Our Board
Kirsten Rudestam
Kirsten is an environmental educator, wilderness guide, and meditation teacher. She has a PhD in Environmental Sociology from the University of California, Santa Cruz where she studied political ecology, sense of place, and environmental justice. Kirsten has fifteen years of experience teaching environmental field courses, nature-based meditation programs and guiding wilderness expeditions. She is trained as a vision fast guide through the School of Lost Borders and is a facilitator for Joanna Macy’s Work that Reconnects. Kirsten has been practicing vipassana meditation since 2001 and graduated from Spirit Rock’s Community Dharma Leaders Program in 2005.
Gil Fronsdal
Gil Fronsdal is is the co-teacher at the Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City, California and the Insight Retreat Center in Santa Cruz, California. He has been teaching since 1990. Gil has practiced Zen and Vipassana since 1975 and has a Ph.D. in Buddhist Studies from Stanford. He has a B.S. in Agronomy from UC Davis where he was active in starting the Student Farm and the Alternatives in Agriculture Program. Practicing Buddhism in the wilderness has been formative for his understanding of both Buddhist practice and our relationship with the natural world.
Ram Appalaraju
Ram Appalaraju has been practicing Buddhism since 2014 and studied Vedanta since 1998 at Sri Ramakrishna Mission and Chinmaya Mission. He has been studying Buddhism under Gil Fronsdal. He is trained as an eco-chaplain and regular chaplain at Sati Center and serves as an eco-chaplain at environmental organizations. He volunteers at non-profits focused on causes relating to environmental issues and community activities particularly to underprivileged communities and he is one of the organizing team members at IMC’s Earth Care community group. He also serves as a prison chaplain at Correctional Institutions Chaplaincy of Santa Clara County CA and is currently pursuing Clinical Pastoral Education.
Kaira Jewel Lingo
Kaira Jewel Lingo is a Dharma teacher with a lifelong interest in spirituality and social justice. Her work continues the Engaged Buddhism developed by Thich Nhat Hanh, and she draws inspiration from her parents’ lives of service and her dad’s work with Martin Luther King, Jr. After living as an ordained nun for 15 years in Thich Nhat Hanh’s monastic community, Kaira Jewel now teaches internationally in the Zen lineage and the Vipassana tradition, as well as in secular mindfulness, at the intersection of racial, climate and social justice with a focus on activists, Black, Indigenous, and People of Color, artists, educators, families, and youth. Based in New York, she offers spiritual mentoring to groups and is author of We Were Made for These Times: Ten Lessons in Moving through Change, Loss and Disruption and co-author of the forthcoming, Healing Our Way Home: Black Buddhist Teachings on Ancestors, Joy and Liberation (Feb 2024) from Parallax Press. Her teachings and writings can be found at www.kairajewel.com.
Susie Harrington
Susie Harrington is the guiding teacher for Desert Dharma, based in Moab, Utah. She teaches both regionally and internationally. She has trained in the Insight tradition since 1989, and began teaching in 2005, with additional influence from Tibetan Buddhism, Advaita, and the Diamond Approach She offers retreats outside, believing nature to be a profound teacher, and a gateway to our true self. She was an outdoor professional for over 30 years, including years as a river guide, mountain guide, and backcountry ranger; and she now finds her greatest delight in sharing her love of the dharma and the natural world. She is a member of the Spirit Rock Teacher’s Council.
