Practice Leaders/Facilitators

Suzanne (she, her), is a Practice Leader and a Kalyana Mitta (Spiritual Friends) group facilitator.  She has been practicing Vipassana meditation since 2000, including numerous retreats at Insight Meditation Society and other centers. She was trained to teach MBSR, which she incorporated into her clinical social work, specializing in mind/body and other trauma therapies. Suzanne is deeply grateful for the practice and has a strong desire to support IWM and the broader community. Suzanne served on the IWM Board from February 2023 to October 2025.

Holly (she/her)  is a Practice Leader and a co-facilitator of a Kalyana Mitta (Spiritual Friends) group. She has been practicing Vipassana meditation since the early ’80s, and has participated in several long retreats. She is a graduate of the two-year Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification Program taught by Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach and others. She is committed to building sangha and working to make our meditation spaces and organizations more inclusive, and understanding how they have been influenced by the “ideology of whiteness.” Holly is a retired clinical social worker and trauma therapist. She finds that the practice is crucial to staying sane in troubled times, and loves sharing it with others. Holly joined IWM’s Board in March of 2022.

Lore (she, her) has been involved with IWM as a member of the Beloved Community Builders committee and other working subcommittees of the Board and co-facilitating Kalyana Mitta (Spiritual Friends) groups.  She also co-facilitates White and Awakening in the Dharma and is on a journey with others to better understand how to free ourselves individually and as a Sangha from the conditioning of white supremacy culture and other forms of oppression. Introduced to the Dhamma in 1995, the path was immediately recognized as a gift and way of life.  Primary teachers have been in the Ajahn Chah/ Thai Forest Tradition and more recently the teachings of Sayadaw U Tejaniya.  The mutual support and guidance of friends on the path are treasured sustenance in daily life.

Hal (he, him) was first introduced to meditation by a Zen teacher in graduate school in 1975. He began a committed practice in the Vipassana tradition in 2008, and has attended numerous retreats at IMS including a 6-week retreat in 2018. In 2023, he completed a 16-month program jointly offered by IMS and BCBS on the foundational teachings in the Pali canon. He enjoys trying to create a wholesome space for meditation and learning from the experience of other sangha members. Hal is a Practice Leader and Kalyana Mitta Facilitator and has been a member of the Board since 2013.

Ruth Folchman is a Kalyana Mitta (Spiritual Friends) group facilitator, a psychologist and certified teacher of MBSR and MBCT for Depression. She’s been a seeker and practitioner of mindfulness for over 25 years, and endlessly grateful for how dharma supports her work and life as a partner, parent, human being, and guest in this beautiful and complicated world.

Jaya (she, her) is a Practice Leader and Kalyana Mitta (Spiritual Friends) group facilitator.  She has four decades of meditation practice in the Vedanta and Theravada traditions. She began formal practice in the 1970s and lived three years as an ordained Shankaracharya monastic. She served in several yoga/meditation centers, including as director of the Vancouver, BC, Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Center and later lived and worked at the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies. Larry Rosenberg and Joseph Goldstein were among her first Buddhist teachers.  She studied and practiced wiith Ajahns Amaro and Pasanno and graduated from the Community of Abhayagiri Lay Ministers program.  Ajahn Sucitto has been her primary teacher for the past 30 years. Jaya teaches classes in qigong and meditation and is a Gestalt-ceertified coach.   Jaya aspires to bring the Buddha’s teachings into every aspect of her daily life, and especially values time spent with spiritual friends.

Doug (he, him) discovered meditation in 2012 while pursuing a PhD in philosophy. At the time, he was looking for a way to explore and heal long-standing symptoms of depression; it worked, and what began as a short daily sit gradually blossomed into a spiritual practice that has completely transformed his life. His most influential dharma teachers have been in the Thai Forest Tradition, and he draws a lot of inspiration from the early Buddhist texts. Doug is immensely grateful for all the ways that the path has deepened and enriched his life, and he finds great joy in sharing that path with others. He joined IWM’s Board in July of 2024. Outside of IWM, he has taught philosophy at Harvard, at Bennington College, and at Deerfield Academy, where he currently teaches a mix of Eastern and Western philosophy. He is also a father, a husband, and a lover of being in the woods.

Sarah co-founded Saturday Sangha with Bernadine Mellis and continues to serve as its co-facilitator. Her practice began twenty years ago through an introduction to Vipassana and Insight meditation, and has since deepened and evolved with a growing focus on Chan Buddhism and koan study, supported by a regular retreat practice. The dharma brought Sarah to spiritual care, and she now works as a multifaith chaplain in healthcare. A parent of two, Sarah has a particular appreciation for making the dharma accessible to families, and has been involved in parent and family programming at IWM for over ten years.

Diana (she, her) is a Kalyana Mitta (Spiritual Friends) group facilitator.  She has been  practicing mindfulness, prayer, ritual and meditation in various forms for over 30 years. She has been practicing regularly with the Tuesday & Thursday IWM open practice group via zoom since 2020. She is interested in bravely reflecting on the teachings of the Buddha and how they apply to our daily lives.