Founder of Mindful Living in Houston, Texas, and Certified Mindfulness Teacher, Micki Fine was awarded this credential from the University of Massachusetts Medical Center where Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn founded the renowned Center for Mindfulness. She holds a master's degree in counseling psychology and is licensed as a professional counselor. She has been in private psychotherapy practice since 1990.

Micki teaches mindfulness meditation and stress reduction in a variety of settings including her private practice, the Jung Center, Rice University, M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, and The Institute for Spirituality and Health. She has acted as a consultant and teacher for National Institute for Drug Abuse grants studying mindfulness and its effects on chemical dependency recovery and smoking cessation. She has taught Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy for Depression Relapse Prevention at the nationally known Omega Institute.

TED is a nonprofit organization devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. Starting as a four-day conference in California 25 years ago, TED has grown to support those world-changing ideas with multiple initiatives. The annual TED Conference invites the world's leading thinkers and doers to speak for 18 minutes. Their talks are then made available, free, at TED.com. TED speakers have included Bill Gates, Al Gore, Jane Goodall, Elizabeth Gilbert, Sir Richard Branson, Nandan Nilekani,Philippe Starck, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Isabel Allende and UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown. The annual TED Conference takes place in Long Beach, California, with simulcast in Palm Springs.

TEDx: The x = independently organized event. In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.