Champion Profile: Susan Kaiser Greenland Helps Children Develop Mindful Awareness

Champion Profile: features individuals who exemplify First 5 LA's tagline, "Champions for Our Children."

As co-founder and executive director of InnerKids, Susan Kaiser Greenland teaches children how to develop mindful awareness (a state of present attention where one clearly perceives thoughts, physical sensations, emotions, and events at the moment they occur without reacting in an automatic or habitual way).

The activities and games she teaches are designed to help focus attention and acknowledge clarity, compassion, and discernment. InnerKids courses integrate elements of meditation, martial arts, drumming, and yoga with psychology, movement, body awareness, and relaxation techniques. 

Susan began her career as a corporate lawyer in 1985 and from 1988 through 2004 provided legal and business affairs representation to network owned radio and television stations in New York and Los Angeles.           

Which book has most influenced your life?
The Razor's Edge by W. Somerset Maugham.

What makes you happy?
Being in nature.

Angry?
Ignorance coupled with hubris. 

Which historical figure do you most admire?
Winston Churchill because he stayed the course even when public opinion was against him.

What is your favorite way to spend time with an important child in your life?
Our nightly family dinner.

What is your idea of a perfect world?
Where people recognize that we are all interconnected and thus act with compassion and in the spirit of cooperation.

Which living person do you most admire?
Aung San Suu Kyi for her non-violent struggle for democracy and human rights in Burma (now Myanmar) in spite of years of incarceration and separation from those she loved.

What is your motto?
"I have never let my schooling interfere with my education."-- Mark Twain and "Courage is being scared to death – but saddling up anyway."--John Wayne.