Shelly Tygielski is the author of Sit Down to Rise Up: How Radical Self-Care Can Change the World. She is the founder of Pandemic of Love, a global, grassroots mutual aid community that has directly matched nearly 2 million people with supporters since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, accounting for more than $60 million in direct transactions. Her work has been featured in more than 100 media outlets, including CNN Heroes of 2020, Forbes, Upworthy, The Kelly Clarkson Show, CBS This Morning, the New York Times and Washington Post.
Shelly has been hailed by individuals from President Joe Biden to Arianna Huffington, and Dr. Jon Kabat- Zinn to Maria Shriver. She is a trauma-informed mindfulness teacher named one of the “12 Powerful Women of the Mindfulness Movement” by Mindful Magazine in 2019. Shelly teaches formalized self-care and resilience practices at organizations around the world, and is widely regarded as a self-care activist.