Steven Tierney
Steven Tierney, EdD, LPCC is Professor Emeritus Counseling Psychology at the California Institute for Integral Studies. He has been a licensed psychotherapist for more than 35 years. He is also a certified addiction specialist. Steven is an ordained Buddhist priest in the Soto Zen lineage of Suzuki Roshi. He is the Co-Founder and Chief Educational Officer of the San Francisco Mindfulness Foundation, providing relapse prevention and mindfulness-based services to individuals and families. Steven has been teaching on topics of meditation, mindfulness, addiction and mental health for more than 25 years. Dr. Tierney is a graduate of the Institute for Meditation and Psychotherapy and holds a post-graduate certificate in Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy from Boston University.
Dr. Tierney can be reached at 415-742-0215 or by email at stierney@ciis.edu.
STEVE KANJI RUHL
Reverend Steve Kanji Ruhl, MDiv, is an innovative Zen Buddhist minister ordained in the Zen Peacemaker Order by Roshi Bernie Glassman, and a lay Zen dharma holder and preceptor authorized by Roshi Eve Myonen Marko. Formerly affiliated with Green River Zen Center in western Massachusetts, he now ministers to Zen students through spiritual counseling and instruction in koans, ethical precepts, and shikantaza meditation in his Touch the Earth cyber-sangha.
Reverend Kanji received his Master of Divinity degree from Harvard University and is a Buddhist chaplain at Deerfield Academy and a Buddhist Adviser at Yale University. Kanji has been a guest speaker or workshop facilitator at Harvard’s Center for World Religions, Yale Divinity School, the International Conference on Socially Engaged Buddhism, the Omega Institute, and elsewhere. He is the author of Appalachian Zen: Journeys in Search of True Home, from the American Heartland to the Buddha Dharma and Enlightened Contemporaries: Francis, Dogen & Rumi -- Three Great Mystics of the Thirteenth Century and Why They Matter Today. He also has published two volumes of poems, The Constant Yes of Things and Paintings of Rice Cakes Satisfy Hunger. Additionally, he is a contributing author to the book The Arts of Contemplative Care: Pioneering Voices in Buddhist Chaplaincy and Pastoral Work.
More information and video at www.stevekanjiruhl.com
Carol Merchasin
Carol Merchasin is a lawyer, and a retired partner from the Philadelphia office of Morgan, Lewis and Bockius, the 10th largest law firm in the US, where she was the director of Morgan Lewis Resources, providing services in employment law training and workplace investigations to a diverse Fortune 500 client base including pharmaceuticals, technology, manufacturing, and non-profit organizations.
Ms. Merchasin has created many courses on harassment and discrimination for clients, including developing and managing a court-ordered training program for over 125,000 employees. She has conducted dozens of workplace investigations into allegations of harassment and discrimination, including those involving high level executives. In addition, she has taught strategies for conducting effective investigations to Human Resource professionals in major US corporations.
A frequent speaker on topics related to human resources, Ms. Merchasin was regularly voted one of the top ten speakers at the Society for Human Resource Management’s annual International Conference. She was also the lead author of the book, Case Dismissed: Taking Your Harassment Training to Trial, published by the American Bar Association.
DAVid Loy
David Robert Loy is a professor, writer, and Zen teacher in the Sanbo Zen tradition of Japanese Zen Buddhism. He lectures nationally and internationally on various topics, focusing primarily on the encounter between Buddhism and modernity: what each can learn from the other. He is especially concerned about social and ecological issues. A popular recent lecture is “Healing Ecology: A Buddhist Perspective on the Eco-crisis”, which reflects on an important parallel between what Buddhism says about our personal predicament and our collective predicament today in relation to the rest of the biosphere. You can hear David's podcast interview with Wisdom Publications here. He offers workshops on “Transforming Self, Transforming Society” and on Ecodharma: Buddhist Teachings for the Precipice, which is also the title of his new book available from Wisdom Publications. He is one of the founders of the Rocky Mountain Ecodharma Retreat Center near Boulder, CO. He also leads meditation retreats. His website is www.davidloy.org
PETER SCHIRESON
Peter Schireson, MEd, MFA, EdD, has enjoyed a long career, first in education (Ed.D. Harvard), then in business. His business career includes curriculum development work at Xerox Learning Systems, Director of Education at Data Resources, Inc, and Director of Education at Visicorp Personal Software. He was also Vice-President in charge of training and consulting at Enhansys, Inc, and was a founding partner of Schireson Associates. In all these roles, he was responsible for developing curriculum and training trainers, moderators, and speakers in teaching, discussion and presentation skills. He holds a Masters in Education from University of Victoria, a Doctorate in Education from Harvard University, and an MFA from the Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College. He is also an ordained Zen Buddhist priest and dharma lineage holder in the Suzuki Roshi lineage, having trained in both the U.S. and Japan. He lives in Palo Alto, California and New York City with his wife Grace, with whom he co-edited Zen Bridge: The Zen Teachings of Keido Fukushima. Since retiring from business, in addition to Zen teaching, Peter has published four poetry collections, The Salt, What Worlds and Moons, The Welter of Me & You, and most recently, Sword of Glass.
Kritee
Kritee (dharma name Kanko) is a climate scientist, Zen priest & founding dharma teacher of Boundless in Motion. She believes in identifying and releasing our personal and ecological grief and bringing our gifts into strategic collective actions for societal healing. She is committed to learning from and bringing dharma to young adults, permaculture communities, LGBTQ, black, indigenous and other people of color. She is a sensei in the Rinzai Zen lineage of Cold Mountain, the executive director of Boulder Eco-Dharma Sangha, a co-founder of Rocky Mountain Ecodharma Retreat Center and has served as a teacher for Earth-Love-Go (Lama Foundation) and One Earth Sangha. As a senior scientist in the Global Climate Program at Environmental Defense Fund she helps implement climate-smart farming at scale in India. She is trained as a microbiologist and isotope biogeochemist at Rutgers and Princeton. You can access her talks and articles here. Please email her at kritee at boundlessinmotion dot org.
daishin mccabe
Reverend Eric Daishin McCabe is a priest in the Soto Zen school of Buddhism in Japan. With a keen interest in Ecology and the World’s Faith traditions, he received his B.A. in Religion and Biology at Bucknell University in 1995. His early mentors were Prof. John Grim and Mary Evelyn Tucker with whom he studied Interfaith Dialogue with a special interest in Indigenous lifeways. He subsequently apprenticed with Patricia Dai-En Bennage Roshi of Mount Equity Zendo for 15 years. During this time, he trained at several Soto Zen Monasteries in Japan as well as in France with the Venerable Thich Nhat Hanh. In 2013, he continued training in the art of spiritual direction and Chaplaincy at Wellspan Hospital in Pennsylvania. He is recognized as an International Zen Teacher (Kokusaifukyoshi) by the Soto Shu.
At present Daishin teaches at the Pure Land of Iowa, offers Trauma Sensitive Yoga for mental health at Broadlawns Hospital, and lectures on the World Religions at Des Moines Area Community College. He resides with his wife, Reverend Sara Jisho Siebert, and their son, Malcolm, in Ames, Iowa.
Meiren Val szymanski
Val began sitting in 1987 at ZCLA; she studied with Diane Martin. In the later 1990s Val led Bamboo in the Wind Sangha in Sunnyvale and worked with both her primary teacher, Roshi Diane Martin and Taigen Dan Leighton, her California teacher. After years of committed service to the three organizations, Val was priest ordained by Diane Martin on December 8, 2002. Her focus was continued training with Diane Martin and developing Bamboo in the Wind Sangha. Moving forward to becoming Head Student at Udumbara Zen Center, Val exited Shuso in December 2005 after teaching for three months on Dongshan's Five Ranks. In June 2010 Val was Transmitted by Roshi Diane Martin in the Dainin Katagiri lineage with the name, Meiren.
Clark Strand
Clark Strand is the author of books on spirituality, religion, and ecology, including “WAKING UP TO THE DARK: Ancient Wisdom for a Sleepless Age” and “THE WAY OF THE ROSE: The Radical Path of the Divine Feminine Hidden in the Rosary,” co-authored with his wife Perdita Finn. Strand has written for Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Huffington Post, Salon, and numerous other newspaper and online venues. Strand’s first book, “SEEDS FROM A BIRTH TREE: Writing Haiku and the Spiritual Journey,” established him as a leading voice in English language haiku poetry. Today he teaches HAIKU—The Master Class, an online course on Facebook, and sponsors a weekly “Haiku Challenge” on his personal Facebook page for poets from around the world.