Our patron and Board
The Board of the Centre is responsible for the overall management and direction of lifeflow. Meetings are held throughout the year, and the Board then reports to the Centre’s Annual General Meeting. A financial report is tabled at Board meetings and at the Annual general Meeting.
Our Patron
Professor John Willoughby
John Willoughby graduated in Medicine from the University of Adelaide in 1968, and specialised in Neurology after training at the Royal Adelaide Hospital, the Royal Post-Graduate Medical School (Hammersmith) London and the Montreal General Hospital. He then obtained a PhD in Neurosciences from McGill University Montreal in 1977. He has been at Flinders University and Medical Centre since 1977, where he is Emeritus Professor in Medicine and Honorary Consultant Neurologist. His interest in meditation was stimulated by his long-standing interest in consciousness, the reassurance of a colleague interested in meditation and a determined student who wished to examine the neurophysiology of meditation. These brought John into his first contact with The Lifeflow Meditation Centre.
Our Board
Patricia Barrett
Patricia Barrett is a Registered Psychologist who operates a small boutique clinical counselling practice and Executive Coaching business, as well as, most recently, working with the Department for Child Protection establishing and implementing its staff wellbeing framework. Previously, Patricia managed a national organisation at a state based level, with full responsibility for budgets, human resources, quality control marketing, and business development.
Patricia has had a long, over 20 years, and enjoyable association with Lifeflow. She personally uses meditation as a daily practice and encourages her own clients to incorporate meditation techniques into their own lives for greater overall wellbeing.
Adam Fisher
Adam Fisher is a Partner at the Adelaide Office of Grant Thornton Australia where he works as a financial advisor and accountant, specialising in assisting medium and large family owned businesses. Adam particularly enjoys working with the agriculture, food and beverage industries which suit his family background and country upbringing. He has previously been the Treasurer of numerous sporting clubs as well as the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Community Childcare Centre.
Rob Anderson
BE (Hons.); PhD
Rob is an engineer in private practice and part-time academic working in the area of forensic accident investigation. He was previously at the University of Adelaide where he was an Associate Professor at the Centre for Automotive Safety Research. Rob was born and raised in the Adelaide Hills, and is married with four children. Rob has been involved with Lifeflow since 2003.
Steve Begg
Steve Begg is an Emeritus Professor of Decision-making at the University of Adelaide. His focus is on tools and processes for making reliable judgements and good decisions under uncertainty and complexity, including psychological and economic factors (“good” meaning identifying the option that will give the most of what is wanted from a decision). He also has a small company which provides corporate training in decision-making, from first-line workers to senior executive levels.
A geophysicist by education, before coming to Adelaide in 2002, he spent 20 years in industry as: marketing director for strategic planning and decision-science with a Fortune 500 company in Austin Texas; senior geologist and senior engineer roles with BP in Anchorage, Alaska (the best place he has lived); a researcher and manager with BP Research in the UK. The topics of risk and uncertainty have been a constant throughout these varied positions.
John Burston
BSc (Mathematical Sciences)
John has taught meditation since 1996; his training including a year-long retreat and advanced practices in Insight and Yoga-Tantra. Formerly working in IT, he now oversees the Lifeflow curriculum and teaches a wide range of Lifeflow courses, retreats and workplace sessions, and mentors individual students. He loves bushwalking, keeping fit, travel and good food with close friends and family.
Margaret Faulkner
Dr Margaret Faulkner is a Senior Marketing Scientist at the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute at University of South Australia. Margaret has worked on projects ranging from examining distinctive assets for global brands to helping local not-for-profits avoid wasting precious resources on ineffective marketing practices.
Her research has been published in various academic journals. She is a Certified Practicing Marketer of the Australian Marketing Institute, Fellow of the Governor’s Leadership Foundation in South Australia and has completed the Australian Institute of Company Directors course: Governance Foundations for the Not-for-Profit Directors. Margaret has been a member of Lifeflow for over 15 years.
Sally McLennan
Sally McLennan brings to the Lifeflow Board over 40 years of management experience, working in both the private and corporate retail sector. Originally from the UK, Sally moved to Australia with her husband Rob where she worked with Myer, David Jones, and Country Road/House until their first daughter was born. Rob and Sally then decided to go out on their own, and subsequently ran their own retail businesses until they retired about 3 years ago with the sale of their Snooze store at Mile End.
Sally started classes at Lifeflow about 10 years ago and sincerely believes that her experience at Lifeflow was a cornerstone to her mental and physical health over that time, and consequently was a part of the success of the Snooze business. She brings her business skills in marketing, customer relations, communication and human resources to Lifeflow, in the hope that other potential students can discover meditation and benefit from Lifeflow’s teachings as she has done.
Cecily Orenstein
BA Social Work
Cecily graduated as a Social Worker and worked at the National Cancer Association in Johannesburg, South Africa. She immigrated to Australia in 1980 and worked as a tertiary counsellor. She has also been on the teaching team at the University of South Australia in the Post Graduate Diploma courses of Health Counselling, Educational Counseling and Group Work. Upon retirement from Social Work she completed a Certificate IV in Visual Arts specialising in textiles. She enjoys working in a voluntary capacity on projects that are aimed at developing a sense of empowerment.
Her interest in meditation began in 1979 with Transcendental Meditation but her passion for meditation has been fuelled by meeting the teachers and students at Lifeflow since February 2017.
Dr Graham Williams
PhD (Adelaide), B Mus, Grad Dip Ed, Dip Concert (Paris)
Dr. Graham Williams is the Founder and Director of Lifeflow. He trained in the Tibetan and Burmese Buddhist meditation traditions, and has over 35 years of teaching experience with local, interstate and overseas students. Graham is a concert pianist and scholar who taught piano students at Adelaide University for over 20 years; he still teaches privately. He is also an adjunct lecturer at Flinders University in the School of Medicine.
more . . .
Our teachers
We have highly qualified and experienced meditation teachers at all courses and retreats, each with a minimum of ten years training with Lifeflow.
Discover more about membership ...
If you are looking to go further with meditation then membership is for you. Enjoy benefits including 10% discount on all courses and retreats, borrowing rights to our library, members only classes, retreats and more.
Member's retreats
Members' retreats build on what is covered in our public retreats and then take the practises to a much more advanced level.