Local Dharma Leaders
Mike Coughlin
Mike Coughlin is a public school administrator, trained mediator, and has been practicing mindfulness in the vipassana tradition for 15 years. He has received training through Spirit Rock Meditation Center, Mindful Schools and is a Certified Mindfulness Facilitator through the Semel Institute for Neuroscience & Human Behavior at the University of California, Los Angeles. Mike has over 20 years of experience working with high-risk youth, most specifically in residential and day treatment programs, as well as years of mediation experience in Alternative Dispute Resolution. He has a focused interest in exploring how mindfulness and compassionate awareness can lead us to a more expansive and grounded relationship with our human experience, both as individuals and as engaged members within our communities.
Debbie Darrin
Debbie Darrin has explored various aspects of mindfulness and meditation since the early 1980’s. The teachings of Thich Nhat Hanh originally drew Debbie into the journey of practical, embodied, and heartfelt meditation and mindfulness practice. In 2014 she began attending Napa Valley Insight Meditation sangha and became an active member on the NVIM board in 2017. Debbie regularly attends residential and non-residential insight meditation retreats, continuing to cultivate her personal practice and to grow her teaching experience. In 2021 she graduated from the 2-year Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification Program developed and offered by Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach. Debbie facilitates a variety of weekly mindfulness talks and meditations as well as offering daylong retreats. She has co led residential retreats of Dharma & Recovery with Kevin Griffin. She believes that the heart practices of lovingkindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity play a significant role in balancing, healing and navigating a complex world.
Forrest Hill
Forrest Hill has been practicing Insight Meditation since 2004 and is a founding member of Napa Valley Insight Meditation. He has served as a facilitator at NVIM since its inception in 201l. Forrest is currently enrolled in the Community Dharma Leaders Program, a Buddhist teacher training program at Spirit Rock Meditation Center. He has a PhD from MIT in Biological Oceanography and currently works as a socially responsible financial advisor. Forrest is passionate about prison reform and has led financial literacy programs for inmates at San Quentin Prison. He believes insight meditation can foster greater awareness, wisdom and kindness in our daily lives, and teach us how to respond more compassionately to the world around us.
Lori Stelling
Lori Stelling is a life coach and meditation teacher dedicated to sharing the ways meditation and daily life practice, combined with circles of caring community, support the arising of the qualities of fierce compassion, engaged hope, courage and joy essential to playing our part in the healing of ourselves, our communities, and our world. Lori has practiced Insight Meditation since 2002 and served as a local teacher and board member for NVIM since 2014. She is a Certified Mindfulness Meditation Teacher through UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center and has been engaged in on-going Buddhist Studies, for over two decades, through Sacred Mountain Sangha, Spirit Rock Meditation Center, Aloka Vihara, and other vipassana centers and programs. Lori offers life coaching for women, and community meditation classes for adults of all ages, through her local business, BlueWater Coaching. Learn more at… http://bluewatercoaching.net
Guest Teachers
Kevin Griffin
Kevin Griffin is best know as the author of One Breath at a Time: Buddhism and the Twelve Steps (Rodale Press 2004). A longtime Buddhist practitioner and 12 Step participant, he is a leader in the mindful recovery movement and one of the founders of the Buddhist Recovery Network. Learn more at… https://www.kevingriffin.net/
Jill Satterfield
Jill Satterfield is an international mindfulness and meditation teacher, named “one of the 4 leading mindful movement and Buddhist teachers in the country” by Lion’s Roar. Her integration of embodied mindfulness and meditation includes somatic practices and contemplative psychology. Learn more at… https://jillsatterfield.org/
Syra Smith
Syra Smith is an artist, organizer and mindfulness educator interested in deep ecology and manifesting a culture where we can turn toward fearless abundance and generosity. Learn more at… http://projectroot.org/syra-smith-meditation.html
Fresh “Lev” White
Fresh “Lev” White is a love and compassion activist. He offers mindfulness, coaching, meditation, and diversity trainings as tools for shifting towards more authentic, conscious and passionate living. Learn more at… https://affirmativeacts.org/about-us/