Teachers

Tony Bernhard is a Buddhist chaplain and teacher. He hosts study groups in Davis and has been teaching regularly for dharma groups around the bay area and central valley for over 25 years. Until the pandemic, he worked as a mental health counselor and chaplain for inmates at Folsom Prison and spent over 20 years with the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies coordinating continuing education programs for graduates of Spirit Rock’s Community Dharma Leaders Program. He recently retired from the board of the Sati Center for Buddhist Studies in Redwood City where he served for over 20 years. His practice is non-traditional, guided by his chaplaincy work in prison, his teaching and by his study of the early Pali scriptures.

Matthew Brensilver sits on the Teachers Council of Spirit Rock. He was the Buddhist chaplain at USC for four years and teaches about the intersection of mindfulness and mental health at UCLA’s Mindful Awareness Research Center. He previously served as Program Director at Mindful Schools. Matthew has worked as a clinical social worker, supporting severely and persistently mentally ill adults and adolescents. He subsequently earned a PhD from the Dworak-Peck School of Social Work at USC, completing a dissertation on the mechanisms of risk and resilience in maltreated adolescents. He spent years doing research on addiction treatment at the UCLA Center for Behavioral and Addiction Medicine and continues to be interested in the unfolding dialogue between dharma and science. Talks on Dharmaseed.org.

Ryuko Laura Burges is a lay entrusted dharma teacher in the Soto Zen tradition, lectures and leads retreats at different practice places in Northern California.  A teacher of children for over 30 years, she brings mindfulness practice into the elementary classroom.  Laura co-founded the Sangha in Recovery Program at the San Francisco Zen Center and is the abiding teacher at Lenox House Meditation Group in Oakland.

Ying Chen, Ph.D., was born in China and immigrated to the US as a young adult. She took refuge to become a Buddhist with Venerable Ji Ru in 1995. She was first exposed to Chinese Mahayana Buddhism after coming to the US. In 2001, she was drawn to the Theravada tradition. Since then, she’s been practicing primarily under the guidance of Gil Fronsdal. Ying is a graduate of the Sati Center Chaplaincy program and Local Dharma Leader program from Insight Meditation Center. Ying also studied suttas under the guidance of Shaila Catherine. She currently facilitates the Insight Meditation Center support group for people living with illness and co-leads Asian Dharma Circle with Lilu Chen. Before retiring from IBM, Ying worked as a data scientist for 18 years.

Diana Clark, Ph.D., teaches at a number of meditation centers in the San Francisco Bay Area, but primarily at the Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City. She teaches with a commitment to creating conditions for the unfolding of both wisdom and compassion. In addition, in both dharma communities and academic settings, Diana leads explorations of the Buddha’s discourses with an emphasis on making these powerful ancient teachings relevant today. She has a Ph.D. in biochemistry and is the President of the Sati Center for Buddhist studies.

Bruni Davila has practiced Vipassana and Zen since 1995. A student of Andrea Fella and Gil Fronsdal, she practices and teaches at the Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City, CA, and also teaches Dharma in Spanish in the wider Bay Area. She is a graduate of the 2017-2021 IMS Teacher Training Program.

Kevin Griffin is the author of a series of books on Dharma and recovery, including One Breath at a Time and Buddhism and the Twelve Steps Daily Reflections. A longtime Buddhist practitioner and Twelve-Step participant, he is a leader in the mindful recovery movement and one of the founders of the Buddhist Recovery Network. Kevin has trained with the leading Western Vipassana teachers, among them Jack Kornfield, Joseph Goldstein, and Ajahn Amaro. His teacher training was as a Community Dharma Leader at Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Marin County, CA. He teaches internationally in Buddhist centers, treatment centers, professional conferences, and academic settings. Talks at Dharmaseed.org

Ron Nestor began practice with the Berkeley Zen Center (BZC), led by Sojun Mel Weitsman, in the early 70’s. He chose Zen as his meditation path because he liked the emphasis on an everyday schedule of meditation as a part of one’s daily activities, rather than special retreats, progression through different practices, or accumulation of conceptual learning. He was a resident of BZC for about ten years and held most of the possible practice positions including head cook, president, treasurer, coordinator, work leader, etc.

Vance began insight Meditation in 1998. He has been deeply influenced by the teachings of Sayadaw U Pandita 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 graduate of the Insight Meditation Society’s 2017-2021 Teacher Training Program.

Tuere Sala is a Guiding Teacher at Seattle Insight Meditation Society and the founding teacher of the Capitol Hill Meditation Group. She is a retired prosecuting attorney who has practiced Vipassana meditation for over 30 years. 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. Tuere has been teaching since 2010 and has a long history of assisting others in establishing and maintaining a daily practice.

Jill Satterfield is a Dharma, meditation and mindfulness teacher who teaches internationally. Her integration of embodied mindfulness includes somatic and Buddhist psychology and yogic practices. Jill created Applied Embodied Mindfulness Trainings at UCLA’s Mindful Awareness Research Center, was a founding faculty member of Spirit Rock Meditation Center’s Mindful Yoga and Meditation Teacher Training and is currently a mentor for Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach’s Mindfulness Teacher Training (MMTCP). Her non-profit organization School for Compassionate Action brought mindfulness and somatic practices to at-risk and in-need adults and children in NYC. Jill was scholar and teacher in residence at the Kripalu Center, was first to integrate mindful movement into meditation retreats at the Spirit Rock Meditation Center in California, and the Insight Meditation Society in Massachusetts.  She led body-based practices on retreats with Mingyur and Tsoknyi Rinpoche amongst others. Jill trained as a Buddhist Chaplain at the Sati Center for Buddhist Studies in Redwood City, CA. Link to website: jillsatterfield.org.

Dawn Scott has been practicing Insight Meditation since 2008 and served as the Family Program Coordinator for eight years at Spirit Rock Meditation Center.  She is a graduate of Insight Meditation Society’s teacher training program, a co-principal teacher of Marin Sangha, and is a core teacher of Spirit Rock’s Advanced Practitioner Program and the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies and Insight Meditation’s joint year-long program, Love & Liberation.  Dawn has a deep love of long retreat practice and the Buddha’s liberative teachings.

Bob Stahl, Ph.D., a long-time Insight Meditator, lived in a Burmese Buddhist Monastery in the Forest Tradition for over eight years. He founded and directs Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) Programs in three medical centers in the San Francisco Bay Area. Bob is a professor of the practice in the Department of Behavioral and Social Sciences in the School of Public Health at Brown University, and a senior teacher at the Brown Mindfulness Center. Bob is co-guiding teacher at Insight Santa Cruz.

Heather Sundberg has taught Insight Meditation since 1999, completed the Spirit Rock/IMS Senior Teacher Training and is a member of the Spirit Rock Teacher’s Council.  Since 2011, she has been a Teacher for Mountain Stream Meditation Center in Nevada City, CA.  She has 3 accumulated years of retreat time in her own practice.  Her teaching emphasizes Embodied Awakening, Heart Practices, and Wisdom Awareness Practices out of the Thai forest tradition.  For more information about Heather, visit www.heathersundberg.com.  To listen to some of Heather’s dharma talks, visit www.dharmaseed.org.

Ayya Sobhana is a Harvard graduate and trained with master Dhamma and meditation teacher Venerable Dr. Henepola Gunaratana Nāyaka Mahāthero (known as “Bhante G”) since 1989. Her primary practice is the Eightfold Noble Path, that is, integration of meditation with ethical living and compassionate relationships for the sake of liberation. She “went forth” into monastic life as a Sāmanerī in 2003 at the Bhavana Society of West Virginia with Bhante Gunaratana as her teacher, and obtained full Bhikkhuni ordination at Dambulla, Sri Lanka in 2006, with the Most Venerables Padukke Sumithra Mahātherī and Sīri Sumangala Mahāthero as her bhikkhunī and bhikkhu preceptors. After nearly five years of monastic life and teacher training with Bhante Gunaratana, in 2010 Ayyā Sobhanā was invited to dwell at the new bhikkhunī hermitage, Aranya Bodhi, on California’s Sonoma Coast, which she has played an important and leading role in developing. In 2016, Ayyā Sobhanā was appointed vice abbess of Dhammadharini, and in 2020 she was appointed a bhikkhunī preceptor. Ayyā teaches around the greater San Francisco Bay Area, and on both coasts of the US, offering retreats at Spirit Rock Meditation Center, Southern Dharma Retreat Center,and at Buddhist Insights of New York. She also offers regular meditation and Sutta teachings as well as retreats online hosted by Dhammadharini Monastery (see Dhammadharini Monastery on YouTube).

Dennis Warren is an instructor of meditation and of Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR).  This program focuses on integrating mindfulness into everyday life. Dennis is an Associate Professor at the UC Davis School of Medicine Pain Division.  He is a graduate of the Spirit Rock Meditation Center’s training program for the development of community-based meditation instructors. He had led meditation retreats in Asia, specifically Thailand, Northern India and Nepal. He is the founder and an instructor at Sacramento Insight Meditation. You can listen to some of Dennis’ talks at the SIM website.  And learn more about him at his website www.denniswarren.net.

Tanya Wiser began her formal meditation practice in 2005 immediately following her first Vipassana retreat. She found the practice to be deeply healing and, because she works as a therapist, she wanted to share Mindfulness with her clients so in 2008 she was trained in Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy as well as Mindfulness Based Relapse Prevention. In 2011 she joined IMC’s Dedicated Practitioners Program (DPP4) and began to study the Dharma formally. In 2014 she completed her first month long Vipassana retreat and in 2016 completed IMC’s Dharma Mentor Training Program. She is a student of both Gil Fronsdal and Andrea Fella.