Nefretete Rasheed, Ph.D.

Nefretete Rasheed, Ph.D., educator, therapist and writer, serves as an administrator for Ananda University.  She previously served as Faculty and administrative staff for the University’s California campus.  A graduate of New York University with majors in Psychology and Drama Therapy, she will chair the Inspirational and Therapeutic Arts program for the MA program in Consciousness Studies. She has lectured for Rutgers University, NY State University, and for the School of Visual Arts (NYC) in the Graduate Art Therapy Department.   More recently, she taught a course on Meditation and Yogic Movement for Sierra College.  She was the Educational and Clinical Director for Aspirations Inc., an organization that promotes teaching and healing through the arts and was the Senior Educational Programs Officer for New York’s largest Arts Council in Westchester County.  She has received poetry and theatre awards from the NJ State Council on the Arts, the Princess Grace Foundation, the D.C. Arts and Humanities Commission, the National Academy of American Poets and the Geraldine Dodge Foundation.  She was also invited by McGraw Hill Publishers to join a group of educators to co-author a text, Theater in Action. She worked for many years at The Public Theater in New York City where she combined her talents and training in the arts, healing, and education to institute a number of groundbreaking programs for the NY Shakespeare Festival’s Education Department. She has toured Europe, Russia, Africa, and Australia as a performing artist, director, and poet and has served as a panelist,  assessment specialist and evaluator for many arts councils and organizations.  She has lectured as an interdisciplinary arts educator on Theatre, Writing, Dance, Drama, Drama Therapy, Multicultural Studies, Philosophy and Esoteric Studies.   Dr. Rasheed also worked for many years as a clinician on the Chronic Psychiatric and Rehabilitation Units at NY Presbyterian Hospital, Jacobi Hospital, Interfaith Medical Center, and in private practice.  She began meditating at a very young age and later became a director for the New York Esoteric School where she taught and developed programs in Hermetic Philosophy, Comparative Religion, and Meditation.  She was initiated into the Nayaswami Order in 2010 and lives at Ananda Village in Nevada City, CA.