Working with Karolyn Kinane is a transformational experience. I was lucky enough to be part of a multi-course collaboration that Karolyn made possible where we examined contemplation’s role in the creative process. With her organizational skills, creativity, and seemingly limitless support, Karolyn helped us all – instructors and our students – access, articulate, and implement new strengths as learners and educators. I will be forever grateful to Karolyn for approaching our collaboration with her characteristic warmth, generosity, and care. She is an educator who invests herself deeply in the lived experience of those she works with; my students and I continue to benefit from her interventions and insights. — Devin Donovan, Associate Professor

Practicing yoga with Karolyn is simultaneously grounding and  liberating. The flow of yoga poses are organic and thoughtfully put together, allowing space for physical and spiritual expansion. Karolyn’s guidance in one of her yoga classes is like being wrapped in a cozy, fluffy blanket looking at the stars on a brisk fall evening deep in the woods.  -Polly Beckington

I’ve been so fortunate to have learned from Karolyn in a variety of settings.  Her deep knowledge of contemplative pedagogy and practices, along with her profound humaneness, allow her to provide intellectual and emotional support and encouragement for faculty to transform their teaching and daily lives.  As the facilitator of large and small contemplative gatherings, she fosters an open and friendly atmosphere where participants can engage at their own comfort level but are also inspired to explore.  As a course design consultant, she offers rigorous and challenging, but always kind, advice that keeps large-scale goals and practical needs in alignment. Thanks to Karolyn’s mentoring, I have deeply changed the way I think about teaching. — Amy Ogden, Associate Professor

Karolyn is an incredibly gifted facilitator and community builder, full of soul and heart. Her customized consultations and retreats are deeply regenerative. They inspire creativity and values-aligned action. –Dorothe Bach, Associate Director, UVA Center for Teaching Excellence. 

I had the absolute delight to participate in not one but two book clubs led by Karolyn at Now Yoga. Her ability to organically create a safe and open space to express thoughts and ideas is second to none. Karolyn comes prepared, but also reads the room and adjusts as needed. The environment is warm and grounded. There are rituals to connect us deeply to the books and create community and conversation. Karolyn keeps the group on track in terms of time and topics, while allowing participants to feel comfortable sharing their feelings and perspectives without judgement. The tone of the book club is intimate and inspiring to make our world a better place locally and expanding outward nationally and internationally. I highly recommend joining Karolyn for any book club she curates and guides. She is a gem. –NOWYoga student

As the Faculty in Residence at the UML Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching, I have had several opportunities to experience Karolyn Kinane’s gift for contemplative pedagogy. She has generously shared materials for my year-long faculty community that is studying and implementing contemplative pedagogy, her YouTube videos that frame, clarify, and demonstrate contemplative practices for educators have proved extremely helpful to our group. Additionally, Kinane has been available to brainstorm and share ideas any time I have reached out. Most significantly, I had the enormous pleasure of inviting Karolyn Kinane to be the keynote speaker for UML’s annual Faculty Research Symposium. Karolyn spoke to a packed room of faculty from across the disciplines about how contemplative pedagogy helps “people come into their own wisdom by offering tools, vocabulary and space to get present, notice, inquire, engage, and reflect,” as she puts it. Kinane’s keynote demonstrated this brilliantly. Drawing on her extensive experience with this pedagogy and her gift for connecting with faculty, Kinane took us through a well-structured and interactive presentation that engaged the audience in the kind of practices that were being discussed. Framing her presentation around the importance of tending to our dispositions (whether disciplinary or personal), making our process visible, and building awareness and connection, Kinane’s presentation was rooted in ethics and promoted anti-oppressive practices. As a result, participants learned about activities that build students’ capacities for self-awareness, presence, and connection to others in support of ethical action. –Marlowe Miller, Professor, UMass Lowell

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