Susan Szpakowski was one of the founding members of the ALIA Institute and is currently Executive Director. She brings to this position a lifelong curiosity about the conditions that make transformational learning possible. She began her career as the head (and only) teacher of a one-room school in a remote coastal community on Vancouver Island. After attending a summer session on "The Artistic Process in Teaching" at Naropa Institute (now University) in 1978, she went through a radical reassessment of what it means to learn and to teach. In 1980 she joined the Naropa Institute staff, where she founded the substantive Naropa Magazine (now Naropa Journal) and compiled Speaking of Silence (Paulist Press, 1987), which documents five ground-breaking Buddhist-Christian dialogues. In 1986 Susan moved to Nova Scotia to raise a family while pursuing a freelance career in writing, editing, and curriculum development. She developed nationally acclaimed curriculum packages for the provincial Department of Health and revised much of the Department of Education's health and career education curricula. Susan has studied and practiced Buddhism since 1975. She lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia, with her husband and son, and is tracking the budding career of her daughter, who is an assistant fashion designer in New York City.