Elli Weisbaum grew up in the world of education and mindfulness, attending her first mindfulness retreat at the age of 10. In high-school she began creating and co-facilitating workshops with her mother for parents and at-risk youth that used mindfulness as a basis for personal transformation and conflict resolution.
She is currently completing a Master’s degree at York University’s Environmental Studies program, focused on cultivating mindfulness in education. She has also worked as a producer in the film industry, and has used her knowledge of film production to create several short documentary films exploring mindfulness as a secular education tool.
Over the past three years, Elli has toured with monastics in the tradition of Nobel Peace Prize nominee, scholar and internationally renowned Zen master, Thich Nhat Hanh (a.k.a. the Plum Village Community), to bring mindfulness into schools and universities around the world. This work has included a tour of universities on the East Coast of the United States, a conference at the American School in London, organizing a program development intensive at the European Institute of Applied Buddhism in Germany, co-facilitating workshops in Bhutan, in coordination with the Gross National Happiness (GNH) Centre, along with one month of workshops for teachers, parents and students, at schools in New Delhi, India.
In the Summer of 2012, she became the international program coordinator for Plum Village’s mindfulness in education initiative entitled “Wake Up Schools”, working from their centres in France, Germany and the United States. Her ongoing work with Plum Village focuses on a holistic approach to education, working simultaneously with teachers, students, parents and school administrators, to cultivate sustainable mindfulness communities.
