Lisa Napora Instructor Spotlight
Affiliate Faculty at SUNY Buffalo and Founding Director of The Mindfulness Alliance
About Lisa
Lisa Napora is a leadership development and organizational learning professional at SUNY Buffalo (University at Buffalo) whose work integrates leadership development, organizational development, systems thinking, and contemplative practice. She is passionate about cultivating the relational capacities and conditions that support meaningful change, collaboration, and collective wellbeing. Through her teaching, Lisa helps participants develop greater awareness, presence, and intentionality in how they lead and engage with others.
Courses Taught
Mindful Leadership
Why Take This Course?
Leadership today requires navigating complexity, change, and relationships across differences. This course helps participants strengthen the awareness and relational capacities that support effective leadership in dynamic environments.
Through the practice of mindfulness, participants learn to become more aware of their own patterns and responses, listen more deeply, and respond rather than react. The course fosters greater clarity, intentional communication, and more conscious choices about how individuals lead, collaborate, and contribute within their organizations.
Participants leave with practical tools that support personal growth, stronger workplace relationships, and more thoughtful approaches to leadership and decision-making.
What to Expect
Designed as an experiential and reflective learning experience, the program goes beyond simply discussing mindful leadership and invites participants to actively practice it. Through guided reflection, mindfulness exercises, mindful communication activities, and collaborative learning with colleagues from across SUNY, participants explore new ways of bringing awareness, presence, and intention into their daily work.
The course encourages meaningful conversation, self-reflection, and the application of new insights to real-world leadership situations. Participants can expect a supportive learning environment where they have opportunities to learn from one another while strengthening their own leadership practice.
Instructor Reflection
One of the most meaningful lessons Lisa has learned through teaching is the power of seemingly small shifts in awareness and behavior. She has seen how pausing before responding, listening with greater attention, examining assumptions, and approaching conversations with curiosity and care can significantly improve the quality of interactions and relationships.
These practices often create ripple effects that extend beyond individual participants, influencing teams, workplace culture, and the broader communities in which people work and lead. Witnessing these transformations continues to reinforce the value of mindful leadership in professional settings.
Why She Teaches for SUNY CPD
Through her work with SUNY CPD, Lisa values the opportunity to co-create learning communities with colleagues from across the SUNY system. She enjoys connecting with professionals from diverse backgrounds and experiences while exploring practices that support leadership, collaboration, and organizational wellbeing.
For Lisa, one of the most rewarding aspects of teaching is knowing that what participants learn and practice together can extend far beyond the classroom. By helping individuals cultivate greater awareness, presence, and intentionality, she contributes to positive change that can ripple outward across relationships, teams, campuses, and the SUNY community as a whole.
Her commitment to fostering meaningful learning experiences and supporting the growth of others makes her a valued instructor and contributor to the SUNY CPD community.