Since 2004, Reverend Jennifer Block has served as the director of Public Education for the Zen Hospice Project in San Francisco, California, creating curriculum, teaching workshops, offering spiritual care, and providing community outreach. In her current role, Jennifer shares the mission and learning of Zen Hospice Project nationally through the many curriculums she has created from her years of hospice and chaplaincy service. Jennifer also provides training and spiritual care to volunteers, clinicians, and caregivers, as well as friends and families facing the spiritual and emotional issues related to end-of-life care. With Gil Fronsdal and Paul Haller, Jennifer founded the Buddhist Chaplaincy Training program at the Sati Center for Buddhist Studies (www.sati.org), where Buddhist practitioners are are introduced to the competencies of professional spiritual care.  Jennifer completed her undergraduate degree at Boston University, and her theology degree at Naropa University and is an ordained Interfaith minister and Buddhist chaplain.


Zen Master (Roshi) Bernie Glassman is a world-renowned pioneer in the American Zen Movement. He is a spiritual leader, published author, accomplished academic and successful businessman with a PhD in Applied Mathematics. Dr. Glassman currently teaches and travels, giving talks and workshops on spiritual practice, socially responsible business and international peacemaking. He is the founder and co-spiritual director of the Zen Peacemakers. Bernie is the co-author, with Rick Fields, of Instructions to the Cook: A Zen Master’s Lessons in Living a Life that Matters (Bell Tower, April 1996), the author of Bearing Witrness: A Zen Master’s Lessons in Making Peace (Bell Tower, May 1997), and Infinite Circle: Studies in Zen (Shambhala Publication, spring 2002).


Woodson C. Merrell, MD, ScD (hc) is the M. Anthony Fisher Director of Integrative Medicine at the Continuum Center for Health and Healing and the Chairman of the Department of Integrative Medicine at Beth Israel. He has expertise and special interests in mind-body therapies (especially yoga, qi gong, and meditation), acupuncture, botanical therapies, nutrition and nutraceuticals, homeopathy, and indigenous healing systems (particularly Tibetan and Chinese Medicine). He has served as director, scientific director, co-developer, presenter and on the advisory boards for many professional medical conferences such as: Nutritional Medicine; Botanical Medicine; Native American Healing Traditions; Tibetan Medicine; CAM Expo; and Models of Healthcare. He has served as Chairman of New York State's Board of Acupuncture, and since 1995 has been a Board Member of New York State's Office of Professional Medical Conduct. Dr. Merrell is on the Steering and Policy Committees of the national Consortium of Academic Health Centers for Integrative Medicine, comprising 25% of the nation's medical schools, pledged to transform medical education and physician training with integrative medicine. In 2004 he was a finalist for the first annual Bravewell Award for leadership in integrative medicine. He is a frequent guest and commentator for all major media both regionally and nationally, including CBS Morning Show, CNN, NPR, WBAI, Time, Forbes, NY Times, Wall Street Journal, and more.


In 1987, Frank Ostaseski co-founded the Zen Hospice Project, the first Buddhist hospice in American 2004, he created Metta Institute to bring his work to a broader audience and develop the End-of-Life Care Practitioner Program that Frank leads with faculty members Ram Dass, Zoketsu Norman Fischer, Rachel Naomi Remen MD, and many others.Frank is a dynamic, original, and visionary teacher. His public programs have introduced thousands to the practices of mindful and compassionate care of the dying. His groundbreaking work has been widely featured in the media, including the Bill Moyers television series On Our Own Terms, The Oprah Winfrey Show, and in numerous print publications. In 2001, Frank was honored by the Dalai Lama for his years of compassionate service to the dying and their families.


Sharon Salzberg is cofounder of the Insight Meditation Society (IMS) in Barre, Massachusetts. She is one of America's leading spiritual teachers and authors, and has been a student of Buddhism since 1971, leading meditation retreats worldwide since 1974. Sharon's latest book is The Force of Kindness, published by Sounds True. She is also the author of Faith: Trusting Your Own Deepest Experience, published by Riverhead Books; Lovingkindness: The Revolutionary Art of Happiness and A Heart as Wide as the World, both published by Shambhala Publications; and co-author with Joseph Goldstein of Insight Meditation, a Step-by-Step Course on How to Meditate (audio), from Sounds True. For more information about Sharon, please visit: www.SharonSalzberg.com.


Gina Sharpe is a co-founder and Guiding Teacher of New York Insight Meditation Center. She is a graduate of the first Spirit Rock Community Dharma Leaders Program. Her primary mentor is Jack Kornfield. She has been teaching meditation and Dharma for 11 years. She has taught at Spirit Rock Meditation Center, Insight Meditation Society (IMS), Asia Society, Tibet House, the New York Open Center, the Katonah Yoga Center, and at other centers in the U. S. and helped to initiate and teach People of Color retreats at IMS. For the past four years, she has been a volunteer teacher of Dharma and meditation at the only maximum security prison for women in New York State.


Polly Young-Eisendrath, Ph.D., Jungian analyst and psychologist; Clinical Supervisor and Consultant in Leadership Development, Norwich University, Northfield, Vermont; Clinical Associate Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry, University of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont; Private Practice, Central Vermont; has published fourteen books, translated into twenty languages, including: The Self-Esteem Trap: Raising Confident and Compassionate Kids in an Age of Self-Importance; The Cambridge Companion to Jung: New and Revised (both in press); Awakening and Insight: Zen Buddhism and Psychotherapy; The Resilient Spirit: Transforming Suffering into Insight and Renewal.