As founding director of Middle Way Education (MWE), Noa led the establishment of the Middle Way School of the Hudson Valley in 2017. She stepped back from her leadership roles at the school in 2021 to focus on expanding MWE and creating pathways for children to encounter the dharma. globally. Her primary project is the development of the MWE Curriculum in partnership with education specialists and dharma advisors from across the Buddhist world. Collaborating with strategic consultants, she articulates the vision and mission of the organization, and cultivates partnerships with like-minded institutions and individuals.
Noa has worked for Tibetan Rime master Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche since 2001 in a variety of roles—from personal secretary to film PA to Communications Director of Khyentse Foundation, where she helped create the foundation’s branding and chaired KF’s education steering committee for more than a decade. In 2010, Rinpoche sent her to the Kingdom of Bhutan to develop education alternatives in association with the Ministry of Education, the Royal Education Council, monasteries, and a number of NGOs. She coordinated professional development programs and a curriculum design workshop for teachers while observing and participating in local classrooms. The Druk 3020 curriculum she developed in 2011 helped introduced progressive education methods and content into the monastic setting. Druk 3020 has continued to be implemented and refined at the Chokyi Gyatso Institute in Eastern Bhutan.
Noa is also a writer and editor of creative fiction and nonfiction. Her children’s book How Do You Know What You Know was published in 2023 (Bala Kids Books). She has worked on Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche’s books What Makes You Not a Buddhist and The Guru Drinks Bourbon as well as his memoir Mugwort Born. She has received a number of awards and fellowships for her writing, and has been published in many magazines and newspapers including the New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Tricycle, Vice, and Con