stefani renee (Briggs) (she/her/they) is the owner of Be.Still.Move., a program of creative arts-based contemplative practices. As a contemplative consultant, she has created workshops for numerous organizations and colleges, including the STEM Women of Color Conclave and the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) institutes: Keystroke, an intensive writing program for HBCU STEM faculty; Teaching to Increase Diversity and Equity in STEM (TIDES); and Reframing Institutional Transformation for Non-Tenure Track Faculty. She was also the LEAD Institute BIPOC coach for the University of Maryland, Baltimore, School of Social Work where she also served as a coach for the school's "Building an Anti-Racist Team."
stefani has served as a facilitator of a number of workshops including “Practical Empowerment,” a year-long program funded by the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society, working with six MSI and HBCU institutions investigating and designing contemplative practices for students of color as well as so-facilitating “Journeying and Returning,” a workshop investigating participants individual lived experiences based on place and ancestry through a series of contemplative practices based on ritual, storytelling and art-based workshops. She has created racially sensitive self-care programs for Collegiate Directions, Inc., the Community College of Baltimore County, and Howard University Hospital.
stefani is the recipient of the 2019 Naropa University Lenz Residential Fellow for “Visioning the Eightfold Path: Liberatory Contemplative Practical Empowerment for African-American Faculty,” addressing inequities through movement-, and arts-based practices incorporating Buddhist and African/African American spiritual wisdoms and was a 2018 Mind & Life Summer Research Institute Investigator for the project, “Anger as a Liberatory Process,” investigating how combining anger through Buddhist Wisdom with African/African-American communal, traditional and contemporary use of storytelling as a pathway to redemption/liberation through engaging with anger and ultimately beginning the work toward shifting the pain of suffering. She is a trained facilitator of Dr. Angel Acosta's 400 Years of Inequality Mindfulness Work and has also taken his Healing Centered Education Practicum led by Latise Hairston and Solana Booth; and has certification in two Naropa University programs: Mindful Compassion Training: WELCOME and Authentic Leadership. She is also certified as a Stephens Minister as well as in Sound Immersion, Reiki Level 2, and MBSR Level 1.
In her TEDx, "Developing Empathy as Practice", she shares her use of empathy in the classroom using a variety of contemplative practices. stefani is currently working on a visual/storytelling project, "Black Spots," a travelogue focusing on the reclamation of memories connected to historic, almost forgotten Black communities across the country.
stefani is a retired English professor from the Community College of Baltimore County in Baltimore, MD, with an MA form New York University and BA for the New School, both in New York City. Her primary training as a mindfulness practitioner began with the teachings of Chogyam Trungpa, Rinpoche and the Shambhala tradition. Her contemplative practices are influenced by her study of vocalization and movement with Meredith Monk; play, art, and mindfulness for people of color with Thich Nhat Hanh ordained Buddhist nun, Sister Jewel; research-to-performance storytelling to social engagement methodology developed by teacher/poet Sekou Sundiata; African communal rituals with Malidoma and Sobonfu Some; and wisdom dreaming practice with Abenaki Lakota elder, LaKotahasie Frazier. stefani continues to experiment various forms of movement, sound, contemplative photography, and occasionally investigating the idea of mindful tap dancing.
stefani has served as a facilitator of a number of workshops including “Practical Empowerment,” a year-long program funded by the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society, working with six MSI and HBCU institutions investigating and designing contemplative practices for students of color as well as so-facilitating “Journeying and Returning,” a workshop investigating participants individual lived experiences based on place and ancestry through a series of contemplative practices based on ritual, storytelling and art-based workshops. She has created racially sensitive self-care programs for Collegiate Directions, Inc., the Community College of Baltimore County, and Howard University Hospital.
stefani is the recipient of the 2019 Naropa University Lenz Residential Fellow for “Visioning the Eightfold Path: Liberatory Contemplative Practical Empowerment for African-American Faculty,” addressing inequities through movement-, and arts-based practices incorporating Buddhist and African/African American spiritual wisdoms and was a 2018 Mind & Life Summer Research Institute Investigator for the project, “Anger as a Liberatory Process,” investigating how combining anger through Buddhist Wisdom with African/African-American communal, traditional and contemporary use of storytelling as a pathway to redemption/liberation through engaging with anger and ultimately beginning the work toward shifting the pain of suffering. She is a trained facilitator of Dr. Angel Acosta's 400 Years of Inequality Mindfulness Work and has also taken his Healing Centered Education Practicum led by Latise Hairston and Solana Booth; and has certification in two Naropa University programs: Mindful Compassion Training: WELCOME and Authentic Leadership. She is also certified as a Stephens Minister as well as in Sound Immersion, Reiki Level 2, and MBSR Level 1.
In her TEDx, "Developing Empathy as Practice", she shares her use of empathy in the classroom using a variety of contemplative practices. stefani is currently working on a visual/storytelling project, "Black Spots," a travelogue focusing on the reclamation of memories connected to historic, almost forgotten Black communities across the country.
stefani is a retired English professor from the Community College of Baltimore County in Baltimore, MD, with an MA form New York University and BA for the New School, both in New York City. Her primary training as a mindfulness practitioner began with the teachings of Chogyam Trungpa, Rinpoche and the Shambhala tradition. Her contemplative practices are influenced by her study of vocalization and movement with Meredith Monk; play, art, and mindfulness for people of color with Thich Nhat Hanh ordained Buddhist nun, Sister Jewel; research-to-performance storytelling to social engagement methodology developed by teacher/poet Sekou Sundiata; African communal rituals with Malidoma and Sobonfu Some; and wisdom dreaming practice with Abenaki Lakota elder, LaKotahasie Frazier. stefani continues to experiment various forms of movement, sound, contemplative photography, and occasionally investigating the idea of mindful tap dancing.