Robert Schwoch has been a member and Zen student at ZLMC since 2019. He is certified by ZLMC as a “Mindfulness and Meditation Teacher”. A lifelong resident of Milwaukee, he is currently a freelance writer and serves as a lecturer and advisor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He began his career as a sportswriter at several Wisconsin newspapers including the Milwaukee Journal, went on to report on politics for the Capital Times in Madison before serving 10 years as a communication specialist and chief of legislative staff in the Wisconsin State Assembly and Senate, then struck out on his own as a political communication consultant and eventually a writer and teacher after completing an MFA in writing and literature at Bennington College. He is one of the few people - perhaps the only person - to have led both Democratic and Republican legislative offices at the Wisconsin Capitol. He teaches courses in strategic communication, sports reporting, literary journalism and creative nonfiction at the University of Wisconsin.