Melissa Morman is a member of the original founding executive team of BHI/BDX (Builders Digital Experience) and currently serves as the company’s CXO (Chief Experience Officer). BHI/BDX, with employees all over the globe, is a consortium of the nation’s largest homebuilders, and its mission is to help builders and product manufacturers with digital transformation. Melissa spends much of her time speaking at conferences and consulting with executives across the nation. As a woman at the highest levels of an industry that has historically been male dominated, Melissa is very focused on ensuring diversity and equality in the work place.
Melissa felt a deep connection with Vallecitos and its mission from the very first visit almost a decade ago. Witnessing the unique transformational experiences of all who connect with Vallecitos, yet realizing the challenges of its rare and beautiful remote location, Melissa’s role is to help ensure Vallecitos’ long-term sustainability and viability.
Prior to BDX, Melissa worked for ClientLogic, as well as R.R. Donnelley & Sons. Melissa received a BS degree in Organizational Communication and MIS, Cum Laude from Ohio University. Melissa also serves on the board of Texas 4000, a non-profit focused on cancer awareness and research, and fulfills its mission through 80 UT students biking from Austin to Alaska each Summer.
Heidi has lived in Santa Fe since 1978 and was honored to join the board of directors in May 2015. She graduated from Colorado College with a degree in photography and is the vice president of a family-run company that specializes in vacation retreats in Akumal, Mexico. Heidi has been involved as a volunteer at Vallecitos Mountain Retreat Center since 2009 and has attended retreats yearly as a retreat manager. She sees the center and its beautiful setting in the Tusas Mountains as the ideal place to uniquely experience the wilderness life in a sacred and safe setting. She is committed to help protect, honor and share the legacy of Vallecitos Mountain Retreat Center, so that people can continue to experience a deeper awareness in this special place for generations to come.
Mary has been a Vipassana practitioner for over twenty years. During that time, she sat intensive retreats at the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts and done month-long self-retreats, both at home and at a remote cabin in the mountains. More recently she completed the thirty-month Community Dharma Leader training through Spirit Rock Meditation Center. For many years, she has taught the “Introduction to Meditation” class at the Santa Fe Vipassana Sangha, where she chairs the education committee.
Mary has always been interested in practicing in nature. She lived for five years in an off-the-grid cabin near Pecos, where she was first introduced to meditation.
Originally from Upstate New York, Jessica has called Durango home for over seventeen years. Before joining Vallecitos, she was an integral part of a local, veteran-owned small business, Chinook Medical Gear, as its chief operating officer.
Jessica has been a yoga practitioner since 1997 and her passion for the tradition eventually led her to the Durango Dharma Center where she has been a member since 2007. She served on the board of directors for nearly 5 years, including the role of board president. An avid traveler and lifelong learner, her practice has taken her to places like India, Belize, Costa Rica, Telluride and others. Vallecitos Mountain Retreat Center offers a bridge for her to further connect her work and her practice, creating a wonderful experience for herself and others centered around heart and nature.
Jessica is a graduate of West Virginia University School of Business and Economics where she competed as a Division I swimmer. Jessica, her daughter Rayna, and their dog Bodhi enjoy being outdoors, cooking, reading and playing.
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 and Kittisaro’s Dharmapala Training, designed to bring forth an embodied bodhisattva ideal within the lineage of Theravada Buddhism. Erin enjoys working with small groups of committed students over time and regularly offers classes, retreats, and mentoring to students from around the country.
Erin is happiest dancing, hiking, cooking, and being in the mountains and rivers she calls home.
Erin Sibley Doerwald, LCSW, CMT-P is a psychotherapist, mindfulness facilitator and program developer based in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Vallecitos Mountain Retreat Center first called to her as a place of self-care and nourishment during the off-season from serving as the Program Director for The Sky Center of the New Mexico Suicide Intervention Project. Her intention as a board member is to support the land, the values, and the mission of this extraordinary organization.
In addition to her supervisory work at The Sky Center serving youth and families, she also sees clients in her private practice, Hello Wellness Therapy. She is an adjunct professor at the Facundo Valdez School of Social Work at New Mexico Highlands University. Erin is a UCLA Affiliated Mindful Awareness Practices Teacher and a certified mindfulness teacher with the International Mindfulness Teachers Association. Her clinical perspective is founded upon family systems therapy and the field of interpersonal neurobiology. Doerwald offers an experiential and research-informed lens on how well-being is connected to ecological systems and practices that have been shown to support resilience in behavioral health. She is especially interested in the intersections of trauma-sensitivity, contemplative practices, and social justice.
