Jill Uchiyama became acquainted with Andrew Cohen's teaching in 1995 shortly after receiving a graduate degree in Counseling from Western Michigan University. While on the track to becoming a family therapist, she began to deeply question the differences between psychological change and soul development. Through many conversations with her co-worker at that time, Jeff Carreira, she became interested in the unlimited possibility of spiritual freedom and less interested in psychology as a vehicle for change. In 1996, she quit her counseling profession, spontaneously took a job in Japan and set out on a spiritual search.

After spending five years teaching English in Osaka and Tokyo and far from finding what she was looking for, Jill attended her first retreat with Andrew Cohen in Rishikesh, India and soon afterwards, became his student. Since 2002, Jill has played an integral role at the Boston EnlightenNext Center.

Professionally, Jill has run literacy and work education programs in Boston, and has taught hundreds of immigrants in Massachusetts for several years. She is the Program Coordinator for an automotive training program in Chinatown which strives to unite business, educational institutes and philanthropy. Her life's ambition involves truly changing culture and consciousness and she has sought to do this through her work with other students of Andrew Cohens' around the world. With an interest in Integral Consciousness along with Evolutionary Enlightenment, Jill is motivated to catalyze a profound change in Education and in creating a very new direction for women. As a student and teacher of Evolutionary Enlightenment, Jill is serious about redefining philosophy, spirituality, and education for the 21st century.