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Nathan Smalley, Ph.D.

Nathan Smalley is interested in where Zen practice meets ordinary life — in actual bodies, in ordinary places, in encounters that arrive without instructions. His teaching draws together Zen, philosophy, and pedagogy, shaped by a researcher's background in phenomenology and a long practice of paying close attention to what is actually here in schools and organizations.

He is especially drawn to those working under hard conditions — leaders and change agents trying to act with clarity when the stakes are real and the conditions are not forgiving. He has spent twenty-five years in that work himself: as a teacher, a school founder, a district leader, and a chief-level executive. He founded and runs Conscious Schools, a national consultancy that has transformed the practice of hundreds of low-income schools. He lives in Austin with his wife, Jessica, and their son, Parker.

Senior Teacher
Council 1