Teachers at Big Bear Retreat Center

Anthony "T" Maes

“T” Maes is a Chicano and white man, born and raised in the East Bay. He has practiced Buddhist meditation since 2003, including long retreats and practicing in a forest monastery in Thailand. He is a teacher at Spirit Rock, East Bay Meditation Center, Freedom-Together, IMS, and Inward Bound Mindfulness Education, where he leads Mindfulness Teacher Training programs, mindful movement, and trauma-informed mindfulness. www.anthonymaes.com

Anushka Fernandopulle

I teach meditation, work as an organizational consultant,  and do leadership coaching with individuals and teams. I teach workshops and retreats around the globe in organizations, conferences and leadership programs. My work brings Eastern practices to Western modern life, making them accessible for individuals and organizations. I am interested in the synthesis of leadership, creativity and awareness, helping leaders to develop courage, clarity and compassion to make their vision come to life. My strategy consulting and coaching work is informed by a BA from Harvard, an MBA from Yale focused on leadership and organizational behavior, and certification in coaching from…

Ayya Santacitta

Ayya Santacitta was born in Austria and did her graduate studies in Cultural Anthropology, focusing on dance, theatre and ritual. She also worked in avant-garde dance theatre as a performer and costume designer. In 1988 she met Ajahn Buddhadasa in southern Thailand, who sparked her interest in Buddhist monastic life. She trained as a nun in England and Asia from 1993 until 2009, primarily in the lineage of Ajahn Chah. Since 2002, she has also received teachings in the lineage of Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche. Ayya Santacitta co-founded Aloka Vihara in 2009 and received Bhikkhuni Ordination in 2011. She is committed…

Beth Sternlieb

Beth has been involved with InsightLA from the start and seeing our community grow from an idea into a reality has awakened in her a deeper appreciation for what an unexpected transformation mindfulness and commitment can bring into our lives. As a member of InsightLA’s teacher council, she explores ways of bringing mindfulness and metta practice to our community in creative and innovative ways. While as director of the Buddhist studies program, she shares her interest in how ancient wisdom can support us through our everyday life struggles. She also teaches MBSR, where she is excited to observe how each…

Celeste Young

Celeste Young is a Theravadin Buddhist mindfulness and Dharma teacher. She has been practicing meditation and sitting retreats since 2002. She was one of the first teachers to be empowered at InsightLA, a nonprofit Buddhist and secular mindfulness organization based in Los Angeles. Since 2011, Celeste has worked with thousands of meditation and Dharma students teaching Buddhist Dharma and mindfulness classes, leading silent meditation retreats, and working with individual students. She teaches both in the US and internationally. Additionally, she has led corporate sessions and retreats for organizations such as Netflix and the University of Southern California. For the last…

Cheryl Slean

Cheryl Slean has been practicing Insight meditation intensively since 1995 including hundreds of days of silent retreat. She has taught classes and retreats worldwide for 15 years in both spiritual and secular settings such as Vallecitos Mountain Retreat Center, Insight Community of the Desert, Seattle Insight, Mindful Schools, Michael’s House, Joshua Tree Retreat Center, Insight LA and many more. Cheryl is also a writer, filmmaker and climate advocate, and works on Sustainability and Storytelling at Netflix.

Christiane Wolf

Christiane Wolf, MD, PhD first encountered vipassana meditation in her late teens. She is passionate about translating ancient wisdom teachings into accessible and applicable modern-day language. She aims to live from the heart informed by the brain and inspires her students to explore the same. Before transitioning full time to teaching the Dharma and mindfulness Christiane trained as an OB/GYN and received an PhD in psychosomatic medicine from the University of Berlin in Germany. She is a graduate of the Spirit Rock/IMS/Insight Meditation Center teacher training and teaches retreats and classes in the US and in Europe. She is a MBSR teacher trainer for…

Danielle Elizabeth Stevens

Danielle Elizabeth Stevens, born and raised in Los Angeles, CA is an integrative health and wellness educator, healing justice consultant, and multi-disciplinary artist working in service of social change globally. Her expertise spans a range of modalities including sensory, imagination, and dreaming arts, performance arts, fashion and beauty, professional creative writing, as well as culinary arts and nutrition. As an ancestral-led spiritual cultural worker, Danielle has a over 15 years of professional experience providing healing justice capacity-building; strategic diversity and inclusion consulting; curriculum development and design; empathy-based leadership training; and integrative arts curation and programming in over 50 cities nationally,…

Dave Smith

For nearly 30 years, Dave Smith has held a practice rooted in the Insight Meditation (Vipassana) tradition. He was empowered to teach through the Against the Stream Buddhist Meditation Society, is a certified teacher for Cultivating Emotional Balance (CEB) which is combines contemporary emotion based scientific research with contemplative practices and psychology drawn from Buddhism and has studied Buddhist psychology at the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies (BCBS). Dave teaches residential meditation retreats, weekly live dharma classes, online courses, and workshops. He has developed educational tools and resources, including mindfulness and emotional skills trainings, in both secular and Buddhist contexts.…

Dawn Scott

Dawn Scott has been practicing insight meditation since 2008, is a Diamond Heart practitioner, and currently serves as the Family Program Coordinator at Spirit Rock Meditation Center. She teaches teen retreats at Inward Bound Mindfulness Education (iBme) and is a Teacher-in-Training in the 2017-2021 IMS Teacher Training Program.

Deborah Eden Tull

Deborah Eden Tull is a Zen meditation/mindfulness teacher, author, spiritual activist and sustainability educator. She spent seven years as a monastic at a silent Zen Monastery, and has been immersed in sustainable communities for 25 years. Eden’s teaching style is grounded in compassionate awareness, non-duality, mindful inquiry, and an unwavering commitment to personal transformation. She teaches dharma intertwined with post-patriarchal thought and practices, resting upon a lived knowledge of our unity with the more than human world. She also facilitates The Work That Reconnects, as created by Buddhist scholar Joanna Macy. Eden has been practicing meditation for the past 30…

Devon Hase

I started meditating and studying dharma in the year 2000, when I was a sophomore in college. I’ve spent several years in meditation retreat in the Insight and Vajrayana traditions and have studied closely with Joseph Goldstein, Tara Brach, Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche, and many others. Before teaching dharma full time, I was a classroom teacher for a decade, where I focused on social and cultural studies. I’m also a graduate of Spirit Rock Meditation Center’s Community Dharma Leaders program and the Insight Meditation Society teacher training program. As a dharma teacher, I support practitioners with personal dharma mentoring, serve on…

Devon Sangster Rath

Devon is a queer woman who cares deeply about the power of mindfulness practice as a tool to heal and liberate.  She has practiced meditation since 1997 and has been formally teaching mindfulness since 2010.  Devon is committed to making mindfulness accessible to all, specifically people who have a experienced trauma, are recovering from addiction, and historically marginalized populations, including people of color, LGBQT+ folks, people of size and different body abilities.  She offers classes with the homie T Maes. Devon is also passionate about using mindfulness to support white people in waking up to whiteness, power and privilege. She…

Diana Winston

Diana Winston is the Director of Mindfulness Education at UCLA Mindful, the author of The Little Book of Being: Practices and Guidance for Uncovering your Natural Awareness, and the co-author, with Susan Smalley PhD, of Fully Present, the Science, Art and Practice of Mindfulness. She has taught mindfulness for health and well-being since 1993 in a variety of settings including the medical and mental health field, and in universities, businesses, non-profits, and schools. At UCLA she has developed the evidence-based Mindful Awareness Practices (MAPs) curriculum and the Training in Mindfulness Facilitation (TMF), which trains mindfulness teachers worldwide. She is also a founder of the…

Donald Rothberg

Donald Rothberg, PhD, has practiced Insight Meditation since 1976, and has also received training in Tibetan Dzogchen, Mahamudra practice, the Hakomi approach to body-based psychotherapy, and the Somatic Experiencing approach to working with trauma. Formerly on the faculties of the University of Kentucky, Kenyon College, and Saybrook Graduate School, he currently writes and teaches classes, groups and retreats on insight and lovingkindness meditation, daily life practice, transforming the judgmental mind, wise speech, and socially engaged Buddhism. Donald has helped to guide six-month to two-year training programs in socially engaged spirituality through Buddhist Peace Fellowship (the BASE Program), Saybrook Graduate School…

Dr. Chris Benner

Dr. Chris Benner is Director of the Institute for Social Transformation and the Everett Program for Technology and Social Change. He is the Dorothy E. Everett Chair in Global Information and Social Entrepreneurship, and Professor of Environmental Studies and Sociology at the University of California, Santa Cruz. His research examines the relationships between technological change, regional development, and the structure of economic opportunity, focusing on regional labor markets and the transformation of work and employment. He has authored or co-authored seven books and more that 100 journal articles, chapters and research reports.

Dr. Manuel Pastor

Dr. Manuel Pastor is a Distinguished Professor of Sociology and American Studies & Ethnicity at the University of Southern California. He currently directs the Equity Research Institute at USC. Pastor holds an economics Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and is the inaugural holder of the Turpanjian Chair in Civil Society and Social Change at USC. Pastor’s research has generally focused on issues of the economic, environmental and social conditions facing low-income urban communities – and the social movements seeking to change those realities.

Em Morrison

Em became interested in mindfulness and meditation in 2011 because she was having the best day of her life (just kidding). She loves nothing more than creating safe, fun, and healthy spaces for teens and adults to flourish. She has taught mindfulness at afterschool programs, summer camps, and on adult, young adult, and teen retreats. She’s a regular member of IMCW’s LGBTQIA+ sangha and previously served on the IMCW Board of Directors and its Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) group. She’s been a guiding teacher for the Yearlong Mindfulness Teacher Certification Program with Mindful Schools for two years, where she’s…

Enrique Collazo

Enrique Collazo is a compassionate and contemporary Mindfulness Meditation teacher rooted in the Buddhist Vipassana tradition since 2005. His practice, founded in the principles of Insight Meditation, extends to empowering people of all ages in Los Angeles and the Bay Area through daylongs, workshops, and classes since 2009. Enrique is well-loved and respected for his inspirational work at Challenge Day during the school year where he facilitates Social and Emotional Learning workshops for thousands of young people all over the country, passionately advocating for their empowerment. With a heart dedicated to fostering wisdom and compassion,  justice and equity, he is…

Erin Treat

Erin’s love for wild nature, her passionate commitment to serving collective liberation, and decades of working as a bodyworker are all palpable in her Dharma. Erin is Guiding Teacher at both Vallecitos and the Durango Dharma Center, and is a Core Teacher at Spirit Rock.  She served as core faculty of the sixth Community Dharma Leaders (CDL) Program, and is a graduate of Thanissara and Kitissaro’s Dhammapala Training, designed to bring forth an embodied bodhisattva ideal within the lineage of Theravada Buddhism. Erin was born and raised in the prairie of Fargo, North Dakota to a family of Irish and…

Fresh "Lev" White

Fresh “Lev” White is a love and compassion activist. He offers mindfulness, coaching, mediation, and diversity trainings as tools for shifting towards more authentic, conscious, and passionate living, working with individuals, households, and professional teams. As a certified professional co-active coach (CPCC), and professional trainer, Lev has offered over 250 diversity trainings in the San Francisco Bay Area and Beyond. Lev earned their coaching and leadership certifications through the Co-Active Training Institute. He is mindfully and lovingly grounded at the East Bay Meditation Center, in Oakland, CA, and a grateful graduate of Spirit Rock’s Community Dharma Leadership (CDL) and Dedicated…

Gabrielle Hammond (Qi Gong)

Gabrielle Hammond (Movement Teacher | Qigong) has been practicing as an acupuncturist and doctor of Taoist and Traditional Chinese Medicine for past  28 years, under the tutelage of a 64th generation Taoist Master Chang Yi Hsiang, who initiated her journey into contemplative arts, meditation, and qigong practice at a young age. Gabrielle continues to teach and practice qigong over 35 years later as the bedrock of her healing practice.  She loves working with plants, both as an herbalist in healing and in the more subtle and energetic way we are connected with plants as allies. This love of plants has…

Greg Serpa

J. Greg Serpa, PhD, is a clinical psychologist for the US Department of Veterans Affairs. He is honored to teach mindfulness to America’s veterans and is the first full-time mindfulness teacher and trainer in the federal system. Greg teaches a national mindfulness certification program for VA clinicians based upon his book, co-authored with Christiane Wolf, The Clinician’s Guide to Teaching Mindfulness. He also serves on a national committee committed to addressing healthcare disparities and the social determinates of health. Greg is a Clinical Professor in the psychology department at UCLA and a visiting clinical scientist at the David Geffen School…

Gullu Singh

Gulwinder “Gullu” Singh is a mindfulness and Dharma teacher who also practices corporate real estate law.  Although he was exposed to meditation as a child, he found his own practice when, after law school, he found himself working at high-powered law firms where the job was extremely stressful. Gullu completed the four-year Spirit Rock Meditation Center Teacher Training Program and qualified to teach Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction.  Gullu is core faculty in the Mindfulness in Law Teacher Training, the Spirit Rock Dedicated Practitioner Program, and a mentor for the Sounds True Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification Program.  He is also a core…

Harry Um

James Rosser

James has meditated for over 30 years, beginning in 1987with James Baraz. He graduated from Insight LA’s Facilitator Training Program and Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach’s Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification Program (Inaugural Class). James is also a Trained Teacher for the Center f or Mindful Self- Compassion. James leads secularand Buddhist- based mindfulness training, sits, and affinity groups (LGBTQI, Mental Health Professionals, Anti-Racism Practices for White People). His interests are community building for the LGBTQI/LGBTQI senior mindfulness community and consciousness-raising around racism and heterosexism. He is a student in Spirit Rock’s Dedicated Practitioner Program. His primary teacher is Tempel Smith.

JD Doyle

JD Doyle (they/them) served as Core Teacher at the East Bay Meditation Center, where they co-founded the Alphabet(LGBTQIA+) Sangha, and as Guiding Teacher at Insight Santa Cruz. They graduated from Spirit Rock Meditation Center’s Retreat Teacher Training in 2020. They teach at sanghas across the US and in Canada. JD began studying and practicing Buddhism in 1995, at Insight Meditation Society and at Spirit Rock and continued with extensive retreat practice in Thailand and Burma in the Theravadan lineage. For over twenty-three years, they worked as a public-school teacher. JD holds a BS in Environmental Studies from Cornell University, a…

Jennifer Cho

Jennifer Cho has been a student of meditation for over 20 years.  She sat her first silent meditation retreat with Thich Nhat Hanh, where she felt her heart break open in the presence of embodied practice and teaching, and she has been walking the path ever since.   She has practiced Zen in the tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh with the Mindfulness Practice Center of Fairfax, Insight (Vipassana) with the Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC (IMCW), non-dual with teachers from Open Gate Sangha, and Theravada with the Dassanaya Buddhist Community.  She has been a longtime member of the IMCW sangha…

JoAnna Hardy

JoAnna Hardy has been exploring and practicing multiple traditions since 1999. In 2005, her focus landed on Buddhism and Vipassana meditation, which is the premise for most of her current teaching. Teaching in communities and to individuals that don’t typically have access to the traditional dharma settings and building inclusive communities are top on her list of priorities.

Kevin Griffin

Kevin Griffin is a Buddhist author, teacher, and leader in the mindful recovery movement. A longtime Buddhist practitioner and 12 Step participant, he is a leader in the mindful recovery movement and one of the founders of the Buddhist Recovery Network. Kevin has trained with the leading Western Vipassana teachers, among them Jack Kornfield, Joseph Goldstein, and Ajahn Amaro. His teacher training was as a Community Dharma Leader at Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Marin County, CA. Kevin teaches internationally in Buddhist centers, treatment centers, professional conferences, and academic settings. He specializes in helping people in recovery connect with meditation and…

Kim Allen

Kim Allen has been practicing Insight meditation since 2003, and has trained intensively in the U.S. and Asia with Western teachers, Theravādan monastics, and masters of other Buddhist traditions. Trained by Gil Fronsdal at the Insight Meditation Center and Insight Retreat Center, she offers Dharma programs, sutta study, and retreats in the U.S., internationally, and online, weaving classical Dharma into a contemporary context.

Kimber Simpkins

Kimber (She/her), for over twenty years, has been learning and teaching how to use meditation and movement to improve our relationships with our bodies, our spirits, our communities, and our world. Kimber is a white, cis, queer mom and author who’s taught movement and mindfulness in the San Francisco Bay area for more than twenty years, bringing a body love and social justice perspective to teaching and learning. As a dharma practitioner, Kimber has witnessed first hand how the practice of mindfulness brings more compassion, connection, and joy to relationships and to life. Lately she has been diving deep into…

Laila Narsi

Laila Narsi, LCSW, CMMT, CMT-P, is a Certified International Mindfulness Teacher – Professional Level as well as a Certified Mindful Self-Compassion teacher receiving her training directly from founders Drs. Kristin Neff and Christopher Germer in 2014. She later went on to work with Dr. Germer to co-develop the new Self-Compassion for Shame program and with Dr. Neff for the new Fierce Self-Compassion course. Since receiving her Master’s in Social Work in 1997, her passion to provide sound and effective mental health services led her to create The Mindful Self, which is a center for Trauma Informed Psychotherapy as well as…

LC Tran

Lien-Chi (who prefers to be called simply “LC”) was born into a Mahayana Buddhist family. She began to practice mindfulness in 1986 with Thay Thich Nhat Hanh. In 1994, Lienchi met Venerable Khippapanno. His kindness and wisdom swayed her to convert to the Theravada tradition. Since then she has been going on retreats regularly in Burma, Thailand, California, and Massachusetts (IMS). Lienchi has ordained 3 times and attended many retreats, ranging from 10 days to 1 year with Venerable Khippapanno, Luang Por Sumedho, Sayadaw U Pandita, Sayadaw U Tejaniya, and other IMS Teachers. In 2015, Lienchi left her career as…

Leslie Booker

Booker brings her heart to the intersection of Dharma, Embodied Wisdom, and Liberation; using this framework to support folks in creating a culture of belonging. She shares her offerings as a university lecturer, public speaker, and Buddhist philosophy and meditation teacher. Booker began training at Spirit Rock through the Mindful Yoga and Meditation training (2012), and supported by her teacher Gina Sharpe, continued her formal Dharma teacher training in the Community Dharma Leaders Training (2017), and the 4 year Retreat Teacher training (2020). Throughout these years, she worked as the Director of Teacher Trainings for Lineage Project where she shared…

Lisa Ernst

Lisa Ernst is a meditation teacher, artist, and founder of One Dharma Nashville. In her teaching, Lisa emphasizes both transformational insight and everyday awakening as an invitation to embrace all of the path’s possibilities. She offers meditation training, classes and workshops, and she teaches daylong and residential retreats nationally. Lisa is a visiting teacher at Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Woodacre California. She has been meditating for 30 years in the Zen and Vipassana traditions. She received dharma teacher transmission from Trudy Goodman in 2010. As a practicing visual artist, Lisa also incorporates Dharma into contemplative photography and painting. To learn more…

Louije Kim

Louije Kim, LMFT, is a San Francisco Bay Area based dharma practitioner, teacher and licensed psychotherapist. They have completed dharma study programs including Spirit Rock’s Dedicated Practitioners and Community Dharma Leader programs, and recently graduated from Spirit Rock’s four-year Teacher Training in 2020. Louije has taught in various dharma centers locally and across the U.S. Currently, they are a part of the Asian American Buddhist Working Group, a grant-funded project seeking to promote connections between Asian American sanghas. They have been working in community mental health settings for over a decade, providing therapy to communities that are impacted by collective,…

Mary Stancavage

Mary Stancavage has practiced meditation, yoga, and cultivated a spiritual practice for over 35 years and in 2009 was empowered to teach Buddhadharma. Mary is based in the Los Angeles area and teaches classes, retreats and does individual mentoring both locally and internationally. She has taught mindfulness at recovery centers, has co-facilitated Year-to-Live groups since 2008, and has had a weekly dharma class for over a decade. Her Morning Meditation group has met daily at 7am PT since March 2020. Mary is part of the Guiding Teachers Council at Insight Community of the Desert and a founding teacher at Meditation Coalition. Mary completed the…

Matthew Brensilver

Matthew Brensilver, PhD, offers retreats at Spirit Rock Meditation Center and the Insight Retreat Center. For more than a decade, he taught for Against the Stream Buddhist Meditation Society. He continues to teach at UCLA Mindful Awareness Research Center about the intersections between mindfulness and mental health. He spent years doing research on addiction treatment at the UCLA Center for Behavioral and Addiction Medicine and continues to be interested in the unfolding dialogue between dharma and science.

Melissa McKay

Melissa began her path of meditation in 1998 with a small group of dedicated practitioners in Oakland, CA with her beloved, though not known, teacher named Barbara Janus who introduced her to the teachings of Sayadaw U Pandita of Burma. Her first retreat was with Sayadaw U Pandita and the profound changes she saw in herself gave her a strong faith and dedication to the practice.   She practiced with Sayadaw and his monks at centers in the U.S. and Burma.  She met Bhante Khippa Pano of Vietnam in 2000 and he became her main teacher.  She continues to attend intensive…

Ofosu Jones-Quartey

Ofosu Jones-Quartey is a meditation teacher and musician from the Washington DC area. He has been teaching mindfulness and meditation to young people and adults since 2004. He is currently the male voice on the Balance meditation app and he teaches meditation and mindfulness classes and retreats around the country when travel is possible and virtually when it is not. Ofosu has taught and led retreats at the Insight Meditation Community of Washington, The Insight Meditation Society, Spirit Rock, Brooklyn Zen Center, Cleveland Insight and more.Ofosu is also an accomplished hip hop artist and author. He recently released an album…

Phillip Moffitt

Phillip Moffitt occupies a unique position in the world of mindful living and leadership. With the astute business acumen honed during his years as a media entrepreneur combined with the deep wisdom about inner development cultivated over the past 30 years as a vipassana meditation practitioner and teacher. Phillip brings unparalleled insights and strategic vision to those seeking to lead authentic, purposeful lives. Phillip was Editor-in-Chief and CEO of Esquire and led the successful turnaround of the magazine in the 1980s. After he left his publishing enterprise, he devoted himself to studying and practicing Theravada Buddhism and is now a…

Ream

Ream, pronouns:  She/They. Ream is a queer organizer and somatics practitioner of European ancestry currently in Oakland, CA, organizing for economic and racial justice and immigrants’ rights, working for over 25 years in the labor movement and currently as the Strategic Campaigns Director for the United Domestic Workers’ Union.  Ream is a graduate of EBMC’s PITA and WAS programs and is a co-founder of the Social Justice Sangha.  Ream is a practitioner with Generative Somatics, teaching “Somatics for White Racial Justice Organizers” and holds trauma healing groups with activists and movement leaders.

René Rivera

René Rivera is a leader and bridge-builder, working and learning in all the spaces in-between race, gender, and other perceived binaries, as a queer, mixed-race, trans man. René has been a student of the Dharma since 2004 and has been a part of the East Bay Meditation Center (EBMC) Alphabet Sangha since 2008. He has participated in the Commit to Dharma and Practice in Action programs at EBMC and the Community Dharma Leaders program at Spirit Rock. René is a community teacher at EBMC and also offers meditation and mindfulness instruction at other centers such as Spirit Rock Meditation Center, SF…

Rosamaría Segura

Rosamaría is both a teacher and the Director of  Insight in Action . She is passionate about sharing mindfulness practices in communities with limited exposure to meditation practices. Rosamaría teaches in both Spanish and English in non-profit organizations, public schools, and people dedicated to socio-economic and environmental justice in Los Angeles, East Hollywood, Long Beach, and refugee shelters in Tijuana, Mexico. Her meditation practices are Vipassa and Soto Zen. She is a graduate of the Mindfulness and Meditation Teacher Program with Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach and of InsightLA’s Facilitator Training Program with Maureen Shannon-Chapple and Trudy Goodman. Rosamaría continues…

Spring Washam

Considered a pioneer in bringing mindfulness-based meditation practices to diverse communities; Spring Washam is a well-known teacher, healer, and visionary leader based in Oakland, California. She is the author of A Fierce Heart: Finding Strength, Courage and Wisdom in Any Moment and The Spirit of Harriet Tubman: Awakening from the Underground. Spring is one of the founding teachers at the East Bay Meditation Center, an organization that offers Buddhist teachings with attention to social action and multiculturalism. She is a member of the teacher’s council at Spirit Rock Meditation Center, offering teachings on Buddhist philosophy, Insight meditation and loving-kindness practices. Spring is also…

Sydney Reece

Sydney Reece, M.Ed., is an international educator in social justice advocacy and a meditation teacher specializing in addiction and trauma resilience. She has over 20 years of experience supporting adults, formerly incarcerated individuals, and homeless youth, as well as the health professionals who serve them. Over the last 8 years, she has worked in school districts, nonprofits, meditation centers and universities; building access to mindfulness meditation practices. Sydney educates on understanding internal systems of oppression and self-regulation based in insight meditation practices. She is particularly attuned to the subtleties of diversity dynamics and needs of women and People of Color. While…

Tere Abdala

Tere is second generation Mexican, with a Lebanese family background. She was born and lived in Mexico City almost all her life. There she became fascinated by Tibetan Buddhism. She moved to Los Angeles in 2002 with her now late husband and three young daughters. Once in LA, she met Trudy Goodman at InsightLA and decided to leave behind her Business career and interest in Geography to devote herself to her family, her personal growth, and the study and practice of Buddhism to enhance her life and the lives of others around her. In LA, Tere became a passionate painter.…

Thomas Davis

Thomas is a Mindful Awareness practitioner who emerged from the Contemplative Faith Community, where he served as a Lay Minister for over 10 years. His orientation to the Mindful Awareness practice began at the East Bay Meditation Center in Oakland, CA, where he was introduced to the Theravadan tradition of Vipassana in 2012. Thomas began his journey into Dharma Leadership in 2013. In 2017, Thomas graduated from the Spirit Rock Community Dharma Leader Training Program, The Sati Center Buddhist Chaplaincy Training, and was enlisted as one of the Spirit Rock Community Welcome Teachers for the Monday Night Dharma program; which…

Travis Spencer

Travis Spencer is a therapist, an army veteran, African drummer and a mindfulness facilitator. Over the years, Travis generously dedicated himself to serve African-Americans and communities of color through counseling families, young people, organizing drumming opportunities for kids, and co-founded a non-profit, the Institute of African American Mindfulness (IAAM) to offer mindfulness and other healing practices to People of Color in Washington DC. Travis graduate from Trinity Washington University with a Masters of Arts degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling. As a Mindfulness Teacher and Trainer, Travis fosters ongoing relationships and partnerships with MINDS Inc., EL Haynes Public Charter Schools,…

Trudy Goodman

Trudy Goodman, PhD, is the Founding Teacher of InsightLA, the first center to combine training in Insight (Vipassana) Meditation and in non-sectarian mindfulness and compassion practices, including Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and Mindful Self-Compassion (MSC). The fourth teacher ever of MBSR, Trudy taught with its creator, Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn and studied Buddhist meditation for 40 years, with Asian and Western teachers. She is the Guiding Teacher and co-founder of the Institute for Meditation and Psychotherapy in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the first center in the world dedicated to integrating these two disciplines, and had a private psychotherapy practice there for 25 years.…

Vadan Ritter (movement teacher)

Vadan teaches Yoga and Qi Gong through the San Francisco Public Health Department, and focuses on the healing power of Mindful Movement. She is also a UCLA trained Mindfulness facilitator and Licensed Acupuncturist. Her background includes over 30 years of teaching Tai Qi, Qi Gong and Yoga and 4 years Instructing Mindfulness and Awakening Joy classes. She also facilitates groups for the Integrative Pain Management Program. In my classes we will explore Mindful Movement as a sacred practice that invites integration and supports the body in finding more ease and comfort during sitting practice.

Vimalasara Mason-John

Dr. Vimalasara (Valerie) Mason-John MA is a TEDx speaker, author of 8 books including Detox Your Heart, Meditations for Emotional Trauma, and her award-winning books Eight Step Recovery – Using The Buddha’s Teachings to Overcome Addiction and her novel Borrowed Body. She is a senior teacher in the Triratna Buddhist Order, practicing for 27 years, chair of Vancouver Buddhist Centre, President of the Buddhist Recovery Network and one of the organizers of the GENX Buddhist Teacher’s gathering in 2019. She curated the Tricycle series Teachings for Uncertain Times 2018, and was the recipient of a European Diversity Awards 2018, for…

Yong Oh

Yong Oh serves as a teacher on the Dharma Council for the Durango Dharma Center and is a core teacher for Sacred Mountain Sangha. Yong began meditating through the Soto Zen tradition and eventually transitioned to study, practice and teach in the Insight tradition. He teaches retreats at the Insight Meditation Society, Spirit Rock Meditation Center and Vallecitos Mountain Retreat Center, as well as being a visiting teacher for other community centers across the US and Canada.  Yong is a graduate of the 4-year Insight Meditation Society Retreat Teacher Training program, Spirit Rock Meditation Center’s 2-year Community Dharma Leaders program,…