Kaira Jewel Lingo is a Dharma teacher with a lifelong interest in blending spirituality and meditation with social justice. She received Lamp Transmission from Thich Nhat Hanh, and is also a teacher in the Vipassana Insight lineage.

Kaira is the author of We Were Made for These Times and co-author of Healing Our Way Home: Black Buddhist Teachings on Ancestors, Joy, and Liberation.

Today, she sees her work as a continuation of the Engaged Buddhism developed by Thich Nhat Hanh as well as the work of her parents, inspired by their stories and her dad’s work with Martin Luther King Jr. You can find out more about her work at kairajewel.com.

Joe Reilly is a singer, songwriter, social worker, Dharma teacher, and educator who writes songs from his heart. Joe’s songs are playful, clever, engaging, joyful, and always have something meaningful to say.

The core of his message is an invitation to heal our relationships with ourselves, with each other, and with the earth. Joe uses his music to bring people together and build community across lines of race, class, gender, ethnicity, religion, age, and nationality.

Joe is of Italian, Irish, and Native American (Cherokee/Choctaw) ancestry, and was raised in Kalamazoo, Michigan in a creative household by musical parents who encouraged him to find his own voice. He spent five years as a member of the Treetown Singers, an inter-tribal Native drum group based in Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti, Michigan, before he began writing and sharing his own original songs. Learn more at joereilly.org.

Larry Ward was a senior teacher in Buddhist Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh's Plum Village tradition, the author of the book America's Racial Karma, and co-author with his wife, Peggy Rowe Ward, of Love's Garden: A Guide to Mindful Relationships. Dr. Ward brought forty years of international experience in organizational change and local community renewal to his work at the Lotus Institute. He held a PhD in Religious Studies with an emphasis on Buddhism and the neuroscience of meditation, and trained at the Trauma Resource Institute. Dr. Ward taught courses at Claremont Graduate University and the University of the West. As a teacher, he interwove insights with personal stories and resounding clarity that expressed his Dharma name, "True Great Sound."

Dr. Ward passed away on August 19, 2025. His teachings, wisdom, and compassionate presence continue to inspire the Lotus Institute community and all who were fortunate enough to learn from him.

Peggy Rowe Ward’s joyful spirit enables her students to discover and embody their most creative and authentic selves. She offers a path of deep insight through methods such as movement, writing, art and ritual. Peggy has her EdD in Adult Education and her M.A. in Counseling Psychology and co-author with her husband, Larry, of Love's Garden: A Guide To Mindful Relationships.

She has taught in graduate schools of social work, psychology and counseling psychology. Her Doctoral research is in dreamwork. She has had a private therapy practice for many years and now offers consultations with a spiritual direction focus.here

Father Adam Bucko has been a committed voice in the movement for the renewal of Christian Contemplative Spirituality and the growing New Monastic movement. He has taught engaged contemplative spirituality in Europe and the United States, and has authored Let Your Heartbreak be Your Guide: Lessons in Engaged Contemplation and co-authored Occupy Spirituality: A Radical Vision for a New Generation, and The New Monasticism: An Interspiritual Manifesto for Contemplative Living.

Committed to an integration of contemplation and just practice, he cofounded an award-winning non-profit, the Reciprocity Foundation, where he spent 15 years working with homeless youth living on the streets of New York City, providing spiritual care, developing programs to end youth homelessness, and articulating a vision for spiritual mentoring in a post-religious world.

He currently serves as a director of The Center for Spiritual Imagination at the Episcopal Cathedral of the Incarnation in Garden City, New York, and is a member of “The Community of the Incarnation,” a ‘new monastic’ community dedicated to democratizing the gifts of monastic spirituality and teaching contemplative spirituality, in the context of hearing and responding to the cry of the poor and the cry of the earth. Learn more at fatheradambucko.com.

Sister Nghiem is a fully ordained nun and senior Dharma Teacher in the Plum Village Tradition. Growing up in the monastery and working closely with Thich Nhat Hanh as his attendant for more than 17 years, she has developed an interest in creating and sharing mindfulness practices in ways that are accessible and inclusive to all.

She has traveled across 25 countries leading retreats in local communities, schools, universities, juvenile halls, prisons, and businesses.

Ava Avalos is a Dharma teacher, HIV specialist physician, activist & dancer living in Botswana. Originally from Southern California, she weaves together her Mexican roots with those of Africa, where she has worked for over 24 years. Ava is a devoted yogini and brings her wisdom and love of the body, dance and yoga to her Dharma practice.

Her expertise in dissolving embodied knots of confusion, trauma and fear into gateways towards clarity, understanding and courage form the foundation of her teaching, For Ava, compassionately exploring the intergenerational mysteries and the continuously unfolding miracles of the body allow life to be fully lived and celebrated with each breath and passing moment.

Mona's practice as a Somatic Therapist focuses on touch and the power of co-regulation and safety that can happen from being in contact with one another. She trusts and believes that healing always happens in community.

What moves her is curiosity and a belief that ancient wisdom is held within our bodies and that by using practices guided by the wisdom of our bodies, we can actively heal and bring the collective back to a place of harmony.

Matt is Lotus Institute’s Director of Communications, a qigong instructor, and an ordained member of the Plum Village Order of Interbeing, with the Dharma name True Harmonious Light of Spring.

A moment of clarity during a Thursday evening tai chi class helped him realize that his struggles and aspirations to listen to his body were simplified and deepened through mindful movement and the internal martial arts. That insight sparked a path of further study and a desire to share with others.

Matt trains under the Tree of Life Tai Chi Studio in Boston and also online with Thu Nguyen from the Plum Village tradition.

Matt also shares reflections on his practice, and his misadventures in mindful living, through his newsletter, Being Human.

Marcus Young 楊墨 is an artist who makes behavioral and social forms for everyone to use in daily life. For 15 years, he has led Don’t You Feel It Too?, a participatory public dance and liberation practice. His work traverses the stage, museums, learning communities, mindfulness, tea, and the public realm, expanding the repertoire of human behavior and our ways of gathering.

He teaches “Art & Life” at the University of Minnesota and in the Creative Leadership MA program at the Minneapolis College of Art & Design.

Sister Peace is an ordained nun in Thich Nhat Hanh’s Order of Interbeing. She appears in the 2017 film "Walk With Me" under her monastic name—Sr. An Nghiem.

Born in Washington, D.C., and educated in Catholic schools, Sister Peace graduated from Georgetown University. She built up a successful nail salon business and entered local politics, working on Anthony Willams’ campaign for mayor of Washington and in his administration.

Practicing with the Washington Mindfulness Community, she met Thich Nhat Hanh when she assisted with a meditation retreat he led for the U.S. Congress. In 2006, she went to Plum Village to deepen her understanding of what a nun’s life entailed, and her ordination took place in 2008.

She has had many roles in the Plum Village community including organizing retreats in Europe, Asia, Liberia, South Africa, and the US, as well as press and PR for the community.

Diane Little Eagle is an Alaska Native, Canadian Native, and Austrian. She started meditating in the early 70s, studying with Maharishi, learning Transcendental Meditation and receiving advanced training.

In the early 80s she started studying with Thich Nhat Hanh and became a dharma teacher in the Plum Village tradition in 2018. Diane has also studied with Khentrul Rinpoche, Garchen Rinpoche, The Dalai Lama, Tukulu Yeshe and her Elders...they all have taught her so so much.

Reverend Anne Clement is a member of Thich Nhat Hanh’s Order of Interbeing, and her Dharma name is Peaceful Home of the Heart. Rev. Clement served as an ordained Methodist minister for over 20 years, as well as a hospital and hospice chaplain for another 20 years. Since ordaining in the Order of Interbing, Rev. Clement has hosted Singing Stones Sangha in her home on Caddo/Creek Indigenous land in Eastern Oklahoma, where she has also offered workshops in meditation and Native American spirituality.  

Wondrousound is a holistic platform born of a life in music, law and social justice advocacy that tipped Rachel over the edge and deep into the wonders of mindfulness, meditation, and the yoga of sound.

In 2016, Rachel received a national award for outstanding advocacy, toured a new album + burnt out in the same year. She’d spent years pushing beyond her limits to ‘achieve’ change and meet the capitalist demands of the music industry. She started doing this thing called ‘yoga’ and discovered the wisdom teachings of Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh who said:

”What you need, what we all need, is silence. Stop the noise in your mind in order for the wondrous sounds of life to be heard. Then you can begin to live your life authentically and deeply.”

Instincts led Rachel to Plum Village to help her let go of the old story and allow an authentic way of being to emerge through the practice of mindfulness. She started writing new music that embraced the art of sound as a healing tool and retraced ancestral lines to train with masters in the yoga of sound + silence.

Learn more at wondrousound.com.

Viviane Ephraimson-Abt, M.S., M.Ed., LPC, has taught mindfulness practices for groups, organizations, and individuals since 1998. She shares mindfulness for its many benefits in one’s academic, professional, and personal life. Viviane enjoys facilitating a variety of mindfulness-based trainings at Colorado State University including for stress reduction and enhancements in workplace climate, leadership, and interpersonal effectiveness.

She also incorporates mindfulness into her intercultural and diversity teaching. She is an ordained Dharma teacher in the Plum Village tradition; a teacher with the Community for Mindful Living, a Center for Council Dialogue trainer and a Personal Leadership: Making a World of Difference facilitator.

She is a graduate of the Hakomi Institute for mindfulness-based psychotherapy and holds an M.S. in Intercultural Communication from the University of Pennsylvania, and an M.Ed. in Counseling and Career Development from CSU.

Gurupriya Beth Sanchez loves wading in the energy of group wisdom, song, movement and remembrance of deep reality. She also loves returning to the world of form; loving, preserving and building what is beautiful with humans and more-than-human beings.

Gurupriya Beth’s classes are inspired by her core teachers, Engaged Buddhism Founder, Venerable Thich Nhat Hahn, and Ayurveda Master, Alakananda Ma. She is also invigorated by the Non-Dual Advaita teachings, Indigenous wisdom, Post-colonial ways, and Embodied Justice practices of Kaira Jewel Lingo, Dr. Larry Ward, and many other teachers.  Her primary yoga influences include Richard Freeman and Tias Little.

Beth loves to sing, cook, farm, dance, learn, meditate, and weave new worlds with other like-hearted beings.

Gurupriya Beth has been teaching yoga since 2000, and her style has been described as mindful hatha/vinyasa with anatomical depth, nourishing adjustments, contemplative support and invitations to sing.   She invites all people seeking sangha, grounded engagement in their yoga practice, and sacredness in their relationship to life.

Based in Washington, DC, Born I creates at the intersection of hip-hop and mindfulness, blending lyricism, spirituality, and cultural storytelling into a body of work that’s both innovative and deeply human. His influences span Wu-Tang Clan, Ka, André 3000, Alice Coltrane, and Buddhist teachers like Thích Nhất Hạnh, and his music has garnered over 20 million streams worldwide.

Born I’s most recent album, Komorebi (2025), has been hailed by listeners as “a missing piece in hip-hop,” praised for its meditative flow and spiritual depth. The companion book, Lyrical Dharma: Hip-Hop as Mindfulness (Parallax Press), arrives with a foreword by Pulitzer Prize winner Alice Walker, further cementing Born I as a unique voice at the intersection of art and contemplative practice.

A certified meditation teacher, Born I is also the male voice on the Balance app, where his teachings reach millions of listeners daily. He regularly leads retreats, concerts, and hybrid events that weave live hip-hop with meditation and sound baths – including performances at the Kennedy Center, Buddhist Arts & Film Festival, and alongside the monks of Plum Village Monastery.

Brian Kimmel is an artist, author, and guide who teaches that our unique stories are the essential threads that weave our world together. As a second-generation multi-heritage Indonesian American and the grandson of a storyteller, Brian inherited a legacy of music and narrative. This lineage led him on a journey to co-author his grandmother’s WWII memoir, a profound experience that revealed how sharing one personal story can create a bridge for collective healing.

A poet, musician, and Buddhist teacher ordained by Thích Nhất Hạnh, Brian’s work is dedicated to this art of connection. His signature approach, “Embodying Narratives,” guides people to explore their “Invisible Batik”—the social and cultural patterns they wear—to find a state of supportive ease and transform their lives. As a mental health counselor and supervisor, his insights are grounded in both ancient wisdom and real-world clinical practice.

Brian is a contributing author to numerous publications, including The Lion’s Roar and Transcending: Trans Buddhist Voices, and shares his teachings internationally. He lives in Seattle with his spouse and enjoys gardening with family and friends.

Dr. Elli Weisbaum, BFA, MES, PhD is an endlessly curious human, which has led to her love of teaching and research. She has worked internationally facilitating mindfulness workshops and retreats within the sectors of education, healthcare and business. She is based at the University of Toronto as an Assistant Professor (teaching stream) in the Buddhism, Psychology and Mental Health Program (BPMH), with a joint appointment to the Department of Psychiatry, in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine. She is cross-appointment to the Dalla Lana School of Public Health in their Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation (IHPME).

Her work draws upon research from the fields of neuroscience, education, healthcare and the workplace to explore how the scientific evidence base for mindfulness is being integrated and operationalized across key sectors of society. Previous and ongoing collaborations include working with the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Engineering, Rotman School of Management, Physical Therapy Department, the Ontario Hospital Association, The Hospital for Sick Children, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to integrate mindfulness into programming for faculty, staff, clinicians, patients, and students. In 2024 she was awarded a grant from the Ontario Medical Foundation (OMF) to continue her innovating research on the Applied Mindfulness Program for Medical Personnel to explore how to cultivate healthy environments within healthcare and education where everyone in the community can flourish and thrive.

Robert Walsh, MScPT is a physiotherapist, mindfulness facilitator, and teacher. He currently works as a physiotherapist at Strive Physiotherapy and Sports Medicine in Toronto, Canada. He also teaches Applied Mindfulness in various contexts, including for students in the University of Toronto Physical Therapy Masters degree. He has previously worked as a physiotherapist at Women’s College Hospital as part of the Toronto Academic Pain Medicine Institute (TAPMI).

Rob's primary mindfulness training and facilitation has been conducted with Plum Village Community. He has also trained in and facilitated Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction and the Mindful Awareness and Resilience Skills for Adolescents.

Since 2020, he has been teaching and developing a mindfulness curriculum for the MScPT program at the University of Toronto. In 2012, he co-founded Wake Up Toronto, a weekly Applied Mindfulness practice group that he continues to co-facilitate, which is an external partner with the University of Toronto’s campus-wide Mindful Moments initiative.

Prior to his training as a PT, Rob worked in the film and television industry as a film technician and cinematographer.

LoAn is a parent-ally of a queer, nonbinary daughter with transgender experience. She serves the PV monastic community with LGBTQIA+ training in Vietnamese language to ensure friends who come to the monasteries for refuge are cared for with understanding and love in action.

LoAn helped to co-found the Chrysanthemum Sangha and the QT Viet & Viet Allies Intergenerational Healing Sangha. She serves on the Board of the Thich Nhat Hanh Foundation & co-chair in the JEDI Council.

Born in New York City, Norma grew up in The Bronx in an environment rich with cultural diversity. An adventurous child, she explored the city’s culture and museums and developed a knowledge of symbolism as it is represented in the creative visual world and in poetry. It was in the museums and libraries that she felt most at home. “I learned to paint from my father, to appreciate needlework from my mother and poetry from a neighbor”.

In the summer months her family left the city to escape the heat. It was in the mountains of New York State and at the beaches in Rockaway, New York that she connected with the mysteries and wonders of nature. Here too, she felt at home.

Norma continued her studies at museums, galleries, art schools and colleges earning a BA degree from Empire State College, NYC. She focused her studies in American art. In later years she was invited to participate on the North Carolina State Visiting Artist Program. Residencies in schools, hospitals and rehabilitation centers, allowed her to witness the healing aspects of the creative process. She earned an MA degree in Expressive Arts and Applied Psychology from Vermont College.

Polly is an artist, mother, and caregiver for her family. She has also taught English as a foreign language at adult school, art at community college, and homeschooled her daughter (but not all at the same time!).

Her work in painting, drawing and sewn paper invites attention and spacious care in looking, seeing, and being. She co-facilitates Lotus in a Sea of Fire BIPOC OI aspirant sangha and True Home BIPOC online sangha.

Salvatore Caruso is a cultural creative, communicator, humorist and advocate for building intentional community in this age of climate disruption, Salvatore is a person of great action. The death of his father at age seven put him on a path of radical care and service for family and community.

Daiju Teijo means “Great Tree Right Stillness.” (Daiju is “Way Name,” Teijo is “Dharma Name”) Rev Teijo is a disciple and dharma heir of Rev Dainin Katagiri. She studied with him from 1975 until his death in 1990, receiving formal training at Hokyoji (Catching the Moon Zen Mountain Center) in Minnesota, Tassajara Zen Mountain Center in California and Hosshinji Sodo in Obama, Japan. Rev. Munnich was ordained as a Zen priest in 1981.

In 1983, she began to envision a practice center and community, and at its heart a residential practice for women. This came to be Great Tree Zen Women’s Temple, incorporated in 2004. After an lengthy search, a location was found with suitable space, and Great Tree opened her doors in 2005 in Alexander, NC.

Victoria Mausisa has a passion for cultivating inclusiveness and for healing communities of color. An advocate for racial and social equity, she co-created ARISE Sangha (Awakening Through Race, Intersectionality and Social Equity). After a career in healthcare management, she now dedicates her time in building community in the Plum Village tradition of the Venerable Thich Nhat Hanh.

Tamara is a trauma-informed yoga and meditation teacher, life coach and speech-language therapist. She is a nomadic yoga teacher, who brings mindfulness based practices to community spaces including schools, churches, support groups, community centers, football fields and family reunions. Her teachings help people connect to their inner wisdom and to each other through fun, movement, stillness, and the breath.

As a teacher of yoga nidra, Tamara understands the transformative power of rest, joy, community and compassion to renew, recharge and restore us. Tamara has been featured in the magazine Yoga Journal and is a returning presenter at Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health. She is trained in meditation and mindfulness through Brown University's  Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program and is a faculty member with yoga teacher training programs offering wellness practices through meditation, movement and creativity.

Tamara shares teachings that invite us to explore curiosity, self- inquiry and to connect to community.  She has a unique ability to connect to our hearts through storytelling and fun.

Brett Cook is an interdisciplinary artist and educator who uses storytelling as a vehicle to distill complex ideas and creative practices to transform outer and inner worlds of being. Using inquiry-based approaches he designs inclusive processes and products that promote awareness and embody the complexity of loving communities.

His objects feature painting, drawing, photography, and elaborate installations to tell pluralistic stories with broad representation. His public projects typically involve community workshops featuring arts-integrated pedagogy and contemplative strategies along with music, performance, and food to create fluid boundaries between art making, daily life and healing. You can find out more about his work at brett-cook.com.

Kazu Haga is a trainer and practitioner of nonviolence and restorative justice, a core member of the Fierce Vulnerability Network, a founding core member of the Ahimsa Collective, a Jam facilitator and author of Healing Resistance: A Radically Different Response to Harm as well as the upcoming book, Fierce Vulnerability: Healing from Trauma, Emerging through Collapse.

He works with incarcerated people, youth, and activists from around the country.

He has over 25 years of experience in nonviolence and social change work. He is a resident of the Canticle Farm community on Lisjan Ohlone land, Oakland, CA, where he lives with his family. You can find out more about his work at kazuhaga.com.

Diana Parra Pérez (Shinjo — Bright Path of the Source) is a native of Bogotá, Colombia, with Indigenous and Sephardic Jewish roots, and has lived in the U.S. since 2006. She is a physical therapist who holds a Master of Public Health and a PhD in Social Work, an advanced yoga teacher, vibrational sound therapy practitioner, and a mindfulness facilitator trained through the Engaged Mindfulness Institute. A participatory action researcher, health-equity champion, community organizer, spiritual activist, weaver, and healer, Diana's work frames equity in public health and community wellbeing while supporting both systemic and individual transformation.

Since 2020, she has cultivated spaces of support, safety, belonging, and healing for the Latinx immigrant community in the U.S. through mindfulness and meditation. Deeply committed to expanding access to contemplative practice, she created and curated the five-year WashU Mindfulness and Anti-Racism Lecture Series. Equally committed to food justice and food sovereignty, she co-leads the Empowered Thriving Communities collaborative in St. Louis, Missouri. Diana practices in the Soto Zen and Plum Village tradition of the Venerable Thich Nhat Hanh.

Diana joins the Lotus Institute as Co-Executive Director, carrying forward its work at the intersection of mindfulness, racial healing, and beloved community.

Kristin Johnstad is a lay minister in the tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh, as well as a dancer, song carrier, and network weaver. Professionally, she brings over 30 years of experience in collaborating with leaders—across grassroots, organizational, and systemic levels—to develop practical, effective strategies for addressing complex social issues.

Kristin’s gifts lie in her “down-to earth” approach to teaching, facilitating and advising.

Dr. Kamilah Majied, MSW, PhD, is a mental health therapist, clinical educator, researcher, author, and internationally engaged contemplative inclusivity and equity consultant.

She works with individuals, organizations, institutions and communities to transform oppressive patterns and deepen relationships towards ever-improving wellness. Dr. Majied is Professor of Social Work at California State University, Monterey Bay. Before CSUMB, she taught for 15 years at Howard University.

She is the author of Joyfully Just: Black Wisdom and Buddhist Insights for Liberated Living, and has authored many articles and chapters, including in Black & Buddhist: What Buddhism Can Teach Us About Race, Resilience, Transformation and Freedom, the first anthology of African American Buddhists’ wisdom. Learn more at kamilahmajied.com.

Reggie Hubbard is the Founder and Chief Serving Officer of Active Peace Yoga. He has done many things, but is most proud of being a caring human, a stroke survivor, teacher/wisdom steward, strategist, organizer, spiritual advisor, minister of sound and devoted seeker of truth, compassion, health, well-being and justice for all.

Through Active Peace, he teaches all walks of life through wisdom, movement, meditation and sound, ways to cultivate well-being as a foundation rather than an afterthought. He received recognition for his pioneering teaching practice by being named as one of Yoga Journal's 2025 Teachers of the Year/One's to Watch in 2026.

His wellness journey was born of curiosity; forged in adversity due to a toxic job; and has become a lesson in surrender to the miracles that exist in focusing on what you can control with grit, grace and curiosity. His yogic and meditative practices have served as a sanctuary of peace and refuge while processing racism and the pressures of serving at the height of US politics/grassroots activism as a black man in the United States. He has nurtured an awareness of the true aims of yogic and meditation practice – liberation, open heartedness and loving service. His spiritual practice has helped him bear witness to complicated emotions (anger, grief, disappointment) while nurturing grace and ease of spirit in the midst of it all.

Reggie's life work sits at the intersection of building community, bringing more peace and balance to activists; guiding the wellness community toward being more engaged, concerned citizens; enhancing the well-being of all walks of life; and, shifting the world toward more justice for all. He is a featured speaker/thought leader on political strategy, new consciousness, wellbeing, social justice, and civic engagement for leading publications, podcasts and platforms including: Be Here Now Network, Essence, Kripalu, Mind and Life Institute, Omega Institute, SoundsTrue, Upaya Zen Center, the Wellbeing Project, Yoga Alliance, Yoga Journal and Yoga Magazine.

Lama Rod Owens is a Black Buddhist Southern Queen. An international influencer with a Master of Divinity degree in Buddhist Studies from Harvard Divinity School. Author of The New Saints: From Broken Hearts to Spiritual Warriors and Love and Rage: The Path of Liberation through Anger, and co-author of Radical Dharma: Talking Race, Love and Liberation. His teachings center on freedom, self-expression, and radical self-care.

A leading voice in a new generation of Buddhist teachers with over 11 years of experience, Lama Rod activates the intersections of his identity to create a platform that’s very natural, engaging, and inclusive. Applauded for his mastery in balancing weighty topics with a sense of lightness, the Queen has been featured by various national and international news outlets.

Highly sought after for talks, retreats, and workshops, his mission is showing you how to heal and free yourself. You can find out more about his work at lamarod.com and by signing up for his email list.