The Teachers of PIMC
PIMC is a first generation Dharma center with origins in Burma, Thailand and India. Our practice is based upon the Noble Eightfold Path of the Buddha and the teachings that have been passed down through the Theravada lineage for 2500 years.
PIMC Resident Teachers:
Guest Teachers:
Doyle Banks ・ Enrique Collazo・Kate Davies ・ Tim Geil・Caverly Morgan・ Carole Melkonian・
Meditation and Mindful Movement Teacher
Jim Dalton
(he/him)
Jim has studied the Dharma since 1990. Ever since his teenage years he has been grappling with questions like: Who am I? Where did I come from? What am I here for? It is only since practicing in the Portland Insight Meditation Community that he has found the tools to effectively address those fundamental questions. He doesn’t have the answers to his own questions, but his greatest joy is trying to teach so he can learn.
What he teaches reflects the constantly changing nature of his practice while also returning to his foundations in the Four Noble truths: how to understand suffering; how to abandon clinging; how to learn to let go of clinging; how to find the path to freedom and stay on it. If he can inspire others to practice with him, he feels successful.
Most recently he has established mindful movement as the foundation of his practice, deepening his investigation of the body through QiGong and Tai Chi, deepening his exploration of the body as the First of Four Foundations of Mindfulness.
His aging body has become his new teacher, lending a sense of urgency to his own search for liberation, focusing more and more on aging as a spiritual journey. As the sands of his personal time on this planet continues to run out, he draws more and more inspiration from the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha.
Meditation Teacher
Douglas Pullin
(he/him)
Douglas Pullin (he/him) has been teaching at PIMC since 2004. He is a lineage holder and authorized to teach in the Insight Meditation tradition of U Ba Kin and Ruth Denison. Douglas graduated from the Spirit Rock sponsored Community Dharma Leader Training with Tara Brach and James Baraz in 2008. Douglas is currently a student of Mathew Flickstein in the Bhante Gunaratana lineage from Sri Lanka. Douglas has a master’s degree in counseling psychology, and master’s in clinical social work. He has over 25 years of non-profit management experience in community mental healthcare. In addition to teaching at PIMC, Douglas offers mindfulness-based psychotherapy and consultation in independent practice. Douglas also works as a consultant in the nonprofit social service field. He enjoys meditation retreats, going for runs in the woods, hiking, and gardening.
Guest Teachers
Doyle Banks
Doyle Banks is an authorized Buddhist Meditation teacher who practices and teaches in the Theravada tradition. He was a presenter at the 2021 International Western Dharma Teachers' Gathering (held every 5 years). He co-founded and teaches in the Wise Spirit Buddhist Meditation Community. Doyle also offers life coaching based on secular mindfulness practices and the Compassionate Communication methodology.
Meditation Teacher
https://doylebanks.com/
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Enrique Collazo
Enrique Collazo, he/him, is a Mindfulness Educator and Buddhist Meditation teacher rooted in the Vipassana tradition since 2005. Enrique believes that mindfulness can lead us to a more socially just world and cultivates the awareness, empathy, and compassion necessary for social change. Enrique has been guiding individuals of all ages across the country and internationally through classes and day-long- and multi-day retreats since 2009.
Enrique, born and raised in Los Angeles to a Peruvian mother and a New York-based Puerto Rican father, has been residing and teaching in the Bay Area since 2012. He is well-loved and respected for his inspirational work at Challenge Day, where he facilitates social and emotional learning workshops for thousands of young people nationwide.
Enrique guides residential meditation retreats, live dharma classes, and online courses while offering individualized growth through dharma mentoring. His approach crafts a safe, playful space with clear boundaries, allowing for both introspective depth and interpersonal connection.
Meditation Teacher
https://insightla.org/teacher/enrique-collazo-2/
Kate Davies
Kate Davies has been a student of the Dhamma for more than twenty years. She leads an online mindfulness meditation group and is a regular guest teacher at the Bellingham Insight Meditation Society. She also teaches at the Cloud Mountain Retreat Center and other Sanghas in the Pacific Northwest.
Kate spent her career working on environmental policy and social and personal change. She is currently Board Chair and President of the Saranaloka Foundation, Professor Emerita at Antioch
University, and Senior Fellow at the Whidbey Institute. She is also the author of two award-winning books – “The Rise of the US Environmental Health Movement” (Rowman & Littlefield, 2013) and “Intrinsic Hope: Living Courageously in Troubled Times” (New Society Publishers, 2018).
Meditation Teacher
https://www.katedavies.org/
Tim Geil
Tim Geil began practicing Insight Meditation in 1996 and has taught meditation since 2006 under the guidance of Rodney Smith. In 2016, Tim completed the four-year Residential Retreat Teacher Training through Spirit Rock, Insight Meditation Society, and Insight Retreat Center. The core teachers of this intensive program were Joseph Goldstein, Jack Kornfield, Carol Wilson, Gil Fronsdal, Guy Armstrong, Andrea Fella, Trudy Goodman, and Phillip Moffitt.
Tim emphasizes three expressions of the Dharma: investigation, non-resistance, and compassion. Our daily lives prove a tailor-made spiritual path for each person when we are willing to investigate areas of constriction and resistance. This reveals our personal suffering created by the illusion of a separate self. A deep sense of non-resistance and compassion brings balance to investigation. Relaxing fully into this moment is the essence of non-resistance. Compassion brings sensitivity and kindness as we meet all aspects of ourselves. This allows the heart’s release into stillness.
A Co-Guiding Teacher of Seattle Insight Meditation Society, Tim offers talks, classes, interviews, and retreats. He also works closely with leadership and volunteers at SIMS as a member of the board of directors. Tim has inhabited many roles: husband, father, wilderness ranger, martial artist, hospice volunteer, massage therapist. His relationship with his wife and daughter are a joyful and fundamental part of his dharma practice.
Co-Guiding Teacher of Seattle Insight Meditation Society
https://seattleinsight.org/teacher/tim-geil-guiding-teacher/
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Carole Melkonian
Carole Melkonian has been practicing meditation since 1980, when she spent 4 years in residence at Zen Mountain Monastery under the guidance of John Daido Loori. Afterwards, she studied closely with Thich Nhat Hanh for 12 years, helping start his publishing company, Parallax Press. She has attended 6 three-month Winter Retreats at Chithurst and Amaravati monasteries and dedicated all of 2015 to practicing meditation at monasteries in England, the US and Canada.
She draws inspiration from the Thai Forest Tradition of Luang Por Chah, and nondual teachings, and continues to study with Ajahn Sucitto and former nun Willa Thaniya Reid. In 1997 she attended the MBSR training course with Jon Kabat-Zinn and Saki Santorelli and is a graduate of the Spirit Rock Community Dharma Leader Program.
Her current work and practice include teaching meditation programs at hospitals, a senior center, a weekly sangha, and serving as a mentor for students in the international online Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Training Program led by Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach. She also leads residential retreats at Cloud Mountain Retreat
Center in Southern WA.
Meditation Teacher
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Spiritual Teacher
https://caverlymorgan.org
Caverly Morgan
Caverly Morgan is a spiritual teacher, non-profit founder, speaker and writer who blends the original spirit of Zen with a modern nondual approach. She is the author of The Heart of Who We Are: Realizing Freedom Together as well as A Kids Book About Mindfulness. Caverly’s practice began in 1995 and has included eight years of training in a silent Zen monastery. She is the founder of Peace in Schools, a nonprofit that created the nation’s first for-credit mindfulness class in public high schools. She is also the founder of Realizing Freedom Together, a nonprofit dedicated to making teachings that lead to liberation for all, accessible to all. Caverly leads meditation retreats, workshops and online classes internationally.
Meditation Teacher
https://alexaredner.com/
Alexa Redner
Alexa has been practicing in the Insight meditation tradition for twenty years, including over a year spent in intensive retreat practice. She was authorized to teach the Buddha’s Dharma by one of Spirit Rock’s founding teachers, James Baraz. She holds a BA in Visual Arts and MA in Creation Spirituality, both from Naropa University.
Alexa has been an educator in many realms over the last twenty years, dancing between the worlds of being a Waldorf Kindergarten teacher, program teacher for Mindful Schools, and Eating Disorders/Body Positive Educator at Beyond Hunger.
Alexa is currently a mentor for Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach’s Mindfulness Meditation Certification Program and is a senior teacher for the online practice community, Banyan. She is a guest teacher for the Insight Meditation community of Berkeley, and has led retreats in person and online through Spirit Rock Meditation Community and Insight Meditation Society.
Alexa brings a playful and soft approach to the sacred work of awakening, influenced by U Tejaniya’s style of Vipassana meditation and Rob Burbea’s creative approach to Samadhi practice. She has a special fire for cultivating brave and loving spaces where women can use the blessings of the Dharma to cultivate nurturing relationships to food and their bodies.
Alexa loves spending time with the rivers and trees of the Pacific Northwest with her fiddling husband and 11 year old son.
Meditation Teacher
https://www.kirstenrudestam.com/
Kirsten Rudestam
Kirsten is an environmental educator, wilderness guide, and meditation teacher. She believes that practices of (re)connection are vital for cultivating the resilience needed to face ecological loss and embrace our inherent interdependence.
Kirsten holds a PhD in environmental sociology from the University of California, Santa Cruz, where she focused on water policy and environmental justice. She is a trained vision fast guide through the School of Lost Borders, a facilitator of Joanna Macy’s “Work That Reconnects.” She has been teaching in colleges and universities, environmental field courses, and nature-based meditation programs since 2002.
A dedicated meditation practitioner since 1997, Kirsten has been authorized and trained to teach in the Theravadan tradition by her mentors, Gil Fronsdal and Andrea Fella. She co-founded and co-teaches the Sati Center’s Buddhist Eco-Chaplaincy Training Program, supporting others in responding to the challenges of our time with compassion and wisdom.
Meditation Teacher
https://pathofsincerity.com/
David Sudar
A former Theravādin Buddhist monk, David Sudar has spent over three years on silent Vipassana meditation retreats. His primary teacher is Sayadaw U Tejaniya and he has also been mentored by Carol Wilson since 2018. He actively teaches both in Portland and virtually.
Meditation Teacher
https://livingearthoregon.org/
Betsy Toll
Betsy is the founder of Living Earth here in Portland, Oregon. Seeds for Living Earth were planted in the mid-1980s when Betsy Toll worked with Ram Dass on a conference in Los Angeles for Seva Foundation. Her early background in art, theater, and performance provided strong vehicles for activism on behalf of the natural world and her commitment to social justice.
Also a student of Joanna Macy, in 1998, Betsy founded Living Earth in Portland, offering opportunities to explore what we love, what it means to be fully human, and how our awareness shapes our participation in our communities, our society, and our interactions with the living planet.
Other influences include Roshi Joan Halifax and Frank Ostaseski. A writer and editor, Betsy also serves in hospital and home chaplaincy with individuals facing crisis, grief, trauma, and death. She leads dharma circles, and workshops, and offers residential retreats twice a year for Living Earth.