Meet our team of New York-based meditation teachers:
Jessica
Jessie began practicing meditation in 2012 during her Peace Corps service. She completed a 200-hour mindfulness teacher training under the tutelage of Ethan Nichtern, Dr. Shanté Paradigm Smalls and David Perrin. She co-leads Karuna Sangha, an LGBTQIAS-affirming meditation community, and practices in the Bhumisparsha Buddhist community. She is a student of Lama Justin von Bujdoss (Repa Dorje Odzer).
Craig
After spending 20 years as a book publishing executive and 20 years as an American historian, Craig Nelson turned to service for the last decades of his life. Training under UC Berkeley’s mindfulness teacher’s certification course and Weill Cornell’s depression research unit, he currently works with women incarcerated at Rikers and seniors suffering from mood disorders. His mindfulness boot camp can be found here.
Maho
Born and raised in Tokyo, Japan, Maho first encountered meditation and Buddhism in downtown Manhattan in 2000. She became an avid practitioner in 2008 and has over a decade of experience, practice, training, and certification credentials including completion of the Interdependence Project Teachers Training, Mindful Meditation Teachers Certified Program, and Mindful Mentor Training. She has trained with and under many influential teachers, including Ethan Nichtern, Jack Kornfield, and Tara Brach. She is a certified teacher for Awake in the Wild under Mark Coleman’s guidance and is looking forward to facilitating outdoor meditation. She was fortunate to meet with HH the Dalai Lama in 2017.
Synnove
Synnove Trier, PhD, is a retired clinical psychologist, who has practiced Buddhist meditation in the tradition of Thích Nhất Hạnh. She has been a member of the Rock Blossom Sangha in Brooklyn for over twenty years. She continues to attend retreats at Blue Cliff Monastery in Pine Bush, NY.
She grew up in Germany, where she studied psychology for six years, and completed her PhD in clinical psychology in the US. A specialist in family therapy, she worked at Brentwood Mental Health Center on Long Island, located in a large Latino community. She speaks Spanish.
After retirement, from 2015 to 2020, as a volunteer, she began facilitating meditation groups at Rikers Island in the women’s jail’s Rose M. Singer Center. She was part of a team led by Buddhist Lama Justin von Bujdoss, who later became chaplain at Rikers Island. The pandemic interrupted the meditation program. In the summer of 2024, we were able to resume the meditation program.
