Ethics Advisory Committee Members
Co-Chairs
 Corinne Cassini
Corinne Cassini, a professionally trained cellist, teaches the Alexander Technique to Music Majors at the Hayes School of Music at Appalachian State University and privately in Boone, NC since 2012, guiding performing artists, educators, and many others both individually as well as in classroom and workshop settings. Following her 3-year training in the Carrington tradition in Amsterdam, she spent two additional years under the guidance of Tommy Thompson on his training course deepening her experience and understanding of the Alexander Technique as applied to performing artists. Her first Alexander lessons were close to 30 years ago and she has been giving workshops, teaching groups, and practicing individually as a certified teacher in Boone, NYC, Boston, England, The Netherlands, and France since 2009. In 2015 she started training Alexander teachers at her school, Light in Being-Alexander Teacher Training in Boone, NC. She is an ATI Sponsor (2021) and teaching member of ATI since 2011. She speaks both English and French fluently like a native and had a good command of German and Dutch.
She continues to perform on the Baroque Cello and Viola da Gamba, instruments she studied during her BM and MM in performance and pedagogy.
 Irene Schlump
I have been a member of ATI since 2011. As an ATI fledgling, I was privileged to be part of the first fully international board (5 posts - 5 countries). I got to know ATI in a very practical and above all learning way. Since the beginning of my membership I have provided support for ATI's translation activities as coordinator for Germany. I am grateful to be a part of the Ethics Advisory Committee since 2020. Through these activities and visits to ATI conferences, Corinne Cassini and I have gotten to know each other in many respects. I am happy to serve with her as co-chair of the Ethics Advisory Committee.
„Growing up sheltered in a small village in Germany, I have had a sense of injustice and oppressive behavior from an early age and questioned it. I am fire. In the fire is tranquility. Is a quiet place of peace, kindness and necessity that gives me the ground to find pragmatic solutions if they serve to find equity for all involved and the cause. I find it exciting to understand life as a whole and explore how leading and following live in the principle of integrity, simplicity and in the arts. The Alexander Technique is a driving tool in this.“ From the Winter ExChange 2022: From NOW onwards a Table is not enough!
The article, written in collaboration with Sharyn West, allows a glimpse into my (our) vision of a Listening Practice and "how this can feed into organizational structure but stays an end for itself.“
In my further life I work as a teacher of Alexander Technique (since 2006) and as an actress in Bochum, Germany with a focus on theater pedagogical work with children on the subjects of sexual exploitation, recycling and democracy issues in the broadest sense.
I am the author of the Classroom Theater piece "Alles viel zu viel zuviel (Everything way too much)" with which I successfully tour.
In 2021 I coordinated the interdisciplinary project TRUE BLUE, which realizes spaces for artistic exploration of sustainable art and cultural production and natural and cultural diversity in two places in the world (Bochum/DE, Winterveldt/ZA). (funded from: Fonds Darstellende Künste aus Mitteln der Beauftragten der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien and also from Ministerium für Kultur und Wissenschaft des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen.)
I completed my training as a teacher for the Alexander Technique at the AlexanderAlliance, Germany (2002-2006) with Bruce Fertman, Martha Hansen-Fertman, Robin Avalon, Midori Shinkai and Zoana Gepner-Müller as my main teachers. Among others, Nadia Kevan, Tommy Thompson, Penelope Easten, Yehuda Kuperman and Margarete Tüshaus have inspired me on my way.
Before that, I became a nurse and studied theater, film and television. In 1996, I worked for 3 months at the Oasis Theatre in New York as part of a work experience program.
Since its beginning, I have also been involved in the Just Inclusion (formerly Racism and Diversity) working group. I am also a member of the German professional society ATD, which was founded in 2010 with the aspiration to shape an open society that doesn't ask what you are but who you are. As a small organization, we value flat hierarchies, a minimum of bureaucracy, and organizing continuing education for the broader AT community.
I am a 56 year old white cis woman.
Committee Members
 Jim Paisner
In his earlier years, he was a carpenter and ran a Macrobiotic restaurant in Philadelphia, teaching about Yin and Yang. He next moved to Japan with his young family, graduating from Meiji University of Integrative Medicine’s 2.5-year acupuncture course and passing the national exam – in Japanese.
Returning to the U.S, after a brief stint practicing acupuncture, he used his experience in marketing and product development to start and run an import and distribution company, retiring after 30 years in 2018. At the same time, he taught yoga (15 years) and attended the Alexander Technique Center at Cambridge, MA with Tommy Thompson. He was certified by ATI in 2005.
After moving to North Carolina, he worked with The Poise Project. In 2019 he taught two courses in person: one for care partners of people with dementia (10 weeks) and another 16-class course, Poised for Parkinson’s, for people living with Parkinson’s disease and their partners. He taught two more of those courses via Zoom in 2020 and 2021. Jim is currently teaching AT locally, and continuing to learn, recently taking classes with Jeando Masoero.
 Shawn Copeland
Shawn L. Copeland is the founder of mBODYed, LLC, a new program specializing in Alexander Technique and Body Mapping Training for performers. Together with Bill Conable, they founded and direct the Inter-Mountain Alexander Training in Spokane, WA. He is the co-author of the upcoming publications, Body Mapping for Clarinetists and Breathing for Clarinets. Shawn has been studying Nervous System Energy Healing since 2010 and explores the many intersections of energy work and Alexander Technique in his teaching and research.
Shawn joined ATI in 2006, when he joined the Board as Treasurer (2006-2009). From 2009-2017, he has served in various leaderships roles including committee member and Co-Chair of Continuing Education, Agenda Planning, and ACGM Site between 2009-2017.
“I am humbled by the nomination to join the Ethics Advisory Committee. My work n Diversity and Inclusion over the past few years has significantly influenced my teaching. I see the Alexander Technique as a pathway to developing safety, trust, and belonging within our own bodies. My work has focused on gender inclusion and how gender is expressed in movement.
While ATI leads the field as an inclusive organization, fostering diversity and belonging within ATI and the larger community will require a trauma-informed approach in leadership and policy development. I’m excited to bring these skills and experience in Inclusion and Belonging to ATI by working on the Ethics Advisory Committee.”
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