Santacitta Bhikkhuni trained as a nun in England & Asia, primarily in the lineage of Ajahn Chah and has also received teachings in the Shechen lineage of Tibetan Buddhism. She is committed to our planet as a living being and resides at Aloka Earth Room, currently in San Rafael, California.

Carol Cano, M.A., began her practice over 30 years ago at Wat Kow Tahm in Thailand and has actively engaged in building communities and teaching Dharma internationally. She is a graduate of the 2017-2020 Spirit Rock Meditation Center’s Teacher Training program and a teacher at Spirit Rock often. She is a core teacher and a former board member of East Bay Meditation Center. Carol co-founded Philippine Insight Meditation Community in the Philippines. Her unique teachings are deeply grounded in Basque, Native American, and Buddhist influences that braid the Dharma along indigenous wisdom and Earth-based practices. Her psychology background gives her a unique view into the human condition, which helps her hold community in a compassionate and confident manner.

Dr. Yuria Celidwen is a Nahua and Maya Bats’il K’op author of Flourishing Kin: Indigenous Wisdom for Collective Well-Being (Sounds True, 2024) and a research scientist at UC Berkeley who integrates Indigenous studies, cultural psychology, and contemplative sciences through transdisciplinary approaches to transcendent experiences expressed through prosocial behaviors such as reverence, ethics, compassion, love, and sacredness. Dr. Celidwen developed the “Ethics of Belonging” thesis, which promotes awareness, intentional action, and relational well-being to support planetary flourishing. In her work, she explores personal and cultural narratives that shift identities toward an ethos of meaning and participation rooted in honoring Life.

Belinda Eriacho is an enrolled member of the Diné (Navajo) Nation, with paternal lineage from the Zuni people. As a dedicated advocate, educator, and bridge builder. Belinda works at the intersection of culture, health, and community empowerment.

Lin Wang Gordon has studied insight meditation (vipassana) for over a decade and has recently deepened her practice through the Tibetan Dzogchen traditions. She graduated from Mark Coleman’s Awake in the Wild Teacher Training in 2017 and is currently enrolled in the Community Dharma Leaders Program (CDL7) at the Spirit Rock Meditation Center. She cofounded the Sacred Earth Sangha, the Midlife Sangha, and the Asian Diaspora Sangha at the New York Insight Meditation Center. Through her meditation journey, she discovers the transformative power of Buddhist philosophy and practices to help live a life of flow, joy, wonder, and resilience.

Tiokasin Ghosthorse is an author, teacher, activist and accomplished musician. He is a member of the Cheyenne River Lakota Nation of South Dakota and has a long history with Indigenous activism and advocacy. Tiokasin is the founder, host and executive producer of First Voices Radio (formerly “First Voices Indigenous Radio”). In 2016, he received a Nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize from the International Institute of Peace Studies and Global Philosophy. Other recent recognitions include Native Arts and Cultures Foundation National Fellowship in Music (2016), National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellowship Nominee (2017), and National Native American Hall of Fame Nominee (2018, 2019). He was also awarded New York City’s Peacemaker of the Year in 2013. Tiokasin is a “perfectly flawed human being” and a Sundancer in the cosmology of the Lakota Nation.

David George Haskell is a writer and biologist acclaimed for his lyrical explorations of the living world. His most recent book, How Flowers Made our World, explores the creative powers of flowering plants.

Chris Ives is a professor emeritus of Religious Studies at Stonehill College south of Boston. In his teaching and writing he has focused on Zen ethics and Buddhist approaches to nature and environmental issues. His publications include Zen Ecology: Green and Engaged Living in the Face of the Climate Crisis; Zen on the Trail: Hiking as Pilgrimage; Meditations on the Trail: A Guidebook for Self-Discovery; Imperial-Way Zen: Ichikawa Hakugen’s Critique and Lingering Questions for Buddhist Ethics; Zen Awakening and Society; and a translation (with Gishin Tokiwa) of Shin’ichi Hisamatsu’s Critical Sermons of the Zen Tradition. He is on the editorial board of the Journal of Buddhist Ethics, the Advisory Group of the Forum on Religion and Ecology, and the board of directors of the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies.

Jack Kornfield has taught meditation internationally since 1974 and is one of the key teachers to introduce Buddhist mindfulness practice to the West. He graduated from Dartmouth College with a degree in Asian Studies in 1967 and studied as a monk under the Buddhist master Ven. Ajahn Chah and the Ven. Mahasi Sayadaw of Burma. Jack co-founded the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, with fellow meditation teachers Sharon Salzberg and Joseph Goldstein and the Spirit Rock Center in Woodacre, California. His books include A Wise Heart: A Guide to the Universal Teachings of Buddhist Psychology; A Path with Heart; After the Ecstasy, the Laundry; Teachings of the Buddha; Seeking the Heart of Wisdom; and many others. He holds a Ph.D. in clinical psychology and is a father, husband, and activist.

Karen Waconda Lewis is from Laguna and Isleta Pueblo in New Mexico. She is an initiated Medicine Keeper and Buddhist practitioner who has brought the medicine and dharma teachings into local health clinics, hospitals, and tribal programs, and is now teaching nationwide through environmental mindfulness, reciprocity, and care for our Mother Earth and her beings.

Kaira Jewel Lingo is a senior Dharma teacher in the Plum Village Zen lineage and also teaches Vipassana in the Insight tradition. She is a member of the Plum Village North American Dharma Teachers’ Council of Elders and has been practicing mindfulness since 1997. Her work continues the Engaged Buddhism developed by Thich Nhat Hanh, shaped by her parents’ lives of service and her father’s work with Martin Luther King Jr. After 15 years as an ordained nun in Thich Nhat Hanh’s monastic community, Kaira Jewel now teaches internationally, offering spiritual mentoring as well as meditation courses, retreats, and trainings. Her work integrates mindfulness with creative expression, social and racial justice, and care for the Earth, inviting deep presence, relational inquiry, and embodied wisdom as foundations for personal transformation and collective liberation. She is the author of We Were Made for These Times: Ten Lessons in Moving Through Change, Loss, and Disruption and co-author of Healing Our Way Home: Black Buddhist Teachings on Ancestors, Joy, and Liberation.

Kate Marvel is a climate scientist and one of the premier science communicators working today. A former cosmologist, Marvel received a PhD in theoretical physics from Cambridge University. She led the “Climate Trends” chapter in the U.S. Fifth National Climate Assessment, has given a TED Talk, appeared on Meet the Press and The Ezra Klein Show, and testified before the U.S. Congress. She has written for Scientific American, Nautilus magazine, and the On Being Project. She lives in Brooklyn with her family.

Dr. Tashi Dekyid Monet (མོ་ངེ་བཀྲ་ཤིས་བདེ་སྐྱིད།) is a Tibetan scholar, writer, translator, and a postdoctoral research scholar at Columbia University Weatherhead East Asian Institute. Her work explores Indigenous Land-based traditions, multispecies justice, and the intersections of literature, spirituality, and the environment. Dr. Dekyid Monet was born and raised in eastern Tibet. She earned her BA in Tibetan Literature from Minzu University of China and her Ph.D. in Education from the University of Virginia (2024). Her research bridges literacies of Tibetan Land, Buddhist sacred geography, Indigenous theories of knowledge in relationship to Land and places, and global decolonial thought.

Yong Oh is a Dharma Council teacher at the Durango Dharma Center and a core teacher for Sacred Mountain Saṅgha, and is also a visiting teacher for other community centers across North America. He teaches retreats at Spirit Rock Meditation Center, 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 Saṅgha 2-year Dharmapala training, taught by his primary teachers Kittisaro and Thanissara.

Stephen Posner, PhD, is a scholar-practitioner and Senior Fellow for Planetary Health with the Garrison Institute. His work integrates research with contemplative practice across traditions to create a more compassionate world. Stephen moderates cross-tradition dialogues rooted in humility and care. His recent work includes co-hosting a global speaker series for Ecological Civilization with the Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology, contributing to a national U.S. nature assessment with The Nature Record, and collaborating on resilience and regeneration efforts in the Hudson Valley. Based in Vermont and originally from Baltimore, he values time with family and the natural world.