Allison ‘Alli’ Simon

Allison “Alli” Simon (she/her) is from and currently resides in South Central Los Angeles and has more than 20 years of experience in the nonprofit sector and a deep commitment to creating spaces where people can slow down, reconnect, and experience greater wellbeing, belonging, and liberation. Meditation has been a cornerstone of Alli’s life since 2008, beginning as a personal practice that supported her through periods of challenge, grief, and loss. Over time, it became a path of study, teaching, and service.

She completed her 200-hour yoga teacher training with Green Tree Yoga and Meditation in South LA in 2015, followed by the Yoga, Mindfulness and Social Change program at Loyola Marymount University and 300 additional hours of advanced study with Radical Darshan, bringing her to 500 hours of yoga teacher training. She has completed meditation facilitation training with InsightLA and the International Mindfulness Teachers Association (IMTA). She is currently studying Buddhist Psychology through Spirit Rock and recently completed an EcoDharma training.

Alli’s spiritual practice is rooted in the teachings of the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali and the Satipatthana Sutta, alongside Vipassana meditation in the tradition of S.N. Goenka and an ongoing silent retreat practice rooted in Vipassana and Insight. Her path has also been deeply shaped and inspired by Black Dharma teachers, social justice advocates, healers, and practitioners whose work lives at the intersection of spiritual practice, liberation, and collective care. Alli is committed to teaching these practices “in the idiom of the people”—honoring their depth and lineage while making them understandable, embodied, and relevant to the communities she serves.

She sees herself as a bridge, helping people find their own way into the path and understand what these practices might make possible in their lives. For years, Alli taught yoga, meditation and movement throughout Los Angeles County—in community spaces, parks, gyms, nonprofits, museums, and other public gatherings. During the pandemic, she led meditation virtually via social media twice a day for 120 consecutive days, creating a consistent space for people to pause, return to themselves, and practice together during a time of profound uncertainty and isolation.

Her years of community-based teaching ultimately led to the founding of Black Being, a vision brought to life with the support of brands and private philanthropists who believed in her work. As Executive Director and Co-Founder of Black Being, Alli understands the work not simply as an organization she leads, but as an expression of her dharma—a way of putting her practice into service of community. She is particularly committed to creating pathways for Black and other communities of color to encounter meditation, yoga, and retreat spaces where they can see themselves reflected. For many, Black Being becomes a doorway into practices they may not otherwise have encountered, and an invitation to imagine themselves as practitioners, teachers, and leaders.

In 2025, Alli led her first BIPOC Community Silent Meditation Retreat alongside JoAnna Hardy, Devin Berry, and Hakim Tafari—an important milestone in her own practice and retreat leadership. She is committed to making longer and silent retreat experiences more accessible to Black and other communities of color and to expanding who feels invited into these spaces.

Alli holds an M.A. in Management from the University of Redlands and a B.A. in Communications – Public Relations from California State University, Fullerton. She also serves as the Senior Lead for Wellbeing and Healing Justice at Social Justice Partners Los Angeles, where she leads healing justice and community care workshops for BIPOC workers and social service providers. Her teaching, writing, and meditation work have been featured and shared through collaborations with CALM, The Los Angeles Times, KTLA, The SpringHill Company, Athleta, adidas, Ban.do, Ope_n, and Yoga International.