Nathan Smalley

Dharma Name: Konen

Title: Senior Teacher

Preferred Name: Nate

Organization: Appamada

Lineage: Suzuki Roshi 

Nathan Smalley is the Senior Teacher at Appamada, a contemporary Zen Center in Austin, TX. His teaching draws together Zen, philosophy, and pedagogy, shaped by a researcher's background in phenomenology and a long practice of paying close attention to what is actually here in schools and organizations.

He is especially drawn to those working under hard conditions — leaders and change agents trying to act with clarity when conditions are not forgiving. He has spent twenty-five years in that work himself in urban schools: as a teacher, a school founder, a district leader, and a chief-level executive. He founded and leads Conscious Schools, a national educational consultancy. Nate lives in Austin with his wife, Jessica, and their son, Parker.