Team Bios
Venerable Nick Santacitto
Venerable Nick, previously a practicing psychotherapist, has been ordained as a Theravada Buddhist monk in Thailand since 2018. His YouTube and other content captures his unique perspective by interweaving the tools of the mental health field and Buddhist wisdom into simple and practical guides to healing.
Venerable Nick has acquired a diverse range of professional experience from spending over a decade in the mental health field including but not limited to: being the lead clinician at a foster home for over 100 kids aged 12-18, being a program therapist at a drug treatment center in Malibu, California, being a bereavement counselor at a hospice, and being the founder and owner of his private practice True Nature Counseling Center in San Diego, California.
However, at the pinnacle of his professional success, Venerable Nick left it all behind to become a Buddhist monk in Thailand. He wanted to delve deeper into his own healing and become a more refined practitioner of the tools that he was teaching. It is his highest mission to share this knowledge with others in order to help them discover their true nature and live their most authentic lives.
Venerable Michael Viradhammo
After discovering the healing power of Buddhism and meditation, Venerable Michael decided to abandon material pursuits, paid back his loans, and left his hometown of Atlanta, Georgia to become a Theravada Buddhist monk in Thailand where he has been ordained since 2017. Since then, Venerable Michael has helped with teaching meditation and wisdom to thousands of travelers at the Pa Pae Meditation retreat in Chiang Mai as well as teaching and mentoring men who become a monk with the international ordination program.
He is also an avid writer and spearheads all of Wisdom Age Initiative’s writing projects including the books, quote cards, and other communications. He is passionate about designing systems that solve repetitive problems and—alongside Venerable Nick—utilizes ancient wisdom and modern tech to co-create custom meditation and wisdom curriculums and programs tailored to the specific needs of leaders and organizations across many industries. He is also making many other wisdom resources, running events and retreats, and traveling the world with Venerable Nick on a shared mission to bridge mental health with spiritual health. Venerable Michael is deeply dedicated to continuous spiritual cultivation, aligning his life with wisdom and well-being, and helping others do the same.
Nolan Pokpongkiat
As head of operations, Nolan has pushed forward the mission in many ways including but not limited to: creating Simply Stretch - our online guided yoga library (coming soon), technical and product design for L.I.G.H.T. House Retreats and Simply Still, emceeing and guiding mindful movement at candle light meditation events, and much, much more.
His B.S. of Computer Science from Berkeley, years of tech industry experience, yoga teacher certifications, and shared values of practicing and promoting the healing guidance from both eastern traditions and the mental health field(among other things) allows him to play a wide array of important roles and collaborate synergistically with Ven. Nick and Ven. Michael to co-create projects and bring them to life in ways far beyond the monks’ personal capabilities.
He often joins the monks on their travels and assists them in whatever way is needed while bringing an amazing energy to every group they seek to serve. The generosity of his time, energy, kindness, and skills has allowed the practical wisdom of the monks and his own expertise in mindful movement to reach, resonate with, and help a much broader audience.
Pete Freeman
Pete Freeman has spent his life in the social impact space building things that help people heal. At 14, he co-founded a youth mentoring nonprofit that served elementary students facing adversity, earning a Jefferson Award for Public Service. After graduating summa cum laude from the University of Notre Dame, he founded Youth Health Ghana, a public health nonprofit that reached more than 10,000 children and parents, and has since spoken on youth health at the United Nations. Today he leads organizational change at Michigan Medicine, places research-driven stories in national outlets, and is completing his MBA at the University of Chicago.
In 2021, he ordained as a monk for a few months with Venerable Nick and Venerable Michael in Chiang Mai where his journey of inner cultivation took root and blossomed into a central pillar of his life. The relationship the three built in Thailand set the foundation of trust and revealed a values-alignment that led to Pete now serving as Wisdom Age Initiative’s Chief of Staff where his professional expertise, excellent communication skills, and warm, endearing personality truly shine through.
A jack of many trades, he helps the monks turn their work into evidence-backed stories the wider world can hear, coordinates logistics in their multi-faceted projects, and otherwise fills in the blanks wherever needed. Creative giving is his own (and very accurate) way of describing how he shows up for others, and WAI deeply appreciates his generous assistance in helping our mission succeed.