Bio

Justin Maaia seeks to cultivate Understanding, Relationship, & Self-Awareness (URSA) by taking care of this present moment through the best tools of ancient wisdom and modern science.

He currently teaches religious studies and spirituality (secular and religious!) at National Cathedral School (NCS) in Washington, DC.

For the past twenty-five years, he has listened to and learned from religious and secular traditions, searching for techniques that can affect/effect ethical development both inside and outside these traditions. Justin was surprised to learn that the relationships formed while engaging in and reflecting on these practices have as much of a transformative impact as any of the techniques themselves. These practices became the basis of an experiential relational journaling pedagogy.

At NCS, he has helped to develop a multi-year fieldwork study of religious diversity in the greater Washington metropolitan area, as well as to institute (and to disseminate at peer schools) the relational journaling method. At his previous school, he built a retreat program for grades nine through twelve.

Justin recently served as a Visiting Scholar at the Center for Spiritual and Ethical Education (CSEE), where he published Starting Points for Teaching World Religions: Content, Skills, and Habits of Mind for Understanding, Relationship, and Self-Awareness, a guide for teachers, students, and interfaith practitioners who are new to the field.

He holds degrees from Suffolk University (B.A.) and Boston University (M.A.), a 60-hour certificate from the Sarah and Ty Powers Insight Yoga Institute, and he is the recipient of the Olmsted Prize for Excellence in Secondary Teaching from Williams College.

In his free time, he enjoys reading, walking, improvising music, hanging with family and friends, and seeing what new creative endeavors his wife and daughters have been up to.