MINDFUL KIDS MIAMI, INC.
CORAL GABLES, FLORIDA

Mission We seek to bring the benefits of mindfulness to children from pre-K through the 12th grade in Miami-Dade County and throughout Florida. Mindful Kids Miami helps educators, health providers and caregivers teach mindfulness skills to children and youth in schools and other settings. Mindful Kids Miami, Inc. (MKM) is a tax-exempt, 501 (c)(3), non-profit corporation dedicated to making age-appropriate Mindfulness training available to school children in Miami-Dade County public and private schools. This is primarily accomplished by training educators and other child care providers to incorporate Mindfulness practices in the children’s daily activities. MKM also provides a variety of Mindfulness classes and trainings for adults who wish to enhance their personal well-being, and offers Mindfulness training to hospitals, healthcare centers, and other institutional settings. MKM’s Mindfulness programs are based upon and adhere to the principles and teachings of the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) Programs created at the University of Massachusetts Medical School’s Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Clinic, which is part of the School’s Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society. The Clinic, which was founded in 1979 by Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn, has achieved worldwide acclaim for its Mindfulness teaching and certification programs, and is networked to mindfulness-based facilities in 80 countries on six continents. Dr. Kabat-Zinn’s pioneering concepts, initially directed to helping patients suffering from chronic pain and stress, have been well documented over the years as providing a wide range of health benefits, and are now an accepted part of mainstream medicine which is studied at the National Institute of Health (NIH) and major universities. Research has demonstrated that children in today’s schools are experiencing escalating levels of stress which impedes their ability to learn, impairs brain development, and affects behavior. Mindful Kids Miami was established in 2011 for the purpose of bringing mindfulness training and techniques into the schools of Miami-Dade County. To that end, MKM instituted an MBSR program for educators and community members, and developed a has been the Treasurer of Mindful Kids Miami, and has actively contributed to its development. Raised and educated in France as well as the United States, Ms. McKenzie has volunteered extensively with community organizations in Miami-Dade County, particularly in the areas of education and wellness. She is a past president of the Miami Children’s Hospital Community Council (the fundraising arm of the hospital), and is a founding member of the Wellness Community of Greater Miami (now the Cancer Support Group), which provides free support services to cancer patients and their families. She has also served in numerous leadership positions and committees in parent-teacher and related organizations. Aware of the myriad benefits of meditation and committed to a daily practice, she was naturally drawn to Valerie York-Zimmerman’s vision of making mindfulness training available to all children. Mrs. Lopez-Cantera is the VP of Business Development at Eikon Digital, focusing on the digital strategy with clients and agencies. Renee has held several managerial positions at MHMC since 2006 and has been honored with the Herald Hero award. She has over 16 years of consumer marketing and customer service experience in media, real estate and consumer products. Renee graduated with her MBA in Finance and Marketing from the University of Miami in 1998. Her undergraduate degree is from Tulane University in Political Science. Renee is also an Executive Board Member of New World School of the Arts, Secretary of the Hebrew Free Loan Association, and on the United Way’s Women’s Leadership Committee. Mrs. Lopez-Cantera is a native Floridian and her favorite role is as a Mom of two young children with her husband, Lt. Governor Carlos Lopez-Cantera. John Davies has been at Miami Country Day School for the past 26 years. He has served as a social studies and philosophy teacher, middle school director and now head of school at Country Day. An educator for 30 years, John received a BA in philosophy from Merrimack College and his MA in history from Texas A&M University. He completed his doctorate in educational leadership at Florida International University. The author of numerous articles on media, wellness, and education topics, Dr. Davies has spoken at the local and national level to both educational and other community groups on media literacy. He has served as a consultant on various media literacy projects and is the author of Educating Students in a Media-Saturated Culture and DOA: Education in an Electronic Culture, which explores the impact of electronic culture on learning and education. Also interested in Holocaust education, Dr. Davies has served on the Executive Board of Directors of the Holocaust Documentation and Education Center. He has also served on the Florida Commissioner of Education’s Task Force on Holocaust Education and the Florida Council of Independent Schools Board of Directors. Ms. DeWitt began her career as an executive in the fashion business and in the early 1980’s became a student of yoga. In 1998 after leaving the fashion industry, she began teaching yoga to adults at the Yoga Institute of Miami. She specializes in both Iyengar and Insight Yoga which incorporates mindfulness with yoga practice. A year later she became a Certified As former Development Director of the Washington-based Environmental Law Institute, a national non-profit organization that promotes environmental protection through law, policy, and education, Ms. Doheny was responsible for fundraising events and activities with law firms and corporations. Before that she worked as a fundraiser for the Ocean Conservancy also based in Washington D.C. Earlier in her career, Ms. Doheny taught elementary school and throughout the years has volunteered for many organizations including the Mental Health Association in Miami and Miami Children’s Hospital. She also served as a board member of CHARLEE (Children have all Rights: Legal, Educational, Emotional), a national program established by the Menninger Foundation for abandoned, abused, and neglected children.