Kirsten Rudestam has been practicing vipassana meditation in the Theravadan tradition since 2001 and teaching since 2005. She has a PhD in Environmental Sociology from the University of California, Santa Cruz where she studied climate resilience and environmental justice. She has twenty years of experience offering field-based and classroom-based college courses in environmental studies and sociology, and is a facilitator for Joanna Macy’s Work that Reconnects. She, Gil Fronsdal, and Susie Harrington are the co-founders and core faculty for the Sati Center's Buddhist Eco-Chaplaincy training program.
Kittisaro, from Tennessee, a Rhodes Scholar and a Buddhist practitioner for over 35 years including 15 years as a Theravada monk in the Forest School of Ajahn Chah. He is also a practitioner of Pure Land and Chan Buddhism. He is co-founder, with Thanissara of Dharmagiri Sacred Mountain Retreat in South Africa and has completed two year long retreats. Kittisaro currently lives in the North Bay, California, teaches at IMS and Spirit Rock, and is co-author of Listening to the Heart, A Contemplative Journey to Engaged Buddhism. He lives in the North Bay CA, and is on the Teacher Council at Spirit Rock, and is a core teacher at IMS.
Kodo Conlin is a Dharma teacher and Soto Zen priest based in the Santa Cruz Mountains, California. He teaches in the Insight tradition of Theravāda Buddhism and the Soto Zen lineage of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi, supporting others on the Buddhist path of liberation. He has spent much of his adult life living and practicing in monasteries and Dharma centers, including Tassajara Zen Mountain Center. With equal passions for meditation and the Pāli suttas, Kodo delights in close readings of the ancient texts as practice instructions. He co-edited Warm Hand to Warm Hand, a collection of Insight essays, and currently serves as co-Managing Director at Insight Retreat Center. More at kodoconlin.com
Konda was introduced to Tibetan Buddhism in 1982. Her love for Vipassana began in 1996, working with Jack Kornfield at the Vallecitos Retreat Center. She has been a regular yoga teacher at Spirit Rock since 1997, teaching many retreats including the annual Metta Retreat and many of the POC retreats. Konda’s dharma training includes the East Bay Meditation Center Commit to Dharma program, Spirit Rock Community Dharma Leader and she is currently in the 2020 Spirit Rock Teacher Training program. Konda has taught daylongs, retreats and workshops. She sits on the Board of Directors of Spirit Rock Meditation Center and is on the Advisory Board of the Namchak Foundation Learning Circles. In addition to her spiritual pursuits, Konda is a social entrepreneur, earth and social justice activist. She is the Co-Founder and former CEO of Impact Hub Oakland, a beautiful co-working space that supports socially engaged entrepreneurs and changemakers.
Kristin is Associate Professor of Human Development and Culture at the University of Texas. She began practicing Insight Meditation in 1997. While doing her post-doctoral work she conducted research on self-compassion. She has developed an 8-week program to teach self-compassion skills. Her book titled Self-Compassion was published in April, 2011. Kristin was recently featured in the best-selling book and award-winning documentary called The Horse Boy that chronicles her family’s adventure with autism.
Kristina Baré is an insight meditation teacher, therapist, and Somatic Experiencing practitioner. She has trained primarily in the Burmese lineages of Ven. Mahasi Sayadaw and Ven. Pa Auk Sayadaw. She enjoys supporting students deepening samadhi, loving-kindness and insight. Opening the door to an expansion of the heart and to liberating wisdom. In support of the Buddha’s teachings, Kristina also draws on knowledge from western psychology and Somatic Experiencing. She invites a kind, patient, and embodied approach as a base for samadhi, loving-kindness and insight meditation practices.
La Sarmiento has been practicing Vipassana meditation and has been a member of the Insight Meditation Community of Washington (IMCW) since 1998. La's practice and approach to the Dharma has been influenced greatly by the teachings of Tara Brach, Pema Chodron, Larry Yang, Eric Kolvig, Michele McDonald, Cheri Maples, Joe Weston, and Ruth King. In September 2012, La graduated from the Community Dharma Leadership IV program sponsored by Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Woodacre, CA.
Since 2005, La has been the guiding teacher/leader of the IMCW Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex and Queer (LGBTIQ) Sangha and the IMCW People of Color Sangha. They* integrate the Kalyana Mitta process and the concepts of Respectful Confrontation and Non-violent Communication into their gatherings to create a sacred space for group wisdom to arise. Between 2011 and 2016, La also co-led the DC Monthly Teen Sangha for youth between 13-19 years of age.
La is a senior retreat/event manager committed to bringing diverse teachers and programs to IMCW and to making the Dharma accessible to all. La has been a lead teacher of mindfulness teen retreats in Virginia through Inward Bound Mindfulness Education since 2011, has co-taught the LGBTIQ Retreat at the Garrison Institute in Garrison, NY since 2014, and has co-taught the Young Adults Retreat at the Spirit Rock Meditation Center since 2014.
Lama Rod Owens is the Guiding Teacher for the Radical Dharma Boston Collective and teaches with Inward Bound Mindfulness Education (iBme) where he is also a faculty member for the organization’s teacher training program. He holds a Master of Divinity degree in Buddhist Studies from Harvard Divinity School with a focus on the intersection of social change, identity, and spiritual practice. He is a co-author of Radical Dharma, Talking Race, Love, and Liberation, which explores race in the context of American Buddhist communities. He also contributed a chapter on working with anger and difficult emotions in the book Real World Mindfulness for Beginners. He has offered talks, retreats, and workshops at Harvard, Yale, Tufts, NYU, and other universities. His current writing project is an exploration of intersectional masculinity and spirituality.
Lama Tsomo is an American lama, author, and co-founder of the Namchak Foundation and Namchak Retreat Ranch. Born Linda Pritzker, Lama Tsomo followed a path of spiritual inquiry and study that ultimately led to her ordination as one of the few American lamas in Tibetan Buddhism.
Under the tutelage of Tulku Sangak Rinpoche, international holder of the Namchak lineage, Lama Tsomo has done extensive spiritual retreat in the U.S. and abroad and is fluent in Tibetan. Today, she is dedicated to sharing the teachings of the Namchak lineage with Western students, bringing greater happiness and meaning to life through meditation practice, community, and retreat. She is especially passionate about reaching young people and supporting those working for positive social change. Her teaching has inspired American and international students, who appreciate her informal, and often humorous, style.
Larry Yang, a longtime meditator, trained as a psychotherapist, has taught meditation since 1999 and is a core teacher at East Bay Meditation Center in Oakland, CA. He has practiced in Southeast Asia and was a Buddhist monk in Thailand.
Booker is a heart - centered, spirit - driven lover of liberation and meditation teacher committed to creating a culture of belonging through her teaching and writing. She completed Spirit Rock’s 4 year Retreat Teacher Training in 2020, and shared the practices of yoga and mindfulness with New York City’s most vulnerable populations for over a decade. Booker has co - authored and contributed to several publications including the trauma - informed anthology Practicing Liberation and its accompanying workbook, for folks working towards social justice. She is a co-founder of the Yoga Service Council at Omega Institute and the Meditation Working Group of Occupy Wall Street. In 2020 she was invited to be a Sojourner Truth Leadership Fellow through Auburn Seminary and was voted by her peers as one of the 12 Powerful Women in the Mindfulness Movement. Booker moved to Philadelphia in August of 2020 to vote in a swing state, and currently serves as the Guiding Teacher of New York Insight.
Kate Lila Wheeler began teaching meditation in the mid-1980s and continues to practice with teachers in Theravada and Tibetan Buddhist lineages. Writing is an important part of her life; she has recently completed a second novel.
Linda Graham, M.F.T., has a full-time private psychotherapy practice in the San Francisco Bay Area and leads trainings nationwide on the emerging integration of relational psychology, mindfulness and neuroscience. She is the author of Bouncing Back: Rewiring Your Brain for Maximum Resilience (New World Library, 2013) and publishes a monthly e-newsletter Healing and Awakening into Aliveness and Wholeness, archived on her website.
Liz Powell has been practicing Vipassana meditation since 2004. Liz takes joy in teaching IMC's Eightfold Path Program online, the weekday Happy Hour brahmavihara practice, and the Thursday night online sitting, as well as classes in Mindfulness and other dharma fundamentals. She loves teaching retreats as well as sitting them. A 2025 graduate of the IMC (Insight Meditation Center) Dharma Teacher Training with Gil Fronsdal and Andrea Fella, as well as their Dharma Mentoring and Local Dharma Leadership Programs (a total of 8 years of formal training), Liz also completed the Dedicated Practitioners and Advanced Practitioners Programs at Spirit Rock. She co-led programs at IMC for children, families and parents for a decade, as well as offering Introduction to Meditation, half-day and daylong retreats for adults. For a number of years she served as IMC Board President and then Managing Director of the Insight Retreat Center in Santa Cruz, California.
Marcy Reynolds, BA is a longtime practitioner of Qigong and Vipassana meditation. She currently teaches Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction at El Camino Hospital, and Qigong Movement at Insight Santa Cruz and other places in the Monterey and San Francisco bay areas.
