Board of Directors

Betty Burkes

She has been an educator/activist for five decades. She has been a Montessori teacher, a peace educator with the United Nations, and an educational consultant with Rethinkers in New Orleans. Her activism has been expressed internationally and nationally with the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom and as a columnist at the Cape Cod Times. Betty began her meditation practice over 40 years ago with Phiroz Mehta at the Buddhist Society in London, and with J.Krishnamurti during his residences near London. Since 2001, those seeds of mindfulness and loving-kindness have been nourished at the Cambridge Insight Meditation Center (CIMC). Betty served as President of the CIMC Board until 2022.

Rosalyn Driscoll

(Co-Chair) is a visual artist whose work explores the experience of the body, the somatic senses and perception, drawing on her Buddhist practice in the Theravada tradition since 1971. She participated in the first ISPP at BCBS, and was instrumental in producing the Dharma and Arts symposium in 2016 and subsequent courses for the Dharma and Art program at BCBS. She is a member of Sensory Sites, an international art collective based in London, committed to multisensory, site-specific installations and research into aesthetic perception. Her work has been exhibited in the US, Europe and Asia, and received awards and fellowships from the Dartington Hall Trust, UK, New England Foundation for the Arts, Massachusetts Cultural Council, and Helene Wurlitzer Foundation of New Mexico. Driscoll has presented worldwide at conferences for neuroscientists, philosophers, designers, art educators and people involved with disabilities.

Joseph Goldstein

(Emeritus) is a co-founder and guiding teacher of IMS. He has been teaching vipassanā and mettā retreats worldwide since 1974. In 1989, he helped establish BCBS and, more recently, IMS’s Forest Refuge. His books include Mindfulness: A Practical Guide to Awakening, One Dharma, Insight Meditation and others.

David Green

He is a retired attorney living with his family in Providence, Rhode Island. He grew up in western Tennessee and graduated from the University of Tennessee School of Law. He’s been active in state and regional service leadership roles for family alcohol recovery organizations for the last fifteen years. His meditation and Buddhist practice includes graduation from the Mindfulness Clinic at UMass.; completion of the Dedicated Practitioners Program Five at Spirit Rock (DPP5); and completion of the Nalanda program and reunions at the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies (BCBS). He is a member of the Cambridge Insight Meditation Center and the Insight Meditation Community of Providence. He enjoys the outdoors, especially fishing, canoeing, and hiking.

Christopher Ives

Ph.D. is a professor of Religious Studies at Stonehill College and a teacher of numerous courses at BCBS. In his teaching and writing, he focuses on ethics in Zen Buddhism and Buddhist approaches to nature and environmental issues. Since his days as an undergraduate in the 1970s, he has been practicing Zen, both in Japan and in the United States. His books include Meditations on the Trail, Zen on the Trail, Imperial-Way Zen, and Zen Awakening and Society. He is currently writing a book on Buddhism and the climate crisis.

Robert Kolodny

Ph.D. is an organization development consultant working with a wide array of human systems in the public, non-profit/voluntary and business worlds. His work is guided by two visions: the building of more satisfying and inclusive workplace communities and the creation of more just and democratic ways of governing in the public realm. He is currently devoting the bulk of his time to large-scale social movements directly addressing the climate and ecological crisis. Bob is a veteran Vipassana practitioner, having sat his first retreat at IMS in 1992. Over the years since then he has consulted to IMS, BCBS and other Buddhist centers on their development, growth, and human dynamics. Bob has been on the faculty at Columbia University, the New School, the Gestalt Institute of Cleveland and the Gestalt International Study Center. He has taught at a number of other educational institutions around the world.

Suzanne McGilvray

She is a (mostly) retired Certified Public Accountant with a broad range of board experience in the not-for-profit sector. She has worked with organizations on strategic planning, capital fundraising, improved governance, campus planning, leadership succession, and finance. She is a board member and the Treasurer of Valley Insight Meditation Society. Suzanne has been interested in Buddhism since her teenage years. Her formal practice began in the Zen tradition, but for the past ten years, she has found her home within the Insight community. She has been a member of Cambridge Insight Meditation Center and has attended retreats at both IMS and BCBS. Teachers who have helped her navigate the path include Bhikkhu Anālayo, Rob Burbea, Joseph Goldstein, Thich Nhat Hanh, Jon Kabat-Zinn, and Doreen Schweizer. Suzanne lives with her husband on an old dairy farm in rural Vermont.

Kevin F. Quigley

Ph.D. started studying Buddhism in college. He was struck by Buddhadasa Bhikkhu’s teaching linking dhamma to making social change. As a Peace Corps Volunteer in Thailand, Kevin had the opportunity to learn from individuals in the forest monk tradition, including Ajaan Chah. He has held leadership roles at non-profits, in government, at a foundation and has also served on numerous boards. Most recently, Kevin was president of Marlboro College, where he helped orchestrate the merger with Emerson College.

Bernie Rhie

Bernie Rhie is a professor of English at Williams College and a lay Zen teacher associated with the Ordinary Mind School of Zen founded by Joko Beck. Bernie began his Zen training in 1989 when he moved to the Sonoma Mountain Zen Center, a Soto temple founded by Jakusho Kwong Roshi to carry on the lineage and practice traditions of his teacher, Shunryu Suzuki Roshi. After leaving Sonoma Mountain in 1992, he began studying with Ezra Bayda, and then later with Elizabeth Hamilton as well, and he received dharma transmission from both of them in 2022. Since 2018, he’s led the Williamstown Zen Group, a sitting group based in Williamstown, MA. As a Williams professor, he has been exploring ways to incorporate contemplative practices like meditation into some of his college courses, and he regularly leads meditations around campus for members of the college community.

Vivien Roman-Hampton

(she/her/ella) is a mental health clinician and the founder of a group mental health practice. Her work is dedicated to addressing the unique and often overlooked needs of historically marginalized communities. Vivien’s personal journey led her to discover mindfulness in 2013. Since then, she has actively pursued opportunities to deepen her understanding of Buddhist practices, participating in numerous retreats and diverse educational courses. In addition to her clinical work, Vivien works with the Mindfulness Institute for Emerging Adults, where she teaches and develops mindfulness curriculum, both in and out of the organization. She also co-facilitates a weekly sangha at HoppingTree in Amherst and is an aspirant in the Order of Interbeing, within the Plum Village tradition. Vivien currently resides in Massachusetts with her beloved family.

Lynn Whittemore

She was first introduced to Buddhism in 1978 during a semester abroad in Nepal, though her study, practice, and love of the Dharma really took root in a January term Vipassana Meditation course at Hampshire College. After an extensive career in print design and publishing, Lynn served as the Executive Director of the Cambridge Insight Meditation Center (CIMC) from 2014 to 2023. For decades, Lynn has studied and practiced at BCBS which she considers to be her spiritual home. She regularly attends retreats here and was a member of the 2013-2014 Integrated Study and Practice (ISPP) cohort.