Meet the Team
Feet on the Ground is a women-run organization, led by a team of passionate individuals who are committed to advancing the mental health field.
East Coast Director, Founder
Emily Pantalone
Emily is a wellness educator, MPH/MBA Candidate at Johns Hopkins' Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Carey School of Business, and Somatic Experiencing® Practitioner (Advanced, in-training). In 2016 she co-founded Feet on the Ground — a non-profit whose mission is to support resilience in trauma-exposed populations through movement and mindfulness practices and psychosocial education — where she currently sits as East Coast Director.
Emily worked as a wellness consultant and yoga therapy instructor in New York City from 2014 through 2020, through her corporate wellness organization ep wellness and other partners such as the NYC Administration for Children’s Services, Beyond Conflict, Hosh Kids, Exhale to Inhale, and I-ARC. Emily specializes in pain and stress relief, advanced anatomy (Yoga Tune Up®) and trauma-informed yoga (TIY) practices, teaching yoga and other mental health interventions at offices, studios, shelters, schools, and conferences both nationally and internationally.
Emily holds a B.A. in International Relations from Tufts University where she participated in community development initiatives in Guatemala and India, interned with Edward Girardet in the press corps of the UN (Geneva) and with The National Security Archives (Washington, D.C.), and worked with Dr. Cynthia Cohen (Brandeis U, Peacebuilding & the Arts) on post-conflict reconciliation initiatives that use performance for trauma healing. She is in her advanced year of body-based trauma resolution training through Peter Levine’s world-renowned Somatic Experiencing® program, and has had the privilege of learning trauma-informed yoga practices with The Trauma Center (TCTSY), Mindful Yoga Therapy (Yoga Nidra), Hala Khouri (Off the Mat, Into the World), and Lisa Danylchuk (Y4T).
West Coast Director, Founder
Samara Andrade
Samara is a peacebuilder, yoga teacher and movement educator, certified Mental Health First Aid responder with MHFA England, and a Somatic Experiencing® Practitioner (Advanced), based in Seattle, Washington. She has worked in international aid and development for over fifteen years, including running psychosocial, peacebuilding, and recovery programming for individuals and communities affected by conflict, with the United Nations and not-for-profits.
Samara has taught psychoeducation, yoga, mindfulness, and resilience techniques to peacebuilders, diplomats, refugees, police, veterans, and civil servants in Sudan, South Sudan, Libya, Nepal, Indonesia, Croatia, Afghanistan, Syria, and for immigrants, veterans and assault survivors in the United States. While working overseas for the United Nations, Samara became interested in mind-body approaches to trauma healing and recovery, in large part due to the lack of psycho-social support services for aid workers and communities affected by disaster and conflict. This led her to co-found Feet on the Ground with Emily Pantalone in 2016 and she currently serves as the West Coast Director.
Samara has presented at international conferences and trainings, teaching workshops on the science and practice of embodied movement as a modality of healing and psychosocial support in trauma-affected communities. She has worked as a mental health and wellness consultant with Beyond Conflict, Exhale to Inhale, Connected Warriors, the Manhattan Venteran’s Hospital, and the NY Mayor’s Office of Children and Family Services and has been interviewed by Rob Schware of the Give Back Yoga Foundation.
Samara holds an M.A. in International Policy Studies from Middlebury University at Monterey and a B.A. in International Business. She is also an integrated Yoga Tune Up® teacher and a Reiki Master, focused on supporting pain relief, biomechanics, and mind-body healing. She is honored to have studied neuroscience, mental health, social justice, and trauma-informed and trauma-sensitive yoga practices with Kyla Pearce (Love Your Brain); Suzanne Manafort (Mindful Yoga Therapy); Michelle Cassandra Johnson (Skill in Action), Resmaa Menakem (Racialized Trauma) David Emerson and Jenn Turner, The Trauma Center; Hala Khouri; Lisa Danylchuk (Yoga4Trauma); Beyond Inclusion, Beyond Empowerment, Peter Levine and Bessel van der Kolk.
Senior Director, Monitoring And Evaluation
Becky Romasco Kelly
Becky Romasco-Kelly has been working with Feet on the Ground since May of 2018 as a Senior Director of Monitoring and Evaluation. Becky is a professional who has spent years consulting on global public health programs and is based in Seattle. She is a graduate of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health with her Master’s in Public Health and has worked on M&E for maternal and child health programs in Nepal.
In addition she holds a Bachelor’s degree in neuroscience from Colorado College, in Colorado Springs. She has worked previously as a project manager at local NGOs in the Sacred Valley of Peru, and at the international electronic medical records company, Epic. Becky completed her Trauma-Informed Yoga certification with Feet on the Ground in 2018 and has co-led their first 10-week research program.
Her passions outside of work include exploring the outdoors, travel, and spending quality time with her husband, Kyle, and their adorable goldendoodle, Aspen. Becky understands the importance of yoga and movement to trauma healing, and is grateful to be able to collaborate with such a compassionate group of individuals at Feet on the Ground.
Marketing Director
Leah Weingast
Leah has been working with Feet on the Ground since August of 2019. She is a clinical psychology MA student at Teachers College, Columbia University. Prior to starting her MA degree, she worked as a research assistant and coordinator at the Atlanta VA Healthcare System. There, she studied resiliency, fear conditioning, and the psychophysiology of PTSD in female veterans after experiencing military sexual trauma. She has also partnered with a research study comparing Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to trauma-informed yoga. She has a degree from Vassar College in neuroscience and behavior with a correlate in anthropology. She is excited to partner her interests with Feet on the Ground to foster resilience in trauma-exposed persons.
Leah is passionate about yoga, meditation, and the intersection of the mind and body. Leah completed her Trauma-Informed Yoga certification with Feet on the Ground in 2019. She also volunteered with Project Ten in Harduf, Israel where she implemented educational and agricultural projects and took an active part in developing co-existence among Jewish and Arab communities. Leah is thrilled to serve as Feet on the Ground’s marketing director. She looks to Emily and Samara as huge role models for strengthening psychoeducation and accessibility to self-care resources. She is grateful to learn and grow with them!
Communications Director
Sara Hameed
Sara has been working with Feet on the Ground since September of 2019. She is a Psychology student at Barnard College, Columbia University. Upon graduation, she will be working as a Clinical Research Coordinator at the Depression and Anxiety Center, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, where she has previously conducted research on the links between trauma, resilience, and depression as an intern.
Sara also completed her yoga teacher training in the summer of 2019 with Yoga to the People after recognizing the profound impact that breath, movement, and mindfulness has on mental health. Following the completion of her trauma-informed yoga certification with Feet on the Ground in January 2020, she began teaching weekly trauma-informed yoga classes at Yoga to the People’s St. Mark’s location.
Sara is passionate about mind-body modalities for healing and is grateful to Feet on the Ground for providing two wonderful, compassionate mentors — Emily and Samara — as well as the expansive space to learn and give back.
Advisory Board
Our Advisory Board is made up of an inspiring and diverse group of individuals who are deeply committed to the mission and vision of Feet on the Ground.
As leaders in their own communities, they each bring unique perspectives and skillsets, based on decades of work as changemakers in domestic and global non-profit and for-profit sectors. Together, they provide guidance and technical support in areas of strategy, impact evaluation, and non-profit management.
Advisory Board Member
John Newsome
John Newsome is the founder of Public Equity Group, and has been a strategy and management consultant since 2001, including terms at the Bridgespan Group and FSG Social Impact Advisors.
From 2004 to 2009, John led And Castro for All, a grassroots organization focused on racial and economic justice within the Bay Area LGBT Community. Under John’s leadership, AC4A won unprecedented city and state racial bias cases. From 2009 to 2011, John’s consulting work took him in-house at the Global Business Coalition on Health, where as VP of US Initiatives he led innovative public-private partnerships between multinational companies (Chevron, L’Oreal, Levi-Strauss, Pfizer) and public partners (the White House, CDC). In 2016, John co-founded Fight for a Better America, a federal super PAC that funds data-driven, grassroots, voter engagement campaigns to flip districts from red to blue.
John holds a BA (Spanish Literature, focus on colonialism and post-colonialism), an MA (Modern Thought & Literature, focus on fascism), and an MBA, all from Stanford University.
Advisory Board Member
Melody Woolford
Melody is an international development specialist by day and a serial student of yoga teacher trainings by night! She holds an M.A. in International Relations from The Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, and a B.A. in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations from the University of Chicago.
From 2017 to 2018, Melody worked as the Director of University/K-12 Partnerships at NaTakallam, a social initiative that connects Arabic language learners with forcibly displaced persons for language practice and cross-cultural exchange online. Previously, she served as Executive Director at Crutches 4 Kids and has also worked in various roles with the U.S. Agency for International Development), where she advised senior management on critical political, economic, and social issues in the Middle East. Melody has also served on advisory assignments to the U.S. Mission to the United Nations in NYC and the Darfur Disaster Assistance Response Team in Sudan.
Melody grew up in the Middle East, speaks Arabic, loves hiking, and has two kids. She volunteers for Greater NYC Families for Syria helping Syrian refugees resettle in the U.S.
Advisory Board Member
Henry Cross
Henry Cross grew up in sunny Miami, Florida, and double majored in History and Politics at the Catholic University in Washington, DC. Following a year of service as a social studies teacher at a public school, Henry moved to New York in 2009 to grow his work in education and service.
He joined Hosh Yoga in 2011 as a teacher and Program Director, where he has since gone on to found and expand programming for the organization with Hosh Kids and Hosh Seniors. Henry's entrepreneurial spirit helped to develop the program and financial capacity of the nonprofit to deliver self-sustaining and self-supporting health and wellness services to over 3,000 children, adults, and seniors every month. From 2014 to 2016, he also worked as Community Relations Director at the Sonima Foundation, where he expanded their programming, policy, and public advocacy efforts.
Henry’s work has been featured by a number of media outlets, including the Huffington Post, Elephant Journal, Blog Talk Radio, The NYC Social Innovation Festival, and the Social Venture Institute.