Affiliated Teachers Bios

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Meg Agnew

Meg Agnew has been experiencing the healing benefits of yoga since 1986. At that time, while earning a Master's degree in Education and mothering her two-year old son, she returned to yoga to help alleviate joint pain in both wrists. Through practice, Meg found relief from her physical pain and a renewed sense of wonder and connection to the Life Force in all its magnificent forms. With a desire to share the abundant fruits of this discipline, she began teaching yoga in 1993. She was fortunate to begin studying with Phillip Moffitt in the Theravadan Buddhist tradition in 2001 and moderates the Dancing with Life discussion board on dharmawisdom.org.

Meg is a graduate of the first Mindfulness Yoga and Meditation Training at Spirit Rock Meditation Center. Currently, she is excited to be enrolled in Spirit Rock's Community Dharma Leaders program. Meg leads a weekly meditation sangha in Seattle and also benefits from her connection to the Seattle Insight Meditation community. Beautiful, rainy Seattle has been home for her and her husband, Steve Rupp, and their two children since 1987. She teaches yoga and meditation at two studios in town, Seattle Yoga Arts and Om Town Yoga.

Ed Brown

Edward Espe Brown is a Zen priest and author of The Tassajara Bread Book and Tomato Blessings, Radish Teachings. Also a student of Vipassana, yoga, cranio-sacral therapy, handwriting analysis, and chi gung, as well as a lover of poetry, his teaching style weaves together his multiplicity of interests.

Dana DePalma

Dana DePalma has practiced vipassana meditation since 1993. She is a graduate of Spirit Rock’s Community Dharma Leadership program and is in the joint Spirit Rock/Insight Meditation Center teacher-training program. She leads the dharma and meditation section of an ongoing weekly class at Spirit Rock that combines meditation and yoga. She is a psychotherapist in San Rafael, Calif., and is particularly interested in the intersection between depth psychotherapy and meditative practices. Currently, she is actively engaged in “family practice” and is the mother of an exuberant toddler.

Art Jolly

Art Jolly took an introductory meditation course in the early 1990's and sat his first residential retreat in 1995.  Since then, he’s sat numerous retreats and participated in Spirit Rock’s Dedicated Practitioners and Community Dharma Leaders Programs. In 2003 he spent five months as a monk in Burma.  He has led a sitting group in Oakland since 2006 and teaches introductory Buddhism classes for Marin Sangha. Art lives and works in the East Bay and, outside of work, enjoys dancing and the restorative power of nature.

Barbara McHugh and Bill Coffin

Barbara McHugh and Bill Coffin have been meditating for more than 20 years. They have attended many silent retreats and studied in Spirit Rock’s Dedicated Practitioner Program. They have been teaching meditation since 2006.

Barbara has a PhD in religion and literature. She currently teaches the art and craft of writing fiction. Bill worked for eight years as a professional drummer and for 20 years as a computer software developer. Bill and Barbara travel extensively, and in particular they like to chase total solar eclipses. You can find out more about them at http://www.eclipsoid.com/.

Lisa Dale Miller, MFT

Lisa Dale Miller is a mindfulness-based psychotherapist in Los Gatos, Calif., specializing in the treatment of depression, anxiety, addiction, relationship distress, and emotion dysregulation. Lisa is a presenter at conferences on the clinical applications of mindfulness and is on the faculty of eMindful.com. She teaches MBSR, MBCT, MBRP (Mindfulness-Based Relapse Prevention for addiction recovery). Lisa has been a yogic and Buddhist meditation practitioner for more than 30 years. She writes the Buddhism and Psychotherapy blog for dharmawisdom.org.

Lisa holds an M.A. in Counseling Psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute in Santa Barbara. Her masters thesis, Uncertainty, Nothingness, Beingness revisioned depression through the lenses of philosophy of quantum physics, Existential psychology, and Buddhist philososphy/psychology. To learn more about Lisa Dale Miller, visit: www.lisadalemiller.com/mbpsych.htm

Tempel Smith

Tempel Smith began practicing intensive Insight and Metta retreats in 1989 under the guidance of Jack Kornfield and Joseph Goldstein.  He spent a year as a monk in Burma with Sayadaw U Pandita and Pa Auk Sayadaw, and has been teaching since 1997. He is the founder of BASE House, a collective of Buddhist activists and service providers in San Francisco. Tempel has completed the four year teacher-training program run by Spirit Rock and Insight Meditation Society. He also leads pilgrimages to Thailand, Burma, and India.

Wendy Palmer

Wendy Palmer has been teaching classes in Conscious Embodiment and Intuition Training for 28 years and has practiced Aikido and meditation for 34 years. She is a sixth degree Black Belt in Aikido and teaches at Aikido of Tamalpais in Corte Madera, Calif. Wendy is the author of two books, The Intuitive Body and The Practice of Freedom, a DVD, Conscious Embodiment, and an audio CD, Recovering Your Center.

Gordon Peerman, D.Min.

Gordon Peerman has been a student of Phillip Moffitt’s since 2003. He has been engaged in contemplative practices, including centering prayer and mindfulness meditation, since 1975. He has practiced yoga, tai chi, and qigong since 1995.  At Spirit Rock Meditation Center, Gordon was a member of the Community Dharma Leaders training program. He writes the Buddhism & Christianity blog for dharmawisdom.org.

Gordon is an Episcopal priest and psychotherapist in private practice in Nashville, Tenn.  He teaches Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction at Vanderbilt’s Center for Integrative Health as well as mindfulness practices at Vanderbilt’s Law and Medical Schools. He is an adjunct faculty member at Vanderbilt Divinity School, where he teaches a class in Buddhist Christian Dialogue. He and his wife Kathy Woods lead the Nashville Mindfulness Meditation Group, which meets weekly at Vanderbilt Divinity School.

Gordon holds degrees from the University of Virginia, Yale, and Vanderbilt and is a member of the American Association of Pastoral Counselors. He is the author of Blessed Relief: What Christians Can Learn from Buddhists about Suffering and leads contemplative kayaking retreats in Southeast Alaska in the summer.