Hugh Byrne, Ph.D. has studied and practiced Buddhism (in the Theravadan and Zen traditions) in the U.S., Europe, and Asia. His primary teacher has been Christopher Titmuss. Hugh is a contributing Buddhist minister at Georgetown University and a co-founder of the Washington Buddhist Peace Fellowship. He teaches classes on Buddhism and meditation for the Smithsonian Resident Associate Program.
Kirtan Coan, MA, LPC, CAGS is an artist, educator and practicing psychotherapist. Kirtan is a Community Dharma Leader from the Spring Rock Meditation Center in California and has been guiding the Forest Brook Sangha of Winston-Salem for over 5 years. She also teaches taiqi and gigong at the North Carolina School of the Arts and yoga at Arts of Yoga Studio in Winston-Salem. Kirtan aspires to touch our creative potential for intimacy, insight, dialogue and communal awakening.
Bob & Carol Colacurcio are long time Nyingma Tibetan Buddhist practitioners under the guidance of His Holiness Pema Norbu (Penor) Rinpoche, Supreme Head of the tradition. Bob first started meditating as a Jesuit monk & has a PhD in philosophy. Carol is also a "sound practitioner" & classical musician. She has worked for several years sharing sacred/indigenous sounds & music for treating physical, mental, & emotional imbalances.
Jonathan Foust is president emeritus and a senior teacher at Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health. He started a consistent meditation practice at the age of 15 and has studied numerous disciplines from both the Yogic and Buddhist traditions. Jonathan has been leading meditation retreats for over 20 years and he is on the Teacher's Council of the Insight Meditation Community of Washington (IMCW).
Susan Stone Ph.D has practiced meditation for 25 years in the Zen and Theravada traditions. Ordained as a Zen lay priest, Susan is author of At the Eleventh Hour, about Mindfulness and caregiving; The American Mosaic, about workforce diversity; and articles on Mindfulness. She teaches Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction at the University of Virginia & founded a Mindfulness group at a maximum-security men's prison and currently co-leads a similar group at a women's prison in Virginia.
Erik Knud-Hansen has practiced and taught deep silent retreats since 1972. He has experience and knowledge of a broad range of Buddhist traditions, as well as in Taoism and Advaita Vedanta. He currently lives in Hawaii.
Anne Briggs is one of the founders of the Insight Meditation Community of Chestertown, MD (IMC-Chestertown) which was organized in Spring 2001. Anne has been practicing vipassana meditation for 10 years and has studied and praciticed mainly with teachers associated with the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, MA and the Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Woodacre, CA. In January 2008, she completed the Community Dharma Leader training program sponsored by Spirit Rock and currently serves as the Guiding Teacher at Chestertown.
Many of our teachers are from the Insight Meditation Community of Washington, DC [IMC-W]. We are partciularly grateful to Dave Scoff and Jon Waterman of the IMC-W whose guidance and teaching were so helpful to our developing these programs. Among the IMC-W teachers who have come to Lewes are:
Jon Waterman Jon Waterman began practicing yoga and meditation while teaching the martial arts in the early seventies, with a concentration, since 1994, on Buddhist insight meditation. His workshops and retreats focus on strengthening continuity of present moment awareness by combining mindful movement, insight dialogue and meditation techniques. Jon has a personal coaching practice and is a founding partner of Mind Body Health Associates, a group dedicated to bringing applied mindfulness, via Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction programs, to hospitals, universities and the workplace. He has been leading Stress Management programs within the Maryland Department of Corrections since 2000.