InsightLA's Annual Benefit | Saturday, December 12, 2020What the World Needs Now

Amy Love has been a dedicated public school educator for over 25 years. During her years of service, Amy has been a classroom teacher, intervention specialist, peer coach, professional development specialist, and curriculum writer. In addition to practicing mindfulness with students and teachers in public schools, Amy has experience teaching mindfulness in a variety of other settings such as prisons and community outreach programs. She is a graduate of Mindful School’s Certification Program as well as Against the Stream Buddhist Meditation Society’s Community Insight Meditation Facilitator training. Amy is on faculty as a guiding teacher with Mindful Schools and currently facilitates a weekly People of Color sit in South LA. She is particularly interested in bringing the mindfulness practices to communities who have been impacted by historical racial trauma, and suffering related to issues of poverty and migration.

is a Mindful Awareness practitioner who emerged from the Contemplative Faith Community, where he served as a Lay Minister for over 10 years. His orientation to the Mindful Awareness practice began at the East Bay Meditation Center in Oakland, CA, where he was introduced to the Theravadan tradition of Vipassana in 2012.

Thomas began his journey into Dharma Leadership in 2013. In 2017, Thomas graduated from the Spirit Rock Community Dharma Leader Training Program, The Sati Center Buddhist Chaplaincy Training, and was enlisted as one of the Spirit Rock Community Welcome Teachers for the Monday Night Dharma program; which offers meditation, and practice support to new practitioners and 1st time visitors to Spirit Rock Meditation Center. Thomas is also a Co- Founder and Teacher of the Insight Richmond Meditation Group (www.insightrichmond.com), which is a growing and diverse meditation community where Insight meditation, Dharma exploration, and Inclusive Community Building are offered and practiced.

Additionally, he is a visiting teacher at The East Bay Meditation Center and Alameda Sangha, and has served as a member of the Kaiser Permanente Spiritual Care team as Chaplain.

Thomas has an authentic passion for the sharing the Traditional and Non- Traditional expressions of Mindfulness and how they integrate into the unique and practical aspects of our lives.

Christiane loves teaching mindfulness with a good dose of humor, compassion, and science. She first encountered Insight and Loving-Kindness meditation in 1988. Before moving to Los Angeles in 2003, she worked as an Ob/Gyn at the Humboldt University in Berlin, Germany. 

Christiane is a certified MBSR and MSC (Mindful Self-Compassion) teacher and co-founded InsightLA’s MBSR program with Trudy in 2005.

Trudy gave her teacher authorization in 2011 and she is a graduate of the 4 year IMS/Spirit Rock teacher training, and is authorized to teach in the Thai Forest Monastery tradition. She is the program director for mindfulness programs at InsightLA as well as the co-chair of the teacher council.

She is also a supervisor and trainer for MBSR teachers at the CFM (Center For Mindfulness) at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, the “mothership” of MBSR. She teaches retreats and trains people here in the US and also in Europe.

She is the program director and lead instructor for VA CALM, the national mindfulness facilitator training program for clinicians at the US Department of Veterans Affairs and the co-author of “A Clinician’s Guide to Teaching Mindfulness”, a seminal book that is used as required reading for several mindfulness facilitator trainings around the world.

She is currently writing her next book on how mindfulness helps with dealing with chronic pain.

When not teaching, writing or trying to stay calm while raising her three teenagers with her husband, Christiane can be found training and racing in long distance races and triathlons. 

Angelike Dexter shares mindfulness and Mindful Self-Compassion tools with students of all ages in the Los Angeles area and now, on Zoom, around the world. Trained by Susan Kaiser Greenland (author of “The Mindful Child” and “Mindful Games”) and a graduate of Susan’s 2013 Inner Kids Facilitator Training, Angelike teaches mindful awareness to children, parents, teachers, administrators, and families through Insight In Schools, as well as directly through public and private schools, camps, community organizations, and on an individual basis.

Angelike is a Certified Mindful Self Compassion (MSC) teacher (trained in and teaching MSC since 2015) and a graduate of the inaugural MSC for teens, “Making Friends With Yourself (MFY),” teacher training in 2016, and regularly teaches series of or skills from both courses, including at USC (through Mindful USC), through the Center for Mindful Self-Compassion’s Circles of Practice, and through Insight LA, where she is also the co-facilitator of the Mindful Parent Sitting Group, teaches a weekly sitting group focused on training in compassion and resilience, is a member of the Teacher Development Group, and is a graduate of Insight LA’s Third Facilitators Training in 2018.  Additionally, she deeply enjoys helping parents create intentional vision around and mindfulness and compassion strategies for their families, both through individual sessions and through her Mindful Parenting classes at USC, The Keck School of Medicine, and Insight LA.

A long-time secular mindfulness meditator, Angelike’s personal practice has more recently focused on the Tibetan Lojong practices (since 2016) and with the teacher and teachings of Dza Kilung Rinpoche, a Tibetan teacher and master in the Nyingma lineage and author of “The Relaxed Mind,” since 2017.  A former attorney, Angelike continually delights in her current life as a mindfulness and compassion teacher!

Dina has been practicing meditation for over ten years and credits it with a profound change in the experience of her life. She has completed a number of training courses, conferences, and retreats in mindfulness and Vipassana meditation at InsightLA, Spirit Rock Meditation Center, and UCLA Mindful Awareness Research Center, to name a few. She has also studied Tibetan Buddhism in the tradition of Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche and Pema Chodron.

Dina is a graduate of the InisghtLA Facilitator Training Program. She has been an elementary school teacher for fifteen years and currently teaches pre-service elementary teachers at the college level, as well as leads professional development for educators within various schools and districts. She holds both Master’s and Doctorate degrees in Education. Dina also enjoys creative endeavors such as writing, painting, and dance. She is deeply grateful to be a part of the InsightLA teaching and practice community.

Heidi is a licensed clinical social worker and has provided psychotherapy to adults, adolescents, and children for 15 years; including a decade of experience as a school therapist. She has been trained in Mindful Self- Compassion (MSC) by the developers of the program, Kristin Neff and Chris Germer, and teaches the course as part of USC’s mindfulness initiative. She also participated in the inaugural training program for MSC for Teens, Making Friends with Yourself. She is excited to offer this class to teens, who often struggle with self-acceptance. Heidi believes that the earlier in life we can learn to love, appreciate and accept ourselves, the more joy, happiness, and love we can experience.

James has been meditating for over 30 years, beginning in 1987 with James Baraz. He is a graduate of InsightLA’s Facilitator Training Program and  Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach’s Mindfulness Mediation Teacher Certification Program (Inaugural Class). Currently, James also is a  Trained Teacher for the Center for Mindful Self-Compassion.

James leads both secular and Buddhist- based mindfulness trainings, sits, and affinity groups (LGBTQI, Mental Health Professionals, White Awake).  His areas of interests are community building for the LGBTQI/LGBTQI senior mindfulness community, and consciousness-raising around racism and heterosexism.

As a psychotherapist, James is Director of Outpatient Programs for the UCLA Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital. He intensively trained in Dialectic Behavioral Therapy, Mentalization-based Therapy, and Prolonged Exposure Therapy for post- traumatic stress. At UCLA Health he teaches staff  about mindfulness and well-being. He also facilitates for UCLA MARC.

JD Lloyd was first exposed to mindfulness meditation in 1994, when a friend recommended the plain-spoken inspiration in Steven Levine’s book A Gradual Awakening. He is a long-time member of the InsightLA Meditation Community, where he teaches Essentials of Mindfulness classes and leads mindfulness sitting groups. JD has received specialized training to conduct Mindful Self-Compassion courses, which he facilitates at InsightLA, University of Southern CA, and the Cancer Support Community’s Benjamin Center. Over the last three years he has participated in InsightLA’s dedicated Dharma study program.

JD is particularly drawn to Lovingkindness and Mindful Self-Compassion meditation practices as paths toward self-acceptance and open-hearted connection with others. He appreciates the outdoors and the arts – especially film, photography and poetry. He holds a Master of Fine Arts degree in Creative Writing and enjoys weaving poetry and story-telling into his teaching.

Wendy N. Block started practicing meditation at age 18, studying different traditions, including Buddhist, Hindu, and Advaita paths with various teachers. She has been practicing Vipassana meditation for the past 15 years, and has helped organize meditation programs in Long Beach for the past 10 years. She has trained with cognitive psychologist Zindel Segal to teach Mindfulness- Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT).

Wendy teaches MBCT, Mindful Self Compassion, and Buddha’s Path classes. She completed the Dedicated Practitioner’s Program at InsightLA and Spirit Rock Meditation Center. She has been teaching MBCT for Kaiser Permanente for the past three years. Wendy co-leads the Long Beach sitting group, as well as the North Orange County Sitting Group. Her teachers are Trudy Goodman, Beth Sternlieb and Victor Bryd.

She currently works as a therapist, integrating mindfulness and psychotherapy.

Rosamaría leads the Insight in Action program, bringing a life commitment to social justice and meditation, and experience in managing non-profit programs.

Her dedication to meditation has inspired her to mitigate suffering using insights from mindfulness-based practices. She is passionate about sharing meditation practices with groups dedicated to changing injustices in environmental, socio-economic, and political arenas and in communities that have limited exposure to the benefits of meditation.

She facilitates meditation groups in Spanish for refugees in shelters in Tijuana, Mexico, in Spanish and English in East Los Angeles and East Hollywood.

Rosamaría is a graduate of the mindfulness meditation teacher program with Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach, and a graduate of InsightLA’s Facilitator Training Program with Maureen Shannon-Chapple and Trudy Goodman. She continues studying under the guidance of Jokai Blackwell Sensei. She has also practiced with various teachers in different institutions, including Spirit Rock, InsightLA, Long Beach Meditation, Deer Park Monastery, and Yokoji Zen Mountain Center.

Before becoming dedicated to mindfulness teaching, her career was dedicated to working for just health care access, immigrant rights, grassroots and labor organizing. Rosamaría holds a Master’s in Geography, Bachelor’s in Cultural Geography and Urban Analysis, and an AA Degree in Human Services.

Akemi manages InsightLA’s volunteer programs and coordinates board relations & diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, along with strengthening community throughout the organization. 

Akemi spent every weekend of the first 18 years of her life at the Orange County Buddhist Church, learning the meaning of Sangha through the empowering Japanese American community youth groups there. Her meditation journey started in 2017 when she traveled to Thailand for a month to live at a mindful permaculture community and meditate at a Thai forest monastery. Upon returning to the US, she started sitting with the Against the Stream People of Color group which led her to the many offerings of InsightLA.

Prior to InsightLA, Akemi spent ten years working in various political non-profits, doing everything from registering new voters to issue-based campaigning to starting internship programs for college students. Her experience in organizing for social change in the local, state and national level of government is the foundation on which her mindfulness practice rests, and she’s passionate about connecting inner with outer transformation to heal ourselves and the world. 

Akemi expresses her own love for life through dancing, singing, painting, writing, and trail running. She teaches music and creative expression to kids, and started a spiritual soul band with her best friends (Mystic Tiger), performing regularly at InsightLA and other spiritual centers around California.