Nayaswami Nischala
Director
Nayaswami Nischala is co-founder of Ananda College of Living Wisdom and the New Horizons Gap Year. She and her husband Nakula lived at Ananda’s remote Meditation Retreat for 18 years, started the college here in 2003, and for many years served as Directors of both the Meditation Retreat and the college. She has been a minister and Lightbearer with Ananda Sangha for 25 years, and a practitioner of Yogananda’s Kriya Yoga for over 36 years. Nischala enjoys working with people of all ages and walks of life. She took her Nayaswami monastic vows in 2009. She directs the college curriculum and online programs. For Ananda College she has led spiritual tours to Northern and Southern India, Italy, France, England, Peru, and Egypt. Nischala is also author of Reflections on Living 30 Years in a Spiritual Community, and the Amazon bestseller, The Four Stages of Yoga (Crystal Clarity, Publishers, 2018).
Nefretete Rasheed, PhD
Instructor
Nefretete is a graduate of New York University. She has a rich and varied background in the arts, education, and creative arts therapy. She has received poetry and theater awards from the Princess Grace Foundation, NJ State Council on the Arts, DC Arts and Humanities, and the National Academy of American Poets. A guest lecturer for Rutgers University, NY State University and others, she was also a Geraldine Dodge Foundation poet, and instituted a number of innovative arts and education programs for many cultural organizations including The New York Shakespeare Festival/Public Theater, The New Jersey Performing Arts Center, New York Council on the Arts and the Westchester Arts Council.
Byasa Steinmetz
Instructor
David (Byasa) Steinmetz is an expert in the Yuga Cycles of Time and is co-author of The Yugas, Keys to Understanding our Hidden Past, Emerging Present and Future Enlightenment. He has been on the faculty of Ananda College since the beginning, and has been a Kriya Yogi for over four decades. His background as a scientist and astronomer and his knowledge of history and ancient cultures offers students a rare opportunity to learn about the cosmos. He is also the founder of Ananda College’s Library of Higher Consciousness.
Rebecca Davis, PhD
Instructor
Rebecca has taught writing to college students since 1998, most recently as a senior lecturer at Antioch University Seattle. She is also a workshop presenter who delights in helping others give birth to creative projects and sharing writing techniques designed to help people develop intuition and manifest their most joyful lives. A long-time meditator, she lives at the Ananda Community in Seattle. She holds a PhD in Literature and Critical Theory from the University of Washington and an MFA in Fiction from Purdue University. Her work has appeared in literary magazines, scholarly journals, and newspapers; visit storyconscious.com to read samples of her work.
Laura Beebe
Instructor
Laura has been a college professor, outdoor educator, and park ranger. For the last 17 years, she has worked as a college professor and undergraduate instructor for Sterling College, Prescott College, and the University of Alaska. Laura’s educational philosophy is steeped in experiential and self-directed learning. To this end, Laura has designed and led wilderness and international college courses that integrate the disciplines of cultural studies, ecology, spirituality, and education. Additionally, Laura has 25 years leading multi week expeditions in the outdoor pursuits of mountaineering, sea kayaking, white-water canoeing, and technical backpacking through NOLS, the University of Colorado, and Manito-wish. Laura has led outdoor and cultural courses on four different continents and is particularly drawn to the high mountains of the world, especially the Rockies, Sierra Nevada, and Himalayas. She has also worked as a park ranger and naturalist guide throughout the Alaskan and western Park Systems. Laura’s ultimate passion is helping college aged students discover their unique path and purpose for life.
Laura is a certified Wilderness First Responder, Leave No Trace Master Educator, Avalanche Rescuer, and Naturalist Interpreter. She has a M.A. in Geography and a B.A. with double majors in Environmental Studies and Adventure Education from Prescott College.
Laura has been following the teachings of Paramhansa Yogananda for close to twenty years and is a practitioner of Kriya yoga. She has studied both the traditions of Christian mysticism and Vedic philosophy.
Jenny Kellogg, PhD
Instructor
Jenny holds a PhD in Modern Languages and Literatures from the Universite Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Belgium and a BA in Classical Philology from Beloit College. She has worked in academia and non-profits in a variety of administrative and leadership roles, including ten years at Harvard University’s Center for Hellenic Studies. Since 2005, Jenny has developed and led many service-learning programs for college students in Greece. Jenny is a Kriyaban and a disciple of Paramhansa Yogananda since 2013. She teaches the courses “Comparative Mythology of Greece, India, and Egypt,” “Finding Your Dharma,” and leads travel-study tours to Greece for Ananda College. Besides teaching, Jenny is both an astrologer and spiritual coach, helping her clients navigate change, find meaning in their lives, and reconnect to their authentic selves. She specializes in trauma-informed astrology, combining the Compassionate Inquiry approach of Dr. Gabor Mate with modern astrological techniques and ancient wisdom traditions. She is also a literary translator from the Modern Greek and enjoys volunteer work within Greece’s refuge crisis.
Kathleen Benson
Instructor
Kathleen Benson, M.A. is a graduate of the Leadership Institute of Seattle and holds a graduate degree in Applied Behavioral Sciences. She is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and has developed her expertise over 35 years of practice and study in the fields of self-transformation, spirituality, and trauma.In 2018 Kathleen faced a life-threatening illness that caused her to radically refocus her life. Her life mission now is to help others learn the spiritual anatomy of healing and mostly, to experience En Theos (the God Within).
Kathleen is the founder of EMDR First Aid, an educational training service that instructs spiritual seekers how to overcome challenging emotions and live with greater ease, inner freedom and joy. In 1997, Kathleen co-founded Ananda’s first Education for Life preschool and has served as a school administrator for both private and public-school sectors. Kathleen is Kriyaban and has been a disciple of Paramhansa Yogananda since 1994. She is also an avid follower of Dr. Joe Dispenza’s neuroscience methods for transformation, change, and epigenetics.
Listen to Kathleen describe her course, The Spiritual Anatomy of Healing.
Anandi Gray
Instructor
Carol is a licensed clinical and mental health counselor and has taught psychology, yoga, and meditation for more than 20 years. She taught Raja Yoga in the Philosophy Department at Southern Oregon University and Substance Abuse Counseling in the Psychology Graduate Program. Anandi has a gift for clarifying the teachings of yoga and making them practical. She currently lives at the Ananda Meditation Retreat where she continues to teach Yoga, Meditation, and Yoga Psychology.
Rama Cryer
Assistant Instructor
Born and raised in the Ananda spiritual community, Rama has studied the Yuga Cycles of Time since he was 16. He graduated from the Ananda High School and earned his degree in Theater Arts from Chico State University and the University College Cork in Cork, Ireland. He has studied the Yuga Cycles in Egypt, Peru, and New Zealand. He is also an artist, builder, wilderness hiker and nature lover.
Satyaki Kraig Brockschmidt
Board Member
Kraig (Satyaki) Brockschmidt has served on the Board of Directors for Ananda College since the college started. He is a father and husband and currently lives at Ananda Village. He has served in engineering capacities at Microsoft since the company’s early years, and is the author of Mystical Microsoft: A Journey of Transformation in the Halls of High Technology, The Harmonium Handbook and Solving Stress: The Power to Remain Cool and Calm Amidst Chaos. He is a gifted singer and performs with the Ananda Choir.
Nayaswami Nakula
Board Member
Nayaswami Nakula is the original co-founder of Ananda College of Living Wisdom and for many years served as the college’s Financial Director. He is a Nayaswami, Lightbearer and Minister with Ananda Sangha and has been part of the Ananda Community for nearly 50 years, arriving as a young adult in 1970, creating a 12-cow organic dairy and other small businesses, and later establishing a thriving company that provides traditional and natural construction for commercial and residential spaces. He studied architecture at the University of Illinois and mentored with Meridian Construction in Washington, DC. He was project manager for the Temple of Light of all Religions and for the Moksha Mandir, both sacred temples at Ananda Village.
Amit Goswami, Ph.D.
Theoretical Quantum Physicist
Advisory Board / Faculty
Amit Goswami, Ph. D. was a professor in the theoretical physics department of the University of Oregon in Eugene. He is a pioneer of the new paradigm of science called “science within consciousness.” Goswami is the author of the highly successful textbook Quantum Mechanics that is used in Universities throughout the world. His two volume textbook for nonscientists, The Physicist’s View of Nature traces the decline and rediscovery of the concept of God within science.
Mataji Vanamali Devi
Advisory Board / Faculty
One of India’s leading female mystics, Vanamali Devi lives in her small ashram overlooking the Ganges River in Rishikesh, India. She is an expert in Hinduism, yoga, and Sanatan Dharma, the eternal religion. A close spiritual friend of Swami Kriyananda, she has served on Ananda College’s advisory board for over a decade, and is author of many books, including The Song of God and other in-depth books on all the major Hindu deities. After Swami Kriyananda’s death in 2013, when Nakula, Nischala and Rama purchased land across the street from Ananda, Mataji suggested it be named “Karuna Sagara”, which is Sanskrit for “Ocean of Compassion”.
Chitra Sudhakaran
Guest Faculty
Chitra is guest faculty in the area of Inspirational Arts. She was born in Kerala, South India and received an outstanding artist award from the President of India when she was a young girl. She is an alumni of Ananda College, and now lives in Dubai, UAE, where she works as an artist and teacher with The Louvre.
Leiya Mahoney
Guest Musician / Artist
Leiya is a New Horizons guest musician, performer and artist. Leiya is a gifted singer, musician, kirtan leader, and healer. After college, Leiya traveled throughout the west as lead-singer for her own band. She was born and raised at Ananda Village and graduated from Ananda High School. She graduated from Mills College in the Bay Area with a degree in Healing Arts and Music. Leiya is also a certified Birth Dhula and Massage Therapist. She is co-owner of The Sun Room Healing Arts in downtown Nevada City.