Board of Directors
Julia Keller – Executive Director
Julia has 20 years of experience working with children who have learning disabilities as both an educator and a researcher. She has been the Principal Investigator on four school-based intervention studies looking at the impact of mindfulness training on the development of attention, working memory, emotion regulation, and academic progress in elementary students. She is the author of Mindful Interventions in Special Education, a book that helps educators develop their intervention toolkit. She is passionate about helping young people find ways to be more mindful, joyful, creative, compassionate, generous, and productive at school and at home. She is an expert on stress management for kids; for more information go to her website: drjuliakeller.com. Julia received a Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology from the University of New Mexico. Contact Julia at julia @ mindfulyouthinstitute.org.
Patrick Keller – President
Patrick has fifteen years of experience working in K-12 public schools—as an English teacher, a library/media specialist, and a journalism instructor. Patrick also has two years of experience as a professor, instructing undergraduate and graduate students in pedagogy, systems thinking, educational technology, designing of training, educational psychology, assessment, information literacy, and the production and utilization of teaching materials. Patrick completed his Ph.D. in Organization, Information, and Learning Sciences from the University of New Mexico with emphases in distance education, instructional design, information literacy, and gamification in education. Contact Patrick at patrick @ mindfulyouthinstitute.org.
Advisory Board
David Witherington
David is an Associate Professor at the University of New Mexico. His research focuses on the study of emotional and cognitive development in infants and preschoolers, as well as on the study of perceptual-motor development in infancy. David received his Ph.D. in developmental science from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1998 and subsequently completed a 4 year postdoctoral position at the University of Virginia before arriving at the University of New Mexico in 2002.
Fall 2024 Research Assistants
Aryssa Mendoza : RA, Fall 2024
Aryssa is a psychology major at the University of New Mexico, minoring in women, gender, and sexuality studies. Her work for MYI includes publicizing events, raising money for further research and making the MYI website updated, and functional through her positions on the PR and Web Developers team. Aryssa has experience working with individuals with disabilities through her job as a medical assistant, and takes a huge responsibility to ensure patient happiness, and comfortability. She intends on completing a Masters degree in Counseling following her Bachelors to work with children and young adults in terms of mental illness and disabilities.
Elise Chavez : RA, Fall 2024
Elise is currently in her third year at the University of New Mexico, where she is studying Psychology and minoring in both Honors and Family & Child Studies. She is part of the Public Relations team working with the Mindful Youth Institute. After graduating from UNM, Elise aspires to pursue graduate studies with the goal of becoming a counselor. Her interests include positive psychology and mental health. Through her studies so far she has learned how mindfulness practices can significantly change your life and improve mental well-being. While working with The Mindful Youth Institute she hopes to share and deepen her understanding of the importance of mindfulness.
Kelly L. Bahr : RA, Fall 2024
Kelly has worked in Film and Television for over a decade and has recently brought that range of knowledge together with her interest in undergraduate psychology research work. Her interests include biodiversity, cognition, human scale technology, and evolutionary mismatches. She is currently working on a primate study as a student at The University of New Mexico, where she is learning how to gather and use observational data on chimpanzees. She is also currently working with the Mindful Youth Institute on both the Public Relations team and on the Coding team. With this project she looks forward to learning more about methodologies to use both quantitative and qualitative data. She hopes to use these skills to find a career with purpose, where she can help humans and other animals to have healthier lives in the future.
Malaya Ramos : RA, Fall 2024
Malaya is in her senior year of my undergraduate program at UNM studying Psychology with a minor in Public Service. Their role for MYI is working on the Coder team and the Web designers team. The Coders team will be accurately coding data collected while the Web designer team ensures the MYI website is cohesive and functional. Malaya is the current Outreach Coordinator at Agora Crisis Center, interacting with the public and educating the local community in Suicide Awareness’ and Intervention. Malaya plans on going to graduate school to pursue a PhD in Psychology, with the goal to become a licensed therapist and to expand mental health care to underserved communities.
Michelle Almeida : RA, Fall 2024
Michelle is a Senior at UNM, majoring in Psychology with a double minor in Business Administration and Family and Child Studies. She is passionate about contributing to research that positively impacts youth globally. She is currently involved with MYI, where she leads the website design team and contributes to the coding team. Their focus is on creating an accessible website that promotes mindfulness practices for both parents and children and serves as a resource for students. This role allows her to combine her interests in psychology, coding, and community engagement. Michelle plans to pursue a master’s degree in either Organizational Psychology or Business Administration, while continuing to engage in research focused on data analytics at Sandia National Laboratories.
Nathaniel Williams : RA, Fall 2024
Nate is majoring in Psychology and minoring in Communications at The University of New Mexico. He is part of the MYI writing and transcribing teams. The writing team is working on creating newsletters that will help parents, teachers, and children better understand bullying and the effects it can have. As a transcriber he and his team will be transcribing the interviews with research participants to assist with MYI’s research on bullying. Nate is interested in pursuing a career in psychology and believes in the importance of learning more about bullying so that we can better help children. After he completes his Bachelor’s degree, he plans to pursue graduate studies and eventually work as a therapist to help children.
Serena Lopez : RA, Fall 2024
Serena Lopez is double-majoring in Psychology and Criminology at The University of New Mexico. She is a part of the MYI PR team for research on bullying. Her roles include publicizing events, fundraising, and communication with potential sponsors and cultivating relationships with them. Serena has experience with mindfulness, positive psychology, and working with middle school students, and hopes to gain more through working with MYI. After graduating from UNM, she hopes to pursue a higher degree of education through graduate school.
Shayne Martinez : RA, Fall 2024
Shayne Martinez is majoring in psychology with a minor in biology at The University of New Mexico. Shayne wanted to be an RA to get more experience in labs and apply her academics to a real-world setting. For MYI, she is transcribing interviews for MYI’s research on bullying. Shayne and her team write newsletters for MYI and so much more. Shayne says Working with MYI means helping children and gaining a better understanding of child psychology. She is very proud to be a part of an organization that truly wants to help the community. In the future she hopes to go into graduate school and gain a deeper understanding of psychology and neuroscience and become a full-time researcher.
Tiffani Steskal : RA, Fall 2024
Tiffani Steskal is a psychology major, and is minoring in criminology at the University of New Mexico. Tiffani is working with MYI to gain experience in this field so she can use the acquired experience to help with other research studies and conduct her own research in the future. Her role on the team is to help recruit participants, fundraise, and code data through her positions on the PR and Coders team. She has experience with positive psychology and practicing mindfulness due to her leadership and volunteer skills through AGORA crisis center.