Archives: Authors
Amy Paris Langenberg
Dr. Amy Paris Langenberg is a professor of religious studies at Eckerd College. She studies gender and sexuality in Indian Buddhism, female Buddhist monasticism, and contemporary Buddhist feminisms. She is the author of Birth in Buddhism: The Suffering Fetus and Female Freedom (Routledge).
Ivan Trujillo Priego
Ivan Trujillo Priego practices within the Plum Village tradition, where he has served in the role of facilitator in multiple sanghas and retreats. Ivan is also the founder of Sit, Walk, Listen, a group focused on social and racial justice and collective awakening by bringing the practice of compassion, love, and nonviolence to the streets and public space. Ivan aspires to lead a life of direct actions rooted in loving-kindness and mindfulness and is committed to the practice of engaged Buddhism in all aspects of his life. Ivan is originally from the land of the Mexicas, previously known as Tenochtitlán, now known as Mexico City, where Native Mexican and Spanish cultures are intermixed, creating a unique opportunity to relate to nature through ancient and modern practices.
Sandra M. Sanabria Bohorquez
Sandra is a Buddhist practitioner in the Theravada tradition and a Dharma mentor. While working as a biomedical scientist, she became a Dharma mentor and teaches both in English and Spanish through the Insight Meditation Center (IMC) in Redwood City. Additionally, Sandra completed the Compassion Cultivation Training (CCT) certified teacher program and became a graduate of Applied Compassion Training from Stanford University (CCARE). She is also a certified mindfulness teacher with the Mexican Mindfulness Institute (IMTA Certified Mindfulness Teacher, Professional Level) and the Mindfulness Without Borders program. For Sandra, daily life is full of opportunities to connect with the dharma; this experience makes the teachings and the possibility of liberation accessible to all beings. You can learn more about Sandra at www.vivalacompasion.org
Jason Gots
Jason Gots is the producer/host of the Think Again and Clever Creature podcasts and author of the memoir Humanity is Trying (HarperCollins).
Allyson Pimentel
Allyson Pimentel, EdD, is a psychologist and long-time practitioner of Insight Meditation. She teaches at InsightLA and is the director of Mindful USC at the University of California.
Erika L. Sánchez
Erika L. Sánchez is a Mexican-American poet, novelist, and essayist. Her debut poetry collection, "Lessons on Expulsion," was a finalist for the PEN America Open Book Award. Her debut young adult novel, "I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter," was a New York Times bestseller and a National Book Awards finalist. It is now being made into a film directed by America Ferrera. Sanchez was a 2017-2019 Princeton Arts Fellow, a 2018 recipient of the 21st Century Award from the Chicago Public Library Foundation, and a 2019 recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship.
Eda Ocak
Eda is a meditation teacher from Turkey. She has been studying and practicing Tibetan Buddhism. She is currently a student in Tibet House, learning about Buddhist Philosophy. Since studying the Dharma, she's wanted to hear more Buddhist women's voices. She is currently researching women ancestors in Buddhist history.
Angelica Paljor
Angélica Paljor is a Colombian-American journalist and translator-in-training of Buddhist classical texts from Tibetan into Spanish and English.
Monica Jordan
Monica is a spiritual counselor and an educator in the mental health space. She holds a Master of Education (M.Ed.) and a master’s Certificate in Mind, Brain, and Teaching (MCMBT) from Johns Hopkins University. Monica has been practicing mindfulness for over 22 years and served as the Spanish Program Coordinator and Editor for Tara Brach’s Dharma Talks and Meditations for the Spanish-speaking world. To learn more about her and what she offers, visit her website embracemindfulness.org
Carola Roloff (Bhikṣuṇī Jampa Tsedroen)
Dr. Carola Roloff (Bhikṣuṇī Jampa Tsedroen) is a permanent visiting professor of Buddhism and Dialogue in Modern Societies at the Academy of World Religions of the University of Hamburg. From 2010 she led a DFG research project on Buddhist nuns’ ordination, and is author of <em>The Buddhist Nun’s Ordination in the Tibetan Canon, Possibilities Of The Revival of the Mūlasarvāstivāda Bhikṣuṇī Lineage</em>. She received śrāmaṇerikā ordination at Tibetan Centre Hamburg in 1981 and bhikṣuṇī ordination at Miao-T'ung Monastery, Taiwan in 1985.
Rhonda Magee
Rhonda Magee is a law professor at the University of San Francisco, an author, and a mindfulness teacher. Her work focuses on integrating mindfulness-based interventions, awareness, and compassion practices from a range of traditions into higher education, law, and social change work. She is the author of <em>The Inner Work of Racial Justice: Healing Ourselves and Transforming Our Communities Through Mindfulness.</em>
Margarita Loinaz
Margarita Loinaz is a community teacher at the East Bay Meditation Center in Oakland and a visiting teacher at Spirit Rock. She began teaching in 1997 and co-organized the first People of Color Retreat at Spirit Rock in 1999. A student of both the Theravada and Tibetan traditions, her teaching integrates Dzogchen practice with social justice and environmental awareness.
Carol Iwata
Carol Iwaya first became interested in Buddhism as a Peace Corps volunteer in Africa in the late sixties after reading books by Ram Dass and Alan Watts. When she returned to the US, she looked into various meditation centers and eventually found her community in St. Paul, Minnesota, at Clouds in Water Zen Center. Within both her sangha and her city, she has worked with and for BIPOC communities in applying spiritual practice toward the work of social and racial justice.
Alec Soucy
Alec Soucy is a professor of religious studies at St. Mary’s University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where he is also a research associate for the Centre for the Study of Sport and Health. An anthropologist of religion, he has focused his work primarily on Vietnamese Buddhist practices, exploring themes of gender, age, transnationalism, globalization, and neoliberalism.
La Sarmiento
La Sarmiento brings their experiences as an immigrant, nonbinary, Filipinx American to the Insight Meditation Community of Washington, DC, where they serve as the guiding teacher of both the BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ sanghas. A graduate of the Spirit Rock Community Dharma Leader Training, they are a mentor for both the Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification Program and Cloud Sangha and teach at retreat centers around the US.
Brenna Artinger
Brenna Artinger is an independent scholar and researcher with a master’s in Buddhist studies from the University of Oxford. Their work focuses on exclusion and extremism, with current emphasis on the intersection of Buddhism and queer theory in Pali vinaya texts. They also research and write on Buddhist nationalism and extremism in the US and southeast Asia.
Thomas Davis IV
Thomas Davis IV is a Mindful Awareness practitioner who emerged from the Contemplative Faith Community, where he served as a Lay Minister for over 10 years. His orientation to the Mindful Awareness practice began at the East Bay Meditation Center in Oakland, CA, where he was introduced to the Theravadan tradition of Vipassana in 2012. Thomas began his journey into Dharma Leadership in 2013. In 2017, Thomas graduated from the Spirit Rock Community Dharma Leader Training Program, The Sati Center Buddhist Chaplaincy Training, and was enlisted as one of the Spirit Rock Community Welcome Teachers for the Monday Night Dharma program. Thomas is also a Co-Founder and Teacher of the Insight Richmond Meditation Group. For more about Thomas Davis offerings visit avant-dharma.com.
Patrice Clark Koelsch
Formally trained with a Ph.D. in Philosophy, Patrice Clark Koelsch began sitting at Common Ground Meditation Center in 1995. Patrice is a graduate of Spirit Rock’s Community Dharma Leaders Program, and completed a year-long Buddhist Chaplaincy Training Program at the Sati Center for Buddhist Studies. She has practiced meditation at monasteries in Thailand and Myanmar. Patrice has provided hands-on care for persons in the last stages of HIV/AIDS, and worked for many years in HIV education and client support services. For the past two decades, she has been facilitating meditation groups in correctional facilities. Patrice has a special interest in antiracism work focusing on waking up to whiteness. Through Common Ground Meditation Center, Patrice has offered training in mindfulness and loving kindness for corporations, non-profit organizations, and educational institutions. She has also taught workshops on spiritual care for Buddhist and other religious organizations. Patrice is on the Board of the Minnesota Multifaith Network and is involved with ISAIAH and Faith in Minnesota in working for a multiracial democracy, a caring economy, and a just climate future.
Sam Ludlow-Broback
Sam Ludlow-Broback (<a href="https://twitter.com/SLudlowBroback">@SLudlowBroback</a>) is media relations intern at Springtide Research Institute.
