I didn’t plan to become a teacher. I just never stopped being a student.

I am Senior Mindfulness Educator at UCLA Mindful, a Heart/Mind Advisor, and the author of The Attentionist — a philosophical fable published in 2026. But before any of those titles, there was simply a calling. One I have been answering for nearly four decades, on four continents, with people of every age, many cultures, and many backgrounds — from individuals seeking peace at home and at work, to some of the world’s most recognized organizations.

I grew up in Iran with Rumi, Hafez, Khayyam, and Ferdowsi as household companions — poets who taught me, before I had words for it, that wisdom is not learned. It is remembered. When I left Iran, I carried that knowing with me — through France, through Australia where my formal meditation practice began, through Canada, and eventually throughout Asia, studying privately with the Venerable Dr. Vivekananda, a renowned Buddhist monk who became one of my most important teachers. The path eventually led me to the Sacred Path Program at the Shambhala Meditation Center of Los Angeles, and to UCLA Mindful. The journey has never really stopped.

I believe we will all return home — to unity, to creation, to each other. Every person I have worked with has confirmed this. Not because they — or I — were already enlightened. Because we were willing to slow down, pay attention, and remember what we already knew.

My work brings together Western professional training and Eastern inner-based wisdom — not as two separate disciplines, but as one living approach to being human at work and at home.

I am also a painter, a poet, and the creator of Contemplative Art Viewing experiences at the Hammer and Fowler Museums. I have served as a Human Rights Commissioner and Adjudicator in Ontario, Canada. And once — in a moment that still makes me smile — mindfulness met royalty, and I received the Golden Jubilee Medal from Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

My clients have ranged from individuals seeking peace at home and at work, to organizations including Amazon, Merrill Lynch, Unilever, UCLA Anderson, the Senate of Canada, Christian Dior, Hugo Boss, KPMG, C.A.A., Labatt Brewery, Thomas Cook, The Capital Group, United Health Group, the Annenberg Foundation, USC, Claremont College, the Fowler Museum, and the Screen Actors Guild, among many others.