About

Director and Founder of Samma Sati

Samma Sati, founded and directed by Valeria Galetto, is an organization dedicated to the study, teaching, practice and dissemination of mindfulness.

Valeria Galetto, PhD, is a certified Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) teacher from the University of Massachusetts Medical School. She regularly teaches mindfulness at the University of California San Francisco—both at the Helen Diller Cancer Center and the Osher Center for Integrative Health—and at the University of Wisconsin Health. Her classes include Mindfulness-Based Cancer Recovery, MBSR, and Mindfulness for Healing Chronic Pain—a five-session class that integrates cutting-edge neuroscience with millennia-old mindfulness practices. She also teaches at the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies. She serves as a facilitator for Bhikkhu Anālayo’s Satipaṭṭhāna Meditation program and will begin facilitating his Mindfulness of Breathing program in the summer of 2025. Additionally, she is an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the College of Nursing at Samuel Merritt University, where she teaches a three-credit course on MBSR and the Neuroscience of Change.

In addition to teaching these programs and classes, Valeria has developed and delivered a wide range of mindfulness-based courses and training programs. She has also led silent meditation retreats in both English and Spanish for universities, businesses, and non-profit organizations in the US and abroad. Valeria has more than ten years of experience as a coach, mentor, and consultant to individuals and organizations.

Valeria was born in Córdoba, Argentina, and holds a PhD in International Development from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a Master’s degree in Social Anthropology from the Universidad Iberoamericana (Mexico), and a Bachelor’s degree in Social Communication from the Universidad Nacional de Córdoba (Argentina). She has been practicing and studying insight meditation since 2012, and her primary teachers include Gil Fronsdal, Andrea Fella, and Bhikkhu Anālayo. Valeria lives in Madison, Wisconsin.