NEWS

Spring 2008

Staff Transitions

After five years at the study center, our associate director Sumi Loundon is leaving for browner, drier pastures. Sumi’s husband will begin teaching Japanese Religions at the University of Arizona in Tucson this fall. Sumi, Ilmee and their two children Priya and Sonjae will head off to Tucson in early June. Sumi arrived at BCBS as the center’s manager, overseeing daily operations, courses, and staff during her first year. Since then, she has acted as the assistant director, covering course programming, publication of the course catalog and Insight Journal, annual fundraising, the capital campaign, updates on administrative infrastructure such as our database, remodelling the BCBS website, course promotion, communications, administration of the ASP/ISP programs, and a few other areas. If you would like to stay in touch with Sumi, feel free to contact her at bluejeanbuddha (at) hotmail.com.

I can’t begin to express what a pleasure it has been working with Sumi over these past five years, and what tremendous benefit she has been to the study center. Her range of skills has been so extensive, her cheerfulness so contagious, and her sincerity so heartfelt, it is not easy to watch her move on from BCBS. We will all miss her very much. —Andrew Olendzki

With the departure of a key administrative staff person, we have taken the opportunity to reassess and adjust our staff structure. Chris Talbott, our current center manager of more than three years, will be taking on many of Sumi’s former duties: catalog and Insight Journal production, fundraising, promotions, and communications. Chris will also oversee the center’s IT and website management, as well as take on budgeting and financial management from Andrew. As of June, Chris will be the center’s new Assistant Director!

Mu Soeng, our Resident Scholar, is now also the Programming Director, not only guiding the vision of courses but also attending to improving teacher support, hosting, and follow up. He will also oversee the ISPP. Mu Soeng has long been in charge of acquisitions for the library, and he is now directing the library’s development fully. Now that the capital campaign is nearly concluded, Andrew Olendzki, our executive director and senior scholar, will be devoting more time to curriculum development, teaching, and writing. Rebecca Kushins and Justin Kelley continue in their capacities as front office/course manager and center assistant, respectively. We recently hired Steve Hallquist as our kitchen manager: Steve has previously been on staff at IMS and Bhavana Society.

This spring, the study center is in search of a new Center Manager to replace Chris. We hope to have the new manager in place by early summer.

Publications

A profile of the study center was featured in the Winter 2007 issue of Buddhadharma magazine. Check it out!

Andrew Olendzki appears in the Spring 2008 issue of Buddhadharma magazine. He is part of a three-way forum on Does Buddhism Make You Happier: Debating the Third Noble Truth. Andrew also continues to contribute to the column Thus Have I Heard for Tricycle magazine.

Mu Soeng recently contributed an article defining devaduta in the Spring 2008 issue of Buddhadharma magazine.

Two essays from Sumi Loundon’s anthology The Buddha’s Apprentices were published in The Best Buddhist Writing 2007.

Book Amnesty

Please return your BCBS books! We are in the midst of compiling an entirely new library catalog and it would be great to have all our books on hand for this important undertaking. If you live far away, please feel free mail the books: the USPS’ Media Rate is especially affordable. Thank you!