Department: Learning Centers

Areas of expertise:

• Mindfulness, Writing and Learning 

Jared Featherstone is a teacher of writing, mindfulness, and critical thinking. Drawing from his teaching experience and research, he writes and gives talks on the subject of mindfulness and learning. Since 2009, he has directed the University Writing Center and taught writing courses at James Madison University in Virginia. Before entering academia full-time, he worked as a reporter and editor, and earned a master's of fine arts in creative writing and a bachelor's in journalism from the University of Maryland, College Park.

He began practicing meditation and Tai Chi in 1996 and was asked to start teaching mindfulness meditation in 2009. In 2018, he completed the two-year Koru Mindfulness teacher certification. In 2021, he will complete Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach’s two-year mindfulness teacher certification program in partnership with the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley. He has published several articles on the subject of mindfulness and learning, and given numerous invited talks on the subject. His guided meditations can be found on Soundcloud and Insight Timer.

Media contact: Eric Gorton, gortonej@jmu.edu