Administrative Coordinator: Michael Girodo UndergraduateAdvisor: Debbie Roach
Core Faculty
Richard C. Brown, Co-Chair, Department of Contemplative Education BA, Knox College
MA, The Naropa Institute
Graduate Study, Earlham School of Religion
Certificate in Elementary Education, University of Denver
Richard C. Brown founded the Contemplative Education Department at Naropa University in 1990. The department adapts wisdom, compassion and skillful means drawn from Buddhist and holistic education traditions to non-sectarian teacher education. Its programs include a BA in Early Childhood Education, a fifth-year state teacher licensure program and a low-residency MA in Contemplative Education. After teaching public elementary school, Richard taught seven years during the 1980s at The Vidya School, a Buddhist-inspired K-12 in Boulder. Since then he has been involved in the formation of several contemplative schools, has helped develop Buddhist rites of passage programs and has published a Buddhist view of child and adolescent spiritual development. Richard has mainly written on various areas of contemplative teacher education including emotion, awareness and observation.
Lee Worley BA, Mount Holyoke College
MA, Naropa University
Lee Worley founded the Theatre Studies program at Naropa in 1974. She has developed contemplative exercises for arts in education and contemplative education programs throughout her career at Naropa. She also taught theatre at a Buddhist-inspired middle school in Boulder for many years. She is one of a very few holders of the Mudra Space Awareness lineage—a performance training derived from Tibetan Yoga. She was a founding member, actress and teacher in Joseph Chaikin's Open Theater and is a senior student of Tibetan Buddhism. Her recent book, Coming from Nothing: The Sacred Art of Acting, outlines her contemplative acting method.
Deborah Young BFA, BA, BS, MA, University of Colorado
MEdS, University of Colorado
Deborah Young began her career life as a juvenile probation officer with the Boulder County Sheriff’s Department. Understanding the challenges and limitations of the justice system, she moved into the educational system hoping to give a stronger voice to children. Her teaching career started at Boulder High School where she was drawn into a lifelong commitment to early childhood education and the needs of the poor. She trained with Dr. Caspari in Montessori’s work for children and peace and with Dr. Glenn Doman in brain development at the Philadelphia Institute for the Achievement of Human Potential. She continues her passion of researching the special needs of single mothers and the impact of poverty on families and children. Debbie has set up programs to serve these needs locally and internationally. She has volunteered for more than twenty-three years in many programs serving women from lesser developed countries. She has combined her academics with service work in the Sanctuary movement of the 1980’s sheltering refugee women and on providing education and avenues of empowerment for women and children. Debbie has founded many schools during the past twenty-seven years including a middle school based on service learning. She has been involved in the charter school movement and was instrumental in initiating both the North Routt Charter School and the Steamboat Springs Montessori public school program. Her current passion she shares with students at Naropa is through a small nonprofit initiative called Americas Association for the Care of Children (AACC). AACC designs and directs community development programs serving women and children in rural villages and impoverished urban areas of Central America. Debbie’s classes involve service work commitment and many times international travel.
Adjunct Faculty
Michael Girodo BA, Psychology, Naropa University
MA candidate, Interdisciplinary Studies: Education and Art, Naropa University
Prior to receiving his BA from Naropa in 1987, Michael worked in the field of early childhood education as a trained Montessori teacher. He has also worked at Alaya Preschool and Blue Sky Kindergarten developing his understanding of both contemplative early education and Waldorf-inspired early education. Since his graduation he has worked for Naropa University in the areas of International Education coordinating trips to Nepal; in the Performing Arts Center as assistant director in charge of lights, sound and set design. His most current position began in 1999 when he became the administrative director for the Contemplative Education Department, advisor for the MA program and adjunct faculty for the BA Early Childhood Education program. He is also working toward an MA in Contemplative Education and Art through Naropa University’s Interdisciplinary Studies program.
Gene Hooley BA, Psychology, Southeastern Massachusetts University
MEd, Education/Early Childhood, Antioch University
Darlene Lorrain BA, Dance, Naropa University
A master teacher at Alaya Preschool, Naropa University’s lab school, Darlene has been developing and teaching innovative children’s programs for the past twenty-five years. She has also been adjunct faculty in Naropa’s Early Childhood Education Department from its inception. Currently she trains teachers and interns and is a family coach. As an early childhood education specialist, she is recognized for her creative approach in meeting and guiding the energetic needs of young children.
Mindy Upton
BS, State University of New York
Graduate work: Hunter College,
Rudolf Steiner College, CA
Sunbridge College
Rudolf Steiner Institute, NY
Spatial Dynamics Study/Bothmer Gymnastics, NY
Richard C. Brown, Co-Chair, Department of Contemplative Education 
Lee Worley