Is a long-time practitioner of insight meditation, lived in a Buddhist monastery for over eight years. He has a PhD in Philosophy and Religion with a specialization in Buddhist Studies, and now directs Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction programs in six Bay Area medical centers. Bob studied with the renowned Burmese masters Taungpulu Kaba-Aye Sayadaw, Hlaing Tet Sayadaw, Dr. Rina Sircar and Pokokhu Sayadaw, and has experience with 32 parts of the body, 4 elements and charnel ground meditations.
Bob has completed training with Jon Kabat-Zinn and is a certified mindfulness-based stress reduction teacher having been certified by UMass Medical Center.
Carla Brennan is an Insight Meditation retreat teacher in the Santa Cruz area and offers drop-in meditation groups, classes, retreats and other programs with Bloom of the Present Insight Meditation. She is also a visiting teacher with the Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Woodacre, CA. Carla began meditation practice in 1975 in the Zen tradition and was a student of Korean Zen Master Seung Sahn in Cambridge, MA. A few years later she began attending the newly formed Insight Meditation Society in Barre, MA. Later she added the Tibetan Buddhist practice of Dzogchen and is now an authorized teacher of Natural Wisdom and Compassion with the Foundation for Active Compassion. In the early ’90’s, Carla began attending wilderness retreats with Sacred Passage, completing 2 one-month solo retreats near Crestone, CO, and training to be a Sacred Passage Guide. As part of her regular teaching, Carla offers meditation in nature and encourages her students to open to the wisdom of the natural world.
Cathy Small if a Professor of Anthropology and author, who has been practicing vipassana meditation since 1999. She has participated in more than a dozen extended meditation retreats in Nepal and the U.S., focusing on awareness and concentration. Cathy co-teaches a six-week course in mindfulness every semester for faculty and staff at Northern Arizona University, and offers a mindfulness course for prisoners at the Coconino County jail.
David Cohn began practice at Zen Center in 1969 with Suzuki Roshi, later becoming a disciple of Baker Roshi. A residential student at Tassajara, Green Gulch Farm, and City Center until 1984, he was ordained as a priest in 1977. David worked for Stewart Brand at Whole Earth for a year, before opening his first restaurant in 1985, another in 1988 and retiring in January 2009. David has been a Zen Hospice Project volunteer since 1998 and Board Member. He maintains connections with Zen Center as a Board member for Everyday Zen and management consultant for Greens Restaurant.
Dawn Neal started practicing in 2004, and has cumulatively devoted several years to silent retreat. In 2010, her Burmese teacher asked her to teach through the lens of metta. She serves as the Guiding Teacher for Insight Santa Cruz, and as faculty for the Sati Center for Buddhist Studies Online Buddhist Chaplaincy Training. She offers both residential and online retreats.
She completed Dharma teacher training with Gil Fronsdal and Andrea Fella in 2025. Before teaching full time, Dawn was a professional Interfaith Chaplain at Stanford Medicine. Her writing appears in Buddhist Studies journals and Refuge in the Storm, an anthology.
Dawn loves supporting practitioners to deepen and broaden their wisdom, meditative stability, and integration. She offers teachings to support greater love, liberation, and peace in our hearts and the world.
Dawn remains a dedicated student and practitioner of the Dharma. For more information, see her website, liberatingdharma.org.
