Our Guest Teachers

Mei Elliott

Mei Elliott has been practicing meditation since 2004. In 2014, Mei entered into residential monastic training at Tassajara Zen Monastery where she received lay ordination from Linda Galijan. She has since spent seven years training residentially at San Francisco Zen Center temples. She is currently the director of San Francisco Zen Center’s City Center temple, where she lives and practices. Mei is a Right Use of Power teacher and a facilitator for Young Urban Zen, a sangha for people in their 20s and 30s.

Elissa Epel

Elissa Epel, Ph.D, is a Professor at UCSF. She studies how chronic stress can impact biological aging (including the telomere/telomerase system), and food addiction, and how self-regulation and meditation may buffer stress effects and promote psychological and physiological thriving. She is a member of the National Academy of Medicine, President Elect of the Academy of Behavioral Medicine Research, and on the steering council for Mind & Life Institute. Epel co-leads retreats integrating mind-body science with meditation, including the Longevity Week at Blue Spirit, Costa Rica.

Epel is the co-author of The Telomere Effect with nobel laureate Liz Blackburn, a New York Times best seller under Science.

Maureen Fallon-Cyr

Maureen is a graduate of Smith College School for Social Work and a certified Hakomi Therapist. For more than 25 years, she has brought mindfulness-based psychotherapy to people of all ages, specializing in trauma, somatic release, and depth psychology. Maureen also served on the teaching council of the Durango Dharma Center for eight years, teaching meditation and mindful living. Currently, she is writing a book outlining the True Success curriculum. In her free time, Maureen enjoys swimming, hiking, meditating and being with her family.

Kevin Griffith

Kevin Griffin is a Buddhist teacher and author of several books, including One Breath at a Time: Buddhism and the Twelve Steps, and his latest Buddhism & the Twelve Steps DAILY REFLECTIONS. 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. Kevin is a husband, father and musician. His album “Laughing Buddha” is a collection of rock and world beat tunes with Buddhist themes.

Jean Leonard

As a psychologist, it is a privilege to accompany individuals on their journeys of healing, growth and transformation. In my teaching and mindfulness-informed therapeutic work, I enjoy supporting individuals in meeting the circumstances of their lives with more grace and good humor. I earned my Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology from Colorado State University and have over 26 years of experience as a clinician and educator in a variety of settings including universities, community mental health, sexual assault support services and the public school system.  After serving as the Assistant Director and Clinical Coordinator at Counseling and Psychological Services at CU Boulder for 5 years, I transitioned into full-time private practice in Louisville, Colorado in 2012. Areas of clinical expertise include brainspotting, mind-body integrative healing, Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, Mindful Self-Compassion, work-life balance, burnout recovery, women’s issues, grief and loss, transitions, trauma, chronic illness and health challenges.

Walt Opie

Walt Opie is a dharma teacher in the Insight Meditation tradition. He is a graduate of the Insight Meditation Society's (IMS) 2017-2021 Teacher Training Program. He is also a graduate of the Spirit Rock Community Dharma Leaders training program (CDL4), mentored by Kevin Griffin (author of One Breath at a Time: Buddhism and the Twelve Steps). Walt began leading sitting groups specifically for people in addiction recovery in 2011. He started assisting and teaching on residential insight meditation retreats in 2017.

Alexa Redner

Alexa Redner has been practicing meditation since 2003. She holds a BA in Visual Arts and MA in Creation Spirituality from Naropa University. Alexa has been an educator in many realms over the last twenty years, dancing between the worlds of being a Waldorf Kindergarten teacher, program teacher for Mindful Schools, and Eating Disorders/Body Positive Educator at Beyond Hunger. Alexa is currently a mentor for Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach’s Mindfulness Meditation Certification Program and teaches for Cloud Sangha, leading weekly community discussion groups, meditations, immersion sanghas, and individual mentoring sessions.

Ramona Lisa Smith-Ortiz

Ramona Lisa Ortiz-Smith, MBA, has been practicing meditation for over 25 years and studying the Dharma in the Theravada tradition for more than 15 years. Ramona Lisa considers herself a dedicated lay practitioner of the Dharma and has spent the last four years undertaking contemporary vows and living as a lay renunciate householder. She enjoys scholarly programs and has completed East Bay Meditation Center’s Commit to Dharma Program (C2D3) and Spirit Rock Meditation Center’s (SRMC) Dedicated Practitioners Program (DPP6). Her teacher training includes certification through the Mindfulness Training Institute and completion of East Bay Meditation Center’s two-year Spiritual Teacher and Leadership training. As a member of the inaugural cohort of the 2023 Dharma Relief 2 Fellowship program, Ramona Lisa looks forward to sharing the Dharma with diverse communities from her perspective as an indigenous Af’Rican Caddo and Taino+ being. Ramona is a certified Indigenous Focusing Oriented Therapy (IFOT) Practitioner and is inspired to include earth based indigenous practices in her offerings as a meditation and Dharma teacher. Ramona Lisa is nourished and sustained by long, silent retreat practice. She is a Free Spirit who creatively weaves together real life experiences into her Dharma interpretation and teachings, using authenticity, kindness, humor, music and joy!

Oren Jay Sofer

Oren Jay Sofer teaches meditation, mindfulness and nonviolent communication internationally. He holds a degree in Comparative Religion and is the author of the best-selling books Say What You Mean: A Mindful Approach to Nonviolent Communication, and Your Heart Was Made For This: Contemplative Practices to Meet a World in Crisis with Courage, Integrity, and Love