Teachers
Teachers in the All Souls Buddhism & Meditation Program
Pamela Patton
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Pamela leads our Buddhism and Mindfulness program. She is also the leader of pastoral ministries at All Souls, including our Friendship Circles and Support Circles, and she coordinates the volunteers who provide our lay pastoral care (Lay Pastoral Associates). Pamela is both a Unitarian Universalist and a Buddhist, and founded the Buddhism and Mindfulness program at All Souls. She leads guided meditations and book discussions related to Buddhism, and she invites teachers to All Souls who speak on topics such as Engaged Buddhism. Pamela lives in Manhattan with her husband, her three children, and two dogs.
Pamela’s sermons related to Buddhism, mindfulness and meditation |
Pilar Jennings
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Pilar is a psychoanalyst in private practice with a focus on the clinical applications of Buddhist meditation. She has been working with patients and their families through the Harlem Family Institute since 2004. She is a Visiting Lecturer at Union Theological Seminary, a guest lecturer at Columbia University, and a faculty member of the Nalanda Institute for Contemplative Science. In our Buddhism & Mindfulness program, she taught a short course, “Working with Difficult Emotions – A Buddhist and Psychotherapeutic Approach,” which explored a range of emotions from a spiritual and clinical perspective. More recently she taught "How To Be in Relationship." Her website is drpilarjennings.com
Pilar’s talks and articles |
Harry Miller
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Harry is a member of All Souls who has studied Buddhist meditation for 45 years and leads a drop-in Dharma study group in our Buddhism & Mindfulness program. Harry was a student of the renowned Zen teacher, Chan Master Sheng-yen, for 30 years. He is a docent at the Rubin Museum in Chelsea, where he also leads Dharma study groups. He teaches meditation and philosophy at the Chan Meditation Center in Queens, and edited the Chan Newsletter for 10 years. Harry was awarded an NEA grant for Chinese translation, and holds a BA in French and English literature from Sarah Lawrence and an MA in Chinese Literature from Columbia University.
Harry's talks and articles |
Karen G. Johnston
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Karen was called to serve the Unitarian Society in East Brunswick, NJ, in 2016, the same year she was ordained into the Unitarian Universalist ministry. She believes the strength of Unitarian Universalism comes not from shared theological beliefs, but from the diversity of spiritual perspectives. Swimming in the Insight tradition (Vipassana) of Western Buddhism since the early 1990s, her befriending-death spiritual practice led her to found the Date with Death Club, an opportunity to "explore mortality in community." Also core to her spirituality is Beloved Community, a term that resonates for Unitarian Universalists as we engage in spiritually-based, multi-cultural justice-making, which led to her being the founding president of the Lost Souls Public Memorial Project. See unitariansociety.org/about-tus/our-minister
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Emma Markham
Guest Teachers
Jon Aaron: jonaaron.net A teacher of the seminal MBSR curriculum, he also supports MBSR teachers-in-training in the US, and more recently in Hungary and Japan. He has also trained in Somatic Experiencing to better understand trauma. He teaches at New York Insight Meditation Center, and at the Makom Meditation Havurah program at the Jewish Community Center in Manhattan.
Ellen Abrams: ellen-abrams.com A therapist with 25+ years of clinical experience as a Marriage and Family Therapist in community mental health clinics, hospices, and in private practice, she first came to contemplative practices and compassionate care by way of the Zen Hospice Project in her early twenties.
Ananta: ananta.earth A mindfulness practitioner and social justice advocate with more than 20 years of experience, he is a teacher with the Mindfulness Center at Brown University and a Bodhi Yoga teacher whose practice has been shaped by years of living and practicing in Buddhist communities globally.
Kimberly Brown: meditationwithheart.com An author; a Certified Mindfulness Teacher, Professional Level (CMT-P), and a Buddhist student of nearly two decades, she employs Buddhist techniques and modern psychotherapeutic modalities to guide others toward wholeness and well-being.
Mickie Brown, R.N.: www.mickiebrown.com/ A Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) teacher trained at the Center for Mindfulness at UMass. She teaches MBSR and is Clinical Manager for Education, Mindfulness, and Patient Well-being at the Selikoff Centers for Occupational Health, and the World Trade Center Health Program at the Mount Sinai Health System.
Karuna Cayton: karunacayton.com An author and licensed psychotherapist who lived at Kopan Monastery for 13 years studying Buddhist psychology and philosophy, he is the principal at The Karuna Group, a project engaged in interpreting Buddhist psychological theory and interventions for modern people.
Mona Chopra: www.peopletreewellness.com/ A healer, licensed acupuncturist, and board certified hypnotherapist, who also utilizes meditation, EFT tapping, and therapeutic yoga in her practice to alleviate emotional distress and reduce physical pain.
Gay Doherty: www.gaydoherty.com/ Gay works from psychodynamic and attachment-based approaches to therapy. Psychodynamic Psychotherapy involves having a better awareness of patterns of behavior that have evolved and how they may prevent one from moving forward. Attachment-based Psychotherapy brings to focus the importance of human relationships in order to grow.
Richard Einhorn: richardeinhorn.com Richard started a daily meditation practice after a friend took him to see the Dalai Lama speak in New York in 2014. He is a member of the Brooklyn Shantideva Center community, where he’s attended numerous teachings, gone on several retreats, and taken the Discovering Buddhism course. He co-teaches “Buddhism in a Nutshell,”with Pamela Patton. He has led meditation for the All Souls Monday Night Hospitality guests. A composer whose music is regularly performed both in the US and abroad, Richard is also an advocate for people with hearing loss and a hearing healthcare consultant.
Rev. Kim Crawford Harvie: ascboston.org/about/minadstaff.html Ordained into the Unitarian Universalist ministry in 1984, she was called to Arlington Street Church in Boston, Massachusetts in 1989, where she continues to serve as Senior Minister. In Boston, Rev. Crawford Harvie co-founded two non-profit organizations: In the Best Interests of the Children, dedicated to providing educational and material assistance to young people and families affected by pediatric HIV/AIDS; and The Shared Heart, a traveling exhibition and book of photographs (released in 1997 by William Morrow) of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender teenagers with accompanying text in their own words, designed to support the Massachusetts Safe Schools Initiative.
Carolyn Jackson: A recent graduate of a two-year Insight meditation teacher training under Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach, editor and writer Carolyn Jackson is a long-time member of All Souls. She has also been the editor of the All Souls Beacon, and an active participant in the Buddhism & Mindfulness Program. Carolyn leads the six-week “Establishing Your Practice” program on Thursday afternoons. This group offers support to those who are new to mindfulness meditation or are re-committing to their practice, by sharing ideas about how to practice regularly, even when it seems like “nothing’s happening,” and finding ways to enrich and encourage each others’ efforts.
Hui Neng Stan Koehler, Roshi: hollowboneszen.org/hui-neng-Stan-Koehler-roshi With a long history of bringing meditation to the underserved (youths, incarcerated people and formerly incarcerated people), he has been actively involved in the Hollow Bones Order and is an ordained Zen priest who took Inka transmission. He aims to aid community members by applying Zen principles to daily challenges.
Marshall Kupka-Moore: www.sourcewellness.co Marshall has been meditating his entire adult life and has a passion for sharing peace and wellness with people wherever he goes. He is a 200-hour certified Vinyasa yoga teacher and has taken multiple trips to India, met the Dalai Lama, lived with and learned from monks, and advised Emory University students exploring the intersection of Buddhism and mind-body sciences. Currently, Marshall is the CEO of Source Wellness and co-founder of the Bed-Stuy Art Residency.
Rebecca Li: rebeccali.org She teaches meditation and Dharma classes, gives public lectures and leads Chan retreats in North America, the United Kingdom and Taiwan. Her writings have appeared in numerous publications. In 2016 she received Dharma transmission and became a Dharma heir in the Dharma Drum Lineage of Chan Master Sheng Yen.
Kaira Jewel Lingo: www.kairajewel.com An author and teacher who studied under and was ordained by Thich Nhat Hanh, and lived as a Buddhist nun for fifteen years. She teaches, and leads retreats internationally, helping to train a new and more diverse generation of Buddhist and Mindfulness teachers.
Bob Lyster: Throughout his life, Bob has found the spiritual journey enormously fulfilling. Guided by his years of training in mysticism, he has actively participated in a number of the world's major religions as well as engaged with countless spiritual philosophy and growth programs. A career Wall Streeter, Bob has retired to a peaceful country setting and has found the spiritual side of life even more fascinating, dynamic, and joyful. As a meditator for half a century, his participation in the Buddhism & Mindfulness program has brought a new expansiveness to his practice. Bob holds a BA in Economics from Amherst College and an MBA in Finance from Columbia.
Ellen Mendlow regularly attends our Buddhism & Mindfulness programs. She has practiced Buddhism for over a decade, recently with Sravasti Abbey and Shantideva Center. She is a meditation leader and certified yoga teacher and is thrilled to share her passion for combining contemplative practice and mind-body science with a broad audience.
Venerable Amy Miller: amymiller.com As a Buddhist nun in the Tibetan tradition, Venerable offers teachings and leads retreats and pilgrimages around the world. Venerable has been teaching extensively since 1992; her style emphasizes a practical approach to integrating Buddhist philosophy into everyday life.
Patricia Muehsam, M.D.: transformationalmedicine.org/ She was a pioneer in the alternative medicine movement as a practitioner, educator, and research scientist. She founded Transformational Medicine, an individualized and whole-person approach to healing, wellness, and living.
Mary Reilly Nichols: meditationmary.com Serves on the faculty of the Nalanda Institute, is a member of the Bronxville Psychiatric Wellness Group, and has been practicing and teaching yoga, meditation and stress management since 1982. She spent five years in residence in the ashrams of Swami Muktananda.
Tim Olmsted: steamboatbuddhistcenter.org/our-history As a student of Buddhism for more than 45 years, Tim is a founder and a senior instructor at the Tergar Meditation Community under the guidance of the brilliant Tibetan meditation teacher Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche. Tim spends much of his time leading ‘Joy of Living’ meditation retreats. At the request of his friend Pema Chödrön, Tim was for three years the director of Gampo Abbey, the largest monastery in the West.
Amy B. Scher: amybscher.com An award-winning and best-selling author of books on healing, she employs energy therapy and teaches classes to help people break through blocks to become their happiest, healthiest and most expressive selves.
Lavina Shamdasani: compassioninstitute.com/teachers/lavina-shamdasani She is a certified Compassion Cultivation Training (CCT) instructor with the Compassion Institute, where she studied neuroscience, philosophy and pedagogy of compassion. CCT was developed in 2009 at Stanford University by Thupten Jinpa, Ph.D.
Cathy Trentalancia: cathytrentalancia.com A certified mindfulness and meditation instructor from the Compassion Teacher Training at Nalanda Institute, MNDFL and various other institutions, she has been meditating for more than 25 years and teaches meditation privately and in corporations.
Shelley Tupper: shelleytupper.com She is a Certified Professional Coach and a Practitioner in Positive Psychology. She trains individuals and businesses on how to amplify success and happiness through proven positive psychology and coaching techniques. She's also trained in MasterMind and Resilience methods.
Upayadhi: upayadhi.com/about Among her many spiritual, philosophical and academic pursuits, she holds a Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) teacher certification and for more than 17 years has undergone intensive training with the Triratna Buddhist Community, where she was ordained in 2018. She offers meditation practice and spiritual mentoring.
Rev. Allen Wells: muuf.org/our-ministers A minister with the Morristown Unitarian Universalist Fellowship since 1976, he offers counseling and teaches insight meditation. He completed a program with the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies and is interested in unifying the interior, spiritual quality of our lives with the external, interpersonal and political areas.
Martha Willams and John Scilipote: www.breakbread.world/ Martha is an avid student of transformation, meditation, and storytelling, with certification from The Coaches Training Institute and OM Yoga. She is committed to helping evolve our collective mind and body through cultural and artistic creation. For 30 years, John has studied Nondual Kabbalistic Healing and Nondual Shamanism and has recently been certified as a Soulful Facilitator. He is committed to helping people embrace that which transforms, opening them to be more fully in relationship with others and the world.
Ellen Abrams: ellen-abrams.com A therapist with 25+ years of clinical experience as a Marriage and Family Therapist in community mental health clinics, hospices, and in private practice, she first came to contemplative practices and compassionate care by way of the Zen Hospice Project in her early twenties.
Ananta: ananta.earth A mindfulness practitioner and social justice advocate with more than 20 years of experience, he is a teacher with the Mindfulness Center at Brown University and a Bodhi Yoga teacher whose practice has been shaped by years of living and practicing in Buddhist communities globally.
Kimberly Brown: meditationwithheart.com An author; a Certified Mindfulness Teacher, Professional Level (CMT-P), and a Buddhist student of nearly two decades, she employs Buddhist techniques and modern psychotherapeutic modalities to guide others toward wholeness and well-being.
Mickie Brown, R.N.: www.mickiebrown.com/ A Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) teacher trained at the Center for Mindfulness at UMass. She teaches MBSR and is Clinical Manager for Education, Mindfulness, and Patient Well-being at the Selikoff Centers for Occupational Health, and the World Trade Center Health Program at the Mount Sinai Health System.
Karuna Cayton: karunacayton.com An author and licensed psychotherapist who lived at Kopan Monastery for 13 years studying Buddhist psychology and philosophy, he is the principal at The Karuna Group, a project engaged in interpreting Buddhist psychological theory and interventions for modern people.
Mona Chopra: www.peopletreewellness.com/ A healer, licensed acupuncturist, and board certified hypnotherapist, who also utilizes meditation, EFT tapping, and therapeutic yoga in her practice to alleviate emotional distress and reduce physical pain.
Gay Doherty: www.gaydoherty.com/ Gay works from psychodynamic and attachment-based approaches to therapy. Psychodynamic Psychotherapy involves having a better awareness of patterns of behavior that have evolved and how they may prevent one from moving forward. Attachment-based Psychotherapy brings to focus the importance of human relationships in order to grow.
Richard Einhorn: richardeinhorn.com Richard started a daily meditation practice after a friend took him to see the Dalai Lama speak in New York in 2014. He is a member of the Brooklyn Shantideva Center community, where he’s attended numerous teachings, gone on several retreats, and taken the Discovering Buddhism course. He co-teaches “Buddhism in a Nutshell,”with Pamela Patton. He has led meditation for the All Souls Monday Night Hospitality guests. A composer whose music is regularly performed both in the US and abroad, Richard is also an advocate for people with hearing loss and a hearing healthcare consultant.
Rev. Kim Crawford Harvie: ascboston.org/about/minadstaff.html Ordained into the Unitarian Universalist ministry in 1984, she was called to Arlington Street Church in Boston, Massachusetts in 1989, where she continues to serve as Senior Minister. In Boston, Rev. Crawford Harvie co-founded two non-profit organizations: In the Best Interests of the Children, dedicated to providing educational and material assistance to young people and families affected by pediatric HIV/AIDS; and The Shared Heart, a traveling exhibition and book of photographs (released in 1997 by William Morrow) of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender teenagers with accompanying text in their own words, designed to support the Massachusetts Safe Schools Initiative.
Carolyn Jackson: A recent graduate of a two-year Insight meditation teacher training under Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach, editor and writer Carolyn Jackson is a long-time member of All Souls. She has also been the editor of the All Souls Beacon, and an active participant in the Buddhism & Mindfulness Program. Carolyn leads the six-week “Establishing Your Practice” program on Thursday afternoons. This group offers support to those who are new to mindfulness meditation or are re-committing to their practice, by sharing ideas about how to practice regularly, even when it seems like “nothing’s happening,” and finding ways to enrich and encourage each others’ efforts.
Hui Neng Stan Koehler, Roshi: hollowboneszen.org/hui-neng-Stan-Koehler-roshi With a long history of bringing meditation to the underserved (youths, incarcerated people and formerly incarcerated people), he has been actively involved in the Hollow Bones Order and is an ordained Zen priest who took Inka transmission. He aims to aid community members by applying Zen principles to daily challenges.
Marshall Kupka-Moore: www.sourcewellness.co Marshall has been meditating his entire adult life and has a passion for sharing peace and wellness with people wherever he goes. He is a 200-hour certified Vinyasa yoga teacher and has taken multiple trips to India, met the Dalai Lama, lived with and learned from monks, and advised Emory University students exploring the intersection of Buddhism and mind-body sciences. Currently, Marshall is the CEO of Source Wellness and co-founder of the Bed-Stuy Art Residency.
Rebecca Li: rebeccali.org She teaches meditation and Dharma classes, gives public lectures and leads Chan retreats in North America, the United Kingdom and Taiwan. Her writings have appeared in numerous publications. In 2016 she received Dharma transmission and became a Dharma heir in the Dharma Drum Lineage of Chan Master Sheng Yen.
Kaira Jewel Lingo: www.kairajewel.com An author and teacher who studied under and was ordained by Thich Nhat Hanh, and lived as a Buddhist nun for fifteen years. She teaches, and leads retreats internationally, helping to train a new and more diverse generation of Buddhist and Mindfulness teachers.
Bob Lyster: Throughout his life, Bob has found the spiritual journey enormously fulfilling. Guided by his years of training in mysticism, he has actively participated in a number of the world's major religions as well as engaged with countless spiritual philosophy and growth programs. A career Wall Streeter, Bob has retired to a peaceful country setting and has found the spiritual side of life even more fascinating, dynamic, and joyful. As a meditator for half a century, his participation in the Buddhism & Mindfulness program has brought a new expansiveness to his practice. Bob holds a BA in Economics from Amherst College and an MBA in Finance from Columbia.
Ellen Mendlow regularly attends our Buddhism & Mindfulness programs. She has practiced Buddhism for over a decade, recently with Sravasti Abbey and Shantideva Center. She is a meditation leader and certified yoga teacher and is thrilled to share her passion for combining contemplative practice and mind-body science with a broad audience.
Venerable Amy Miller: amymiller.com As a Buddhist nun in the Tibetan tradition, Venerable offers teachings and leads retreats and pilgrimages around the world. Venerable has been teaching extensively since 1992; her style emphasizes a practical approach to integrating Buddhist philosophy into everyday life.
Patricia Muehsam, M.D.: transformationalmedicine.org/ She was a pioneer in the alternative medicine movement as a practitioner, educator, and research scientist. She founded Transformational Medicine, an individualized and whole-person approach to healing, wellness, and living.
Mary Reilly Nichols: meditationmary.com Serves on the faculty of the Nalanda Institute, is a member of the Bronxville Psychiatric Wellness Group, and has been practicing and teaching yoga, meditation and stress management since 1982. She spent five years in residence in the ashrams of Swami Muktananda.
Tim Olmsted: steamboatbuddhistcenter.org/our-history As a student of Buddhism for more than 45 years, Tim is a founder and a senior instructor at the Tergar Meditation Community under the guidance of the brilliant Tibetan meditation teacher Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche. Tim spends much of his time leading ‘Joy of Living’ meditation retreats. At the request of his friend Pema Chödrön, Tim was for three years the director of Gampo Abbey, the largest monastery in the West.
Amy B. Scher: amybscher.com An award-winning and best-selling author of books on healing, she employs energy therapy and teaches classes to help people break through blocks to become their happiest, healthiest and most expressive selves.
Lavina Shamdasani: compassioninstitute.com/teachers/lavina-shamdasani She is a certified Compassion Cultivation Training (CCT) instructor with the Compassion Institute, where she studied neuroscience, philosophy and pedagogy of compassion. CCT was developed in 2009 at Stanford University by Thupten Jinpa, Ph.D.
Cathy Trentalancia: cathytrentalancia.com A certified mindfulness and meditation instructor from the Compassion Teacher Training at Nalanda Institute, MNDFL and various other institutions, she has been meditating for more than 25 years and teaches meditation privately and in corporations.
Shelley Tupper: shelleytupper.com She is a Certified Professional Coach and a Practitioner in Positive Psychology. She trains individuals and businesses on how to amplify success and happiness through proven positive psychology and coaching techniques. She's also trained in MasterMind and Resilience methods.
Upayadhi: upayadhi.com/about Among her many spiritual, philosophical and academic pursuits, she holds a Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) teacher certification and for more than 17 years has undergone intensive training with the Triratna Buddhist Community, where she was ordained in 2018. She offers meditation practice and spiritual mentoring.
Rev. Allen Wells: muuf.org/our-ministers A minister with the Morristown Unitarian Universalist Fellowship since 1976, he offers counseling and teaches insight meditation. He completed a program with the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies and is interested in unifying the interior, spiritual quality of our lives with the external, interpersonal and political areas.
Martha Willams and John Scilipote: www.breakbread.world/ Martha is an avid student of transformation, meditation, and storytelling, with certification from The Coaches Training Institute and OM Yoga. She is committed to helping evolve our collective mind and body through cultural and artistic creation. For 30 years, John has studied Nondual Kabbalistic Healing and Nondual Shamanism and has recently been certified as a Soulful Facilitator. He is committed to helping people embrace that which transforms, opening them to be more fully in relationship with others and the world.
