OUR BOARDS
EXECUTIVE BOARD
Kim Pressman, Board Chair, CPA, MBA, Financial Consultant, Former CFO, Price Communications Corporation
Lisa Buckley, Senior Vice President, Account Strategy, VaynerMedia
Maria Salvatore, RYT500, Y12SR-Certified Yoga Instructor
Mark Schlesinger, MD, Chairman, Department of Anesthesiology, Hackensack University Medical Center
Geri Topfer, Founder, President, Kula for Karma
Steven Topfer, DO, Executive Vice President, Envision Healthcare Envision Physician Services
ADVISORY BOARD
Susan Barnett | Founder, Cause Communications
Susan K. Barnett is an Emmy-nominated investigative journalist, producing for the network newsmagazines, Prime Time Live, 20/20, and Dateline. After 16 years in journalism, Susan formed Cause Communications, working with nonprofits, authors, and thought leaders. She is co-producer of the podcast, The FOUR: A fearsome faith foursome talkin’ Black Life, Love, Power and Joy with four nationally known African American faith leaders. She was first-in producer of the award-winning feature-length documentary, No Place On Earth (Magnolia Pictures), about five Ukrainian Jewish families who survived in a cave for 511 days during WWII, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival (2012). Susan has a strong personal commitment to global health and access to safe water and sanitation. She ran communications for Global Water 2020 and Faith in Foreign Assistance, and founded Faiths for Safe Water, the only multi-faith advocacy project focused on the single symbol shared by every world religion. Susan is a graduate of Northwestern University.
Dylan Bitensky | LIU Brooklyn
Dylan Bitensky (she/her) is a Clinical Psychology PhD student at LIU Brooklyn specializing in Neuropsychology. She earned her Bachelor's Degree in Biopsychology Cognition Neuroscience at the University of Michigan and her Master’s Degree for Clinical Psychology at Teachers College, Columbia University. As a doctoral student, her focus is on improving early interventions for children and adolescents, specifically those with ADHD, Autism, learning disabilities, and other neurocognitive deficits, so that treatment and assessments are tailored around these individual differences. She has published research regarding the benefits of neuropsychologists being added to medical interdisciplinary teams and the long-term effects of increased mindfulness/nature exposure after attention fatigue in underserved elementary students. Her research is focused on understanding both biological and environmental factors that influence behavior, in order to strengthen the development of various cognitive abilities so that every child can reach their fullest potential. Dylan is currently an intern at Mott Hall Charter School located in the Bronx, where she is bringing Kula for Karma's mindfulness-based mental health care to middle school students. She has also worked at the Child Mind Institute, Weill Cornell Medicine, Mt. Sinai Hospital, Organizational Tutors, and Grow with Beck, a preschool prep program that focuses on developing social and cognitive skills.
Jena Girouard | Creative Director
Jena is a creative director who believes that storytelling is integral to building brands with staying power. She brings a deep understanding of this craft to inform disruptive strategies that turn customers into advocates. She has consumer advertising roots and penned copy for clients such as Harley Davidson and Hertz. Along the way she realized her calling was in healthcare marketing and the impact it has on not only informing, but inspiring human healing. She brings over 25 years experience in this sector, along with a deep belief in the transformative power of meditation and yoga, to support the important initiatives at Kula for Karma.
Gregory L. Johnson | Greg Johnson Partnerships Intl.
Greg Johnson considers his life in three acts: a healthcare professional, an international entrepreneur, and a musician. Ordained in 2002 as an interfaith minister, and a family caregiver himself, Greg served Emblem Health’s Care for the Family Caregiver Initiative for 25 years, creating, directing and scaling the program locally, nationally and internationally. Greg is a sought-after speaker, author, counselor and retreat leader on the topic of caregiving and caring for the caregivers.
In 2023, Rev. Johnson addressed the International Federation on Aging's global conference in Bangkok, Thailand with his paper on caregiving called "It Takes Us All...It Takes Our All", which is being published internationally.
Sebastian Little | Founder, SLP
Sebastian is the founder of Sebastian Little Performance where he partners with high-performing leaders and teams to optimize culture, close performance gaps, and unlock leadership potential. He has worked with clients across professional sports, non-profit, and corporate spaces. Sebastian’s coaching approach consists of a mix of ontology, positive psychology, and mental performance. Sebastian worked as a consultant at the McChrystal Group, a management consulting and leadership development firm in Washington, D.C., founded by retired 4-star general Stan McChrystal. He is a graduate of Yale University and former varsity football athlete. During his Yale tenure, he partnered with the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence as both a student and an intern, creating a curriculum on emotionally intelligent leadership. He received his PCC credential through the International Coaching Federation and his ACCC professional coach certification through the Accomplishment Coaching training program.
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Jonathon McClellan | Award-Winning Author
Jonathon McClellan is an award-winning bestselling author from Wichita, Kansas who now lives in Dallas, Texas. He experienced poverty and homelessness from an early age and realized that emotional poverty is perhaps the most crippling. He started writing devotionals for his local church at Cathedral of Hope as a way to work through his own early traumas from a difficult childhood. Since 2010, Jonathon has worked for various charities such as Save The Children, Children’s International, the ACLU, the Human Rights Campaign and many more. Now, Jonathon works on feeding the soul as well as the body as a motivational speaker with powerful messages inspired by his battles with schizophrenia, depression, and discrimination. As time passed, Jonathon began questioning his own assumptions about who God loves and came to the conclusion that a God of love would not exclude anyone at the table for being different. Today, he shares a message that God is radically inclusive. When Jonathon is not writing, he likes to spend his time singing, dancing, and being an activist.
Gavin Nazkani| Musician + Producer
Gavin Nazkani is a 19 year old trans girl from Nyack, New York. She produces music and plays bass in the local band, Tollelbow. In her free time she enjoys yoga, hiking, listening to music and going to shows.
Katie Stoeckeler | Peace in Piermont
Raised in Ellenville, Katie moved to Piermont, NY in 2012 and opened Peace in Piermont (PiP) in 2019. At PiP, Katie teaches children, adults, and families ways of de-stressing and living in the present moment. After noticing the impact of her teachings and feeling inspired to share them with a broader audience, Katie began creating a book series. The Give Your Brain A Bath book series aims to teach readers both the importance of practicing self-care and various methods of doing so to increase self-awareness and one’s ability to self-regulate. So far, she’s published three books: Let’s Sit Down and Meditate, How Yoga Saved Christmas, and Let’s Have an Attitude of Gratitude. Katie is actively working to make self-care more accessible by expanding her books into a television series and by developing an elementary-based curriculum. In April 2022, Katie launched a nonprofit, Peace in Ellenville (PiE), to spread mindful practices to her hometown! Katie is an experienced registered yoga teacher: E-RYT® 200, RYT 500, YACEP®, an E-RCYT® 95-hour Children's Yoga + Mindfulness Teacher, a Level 1 Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Teacher, and a 200-hour Holistic Health Coach. She holds a Master of Education in Special Education + Literacy (1-6), and a B.S. Childhood Education (1-6).
YOUNG PROFESSIONALS BOARD
Jacob Altman | Chief of Staff at Twill
Jake is Chief of Staff at a growth-stage digital health startup. He is a skilled operator with experience working with and advising Fortune 500 multinational organizations, hospital networks, and pharmaceutical companies. Jake holds a bachelor’s degree from Vanderbilt University. During his free time, he enjoys exploring local coffee shops, attending concerts, playing Settlers of Catan, and exercising.
Lucy Baldwin | Corporate Partnerships Team at Class
As a former educator, Lucy is passionate about creating an effective and engaging learning experience for both learners and facilitators. She currently works with the Corporate Partnerships team at Class to help organizations redesign virtual and hybrid L&D programs.
Ian Bellah | Vice President of Wealth Management, Morgan Stanley
As a Vice President of Wealth Management for Morgan Stanley, Ian has almost a decade of experience within wealth management and alternative investments including sales, marketing, relationship management, and data analytics.
Celia Crum | Associate,
Office of the Chairman and CEO at Morgan Stanley
Colin Ingoldsby | Vice President at H.I.G. Capital
Julia Marcus | Licensed Psychotherapist (LCAT, ATR-BC)
Julia is a NYC-based psychotherapist specializing in talk therapy, art therapy, and teaching mindfulness techniques to children, adolescents, and adults in private practice.
Jacob Topfer | University of Miami
Jacob is currently a 3rd-year resident in Anesthesiology at the University of Miami and will hopefully be undergoing a fellowship in Chronic Pain Management. Fascinated by the synergy between mental health and chronic pain, Jacob looks forward to utilizing tools such as mindfulness and meditation to help many patients in the future.
MEDICAL ADVISORY BOARD
Larry Rosen, MD, Founder of the Whole Child Center
Jennifer Graf, LCSW, Chair, Center for Integrative Medicine Advisory Council, Englewood Hospital Medical Center
R. Josefina Miranda, Pediatrician, Children of Joy Pediatric