Management Board

Deboragh Varnel is the National Director of the Canadian Women for Wellness Initiative (CWWI), dedicated to making the Transcendental Meditation (TM) program more accessible to individuals experiencing toxic stress, both at home and in the workplace. Since 2019, she has led the TM program for single mothers in partnership with YWCA Vancouver. She also serves as Director of the Transcendental Meditation for Women Centre and the Coquitlam TM Centre in British Columbia.

A Certified TM Teacher with over 42 years of teaching experience, Deboragh is also a Certified Consciousness Advisor. She teaches TM in Vancouver, Coquitlam, and surrounding areas to healthcare professionals, business executives, teachers, students, first responders, and single mothers.

Deboragh holds a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Therapeutic Recreation from Concordia University. She worked as a Social and Program Director in nursing homes and held leadership roles in private and public recreation services in Montreal and Calgary. She also served as an Executive Assistant and Project Manager with a Toronto financial firm specializing in theme park development, mining, and project finance. Since 1984, she has served in various capacities within the TM organization and received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the International TM Organization in recognition of her longstanding service.

Rhonda Day has taught Transcendental Meditation in Alberta since 1974. She is the National Director of the Canadian Women’s Wellness Foundation, TM for Women-Canada, which, in addition to teaching Transcendental Meditation to Canadian women and girls, provides enriching programs especially designed for women, promoting women’s well-being and sense of fulfillment in all aspects of their lives.

Rhonda is also a retired public high school teacher with over 30 years of experience teaching English Language Arts, Drama, and Performing Arts, She is a three-time nominee for the Alberta’s Excellence in Teaching award. In 2009, Rhonda initiated a program to teach TM to faculty, students, support staff, and parents at the large Alberta public high school where she was teaching. This program ran for six years, until her retirement in 2014.

Helen Creighton has been a teacher of the Transcendental Meditation technique since 1972. She has a BA in Philosophy from Maharishi International University and an MLS from the University of Western Ontario.

She worked for many years in government and academic libraries and served as National Director of the Canadian Women’s Wellness Foundation for 16 years, before retiring from the position in 2025.

Helen Foster-Grimmett has been practising the Transcendental Meditation technique since 1970, and became a certified teacher of the TM program in 1972. She holds a BEd in English Education and is a member of the British Columbia Teachers’ Federation.

Helen has taught high school English in the British Columbia public school system and has worked at the local, national, and international offices of the Transcendental Meditation Program. In addition to leading TM Teacher Training Courses, Helen has traveled the world participating in a women’s peace-creating task force for the reduction of crime and violence.

Helen is the National Director of the Council for the Development of Consciousness, the National Director of Police Outreach for the Canadian Women for Wellness Initiative, and is on the National Management Board of the Canadian Women’s Wellness Foundation. She has been actively involved in teaching the TM technique to women in the military, police, paramedics, First Nations women and girls, and women and girls at risk for substance misuse. 

Michèle Beausoleil is the driving force behind the Transcendental Meditation (TM) Center in Montreal and sits on the national board of the Canadian Women’s Wellness Foundation, a non-profit organization offering the TM program to the women of Canada. In the last two years, she has been actively involved in promoting and teaching the TM technique to veterans and their families suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Recently, health professionals learning TM, receive continuing education credits thanks to Michèle’s initiative. 

Michèle has been practising the TM technique for over 50 years and has taught more than 3,000 people in the Greater Montreal area since becoming a TM teacher. She holds a MA in education from Maharishi International University and received an Honorary doctorate of World Peace from Maharishi European University in 2005.

Ami Stadnick received an MSc in Marriage and Family Therapy from Loma Linda University. She worked for many years as founding Director of Family and Community Support Services for the town of Hinton, Alberta. From 2001 to 2015 she was Counselling Supervisor for Alberta Health Services, Adult Outpatient Addiction & Mental Health Treatment Program. She also fulfilled requirements for obtaining her psychologist’s license by interning at the Red Deer Hospital Psychiatric Department, and the Alberta (Psychiatric) Hospital in Edmonton.

She is now retired from counselling and teaches the Transcendental Meditation program full time in Edmonton and northern Alberta.