Mindfulness Teachers Bios

Growing up in India, Anna watched her father meditate in the woods. The seeds were planted then and her life and the lives of those she serves have been transformed through these practices. Anna divides her time between working as a hospital chaplain, a yoga and meditation teacher, coach and grief educator. Anna is a teacher at Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC and serves on the Board of Directors. She is a co-founder of IMCW’s Asian Sangha and leads IMCW’s mindfulness class for teens. Anna continues to grow with regular meditation and multi-day residential retreats and is currently working towards her Master’s of Divinity. She lives with her husband and two human and three non-human children.

Anthony “T” Maes found mindfulness during college when struggling with addiction, and it saved his life. He has practiced mindfulness meditation since 2003 including many weeklong and monthlong silent retreats. He’s been teaching teens in mindfulness retreats and weekly class formats since 2009 for various organizations including Spirit Rock and Inward Bound. On retreat he enjoys teaching emotional intelligence, diversity and inclusion, relational mindfulness, multi-racial liberation, and acrobalance. He is a teacher and coordinator of the weekly Teen Sangha meditation group at East Bay Meditation Center. He has worked as a wilderness mentor for middle-school boys with Stepping Stones Project and Back To Earth. He is passionate about supporting college-aged young adults, and has founded a leadership program for “aged out” Inward Bound alumni. “T” graduated from UC Berkeley in 2004, completed the yearlong Commit2Dharma program at East Bay Meditation Center in 2011, and is currently part of the Community Dharma Leaders training at Spirit Rock Meditation Center.

Barnaby Willett is Director of Program Development at the nonprofit Peace in Schools, which offers semester-long mindfulness classes in public high schools. He teaches mindfulness at Cleveland High School in Portland, Oregon. Barnaby has practiced mindfulness since 1994. He is certified to teach a 12-week curriculum in Mindfulness-Based Substance Abuse Treatment for Adolescents (MBSAT). Barnaby was formerly employed in finance and investment management. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in English from Pomona College.

Bio coming soon.

Cara Lai spent most of her life trying to figure out how to be happy, or at least avoid total misery, which landed her on a meditation cushion for the majority of her adulthood. She’s explored the wild beauty of the human experience through many adventures in consciousness, including a few mind-bendingly long meditation retreats, chronic illness, and the profound experience of motherhood. In the past, Cara has worked as an artist, wilderness guide, social worker and psychotherapist, but at this point she’s given up on being an adult in exchange for an all-out mindfulness rampage. Her teaching is relatable, authentic, funny and sometimes crass, and is accessible for many people. She teaches teens and adults at Inward Bound Mindfulness Education, Spirit Rock, Insight Meditation Society, and UCLA; ultimately hoping to be able to bend spoons with her mind. And to help people be happier.

Bio coming soon.

Day is a queer homie born to spunky, loving Vietnamese parents fleeing civil war. Day dropped out of undergrad to become a monastic disciple and attendant of Zen Master Thích Nhất Hạnh and the Plum Village Community. A decade later Day went forth (leaving their monastic robes behind) to pursue passions of trauma integration and Classical Chinese Medicine. Before leaving Plum Village Day received the Lamp Transmission, recognizing their abiding commitment to building beloved communities. When not studying acupuncture & herbalism, they can be found mentoring youth or facilitating one-on-one trauma work.

Devon Sangster Rath has been practicing mindfulness since 1997. She graduated with her Master’s in Social Work from the University of Pennsylvania in 2002. Since that time she has worked with teens in many different capacities. Currently she works part time for Mindful Schools as a guiding teacher for their yearlong teacher training program and full time as a Social Worker in a public high school in San Francisco. There, she teaches mindfulness to both students and staff. Devon identifies as a queer woman and is heartfelt about the power of mindfulness practice to increase peace and freedom for all.

Dori Langevin began the study and practice of meditation in 1997 with Tara Brach and the Insight Meditation Community of Washington, where she served on the Teachers Council from 2003-2007. In 2007 she and her husband Ted moved to Spokane Valley, WA, where she now teaches classes and retreats (www.mainstream-mindfulness.com). Dori teaches residential retreats at Spirit Rock Meditation Center (Young Adult Retreat) and Insight Meditation Society (Family Retreat) and completed the centers’ four-year teacher training program in Meditation. She has also taught dozens of retreats elsewhere.

She has special interests in the dance between mindfulness, addiction recovery and emotional healing, grounded in the sacred feminine and embodied presence, and integrating creative expression and relationships into retreats. Dori also volunteers at Airway Heights Corrections Center (men’s medium security) teaching a weekly mindfulness meditation class through the Religious Activities Center.

Em loves nothing more than creating safe, fun, and healthy spaces for teens and adults to flourish. She’s taught mindfulness at after school programs, summer camps, and on young adult and teen retreats. She began practicing meditation in 2011 because she was having the best day of her life (just kidding). She is honored to have the chance to share the tools that have brought her so much joy, contentment, and peace in her life.

Eric Michael B. is a teacher, facilitator, and researcher with a passion for transformation and justice. Informed by years of intensive meditation practice across a range of traditions, Eric specializes in teaching mindfulness and other contemplative practices to help individuals and communities navigate issues related to power, ethics, difference, and complexity with creativity and care. After studying performance and critical race theory as an undergraduate at the University of Wisconsin- La Crosse, Eric earned a Master of Bioethics degree (M.B.E.) focusing on trauma and health equity from Harvard Medical School, a Master of Divinity degree (M.Div.) in social ethics and contemplative studies from Harvard Divinity School, and an interdisciplinary graduate certificate in child protection from the Harvard FXB Center for Health and Human Rights. Eric currently studies the intersections of embodiment, mortality, and moral development as a doctoral student at Fielding Graduate University. He has collaborated with Inward Bound in various capacities since 2015, and he’s a proud graduate of Inward Bound’s Teacher Training Program. Eric is a lover of dance who believes in the power of art, community, and contemplative practice to change the world. His personal practice and professional collaborations strive to honor the wisdom of philosopher and community organizer Grace Lee Boggs: “To transform the world, we must transform ourselves.”

Erin teaches meditation and is the Executive Director at the Consciousness Explorers Club, an innovative contemplative community based in Toronto. Her focus is on meditation for self-care and emotional well being and she has taught mindfulness skills in health care, education, corporate and non-profit settings. She has guided meditating teenagers on Inward Bound’s Toronto Teen Retreats and taught mindfulness to high schoolers for KidEvolve. She served as Youth Programs Coordinator for EHM from 2007-2018, running a centre providing free programs for low-income children and youth designed to foster confidence and creativity. She also studied and worked in theatre for many years, and loves to infuse her teaching with a sense of play and creative exploration. Erin is passionate about the confluence of meditation practice and social justice, and using mindfulness in the service of caring better for oneself and others.

Bio coming soon.

Jen Zehler is a certified teacher and received her undergraduate degree in Early Childhood Education at New Jersey City University and her Master’s Degree in Mindfulness Studies at Lesley University. She is also a graduate of the Women’s Leadership Institute program at Hartford Seminary. Jen completed teacher training with Inward Bound and is a Qualified Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) teacher, and has received training through Mindful Schools, Mindful Life, and Mindfulness In Schools Project (.b). She also holds certification in Restorative Justice Circle Keeping from Planning Change and has completed trauma training for working with youth through The Center for Adolescent Studies. Jen resides in Barre, MA at The Barre Center for Buddhist Studies (BCBS), and Jamaica Plain, MA. She enjoys biking, pickleball, creative arts, and reading.

Jessica Morey began practicing meditation at age 14 in the Insight Meditation Society teen retreats. She returned every year for 6 years and then participated for 10 years in an IMS young adult mentoring group. Jessica has attended longer (1-3 month) retreats in Asia and the US and is a founding board member and lead teacher for Inward Bound teen retreats. Before joining Inward Bound, Jessica worked in clean energy and climate policy and finance. She holds a BA in Environmental Engineering from Dartmouth and Masters degrees in Sustainable Development and International Affairs. She wrote an article in the February 2014 Mindful Magazine, “Finding My Way,” about her experience learning and benefiting from mindfulness throughout her young adult years. She is an avid yoga practitioner and skier and loves dancing in any form.

Joe Klein, LPC, is the lead clinician of a mindfulness-based addiction treatment program in rural Virginia. He began practicing meditation in 2001, began staffing teen retreats in 2007, and is a co-founder of Inward Bound. Since 2010, Joe has been teaching a graduate course at Radford University and leading retreats and workshops on mindfulness practice for college students, counselors, social workers, and education professionals. Joe brings playfulness, Earth connection, and whole person engagement to his ways of teaching and embodying mindfulness practice.

Jose Shinzan Palma was born in Veracruz, Mexico. He is a Zen Buddhist Priest. He has been practicing Zen since 1996. He did a residential training for 4 years at the Zen Buddhist Temple in Toronto, Canada. He lived and trained in Upaya Zen Center for over 8 years. He is a Dharma Successor of Roshi Joan Halifax. He has taught Zazenkais and Sesshins at Upaya and has staffed Teen Retreats for Spirit Rock Center and Inward Bound. He is a guest teacher in a Zen Buddhist Temple in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. Shinzan left the residency of Upaya to return to Mexico and start a community spreading the Dharma in Mexico. His vision is to work with youth and also create a Zen Hispanic community in the USA and Mexico.

Bio coming soon.

Kaira Jewel Lingo teaches Buddhist meditation, mindfulness, and compassion internationally, with a focus on children, families, and young people. She began practicing mindfulness in 1997. She was an ordained nun of 15 years in Thich Nhat Hanh’s Order of Interbeing, and now leads retreats in the U.S. and internationally, offering mindfulness programs for educators and youth in schools. She also leads retreats for people of color, activists and artists. In addition to teaching in the Zen tradition and secular mindfulness, she is Spirit Rock-trained teacher in the Vipassana lineage. She explores the interweaving of art, play, ecology and spiritual practice and is a certified yoga teacher and InterPlay leader. She teaches and mentors regularly with Schumacher College, Sangha Live, Inward Bound, the Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification Program, the Power of Awareness online course, and is a guiding teacher for One Earth Sangha, and formerly with Mindful Schools. She edited Thich Nhat Hanh’s Planting Seeds: Practicing Mindfulness with Children. She loves teaching and practicing with teens and young people and has been teaching with Inward Bound since 2015.

Khalila Gillett is a mindfulness and yoga instructor with 20+ years of personal practice. Introduced to yoga and meditation in her teen years, she has attended many multi-day silent meditation retreats, including two month-long retreats. Her background includes over a decade as a wilderness educator leading multi-day expeditions for a variety of educational organizations, as well as teaching interdisciplinary curriculum in formal classroom settings and beyond. She holds a B.A. in Adventure-based Environmental Education from Prescott College and over 500 Yoga Teacher Training hours. Khalila teaches meditation retreats for all ages through Inward Bound in both residential settings and remote wilderness environments. Her teaching is grounded in nature awareness and connection, mindfulness meditation as a means for insight, care, and well-being, and social justice praxis that recognizes our interdependence and collective need for freedom. Khalila currently serves within the core faculty for Inward Bound’s Mindfulness Teacher Training.

Kiki Williams (she/they) is a black, queer, interdisciplinary teacher, meditator, yogi, and dancer. She is both a movement and mindfulness-enthusiast, weaving together these modalities to support a fully-embodied approach to both individual and collective healing. After spending 9 beautiful years in Brooklyn, NY, Kiki now lives in Oakland, CA. She is propelled by the belief that all people have the innate right to thrive, experience unmitigated joy, and to be free, beginning with the freedom we each have the capacity to feel in and through our own bodies. Much of her own practice comes out of weekly hiking trips with her family during childhood, where she was introduced to a quiet and connection with the earth that she would only later come to understand as a profound source of wisdom and deeply necessary for healing. Her earth-based practices lead her to receive her 200-hr YTT with Greenhouse Holistic (Brooklyn, NY) in 2014, children’s yoga certification with Bent On Learning (New York, NY) in 2015, and a 300-hr YTT with Abhaya Yoga (Brooklyn, NY) in 2019. In Kiki’s classes you’ll find an authenticity of presence in the form of story-telling, making mistakes, laughing together about it, and care and attention to everyone in the room. She draws from her dance background, various yoga traditions, and her practice of Buddhism and meditation to craft classes that engage the body, quiet the mind, and soften the heart.

Lawrence Schuessler has spent the past 25+ years guiding and facilitating people in wild spaces all over the world. Lawrence stumbled into meditation when he saw the Dali Lama speak at an event and he was captivated by his energy. Lawrence went on to seek ways to practice meditation, so he could be like the Dali Lama. Lawrence has completed the Spirit Rock Meditation Center Advanced Practitioner Program, completed the Inward Bound Mindfulness Education Teacher Training program and has sat various retreats both at Spirit Rock and the Insight Meditation Society. Lawrence also supports Nature Dharma retreats with Susie Harrington. Lawrence is influenced by Jack Kornfield, Sylvia Bernstein, JoAnna Hardy and Brian Lesage to name a few. Lawrence has a B.A. in Adventure Education from Prescott College, and a MSc in Outdoor Education Sustainable Leadership from Gaia University. He has taught for Stanford University, Prescott College, UCLA, UCSF, the Eagle Rock School, the Dunn School, The Crossroads School, Outward Bound, NOLS, and Inward Bound Mindfulness Education to name a few. Lawrence has spent the past 20 years practicing vipassana meditation and various styles of yoga. He hopes that meditation and mindfulness will be liberation to those who practice as well as lifting up folx that live on the fringes or are oppressed. As a queer man, Lawrence believes in showing up as your authentic self and wants to support others to do so. Lawrence is passionate about experiential education, nature awareness and mindfulness in various forms and is grateful he is privileged enough to be able to do this work. When Lawrence is not working (which is rare) he can be found watercolor painting, riding his bicycle or rock climbing with his partner on an adventure in Joshua Tree

Mark (he/they) is deeply grateful to be working with Inward Bound. Mark has been a sincere student of many meditative arts for the last 15 years. He has worked for Yoga International, The Himalayan Institute, and Spirit Rock Meditation Center. He recently completed his 500-hour yoga teacher certification through Spirit Rock’s Mindful Yoga and Meditation Training.

Marvin G. Belzer, PhD, has taught mindfulness meditation for over fifteen years and is an Adjunct Associate Professor at the UCLA Mindful Awareness Research Center. For many years he taught a semester-long meditation course in the Department of Philosophy at Bowling Green St. University, where he was a Professor of philosophy. He and Diana Winston were instrumental in developing week-long mindfulness retreats for teens in the mid-1990s.

After attending Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon, Nannette began her professional journey as a passionate experiential educator. She taught in a very rural Oregon school district before moving to the Rocky Mountains with her family to attend Naropa University. There her spiritual journey began as a contemplative educator, meditator, and yogini. Nannette is committed to helping young people thrive and have the confidence to be their true selves. She enjoys working with teens and being a positive presence in their lives. Nannette runs a summer mindfulness and art camp for middle school students and periodically teaches mindful parenting classes in her community. She also works with high school students teaching them meditation and helping them pursue their passions. Nannette is working toward her PhD in Somatic and Spiritual Psychology from the International University of Professional Studies, under the mentorship of psychotherapist, Matt Licata PhD. Her dissertation entails using contemplative photography to help young people see directly the world in which they live. Through contemplative photography, young people can experience a deeper connection to their inner and outer worlds. At this time there are no future plans except to joyfully be of service and to support those who are bringing forth goodness in the world.

Nina (she/her) supports people in cultivating embodied presence as a way of coming home to themselves. She is a mindfulness facilitator rooted in multiple lineages of meditative practice, including both stillness and movement. Starting with her spiritual roots in her Jewish-Buddhist upbringing in a family of meditators, through her teen years as a student and eventually teacher of yoga, and into her training in Buddhist spiritual care and secular mindfulness education, Nina is grateful for a life path that has allowed her to explore contemplative practice in many forms. Nina holds a Master of Divinity, focused in the Buddhist Ministry Initiative, from Harvard Divinity School. Through her graduate studies as an M.Div, she is trained in facilitation of multifaith contemplative practice, interfaith chaplaincy, and leading mindfulness programs in both religious and secular settings, ranging from teen camp at a monastery to the cancer floor of a hospital. Her formal meditation practice and teaching has been shaped most by the Insight Meditation tradition, in which she was raised and continues to practice, and by the Plum Village tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh. Nina is also trained as an RYT-200 yoga teacher in Vinyasa and Kundalini yoga, and her approach to leading mindful movement is informed by both yoga and modern dance. Nina is currently training as a non-denominational Spiritual Director with Still Harbor. She completed the Inward Bound Mindfulness Teacher Training in 2018, and has been involved with Inward Bound teen and college mindfulness retreats since 2014. She especially loves LGBTQIA+ mindfulness community, both as a participant & as a facilitator. As a Mindfulness Director with Mindfulness Director Initiative, she currently leads mindfulness programs at Harvard College. Nina is energized by working with young adults, because she believes that these years are ripe with potential for inquiry into core questions of who we are and how we relate to the world. She is inspired by the way that youth long for, and create, spaces where they can reflect honestly on their experiences, learn to take care of themselves and others, and build authentic, loving communities that support deep well-being and freedom.

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 entitled “In This Moment” and has performed at the Kennedy Center in support of the project. His live events are considered a hip-hop and meditation experience and he is a member of the DC Chapter of the Recording Academy. Ofosu’s children’s book “You Are Enough” is currently available on Amazon, a follow up children’s book will be released in Fall of 2022.Ofosu’s philosophy is that everyone is deserving of their own love and compassion and that inner work is the way in which we begin to change the world for the better. All of the work he does in the world is meant to support this idea. Ofosu currently lives in Rockville, Maryland with his wife and their four children.

Sara Shapouri is an Iranian-American meditation teacher, artist, parent, and lawyer. A lover of maps and guides to help understand the wildness of human experience, her path and offerings are influenced by Theravada and Mahayana Buddhism, Jungian and Depth Psychology, Indigenous Focusing Oriented Therapy, relational mindfulness, esoteric mystical traditions, and stand up comedy.

Bio coming soon.

Sarwang Parikh LMFT (he/they) was born into a devotional Indian lineage from an immigrant, working-class family. Alongside this rich upbringing, they’ve been steeped in yoga and meditation as a young person to help navigate and transform the challenges they experienced throughout adolescence. Sarwang found his calling in working with youth through community mental health and has been providing healing-centered care to teens as a therapist and mindfulness educator for nearly 20 years. He served as a founding member and director of school-based services of a unique Bay area-based mindfulness and mental health non-profit. He’s had the great privilege to work with diverse and marginalized youth in the rural South, across the Bay area and in South Asia. Sarwang’s long-time study and contemplative practice is primarily rooted in Vedic Yoga and Buddhist lineage through centers such as Spirit Rock and East Bay Meditation Center where he graduated from various teacher and leadership programs. He is blessed to make his livelihood as co-director of Buddhist Peace Fellowship and as a psychotherapist on unceded Ohlone land in the East Bay, CA. Sarwang is grateful to be able to weave and share his passion for youth, healing justice and spiritual practices at Inward Bound.

Bio coming soon.

Bio coming soon.

Soroosh first encountered mindfulness while travelling in Thailand. Since then, he has spent time in different retreat settings all across the world, always looking for different ways and expressions of mindfulness practice. He believes that each individual can work to create their own understanding and practice of mindfulness through creative reflection and exploration of themselves. For Soroosh, mindfulness extends ‘beyond the mat’ and into the everyday activities and interactions that we sometimes take for granted. His knowledge of mindfulness and contemplative practice is complimented by his years of experience as an overseas experiential educator and as a community mediator. Soroosh currently works at an after school recreational facility for youth in Toronto. If you ask him nicely, he’ll teach you how to clap with one hand.

Bio coming soon.

Tanzanite has a long-term interest and passion in supporting young people academically, emotionally, and helping them achieve a creative outlet. Tanzanite has spent the past 6 years in Massachusetts working with young people from all different cultural and economic background, with all levels of ability and disability. Now, as a recent transplant to NYC, Tanzanite currently assists with the Awake Youth Project at the Brooklyn Zen Center. Tanzanite was introduced to meditation at a young age by attending the Insight Meditation Society’s (IMS) Family and Teen Retreats. As Tanzanite leaned into ‘adulthood’ she returned as a staff volunteer for IMS Teen Retreats and for Inward Bound Teen Retreats. Tanzanite has found it truly rewarding and a privilege to witness the positive effects of hands-on projects, building a personal connection, and understanding that each moment is a learning experience through mindfulness. Tanzanite is excited to continue chillin and growing with the Inward Bound family.

Bio coming soon.

Bio coming soon.

Zac Ispa-Landa (he/him) is a teacher, father, beekeeper and student of the Dharma. Since a young age, he has been deeply curious about the nature of mind, magic, dreams, and the mystery of consciousness. He’s practiced and studied meditation for 20 years – primarily Vipassana (insight) meditation and, more recently, Vajrayana Buddhism. His practice is supported by a broad and eclectic mix of teachings and methods. For the last five years, his primary teacher has been Lama Rod Owens. At Inward Bound, he is a lead teacher on teen retreats and core faculty in the Teacher Training Program. He’s also a Senior Lecturer in the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources at the University of Vermont and works with people throughout the country as a mindfulness teacher and Dharma facilitator. He believes we are living in unprecedented times that call for new ways of knowing and being and is devoted to awareness practice as a path towards individual and collective liberation. His practice is inspired by interdependence, diversity, mystery, and the possibility of awakening. Zac lives in Winooski, Vermont with his partner, son, and tens of thousands of honeybees.