Skilled and Compassionate Guidance
Vallecitos Mountain Retreat Center guided meditation retreats are led by the most skilled and capable teachers within various dharma and wisdom traditions. Our teachers have dedicated their lives to awakening and service. At our center each teacher brings their own unique and powerful experience of waking up in wild nature. You will be in good hands with all who teach at Vallecitos Mountain Retreat Center.
Amana Brembry Johnson
Amana Brembry Johnson is a dedicated meditation teacher and community leader with over four decades of contemplative practice across multiple spiritual traditions. She serves as a Core Teacher at the East Bay Meditation Center (EBMC) in Oakland, California, and is a coordinating teacher for residential retreats at Spirit Rock Meditation Center. Amana is one of the founding teachers of EBMC’s Spiritual Teacher and Leadership (STL) Training and a former mentor for emerging mindfulness teachers through the Mindfulness Meditation Training Certification Program (MMTCP). Her work integrates spirituality, social justice, body awareness, and intuitive creativity, offering a holistic approach to individual and…
Anandabodhi Bhikkhuni
Ayya Anandabodhi, originally from Wales, has been a Buddhist monastic for 30 years. Originally training in the Thai Forest Tradition in England, Ayya moved to the US to co-found Aloka Vihara, a residence for Bhikkhunis (fully ordained Buddhist nuns) in California. Ayya is part of the world wide revival of Theravada Bhikkhuni Sangha, which has reopened the way for women to take full ordination in the Theravada tradition. She is the founder of Pārāyana Vihāra in Washington State, where she now resides. Ayya’s practice is guided by early Buddhist scriptures, living in community, and through nature’s pure and immediate Dhamma.…
Anne Cushman
As a teacher and writer, Anne Cushman explores the intersection between spiritual practice, creative expression, and the down-to-earth details of embodied human life. A practitioner of both dharma and yoga since 1982, she is a retreat teacher at Spirit Rock Meditation Center, core faculty for Spirit Rock’s Dharma Yoga Mindfulness Training, and the director of mentoring for the Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification Program. She is the author of the memoir The Mama Sutra: A Story of Love, Loss, and the Path of Motherhood; the novel Enlightenment for Idiots; the spiritual India travel guide From Here to Nirvana; and Moving Into…
Bill Morgan, PsyD
Bill Morgan, PsyD is a clinical psychologist in private practice in Cambridge, MA. He is the author of “The Meditator’s Dilemma: An Innovative Approach to Overcoming Obstacles and Revitalizing Your Practice”. He is an Advisory Board and faculty member of the Institute for Meditation and Psychotherapy. Bill has participated in ten years of intensive meditation retreats in the past 50 years. For 25 years, together with his partner Susan, he leads mindfulness retreats for psychotherapists and caregivers, and more recently leads The Daily Sit and online householder retreats for the general public. Making practice meaningful and enjoyable are core to…
Bonnie Duran
Bonnie Duran, PhD met the Dharma in 1982 when she sat a month in Nepal and learned Vipassana in Bodh Gaya India. Since then, she has taken teachings from many western teachers as well as Thai, Burmese, and Tibetan Monastic teachers. Bonnie attended the very first People of Color Mediation Retreat at Vallecitos decades ago and we are proud to have her sit on our Teachers’ Council today. Bonnie is a core-teacher of the IMS Teacher Training Program, the SRMC Dedicated Practitioners Program and is on the SRMC Guiding Teachers Council. Bonnie teaches long and short retreats at IMS, Spirit…
Brian Lesage
Brian has practiced Buddhist meditation since 1988 and has taught since 2000. He has studied in the Zen, Theravada, and Tibetan schools and was ordained in the Rinzai Zen tradition in 1996. His training in Vipassana Meditation includes doing extended meditation retreats in Myanmar (Burma), Nepal, and India as well as numerous retreats in the U.S. He leads retreats and teaches meditation courses nationwide. Brian also has a private practice in Somatic Experiencing, which is a naturalistic approach to healing trauma.
bruni dávila
bruni dávila has practiced Insight Meditation and Zen since 1995. She/they has been guided and supported by many wonderful teachers and sanghas, her ancestors of Puerto Rican heritage, the natural world and all her relations. bruni teaches metta and vipassana retreats in English and Spanish. Through the Sati Center for Buddhist Studies, bruni completed the Chaplaincy, the Eco-Chaplaincy, the Dharma Mentoring, and the Local Dharma Leaders Training Programs. She was trained and authorized to teach by the Insight Meditation Society (IMS). bruni is drawn to and inspired by long retreat practice and Dharma in daily life.
Carol Cano
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. Carol is Founder and Executive Director of Braided Wisdom, a BIPOC led cross-cultural mindfulness organization. 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…
Carole Melkonian
Carole Melkonian has been practicing meditation for decades; spending four years in residence at Zen Mountain Monastery and 12 years studying closely with Thich Nhat Hanh, helping start his publishing company, Parallax Press. She has attended many three-month Winter Retreats at monasteries in the Ajahn Chah lineage in the UK and dedicated all of 2015 to practicing meditation at monasteries. She is a graduate of the Spirit Rock/IMS Community Dharma Leader Program. She draws inspiration most deeply from the nuns and monks in the Forest Tradition of Ajahn Chah, is especially drawn to the teachings of Ajahn Sucitto and former…
Chas DiCapua
Chas has been practicing mindfulness and Buddhist meditation, primarily in the Early Buddhist school, for over 30 years, including over two years of combined time in silent, intensive retreat. He has trained with Burmese meditation masters, western monastics of the Thai Forest tradition and senior western Vipassana teachers. In 2003 Chas was invited to be the Resident Teacher at the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, MA where he continues to serve in that role. Chas is a graduate of the four year Insight Meditation Society (IMS) / Spirit Rock Teacher Training Program led by Jack Kornfield, Joseph Goldstein and others.…
Cheryl Slean
Cheryl Slean has been practicing Insight meditation intensively since 1995 and has taught classes and retreats worldwide for 15 years in both spiritual and secular settings. Cheryl is also a writer, filmmaker and climate advocate, and is manager of Sustainability and Storytelling at Netflix.
Chris Benitez (Assistant)
Chris has been practicing meditation since 2012. He has participated in numerous meditation retreats in the Theravada and Zen traditions, including month-long retreats at Spirit Rock and the Forest Refuge at IMS. Chris is a co-founder and teacher at Misfit Sangha, a Buddhist Community in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Chris was previously a member of the Spiritual Friends Facilitators group at the Albuquerque Insight Meditation Community, and has taught at various dharma centers in the Southwest and the Southeast. Chris regularly leads daylong retreats and outdoor camping retreats in Colorado and Southern Utah. He is primarily interested in the intersection between…
Chris Germer, PhD
Chris Germer, PhD is a clinical psychologist and lecturer on psychiatry (part-time) at Harvard Medical School. He co-developed the Mindful Self-Compassion (MSC) program with Kristin Neff in 2010 and they wrote three books: “The Mindful Self-Compassion Workbook”, “Mindful Self-Compassion for Burnout”, and “Teaching the Mindful Self-Compassion Program”. MSC has been taught to over 250,000 people worldwide. Dr. Germer is also the author of “The Mindful Path to Self-Compassion” and he co-edited two influential volumes on therapy: “Mindfulness and Psychotherapy,” and “Wisdom and Compassion in Psychotherapy”. Dr. Germer lectures and leads workshops internationally and he has a small psychotherapy practice in…
Dave Smith
Dave Smith is an internationally recognized Buddhist meditation teacher, addiction treatment specialist, and published author. His background is rooted in the Insight Meditation tradition and he was empowered to teach through the Against the Stream Buddhist Meditation Society. He has extensive experience bringing meditative interventions into jails, prisons, youth detention centers and addiction treatment facilities. Dave teaches residential meditation retreats and classes, provides trainings and consulting in both secular and Buddhist contexts, and works with students through his meditation mentoring program. He recently founded the Secular Dharma Foundation and lives in Paonia, Colorado.
Dawn Mauricio
Dawn Mauricio (she/her), a Filipina-Canadian, has been practicing and studying Insight Meditation since 2005. She graduated from the first teacher development group of True North Insight, and Spirit Rock’s Mindfulness Yoga and Meditation Training, Dedicated Practitioners’ Program, and 4-year Retreat Teacher Training. Subsequently, Dawn co-led two 2-year Dharma training programs for True North Insight and Sacred Mountain Sangha, and currently co-leads the 8-month Spirit Rock Program Living the Dharma. She teaches with a playful, dynamic, and heartfelt approach people of color and folks of all backgrounds. Dawn teaches in Canada and the US for Spirit Rock, True North Insight, Sacred…
Devin Berry
Devin has been practicing Buddhist meditation and mindfulness since 1999. His practice is primarily informed by the metta and vipassana teachings of the Insight Meditation tradition. This also includes close to four years of combined time in silent, intensive retreat. Devin is committed to the personal and collective liberation of marginalized communities knowing that through the integration of reflection and insight, clarity and wisdom give rise to wise action. Devin regularly teaches at Spirit Rock and Insight Meditation Society (IMS) where he serves as a guiding teacher. He also teaches for Sounds True and at various sanghas and centers nationally.
Elvina Charley (Diné)
Elvina Charley, Ed.S. is Diné (Navajo) school psychologist practitioner and integrates mindfulness as a part of serving children and youth. Charley has been practicing mindfulness since 2013, introduced to her by Bonnie Duran, Ph.D. as a way to heal from historical trauma. She found parallels between her Diné philosophy of life – Sa’ah naaghái bik’eh hózhóón and Buddhism. Charley continues to cultivate her practice through people of color retreat programs through the Insight Meditation Society and Vallecitos Mountain Retreat Center. Charley received training through Mindful Schools to bring back mindfulness to reservation schools.
Erin Treat
Erin Treat lives in Durango, CO and has been practicing Buddhist meditation for nearly 30 years. In addition to serving as the Guiding Teacher of Vallecitos Mountain Retreat Center since 2013, she teaches regularly at Spirit Rock and the Insight Meditation Society. She served for 20 years in leadership on the Teaching Council of the Durango Dharma Center. Erin teaches the practical and the profound, from a heart grounded in respect for mystery and the many faces of awakening. Her approach to sharing the dharma is influenced by her ongoing experience as a student of the Diamond Approach by A.H. Almaas and by Thanissara…
Eugene Cash
Eugene is the founding teacher of San Francisco Insight. He is a senior teacher on the Spirit Rock teacher council. Eugene’s teaching is influenced by Theravada, Zen and Tibetan practice. He is also a Diamond Approach teacher. He’s passionate about practicing 24/7, supporting awareness, investigation, and realization in daily life.
JD Doyle
JD Doyle (they/them) sangha home is the East Bay Meditation Center where they served as Core Teacher, co-founder of the Alphabet (LGBTQIA+) Sangha, and board member. In addition, they offer the Dharma at many meditation centers in the Unites States and Canada. They graduated from Spirit Rock Meditation Center’s Teacher Training, the Community Dharma Leader training, and the Dedicated Practitioner Program. JD began studying and practicing Buddhism in 1995 in New Mexico, and continued at Insight Meditation Society, Spirit Rock as well as in Thailand and Burma. They taught environmental education for many years and worked as a public school…
Jennifer Berezan
Jennifer Berezan is a unique blend of singer/songwriter, producer, and activist. Over the course of ten albums, she has developed and explored recurring themes with a rare wisdom. Her lifelong involvement in environmental, women’s, and other justice movements as well as an interest in Buddhism and earth-based spirituality are at the heart of her writing. Her intense and personal approach to music as a transforming experience has brought her strong rapport with audiences from small clubs to large festivals throughout North America and Europe. Her ground breaking work as a recording artist and teacher has established her as a leading…
Jesse Maceo Vega-Frey
Jesse Maceo Vega-Frey’s teaching aims to inspire the skills, determination, and faith necessary to realize the deepest human freedom. He is a student of Michele McDonald and his approach is rooted in the tradition of Mahasi Sayadaw of Burma. As a teacher of Vipassana (insight) meditation within the broader context of Theravada Buddhism his teaching encourages an exploration of the relationship between ethics, insight, and action. Perpetually intrigued by the dynamics between inner and outer change, Jesse is a writer of numerous essays and author of Insurgent Heart: A Vipassana Manual for the Guerrilla Yogi. Links to his writing can be…
JoAnna Hardy
JoAnna has been exploring and practicing multiple traditions since 1999. In 2005, her focus landed on Buddhism and Vipassana meditation. Helping communities and individuals that don’t typically have access to traditional dharma settings, social/racial justice, and building multicultural community are top on her list of priorities. She currently has weekly drops as a meditation trainer on the Apple Fitness Plus App and is on faculty teaching Mindfulness to undergraduates at USC (University of Southern California). She is an empowered teacher in the Spirit Rock, IMS lineage. For more information, visit www.joannahardy.org.
Kirsten Rudestam
Kirsten Rudestam works as an environmental educator, wilderness guide, and meditation teacher. She holds a Ph.D. in environmental sociology from the University of California, Santa Cruz, where she studied water policy and management, feminist political ecology, and environmental justice. Deeply devoted to the intersection of spiritual practice, sacred activism, and nature connection, she began practicing meditation in 1997 and was invited to teach in the Theravadan tradition in 2005. In 2017 she co-founded and remains core faculty of the Sati Center’s Buddhist Eco-Chaplaincy training program.
Kristine Marie Hill
Kristine Marie Hill is a member of the Beaver Clan, Tuscarora Nation, Haudenosaunee confederacy. She worked in education while raising four children on the Tuscarora Reservation, near Niagara Falls, for 20 years. Recently, she founded Collective Wisdoms, wherein she works as an indigenous peacemaker and restorative practitioner with national and international spiritual, religious, educational, and corporate institutions. She is an active member of the Ahimsa Collected and The Hive. She often participates in national and international gatherings of indigenous peoples, and enjoys sharing stories with children. She is involved with initiatives to support the return of indigenous peoples to their…
Kuan Luo (Trainee)
Kuan Luo (she/her) is a Chinese-American mindfulness and meditation teacher and outdoor educator. She believes spiritual awakening and psychological maturity need each other to fully support healing and transformation in this time of unprecedented change. She guides and facilitates the development of awareness and interpersonal skills in groups and with individuals. She teaches online as well as out-of-doors, and is an apprentice of nature, dharma, and ancestral living skills.
Leslie Booker
Booker brings her heart and wisdom to the intersection of Dharma, Embodied Wisdom, and Liberation. Using this framework, she supports folks in creating a culture of belonging through her teaching and writing on changing the paradigm of self and community care. She shares her offering widely as a university lecturer, public speaker, and Buddhist philosophy and meditation teacher. Booker worked as the Director of Teacher Trainings for Lineage Project in NYC where she shared the practices of yoga and mindfulness with incarcerated and system-involved youth for over a decade. She also facilitated a Mindfulness and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy intervention with…
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 graduated from Spirit Rock’s four-year Teacher Training in 2020. Louije has taught in various dharma centers locally and across the US. They were 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, political, and…
Mark Coleman
Mark is a life-long nature lover and is passionate about guiding people into the beauty of meditation and nature. He has led wilderness nature retreats for over 20 years worldwide. Through his organization Awake in the Wild Mark leads yearlong nature meditation teacher trainings in the US and Europe. Mark has trained extensively in the Buddhist tradition, both in the Insight Meditation and in the Dzogchen traditions. He is a senior teacher at Spirit Rock Meditation Center and has taught insight meditation retreats since 1997. Co-founder of the Mindfulness Training Institute, Mark also leads yearlong professional mindfulness teacher trainings in Europe…
Michele McDonald
Michele McDonald has taught Insight meditation since 1982 and teaches extensively throughout the United States, Canada, Burma, and various locations around the world. Michele has been a quiet pioneer having being the first woman to teach a formal retreat in Burma, side-by-side with a senior monastic figure, Sayadaw U Lakkhana, Abbot of Kyaswa Monastery. Having worked with a wide range of Asian and Western teachers, Michele is most inspired by her practice with Dipa Ma and Sayadaw U Pandita and more recently in Burma with the Mya Taung Sayadaw. She appreciates teaching at many levels of practice and has enjoyed…
Pamela Weiss
Pamela Weiss is a Buddhist teacher in two traditions—Zen and Theravada. After living as a monastic at Tassajara Zen Mountain Monastery for five years, she completed comprehensive training through Spirit Rock Meditation Center to become an Insight meditation teacher. She teaches at Spirit Rock, San Francisco Zen Center and Tassajara, and is a guiding teacher at San Francisco Insight. Pamela is a pioneer in bringing Buddhist principles and practices into the workplace, and is the author of “A Bigger Sky: Awakening a Fierce Feminine Buddhism”. She lives in San Francisco with her husband, Eugene, and little dog, Grover.
Pascal Auclair
Pascal Auclair has been immersed in Buddhist practice and study since 1997, sitting retreats in Asia and America with revered monastics and lay teachers. He has been mentored by Joseph Goldstein and Jack Kornfield at the Insight Meditation Society (IMS) in Massachusetts and Spirit Rock Meditation Center in California, where he teaches retreats. Pascal teaches in North America and in Europe. He is a co-founder of True North Insight in Canada and he also teaches at the university in Montreal. His depth of insight, classical training, and creative expression all combine in a wise and compassionate presence. In addition, his…
Peter Williams
Peter Williams has practiced meditation for 31 years years, primarily in the Theravada Buddhist tradition, with some practice in the Tibetan tradition. He has done more than 41 months of silent retreat. He has taught insight meditation (mindfulness) since 2003 and has completed the Community Dharma Leader training through Spirit Rock Meditation Center. His primary teachers have been Joseph Goldstein, Michelle McDonald, and Guy Armstrong. Peter leads meditation retreats and dedicated practice groups based out of Longmont, CO. He has taught mindfulness to diverse audiences, from juvenile justices to school teachers to environmentalists. He is one of the founders of…
René Rivera
René Rivera is a meditation teacher, restorative justice facilitator, and leader, 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, at the East Bay Meditation Center and other meditation centers. He has co-led the first residential meditation retreats for transgender, nonbinary and gender expansive people. René is a restorative justice facilitator for the Ahimsa Collective, working to heal sexual and gender based violence.
Robin Craig
Robin brings her understanding of the physiology of resilience to her meditation and counseling practices, and supports a joyful exploration of the deep spirituality and interconnection that is ours by nature. She is a Certified Meditation Teacher in The Mind Illuminated tradition, which is rooted in Theravadan and Tibetan Karma Kagyu traditions with lineage to the Venerable Ananda Bodhi. She is also a Licensed Professional Counselor and on the Faculty of Organic Intelligence®.
Ron Siegel, PsyD
Dr. Ronald D. Siegel is Assistant Professor of Psychology, part time, Harvard Medical School; serves on the Board of Directors and faculty, Institute for Meditation and Psychotherapy; is author of The Extraordinary Gift of Being Ordinary: Finding Happiness Right Where You Are; The Mindfulness Solution: Everyday Practices for Everyday Problems, coauthor of Sitting Together: Essential Skills for Mindfulness-Based Psychotherapy and Back Sense; coeditor of Mindfulness and Psychotherapy and Wisdom and Compassion in Psychotherapy: Deepening Mindfulness in Clinical Practice; and professor for The Science of Mindfulness: A Research-Based Path to Well-Being produced by The Great Courses. He is also a regular…
Sara Jolena Wolcott
Reverend Sara Jolena Wolcott, M.Div, is an eco-spiritual minister building people’s capacity to collectively reMember our ecological familial, national, and global origin stories to enable more harmonious futures. She is the founder of Sequoia Samanvaya, a eco-theology learning initiative grounded in ongoing work of untangling ourselves from the Doctrine of the Discovery/decoding the ‘domination code’. Wolcott’s ministry entails engaging with embodied time as part of attending to the ever-Present movements of Spirit. Her ministry entails supporting individual and collective healing, spiritual direction, and crafting practical tools, learning journeys, legacies, and ceremonies for our times. Descendent of some of the Founding…
Shelly Graf
Shelly Graf (they/them) has been practicing in the Insight Meditation tradition since 2003. They are a graduate of Insight Meditation Society’s four-year teacher training program and lead residential retreats nationally. Shelly is immensely grateful for all of the teachers and guides, including Mark Nunberg, Kamala Masters, and Steve Armstrong, who have so generously shared the Buddha’s teachings with them and others over the years. Shelly currently serves alongside Mark Nunberg as a Guiding Teacher for Common Ground Meditation Center in Minneapolis, MN. Shelly has an interest in integrating the teachings of the Buddha as deeply as possible into the fabric…
Solwazi Johnson
Solwazi has been practicing and teaching Buddhism and mindfulness meditation for over 20 years, with a focus on Vipassana since 2003. He has studied/practiced in Thailand, Burma, India, and South Africa. He is certified as a Community Dharma Leader by Jack Kornfield and Spirit Rock Meditation Center and a graduate of the four-year Spirit Rock Teacher Training Program. Solwazi worked for over 20 years as a health educator and national trainer for the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. He leads mindfulness meditation classes and retreats in the Denver metropolitan area. He…
Sumedha
Sumedha (Hannah Bagshaw) (she/her) became interested in spiritual practice in her teens. After studying Comparative Religion at university, she practiced as a novice and nun for ten years in the Forest Tradition of Ajahn Chah (based in the UK and for a short time in the US). After disrobing in 2010, she co-managed Dharmagiri Hermitage for a year and then co-founded Ekuthuleni retreat place in France, bringing together ecology, simple living and meditation. In 2020 she moved on from Ekuthuleni, but remains resident in France. Sumedha is passionate about how we can reconnect with our deeper being through learning from…
Susan Morgan, MSN, RN, CS
Susan Morgan, CNS is a psychotherapist in Cambridge, MA. She is an Advisory Board and faculty member of the Institute for Meditation and Psychotherapy and contributing author to “Mindfulness and Psychotherapy”. Susan’s longstanding meditation practice includes a four-year meditation retreat at the Forest Refuge, along with yearly three months of retreat. For 25 years she has been leading retreats for caregivers. Since the pandemic, she and her partner Bill have led The Daily Sit, a LIVE daily online practice group offering short Dharma Talks, guided meditations and community connection tailored to the householder life. She identifies as a lay-monastic, and…
Vance Pryor
Vance Pryor, Psy.D., began insight meditation in 1998. He has been deeply influenced by the teachings of Mahasi Sayadaw and Sayadaw U Tejaniya. His training to become a teacher has been supported by the mentorship of Steve Armstrong and Kamala Masters. He is a recent graduate of IMS’s 2017-2021 Teacher Training Program.
Victoria Cary
Victoria Cary has been practicing Insight Meditation and studying the Dharma since 2006. In 2017 she completed Spirit Rock’s Community Dharma Leader program and went on to become a fully empowered Dharma Teacher. In 2016 she co-founded the San Francisco People of Color Insight Sangha and continues as one of the core teachers. She is a San Francisco Bay Area Native. She left her workplace of 20 years in 2017 to deepen into the Dharma. Since then she has spent time in and out of intensive silent meditation practice, including a 3-month retreat at IMS, 6-week amd 3-month retreats at…
Yong Oh
Yong is a core teacher at the Durango Dharma Center and Sacred Mountain Sangha, and is also a visiting teacher for other community centers across North America. He also teaches retreats at the Insight Meditation Society, Spirit Rock Meditation Center and Big Bear 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, and the Sacred Mountain Sangha 2-year Dharmapala training, taught by his primary teachers Kittisaro and Thanissara. He is also a graduate of the 2-year Nature Dharma Teacher Training and is a member…