Teachers
|
Alameda Sangha's meetings are led by a rotating group of teachers, working primarily in the Theravada tradition.
Debra Kerr and Rebecca Dixon, our longtime teachers, provide Alameda Sangha's spiritual guidance and direction. They are also available to Sangha members for individual spiritual guidance. In alignment with our community and its values, they charge no fee; members express gratitude with dana, donations in the spirit of mindful generosity. To reach Deb or Rebecca, see their bios below for contact information. Many of our teachers have websites; please visit those if you are interested in more information or notes or recordings of their talks. We are deeply grateful to Deb, Rebecca, and all our Dharma teachers. |
Guiding Teachers
|
Debra Kerr (she/her/hers) is a partner, mother, grandmother, and retired speech pathologist who has meditated since 1991 and taught since 2002. A graduate of Spirit Rock’s Community Dharma Leader program, Deb is a Core Teacher at East Bay Meditation Center, where she also guides the Every Body Every Mind Sangha for people with disabilities and chronic illnesses. Her meditation practice is influenced by both Theravada and Dzogchen teachings. Deb is dedicated to waking up as much as possible, and to using the tools of Buddhist practice to dismantle racism and other forms of oppression and exclusion. She loves maximizing well-being and human potential through the practices of lovingkindness, compassion and wisdom. To contact Deb, please email [email protected].
|
|
Rebecca Dixon (she/her) studied Buddhism as a graduate student in Anthropology and has maintained a daily practice since 1992, with numerous long retreats. She has spent many years sharing the dharma and practice opportunities with hospice patients, incarcerated women, and the chemically dependent. She completed Spirit Rock's third Community Dharma Leader training, is a member of the Chaplaincy Council at Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City and helped found the East Bay Meditation Center. Rebecca has led a sitting group on Monday nights in Oakland since 2002 and teaches occasionally at IMC. She co-founded Alameda Sangha in 2010. For more information about her teaching activities, visit RebeccaDixon.org
|
Dharma Teachers
|
Kitty Costello (she/her) has been practicing in the Insight Meditation lineage since 2000 and is a graduate of Spirit Rock's Community Dharma Leaders Program. She has a Master’s degree in Social Psychology and has worked as a psychotherapist for over 25 years. She is also a poet and is on the editorial board of Freedom Voices Publications, publishing works that speak to and from communities on the margins. She works to foster creativity and to support our capacity for sovereignty over our own hearts and minds.
|
Mary Davis (she/her) - history not available at this time.
|
Sallie DeWitt (she/her) started meditating in the mid-1990s, and has been teaching and leading guided mindfulness meditations since March, 2020. Her earliest influences were teachers in the Tibetan tradition, as well as Thich Nhat Hanh’s forgiveness practices. In early 2021 she completed a two-year mindfulness meditation teacher training program taught by Western insight meditation teachers, Tara Brach and Jack Kornfield and certified by the Greater Good Science Center at the University of California, Berkeley. For more information, visit her website at www.salliedewitt.com
|
Rion Pendergass (they/them and he/him) identifies as transgender and queer. They are currently part way through their program at Starr King School for the Ministry to become a Unitarian Universalist chaplain. They completed the Spiritual Teaching and Leadership program of the East Bay Meditation Center and regularly teach meditation. They have been a practicing Buddhist for more than 25 years. Rion also has been teaching about connecting to ancestors and ancestral healing as a part of supporting decolonization, repair, and dismantling White Supremacy. Rion's day job is as a scientist.
|
Fresh "Lev" White (he/they/love) offers mindfulness, mediation, and diversity trainings as tools for shifting towards more authentic, conscious, and passionate living. He teaches and writes about how unconditional love and self-compassion are the ultimate gateways to honoring and understanding others; thus, healing our communities and our planet. For more about Fresh “Lev” White’s work, please visit https://affirmativeacts.org/
|
