IWM Community Dharma Stewards (formerly known as Practice Leaders) and Facilitators
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Suzanne Artemieff (Community Dharma Steward; Kalyana Mitta Facilitator)
Suzanne has been practicing Vipassana meditation for over 20 years, 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, where she volunteers for Pioneer Valley Hospice & Palliative Care, the Center for New Americans and the Conway Forest & Trails Committee. Suzanne joined the Board as a provisional member in February 2023. |
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Holly Bishop (Community Dharma Steward; Kalyana Mitta Facilitator)
Holly has been practicing Vipassana meditation since the early '80s, and has participated in several long retreats, mostly at Insight Meditation Society. She is a student in 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 the "ideology of whiteness" has influenced these. 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. |
Jen Cannon (Community Dharma Steward; White & Awakening in the Dharma Facilitator)
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Jennifer Delozier (Community Dharma Steward; Kalyana Mitta Facilitator)
Jennifer has been practicing Insight Meditation for about 15 years. Before that, she practiced in the Soto Zen tradition for about 20 years; the first five years of that time were spent at a Zen Monastery Retreat Center where she lived, worked, and practiced. She has participated in numerous classes and retreats through IWM and spent one weekend a few years ago on retreat at IMS. Jennifer brings 12 years of experience as a Community Dharma Steward. Before that, she was the Volunteer Coordinator of hosts and greeters for Teacher Dharma talks. |
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Lore Detenber (Kalyana Mitta Facilitator; White & Awakening in the Dharma Facilitator)
Lore is member of IWM's Beloved Community Builders committee and other working subcommittees of the IWM board. She co-facilitates White & Awakening in the Dharma and a Kalyana Mitta (Spiritual Friends) group. She is also a retired counselor, health educator, mother of an adult daughter and support for her elderly mother. She lives in Florence with her life partner, Mary and beloved furry companions. She was first introduced to the Dhamma in 1995 and the gifts and direction of the path rang true immediately. 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 from friends on the path are some of the most treasured aspects of her life. |
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Hal Fales (Community Dharma Steward; Kalyana Mitta Facilitator)
Hal 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 six week retreat in 2018. He enjoys trying to create a wholesome space for meditation and learning from the experience of other sangha members. Hal has been a member of the Board since 2013. |
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Ruth Folchman (Community Dharma Steward; Kalyana Mitta Facilitator)
Ruth Folchman is a psychologist, and certified teacher of MBSR and MBCT for Depression. She’s been a seeker and practitioner of mindfulness for 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. |
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Jaya Karlson (Community Dharma Steward)
Jaya has approximately 40 years of meditation practice in the raja yoga tradition and vipassana. She began formal yoga practice in the early 1970s and subsequently became an ordained nun in the Shankaracharya monastic order for four years. She has served in several centers including as director of the Vancouver (BC) Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Center and later as kitchen manager of the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies. Since leaving BCBS in 1996, Jaya has continued teaching – yoga, tai chi (qigong), and meditation. She's been a student of Larry Rosenberg, Joseph Goldstein, and for most of her practicing years her main teacher has been, and is, Ajahn Sucitto, a Theravada Monk. |
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Bernadine Mellis (White & Awakening in the Dharma Facilitator)
Bernadine recently completed the True North Insight Community Meditation Teacher Mentorship Program and is a part-time student in divinity school. She is currently participating in Sacred Mountain Sangha’s Dharmapala Training. She co-facilitates White & Awakening in the Dharma and leads The Sure Heart (a group for children and families) at Insight West Mass, where she has also been involved in the past as a Board Member and a member of the Beloved Community Builders Committee. Alongside her path in the Insight lineage, Bernadine has been engaged in pagan earth-based spiritual practices, working closely with her mentor on that path for many years. She is also a filmmaker and a mother. |
Melissa Tefft (Kalyana Mitta Facilitator; former Practice Leader)