Ericka Echavarria, LMSW, JD, is an Associate Director of Field Education and Adjunct Faculty at Columbia University School of Social Work. She is dedicated to preparing social work professionals for justice-based practice, emphasizing a lens of power, race, oppression, and privilege. Ericka also incorporates contemplative practices for self-care and self-awareness, social justice advocacy, and ethical …
MLI Affiliation Archives:
Dominique Marie Brown
Dominique Marie Brown is a dedicated educator and holistic practitioner, specializing in the wellbeing of women in the African diaspora. In her journey of grief and healing after the loss of her mother, she found a need for spaces that centered Black women’s wellbeing and wholeness, which inspired her work. With a Ph.D. in Educational …
Edgardo Ramirez
Edgardo Ramirez is a doctoral student/researcher in Clinical Psychology and a Ford Foundation Predoctoral Fellow with over 10 years of community-engaged research experience. As a first-generation, Latinx with immigrant roots, Edgardo aspires to conduct research that centers the lived experiences of underserved communities confronting health-related adversities, specifically cancer. Through leveraging theoretical frameworks that consider how …
Felipe Mercado
Felipe Mercado is a committed scholar and educator who is passionate about advancing inclusive, anti-racist scholarship, science, and education. He is excited to apply for the Global Majority Leadership and Mentorship program to deepen his understanding of mindfulness and compassion practices and learn how to incorporate them into his work. He believes that a focus …
Christa Mahlobo
Dr. Mahlobo is a multicultural psychologist and mindfulness practitioner dedicated to rewriting the narrative around Black youth by centering their flourishing. As a researcher, Christa has found that culturally salient mindfulness and arts and humanities interventions are crucial in increasing flourishing, especially for Black Americans who face daily mind-body impacts of racism. With an interest …
Rui Machado
Rui Seabra Machado is a Brazilian of African descent, hailing from Salvador-Bahia, the city with the largest Afro-Brazilian community. While living in Uruguaiana, Rio Grande do Sul, Rui has been dedicated to helping his community through contemplative practices, especially for vulnerable children. He is married to his beloved wife Gláucia and has a daughter, Maria …
Mansi Brat
Mansi Brat is an academic dedicated to promoting social justice and anti-racist action. Her current research lines include mindfulness-based programs, anti-racist scholarship, counselor professional identity and advocacy, postmodernist theories, and contemplative sciences. She is particularly interested in examining how mindfulness-based programs support social justice activism in counseling practitioners, supervisors, and trainees. Mansi is also focused …
Maha Al-Suwaidi
Maha Al-Suwaidi (she/her) is a graduate student currently in the Health Psychology program at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and a certified yoga teacher (RYT200). As a Muslim, Arab, Middle Eastern woman, she is acutely aware of the impact of colonialism and systemic oppression on minoritized communities and is committed to collective action …
Andrea Haidar
Andrea Haidar is a PhD candidate in clinical psychology at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. She is also a licensed clinical social worker and certified yoga teacher. Her research interests include culturally acceptable and accessible care for racial and ethnic minority communities, stress and resilience, mindfulness-based interventions, and immigrant and refugee mental health. …
Rahil Rojiani
Dr. Rahil Rojiani (they/them) is a queer, genderfluid, South Asian Ismaili Muslim, and a fourth year psychiatry resident at Cambridge Health Alliance / Harvard Medical School. Rahil’s contemplative practices are informed by their Muslim faith, secular mindfulness traditions, and multiple Buddhist lineages, starting at Brown University where they majored in Contemplative Studies—a multi-disciplinary study of …
