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.
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.
Donald Rothberg, PhD, has practiced Insight Meditation since 1976, and has also received training in Tibetan Dzogchen and Mahamudra practice and the Hakomi approach to body-based psychotherapy. Formerly on the faculties of the University of Kentucky, Kenyon College, and Saybrook Graduate School, he currently writes and teaches classes, groups and retreats on meditation, daily life practice, spirituality and psychology, and socially engaged Buddhism. An organizer, teacher, and former board member for the Buddhist Peace Fellowship, Donald has helped to guide three six-month to two-year training programs in socially engaged spirituality through Buddhist Peace Fellowship (the BASE Program), Saybrook (the Socially Engaged Spirituality Program), and Spirit Rock (the Path of Engagement Program). He is the author of
The Engaged Spiritual Life: A Buddhist Approach to Transforming Ourselves and the World
and the co-editor of Ken Wilber in
Dialogue: Conversations with Leading Transpersonal Thinkers.
