About Lauren Alderfer

Before Lauren wrote about mindful microdosing, for more than 30 years she worked as an educator and administrator in international schools in Ecuador, India, and El Salvador, and for 25 years she served as adjunct faculty at SIT Graduate Institute, where she taught graduate students preparing to become educators themselves.

Her path into education began with service: Peace Corps training in Honduras, literacy work as a VISTA volunteer in El Paso, research in literacy education at CREFAL in Mexico, and later directing the English language program of the Andean Peace Scholarship Program in Ecuador. She also co-founded a health food store in Cuenca, Ecuador, in 1981.

That background shapes how she works today. Lauren believes that mindfulness is a skill to be taught, practiced, and refined, not a trend. In 2012 she and her daughter founded DayaLife, offering mindfulness and yoga sessions to expatriates living in Asia. Her books extend the same idea to different audiences, from the picture book Mindful Monkey, Happy Panda to Teaching from the Heart of Mindfulness for educators to Mindful Microdosing: A Guidebook and Journal for adults exploring microdosing with intention.