Megan Mooney, Ph.D.

(she/her/hers)

Megan A. Mooney, Ph.D. is a licensed psychologist in private practice in Houston, Texas who specializes in working with children and families. Dr. Mooney’s undergraduate degree is from Vanderbilt University and her doctorate degree is from the University of Arkansas. She completed her internship in professional psychology with the Baylor College of Medicine Menninger Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. Dr. Mooney was the 2020 President of the Texas Psychological Association and is also a member of the Houston Psychological Association and the American Psychological Association. She is a member of the clinical faculty at Baylor College of Medicine and adjunct faculty at the University of Texas Health Sciences Center at Houston. Dr. Mooney is an affiliate member of the National Child Traumatic Stress Network.

Dr. Mooney has focused on serving traumatized children and families for over 18 years and she has a special interest in working with LGBTQ+ youth who are disproportionately impacted by a variety of traumatic experiences. She has presented locally and nationally about trauma, treatments for trauma in children and families, and ways to prevent and treat trauma in LGBTQ+ youth.  Dr. Mooney is a co-founder of a non-profit that focuses on education and advocacy in support of gender-expansive children and their families. Dr. Mooney was granted the American Psychological Association Services’ 2022 Federal Advocacy Award for her judicial advocacy and leadership in advancing the profession of psychology, health equity, and human rights. She was specifically recognized for her advocacy leadership on behalf of LGBTQ+ children, adolescents, and families, most recently in response to political attacks on Texas’ transgender communities.

Rev. Victoria Austin, CIYT, IAYT, YA

(she/her/hers)

Reverend Victoria Austin began practicing both Zen and yoga in 1971. In the Soto Zen tradition, she is entrusted as a Dharma heir in the lineage of Shunryu Suzuki, an international priest of the Soto School, and a Dharma teacher at the San Francisco Zen Center. She trained in the U.S., India, and in Japan. In the Iyengar tradition, she is certified as an Intermediate teacher.

In addition to working with the yogic needs of meditation students around the country, in diverse settings including workplaces, institutions, and homes, Victoria teaches public yoga classes at San Francisco Zen Center and online, ethics and teacher training at the Iyengar Yoga Institute of San Francisco’s Teacher Training Program, and serves as an assessor of the next generation of Iyengar yoga teachers.

She trains regularly with senior yoga and Zen teachers, including the Iyengar family, senior teachers in the Iyengar tradition, and other modalities that support inclusion, accessibility, and the right use of power. Victoria’s practice goal is to wake up in a way that benefits beings. Her teaching goals include transmitting Zen Buddhism as a yogic path and Yoga as a path of awareness. Keeping faith with each tradition, she offers classes and workshops accessible to a wide variety of abilities and circumstances.

Randye Semple, Ph.D.

Moderator (she/her/hers)

Dr. Semple is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and the Behavioral Sciences at the Keck School of Medicine of USC. She is the Director of Psychological and Behavioral Health Services at LAC+USC Medical Center and Program Director for the USC Adolescent Trauma Training Center. Dr. Semple co-developed and co-manages the didactic Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy and Longitudinal Trauma Training curricula in the LAC+USC psychiatry residency program and provides clinical and research supervision to psychiatry residents. 

Dr. Semple’s research and clinical work focus on mindfulness for psychological health and wellness, with the development and evaluation of mindfulness-based interventions for youth in clinics and schools. She serves on the steering committees of the USC Institute for Integrative Health and Wellness and Mindful USC, the research committee of the American Mindfulness Research Association, and is a Co-Principal Investigator of the USC Center for Mindfulness Science.

A licensed clinical psychologist, Dr. Semple is the lead developer of the evidence-based clinical intervention, Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy for Children (MBCT-C), and a mindfulness curriculum adapted for K-12 classrooms, The Mindfulness Matters Program (MMP). She has authored or co-authored over 60 scientific publications and two books for clinicians and K-12 teachers: Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy for Anxious Children (2011, New Harbinger) and The Mindfulness Matters Program for Children and Adolescents: Strategies, Activities, and Techniques for Therapists and Teachers (2019, Guilford). More information about these programs is available on Dr. Semple’s website at www.randyesemple.com.

Laura Baker, Ph.D.

Moderator (she/her/hers)

Laura A. Baker, Ph.D., is a Professor of Psychology at the University of Southern California and is the Director of the Southern California Twin Project at USC, where she oversees a longitudinal study of over 750 sets of twins and their families in an NIMH-funded study of the gene-environment interplay in externalizing behavior problems from childhood to young adulthood.  She teaches courses in Behavioral Genetics, Human Sexuality, and the Science of Yoga and Meditation in Psychology and General Education at USC.

Dr. Baker is also a Certified Iyengar Yoga Teacher (CIYT), and teaches yoga and meditation classes to faculty, staff, and students through the USC Office of Religious Life (ORL) and www.Yoga.USC.edu.  Iyengar Yoga is well known for its emphasis on precise instructions, sequencing, and the use of props to support the practice of yoga for everybody.  It has also been used in numerous research studies to demonstrate the effects of yoga on both physical and mental health, including anxiety and depression.

As a member of the steering committees for the USC Center for Mindfulness Science and Mindful-USC, Dr. Baker helps promote an integrative approach to health, wellness, and resilience in our community.