IMS's Board of Directors

Officers

President – Rosemary Blake
Vice President – Gus Block
Secretary/Treasurer – Ed Hong

Biographies

		Bob Agoglia has been attending IMS retreats for almost 30 years and has been the organization’s Executive Director since May 2006. His experience includes over 25 years in leadership positions in the public and private non-profit sectors. For the twelve years prior to beginning his tenure at IMS, he was a founding principal of Fazzi Associates, Inc., a national consulting firm that serves home health, hospice and human service organizations.
		Guy Armstrong has practiced insight meditation for over 30 years, including training as a Buddhist monk in Thailand with Ajahn Buddhadasa. He began teaching in 1984 and has led retreats worldwide. He is an IMS guiding teacher and a governing teacher at Spirit Rock Meditation Center. He currently serves as the Chair of the Board’s Ethics Committee.
		Rosemary Blake, with over 30 years experience in leadership positions in the health care industry, was most recently the Executive Director of the Health Services Retirement Plan in New York City. She is also a senior facilitator of the International Black Summit, a non-profit that provides an opportunity for participants to bring into being their vision for the black community and the world. She has had a spiritual practice for more than 25 years, and currently serves as President of the IMS Board.
		Gus Block has the good fortune to live close to IMS, giving him and his husband Bruce Lockhart greater opportunities to become engaged with the IMS community. He has a degree in mechanical engineering and since 2000 has worked for Nuvera Fuel Cells developing hydrogen fuel cells and refueling stations for automobiles. He also studied Philosophy and the History of Ideas at Brandeis University and was a Fulbright Scholar in Sri Lanka in 1994-95.
		Christina Feldman is an IMS guiding teacher and co-founder of Gaia House in England. She has been teaching insight meditation retreats since 1976 and has recently been involved in the dialogue between cognitive therapies and Buddhist practice. Her books include Compassion and The Buddhist Path to Simplicity.
		Joseph Goldstein is a co-founder and guiding teacher of IMS. He has been teaching vipassana and metta retreats worldwide since 1974 and in 1989 helped establish the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies. He is the author of A Heart Full of Peace, One Dharma and other publications.
		Evan Henritze is IMS’s Communications and Development Coordinator. Prior to this role, he graduated from Wesleyan University with degrees in Film Studies and Cultural Theory, worked in media at the Tricycle Foundation and the Garrison Institute, and undertook longer-term practice at IMS. He is currently participating in the Foundations Program at the New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care, training to support patients and families in hospice.
		Ed Hong was an equity trader for 10 years. In 2010, he sought a change of pace and is currently a systems analyst for FinServ Consulting, an independent management consulting provider to alternative asset management firms. He participated in his first IMS retreat in 2007 and is an active member of New York Insight. He finds great reward in service as a hospice volunteer.
		Narayan Liebenson Grady is a guiding teacher of IMS and the Cambridge Insight Meditation Center and a regular contributor to Buddhadharma magazine. Her training includes over 30 years in the Theravada tradition as well as in Chan with the late Master Sheng Yen.
		Tanya Rakpraja is a manager at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York where she oversees the large-scale purchases of securities backed by home mortgages to stimulate the US housing market and economy. Prior to this, she worked to reduce the impacts of poverty, both domestically and internationally. Tanya is committed to bridging the areas of poverty reduction, finance and public policy. She has participated in numerous IMS retreats over the last 15 years.
		Sharon Salzberg, a co-founder of IMS and BCBS, has practiced Buddhist meditation since 1971 and has been teaching worldwide since 1974. She is an IMS guiding teacher and author of Faith, Lovingkindness and Real Happiness.
		Sara Shapouri, a committed IMS meditator, is a graduate of the University of Virginia’s School of Law and is currently enrolled in a Ph.D. program for Counseling Psychology at Fordham University in New York. She has worked on policy reform in Bangladesh, Iran and Sierra Leone aimed at combating corruption, child sexual abuse and exploitation. She also enjoys editing art and music videos.
		Rodney Smith has taught insight meditation since 1984. He is a former Buddhist monk and worked in hospice care for 17 years. The author of Lessons From the Dying and Stepping Out of Self-Deception, he founded and guides Seattle Insight Meditation Society. He is also an IMS guiding teacher.
		Linda Spink started her insight meditation practice in 2005 and began attending retreats at IMS in 2006. As a senior consultant with TRG, an International Consulting company, she provides executive coaching and assists public and private sector clients in strategic planning, performance improvement and capacity building training. She began her international career as a Peace Corps volunteer in Mauritania, West Africa and has traveled and worked in over 40 countries. She currently serves as the Board’s Treasurer and Chair of the Finance Committee.
		DaRa Williams has a strong background of training and work in the arena of diversity, trauma and oppression psychology, which includes understanding racism and all the other ‘isms’ in our culture. She has attended numerous retreats at IMS over the last ten years and currently serves as the Chair of the Governance Committee.
		Carol Wilson has been practicing insight meditation since 1971 with a variety of teachers, including Sayadaw U Pandita and Ashin U Tejaniya, as well as spending a year as a nun in Thailand. An IMS guiding teacher, she has been offering retreats worldwide since 1986, including the annual IMS Three-Month course.
		Bill Woodson is President of Brooks Woodson Associates LLC, an international consulting firm specializing in managing organizational change and developing highly productive work teams that value diversity. He is also a psychologist and psychotherapist who has had private practices in California and New York. Currently Bill devotes most of his professional life to his mindfulness-based psychotherapy practice in New York City. He has had a spiritual practice since 1971 and has practiced vipassana meditation at IMS, New York Insight Meditation Center, Spirit Rock and other centers since 2005.