SOUTH YARMOUTH – The South Yarmouth based non-profit Calmer Choice recently announced the appointment of Emily Smalley as its next Chief Executive Officer.
Calmer Choice is an organization which collaborates with administrators and educators to teach secular mindfulness-based social emotional education in schools, businesses and communities in Cape Cod and Southeastern Massachusetts.
Smalley will succeed founder and current Chief Executive Officer Fiona Jensen, who plans to retire on December 31, 2021 after more than a decade as the head of the organization.
“Calmer Choice has been successful beyond my wildest dreams, evolving from a grassroots effort from concerned parents and community members to operating in over 30 schools and a variety of community-based organizations on Cape Cod,” said Jensen.
“I am immensely proud of what we as a team have accomplished and the lives we have touched during the past 11 years,” she said. “Under Emily’s leadership, I am confident the organization will continue to thrive and deliver new and innovative mindfulness programs to children and adults across Cape Cod and beyond.”
Smalley expressed gratitude for the appointment.
”I am honored to have been chosen to lead Calmer Choice into its next decade of service, which I am confident will be magical and transformative for the Cape Cod community and beyond,” said Smalley.
“I wish Fiona a long, healthy and well-deserved retirement and will strive to honor her legacy as we guide Calmer Choice to its next era of growth and accomplishment,” she said.
Smalley previously served as the Organizations Chief Operating Officer and has helped guide the organization throughout the pandemic, during which the organization had to move many of their efforts online to reach their target audience while shutdowns were in place.
“We spent the last eighteen months developing an online learning platform,” said Smalley, “creating new opportunities for people to learn mindfulness virtually, updating our curriculum to include lessons that we feel would be really valuable for people during the pandemic and its aftermath.”
Smalley cited research studies in 2021 indicating heightened stress levels, diagnosis of mental health disorders, and anxiety related to the COVID pandemic and the social isolation that came with it.
‘What we try to teach are skills that enable students, when they’re feeling overwhelmed, when they’re feeling that isolation, to return to themselves, to take a breath before they’re overreactive, and give them an opportunity to participate in an online class,” said Smalley.
“It doesn’t make up for being in person,” she said, “but it is a way to start to establish communication, conversation, and learning new tools.”
Moving forward, Calmer Choice’s goal is to increase access to programs for the broader community, expand their training program for administering their mindfulness classes, and to serve as many school districts as possible
“We believe that mindfulness is a tool that will help people learn some ways to regulate themselves in the face of these challenges, because they’re only going to continue,” said Smally.
To learn more about Calmer Choice, click here.
Written by Matthew Tomlinson
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