Myozen Joan Amaral is the Founder and Guiding Teacher of the Zen Center North Shore. Joan is a dharma heir of Zenkei Blanche Hartman in the lineage of Shunryu Suzuki, Roshi. Joan trained at Tassajara Zen Mountain Monastery for six years. While in residency at San Francisco Zen Center, she formed a dharma group – Dharma en Español – devoted to studying Suzuki Roshi’s Zen Mind, Beginners Mind in Spanish (Mente Zen, Mente de Principiante), in order to provide the opportunity for native Spanish speakers to hear the dharma in their own language.

Chimyo Simone Atkinson was ordained a priest in the Soto Zen Buddhist tradition in 2007 and received Dharma Transmission in 2015. Chimyo currently serves as Head of Practice at Great Tree Zen Women’s Temple and volunteers with the sangha at Avery-Mitchell Correctional Institute. She has served on the board of the Soto Zen Buddhist Association since 2017 and helped to draft that organization’s standards for formal monastic practice. She is a member of the Association of Soto Zen Buddhists Jukai-e committee and an SZBA liaison to that organization’s Roadmap Committee.

Chodo Campbell, is a co-founder of the New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care and is part of the core faculty for the Buddhist Track in the Master in Pastoral Care and Counseling at Zen Center’s education partner, New York Theological Seminary. His passion lies in bereavement counseling and advocating for change in the way our healthcare institutions work with the dying.

Dai En Friedman's teachers include Roshi Peter Muryo Matthiessen, Joseph Goldstein, Matt Flickstein, and Maureen Stuart Roshi. Dai-en received Dharma Transmission from Roshi Peter Muryo Mattheissen as a Soto Zen Teacher. She is now a Sensei at Ocean Zendo, located on Eastern Long Island.

Issho Fujita is currently based at the Chizanso Retreat in Hayama, Kanagawa Prefecture in Japan where he conducts research and offers instruction in zazen. He is the second head director of the Soto Zen Buddhism International Center in San Francisco. He wrote “Modern Lectures on Zazen: The Path to Shikantaza” and is the co-author of “Buddhism 3.0: An Update.” He has also translated numerous works into Japanese including Stephen Batchelor’s “Buddhism Without Beliefs,” David Brazier’s “The Feeling Buddha,” and Thich Nhat Hanh’s “Zen Keys.”

Setsuan Konjin Gaelyn Godwin received ordination as a Zen Priest in 1991, from Tenshin Reb Anderson, Senior Dharma Teacher at San Francisco Zen Center. She received Dharma Transmission, also from Tenshin Reb Anderson, in 2003, and was appointed Kaikyoshi (formal recognition from Japan) in 2005. Her Zen lineage is Soto Zen, through Dōgen Zenji, and through Suzuki Shunryu Daiosho, founder of San Francisco Zen Center. Konjin Gaelyn Godwin Roshi is a representative of the Soto Zen Buddhism International Center

Ryushin Paul Haller has lived and practiced at San Francisco Zen Center since the 1970s and held many positions at Tassajara and City Center. He received Dharma Transmission from Sojun Mel Weitsman and has been teaching for over 30 years. He served as Abiding Abbot at City Center from 2003 to 2012, and is currently the Urban Temple Dharma Teacher at City Center. Originally from Belfast, Northern Ireland, he teaches throughout the US and Europe and has led mindfulness programs to assist with depression and recovery.

Jose Shinzan Palma was born in Veracruz, Mexico. He is a Zen priest and Dharma Successor of Roshi Joan Halifax. He has been practicing Zen since 1996. Shinzan co-teaches a teenagers retreat for the Inward Bound Mindfulness Education, and weekends retreats in several parts of the country. Currently, he lives in San Diego and teaches at the Carlsbad Zen Community and Sweetwater Zen Center.

Koshin Paley Ellison co-founded the New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care, the first Zen-based organization to offer fully accredited ACPE clinical chaplaincy training in America. Koshin is the co-editor of Awake at the Bedside: Contemplative Teachings on Palliative and End of Life Care (Wisdom Publications, 2016) and author of Wholehearted: Slow Down, Help Out, Wake Up.

Tenku Ruff trained in Zen monasteries in Japan and North America. She ordained as a priest under Tessai Yamamoto Roshi, Abbot of Kannonji Temple in Morioka, Japan and received dharma transmission in the same lineage. Tenku holds a Master of Divinity degree from Maitripa College and she is also a Board Certified Chaplain (BCC). Tenku has interests in ethics, chaplaincy, and inter-Buddhist / interfaith dialogue.

Zenju Earthlyn Manuel, daughter of Lawrence and Alvesta Manuel, is an author, poet, and ordained Zen Buddhist priest. She is a dharma heir of Zenkei Blanche Hartman and trained at the San Francisco Zen Center. The essence of all her transmissions come together in her teachings including these books, The Deepest Peace: A Season of Contemplation and Stillness (upcoming Parallax Press Fall 2020), Sanctuary: A Meditation on Home, Homelessness, and Belonging and The Way of Tenderness: Awakening Through Race, Sexuality, and Gender (print and audio). More at zenju.org

Gerry Shishin Wick is President and Spiritual Leader of the Great Mountain Zen Center in Lafayette, Colorado. He is a Dharma Successor of Taizan Maezumi Roshi, founder of the Zen Center of Los Angeles. He did rigorous training in both schools of Zen, Soto and Rinzai. He received inka and the title Roshi from Bernie Glassman in 2006. His latest books include The Book of Equanimity, Illuminating Classic Zen Koans and The Great Heart Way: How to Heal Your Life and Find Self-fulfillment (co-authored with Ilia Shinko Perez).

Kanho Yakushiji is from Imabari city, Ehime prefecture, Japan. Currently, he is a deputy director and a musician of Rinzai sect and Imaji temple in Imabari. in order to connect Buddhism to the next generation, he searches for expressive ways of combining music and Buddhism. His "Heart Sutra" album with various arrangements and vocals was released in May 2018. The music video of the original version of "Heart Sutra" has been viewed over 30 Million times. In March 2020, he released a special version of “nilakantha dharani” with string quartet to pray for the people who are fighting against the corona-virus outbreak.

Gyōkei Yokoyama completed his training at Eiheiji, one of the head temples of Sōtō Zen, in 2000 before graduating from Sophia University in Tokyo, where he majored in intercultural communication and was involved in the interfaith community. He was a vice bishop of Iwoji temple from 2006 to 2011 and a bishop from 2011 to 2013. Currently, he is assigned to work for the Long Beach Buddhist Church and Montebello Sozenji Buddhist Temple as a minister and the Sōtō Zen North America Office as the secretary.