Executive Director
Stefan Laeng
Stefan is a Sensory Awareness leader and the Executive Director of the Sensory Awareness Foundation. He offers workshops in the USA and Europe. Stefan has studied Sensory Awareness and related practices since 1980. He worked closely with Sensory Awareness pioneer Charlotte Selver during the last twelve years of her life. Stefan is working on a comprehensive oral history and biography of Charlotte Selver. He lives in Peterborough, NH.
This is Stefan’s second term as Executive Manager after a first run from 1995 to 2007.
You can reach him at stefan@sensoryawareness.org.
Assistant to the E.D.
Courtney Fontone
Courtney has spent the last 20 years gaining experience in office administration, program development and direct service working with community-based nonprofits & government services. Courtney lives in Concord, NH and is a Mom of two. She is an enthusiastic nature lover and enjoys exploring the New Hampshire woods and spending time on Lake Winnisquam with her family and dog Bodi.
Board of Directors
Michael Atkinson
Michael Atkinson took his Ph.D in Phenomenology and for decades has explored the psychology of perception and the construction of meaning, literary and lived, as a university professor and a Sensory Awareness leader. Michael began his study of Sensing in 1974, and was President of the Sensory Awareness Leaders’ Guild from 2014 to 2018. He is an ordained Buddhist Dharma Teacher, interested in the relation of Sensing to the deep seeing of contemplation, exploring how we are transformed as we meet life’s invitations more fully.
Sara Bragin
My journey to Sensory Awareness began the moment I was born and promised never to lose the gift of being fully alive. Life happened, living became life and four decades passed before I would meet Charlotte Selver. I wanted the vitality I saw in her. She was 91. I followed her everywhere. After she died, I joined a study group with Lee Lesser, which led to my becoming a leader. Committed to passing on the beauty of living aware, I work with writers, individuals and small groups. Ray Fowler insists that my memoir, The Living In Her Dying, is packed with sensing.
Ray Fowler
Ray studied the practice of Sensory Awareness with Charlotte Selver for thirty-two years. He has offered workshops for thirty years in a variety of venues including retreat centers and universities. Ray leads a week-long workshop every summer on Monhegan Island, Maine. You should go! A graduate of The Julliard School of Music, he is also the Music Director and Conductor of the Ohio Valley Orchestra.
Beate Heckner
Beate has been practicing Sensory Awareness since 2012 and is eager and enthusiastic to learn where the studies may lead. Beate is a marketing manager of web content and trade shows for a large corporation and holds a degree in Latin American Studies from UC Berkeley. She is an avid athlete who enjoys movement of any kind in the great outdoors. When she is not biking, running or swimming you can find her trotting and hiking with her dog, Sachio.