Retreat Teachers & Mentors - Inward Bound Mindfulness Education

We are a growing community of trained professionals, dedicated to empowering teens and young adults in a supportive environment.

iBme teachers and mentors are professionals in the areas of mindfulness, health, and education and bring years of personal mindfulness practice to their roles, modeling authenticity, compassion, and respect. Find out more about our teachers and mentors below.

If you are interested in learning more about how to become an iBme mentor on a teen retreat, please complete our mentor application form.

Teachers

Marvin G. Belzer

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.

Jack Blackfelt

Jack Blackfelt is an iBme retreat teacher living in Kensington, Maryland. Jack has lived a spiritual practice rooted in forgiveness, service and constant self-inquiry since 2004. He enjoys a self-taught meditation life, with an emphasis on bringing awareness and skillful living to all aspects off the cushion. He likes to organize low-cost daylong meditation retreats and silent meditative bicycle rides and walking meditation events. He led the weekly Washington DC Dharma Punx meditation fellowship for 5years, before turning it over into a peer-led practice group that he now facilitates once a month. Jack has staffed and taught multiple iBme teen retreats since 2009, incorporating mindfulness with sports and play in his workshops. He brings his experience with addiction and mindful consumption to them as well, having participated in teen/young peoples’ 12-step recovery groups. He also co-facilitates the IMCW bi-weekly teen sangha in Bethesda since 2012.

Enrique Collazo

Enrique Collazo has been practicing Meditation since 2005. In 2009, he started staffing teen retreats and has offered classes as a facilitator and meditation instructor for youth and adults in Los Angeles and the Bay Area. He’s currently teaching in the Bay Area with youth as mindfulness instructor with the Mind Body Awareness Project. Enrique shares the practice in a straightforward and practical manner and loves working with youth and supporting their transformation.

Chris Crotty

Chris Crotty, M.A. has practiced meditation since 1998, sitting retreat annually with teachers from the US and Asia. As an adjunct professor in alternative medicine and the founder of Contemplative Wellness & Education, his teaching and individual mentoring focuses on the role of Hatha yoga and mindfulness in physical and emotional health. Chris is trained in Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction (MBSR), the Path of Freedom Facilitator Training (PoF) through Prison Mindfulness Institute, and the Mindful School’s training for the integration of mindfulness in education, and has completed the Integrated Study & Practice Program (ISPP) at Barre Center for Buddhist Studies. Chris developed Hatha-Dharma Yoga Teacher Training and is a volunteer care-provider with Hospice. www.contemplativewellness.org

Chas DiCapua

Chas DiCapua started practicing meditation in the Soto Zen tradition in 1989. He sat his first Vipassana retreat at IMS in 1995. Since then he has practiced in both the US and Asia. A recent graduate of the Spirit Rock/IMS Teacher Training Program, Chas is currently the Resident Teacher at the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts. He also teaches regularly at various sitting groups and centers.

Jean Esther

Jean Esther, MSW, began her formal mindfulness meditation training in 1975. Jean’s mindfulness teaching is informed by over 31 years of practice as a psychotherapist integrating spiritual inquiry with psychological understanding. Jean is a core teacher for the annual Teen Retreat at IMS, which she has served since 1999. She is a senior teacher at Insight Meditation Center of Pioneer Valley in Easthampton, MA, a Continuing Ed faculty in the Smith College School of Social Work and has a private psychotherapy practice in Northampton, MA.

Cara Lai FitzGibbon

Cara Lai FitzGibbon discovered mindfulness during her years as an outdoor educator in New England. She has since attended numerous long-term meditation retreats which were powerfully transformative for her. Her mindfulness practice was the impetus for her move towards the mental health field, and now she works as a mindfulness-based psychotherapist in Burlington, Vermont. In 2016 she completed Facilitator II training with Against the Stream, and is currently enrolled in a 4 year teacher training at Spirit Rock Meditation Center in California. She loves working with teens, and is a regular volunteer and retreat staff member with iBme. iBme combines all of her passions—meditation, youth, the outdoors, community, and kindness; into one beautiful package, and she is honored to be a part of it all.

JoAnna Harper

JoAnna Harper has been exploring and practicing multiple traditions since 1999. In 2005, her focus landed on Buddhism and Vipassana meditation, which is the premise for most of her current teaching. She teaches; adult and teen weeklong silent retreats, day longs and weekly classes, and works with at risk youth and non at risk youth in institutional and school settings. Helping communities and individuals that don’t typically have access to the traditional dharma settings and building multicultural community is top on her list of priorities. She is a co-guiding teacher at Against the Stream, has been trained in council facilitation with the Ojai Foundation and is an empowered teacher in the Ajahn Chah, Mahasi Sayadaw, Spirit Rock, IMS lineage. She is the grateful mother of CJ and Harris – her main inspirations.

Susie Harrington

Susie Harrington teaches meditation nationwide and is the guiding teacher for Desert Dharma, which serves many communities in the Southwest near her home in Moab, Utah. She has trained in the Insight tradition since 1989, and in 2005 was invited into teaching by Jack Kornfield, Joseph Goldstein, and Guy Armstrong. She has also received teachings from many others, including Tory Capron, Adyashanti, and Tsoknyi Rinpoche. She often offers retreats outside, believing nature to be a profound teacher, and a gateway to our true self. Her teaching is deeply grounded in the body and often emphasizes the expression of mindfulness in speech and daily life. Susie brings the skills of inquiry, relational dharma, and the psychological / spiritual interface to her teaching, informed by her ongoing study of the Diamond Approach by A.H.Almaas and as a graduate of Hakomi Therapy (a somatic psychotherapy modality). She offers a two-year intensive program, Dharma in Daily Life, where she delights in mentoring the innate qualities of heart and wisdom in everyday practice. Her practice is rooted in periods of long retreat both indoors and outdoors, which offer nourishment and inspiration for her teaching. She was an outdoor professional for over 30 years, including years as a river guide, mountaineering guide, and backcountry ranger, and now finds her greatest delight in sharing her love of the dharma and the natural world.

Joe Klein

Joe Klein, LPC, CSAC, is a founder of iBme. Joe holds a vision of a new paradigm in youth development and education where teens are supported in cultivating their birthright capacities for joy & love, wonder & curiosity, wisdom & inner genius. Joe brings playfulness, Earth connection and whole brain/whole body/whole-heartedness to his work with young people. He teaches graduate courses, retreats and workshops on mindfulness at Radford University and provides mindfulness-infused counseling for adolescents and young adults who struggle with depression, anxiety, trauma, and addictions in Southwest Virginia. In 2014, Joe helped to co-found Springhouse Community School, which fosters connection to self, community and Earth through mentoring and project-based learning for teens in grades 7-12.

Dori Langevin

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.

Kaira Jewel Lingo

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. An ordained nun of 15 years in Thich Nhat Hanh’s Order of Interbeing, she is now a lay Dharma teacher, leading retreats in the U.S., Europe, Asia, Brazil, India and Southern Africa, and offering mindfulness programs for educators and youth in schools. She edited Thich Nhat Hanh’s, ‘Planting Seeds: Practicing Mindfulness with Children’ and helped to start and develop Wake Up Schools, bringing mindfulness to education. She also leads retreats for people of color, activists and artists. She explores the interweaving of art, play, ecology and spiritual practice and is a certified yoga teacher and InterPlay leader. In spring 2015, she was spiritual practitioner in residence at Schumacher College, an ecological college, in the United Kingdom. In addition to her roots in the Zen tradition, she regularly attends the 3-month silent retreat at IMS. She graduated from Stanford University with a B.A. and M.A. in Anthropology and Social Sciences.

Anthony Maes

Anthony “T” Maes was born and raised in the East Bay. He has practiced indfulness meditation since 2003 including many residential retreats. He is an Assistant Teacher for IBME’s week-long teen meditation retreats, where he enjoys leading diversity trainings, mixed-heritage liberation, relational mindfulness, and acrobalance. He has been a leader in Spirit Rock’s family program since 2009 including New Years’ teen retreats, family program daylongs, and teaching the teen mindfulness class series. He also works for Stepping Stones Project as a leader of nature-based rites of passage for pre-teens. “T” graduated from UC Berkeley in 2004, completed the yearlong Commit2Dharma program at East Bay Meditation Center in 2011, and is a graduate of the Heart Mind Curriculum mindfulness teacher training program.

Jessica Morey

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 iBme teen retreats. Before joining iBme, 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.

Caverly Morgan

Caverly Morgan has been practicing meditation since 1995, including eight years as a monk in the Zen tradition. She is the founding director of One House of Peace, (caverlymorgan.org) a nonprofit based in Portland, Oregon, and conducts workshops and retreats around the country. Caverly is currently building the Peace in Schools program, (www.peaceinschools.org) which launched the first for-credit mindfulness programs in two high schools in Portland in 2014. She leads the Peace in Schools teaching team, develops the mindfulness curriculums, and works directly with teens. Caverly brings insight, passion and humor to her transformative work with students of all ages.

Mick Neustadt

Mick Neustadt is a long time mindfulness and meditation practitioner and clinical social worker. As a result of 20 years of personal practice Mick has experienced the profound benefits of mindfulness. He realizes that we have a great capacity to connect deeply with our full selves and others. Through dedicated practice we can transform the way that we relate to ourselves, those closest to us, and the world. With his rich background as a therapist, former school teacher and coach, Mick brings a wide range of skills and dedication to helping teens and adults on their journey of self exploration. Since 2011 he has formally taught mindfulness to teens in schools, on retreats and a weekly group. He has also taught teachers in schools, and teaches a weekly group for adults. Mick has completed numerous trainings for teaching mindfulness to teens and is also a Level 2 iRest Yoga Nidra teacher.

Rod Owens

Rod Owens is an activist, organizer, poet, and authorized Dharma teacher in the Tibetan tradition of Buddhism. He is a core teacher with Natural Dharma Fellowship in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and a third year master of divinity student at Harvard Divinity School where he studies the intersection of Buddhism and social change. Known for his authentic teaching style of self-inquiry and humor, he has appeared in the Buddhist publications Lion’s Roar, Buddhadharma, and Tricycle and has been recognized as one of the emerging leaders of the next generation of Dharma teachers. He is also a co-author of Radical Dharma: Taking Race, Love, and Liberation published by North Atlantic Books which explores race and oppression within American Buddhist communities.

Jose Shinzan Palma

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 iBme. 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.

Devon Rath

Devon 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 has a full time position with San Francisco Unified School district in a public high school teaching mindfulness, facilitating therapeutic groups and doing emotional triage. She also works part time for Mindful Schools teaching adults mindfulness fundamentals. She is passionate about sharing mindfulness and hopes that it may help people find greater peace and happiness.

Daryl Lynn Ross

Daryl Lynn Ross has been engaged in meditation and other contemplative practices for over 40 years, primarily in the Buddhist tradition as well as some contemplative Christian. She has practiced with Tibetan, Insight, and Non-dual teachers. She was a University Chaplain at Concordia University, Montreal for 22 years, offering meditation practices and spiritual mentoring there to students and to the greater Montreal community. She has been leading retreats since 2001. As a co-founder and guiding teacher for True North Insight, Daryl offers weekly sittings, teaches intensive courses for experienced students and delights in offering a wide range of retreats, including introductory. She also has been teaching meditation in a federal prison in Laval for three years. She is known for her clear, gently, compassionate approach which is both accessible and profound.

Tuere Sala

Tuere Sala is a retired prosecuting attorney who has practiced Vipassana meditation for over 25 years. She has been an active member and volunteer at Seattle Insight since 2001. In 2009, she was appointed to be a Local Dharma Leader and has often supported SIMS in unconventional ways such as answering the many letters SIMS receives from practitioners in prison; offering beginning classes at Angeline Women’s shelter and Jubilee House, a women’s transitional house; and facilitating workshops using nonviolent communication (NVC) to support a mindfulness practice.

Tuere believes that urban meditation is the foundation for today’s practitioner’s path to liberation. She is inspired by bringing the Dharma to nontraditional places and is a strong advocate for practitioners living with high stress, past trauma and difficulties sitting still. Her teachings reflect an approach to Dharma that is both easy to follow and understand – making it accessible to everyone.

Tuere has completed extensive trainings including: the 2 Year Spirit Rock/IMS Community Dharma Leader Program; a 1 Year Focusing for Complex Trauma Course which incorporates mindfulness principles with somatic listening and a 1 Year Mindfulness-Based Mind Fitness Training Course (MMFT) which incorporates mindfulness principles within the high stress work environments of first responders. She has sat 300+ days of meditation retreat (including residential, non-residential and day-longs) and has a long history of assisting others in establishing and maintaining a daily practice.

La Sarmiento

La Sarmiento has been practicing meditation and has been a member of IMCW since 1998. La’s practice and approach has been influenced greatly by the teachings of Tara Brach, Pema Chodron, Charlotte Joko Beck, Larry Yang, Eric Kolvig, Michele McDonald, Cheri Maples, Joe Weston, and Ruth King. Since 2005, La has been the guiding teacher/leader of the IMCW Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Questioning (LGBTQ) meditation group and the IMCW People of Color meditation group. La integrates concepts of Respectful Confrontation and Non-violent Communication into their gatherings to create a sacred space for group wisdom to arise. La is a senior retreat/event manager committed to bringing diverse teachers and programs to IMCW and to making mindfulness meditation accessible to all. La has been a body/energyworker in private practice since 1992 and teaches mindfulness-based Reiki classes with their life partner Wendy Taylor in Adams Morgan, DC.

Dawn Scott

Dawn Scott has been practicing meditation and mindfulness since 2008 and now serves as the Family Program Coordinator at Spirit Rock Meditation Center. Dawn coordinates classes, daylongs, benefits, and residential mindfulness retreats in which the practice and teachings of mindful awareness are offered in order to support the development of wisdom and compassion for children, teens, whole families, and the wider community.

Sara Shapouri

Sara Shapouri has been practicing meditation since 2008 and participated in numerous retreats at the Insight Meditation Society, including a 3-month silent retreat. Sara also sits on IMS’ Board of Directors. She graduated from the University of Virginia’s School of Law, with a particular interest in human rights and social justice. Her desire to promote the welfare of children has taken her around the globe, including legal reform advocacy for incarcerated children in Bangladesh, analysis of the plight of child soldiers in Sierra Leone, and a published policy paper on child sexual abuse and exploitation in Iran.

Erin Selover

Erin Selover, MS, MFT is a Somatic Psychotherapist, Meditation Teacher, Rites of Passage Trainer and lover of all things wild and mysterious. In June of 2016 she graduates from a four year Meditation Teacher Training with Spirit Rock Meditation Center and Insight Meditation Society. She was part of the core group of teachers that inspired Inward Bound Mindfulness Education. She lives in Berkeley with her husband, where she enjoys reverie with friends, losing herself in nature, and teaching meditation in her local community. To learn more visit erinselover.com.

Charisse Minerva Spencer

Charisse Minerva Spencer brings to the Mindfulness arena a background in Arts, Science, and Youth Development. She earned a B.S. Degree in Medical Technology from the Medical College of Virginia/VCU. However, her love of the Arts led her to divert her path in order to live her passion for dance and choreography. Later Charisse returned to school to get a Masters in Performance Studies with a concentration in Dance Anthropology from Tisch School of the Arts/New York University. Her eclectic professional experience coupled with more than 30 years of practice in the Soka Gakkai International (SGI) Buddhist organization led to her interest in Mindfulness. Charisse brings a scientific and artistic approach to the field investigating the existence of contemplative practices, its individual and cultural significance, as well as how these practices can be introduced in ways that are broad-based. She has worked with Mindfulness in Schools Project (MiSP), Inward Bound Mindfulness Education (iBme), is Mindfulness Coordinator at Friends School of Virginia Beach, and has done workshops in schools, festivals, corporate offices, detention & treatment centers.

Doug Worthen

Doug Worthen is the Director of Mindfulness Programs at the Middlesex School in Concord, Massachusetts. Since 2010 he has been supporting and educating the Middlesex School community (students, faculty, staff, parents, and alums) in mindfulness. Doug began practicing mindfulness meditation in 1999 as a member of the UVA national championship lacrosse team and has been a dedicated practitioner ever since. Living through two bouts of lymphoma, including a bone marrow transplant in 2007, Doug has experienced firsthand the healing power of mindfulness. Doug has attended several 1-3 month-long mindfulness retreats, a variety of teacher trainings, and is dedicated to supporting other schools in creating full-time mindfulness faculty positions. He regularly staffs iBme retreats and served on the iBme board from 2010–16. You can read about his classes at Middlesex.

Mentors

Beatrice Anderson

Beatrice Anderson, Youth Advocate and Community Educator began her contemplative study and practice in the Spring of 2001. Rooted in the tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh teachings of engaged Buddhism and the Tiep Hein Vietnamese Zen tradition, Beatrice believes “that what happens to one of us, happens to us all. We are all interconnected, and we are all co-responsible” (Thich Nhat Hanh). As an artist and educator, facilitating learning environments in self discovery and self empowerment for youth of all ages, her 16 years of supporting youth development in New York (upstate and downstate), California, Haiti and Jamaica bring a vision that calls forth social transformation centralizing the voices of the youth in the foreground of one the greatest humanitarian efforts; the liberation of the hearts and minds of us all from our co-created human conditioning. Beatrice is motivated to learn and exchange with teens, other educators, administration, social workers, and families to effectively create spaces that fully acknowledge and embody illuminating practices that recognize the brilliance and wisdom of our future generation(s). Beatrice serves as the co-founder of the Love Circle Sangha, a whole community practicing and studying the dharma in solidarity to uproot and decolonize systems of internal and external oppression. The sangha is a recognized sitting group in the Thich Naht Hanh lineage and shares in community at the Brooklyn Zen Center, in Park Slope Brooklyn.

Sooz Appel

Sooz is returning for her 5th year on the staff for the PNW Teen Mindfulness retreat. Sooz recently retired after 25 years of running a recycling company including driving trucks and processing materials. She and her sweetie live in a warehouse on their Seattle commercial property which they share with 8 small business tenants, three residential tenants, a huge vegetable garden and a tree house. Sooz has been meditating for over 30 years. She strives to balance a mindful and compassionate daily presence with her passion of working for a world of peace and justice for all. She loves to bake, garden, knit, and read poetry. In addition to her volunteer work with teen mindfulness (the summer retreats and a monthly Teen Mindfulness Circle), she offers her time and energy to supporting people in their last weeks of life.

Andrew Archer

Andrew Archer is the Logistics Coordinator for iBme’s Wilderness Programs. In 2008, he received his B.A. in Adventure Education from Prescott College and has since worked for organizations across the U.S. leading wilderness trips for teens. He started practicing mindfulness at iBme’s Wilderness Retreat in 2013. Although new to mindfulness, Andrew has always spent time in wild spaces reflecting and he’s excited to share his connection to wilderness with teens. When he’s not leading backpacking retreats for iBme, he spends his time as a carpenter, climber, artist, and caregiver at his local animal shelter.

Khalila Archer

Khalila Archer, iBme’s Program Director, worked for over a decade as an outdoor educator with extensive experience facilitating groups of teenagers and young adults on multi-day wilderness excursions. She holds a B.A. in Adventure-based Environmental Education from Prescott College and has worked for a variety of educational programs throughout the United States. Introduced to mindfulness meditation at a teen retreat when she was 16 years old, Khalila has cultivated a daily practice and endeavors to sit yearly retreats. Through blending her passions of community engagement, meditation, and exploration of the natural world, she has found supporting iBme’s transformative programs to be deeply satisfying.

Gabriel Baldwin

Gabriel attended his first teen retreat as a fifteen year old at Insight Meditation Society (IMS). As a depressed and bullied teen, learning mindfulness was invaluable to overcoming these challenges. Attending the teen retreat each summer was the highlight of his year and he continued going until he maxed out the age limit at 19. In 2008 he started going back as a staff person and has now participated in 20+ teen retreats with iBme and IMS. After transitioning out of a successful career as an engineer and consultant in the field of energy efficiency and green construction during his twenties, he now teaches mindfulness in public schools and after school programs in the Greater Boston Area. He has trained with Mindful Schools and Mindfulness in Schools Project and attends regular silent retreats and weekly sits at local meditation centers and can be seen in parks around Boston doing Primal Practice, a playful embodied movement practice that draws from multiple yoga, martial, meditation, and movement disciplines.

John Braman

John Braman has been incorporating contemplative practices into youth leadership development since 1980. He maintains this commitment with Braman Group International. John is the past executive director of Upaya Zen Center, where he co-taught the 10-day wilderness quest. In ten years as director of the Bear Canyon Project at Albuquerque Academy, he led hundreds of wilderness solos for teens, while teaching tracking, ecology and natural history. In 1983, John created meditation and wilderness solo programs at the Lama Foundation for the Global Youth Leadership Institute, which he founded. Recently, he created a leadership development program at United World College that incorporates yoga and mindfulness. He is a magna cum laude graduate of Brown University, and holds a masters degree in educational administration from Teachers College at Columbia University.

Heather Brown

Heather Brown has served as the Retreat Manager for the Virginia New Year’s and Summer teen retreats since 2012. Heather started attending iBme teen retreats in the summer of 2008 as a teen. Since then, she has attended a 10-day silent meditation retreat at Spirit Rock Meditation Center. Heather is devoted to supporting teens learn the practice of mindfulness.

Jozen Tamori Gibson

joe-zen / tah-moe-dee / gib-son

Jozen Tamori Gibson (he, his, they, them) began formal meditation practice in 2004 through Zen while living in Japan joined by a Theravada practice in 2010. Currently, Jozen is the Director of Community and Youth Engagement with the Brooklyn Zen Center (BZC), where he also serves as co-facilitator for the BZC People of Color sangha, is a member of the center’s male identified sangha engaged in Undoing Patriarchy and Unveiling the Sacred Masculine, and Program Director for the Awake Youth Project. With certifications in Mindfulness Facilitation through the Mindful Awareness Research Center at the UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior and in 200-Hour Yoga and Wellness with Breathe for Change (RYS), Jozen lives to provide and hold space through mind-heart-body practices for all beings to nourish health, engaged antioppression, and liberation. In 2017 he enters into the Insight Meditation Society – Insight Retreat Center Dharma Teacher Training program. Jozen shares his path honoring the wisdom of all his teachers, highlighting his mother, Akimi, and his dharma root teacher, Pamela Weiss.

Bruce Gill

Bruce Gill is a partner with Inter-Change Consultants. His areas of focus include Organizational Development, leadership development, diversity/inclusion, social-emotional learning and training. Bruce has worked with a broad range of organizations as a diversity consultant. His client work includes American Express, National Institutes of Health, Ernst & Young, and Lucent Technologies. Some of his specific work includes issues pertaining to cross-cultural communication and senior leadership coaching.

David Hart

David Hart, iBme’s Director of Community Engagement, has over 20 years of experience in the areas of education, media, technology, and the arts. He completed his graduate work in Art and Art Education from Teacher’s College of Columbia University, focusing on collaborative artmaking. After growing up in Los Angeles and living in New York, David became interested in mindfulness and meditation as ways to counter the stresses of urban life and as a way to build community, authentic connection, and creative expression. He previously volunteered with the Awake Youth Project in Brooklyn and completed The Interdependence Project’s Meditation Teacher Training program, and regularly volunteers at iBme retreats and events. He is thrilled to be at iBme on a daily basis, helping connect people to the transformative programs being offered.

Wendy Hasenkamp, PhD

Wendy Hasenkamp, PhD, currently serves as Science Director at the Mind & Life Institute. Wendy holds a PhD in Neuroscience from Emory University, where her graduate and early postdoctoral training centered around understanding the pathology of schizophrenia, utilizing techniques ranging from single-cell gene expression to psychophysiology, and from cognitive testing to neuroimaging. More recently, growing out of her personal interest in contemplative practice, she used brain imaging to investigate the neural correlates of dynamic cognitive states that occur during focused attention meditation. In her time at Emory, Wendy was central in the development of the Emory Collaborative for Contemplative Studies, organizing an interdisciplinary seminar focused on exploring the application of contemplative practices in our modern society. She also has been involved in developing neuroscience curriculum and teaching Tibetan monastics in India through the Emory-Tibet Science Initiative since 2009; she has taught summer sessions in Dharamsala for two years and is co-author and editor of several neuroscience textbooks developed through this program. Wendy currently teaches contemplative neuroscience for Lesley University’s Masters Program in Mindfulness Studies, and is also the editor of the forthcoming book on the 2013 Mind and Life dialogue with the Dalai Lama in Mundgod, India.

Elise Hoblitzelle

Elise, LMHC, M Ed, has been practicing mindfulness since 2001. Currently, she is employed at Concord Academy as a student support counselor and educator. In addition to counseling individual students, she teaches two wellness classes, and offers Mindfulness Meditation to faculty, staff and students. Her aim is to support others in deepening their inner resources through the skillful use of various counseling modalities, such as Internal Family Systems, Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy and trauma informed body work. She enjoys working with clients to promote healing and improved well-being by enhancing their self-awareness and developing tools to effectively face challenges in their lives.

In addition to her work at Concord Academy, she has served as both a volunteer and a consultant with various schools and organizations. This includes staffing and mentoring at meditation retreats with Inward Bound Mindfulness Education, running professional development workshops and teaching sexuality education at area schools.

Fiona Jensen

Fiona Jensen is the Founder and President of a youth and mindfulness non-profit organization, Calmer Choice, which offers mindfulness courses in high schools in the Cape Cod area of Massachusetts. Calmer Choice’s programs have been informed by the work of renowned Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn, founder of the University of Massachusetts Medical Center’s Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) Program, widely acclaimed and studied for its success in mitigating stress, pain and anxiety for the past thirty years. Calmer Choice’s programs include components which specifically address the Social and Emotional Health strand of the Massachusetts Curriculum Framework for Comprehensive Health. Fiona is graduate of Tufts University and is an Occupational Therapist for the Visiting Nurse Association of Cape Cod.

Emily Morrison

Emily (or Em to those who know her) 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.

Jylani Ma'at

As a seasoned educator, Jylani has taught children and adults across the U.S. and abroad. Her background as a progressive, public and private school teacher, in both challenged and affluent school communities, allows her a unique perspective on the diverse experiences of children and the adults that support them. She currently works with youth involved with the juvenile justice system and is particularly interested in the integration of mindfulness, wellness practices, social justice and arts education in urban and underserved communities. She specializes in creating culturally relevant lessons supported by strategies for wellness related to inner and outer peace.

Jylani’s mindfulness journey began as a therapeutic way to deal with the many difficulties and stresses she faced as a low income, single mother of two, in Brooklyn, NY. The salvation of her meditation and yoga practice helped her to find the strength to change careers and realize a fabulous sense of peace for her family. From that point, Jylani redirected her energy toward the mindful education of children and families, community outreach and culturally-relevant wellness practices. The practice peace project, a mindfulness in education + lifestyle movement, was born from this space of love, peace and intention.

Tanzanite Msola

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 Mindfulness Education (iBme) 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 iBme family.

Bruce Neustadter

Bruce Neustadter currently teaches mindfulness to students, teachers and school leaders. He is deeply committed to teaching kindness and compassion as core human values. Bruce is currently implementing a district wide mindfulness program for Santa Cruz City Schools. He has spent the last 20 years working at Delta Charter High School where he was instrumental in creating a social/emotion program for the school. Bruce also has created a school wide mindfulness program for students and teachers that is now integral part of the school environment. He has over 35 years of experience working with youth and is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. Bruce also maintains a private practice in Santa Cruz, California.

Mark Roberts

Mark Roberts, iBme UK’s Managing Director, has worked in both public and private sector organizations for 30 years—a diverse career that has spanned from managing international teams in the field of inward investment to multi-disciplinary teams in delivering capital investment projects. With a demonstrated track record in project management, budget control, contract negotiation and organizational development, he discovered the benefits of meditation 10 years ago as a way of being with the stress of working life and went on to study at the Centre for Mindfulness Research and Practice at Bangor University. He is currently completing his Masters in Mindfulness Based Approaches, with a focus on the integrity of mindfulness teaching in the workplace. As an advocate of the role that mindfulness can play in coping with stress and building authentic leadership, he is passionate about developing the iBme programm in the UK.

Jason Ryterband

Hi, I’m Jason. When I found meditation in 2008, I was lonely and socially disconnected. My mind was anxious and judgmental. I was afraid to trust myself in my career, and I was afraid to be myself in front of others. Meditation provided a temporary escape from my chaotic thinking and inhibited way of being, but integrating it into my day-to-day life was not a straightforward task. I set out to build a bridge between the internal work of meditation and the external world of relationships, personal and professional. This is what I teach.

Drawing from modern psychology, neuroscience, secular mindfulness and traditional Buddhist insight meditation, this system can help you understand your conditioning, improve your relationship with your emotions, and free you up to be more authentic. It can also provide deep insights about the human experience. If this method sounds relevant to you, come give it a try! Sign up for free guided meditations and a free one-on-one mentoring session at my website, www.insightmeditationsupport.org. I look forward to meeting you.

Lawrence Schuessler

Lawrence Schuessler has spent the past 15 years guiding and instructing people in wild places all over the west. He has worked for various outdoor education organizations such as Prescott College, the Eagle Rock School, the Dunn School, Outward Bound and Rubicon Outdoors. Currently he is the Associate Program Director for Outward Bound California in their Joshua Tree location.Lawrence has also spent the past 10 years practicing mindfulness meditation and various styles of yoga. Leading wilderness exploration courses, combined with mindfulness, are a way of life for Lawrence and he is grateful to be able to extend his love of the wild to young people and hopefully inspire them to live with passion, a sense of adventure and a respect for nature. Lawrence has spent over 1,000+ days in various wilderness areas all over the world and doesn’t plan on stopping anytime soon.

Jem Shackleford

Originally a secondary school teacher, Jem has been practising meditation for many years and teaching mindfulness for over five. He has personal experience of the effectiveness of mindfulness practice in helping to alleviate stress and improve general wellbeing. After visiting the United States and seeing the impact iBme Retreats have on young people, he was convinced of the need to have iBme Retreats in the UK. Jem delivers a range of mindfulness courses to the general public both privately and in the NHS. He is also Mindfulness Lead at a large rural comprehensive school in north Dorset, helping young people use mindfulness as a way to flourish in their lives. He is also a Mindfulness in Schools Project Trainer Consultant teaching teachers and is registered with the UK Mindfulness-Based Teachers’ Network.

Caitlin Standish

Caitlin Standish began working for iBme in 2015 and has served in a variety of roles including Regional Outreach Coordinator, Retreat Manager, and Wilderness Logistics Coordinator. Caitlin has been working with teens and young adults since 2006, primarily in wilderness settings. She has spent over 300 days in the field leading multi-day backpacking, rock climbing, and sea kayaking courses for organizations including Outward Bound, Open Sky Wilderness Therapy, and Passages Northwest. She has a BA in Psychology from Lewis & Clark College and will earn a certificate in Community Sustainability Management from University of Colorado at Boulder in fall of 2016. A Northern California native, Caitlin was introduced to Buddhism and meditation through childhood visits with her family to Green Gulch Zen Center and Monday Night talks at Spirit Rock as a teenager. She is grateful for the chance to work with iBme and be a part of the magic that is teen and wilderness retreats!

Maggie Steele

Maggie Steele has been practicing mindfulness since 2003 and attributes her profound shift in perspective to the practice she started as a young adult. A licensed school social worker and certified youth life coach, Maggie offers individual coaching and group workshops to teens, mediation services to families, and trainings on trauma informed care to educators. She is the author of How I Got My S!*t Together as well as the #Truth Journal, and shares daily tips for practice at www.mindfultipoftheday.com.

Dan Sutton-Johanson

Daniel Sutton-Johanson has been practicing Vipassana meditation since 2004. The majority of his working life has been working with and alongside vulnerable families, young people or young adults with SEN (special educational needs). Daniel is trained in the Mindful Schools curriculum to deliver mindfulness in educational settings and has been teaching mindfulness in several schools to primary, secondary, and college ages. In May 2014 he founded Southsea Sangha, an open access peer-led Buddhist meditation community which holds weekly meditation groups and runs several social action and community support projects which continue to grow. Daniel is passionate about addressing issues of inclusion, equality, and making the transformative teachings of the dharma and meditation practice accessible to those who may feel excluded through traditional dharma routes. In 2015, he was invited to join the first CDL (Community Dharma Leader) training program to be run in the U.K, which is organized and authorized by the Gaia House Teacher Council, and is mentored and taught by Dharma Teacher Martin Aylward. He is also on the masters training as a person-centered psychotherapist at The Metanoia Institute and has a particular interest in working with young people.

Logan Thompson

Logan lives and works at the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, MA, where he has participated in several months of silent mindfulness retreats. In addition to mentoring for teen retreats with iBme (which he loves!), Logan brings mindfulness into the classroom through his job with Manhattan Prep (test prep). Logan holds an MBA from Vanderbilt University, where he founded the Mindful Leadership Club.

Mark Wax

Mark Wax is deeply grateful to be working with iBeme. 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.

Barnaby Willett

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.