Kaufman has been an educator throughout his adult life. A student of spirituality and metaphusics, he has been a practitioner of Transcendental Meditation for over twenty years. He is a spiritual counselor, as well as a student and proponent of alternative forms of healing. He is a Reiki Master and a practitioner of Mari-El and Reiki energy healing. He has a BA from the University of California at Berkeley, and a master's and doctorate in Comparative Education from The University of Chicago.