Meet Our Team

Steven D. Hickman, Psy.D.

Director, UC San Diego Center for Mindfulness

Dr. Steven Hickman is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist and has a joint appointment as an Associate Clinical Professor in the UCSD Departments of Psychiatry and Family and Preventive Medicine. Dr. Hickman is the Founder and Director of the UCSD Center for Mindfulness, a program of community building, clinical care, professional training and research. Since founding the Center in 2000, he has taught over 40 Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) courses, as well as adapting the program for nurses, medical students and other professional and clinical populations. The Center for Mindfulness has also become a global leader in providing professional training in the burgeoning field of mindfulness-based interventions for professionals of all sorts.  Dr. Hickman is also a member of the Executive Committee of the UC San Diego Center for Integrative Medicine. He is married and has three teenage children, affording him ample opportunities to practice what he preaches.

Allan Goldstein

Associate Director, UC San Diego Center for Mindfulness
Senior Teacher

Allan has been involved in learning and teaching Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Programs (MBSR) since participating in his first program in 1993. Since that time he has trained in facilitating MBSR with the UMass Center for Mindfulness (CFM) and has gone on to teach MBSR to groups and individuals in universities, business and community settings. His work has also led him to teaching in military installations and even in the virtual world of Second Life. Allan has a strong passion for promoting the valuable work of mindfulness-based interventions and applies that passion in his role as Associate Director, spearheading marketing and program development efforts of the center, as well as leading MBSR and other mindfulness groups.

Lorraine M. Hobbs, MA, CHom

Director, Youth and Family Programs
Senior Teacher

Lorraine M. Hobbs, M.S., CHom., is a senior MBSR teacher at the UCSD Center for Mindfulness.  She received her training under the supervision of Dr. Steve Hickman. She has served as clinical director of in-patient and residential treatment programs, where she worked extensively with teens and their families. Her interest in integrative medicine and in the growing research on the consequences of stress and the executive function of the brain in children/teens inspired her to create a six week Mindfulness/Stress Reduction training program for Teens at the UCSD Center for Mindfulness.  Her interest in reaching a larger population of teens and pre-teens led to the implementation of an eight-week mindfulness based curriculum in schools, designed to reduce stress, improve self-regulation and concentration and enhance the learning process.  In addition.  Lorraine developed a Mindful Parenting program, which supports parents in developing a greater capacity to parent with compassion and presence.  She is also a part of the Mindfulness in Schools teaching/training team in the U.K. and lectures on the efficacy of Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction with teens in the community.  She is a certified Iyengar yoga teacher and Homeopathic practitioner.

Michelle Becker, MA, LMFT

Director of Compassion Programs
Senior Teacher

Michelle Becker is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist with a private practice in Poway, CA. She was trained in MBSR through the University of Massachusetts Medical Center program, under the direction of Jon Kabat-Zinn and Saki Santorelli. Additionally, numerous other trainings and mindfulness retreats have helped her hone the craft of utilizing mindfulness with patients in her private practice. Michelle credits her own personal mindfulness practice with her effectiveness as a teacher and psychotherapist. Michelle believes when we meet suffering with awareness and kindness it is often life-changing.

Ellyn Wolfe, MEd 

Director of Workplace Initiatives & Giving

For the past twenty years, Ellyn has been active in helping corporate America to relax and be mindful.  She developed and taught Stress Management and Wellness programs in Fortune 500 companies for the Mind/Body Medical Institute and WFD in Boston, as Work/Life Director at Fleet Boston Financial, and as Human Resources Director at the San Diego Convention Center. Ellyn holds a master’s degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Education in Human Development and Psychology and a Master’s Certificate in Evidence Based Coaching from the Fielding Institute in Santa Barbara. She received Clinical Training in Mind/Body Medicine with Dr. Herbert Benson at the Mind/Body Medical Institute (now the Benson-Henry Institute) in Boston.

Megan Leuchars

Adele Josepho, MD

Senior MBSR Teacher

Adele Josepho, MD has been a mindfulness practitioner for 12 years. She has completed both the Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction in Mind-Body Medicine training with Jon Kabat-Zinn, Ph.D. and Saki Santorelli, Ph.D. and the MBSR Intensive Training at UMASS Center for Mindfulness. Board Certified in Psychiatry and Holistic Medicine, she is a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association. Dr. Josepho is a graduate of Georgetown University Medical School and Clinical Instructor in Psychiatry (Voluntary) at UCSD Medical School. She practices psychiatry in Del Mar, CA.

Lois Howland, DrPH, RN

Senior MBSR Teacher

Lois Howland, DrPH, RN, completed the professional training program in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction at the Center for Mindfulness, University of Massachusetts Medical School, and at the Omega Institute with Jon Kabat-Zinn, PhD, and Saki Santorelli, EdD. She has been a mindfulness practitioner since 2000. Dr. Howland is a graduate of the UCSF School of Nursing, and the Harvard School of Public Health. Dr. Howland is a full-time faculty member in the School of Nursing, University of San Diego, and conducts research related to biological mechanisms of stress particularly as it affects maternal and child health.

Luis Morones, MA MFT

Senior MBSR Teacher

Luis Morones MFT has had a mindfulness practice since 1987 when he first began attending classes with Jack Kornfield in Marin County, Ca. Luis has a private practice as a family therapist in San Diego and Chula Vista . He has trained with Dr. Steve Hickman at the UCSD Center for Mindfulness . He has worked as a therapist since 1980 primarily with at risk families, refugee youth and adults who have a history of mental illness in their families . He has a special interest in the development of MBSR in Spanish and has taught the MBSR class in the Latino community. He is developing a Mindfulness Based Therapy specialty in his private practice that seeks to integrate spirituality, and psychology.

Livia Walsh, RN, LMFT

Senior MBSR Teacher

Livia Walsh is a nurse and licensed psychotherapist in private practice in Encinitas, California. She developed an interest and pursued training in the area of holistic/integrative health including mindfulness over her 30 plus years of professional practice. She completed the MBSR training program at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center and Omega Institute under the direction of Jon Kabat Zinn, Saki Santorelli and the senior teaching staff. Ms Walsh also teaches MBSR at the Senior Center in Encinitas. She integrates mindfulness in her work with patients and students. In her capacity as clinical supervisor at San Diego Hospice and other institutions she has taught mindfulness-based interventions to graduate/post-graduate students and professional staffs. Ms. Walsh believes strongly in the mind-body connection and in an integrative approach to achieve and sustain optimal health and well being.

Deborah Rana, MD

Senior MBSR Teacher

Deborah Rana M.D. is a board-certified pediatrician with an academic appointment in the Preventive Medicine program in the UCSD School of Medicine. She received her Practicum Training in Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction at the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine in Massachusetts. She has been teaching mindfulness to physicians since 2007. Dr. Rana believes mindfulness practice has an important place in helping health professionals develop skills which foster their own health and well-being and in so doing, can enhance their ability to authentically cultivate healing relationships with patients and their families over time.

Rebecca Cherry, MD, MPH

Dr. Cherry is a practicing pediatric gastroenterologist at Rady Children’s Hospital, San Diego.  She takes a special interest in the treatment of chronic pain in children and adolescents, and in the use of non-pharmacologic treatment of various gastrointestinal disorders.  In her clinical practice, she encourages patients to explore the connection between mind and body.  In addition to her specialized medical expertise, Dr. Cherry has trained in clinical hypnosis.  She has an MD degree and a Masters in Public Health from Harvard University and did her post-graduate training at Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital and Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.

Cherylynn Glaser, MA

Mindful Eating Teacher

Cherylynn earned her Master’s Degree in Clinical Psychology from the California School of Professional Psychology in San Diego and is currently working on obtaining her PhD. Her primary interests include eating disorders, mindful eating, bariatric surgery and obesity. She spent last summer working as a behavioral coach at a weight loss and wellness camp for children and adults where she taught mindful eating principals as well as provided individual and group therapy. She has also worked with patients who have had weight loss surgery and has co-lead post surgical therapy groups where she taught mindfulness methods. Cherylynn believes that the key components to living a healthy life include the acknowledgement, acceptance, and cultivation of the mind body connection and that mindfulness is a medium through which one can learn to nurture these.