Presenter Highlight: John MacAdams

Senior Trainer & Program Manager, Center for Mindfulness in Public Safety

At the Center for Mindfulness in Public Safety, the strength of our work rests on the people who deliver it — trainers who understand both the practice and the pressures of the professions they serve. This month, we're spotlighting John MacAdams, CMT-P, a senior trainer and our Program Manager, whose two-and-a-half decades of teaching experience have helped bring evidence-based resilience skills to public safety agencies across the U.S. and Canada.

A practitioner first

John is a Certified Mindfulness Teacher–Professional (CMT-P) through the International Mindfulness Teachers Association, with more than 25 years of experience providing group and individual mindfulness training. As a senior contract trainer of our Mindfulness-Based Wellness & Resiliency (MBWR)® program, he was trained and mentored directly by CMPS co-founder and Director of Training & Research Fleet Maull, PhD.

Over the past nine years, John has delivered programs throughout the criminal justice field — working with corrections professionals, law enforcement, and first responders on the physiological, emotional, and psychological demands that come with the job. He also serves as a senior chaplain volunteer at Men's Central Jail with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, keeping his teaching grounded in the realities of high-stakes environments.

Building bridges into agencies

As Program Manager, John pairs his in-depth teaching experience with a genuine feel for the challenges public safety organizations face. Much of his work happens in the relationship-building — understanding an agency's culture, then developing the trust and opportunities that make transformational growth possible from the inside out.

That focus reflects the core CMPS premise: the same focus and discipline officers bring to tactical training can be applied to the regulation of attention, stress response, and emotional resilience. John helps participants walk away with a clear, practical set of self-regulation skills that have immediate impact — on work performance, job satisfaction, and quality of life both on the job and at home.

A wide-angle background

John's path to this work is anything but conventional. Before CMPS, he spent 25 years in the Los Angeles film industry and 15 years as a small business owner, touring professional musician and producer, performing artist's representative, and online educational content manager. That range shows up in the room — in his ease with people, his adaptability, and his knack for meeting professionals where they are.

Catch John in action

John is a founding co-host of the Mindful Public Safety Hour (MPSH) — our free weekly Zoom session, every Wednesday at 8 PM ET, open to all public safety professionals, now in its 7th year. He'll also be presenting with Bradford Bouge, J-SAT at the ICJA conference in Columbus, OH, Sept 1, 2026.

If you want a one-sentence summary of the workshop, please reach out to brad@j-sat.com

Join us Wednesdays at 8 PM ET: bit.ly/mindfulpublicsafetyhour