About Ali
Inner Motivation from the Heart
Ali’s journey has been animated by a love of nature, equity, inclusion, and a sensitivity toward the suffering of the world. Ali’s full name (Aliza, pronounced “Aleeza”) means “joyfulness” in Hebrew - which has inspired her spiritual inquiry of the four immeasurables: joy, compassion, loving-kindness, and equanimity. Joyfulness has gradually awakened through service, including volunteering in leadership and mentorship roles with environmental organizations such as Al Gore’s Climate Reality Leadership Corps, the World Economic Forum Trillion Tree Platform, The Gigatonne Challenge, the Santa Cruz Native Animal Rescue, and more. The grounded and practical presence of joyfulness in her teaching has been deepened and tempered by her personal relationships with Holocaust survivors who have shared their stories and shown through who they’ve become, their lessons about transmuting their darkest experiences to choice-fully create joyfulness, kindness, love, and equanimity in their families and communities.
Trained Mindfulness Teacher
With 27 years of practice experience, Ali considers herself a student-peer-mentor, rather than a teacher. Ali was introduced to Zen meditation at age fifteen, by her mother. Thirteen years of guidance from teachers like Thích Nhất Hạnh, Joanna Macy, and Ken McLeod brought her to Dharma friends in communities of practice around the world, who introduced her to Vipassana, as taught by S.N. Goenka. Ali participated in seven 10-day silent meditation retreats—six with S.N. Goenka’s assistant teachers, and one with Advaita Vedanta-trained teacher, Rupert Spira. Rupert helped her open windows to the beginnings of non-dual awareness. Vipassana and non-dual inquiry formed her core meditation practice for ten years, until she found her teaching-mentors, Dan Emmons, Dan Spinner, Tara Brach and Jack Kornfield. Both Dans are master teachers and mentors of other teachers. Jack and Tara are master teacher-trainers of Burmese and Thai Vipassana lineages, integrated with trauma-informed western psychology, and are both highly-regarded teachers around the world.
Certified Yoga Teacher
Ali was introduced to Ashtanga yoga 27 years ago, at age fifteen, by her mother. Ashtanga was her core yoga practice for fourteen years, as she tried many other forms of yoga, and eventually found B.K.S. Iyengar’s approaches, which integrate postural and anatomy knowledge with rigorous study of Sanskrit and traditional forms. In 2009 Ali was certified as an Iyengar yoga teacher by Hart Lazer (master teacher and student of Ramanand Patel, who was a protege of B.K.S. Iyengar). Ali has taught yoga around the world, including in the arctic circle, where she co-gifted yoga teaching and traditional Inuit fishing and sewing skills with the women Inuit elders of Ikaluktutiak (“place of good fishing”), otherwise known as Cambridge Bay, Nunavut. Ali also co-taught yoga and meditation for inmates of a maximum security men’s prison, through a non-profit called Freeing the Human Spirit. Ali has taught intermittently for thirteen years.
Professional Work-Life
Ali is co-founder of three environmental non-profits, and is a program manager and training designer for a well-known tech company in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she also volunteers to facilitate mindfulness meditation sessions for large and small groups of co-workers, internationally. Ali has formal training in learning design, with a specialization in environmental education, and the psychology and neuroscience of play-based learning. Ali is a climate justice and social justice advocate, and has training in multiple peaceful-action group facilitation modalities, including Nonviolent Communication, Kingian Nonviolence, and the Fierce Vulnerability nonviolent action process developed by the East Point Peace Academy—with whom she also guest facilitated a Fierce Vulnerability four-day workshop. Ali is certified as a practitioner of the somatic healing practices taught by the Luminous Awareness Institute, which incorporates attachment psychology, somatic experiencing, and Reikian/Jungian awareness techniques. Ali strives to bring whole-hearted authenticity, calm optimism, humor, and kind camaraderie to every connection and collaboration.