Amy Spies is a writer with credits in film, television, documentary, comedy, drama, videogames, and journalism. A movie she wrote is being remade and also adapted into a musical stage play. She teaches writing for all the above media at universities and for the Writer’s Guild program mentoring military veterans. She has served as a judge for PEN and WGA writing awards. After training to teach mindfulness, mindful self-compassion, and mindful-based stress reduction, Amy created a Mindful Writing curriculum for diverse groups and individuals globally. This program encourages self-expression of one’s authentic voice and helps soften self-criticism. Her teaching venues include USC faculty, staff, and students; UCLA; Singapore writing groups; homeless shelters for individuals with diagnoses of mental illness; women’s shelters; agencies for individuals who have been incarcerated in the juvenile justice system; media companies; community organizations; caregiving cooperatives; mindfulness centers; and more. Amy graduated from Harvard University, studied in USC’s MSW program, and served as a member of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Executive Leadership Council. She has been a Writer in Residence at the T.S. Eliot House and a Journalist Fellow at the Salzburg Global Seminar: Cultural Institutions Without Walls: New Models of Arts – Community Interaction. Amy is currently finishing her first novel.