Gail Silver, JD

Gail Silver J.D., E-RYT, RCYT, YACEP, is the founder and CEO of The School Mindfulness Project Inc., and founder and director of Philadelphia’s Yoga Child Inc. As the curriculum developer for both of these Philadelphia based organization, and author of the award winning Anh’s Anger Children’s book trilogy (Parallax Press) and Mindful Bea and The Worry Tree (Magination Press, 2019), Gail is usually busy writing as well as teaching. Lauded by Publisher’s weekly as “A Winning Series,” Gail's picture books teach children to navigate their stronger emotions through mindfulness and meditation, and are an integral part of Yoga Child’s and The SMP's curriculum.

Gail has been teaching yoga to children and adults and expectant mothers since 1999, providing students with the knowledge and skills to integrate mindfulness and yoga into their lives, both on and off the mat. A contributing writer to Lion’s Roar Magazine and screenwriter of the animated family film, Planting Seeds of Mindfulness, Gail travels nationally and internationally to facilitate yoga and mindfulness based education at educational conferences and has appeared on various news, radio shows and podcasts throughout her career. Gail is honored to be a thought leader, and together with Yoga Child, a founding sponsor of K-12 yoga.org, a brand-neutral organization bringing yoga and schools together.
Since Yoga Child’s inception, Gail and Yoga Child have earned a steady stream of accolades, including Parent's Magazine's Enterprising Woman of The Year (for Gail), Best of Philadelphia (For Yoga Child), Parents Choice(Yoga Child Play List: A Peaceful Place Inside), and The Skipping Stones Award for Multicultural Awareness (For Anh's Anger).

Prior to founding Yoga Child, Gail was an attorney, specializing in children’s advocacy law. It was through her dual work as a child advocate and yoga instructor that Gail realized the importance of providing children with a forum in which they could express themselves through mind, body and breath. Soon after, Yoga Child was born.

Though Gail is busy overseeing Yoga Child in the Philadelphia area, she continues to facilitate Yoga Child’s Teacher Training programs, professional development modules and author events in nearby schools. In continued support of her mission to see mindbody education integrated in school based settings, Gail founded The School Mindfulness Project Inc. in 2016. The SMP is a non-profit organization unrelated to Yoga Child, that seeks to ensure that sustainable school-wide yoga and mindfulness programming becomes an accessible part of the school-day for Philadelphia’s underserved schools communities.