Jeremy David Engels, PhD, is the Liberal Arts Professor of Communication and Ethics at Pennsylvania State University. He is also a longtime teacher of mindfulness, meditation, and yoga, having studied in both India at the Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram and the United States, and he is certified to teach mindfulness after completing a training program under Tara Brach and Jack Kornfield. Since undertaking a pilgrimage to walk in the footsteps of the Buddha in India and Nepal in 2018, he has been a student of Thích Nhất Hạnh.

He is an award-winning scholar and has published numerous books and articles about democracy, community building, deliberation, and peace, including On Mindful Democracy: A Declaration of Interdependence to Mend a Fractured World (Parallax, 2026), Living Namaste: A Practical Guide to Mindfulness, Yoga, and Building Community (Living Traditions, 2026), The Ethics of Oneness: Emerson, Whitman, and the Bhagavad Gita (U Chicago Press, 2021), and The Art of Gratitude (SUNY Press 2018).

Affectionately known by his students as the “bed-headed professor” and “the yoga prof,” he is also a beloved teacher. He lives in State College, Pennsylvania, where he and his wife, Anna Sunderland Engels, run a community yoga and meditation studio called Yoga Lab. He is an experienced yoga asana teacher (E-RYT500, YACEP) whose teaching integrates a deep understanding of functional movement with mindfulness. Through Yoga Lab, he has been training yoga and meditation teachers for over a decade.