Leslie Booker (she/her), is a 2020 Sojourner Truth Leadership Fellow through Auburn Seminary, and was voted by her peers as one of the 12 Powerful Women in the Mindfulness Movement on Mindful.org. 

Leslie is a cofounder of the Yoga Service Council at Omega Institute and the Meditation Working Group of Occupy Wall Street. She began sharing mindfulness practices with vulnerable populations in 2005 as a senior teacher with Lineage Project, where she worked with incarcerated and vulnerable youth for 10 years. During this time, she facilitated a mindfulness and cognitive-based therapy intervention on Rikers Island, a partnership between New York University and the National Institutes of Health. 

Leslie is a coauthor of Best Practices for Yoga in a Criminal Justice Setting and the books YOGA: The Secret of Life and Happiness at Work. She is a contributor to Georgetown Law’s Center on Poverty and Inequality’s report Gender & Trauma—Somatic Interventions for Girls in Juvenile Justice.
She shares her expertise nationally as a guest lecturer at conferences, universities, and dharma centers, expanding our vision around culturally responsive teaching, and changing the paradigm of self and community care. 

Leslie is a graduate of Spirit Rock’s Mindful Yoga and Meditation training and Community Dharma Leaders’ Training. She brings her heart and wisdom to the intersection of dharma, embodied wisdom, and liberation; an integration of ancient wisdom practices that support us in navigating our modern world.