Ami's Bio

Ami Chen Mills-Naim is a global speaker, coach, trainer, editor and author of State of Mind in the Classroom: Thought, Consciousness and the Essential Curriculum for Healthy Learning, and The Spark Inside: A Special Book for Youth. She also wrote a book on the Central Intelligence Agency and student political activism on college campuses just after her graduation from Northwestern University in Communications, Film and Creative Writing in 1989.

With her late father, the social scientist Dr. Roger Mills (considered a pioneer of "Three Principles" work globally) she co-founded the non-profit Center for Sustainable Change, and served as its Executive Director and Education Director for a decade. In this role, she raised nearly one million dollars in funding for Principles-based/innate resiliency programs across the U.S. and worked with the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, San Francisco Foundation and Shinnyo En Foundation to implement the National Community Resiliency Project, with transformative outcomes in communities across the United States.

She has been an international speaker on innate wellness and resiliency, and a trainer of the “Three Principles” for nearly 30 years, as well as a “trainer of trainers.”

In 2019, Ami joined the Positive Deep Adaptation online forum, initiated by University of Cumbria Professor Jem Bendell, after release of his global and viral paper on climate collapse, “Deep Adaptation.” She has been a lobbyist and volunteer for Citizens Climate Lobby, meeting with Jimmy Panetta and others in Washington DC, and helped co-found the Santa Cruz Chapter of Extinction Rebellion. She also served on the International Regenerative Culture Working Group for Extinction Rebellion bringing the innate resiliency/Three Principles paradigm to this global, climate activism group. She current focus is bringing spiritual principles and social, political and ecological activism together. In 2022, she ran for local, political office in order to bring climate issues to the fore of community conversations.

Ami spent part of her childhood on Salt Spring Island in British Columbia, where her father became a student of philosopher Mr. Sydney Banks. Besides the Principles, Ami’s spiritual studies from a young age have spanned a wide range of teachers, authors and traditions.

Ami has worked with children, youth, families and communities for more than 25 years. Through relationships with major foundations, Ami developed large-scale community resiliency projects involving schools, community agencies, parent groups and private partnership. Through her writing, teaching and project leadership, Ami has made a significant impact on spiritual consciousness, globally, and has been instrumental in producing literature and video programs on applications of the Principles with youth, families and in communities across the USA. As former Director of the National Community Resiliency Project, funded by the Kellogg Foundation--she helped to bring the Principles of Mind, Consciousness and Thought to communities, groups and organizations in Charlotte, North Carolina, the Mississippi Delta, Des Moines, Iowa and the San Francisco Bay Area. 

In addition, Ami is an award-winning writer and journalist, who hosted her own radio show and podcast, “On the Front Porch with Ami Chen: Spiritual Dialogues for the 21st Century.”

Ami’s current focus is on helping families, educators and children through sharing and expanding an understanding of the Principles, of innate wisdom and what she calls the “the living, breathing, formless Truth" ... both within, and separate from any movement or organization. Moreover, Ami shares the profound potential of our true nature, and the simple power of Love to help end needless suffering.