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| Advisory Board | |
| In 1964 Sojun Mel Weitsman began to practice at San Francisco Zen Center on Bush Street, and in 1969 was ordained by Suzuki Roshi as resident priest at the Berkeley Zendo. Sojun received Dharma Transmission from Suzuki Roshi's son, Gyugaku Hoitsu, at Rinso-in temple in Japan in 1984, and was officially installed as abbot of the Berkeley Zen Center in 1985. His broad life experience includes years of art study and abstract expressionist painting, work as a house painter, boat painter, cab driver, and music instructor. Along with his responsibilities in Berkeley, Sojun continues a long involvement with the San Francisco Zen Center and Tassajara, having served as co-abbot at these practice centers for nine years. |  |
| Rev. Phillip Lawson is the Interfaith Program Director for East Bay Housing Organizations (EBHO) and leads EBHO's interfaith initiative, the Interfaith Action in Housing Program. EBHO is a nonprofit membership organization dedicated to working with communities in Alameda and Contra Costa counties to expand affordable housing opportunities through education and advocacy. Under Rev. Lawson's leadership, EBHO has significantly expanded our support of interfaith communities in their affordable housing efforts and expanded their capacity to address the housing crisis in the East Bay. Rev. Lawson brings to EBHO a wealth of experience leading both interfaith and community-based collaborations in the East Bay. Before joining EBHO, Rev. Lawson was Pastor of Easter Hill United Methodist Church in Richmond from 1992 to 2003. Rev. Lawson has been and continues to be active in the East Bay with groups, such as Richmond Vision 2000, Northern California Inter-Religious Conference, Greater Richmond Interfaith Program (GRIP), Interfaith Coalition for Immigrant Rights and California Council of Churches. |  |
| Pamela Frydman Baugh was ordained as a rabbi in the Jewish Renewal Movement in 1989. She has been a Jewish educator for over 40 years, and a student of Sufism, Theosophy and Buddhism for over 30 years. In 1991, Rabbi Pam helped to found Or Shalom Jewish Community in San Francisco, where she served as the congregation�s spiritual leader until 2004. She developed and piloted a model of religious and spiritual education for children and teens based on love of Judaism and learning, and with the help of the parents of her young students, transformed the transmission of Judaism from a practice of obligation and duty to one of love and responsibility. Rabbi Pam helped to found OHALAH: Association of Rabbis for Jewish Renewal where she presently serves as Administrative Director. She co-founded and co-chaired the Rabbinic Advisory Council ("RAC") of Shalom Bayit, Jewish Women Overcoming Domestic Violence. She continues to serve on the RAC, and is also a member of the Board of Rabbis of Northern California, the San Francisco Interfaith Council. Interfaith Witness for Peace in the Middle East of the American Friends Service Committee, and Sufi Ruhaniat International. |  |
| Imam Mehdi Khorasani grew up in a scholarly Persian family and studied Persian literature including such poets as Rumi, Hafez, Sa'di, Khayyam, Roudaki and Ferdowsi. In 1960, he moved to London and to the US in the 1970's. He has a life-long goal of global love and unity and has met with many diverse dignitaries such as the Dalai Lama. In 2006, Imam Mehdi Khorasani was involved in bringing the Dalai Lama to the Bay Area. These are quotes from the event: "The main issue of this conference is to provide a platform to teach that there is no room today to say or invest in anything but love," said Imam Mehdi. "We are happy and grateful for His Holiness' decision to lend his energy to this cause." "Islam is one of the world's great religions and it carries, basically, a message of love and compassion... Some of my Muslim friends have told me that those people who claim to be Muslims, if they create bloodshed, that is not genuine Islam," said the Dalai Lama at the conference. Imam Mehdi Khorasani is a prolific writer. His latest texts include Words of Wisdom, Song of Love, and A Life of Blessings. |  |
| The Rev'd. Jan Waples, M.Div., B.C.C. is an Episcopal priest. She studied with a focus on theology, ethics and pastoral counseling at the Graduate Theological Union at University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Oxford, UK. and completed a clinical residency at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. She is a Board Certified Chaplain with St. Rose Dominican Hospitals, Henderson, NV, and a published academic writer who continues to write with her coauthor Bill Kupersmith in the area of spirituality and healing in contemporary fiction. Jan is an online instructor for continuing education for professionals in counseling and psychology with Wayne Oates Institute. She can be heard on Family Law Live talk radio and writes for KRights, on behalf of families fragmented by divorce, explaining the emotional challenges they experience and ways to better cope. |  |
| Lama Tharpa Gyeltsen started practicing Buddhism in 1975 when he took refuge with Venerable Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, and became a student of Venerable Lama Lodro Rinpoche in 1981. He completed the traditional Tibetan Buddhist three-year retreat, under the guidance of Lama Lodro, in 1999, and since that time has been actively teaching meditation in the Bay Area. He currently leads the Marin Dharma Study group, which is associated with Kagyu Droden Kunchab, Lama Lodro's center in San Francisco that was founded by His Eminence Kalu Rinpoche in 1974. |  |
Linda Blagburn is in a role of Hunger Action Enabler with San Francisco Presbytery and is available to assist congregation in areas of ministries outlined by the Presbyterian Hunger Programs. The Presbyterian Hunger program works in five program areas as defined by the Common Affirmation on Global Hunger. She's a beautiful woman and we are looking forward to her picture! |
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| Jeff Tipp Ji Do Poep Sa Nim, began his spiritual training in 1968 as a monk in an order of Christian mystics while running one of their missions in Hawaii. After a time teaching Transcendental Meditation, he met Robert Aitken, Roshi, and Buddhist teachers in the Vipassana tradition. In the late 1970s, he started Seattle Dharma Group, sponsoring retreats and establishing a Buddhist practice community. In 1978 he met Zen Master Seung Sahn and in 1980 founded Dharma Sound Zen Center, the predecessor organization to Blue Heron Zen Community. Jeff entered the traditional 90- and 100-day retreats in Korea and America while raising a family, running a construction company and finishing a masters degree in psychology. In April 2006, Jeff Poep Sa Nim received Inka from his teacher, Zen Master Ji Bong, a dharma heir of Zen Master Seung Sahn. After completing licensure as a therapist, Jeff will begin a career in organizational development consulting. |  |
| Team | |
| Visioneer | |
| Denise Forest started practicing meditation with Zen Master Seung Sahn in 1983, and sat five ninety day retreats in South Korea. In 1999, she started retreat practice at Spirit Rock and practices with Jack Kornfield, Eugene Cash and currently her other main teacher is Sojun Mel Weitsman. Her inspirations and teachers include Amma, who received the Gandhi-King Award for Nonviolence and who visited the house she was living in in 1989, Bhante Dharmavara who was almost 108 when she met him, Zen Master Dae Kwang, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Joseph Goldstein, Sharon Salzberg, Marie Mannschatz, and Tsoknyi Rinpoche III. Denise also studied Nonviolent Communication from 1997 completing four IITs with Marshall Rosenberg. She is certified for state mediation and her first mediation involved people who said that they would kill each other. Denise taught NVC in San Quentin and in Cornell Corrections in San Francisco. She was instrumental in bringing Marshall into San Quentin to meet with Warden, Jeannie Woodford. She holds a BS in Electrical Engineering from Brown University and she's worked in IT consulting at Cisco, Applied Materials, Apple Computer, CSAA and mid-sized firms. |  |
| Grant Writing & Development | |
| Faith Elizabeth Fuller, President of FAS Services, brings over fifteen years of experience in the nonprofit world, from fund raising and program development to finance and administration. FAS Services is an independent grant writing, research, and evaluation service for nonprofit agencies seeking to expand services. A member of the Development Executives Roundtable, Ms. Fuller is the former development director of Options Recovery Services in Berkeley, where she concurrently served as the agency's Director of Finance and Administration. During her tenure, over two million dollars were secured in contracts and grants for the substance abuse services agency. Prior to working in the field of health and human services, she served as an interim administrative director of both the Buddhist Peace Fellowship and Oakland's Friends of Parks and Recreation. A former CPA, Ms. Fuller holds a Masters in Business Administration from New York University and a BA in Economics from Wesleyan University in Connecticut. Her clients are nationwide and include agencies working in the areas of health, affordable housing, higher education, art, workforce development, and social justice. |  |
| Planning & Organizational Learning | |
| Ellen Furnari, MSW, has over 25 years experience working with philanthropic and non profit organizations including management and consulting. Areas of expertise include: working with individuals, teams and organizations to articulate their learning and develop ongoing reflective inquiry practices; evaluation; strategic planning; program development. Ellen was the Learning and Evaluation officer for the Nonviolent Peaceforce in Sri Lanka, and has served as the Executive Director of several organizations. She is currently a consultant in strategic planning and organizational learning. |  |
| Web Development | |
| Leonard Young began contracting as a computer programmer in 1976. Born and raised in Hawaii, he moved to the Bay Area in 1981 to work, designing and programming computer applications for Bank America, Safeway, Federal Home Loan Bank, Transamerica and many other companies. Presently, he is retired from the corporate world after many Y2K and Euro dollar conversion projects and designs and programs web applications for companies and non-profits. |  |
| Special Thanks | |
| Yosh Haggerty for an outstanding business card design. Imam Zaid Shakir for believing in this. | |
| Design by Planting Seeds of Peace © 2008 Web Developer Leonard Young |