Board of Directors
Board Bios
Karla Booth-Diamond
Chair
Karla Booth-Diamond has been teaching Alexander Technique for 30 years since graduating from ACAT in 1990. She has taught the Alexander Technique both internationally and nationally, presenting at conferences and teaching workshops to musicians, physical therapists, and movement teachers. Her dance training and performing as well as her interest in art and music all compliment and instruct her Alexander work. In conjunction with her Alexander work, Karla has spent 30+ years working with Dr. John Diamond a well known Holistic doctor working with creativity. She teaches the Diamond-Dart Meridian Sequence based on the work of Raymond Dart. The Diamond-Dart procedures form a poetic movement meditation that recapitulates the evolutionary and developmental process as well as activating the Acupuncture Meridians, all which greatly raise the Life Energy or Chi. Karla maintains a practice and is the director for the Life Energy Arts Gallery in Westchester, NY. KarlaBooth.com
Sam McPherson
Treasurer
Sam McPherson is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER® professional, who guides individuals, families, and small business owners in their relationship with money. Sam takes a holistic approach that focuses on how money can be used to achieve personal goals. He is a former Treasurer and Board member of the Financial Planning Association, New York City chapter. Sam also plays double bass in an eclectic jazz-blues trio, a community orchestra, and electric bass in a classic rock cover band. Sam is very glad to reunite with his friend, Nan Walsh, to help her and the entire Sapientia community thrive in their mission to spread and enhance understanding of the Alexander Technique.
Steven Borzykowski
Board Member
Steven Borzykowski is an AmSAT certified teacher of the Alexander Technique in Westchester, NY. He completed his three-year, 1600 hour certification at the Riverside Initiative for the Alexander Technique (RIAT) in 2022 under the Direction of Nanette Walsh.
Having personally battled unexplained increased brain and spinal pressure for 25 years—undergoing multiple brain surgeries, conventional medical treatments, and alternative therapies—he found his training in and application of the Alexander Technique to be profound, restorative and life changing. He has studied privately with Judy Stern and Joan Frost, and has a keen interest in increasing awareness of the technique among medical professionals and people of all ages with movement or musculoskeletal challenges that interfere with daily living. He has a BA in Music from Skidmore College (2008).
Scout James
Secretary
Scout James is a bi designer, web design consultant, performer & writer. Scout has performed in readings and workshops of brand new plays at Juilliard, the Elysian, Antaeus Theatre Company, Perry-Mansfield New Works Festival (for Primary Stages), New York Theatre Workshop, New Dramatists, Williamstown Theatre Festival, New Georges, PS 122, Dixon Place and the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Scout’s first professional acting was at Juneau’s Perseverance Theatre. Scout majored in history at Wesleyan, has an MFA from Juilliard, and is an alum of the Groundlings Sunday Company.
Libby Schmais
Board Member
Libby Schmais is happy to join the Board of Directors of Sapientia. Libby has experienced the healing power of the Alexander technique in her own life and looks forward to contributing to Sapientia’s mission. Libby brings a diverse background to the Board, with expertise in both creative writing (having authored four novels and a health reference guide) and research through her tenure as a corporate librarian at Deloitte Consulting and JP Morgan. She holds an MFA in fiction and a Masters in Information and Library Science. In her leisure time, Libby enjoys ballet, playing the violin, and attempting to train her new kittens Gigi and Lulu. Libby is eager to offer her skills and experience to the ongoing success of Sapientia.
Nan Walsh
Board Member
Nan Walsh is the secretary of Sapientia Initiative, and she is Sapientia’s Executive Director and founder. Nan is also the founding co-director of RIAT’s Teacher Certification Program and Community Outreach Program (AT For All). Nan is the author of Unsmudged: An Encounter with Peggy Williams, a First Generation Teacher of the Alexander Technique, published in 2018. She received her Masters from Union Theological Seminary (2021), and she also holds an MFA in Transmedia Studies from Syracuse University (1982). Nan served as chair of the American Society of the Alexander Technique’s (AmSAT’s) Board of Directors from 2009 until 2011; in 2008 she served on AmSAT’s Professional Conduct Committee, and served from 2012-2014 on AmSAT’s Leadership Advisory Council.
RIAT Leadership
Nan Walsh
Founding Director, RIAT
Nan Walsh is the founding co-director of RIAT’s Teacher Certification Program and Community Outreach Program. She is also Sapientia’s Executive Director and founder. Nan is the author of Unsmudged: An Encounter with Peggy Williams, a First Generation Teacher of the Alexander Technique, published in 2018. She received her Masters from Union Theological Seminary (2021) – concentration in Psychology and Systematic Theology; she also holds an MFA in Transmedia Studies from Syracuse University (1982). Nan served as chair of the American Society of the Alexander Technique’s (AmSAT’s) Board of Directors from 2009 until 2011; in 2008 she served on AmSAT’s Professional Conduct Committee, and served from 2012-2014 on AmSAT’s Leadership Advisory Council. Read more.
Ariel Carson
Director, RIAT
Ariel Carson, m.AmSAT, SEP, is a co-director of RIAT as well as a faculty member. She received her teaching certification (1600 hours over 3 years) through Alexander Technique New York City (ATNYC), headed by teachers Nanette Walsh and John Nicholls. She has assisted at The Juilliard School, and taught at Boston University where she earned her BFA. Ariel previously worked as a teaching artist for the Leadership Program, teaching leadership skills through the arts to under-served students in New York City public schools. She is the organizer of the Healing for Activists NYC chapter. Ariel also utilizes her training as a Somatic Experiencing practitioner to help people release and resolve trauma. From her work with U.S. veterans, to performers, to activists, to the LGBTQ community, Ariel is most interested in teaching the Alexander Technique as part of a holistic and multifaceted approach to cultivating greater sustainability, vitality, and freedom in the body-minds of her current and future clients. www.redefiningposture.com
Lori Schiff
Director, RIAT
Lori Schiff, m.AmSAT, is a co-director of RIAT as well as a faculty member at Riverside Initiative for the Alexander Technique, The Juilliard School, Guest Teaching Artist New World Symphony and the United States Military Academy Band, Internationale Meistersinger Akademie. Former Faculty The Aspen Music Festival and School, 92nd Street Y. Ms. Schiff qualified at ACAT in 1987. She has introduced the Alexander Technique to groups and institutions across the country including Master Classes at The Metropolitan Opera, West Point Military Academy, The San Diego Symphony, Baltimore Symphony Youth Orchestras, National Youth Orchestra of China, Aspen Sports Medicine, AmSAT Meetings in San Fransisco, Ann Arbor, Las Vegas, New York City, Boston and Minneapolis. She was a guest speaker at The International Congress for the Alexander Technique in Lugano, Switzerland. She is currently a member of the Board of Directors of AMSAT . Private practice in New York City. More information and a link to her video, The Alexander Technique: Musician’s Method for Improvement can be found at lorischiff.com
Caren Bayer
Director, RIAT
Caren Bayer, m.AmSAT, received her certification from Patrick MacDonald in London in 1984. Since then, she has maintained a private practice in New York City as well as leading workshops in Australia, Germany, France, Spain, Japan, England, and Canada. After inheriting Rivka Cohen’s training program, Caren opened Manhattan Center for the Alexander Technique, certifying teachers from 2001–2014. She has been on the faculty of Pacific College for Oriental Medicine and the New School for Social Research. As a former dancer and longtime student of the martial arts, Caren brings 40 years of movement research to her teaching.
Admin
Ariana Calderón
Administrative Associate
Ariana Calderón has been working with Sapientia Initiative since 2023. She began as the Community Outreach Coordinator for the AT for All program, and has worked her way up become the Administrative Associate. Ariana graduated with a BFA in drama from NYU Tisch School of the Arts in 2023 and is proud to be a working Brooklyn-based artist of various disciplines.