Kumanga C. Andrahennadi, Ph.D.

Kumanga is a Mindfulness Researcher, Educator and Consultant with over 20 years of experience in delivering mindfulness-based programmes in the West for public and private organisations, universities, schools and individuals. As the Founder of Centre for Advanced Learning of Mindfulness (CALM) in the U.K. and in Sri Lanka, Kumanga pioneered delivery of the eco-contemplative ‘Mindfulness for Earth’ 4/8-week programmes. Under the umbrella of the ‘Advanced Mindfulness-Based Practices (AMBP)’ framework, she also delivers the Oxford Mindfulness Centre’s ‘Mindfulness–Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT)’ 8-week courses. The ‘Mindfulness for Earth’ 4/8-week programmes, developed through her Ph.D. research at the University of Dundee, Scotland, U.K., has been successfully implemented within the public, private and government sectors including to Mental Health, Education, Police Organizations and Private Corporations in the U.K. and internationally. In 2023, Dr. Andrahennadi has been invited to deliver the ‘Mindfulness for Earth’ programme in partnership with the Harvard University Medical Centre based Sadhguru Center for a Conscious Planet to conduct further research on this programme.

Through CALM, Kumanga also directs the ‘AMBP Teacher Training Programme’, as well as ‘Mindfulness in Nature’ retreats. In 2020, Dr. Andrahennadi co-organized the first-ever dialogue between His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama and a Western Police Force (the Metropolitan Police, U.K.), which took place as a live online dialogue on the 8th of July 2020 (watch the full dialogue here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5EDL8ITjJ-w).

In 2022, Dr. Kumanga Andrahennadi was the co-organizer of the ground-breaking ‘Mindfulness for Earth’ workshop which took place at the University of Connecticut (UConn), U.S.A., from 19^th – 22^nd of October 2022.  In partnership with the Office of Global Affairs team at UConn, she will be co-leading a research programme to design and implement a curriculum on ‘Mindfulness for Earth’ within the Higher Education sector at universities around the world. In September 2019, together with Dr. Tara de Mel, Kumanga co-founded ‘Mindfulness for Earth’, an international initiative established in Sri Lanka in partnership with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Faith for Earth. With a deep interest in awakening the interconnectedness in relation to tackling the mental health and climate crises, Dr. Andrahennadi continues to work internationally to help promote the message of how taking care of the ‘inner-nature’ of our mind, and protecting the ‘outer-nature’ of our sacred planet Earth, can inspire peace within families, communities, nations.

Kumanga has studied directly under Internationally Acclaimed Buddhist Masters such as: H. H. the Dalai Lama, Ven. Thich Nhat Hanh, H.H. the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa, H.E. Mingyur Rinpoche and Prof. Ringu Tulku Rinpoche. She has also completed the Teacher Training Retreats for Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) at the Oxford Mindfulness Centre, University of Oxford, U.K., Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) at the Centre for Mindfulness Research and Practice at the University of Bangor, U.K. and Mindfulness-Based Education Programme under Ven. Thich Nhat Hanh at Plum Village in France.