Guy Armstrong has practiced insight meditation for over 30 years, including training as a Buddhist monk in Thailand with Ajahn Buddhadasa. He began teaching in 1984 and has led retreats worldwide. He is an IMS guiding teacher and a governing teacher at Spirit Rock Meditation Center. He currently serves as the Chair of the Board’s Ethics Committee.
Rosemary Blake, with over 30 years experience in leadership positions in the health care industry, was most recently the Executive Director of the Health Services Retirement Plan in New York City. She is also a senior facilitator of the International Black Summit, a non-profit that provides an opportunity for participants to bring visions for the black community and the world into being. She has had a spiritual practice for more than 25 years, and currently serves as Vice President of the IMS Board.
Mark Dillon is IMS’s Facilities Manager and also staffs the organization’s Facilities Committee. Prior to his current role, he was a licensed general contractor. He earned an M.Ed. in Counseling Psychology from Cambridge College and began sitting IMS retreats in the 1990s.
Christina Feldman is an IMS guiding teacher and co-founder of Gaia House in England. She has taught meditation since 1976 and has recently been involved in the dialogue between cognitive therapies and Buddhist practice. Her books include Compassion and The Buddhist Path to Simplicity.
Joseph Goldstein is a co-founder and guiding teacher of IMS's Retreat Center and Forest Refuge programs. He has been teaching insight meditation and lovingkindness retreats worldwide since 1974 and in 1989 helped establish The Barre Center for Buddhist Studies (BCBS). The author of A Heart Full of Peace, One Dharma and other publications, he is on sabbatical in 2011.
Ed Hong was an equity trader for 10 years. In 2010, he sought a change of pace and is currently a systems analyst for FinServ Consulting, an independent management consulting provider to alternative asset management firms. He participated in his first IMS retreat in 2007 and is an active member of New York Insight. He finds great reward in service as a hospice volunteer, and plays guitar and drums.
Narayan Liebenson Grady is a guiding teacher of IMS and the Cambridge Insight Meditation Center and a regular contributor to Buddhadharma magazine. Her training includes over 30 years in the Theravada tradition as well as in Chan with the late Master Sheng Yen.
Allyson Pimentel is a psychologist, yoga teacher and long-time practitioner of insight meditation. She serves as Director of Training of the Mind-Body Program at Bellevue Hospital Center and is a clinical instructor of Psychiatry at the NYU School of Medicine. She is a dedicated meditation student at New York Insight Meditation Center and teaches meditation and yoga at Om Factory Yoga and Wellness Center.
Martin Ravin has been in Private Equity since 1983. He co-founded and serves as CEO of Harvest Investors Management and is Chairman of the Board of Harvest Strategy Group. He earned his B.S. in Business Management from Long Island University and has attended Executive Management Programs at Dartmouth College and the University of Virginia. He has been practicing meditation for 13 years, the last 10 at IMS.
John Ryan is the principal of Development Cycles, a consulting firm that specializes in land use and affordable housing planning for New England communities. He is a Harvard Graduate who has been attending retreats at IMS since 1997. He currently serves as the Chair of the Board’s Facilities Committee.
Sharon Salzberg, a co-founder of IMS and BCBS, has practiced Buddhist meditation since 1971 and has been teaching worldwide since 1974. She is an IMS guiding teacher and author of Faith, Lovingkindness and Real Happiness.
Rodney Smith has taught insight meditation since 1984. He is a former Buddhist monk and worked in hospice care for 17 years. The author of Lessons From the Dying and Stepping Out of Self-Deception, he founded and guides Seattle Insight Meditation Society. He is also an IMS guiding teacher.
Linda Spink started her insight meditation practice in 2005 and began attending retreats at IMS in 2006. As a senior consultant with TRG, an International Consulting company, she provides executive coaching and assists public and private sector clients in strategic planning, performance improvement and capacity building training. She began her international career as a Peace Corps volunteer in Mauritania, West Africa and has traveled and worked in over 40 countries. She currently serves as the Board’s Treasurer and Chair of the Finance Committee.
Francine Thomas has been attending IMS retreats for 12 years and has 25 years’ experience in Human Resources in the education and banking sectors. For the past seven years, her primary business has been investing in and managing property. She has served on numerous Boards including United Way and is presently chairperson of the 126 96th Street Coop in New York City where she resides.
Steve Tuttleman, a co-founder of SeaCap Ventures, is president of Instar Capital, a New York City investment company that specializes in acquisitions of privately held middle market operating companies. A graduate of The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Law School of NYU, he is on the advisory boards of Hirtle, Callaghan, LLR Equity, Performance, Inc., and the Tuttleman Family Foundation. He currently serves as IMS's Board’s President.
DaRa Williams has a strong background of training and work in the arena of diversity, trauma and oppression psychology, which includes understanding racism and all the other ‘isms’ in our culture. She has attended numerous retreats at IMS over the last ten years and currently serves as the Chair of the Governance Committee.
Carol Wilson has been practicing insight meditation since 1971 with a variety of teachers, including Sayadaw U Pandita and Ashin U Tejaniya, as well as spending a year as a nun in Thailand. An IMS guiding teacher, she has been offering retreats worldwide since 1986, including the annual IMS Three-Month course.
Bill Woodson is President of Brooks Woodson Associates LLC, an international consulting firm specializing in managing organizational change and developing highly productive work teams that value diversity. He is also a psychologist and psychotherapist who has had private practices in California and New York. He has practiced meditation at IMS and at New York Insight Meditation Center for five years.
