STAFF

Photo by Sylvia Eugenia Ruiz

SYLVIA EUGENIA RUIZ

FOUNDER AND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Raised in Mexico City, Sylvia has 20 years of experience in mindfulness, theater, body ritual movement, performance art, acting, and directing. Since 2014, she has been working in Madison, Wisconsin, as the founder and executive director of Primordial Multicultural Healing Community, a nonprofit that offers no-cost contemplative practices and Somatic Experiencing sessions to non-dominant groups; especially the Latine community. Sylvia simultaneously holds a position at the Department of Educational Psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, teaches mindfulness meditation in both English and Spanish at UW Health Mindfulness Program. She will graduate as a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner in 2023. Much of her work involves stress reactivity, anxiety, attachment, acculturation/immigration, discrimination, and marginalization. Sylvia identifies as queer, female, mestiza, first-generation immigrant.

Specialties: Project management, facilitation, trauma healing, movement and performance improvisation, natural motivator, creative writing, cross-cultural communication, contemplative practices, languages (Spanish, English, French).

I value: Solidarity, compassion in action, challenge, collaboration, kindness, sense of safety and belonging, integrity, long-term relationships and partnerships, healing processes, environmental awareness, and innovative thinking.

I founded Primordial motivated by a dream: Creating a space for healing processes that celebrates diversity, where we discuss difference openly, and are centered in the needs and capacities of non-dominant groups (mainly Latine).

Positions/Affiliations/Responsibilities/Passions: Primordial’s Multicultural Healing Community Executive  Director, outreach specialist at UW Madison’s Educational Psychology, Mindfulness facilitator at UW Health Mindfulness Program, healing trauma at Somatic Experiencing Trauma Institute (third-year student), artist, traveler, LGBTQIA+ community member, wife, daughter, friend of the Earth and friend of my friends.

MICHELLE ESPARZA

COURSES AND SPECIAL PROJECTS COORDINATOR

Specialties: Teaching theatre for children, project coordination, writing of stories and plays for children (with the prehispanic theme), study and practice of Aztec-Mexica culture, temazcal ritual (traditional medicine), healing songs, the performance of huehuetl, panhuehuetl and teponaztli (Pre-Hispanic instruments). Languages: Spanish and I am a student of Nahuatl and English.   

I value: Teamwork, honesty, and loyalty.

I collaborate with Primordial because: I believe in community. I know that we are all part of the same fabric and that, despite distances, borders, culture, and language, we are still human. It is only in community, respecting the authenticity of each one, that we can fulfill our dreams and have a fuller life. For me, Primordial is a place of transformation that offers the necessary tools to modify your personal perceptions and allows you to live your life, whatever it may be, in a more present way.

Positions/Affiliations/Responsibilities/Passions:  Apprentice and practitioner of the Azteca-Mexica cultural legacy. Temazcal, healing songs, theatre for kids, dramaturgy, woman, wife, sister, daughter, friend, prehispanic musical instruments, coordinator of courses and special projects at Primordial.  

FANNY MOFFETTE

FINANCIAL ADVISOR

Specialties: Environmental economics, impact evaluation, quantitative research, writing, coding, financial planning, languages (French, Spanish, English, and Portuguese).

I value: Innovation, sustainability, healing processes, and collaboration.

I collaborate with Primordial because: I believe its innovative teaching method has a deep potential to foster well-being in non-dominant groups.  

Positions/Affiliations/Responsibilities/Passions: Primordial’s Financial Advisor, Postdoctoral Researcher at UW Madison’s Agricultural and Applied Economics, studying policies that are aimed to protect ecosystems, lifelong learning, gardener, yoga, and cross-cultural psychology.