Nanette Walsh
Director
Nanette Walsh is the founding 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.
Ariel Carson
Associate Director
Ariel Carson, m.AmSAT, SEP, is an associate 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
Associate Director
Lori Schiff, m.AmSAT, is an associate 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 www.lorischiff.com