Teachers at Big Bear Retreat Center
Learn more about teachers that have upcoming retreats at Big Bear Retreat Center.
Alli Simon
Alli Simon (she/her) is a 5th generation Angeleno and a dedicated advocate for social justice, healing, and wellbeing. She is the Executive Director and Co-Founder of Black Being, a certified yoga instructor (500 RYT Yoga Alliance), and a meditation facilitator (InsightLA and IMTA). With over a decade of personal practice and teaching experience, Alli centers her work on increasing access to self-care practices, particularly for historically marginalized communities and those working in social justice spaces. Her work integrates meditation, yoga, and healing justice to address the mental, emotional, and physical toll of caretaking and systemic inequities. Collaborating with national and…
Andrés González
Andrés González, MSW (he/they/él) is a queer, two-spirit Mestizo with primarily Yaqui, Mexican, Spanish, & Scottish ancestries. He’s also a transracial adoptee, connected to a lineage of Indigenous adoptees separated from family, land, & culture by way of the U.S. child welfare system. Andrés’ lived experience integrating these many worlds has informed his path as a practitioner of curanderismo, dharma teacher, and mental health clinician. Trained in harm reduction & healing-justice as a psychotherapist, he holds a masters degree in social work. He is also a graduate of East Bay Meditation Center’s two-year Spiritual Teacher & Leadership Training and the…
Ann Brand
Ann Brand, Ph.D. (she/her) is a mindfulness teacher, facilitator, and mentor based in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. Benefiting immensely from her personal practice of mindfulness meditation while grieving the loss of her mother, Ann recognized the benefits mindfulness could bring to her sphere of education. Since receiving her mindfulness teacher training in 2014, Ann has brought the practice of mindfulness to both K-12 and higher education. Ann also teaches mindfulness classes in her community, and mentors meditation students one-on-one, integrating Insight meditation practices, concepts from early Buddhist teachings, and contemplative Christian practices to encourage individuals in cultivating a practice that supports…
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 and has also received teachings in the Shechen lineage of Tibetan Buddhism. Ayya Santacitta co-founded Aloka Vihara in 2009 and received Bhikkhuni Ordination in 2011. She is committed to Gaia…
Ayya Santussika
Ayya Santussika is a Theravada bhikkhuni who is trained and practicing in the Thai Forest tradition. Her faith in the Dhamma developed during many visits to monasteries of Ajahn Chah and his disciples in Thailand, America, England, New Zealand, and Australia beginning in 1998. She has been training as a nun since 2005 in large and small monasteries in both England and America. In 2012, she received full ordination as a bhikkhuni and founded Karuna Buddhist Vihara, where she currently lives, located in the Santa Cruz Mountains near Boulder Creek, California. Her Dhamma teachings are primarily based on the Pali…
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…
Christine Suarez
Christine Suárez is a choreographer, performer, educator and Pilates instructor based in Los Angeles. Born in Caracas, Venezuela & raised in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, she has an unshakable faith in the transformative power of moving & creating together. She has been awarded grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture, & California Arts Council. Her work has been seen in theaters, galleries, churches, synagogues, houses, sidewalks, parks, and beaches in over 20 cities -including P.S. 122 (New York), REDCAT (Los Angeles) and The Schwartz Theater (Atlanta). She is co-creator of Dance for…
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.…
David Cabrera
David Cabrera has been a Vipassana practitioner and instructor since 2007 and received certification through Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach’s Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification Program in 2021. He is currently a mentor, and is part of the faculty training new mentors, for Banyan. David has also led meditation and mindful movement retreats at Spirit Rock where he is also on the CDL team training new teachers for certification. He also leads meditation and mindful movement with One Dharma Nashville, where he co-founded their thriving BIPOC Sangha and as a guest teacher for Insight LA’s BIPOC sangha Incorporating many years…
Dawn Scott
Dawn Scott has been practicing Insight Meditation since 2008 and served as the Family Program Coordinator for eight years at Spirit Rock Meditation Center. She is a graduate of the Insight Meditation Society’s 2017 – 2021 teacher training program, a co-principal teacher of Marin Sangha, and is a core teacher of Spirit Rock’s Liberation, Emptiness, and Awareness Practices (LEAP) Program. Dawn has a deep love of long retreat practice and the Buddha’s liberative teachings.
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…
Devin Berry
Devin Berry is an Insight Meditation practitioner and Guiding Teacher at the Insight Meditation Society, as well as a visiting teacher at Spirit Rock Meditation Center. Devin co-founded Deep Time Liberation, a program exploring ancestral healing and the impact of intergenerational trauma on Black Americans. Known for his heart-centered teachings that integrate mindfulness, metta, and storytelling, Devin also teaches for SoundsTrue and offers programs nationally.
Devon Hase
devon hase loves long retreats. Cumulatively, she’s spent four years in silent practice in the Insight and Vajrayana traditions. Since discovering meditation in 2000, she has put dharma and community at the center of her life: she spent a decade bringing mindfulness to high school and college classrooms and now teaches at the Insight Meditation Society, Spirit Rock, and other centers around the world. She enjoys supporting practitioners with personal mentoring, and her friendly, conversational approach centers relational practice and the natural world. Along with her life partner nico, devon co-authored How Not to Be a Hot Mess: A Buddhist…
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 Clark
Diana Clark, PhD, is a dedicated dharma teacher based in the San Francisco Bay Area, teaching primarily at the Insight Meditation Center and Insight Retreat Center. Her extensive meditation experience includes years of silent retreats at Spirit Rock, IMS, and the Insight Retreat Center, where she received training from esteemed teachers Gil Fronsdal and Andrea Fella. Inspired by the Buddha’s teachings on peace and freedom, Diana’s teaching approach aims to combine the profound and the practical, with a sincere commitment to cultivating an environment that nurtures both wisdom and compassion. Diana holds a PhD in biochemistry, and much like her…
Diana Winston
Diana Winston is the Director of UCLA Mindful, the mindfulness education center of UCLA Health. She is 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.…
Djuna Devereaux
Djuna Devereaux has more than two decades of experience teaching the integration of yoga and Buddhist Dharma. At Spirit Rock, she teaches on retreat and leads the Dharma and Yoga Teacher Trainings. She supports her primary Dharma teachers, Thanissara and Kittisaro, as a core teacher and Board Chair for Sacred Mountain Sangha. Djuna is also faculty for Prajna Yoga, offering events internationally, and is a certified yoga therapist and Somatic Experiencing Practitioner in private practice. Djuna weaves asana training, with somatic movement, biomechanics, and the wisdom of the Buddha Dharma, into her offerings. Her sessions are intelligently crafted to cultivate…
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…
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 Selover
Erin Selover is a Dharma teacher with over 20 years of Buddhist training and serves as a residential retreat teacher at Spirit Rock Meditation Center. She currently works as a Spiritual Strategist with individuals and is a Somatic-Based Marriage and Family Therapist. Since 2018, her passion has been distributive governance and needs-based gift economics. She has complemented her Buddhist practice and studies with studying and experimenting with Miki Kashtan and the Nonviolent Global Liberation community. As a white settler of Irish descent on Indigenous lands, she’s in ongoing inquiry about how power and privilege functions within modernity and the complex…
Eve Decker
Eve Decker (she/her) began Insight Meditation practice in 1991, and has attended more than 50 silent retreats in the western Vipassana tradition of Buddhism ranging in length from 8-90 days. She is a graduate of University of California, Berkeley; the Path of Engagement (social justice and spiritual practice training); and Community Dharma Leader training at Spirit Rock Meditation Center in California. She has trained in the Hakomi Method (a mindfulness centered somatic healing practice), Awakening Joy developed by James Baraz, Transforming Judgmental Mind developed by Donald Rothberg, and Mindful Self Compassion developed by Kristen Neff and Christopher Germer. Eve is also…
Fresh "Lev" White
Fresh “Lev” White is a love and compassion activist. He offers mindfulness, mediation, and diversity training as tools for shifting towards more authentic, conscious, and passionate living. He works with individuals, households, and professional teams. As a certified coach, and professional trainer, Lev has offered over 400 diversity trainings in the San Francisco Bay Area and Beyond. He earned his coaching and leadership certifications through the Co-Active Training Institute. Lev is also mindfully grounded at the East Bay Meditation Center, and a graduate of Spirit Rock’s Community Dharma Leadership and DPP programs. Lev offers secular mindfulness, and non-secular meditation in…
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…
Hakim Tafari
UK-born Hakim Tafari embodies a multifaceted artistic spirit. His creativity flows through many forms as a passionate Runner, Martial artist, Buddhist Dharma practitioner. Wellness advocate, DJ, Painter/Artist and Meditation teacher. In the mid-1990s, after an injury led him to re-evaluate his approach to well-being, Hakim was introduced to a life of mindful movement through martial arts, herbal medicines, and a significant shift towards nutrition-focused wellness. His mission is to teach about the benefits of the embodied experience, using the tools of mindful awareness. By emphasizing mindful movement and blending martial arts with meditation, Hakim empowers individuals to overcome life’s challenges…
Heidi Bourne
Heidi Bourne is a meditation teacher in the Insight Meditation tradition and is the founder and guiding teacher of Pacific Mindfulness. She has been teaching since 2005 offering classes, series courses, nature retreats, trauma-informed and resiliency-focused professional programs, and teaches regularly for Spirit Rock Meditation Center. Heidi is especially interested in the integration of the common sense, accessible and timeless teachings of awareness, ethics, and compassion into the complexity of our everyday lives. She is known for her grounded, down-to-earth humor and presence. Heidi holds certification in mindfulness facilitation from UCLA, trauma resiliency from the Trauma Resource Institute, and is a…
Henry Shukman
Henry Shukman is a poet, author and Zen master in the Sanbo Zen lineage. He is founder of the Original Love meditation program, spiritual director emeritus at Mountain Cloud Zen Center and co-founder of the single-path meditation app The Way. His most recent books are Original Love: The Four Inns on the Path of Awakening (HarperOne) and the Zen memoir One Blade of Grass. He has taught at Google and Harvard Business School, the Institute of American Indian Arts and Oxford Brookes University, and is the author of several award-winning books of poetry and fiction. His poems have appeared in…
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 cumulative years of silent retreat. She is a graduate of Insight Retreat Center’s 4-year teacher training with Gil Fronsdal and Andrea Fella, and has also practiced with Theravādan monastics and a few Mahāyāna teachers. She now offers retreats, sutta study, and experiential Dharma engagement. A teacher and author, Kim aims to bring classical Dharma to a modern context and to encourage lay practitioners in fully living a life of Dharma. Her education includes a PhD in physics and a master’s degree in…
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…
Laurie Cousins
Laurie Cousins is a mindfulness teacher, integrative somatic practitioner, and trauma-informed educator based in Los Angeles. Part of her education and professional training include the mindfulness centers of UCLA and UCSD and she teaches their signature evidence-based programs of Mindful Awareness Practices and Mindful Self-Compassion. Laurie is mentored by Susan Kaiser Greenland and a lead teacher of the International Inner Kids Collaborative. As a certified CRM Teacher of the Trauma Resource Institute and specializing in the field of trauma and addiction recovery for over 15 years, Laurie offers a holistic approach in her teaching and private practice through somatic-centered healing, trauma-sensitive compassion training, and resiliency building. Laurie draws from her passion for the…
Lesley Hyatt
Lesley Hyatt has been teaching students of all ages and backgrounds for over thirty years. She leads creative workshops and mindfulness groups at UCLA Ext Writers Program, Skirball Cultural Center, and privately throughout the L.A. area and on Zoom. A writer of fiction and creative nonfiction, Lesley holds an MFA from UMass, Amherst and was a Fulbright Scholar to Mexico. She became a mindfulness meditation student in the late 1990’s. Lesley began leading mindfulness groups in 2017 and is a certified mindfulness instructor, trained to teach Trauma Sensitive Mindfulness, Awakening Joy, and Mindful Self-Compassion. Lesley lives in Studio City, CA,…
Leslie Booker
Booker is a heart – centered, spirit – driven activist and meditation teacher committed to creating a culture of belonging through her teaching and writing. She trained at Spirit Rock Meditation Center in their Mindful Yoga and Meditation (2012), Community Dharma Leaders (2017) and Retreat Teacher training programs (2020). Outside of her formal training, she shared the practices of yoga and mindfulness with New York City’s most vulnerable populations for over a decade, and served as the Director of Trainings for Lineage Project for 10 years. She spent many years sharing her expertise nationally as a guest lecturer at conferences…
Lienchi (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…
Lisa Baylis
Lisa Baylis (She/Her) has been sharing wellbeing strategies for the last 20 years. A natural born connector with an innate ability to make people feel valued and heard, she is an instructor, a counsellor, a facilitator, and a mother. Lisa is a published author of Self-Compassion for Educators as well as, the creator of the AWE Method — Awakening the Wellbeing for Educators — which merges self-care, mindfulness, and self-compassion. Lisa has a Master’s degree in Counseling Psychology, Bachelor’s degree in Physical Education and is a Doctoral Student through UBC-Okanagan researching Compassionate Leadership. She has taught internationally and locally. Much…
Lisa Ernst
Lisa Ernst is a meditation teacher, artist and founder of One Dharma Nashville. She has maintained a committed meditation practice for over 30 years in the Zen and Vipassana traditions. Lisa received full teaching authorization in the Thai Forest/Spirit Rock lineage of Ajahn Chah, Trudy Goodman and Jack Kornfield. She offers private meditation training, workshops and leads meditation retreats and classes internationally. She has taught retreats and served as a mentor at Spirit Rock Meditation Center. She also teaches retreats through InsightLA, Big Bear Retreat Center, Southern Dharma and many more. Lisa’s regularly writes articles for Lion’s Roar Magazine and…
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.
Megan Prager
Megan Prager, M.A. is Co-Founder of Mindful Labs and Compassion Programs Director at UC San Diego Center for Mindfulness. She is a Certified Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction Instructor (MBSR), a Certified Mindful Self-Compassion Instructor (MSC), a Certified Compassion Cultivation Instructor (CCT), a Compassion for Couples Instructor (CFC), and a Dyad Instructor (FDP) for Humanize. Megan is a Teacher Trainer and Mentor for various programs, as well as specializing in developing and delivering trainings for business, educational, healthcare, and academic settings. Megan’s passion and great joy are the same: to empower individuals and institutions with the understanding that there is nothing…
Michelle Becker
Michelle Becker, M.A., is a marriage and family therapist, and compassion teacher. She is a senior teacher of Mindful Self-Compassion and Compassion Cultivation Training, a certified Daring Way Facilitator, and a senior trainer at the UC San Diego Center for Mindfulness. She is a teacher trainer, mentor, and co-founder of the teacher training in the Mindful Self-Compassion program and the co-founder of Wise Compassion a compassion training organization. She specializes in training mindfulness and compassion in a relational context, especially couples relationships and developed the Compassion for Couples training program- her favorite program to teach. She is the author…
Monica Magtoto (movement)
Monica Magtoto is an artist, yoga instructor, energy worker, curanderismo practitioner, and tarot reader based in San Francisco, Ca. Monica weaves modalities from her lifelong studies of energy and movement with Curanderismo, spirituality, and her artwork. Her mission is to empower folks in walking through all of life’s portals. Magtoto is a Yoga Alliance 500 Hour Registered Yoga Teacher, holding additional certificates in Restorative and Yin yoga. She has received Reiki Master level training from Usui Reiki Masters Sandra Wong, Ph.D. and Teresa Visini, MA, and Shannon O’Neill-Loyola. Magtoto holds a Certificate in Somatic Embodiment & Regulation Strategies from Linda…
Nikki Mirghafori
Dr. Nikki Mirghafori is an Artificial Intelligence scientist and an internationally recognized Buddhist teacher. She serves as a Stewarding Teacher at Spirit Rock Meditation Center, where she is also on the Board of Directors, and a Dharma Teacher at the Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City, CA. She teaches with clarity and warmth on topics ranging from mindful leadership to cultivating kindness, with a rare expertise on mindfulness of death. Dr. Mirghafori is widely published in AI, has led international research collaborations as a Berkeley academic, and advised technology startups. She is of Persian heritage, an advocate for wisdom and…
Nina Rao
Nina Rao first learned sacred chants, as a young girl from her grandfather in south India, and the chants stayed quietly with her until she rediscovered this powerful practice with Krishna Das in New York in 1996. Since then she has been KD’s business manager and accompanies him musically. In 1998 she met her guru, Sri Siddhi Ma, in the foothills of the Himalayas and spent time with her regularly for 19 years, while Ma was in the body. Nina has been chanting regularly as her main practice, has recorded albums that are widely streamed and played around the world,…
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…
Prentis Hemphill
Prentis Hemphill (They/Them) is unearthing the connections between healing, community accountability and our most inspired visions for social transformation. Prentis is a therapist, somatics teacher and facilitator, political organizer, writer and the founder of The Embodiment Institute. For over 10 years, Prentis has been working with individuals and organizations during their most challenging moments of change; navigating leadership transitions, conflict, and realigning practice with values. All of this Prentis does through an embodied approach, ensuring that our intentions and ideas can be lived out and practiced in our lives and through our bodies. Before founding The Embodiment Institute, Prentis was…
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 meditation teacher and restorative justice facilitator working and learning in all the spaces in-between race, gender, and other perceived binaries, as a queer Latinx trans man. René teaches heart-centered, trauma-informed meditation, as a core teacher at the East Bay Meditation Center. He has co-led the first residential meditation retreats for transgender, nonbinary and gender expansive people, and offers classes and retreats for many Buddhist centers and groups. René is a restorative justice facilitator for the Ahimsa Collective, working to heal sexual and gender based violence.
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
Spring Washam is a renowned dharma teacher, author, and visionary leader based in Atlanta, Georgia. She is the founder of the Spirit Underground Liberation Project, a movement dedicated to collective liberation and healing. Her books, A Fierce Heart: Finding Strength, Courage, and Wisdom in Any Moment and The Spirit of Harriet Tubman: Awakening from the Underground, inspire readers worldwide. A founding teacher of the East Bay Meditation Center in Oakland, California, and a member of the Spirit Rock Meditation Center teacher’s council, she has studied Theravada and Tibetan Buddhism deeply since 1999 under Jack Kornfield’s guidance. Spring is also a dedicated shamanic healer…
Stephanie Curran
Stephanie Curran attended her first retreat in 1996 and has been immersed in the Dharma ever since. When she first encountered the teachings of Sayadaw U Tejaniya in 2018, the gentle and relaxed nature of his approach changed her practice and her life. This inspired traveling to Burma with her young family and spending five weeks together on retreat with Sayadaw in 2019. Stephanie is a Practitioner of Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine and leads a variety of mindfulness programming. She is a certified instructor of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction and has completed a number of secular mindfulness-based teacher trainings. Stephanie has…
Susan Steinberg-Oren
Since 1990, Susan Steinberg-Oren, PhD has been a clinical psychologist at the Greater Los Angeles VA Healthcare System (VAGLAHCS) where she has worked in many different areas including Substance Abuse, Women’s Mental Health, Trauma, and Comprehensive and Integrative Health. In 2010, she started her own deep dive into mindfulness where she found wisdom and healing not afforded to her through traditional psychology training or technique. She became a Mindful Self-Compassion (MSC) trained teacher through the Center for Mindful Self-Compassion in 2020 and has provided MSC groups to Veterans ever since. She became a certified Mindfulness Teacher in 2021 through InsightLA. …
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, PH.D., is the founding teacher of InsightLA and cofounder of the Institute for Meditation and Psychotherapy. She has taught at universities and retreat centers worldwide for over 40 years. Trudy has trained in mindfulness and Zen since 1973, holds a graduate degree in developmental psychology from Harvard, and is one of the senior Buddhist teachers in the U.S. She is widely known for her role as the voice of Trudy the Love Barbarian in the Netflix series “Midnight Gospel”. Trudy is a contributing author: Clinical Handbook of Mindfulness (Springer, 2008); Compassion and Wisdom in Psychotherapy, (Guilford Press, 2011);…
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 has been teaching Mindfulness since 2017 and Awakening Joy since 2020. 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 is a Dharma Council teacher at the Durango Dharma Center and a core teacher for Sacred Mountain Sangha. He is also a visiting teacher for other community centers across North America. He teaches retreats at Spirit Rock Meditation Center, the Insight Meditation Society, Big Bear Retreat Center, and Vallecitos Mountain Retreat Center. He 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, the 2-year Nature Dharma Teacher Training and the Sacred Mountain Sangha 2-year Dharmapala training, taught by his primary teachers Kittisaro and Thanissara. Yong is…