Meet the Team
Meet our mindfulness teachers and support team
Martin Aylward
Founding co-director of the Mindfulness Training Institute
Martin has been practicing meditation intensively for 30 years and has been teaching dharma and guiding people in their practice since 1999, leading retreats and courses in mindfulness, meditation, and inner freedom.
Martin has practiced meditation intensively since the age of 19, spending 4 years in Asian monasteries and with Himalayan hermits, where he developed a formal meditation practice based on Vipassana and Insight Meditation, while also exploring many different teachings and practice forms.
Martin is the founding and guiding teacher of Moulin de Chaves, a residential meditation centre in South West France where he lives. He is on the teaching faculty at UC Dublin, Ireland for their MSc in Mindfulness Based Interventions, and is also founding teacher of the online meditation platform, worldwideInsight.org.
Find out more about Martin’s teaching at martinaylward.com.
Mark Coleman
Founding co-director of the Mindfulness Training Institute
Mark has devotedly studied mindfulness meditation practices for three decades. Mark holds a MA in Clinical Psychology and is a senior meditation teacher at Spirit Rock Meditation Center. Mark founded the The Mindfulness Institute, where he has brought mindfulness trainings to Fortune 500 companies and the nonprofit sector and leads Professional Mindfulness Teacher Trainings in the US and UK annually.
Mark is a trainer for Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute, developed at Google and leads their mindfulness and emotional intelligence leadership programs worldwide. Mark is the author of Make Peace with Your Mind: How Mindfulness and Compassion Can Help Free You from the Inner Critic and Awake in the Wild: Mindfulness in Nature as a Path of Self-Discovery. Through his organisation Awake in the Wild, Mark shoes his passion for integrating meditation and nature. More about his work can be found at markcoleman.org, mindfulnessconsultants.org, awakeinthewild.com and themindfulnessinstitute.com.
Jennifer Heung
Guest Faculty
Jennifer Heung is a Professor of Anthropology at Saint Mary’s College of California, where she has taught cultural anthropology for over 15 years.
Dr. Heung conducts research on adult learners of the English language in Shanghai, with a particular focus on how language use and participation in activities involving English serve as strategies for cultivating cosmopolitan identities among Chinese urbanites.
Having practiced mindfulness meditation for over 10 years, she began formally integrating mindfulness pedagogy into her own teaching after completing the MTI training in 2015. In addition, Dr. Heung teaches mindfulness courses for different communities with a particular focus on diversity and inclusion.
As a cultural anthropologist, she offers a unique perspective, highlighting the ways mindfulness practices and anthropological perspectives can offer insights on the nature of being human.
Lori Schwanbeck
Guest Faculty
With a background in marketing, positive psychology, and mindfulness practice, Lori brings a unique set of skills and expertise to working with individuals and organizations. She has taught thousands of people in diverse global settings and is known for her ability to foster connection with warmth, humor and authenticity, while inspiring the best in others.
She is a senior faculty member at Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute (SIYLI), an organization born at Google, where she mentors and trains teachers, and designs and facilitates both in-person and virtual mindfulness based emotional intelligence programs. Lori is currently involved in a 2-year project in Bhutan working in partnership with the Gross National Happiness initiative bringing SIYLI’s program to all levels of the Bhutanese government.
Lori is also a curriculum contributor and facilitator at: LinkedIn, Purpose Blue, Wisdom Labs, Mindfulness Rx and the Mindfulness Training Institute. Lori is a faculty member leading nature-based mindfulness retreats at Esalen Institute, Modern Elder Academy, and Canyon Ranch.
Lori holds a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Saskatchewan, and a MA in psychology from the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology. She is a certified Mindfulness Meditation Teacher, trained by Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach through the Greater Good Science Center.
Why train with MTI?
Our certified mindfulness teacher training is co-directed by world-renowned teachers, Mark Coleman and Martin Aylward, who provide trainees with the experiential learning, in-depth instruction and practical skills needed to teach with confidence and clarity.
Next Trainings 2025 and 2026
MTI taking a sabbatical year from training in 2024-25, and the next training, US6, is planned to begin in September 2025, with dates and details to be announced shortly. The next European Training, EU7, is planned to begin in September 2026. If interested to be informed, please contact us.