed to educational change. She is currently based in Bangalore India, and is a member of the Wellbeing Team at Viridus Social Impact Solutions. She is a certified SEE Learning Facilitator and CBCT facilitator from Emory University.

Reshma Piramal co-heads operations at SEE Learning India. The SEE Learning Program® is Emory University’s K-12 education program that promotes Social, Emotional and Ethical Learning in educators and their students.

She is committed to fostering a compassionate culture in schools through training of teachers and their students. She is a Developmental Speech and Language Therapist by training, having completed her Masters Degree at City University in London. Her area of interest has been ‘children at risk of reading failure’.

Reshma is the Co-Chair of UNESCO MGIEP’s Global Working Committee for SEL

As a student of the Buddha Shakyamuni, Reshma is committed to the idea of immersion being crucial in bringing about praxis for any vital change and only educating and enabling communities can effect changes we wish to see.

Reshma is the Co-Chair of UNESCO MGIEP’s Global Working Committee for SEL

Vivek is the Co-Founder and CEO of Kshamtalaya Foundation, supporting communities to revive the spirit of learning in schools and outside. Core to their program is a curriculum that provides space for self-directed learning, systems thinking & mindfulness. Their Learning Festivals aim to make education a community driven agenda.

Vivek replicated the Gandhi Fellowship in Uganda and is interested in mindfulness, systems thinking and theatre. Vivek is an Engineer, a graduate of Tata Institute of Social Sciences and alumnus of Gandhi Fellowship. Vivek has been recipient of Wipro Founder's Fellowship, Changeloom Fellowship, Acumen Fellow and Gratitude Fellow for the year 2020. Vivek is a certified CBCT instructor from Udaipur, India.

Shashi Nair is a Certified CBCT instructor ® and a seeker, practitioner, and teacher in inward journeys of well-being, and outward journeys of complex systemic change. Blessed with the good fortune to experience deep states of well-being and appreciating the struggles of so many adults, youth, and children to move to such states, he feels deeply compelled to work in this area. Since 1996, when his journey into contemplative practices began, he has explored Siddha Samadhi Yoga and Vipassana, before settling on CBCT as his practice of choice. He is a Founding Director of Viridus Social Impact Solutions and co-initiator of the Wellbeing Movement.

An alumnus of IIT Madras and IIM Bangalore, Shashi has 27 years of corporate experience and over 15 years of experience in the social sector, particularly school education systems, having worked in Azim Premji Foundation and Azim Premji University.

Vanashree Ghate is Founder, Director HEAL Foundation – a not-for-profit organisation that conducts Arts-Based Therapy (ABT) & Mindfulness Courses aimed at healthcare professionals. She a Counsellor, Arts Based Therapist, ABT Educator as also a Facilitator for Cognitively Based Compassion Training (CBCT® ) offered by Emory University.

Vanashree holds a Masters in Marketing Studies from Mumbai University. Her interest in Buddhist Studies began in early 2003. She is a Vipassana Meditation practitioner, is a student of Venerable Mingyur Rinpoche and GesheDorjiDamdul; and holds a PG Diploma in Buddhist Philosophy from Tibet House, India. She is trained in Positive Neuroplasty with Rick Hanson, Self-Compassion with Kristen Neff & Chris Germer and Non-Violent Communication with Oren Jay Sofer.

Vanashree brings passion & insights from decades of personal and professional experience in meditation, mindfulness practices as well as work as Therapist and Trainer.

Pooja Singh is a Founding member and Design Team Lead at Kshamtalaya Foundation an organisation based in Udaipur Rajasthan, India. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in mass communication.

She completed her Gandhi Fellowship, working for the principal leadership program in 5 schools of Gujarat after which she taught at the Riverside school, Ahmedabad where she understood the importance of child centric pedagogy and theory of multiple intelligences in action.

Pooja has more than 7 years of experience of working in the development sector and is also a trained Therapeutic Movement Facilitator from Creative movement therapy association of India (CMTAI) and UNESCO

At Kshamtalaya she has been working as SEE Learning® (Social, Emotional, Ethical Learning) practitioner and facilitator since 2019 and has acquired certificate of Cognitively based compassion training CBCT® instructor/teacher in 2021

Dhira Peer is the network lead for Counseling and SEL at The Akanksha Foundation. She oversees the functioning of the counseling teams in Pune, Mumbai and Nagpur. She has also been leading the SEE learning program at Akanksha. The SEE learning program runs for all the children, educators and parents across 27 schools. She intends to take the learnings from CBCT to others within as well as outside the organisation

Jayshree has a master’s degree in zoology from Pune University and is trained in Non-profit Management and Leadership from Boston University. She is also an India School Leadership Institute (ISLI) Fellow.
She began her career as a research assistant at the Wildlife Institute of India in Dehradun and went on to work with World Wide Fund for Nature-India and New England Aquarium, Boston. After spending 11 years in USA and France, in 2011, Jayshree moved back to India and joined Akanksha as a school leader at Late Anantrao Pawar Memorial English Medium School in Pune.
Jayshree brings in rich expertise in school development and project management

Suparna Gupta has been a child rights practitioner for the last two decades. She is Founder, Aangan, an Indian nonprofit that works on child rights, MPA from Harvard Kennedy School, Fellow, Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, at Harvard, Fellow, Ashoka for Social Entrepreneurship, and most recently a teacher of CBCT (Cognitively Based Compassion Training) from Emory. University. Suparna has focused on models/programs that build trust and dialogue between marginalized groups and local officials across the country, in order to address serious child harm - including trafficking, child marriage and hazardous labor. Her writing on these themes has been published by NDTV, India Development Review, The Wire, Harvard University South Asia Institute and The Washington Post.

Professionally, Mona is an educator for over three decades, and is passionate about working with students and teachers. Personally, Mona is on a journey to finding meaning and purpose through regular practice, meditation and connecting with like-minded individuals across the world.

Anshu is a Psychologist possessing over 20 years of experience spanning SEL, Psychometric Testing, Behavioural Assessments, Counselling Psychology and Teaching UG and PG students. She is leading work around SEEL / SEL Interventions, Assessment and Capacity Development of internal & external stakeholders. She is also part of the several resource groups at NCERT and NCSL.

I am a Mindful Leadership Coach and Facilitator. I am the India Lead for the Education Sector, Charter for Compassion. My work is defined by ‘human well-being and flourishing’. I believe in the ancient Indian philosophy of “Vasudhaiva Kutumbhakam” which means – “The world is one family”. My intent is “Lokah Samastah Sukhino Bhavantu” which translates to – “May all beings be happy, may all my words, thoughts and actions contribute in some way in the happiness of all beings.”

With extensive experience of working with diverse groups of children, adolescents and youth, Ravi Gulati brings on board a knack for constantly building and nurturing learning communities of across-age learners. He co-founded Manzil – a youth-led non-profit in Delhi – over 20 years ago, and since then he has been nurturing Manzil into a learning community where youth are at once learners and teachers.

Manzil has within its ambit 250 children & youth at any given time, and has cumulatively touched over 20,000 of them over the years. Thanks to his continuous engagement, Manzil has and continues to spawn and spin-off numerous other social entrepreneurial & intrapreneurial youth initiatives. Beyond Manzil, Ravi often engages with youth through leading academic institutions like IIM A, Delhi University and Ashoka University, and NGOs like Pravah and Youth Alliance. He also mentors many young social entrepreneurs addressing a whole range of societal issues. Ravi also co-leads Creatnet Education which has been facilitating the learning of all the 1000+ Delhi Government School Principals for Effective Leadership. Ravi is also co-founder of other non-profits viz ComMutiny-The Youth Collective and Safe in India Foundation. He also serves on the boards of pioneer non-profits like Pravah and Saher that focus on youth leadership. He is an MBA from IIM, Ahmedabad.

Vivek is Co-Founder and CEO of Kshamtalaya Foundation, supporting communities to revive the spirit of learning in schools and outside. Core to their program is curriculum that provides space for self-directed learning, systems thinking & mindfulness. Their Learning Manifesto and Learning Festivals aim to make education a community driven agenda. Vivek replicated Gandhi Fellowship in Uganda and is interested in mindfulness, systems thinking and theatre.

Vivek is an Engineer, a graduate of Tata Institute of Social Sciences and alumnus of Gandhi Fellowship. Vivek has been recipient of Wipro Founder’s Fellowship, Changeloom Fellowship. TFIx and Acumen India Fellow for the year 2019.