We are an extensive community of trained professionals, dedicated to empowering teens and young adults in a supportive environment.
iBme teachers, assistant teachers, and mentors are professionals in the areas of mindfulness, health, and education, and bring years of personal mindfulness practice to their roles – modeling authenticity, compassion, and respect. Find out more about our teachers and assistant teachers below.
If you are interested in becoming an iBme retreat staff member, please complete our application form. Please note, some retreat mentor positions are unpaid.
Teachers
Anthony Maes
Anthony “T” Maes found mindfulness during college when struggling with addiction, and it saved his life. He has practiced mindfulness meditation since 2003 including many weeklong and monthlong silent retreats. He’s been teaching teens in mindfulness retreats and weekly class formats since 2009 for various organizations including Spirit Rock and IBME. On retreat he enjoys teaching emotional intelligence, diversity and inclusion, relational mindfulness, multi-racial liberation, and acrobalance. He is a teacher and coordinator of the weekly Teen Sangha meditation group at East Bay Meditation Center. He has worked as a wilderness mentor for middle-school boys with Stepping Stones Project and Back To Earth. He is passionate about supporting college-aged young adults, and has founded a leadership program for “aged out” iBme alumni. “T” graduated from UC Berkeley in 2004, completed the yearlong Commit2Dharma program at East Bay Meditation Center in 2011, and is currently part of the Community Dharma Leaders training at Spirit Rock Meditation Center.
Barnaby Willett
Barnaby Willett is Director of Program Development at the nonprofit Peace in Schools, which offers semester-long mindfulness classes in public high schools. He teaches mindfulness at Cleveland High School in Portland, Oregon. Barnaby has practiced mindfulness since 1994. He is certified to teach a 12-week curriculum in Mindfulness-Based Substance Abuse Treatment for Adolescents (MBSAT). Barnaby was formerly employed in finance and investment management. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in English from Pomona College.
B. Anderson
Bea Anderson (they/them/theirs) has been working as a meditator and transformative justice space holder for over six years. Bea calls up the traditions, legacies, and medicine of their southern Black American, Jamaican Maroon, and Choctaw ancestry as their healing arts praxis.
In 2008, Bea began training as a Buddhist dharma teacher, community organizer, and music therapist. Later, in 2019, they became a somatic healing therapy practitioner offering a private practice supporting individuals, families, and organizations internationally.
Bea Anderson was a founding member of Harriet’s Apothecary, a healing collective that envisions a world where Black, Indigenous, and People of color have the power, healing, and safety needed to live the lives we desire for ourselves and our communities. Bea currently acts as the founder and director of Song of The Spirit Institute, an international online learning environment supporting the sustainability, health, and well-being of Indigenous peoples, culture, and lands across the globe.
Cara Lai
Cara Lai spent most of her life trying to figure out how to be happy, or at least avoid total misery, which landed her on a meditation cushion for the majority of her adulthood. She’s explored the wild beauty of the human experience through many adventures in consciousness, including a few mind-bendingly long meditation retreats, chronic illness, and the profound experience of motherhood.
In the past, Cara has worked as an artist, wilderness guide, social worker and psychotherapist, but at this point she’s given up on being an adult in exchange for an all-out mindfulness rampage. Her teaching is relatable, authentic, funny and sometimes crass, and is accessible for many people. She teaches teens and adults at Inward Bound Mindfulness Education, Spirit Rock, Insight Meditation Society, and UCLA; ultimately hoping to be able to bend spoons with her mind. And to help people be happier.
Devon Sangster Rath
Devon Sangster Rath has been practicing mindfulness since 1997. She graduated with her Master’s in Social Work from the University of Pennsylvania in 2002. Since that time she has worked with teens in many different capacities. Currently she works part time for Mindful Schools as a guiding teacher for their yearlong teacher training program and full time as a Social Worker in a public high school in San Francisco. There, she teaches mindfulness to both students and staff. Devon identifies as a queer woman and is heartfelt about the power of mindfulness practice to increase peace and freedom for all.
Dori Langevin
Dori began meditating in 1985 while attending a monthlong retreat at Esalen Institute entitled Mystical Quest: Attachment, and Addiction. During that retreat the mindfulness and compassion meditations and the teachings of suffering and freedom from suffering mirrored her direct experience of addiction and recovery (1980) and her professional work with others. Her meditation practice became the wellspring of her life.
In 1996 Dori moved from Moscow, Russia to the Washington DC area and met Tara Brach who founded Insight Meditation Community of Washington and invited Dori to teach in 2003. IMCW became the community ground of her life. Dori graduated from the 4-year Spirit Rock/IMS Teacher Training in 2010. She began teaching Teen Retreats in 2008 in Virginia and co-developed iBme Teen Retreats in the Pacific Northwest where she currently lives. Dori is delighted and feels honored to again be part of iBme Teen Retreats.
Enrique Collazo
Enrique Collazo is a new generation Mindfulness meditation teacher. Born and raised in Los Angeles and has been teaching and living in the Bay Area for the last 6 years. His passion is teaching the practice of mindfulness to teens. He is well loved and respected for his inspirational work at Challenge Day during the school year where he facilitates social and emotional learning workshops for thousands of young people all over the country. Enrique’s skill with teens has led to teaching internationally for Inward Bound Mindfulness Education. He is on the Guiding Teacher Counsel and Equity and Interdependence Committee for Ibme. Enrique is a frequent co-facilitator for teens at Spirit Rock and a committed advocate for bringing meditative interventions into jails and addiction treatment facilities.Enrique is a champion for helping young people create pathways that align with their goals and deepest intentions, and empowering them to broaden their confidence by opening their eyes to what’s possible when negative internal narrative is transformed into positive effort.He believes deeply in the power of marginalized voices to change the world.
Enrique was trained by Noah Levine and Vinny Ferraro at Against the Stream Buddhist Meditation Society.
Eric Busse
Eric Michael B. is a teacher, facilitator, and researcher with a passion for transformation and justice. Informed by years of intensive meditation practice across a range of traditions, Eric specializes in teaching mindfulness and other contemplative practices to help individuals and communities navigate issues related to power, ethics, difference, and complexity with creativity and care. After studying performance and critical race theory as an undergraduate at the University of Wisconsin- La Crosse, Eric earned a Master of Bioethics degree (M.B.E.) focusing on trauma and health equity from Harvard Medical School, a Master of Divinity degree (M.Div.) in social ethics and contemplative studies from Harvard Divinity School, and an interdisciplinary graduate certificate in child protection from the Harvard FXB Center for Health and Human Rights. Eric currently studies the intersections of embodiment, mortality, and moral development as a doctoral student at Fielding Graduate University. He has collaborated with iBme in various capacities since 2015, and he’s a proud graduate of iBme’s Teacher Training Program. Eric is a lover of dance who believes in the power of art, community, and contemplative practice to change the world. His personal practice and professional collaborations strive to honor the wisdom of philosopher and community organizer Grace Lee Boggs: “To transform the world, we must transform ourselves.”
Erin Oke
Erin teaches meditation and is the Executive Director at the Consciousness Explorers Club, an innovative contemplative community based in Toronto. Her focus is on meditation for self-care and emotional well being and she has taught mindfulness skills in health care, education, corporate and non-profit settings. She has guided meditating teenagers on iBme’s Toronto Teen Retreats and taught mindfulness to high schoolers for KidEvolve. She served as Youth Programs Coordinator for EHM from 2007-2018, running a centre providing free programs for low-income children and youth designed to foster confidence and creativity. She also studied and worked in theatre for many years, and loves to infuse her teaching with a sense of play and creative exploration. Erin is passionate about the confluence of meditation practice and social justice, and using mindfulness in the service of caring better for oneself and others.
Jessica Morey
Jessica Morey leads meditation retreats across the US and offers one to one meditation coaching. She is a co-founder and lead teacher for Inward Bound Mindfulness Education. She began practicing meditation at age 14 on teen retreats offered by IMS. She is currently in the IMS 2017-2021 Teacher Training Program. Before joining iBme, Jessica worked in clean energy and climate policy and finance. She holds a BA in Environmental Engineering and Masters degrees in Sustainable Development and International Affairs. She loves dancing, yoga, and being in nature.
Joe Klein
Joe Klein, LPC, is the lead clinician of a mindfulness-based addiction treatment program in rural Virginia. He began practicing meditation in 2001, began staffing teen retreats in 2007, and is a co-founder of iBme. Since 2010, Joe has been teaching a graduate course at Radford University and leading retreats and workshops on mindfulness practice for college students, counselors, social workers, and education professionals. Joe brings playfulness, Earth connection, and whole person engagement to his ways of teaching and embodying mindfulness practice.
Jose Shinzan Palma
Jose Shinzan Palma was born in Veracruz, Mexico. He is a Zen Buddhist Priest. He has been practicing Zen since 1996. He did a residential training for 4 years at the Zen Buddhist Temple in Toronto, Canada. He lived and trained in Upaya Zen Center for over 8 years. He is a Dharma Successor of Roshi Joan Halifax. He has taught Zazenkais and Sesshins at Upaya and has staffed Teen Retreats for Spirit Rock Center and iBme. He is a guest teacher in a Zen Buddhist Temple in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. Shinzan left the residency of Upaya and he is the founder of Open Gate Zen Collective in San Diego. His vision is to work with youth and also create a Zen Hispanic community in the USA and Mexico.
Josh Kehler
Bio coming soon!
Kaira Jewel Lingo
Kaira Jewel Lingo teaches Buddhist meditation, mindfulness, and compassion internationally, with a focus on children, families, and young people. She began practicing mindfulness in 1997. She was an ordained nun of 15 years in Thich Nhat Hanh’s Order of Interbeing, and now leads retreats in the U.S. and internationally, offering mindfulness programs for educators and youth in schools. She also leads retreats for people of color, activists and artists. In addition to teaching in the Zen tradition and secular mindfulness, she is Spirit Rock-trained teacher in the Vipassana lineage. She explores the interweaving of art, play, ecology and spiritual practice and is a certified yoga teacher and InterPlay leader. She teaches and mentors regularly with Schumacher College, Sangha Live, iBme, the Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification Program, the Power of Awareness online course, and is a guiding teacher for One Earth Sangha, and formerly with Mindful Schools. She edited Thich Nhat Hanh’s Planting Seeds: Practicing Mindfulness with Children. She loves teaching and practicing with teens and young people and has been teaching with iBme since 2015.
Khalila Archer
Khalila Archer is a mindfulness and yoga instructor with 20+ years of personal practice. Introduced to yoga and meditation in her teen years, she has attended many multi-day silent meditation retreats, including two month-long retreats. Her background includes over a decade as a wilderness educator leading multi-day expeditions for a variety of educational organizations, as well as teaching interdisciplinary curriculum in formal classroom settings and beyond. She holds a B.A. in Adventure-based Environmental Education from Prescott College and over 500 Yoga Teacher Training hours. Khalila teaches meditation retreats for all ages through Inward Bound Mindfulness Education (iBme) in both residential settings and remote wilderness environments. Her teaching is grounded in nature awareness and connection, mindfulness meditation as a means for insight, care, and well-being, and social justice praxis that recognizes our interdependence and collective need for freedom. Khalila currently serves on the Teachers Advisory Committee and is part of the core faculty for the iBme Mindfulness Teacher Training.
Mark Wax
Mark Wax is deeply grateful to be working with iBme. Mark has been practicing meditative arts for 20+ years, and is a passionate student/practitioner/devotee of several culturally rooted wisdom traditions. He has worked for Yoga International, The Himalayan Institute, and Spirit Rock Meditation Center. He has had the privilege to spend many months of his life on silent meditation retreats as well as 5+ years deepening his practice through living in spiritually-centered communities. He has multiple certificates as a yoga teacher and an Ayurvedic Yoga Specialist.
Mark has worn many hats at iBme since first mentoring on a retreat in 2015. He participated in the first cohort of iBme’s Teacher Training and currently helps lead retreats and other programming as well as serves on the Teachers Advisory Council and a few other committees inside of iBme’s collaborative leadership system.
Mark currently lives in Northern New Mexico and spends his free time learning music and language, connecting to the natural world, supporting grassroots activism for heart-centered systemic change, and writing poems that sometimes come out pretty good if he may say so…
Marvin G. Belzer
Marvin G. Belzer, PhD, has taught mindfulness meditation for over fifteen years and is an Adjunct Associate Professor at the UCLA Mindful Awareness Research Center. For many years he taught a semester-long meditation course in the Department of Philosophy at Bowling Green St. University, where he was a Professor of philosophy. He and Diana Winston were instrumental in developing week-long mindfulness retreats for teens in the mid-1990s.
Mick Neustadt
Mick Neustadt is a long time mindfulness and meditation practitioner and clinical social worker. As a result of 20 years of personal practice Mick has experienced the profound benefits of mindfulness. He realizes that we have a great capacity to connect deeply with our full selves and others. Through dedicated practice we can transform the way that we relate to ourselves, those closest to us, and the world. With his rich background as a therapist, former school teacher and coach, Mick brings a wide range of skills and dedication to helping teens and adults on their journey of self exploration. Since 2011 he has formally taught mindfulness to teens in schools, on retreats and a weekly group. He has also taught teachers in schools, and teaches a weekly group for adults. Mick has completed numerous trainings for teaching mindfulness to teens and is also a Level 2 iRest Yoga Nidra teacher.
Nina Bryce
Nina [she/her] supports people in cultivating embodied presence as a way of coming home to themselves. She is a mindfulness facilitator rooted in multiple lineages of meditative practice, including both stillness and movement. Starting with her spiritual roots in her Jewish-Buddhist upbringing in a family of meditators, through her teen years as a student and eventually teacher of yoga, and into her training in Buddhist spiritual care and secular mindfulness education, Nina is grateful for a life path that has allowed her to explore contemplative practice in many forms. Nina holds a Master of Divinity, focused in the Buddhist Ministry Initiative, from Harvard Divinity School. Through her graduate studies as an M.Div, she is trained in facilitation of multifaith contemplative practice, interfaith chaplaincy, and leading mindfulness programs in both religious and secular settings, ranging from teen camp at a monastery to the cancer floor of a hospital. Her formal meditation practice and teaching has been shaped most by the Insight Meditation tradition, in which she was raised and continues to practice, and by the Plum Village tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh. Nina is also trained as an RYT-200 yoga teacher in Vinyasa and Kundalini yoga, and her approach to leading mindful movement is informed by both yoga and modern dance. Nina is currently training as a non-denominational Spiritual Director with Still Harbor. She completed the iBme Mindfulness Teacher Training in 2018, and has been involved with iBme teen and college mindfulness retreats since 2014. She especially loves LGBTQIA+ mindfulness community, both as a participant & as a facilitator. As a Mindfulness Director with Mindfulness Director Initiative, she currently leads mindfulness programs at Harvard College. Nina is energized by working with young adults, because she believes that these years are ripe with potential for inquiry into core questions of who we are and how we relate to the world. She is inspired by the way that youth long for, and create, spaces where they can reflect honestly on their experiences, learn to take care of themselves and others, and build authentic, loving communities that support deep well-being and freedom.
Ofosu Jones-Quartey
Ofosu Jones-Quartey is a meditation teacher and musician from the Washington DC area. He has been teaching mindfulness and meditation to young people and adults since 2004. He is currently the male voice on the Balance meditation app and he teaches meditation and mindfulness classes and retreats around the country when travel is possible and virtually when it is not. Ofosu has taught and led retreats at the Insight Meditation Community of Washington, The Insight Meditation Society, Spirit Rock, Brooklyn Zen Center, Cleveland Insight and more.Ofosu is also an accomplished hip hop artist and author. He recently released an album entitled “In This Moment” and has performed at the Kennedy Center in support of the project. His live events are considered a hip-hop and meditation experience and he is a member of the DC Chapter of the Recording Academy. Ofosu’s children’s book “You Are Enough” is currently available on Amazon, a follow up children’s book will be released in Fall of 2022.Ofosu’s philosophy is that everyone is deserving of their own love and compassion and that inner work is the way in which we begin to change the world for the better. All of the work he does in the world is meant to support this idea. Ofosu currently lives in Rockville, Maryland with his wife and their four children.
Sara Shapouri
Sara Shapouri is an Iranian-American meditation teacher, artist, parent, and lawyer. A lover of maps and guides to help understand the wildness of human experience, her path and offerings are influenced by Theravada and Mahayana Buddhism, Jungian and Depth Psychology, Indigenous Focusing Oriented Therapy, relational mindfulness, esoteric mystical traditions, and stand up comedy.
Tuere Sala
Tuere Sala is a retired prosecuting attorney who has practiced Vipassana meditation for over 25 years. She has been an active member and volunteer at Seattle Insight since 2001. In 2009, she was appointed to be a Local Dharma Leader and has often supported SIMS in unconventional ways such as answering the many letters SIMS receives from practitioners in prison; offering beginning classes at Angeline Women’s shelter and Jubilee House, a women’s transitional house; and facilitating workshops using nonviolent communication (NVC) to support a mindfulness practice.
Tuere believes that urban meditation is the foundation for today’s practitioner’s path to liberation. She is inspired by bringing the Dharma to nontraditional places and is a strong advocate for practitioners living with high stress, past trauma and difficulties sitting still. Her teachings reflect an approach to Dharma that is both easy to follow and understand – making it accessible to everyone.
Tuere has completed extensive trainings including: the 2 Year Spirit Rock/IMS Community Dharma Leader Program; a 1 Year Focusing for Complex Trauma Course which incorporates mindfulness principles with somatic listening and a 1 Year Mindfulness-Based Mind Fitness Training Course (MMFT) which incorporates mindfulness principles within the high stress work environments of first responders. She has sat 300+ days of meditation retreat (including residential, non-residential and day-longs) and has a long history of assisting others in establishing and maintaining a daily practice.
Zac Ispa-Landa
Zac Ispa-Landa (he/him) is a teacher, father, beekeeper and student of the Dharma. Since a young age, he has been deeply curious about the nature of mind, magic, dreams, and the mystery of consciousness. He’s practiced and studied meditation for 20 years – primarily Vipassana (insight) meditation and, more recently, Vajrayana Buddhism. His practice is supported by a broad and eclectic mix of teachings and methods. For the last five years, his primary teacher has been Lama Rod Owens.
At iBme, he is a lead teacher on teen retreats and core faculty in the Teacher Training Program. He’s also a Senior Lecturer in the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources at the University of Vermont and works with people throughout the country as a mindfulness teacher and Dharma facilitator.
He believes we are living in unprecedented times that call for new ways of knowing and being and is devoted to awareness practice as a path towards individual and collective liberation. His practice is inspired by interdependence, diversity, mystery, and the possibility of awakening.
Zac lives in Winooski, Vermont with his partner, son, and tens of thousands of honeybees.
Assistant Teachers
Anna Johns
Anna Johns, E-RYT, IMTA CMT-P
Anna grew up in India, where yoga and mindfulness practices were an integral part of life. From a young age, she watched her father meditate in the woods and was encouraged to join him.
These seeds began to sprout when she moved to Hong Kong where she was drawn to the practices and began her training with Indian Master, Kamal Srinivas in 2001, followed by extensive training in the U.S. including Duke University’s Therapeutic Yoga and the 2-year Mindfulness Meditation Certification Program (with Dr. Tara Brach, Dr. Jack Kornfield and UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center). She has completed Sati Center’s year long Introduction to Buddhist Chaplaincy and has trained in the skills and character that are needed in offering Spiritual Care.
Anna’s teaching is also influenced through her studies with luminaries such as Jonathan Foust, Rick Hanson, Lama Surya Das and ongoing learning from the teachings of HH The Dalai Lama, Thich Nhat Hanh, Pema Chödrön, Frank Ostaseski and Ajahn Brahm.
Anna is a teacher at Insight Meditation Community of Washington DC, (IMCW – founded by Tara Brach), and serves on the Board of Directors. She is a co-founder of IMCW’s Asian Sangha and is a mentor with Inward Bound Mindfulness Education teen retreats. She is a Certified Mindfulness Teacher – Professional (CMT-P) with the International Mindfulness Teachers Association.
Anna’s life has transformed through her practices and she brings her gifts forth through her family, her classes and with clients. She lives with her husband, two human and two non-human children.
Day Nyugen
Day is a queer homie born to spunky, loving Vietnamese parents fleeing civil war. Day dropped out of undergrad to become a monastic disciple and attendant of Zen Master Thích Nhất Hạnh and the Plum Village Community. A decade later Day went forth (leaving their monastic robes behind) to pursue passions of trauma integration and Classical Chinese Medicine. Before leaving Plum Village Day received the Lamp Transmission, recognizing their abiding commitment to building beloved communities. When not studying acupuncture & herbalism, they can be found mentoring youth or facilitating one-on-one trauma work.
Em Morrison
Em loves nothing more than creating safe, fun, and healthy spaces for teens and adults to flourish. She’s taught mindfulness at after school programs, summer camps, and on young adult and teen retreats. She began practicing meditation in 2011 because she was having the best day of her life (just kidding). She is honored to have the chance to share the tools that have brought her so much joy, contentment, and peace in her life.
Jacqui Clay
Board President, Equity and Interdependence Committee Member Photo: Path at Insight Meditation Center
Jen Zehler
Jen Zehler is a certified teacher and received her undergraduate degree in Early Childhood Education at New Jersey City University and her Master’s Degree in Mindfulness Studies at Lesley University. She is also a graduate of the Women’s Leadership Institute program at Hartford Seminary. Jen completed teacher training with Inward Bound Mindfulness Education (iBme) and is a Qualified Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) teacher, and has received training through Mindful Schools, Mindful Life, and Mindfulness In Schools Project (.b). She also holds certification in Restorative Justice Circle Keeping from Planning Change and has completed trauma training for working with youth through The Center for Adolescent Studies. Jen resides in Barre, MA at The Barre Center for Buddhist Studies (BCBS), and Jamaica Plain, MA. She enjoys biking, pickleball, creative arts, and reading.
Joe Clements
Bio coming soon!
Kiki Williams
Kiki Williams (she/they) is a black, queer, interdisciplinary teacher, meditator, yogi, and dancer. She is both a movement and mindfulness-enthusiast, weaving together these modalities to support a fully-embodied approach to both individual and collective healing.
After spending 9 beautiful years in Brooklyn, NY, Kiki now lives in Oakland, CA. She is propelled by the belief that all people have the innate right to thrive, experience unmitigated joy, and to be free, beginning with the freedom we each have the capacity to feel in and through our own bodies. Much of her own practice comes out of weekly hiking trips with her family during childhood, where she was introduced to a quiet and connection with the earth that she would only later come to understand as a profound source of wisdom and deeply necessary for healing. Her earth-based practices lead her to receive her 200-hr YTT with Greenhouse Holistic (Brooklyn, NY) in 2014, children’s yoga certification with Bent On Learning (New York, NY) in 2015, and a 300-hr YTT with Abhaya Yoga (Brooklyn, NY) in 2019. In Kiki’s classes you’ll find an authenticity of presence in the form of story-telling, making mistakes, laughing together about it, and care and attention to everyone in the room. She draws from her dance background, various yoga traditions, and her practice of Buddhism and meditation to craft classes that engage the body, quiet the mind, and soften the heart.
Lawrence Schuessler
Bio coming soon!
Nannette Weinhold
After attending Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon, Nannette began her professional journey as a passionate experiential educator. She taught in a very rural Oregon school district before moving to the Rocky Mountains with her family to attend Naropa University. There her spiritual journey began as a contemplative educator, meditator, and yogini. Nannette is committed to helping young people thrive and have the confidence to be their true selves. She enjoys working with teens and being a positive presence in their lives. Nannette runs a summer mindfulness and art camp for middle school students and periodically teaches mindful parenting classes in her community. She also works with high school students teaching them meditation and helping them pursue their passions. Nannette is working toward her PhD in Somatic and Spiritual Psychology from the International University of Professional Studies, under the mentorship of psychotherapist, Matt Licata PhD. Her dissertation entails using contemplative photography to help young people see directly the world in which they live. Through contemplative photography, young people can experience a deeper connection to their inner and outer worlds. At this time there are no future plans except to joyfully be of service and to support those who are bringing forth goodness in the world.
Seonjoon Young
Bio coming soon!
Soroosh Vafapoor
Soroosh first encountered mindfulness while travelling in Thailand. Since then, he has spent time in different retreat settings all across the world, always looking for different ways and expressions of mindfulness practice. He believes that each individual can work to create their own understanding and practice of mindfulness through creative reflection and exploration of themselves. For Soroosh, mindfulness extends ‘beyond the mat’ and into the everyday activities and interactions that we sometimes take for granted. His knowledge of mindfulness and contemplative practice is complimented by his years of experience as an overseas experiential educator and as a community mediator. Soroosh currently works at an after school recreational facility for youth in Toronto. If you ask him nicely, he’ll teach you how to clap with one hand.
Tanzanite Msola
Tanzanite has a long-term interest and passion in supporting young people academically, emotionally, and helping them achieve a creative outlet. Tanzanite has spent the past 6 years in Massachusetts working with young people from all different cultural and economic background, with all levels of ability and disability. Now, as a recent transplant to NYC, Tanzanite currently assists with the Awake Youth Project at the Brooklyn Zen Center. Tanzanite was introduced to meditation at a young age by attending the Insight Meditation Society’s (IMS) Family and Teen Retreats. As Tanzanite leaned into ‘adulthood’ she returned as a staff volunteer for IMS Teen Retreats and for Inward Bound Mindfulness Education (iBme) Teen Retreats. Tanzanite has found it truly rewarding and a privilege to witness the positive effects of hands-on projects, building a personal connection, and understanding that each moment is a learning experience through mindfulness. Tanzanite is excited to continue chillin and growing with the iBme family.
Tonya Jones
Tonya has spent the past 17 years working in the public sector driven by a strong commitment to social justice and equity, collective healing and building stronger, compassionate communities. Before joining iBme, Tonya was the Los Angeles Director at the Center for Employment Opportunities (CEO), a national organization that provides transitional work and permanent job services to the formerly incarcerated. At CEO, she was responsible for overseeing and supporting a diverse staff of 20, along with program development and management, community partnerships, fiscal oversight and working collaboratively with national fund and business development teams. Tonya is a certified mindfulness facilitator (UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior). She is a mentor for UCLA’s Intensive Practice Program, teaching assistant for UCLA’s Mindfulness and Theory course, guest teacher at InsightLA’s POC sangha, and has lectured and facilitated at numerous educational institutions and organizations. Tonya holds a BA from Howard University, MFA from Columbia University, and serves on the UC Irvine Advisory Board for the Customer Experience Certificate Program.