Andrea Castillo, born in Mexico City, has practiced Insight Meditation since 1998 under the guidance of Gil Fronsdal. Andrea has taught Dharma in Spanish at IMC since 2011 and more recently at Against the Stream in SF, and at Insight Santa Cruz. She completed a Ph.D. in the Humanities at Stanford University in 2009; she is also a graduate of the Sati Center Chaplaincy Training Program, and of the Dharma Mentoring Training Program taught by Gil Fronsdal and Andrea Fella. Andrea has served the Insight community by being on the board of the Buddhist Insight Network, and presently at the IMC board. She also teaches mindfulness in English and Spanish to various populations in the Bay Area.
Bill Culman is the founder and principal instructor for Life In The Balance mindfulness. He spent the first 40 years of his working career in the computer industry, focusing on software engineering; most recently, he was the VP of Engineering for Nutanix. During this time, he was also passionately engaged in various meditative disciplines, including Transcendental Meditation, tai chi, yoga, and vipassana/mindfulness meditation, experiencing for himself the life benefits these practices can bring. For the past 15 years, he has been focused on mindfulness meditation, both in daily life and in more than 75 days of silent retreat practice. He has completed the UCLA MARC (Mindful Awareness Research Center) mindfulness facilitator training program and has also received MBSR (Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction) teacher training. He has also been heavily involved at Insight Santa Cruz in both Board and teacher roles for the past 3 years. His core focus is cultivating mindfulness practices in the workplace and with young adults.
Is a long-time practitioner of insight meditation, lived in a Buddhist monastery for over eight years. He has a PhD in Philosophy and Religion with a specialization in Buddhist Studies, and now directs Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction programs in six Bay Area medical centers. Bob studied with the renowned Burmese masters Taungpulu Kaba-Aye Sayadaw, Hlaing Tet Sayadaw, Dr. Rina Sircar and Pokokhu Sayadaw, and has experience with 32 parts of the body, 4 elements and charnel ground meditations.
Bob has completed training with Jon Kabat-Zinn and is a certified mindfulness-based stress reduction teacher having been certified by UMass Medical Center.
Bruce Hyman is a retired physician after 30 years of practice. He has practiced yoga and meditation since 1974 and has been intensively involved in Buddhist practice since 2000. In addition, he has been a co-leader of a prison dharma program at Salinas Valley State Prison since 2003. Bruce also teaches beginners programs, mens retreats, new to practice programs for ISC. His practice is influenced by the Thai Forest Tradition, Dzogchen, Spirit Rock teachers and Shinzen Young.
Carla Brennan is an Insight Meditation retreat teacher in the Santa Cruz area and offers drop-in meditation groups, classes, retreats and other programs with Bloom of the Present Insight Meditation. She is also a visiting teacher with the Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Woodacre, CA. Carla began meditation practice in 1975 in the Zen tradition and was a student of Korean Zen Master Seung Sahn in Cambridge, MA. A few years later she began attending the newly formed Insight Meditation Society in Barre, MA. Later she added the Tibetan Buddhist practice of Dzogchen and is now an authorized teacher of Natural Wisdom and Compassion with the Foundation for Active Compassion. In the early ’90’s, Carla began attending wilderness retreats with Sacred Passage, completing 2 one-month solo retreats near Crestone, CO, and training to be a Sacred Passage Guide. As part of her regular teaching, Carla offers meditation in nature and encourages her students to open to the wisdom of the natural world.
Dan Landry has been a Vipassana practitioner since 1999. During that time he has attended many retreats, participated in the Committed Students groups, acted as the Chair of the ISC Board, and substituted at various sittings when the teacher was absent.
Dave Smith is a Buddhist meditation teacher, addiction treatment specialist, experienced speaker, and published author. He is empowered to teach by Noah Levine of Against the Stream Buddhist Meditation Society and received training in Buddhist psychology from the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies (BCBS). HE has operated intensive programs and trainings for the Nashville office of the Mind Body Awareness Project (MBA), as well as providing services, workshops and trainings for Refuge Recovery. Dave has extensive experience bringing meditative interventions into jails, prisons, youth detention centers and addiction treatment facilities. He is the guiding teacher of the Against the Stream Nashville Meditation Center and teaches over 300 meditation classes and workshops a year. Dave teaches Buddhist meditation retreats internationally and is an active teacher for Against the Stream throughout the US. He provides direct services for mental health agencies, the public library, and speaks nationally at Addiction and Behavioral Health conferences. Dave recently relocated to Los Angeles.
Dawn is a Buddhist teacher in the Insight Meditation tradition. She serves as the Guiding Teacher for Insight Santa Cruz, and also teaches regularly for Insight Meditation Center. She teaches and assists residential meditation retreats in North America.
Dawn has accumulated several years of silent meditation retreat practice since beginning Buddhist practice. She began teaching in 2010.
She holds an MA from the Institute of Buddhist Studies and Graduate Theological Union, specializing in Buddhism and Pastoral Care and Counseling. After her degree, she worked as a professional Interfaith Spiritual Care professional (Chaplain) at Stanford Medicine. She currently serves core faculty for the Sati Center for Buddhist Studies Online Buddhist Chaplaincy Training Program.
