Susie Harrington teaches meditation nationwide and is the guiding teacher for Desert Dharma, which serves many communities in the Southwest near her home in Moab, Utah. She has trained in the Insight tradition since 1989, and in 2005 was invited into teaching by Jack Kornfield, Joseph Goldstein, and Guy Armstrong. She has also received teachings from many others, including Tory Capron, Adyashanti, and Tsoknyi Rinpoche. She often offers retreats outside, believing nature to be a profound teacher, and a gateway to our true self. Her teaching is deeply grounded in the body and often emphasizes the expression of mindfulness in speech and daily life. Susie brings the skills of inquiry, relational dharma, and the psychological/spiritual interface to her teaching, informed by her ongoing study of the Diamond Approach by A.H.Almaas and as a graduate of Hakomi Therapy (a somatic psychotherapy modality). She offers a two-year intensive program, Dharma in Daily Life, where she delights in mentoring the innate qualities of heart and wisdom in everyday practice. Her practice is rooted in periods of long retreat both indoors and outdoors, which offer nourishment and inspiration for her teaching. She was an outdoor professional for over 30 years, including years as a river guide, mountaineering guide, and backcountry ranger, and now finds her greatest delight in sharing her love of the dharma and the natural world.

Ayya Anandabodhi first encountered the Buddha’s teaching in her early teens, which ignited a deep interest in the Buddha’s Path of Awakening. She has practiced meditation since 1989, and lived in Amaravati and Chithurst monasteries in the UK from 1992 for 18 years. In 2009 she moved to the U.S. on invitation of the Saranaloka Foundation, to help establish Aloka Vihara, a training monastery for women, where she now resides.She took leave of the Ajahn Chah lineage in 2011, in order to take full bhikkhuni ordination. The teachings and example of Ajahn Chah continue to be an influence and inspiration in her practice and teaching.

Dawn Scott has been practicing insight meditation since 2008. She has taught teen retreats and led Spirit Rock Meditation Center’s family program for many years. She is currently completing the Insight Meditation Society’s four-year teacher training program and she is part of the core teaching team for Spirit Rock’s Advanced Practitioner Program. Dawn has a deep love of long retreat practice and enjoys sharing teachings that lead to awakening.

Denise Ackert Denise has been practicing Insight Meditation since 1986, training in the US, India, and Nepal and teaching meditation at the Salida Insight Meditation Community since 2012. Her core teachers include John Travis, Brian Lesage, Susie Harrington, Erin Treat and many other Spirit Rock and IMS teachers. Denise has studied with teachers from other Buddhist lineages including Anam Thubten and Tsoknyi Rinpoche. Her background as a yoga teacher, body worker, and environmental scientist deeply informs her focus on nature and embodied practice. In addition, she teaches meditation in schools, jails, non-profit organizations, businesses and on the trail. Denise is a graduate of the Nature Dharma Teacher Training with Susie Harrington, Mark Coleman and Gil Fronsdal.

Jaya Rudgard began meditating in 1984, after first hearing the dharma at Chithurst from Ajahn Sumedho and Kittisaro. After graduating from Oxford she trained as a lawyer in the City of London but left to spend eight years as a nun at Amaravati and Chithurst monasteries. She has been a student of Kittisaro and Thanissara and their Kuan Yin practices for many years. A graduate of the Spirit Rock and IMS teacher training, she has been teaching retreats internationally since 2014, and also works with Oxford University’s Mindfulness centre and the Mindfulness Network in the UK. Aside from teaching dharma she also teaches qigong, and loves the somatic as well as the devotional dimensions of chanting and bowing practices, and the way that chanting brings the ancient Pali texts to life.

Kathy Cheney has studied and practiced meditation and the Dharma since 2000, in the Insight and Soto Zen traditions. Kathy was introduced to Buddhist teachings when she went to Spirit Rock Meditation Center as a volunteer for the Family Program. Kathy has sat retreats for many years at Spirit Rock, Gaia House and other centers. Kathy has taught meditation to children and adults in the San Francisco Bay Area and is currently living in Volcano HI, where she co-leads a meditation group. Kathy has been managing meditation retreats and coordinating programs for Spirit Rock Meditation Center since 2011 and is the Retreat Coordinator for the Aloka Vihara Nun’s retreats.

Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, Colorado Western Slope Poet Laureate, lives in Southwest Colorado with her husband and two children. Her poetry collections include The Less I Hold, The Miracle Already Happening: Everyday life with Rumi, Intimate Landscape and Holding Three Things at Once (Colorado Book Award finalist). Her work has also appeared on A Prairie Home Companion, in O Magazine, on back alley fences, in her children’s lunchboxes, and on rocks she leaves around town. In addition to writing, Rosemerry leads writing workshops for hospice, recoveryprograms, women’s groups, teachers and people who think they hate poetry. Sheperforms with a poetry troupe, teaches poetry in schools, sings with an 8-woman a cappella group, and leads a poetry discussion series.