Melissa Goodwin Talks Mindfulness at First Friday

Learn the benefits of mindfulness along with easily applicable ways to release stress and shift perspective during the December First Friday Lecture, led by Dr. Melissa Goodwin, associate professor and chair of the Psychology Department at St. John Fisher College.

The talk begins at 10:30 a.m. on Friday, Dec. 6, in the Skalny Welcome Center Board Room. Registration is not required. A continental breakfast will be served.

Goodwin, who is an expert in developmental psychology, specializes in the application of mindfulness in the classroom, and how the practice can improve college students’ well-being and academic success.  She has studied mindfulness and meditation in her personal life for the last 20 years. And, in seeing a surge of psychology research looking at the effectiveness of these practices in altering behavior, she found that what she was doing in her personal life was showing up in her professional life, in a big way.

A certified instructor in Koru Mindfulness, a program developed at Duke University, Goodwin has run several four-week mindfulness courses using this method with faculty and staff. During the course, she introduces different ways to establish and maintain meditation practice.

The First Friday Lecture Series, sponsored by the 1948 Society, is designed for individuals who are interested in hearing learned perspectives on a variety of topics from members of the St. John Fisher College and greater Rochester community.