J.D. Walther teaches, studies and writes about non-denominational Mindfulness. His Mindfulness research interest is how Mindfulness affects a leader’s motivation facing adaptive challenges, and a leader’s adaptive behavior.
He is a Level 1 Teacher of the Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) course and he is a certified Mindfulness teacher of the Mindfulness Based Living Course (MBLC).
His Mindfulness training was primarily through the University of Aberdeen in Scotland – Master of Science: Studies in Mindfulness Program, with the Mindfulness Association in the UK, and he trained to teach the MBSR at the Brown University School of Professional Studies. He has also trained at the UCLA Mindfulness Awareness Research Center (MARC).
JD began his career in Houston working for an entrepreneurial services group for the largest accounting firm in the world. Innovation and building systems led him to a Fortune 100 Fastest Growing International Company where he built its IT global infrastructure, operations and administrative systems – all before he turned 30. After participating in a merger with a Fortune 500 company, he founded a consulting company that primarily served the energy and energy services industry. His clients ranged from Fortune 500s to Startups. Many of the processes and systems he created are still being used as industry standards.
JD began learning about the brain after founding and leading an energy technology company that adapted a neuroscience, brainwave pattern recognition technology for isolating geologic attributes in seismic data. He is the co-inventor of two energy exploration US Patents.
Most recently, JD worked for a non-profit organization near downtown Houston that provides emergency food and clothing to homeless and low-income families. Using Lean Startup Methodology, he led a partnership with the Houston Food Bank, which built the largest Texas program that directly distributes food to low-income working families.
He holds a Bachelors in Business Administration – Accounting (BBA) from Texas A&M University and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Rice University. He has earned a Postgraduate Diplomat from the University of Aberdeen – Master of Science (MSc) Studies in Mindfulness. He is currently writing his MSc Master dissertation to complete his Master degree. His dissertation question is Does mindfulness support an individual leader’s ability to decenter during an adaptive challenge?
He is a Senior Fellow of the American Leadership Forum – Houston/Gulf Coast, a member of the Adaptive Leadership Network and the International Mindfulness Teacher Association.
JD is an outdoor person who often meditates outside, hikes and snow skis. He has traveled extensively, writes poetry, is a visual artist and is a trained representational sculptor. He and his wife, Kay, live in Houston Texas, with their two rescue dogs, Bode and Parker.