Sarah is one of the authors of The Present Courses, Paws b and .b Foundations. She developed Living in The Present (the adult version). She has been a mindfulness teacher/trainer since 1998 trained by Mark Williams and Jon Kabat-Zinn’s team and was a teacher/trainer for the Centre for Mindfulness Research and Practice at Bangor University for ten years. The Present Courses CIC has been growing since 2017 to meet and support people’s well-being in relevant and accessible ways.
Tabitha is co-creator The Present Course for Primary Schools and previously co-created the Paws .b primary school curriculum (key stage 2). She has completed a Masters dissertation on Mindfulness at Bangor University, researching the impact mindfulness has on children’s academic results and attitudes to learning. Tabitha is the head teacher at Ysgol Pen Y Bryn in North Wales and has a passion to promote well-being in children’s lives and providing them the opportunity to experience mindfulness from an early age to take them through the rest of their lives. Tabitha was inspired to become a teacher when she taught her own children whilst sailing around the world. In her second year of teaching, Tabitha was awarded a national teaching award and has since been a Teaching Award judge.
Dusana is a cognitive neuroscientist heading the Laboratory for Neuroscience of Well-being and Developmental Contemplative Neuroscience. She received her PhD in Psychology and Cognitive Science (Cognitive Neural Systems Program) from the University of Arizona and holds two master’s degrees, one in clinical psychology (Comenius University) and the other in cognitive psychology and cognitive science (University of Arizona). Dusana also studied philosophy of science and philosophy of mind at doctorate level. Dusana’s research program over the last seven years expanded from neuroscience research on mindfulness towards current broader focus on neuroscience of well-being and developmental contemplative neuroscience. Dusana has authored and co-authored over 20 peer-reviewed articles and peer-reviewed book chapters. She received several research grants in support of her research, including a Mind and Life Contemplative Studies Fellowship. Dusana also authored two peer-reviewed monographs – ‘Mind, Brain, and the Path to Happiness’ (2013) and ‘Neuroscience and Psychology of Meditation in Everyday Life’ (2017), both published by Routledge. She has co-authored (with focus on neuroscience content) the Present Course for Primary Schools.