Who We Are

Danielle Nicholas is a mindfulness and meditation practitioner with over 20 years’ experience. She has an undergraduate degree in Religious Studies with a focus on Eastern religions from Brown University. Additionally, she has a Master’s in Education with a focus on biology teaching for grades 5-12 and. This interdisciplinary background enables her to work with students from a deep understanding of both the science and practice of mindfulness. Her instruction inherently seeks to create an environment for critical thought and reflection.

Danielle is non-tenure track faculty at Montana State University and has a proven record of student engagement. Danielle is a certified Koru Mindfulness teacher and teaches MMPs young adult offerings. She has called Bozeman home since 2000 and is committed to creating a community of belonging. She has been on the board of the Montana Mindfulness Project since 2020.

Kodee has been a non-traditional educator since graduating college. She studied History-Political Science, Spanish, and International Businesses at Jamestown College in North Dakota. Her teaching and group facilitation experience includes teaching English at Máximo Nivel in Guatemala, teaching environmental education at Echo Hill Outdoor School in Maryland and Nature's Classroom in New England, and facilitating teen volunteers abroad in the Dominican Republic, Peru, Ecuador, and the British Virgin Islands. In Bozeman Kodee has worked as the Admissions and Outreach Director at Montana Wilderness School and teaching Spanish at Bozemen Field School. Kodee also has found herself nestled into the yoga community in Bozeman while facilitating classes around town and is excited to continue to share the power of the breath and mindfulness with others in and around the valley.

Dagny Deutchman (she/they) is a mindfulness and meditation practitioner and movement facilitator with over 20 years’ experience. She has an undergraduate degree from University of Montana in Psychology with a research emphasis and a dance performance and pedagogy minor. Additionally, she has a Master’s in Psychology with a focus on how mindfulness and self-compassion relate to sleep. Dagny has also been a backcountry guide for 15+ years where she helps facilitate deep connection to self, nature, and others. Dagny’s diverse background combines philosophy and evidence-based science with creative everyday practice in the real and natural worlds. Her instruction style meets students in their current chapter of life and emboldens them to emphasize their own inherent curiosity, creativity, discernment, and wisdom.

Dagny is a wilderness guide, a movement facilitator, and integrative sleep hygiene specialist. She is a NARM (Neuroaffective Relational Model of Trauma) certified teacher and has started teaching with MMP in the fall of 2023. She has called Montana home since 2010 and been rooted in Bozeman since 2019.

Amy Carse was raised in Vermont on a farm between two covered bridges. After getting a Bachelor’s degree at UVM in Anthropology and Environmental Studies in the early 90’s she went to find bigger mountains and fewer bugs in Montana and found Bozeman to be home. Her mindfulness meditation practice began in 1992 while attending a 10-day silent meditation retreat with a Buddhist monk in Thailand. Her fascination with how humans adapt to their environment and a love for wild places, people and travel led her to become a professional Mountain Guide in the US and Nepal for the first two decades of her adult life, where climbing was her mindfulness practice. She still enjoys adventuring and discovering new things, but current expeditions are more often to explore the workings of her own mind. She is passionate about individual and community well-being and continues to better herself so she can show up as her best for those around her. Amy believes that we are more the same than different and that given the right tools, we can interact with ourselves and each other in a positive manner. She loves to teach children and adults and is a Certified Mindfulness teacher through Mindful Schools. She looks forward to sharing these Mindfulness practices with elementary students this year and as a result she hopes to add a bit of positivity, kindness and compassion to our community, society, and world. Her other interests are wildcrafting, beekeeping, singing, and spending time in wild places with her family and friends. Favorite quote: To love ourselves and support each other in the process of becoming real is perhaps the greatest single act of daring greatly.” Brene Brown

Jessie is a licensed clinical social worker who has a private practice in Bozeman and Ennis Montana. Jessie graduated from Walla Walla University in 2010 with an MSW. She is strongly devoted to cultivating human connection by focusing on personal strengths. For the past twelve years, Jessie has focused her work with children, adolescents, adults and families from all cultures and backgrounds. She uses a variety of evidence based interventions to help link the mind/body connection such as mindfulness, compassion work and grounding techniques to help folks heal from past trauma. Her goal is to assist her community by encouraging personal growth in others through nurturing strengths, authenticity and resilience. Jessie enjoys her own meditation practices, exercising in her garage gym, hanging with her family, reading with curiosity and being out in nature with her furry companion.

Sara has been an educator her entire professional life. She received a BA from University of Wisconsin, Madison and an M.A. in Early Childhood and Elementary Education from Bank Street College of Education in New York City. Her experiential teaching experience includes working as an instructor for the Glacier Institute in Columbia Falls, Montana, Project U.S.E. in Redbank, New Jersey, and the Hurricane Island Outward Bound School in Newry, Maine. Sara’s classroom teaching experience includes schools in both the private and public sector: The Hole Montessori in Jackson, Wyoming, City and Country School, The Packer Collegiate Institute, Trevor Day School, and P.S. 41, all in New York. Since moving to Bozeman in 2016, Sara has received her Montana Educator License and has been working as a paraprofessional educator at Morning Star Elementary School, supporting literacy instruction and teaching Mindfulness to students grades 1 – 5. Sara loves the opportunity to offer Mindfulness training to students throughout the Bozeman School District. In addition, Sara is the mother of three children. Sara’s experience as a parent continues to offer the truest, most profound teachings, informing her work and vision as an educator.

Lisa has recently written digital courses for authors such as Dr. Peter Levine and Ekhart Tolle for Sounds True Publishing, taught digital storytelling (narrative-based video production) at the college level for 10 years, and holds a Master’s Degree in Education. Lisa has her Wilderness First Aid certificate and CPR certifications. She is a co-founder of Sky’s the Limit Tours in Yellowstone. She’s the proud parent of two great kids, Grant and Taylor.

Abby is endlessly curious about the power of language and how the work of words can bring about meaningful change. She first combined this curiosity with her love for nonprofit work in 2018 when she became a founding member of Crescent Montana—a Bozeman-based nonprofit working to combat period poverty in Montana. At Crescent, she started to learn about the importance of finding fitting funding opportunities to achieving one’s goals. Now, she applies these lessons and more to her desire to make the world a better place, one grant application at a time.
Abby’s background rests in American Studies, Hispanic Studies, and Native American Studies, which gives her the invaluable tools to explore problems with an interdisciplinary and complex lens. Seeking connection, understanding, and change through collaboration and creativity are her jam. She thrives in environments that allow for curiosity and the chance to help and give back to others whenever possible (including volunteering at Haven, working at the World Language Initiative’s BELLA summer camp, and continuing to pour her heart into Crescent Montana).

Abby grew up in the Black Hills of South Dakota with a family that taught her to love to play outside—skiing, hiking, camping, picnicking, general romping in the snow, you name it. She also enjoys reading and spending time with friends and family. Much to the chagrin of her bank account, she loves to travel whenever and wherever possible. She’s trying, but mostly failing, to improve her yoga and journaling habits.

A transplant from the midwest, James has called Bozeman home for 22 years. He is a physician with Bozeman Health practicing Internal Medicine and Hyperbaric Medicine, but has served in predominantly administrative roles for the last 15 years. After a decade on the health system’s executive leadership, he currently works to change healthcare reimbursement to be based on the health of the population, and how well patients are cared for instead of how much care they receive.

Having practiced mindfulness through Zen Buddhism for over thirty years, James is personally familiar with the benefits of mindfulness practice. MMP’s work of promoting mindfulness furthers the effort toward improved public health by giving youth tools to remain copacetic in a turbulent world. James joined the MMP Board in 2020 and serves as Vice President.

Sarah Fitzgerald is a Partner at NorthFork Financial, an independent financial planning and investment advisory firm, specializing in socially responsible investing. Prior to joining NorthFork, Sarah spent over 10 years working in impact finance, providing small business loans to entrepreneurs, structuring large real estate deals, utilizing New Markets Tax Credits, and designing and deploying a custom impact fund, focused on food security, low income housing, indigenous communities and BIPOC entrepreneurs. Sarah is originally from Helena and is grateful for her Montana roots. Beginning in college, she spent summers working in Glacier National Park and went on to spend nearly a decade working seasonally in remote, wild places in Montana, Utah, Arizona and Alaska. Sarah holds undergraduate degrees in Environmental Studies and Sustainable Development and a Masters in Business Administration. Sarah is also a Certified Teacher for the Search Inside Yourself Mindfulness and Emotional Intelligence (now SIY Global) program.

Ashley holds a Masters Degree in Organizational Leadership with a Specialization in Change Management and Innovation from Colorado State University. She also has a Bachelor's Degree in Health and Exercise Science with a Specialization in Health Promotion from Colorado State University and is a first generation college graduate. Ashley currently lives in Gallatin Gateway Montana with her husband and two kids. She started Two Suns Consulting as a dedication to her two sons as a way to continue to serve others and also have the flexibility to invest in the positive development of her own children as a mother. She is a self-proclaimed adventurist who enjoys hiking, travel, reading, wine, running, yoga, and anything that brings a smile to her children's faces.