Stefani Renee Briggs

Stephanie Briggs (she/her/hers) is the owner of Be.Still.Move. (www.bestillmove.com), a program of creative, arts-based contemplative practices. For seven years, she has provided contemplative practices for AAC&U’s undergraduate STEM programs: Keystroke, TIDES, and Reframing Institutional Transformation for Non-Tenure Track Faculty Institutes. She has created workshops for the USGS, STEM Women of Color Conclave, University of Maryland School of Social Work, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, and others. Stephanie’s work is anchored in her research as a Lenz Residential Fellow for “Visioning the Eightfold Path: Liberatory Contemplative Practical Empowerment for African-American Faculty,” using movement-, and arts-based practices based on Buddhist and African/African American spiritual wisdoms to create healing circles in the academy. Her earlier research, “Anger as a Liberatory Process,” during her time as a Mind & Life Summer Research Institute Investigator, utilized somatic storytelling combined with Buddhist Wisdom and African/African-American communal practices to serve as a pathway to shift the pain of anger/suffering into redemption/liberation. Based on these and other programs, Stephanie currently incorporates Joy Practice in her workshops as a crucial and necessary act of resistance when faced with overwhelming challenges. Stephanie has certifications in Mindful Compassion Training, Authentic Leadership, Stephens Ministry, and in Sound Healing. She is Reiki Level 2 and MBSR Level 1. Her TEDx, "Developing Empathy as Practice", focuses on the use of contemplative practices to create communities of care. Stephanie 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.

And, along the way, she is continually reminded to reflect on the Zen proverb, “The obstacle is the path.”