Archives: Authors
Rene Rivera
René Rivera is a leader and bridge-builder, working and learning inall the spaces in-between race, gender, and other perceived binaries, as a queer, mixed-race, trans man. René has been a student of the Dharma since 2004 and has been a part of the East Bay Meditation Center (EBMC) Alphabet Sangha since 2008. He has participated in the Commit to Dharma and Practice in Action programs at EBMC and the Community Dharma Leaders program at Spirit Rock. René is a community teacher at EBMC and also offers meditation and mindfulness instruction at other centers such as Spirit Rock Meditation Center, SF Dharma Collective and others with a particular focus on offering the Dharma to QTPOC folx.
Fresh Lev White
Fresh “Lev” White is a lover of life and all beings, who lives to reflect and offer the possibilities of unconditional love and self- compassion through his writing, mindfulness offerings, and Diversity Trainings. A graduate of Spirit Rock’s Community Dharma Leadership Program, Lev offers Dharma at centers around the SF Bay Area, including his sangha home at the East Bay Meditation Center (EBMC). He is founder of the Bay Area’s first Trans and GQ Mindfulness sangha, and contributor to the following: of <em>Real World Mindfulness for Beginners</em>, <em>Trans Buddhist Anthology</em>, and <em>Trans Bodies; Trans Selves</em>.
Martin Vitorino
Martin Vitorino, Ph.D. is the Director of Programming at InsightLA. He leads guided meditations at InsightLA East Hollywood and facilitates the Mindful Transitions for the Transgender Community event. He is a graduate of InsightLA’s Facilitator Training program and is trained by Courage of Care in Oakland, CA to teach a model that merges sustainable compassion practices with social justice activism. He is passionate about sharing meditation and self-compassion practices with people in the transgender and queer communities.
Elizabeth Monson
Lama Liz Monson, PhD, is the Spiritual Co-Director of Natural Dharma Fellowship. She has practiced and taught Tibetan Buddhism for over thirty years. Liz is the author of <em>More Than a Madman: The Divine Words of Drukpa Kunley </em>and <em>Tales of a Mad Yogi: The Life and Wild Wisdom of Drukpa Kunley.</em>
Sarah Chauncey
Sarah Chauncey is a nonfiction writer and editor based on Vancouver Island. To help people who are grieving the loss of their cat, she manages <em>P.S. I Love You More Than Tuna</em> on Facebook and Instagram.
Barbara Rhodes
Barbara Rhodes (Zen Master Soeng Hyang) is the School Zen Master of the Kwan Um School of Zen and a retired hospice nurse.
Daijaku Judith Kinst
Daijaku Judith Kinst is the Noboru and Yaeko Hanyu Professor of Buddhist Chaplaincy at the Institute of Buddhist Studies and the author of <em>Trust, Realization, and the Self in Soto Zen Practice</em>.
Nisha Shah
Nisha R. Shah is the director of programs, trainings, and partnerships at Spirit Rock Meditation Center. She has completed a graduate certificate program in Buddhism and Contemporary Psychology at the Institute of Buddhist Studies in Berkeley.
GaBrilla Ballard
GaBrilla Ballard is a New Orleans born and bred Interdisciplinary artist, mother, singer/songwriter, social worker and author of <em>The Vibrant Mamafesto, a Self-Care Guide for Mothers</em>. Her written and visual work has been featured in several publications including <em>The Journal for Progressive Human Services</em>, <em>The Duende Literary Journal</em> and ForHarriet.com. For more information on her work, please visit <a href="https://www.gabrillaballard.com">www.gabrillaballard.com</a>
Crystal Johnson
Crystal Johnson is on the Leadership Sangha at East Bay Meditation Center in Oakland, where she co-teaches the six-month program White and Awakening in Sangha.
Rima Vesely-Flad
Rima Vesely-Flad, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Religion and Social Justice and the Director of Peace and Justice Studies at Warren Wilson College. She is the author of Black Buddhists and the Black Radical Tradition: The Practice of Stillness in the Movement for Liberation (NYU Press, 2022).
Stephanie Balkwill
Stephanie Balkwill did her post doctoral work on female-to-male sex change in Buddhist texts; her more recent work has focused on the political, social, and literary lives of Buddhist women in China two thousand years ago. She is an assistant professor of religion and culture and East Asian languages and cultures at the University of Winnipeg, where she teaches such courses as "Buddhism, Sex, and the Body."
Judith Hertog
Judith Hertog is a teacher and writer whose work has appeared in such publications as the <em>New York Times</em>, the <em>Sun</em>, and <em>Tablet Magazine</em>.
Kimberlyn David
Kimberlyn David is a freelance writer, editor, and content producer. After living outside the United States for about a decade, she now hangs her hat in the Netherlands.
Dorotea Mendoza
Dorotea Mendoza is a writer, activist, and Zen practitioner. She was born in the Philippines and grew up in New York City’s East Village. She now lives in Brooklyn with her partner Matthew and thirty-three house plants.
Satsuki Ina
Satsuki Ina, PhD, was born in the Tule Lake Segregation Center, a maximum security prison where Japanese American dissidents were held during WWII. She is Professor Emeritus at California State University, Sacramento and has a psychotherapy practice specializing in community trauma.