Board of Directors

Nick Herzmark was a close student and friend of Ruth Denison from 1977. He helped build Dhamma Dena and traveled extensively with Ruth all over the world. A licensed psychotherapist since 1994, he blends mindfulness with western methods. In 1987, Ruth sent him to Sayadaw U. Pandita where he practiced until Ruth joined him to travel in SE Asia and China, studying and practicing together. He is currently a practitioner of Tibetan Buddhism and student of Ven. Tsoknyi Rinpoche. 

My name is Ramón Honea. With deep roots in the Bay Area, I am a biracial gay man who finds service and joy in holding space for education and meditation. For twenty years I have worked as a teacher and administrator of public school education. I hold an M.S. in Educational Leadership, a teaching and administrative credential, and a Mindfulness teaching certificate. Currently, I am enrolled in the first cohort of EBMC’s two-year Spiritual Teacher and Leadership training. I support Founding Director Carol Cano at Braided Wisdom, co-teaching and hosting various classes. Through Braided Wisdom I connect my various cultural learnings with the Buddha-dharma and the teaching of Mindfulness. Due to the COVID pandemic, my job as a residential Retreat Manager at Spirit Rock Meditation Center ended. Thus, my current aspiration is to create an urban and accessible residential retreat center in Oakland for black and brown men+.

Jamie Lin (she/her) is a librarian, educator, and designer whose professional interests lie in creating user-centered learning experiences and communities, and in finding and building connections between various sectors of the library field.  She came to know Dhamma Dena through attending the center's first BIPOC retreat in 2019, volunteered to manage the second BIPOC retreat, and helped start the online BIPOC Sangha. Jamie lives in San Diego with her son, cat, and crested gecko.

Kelly Lockwood lives in San Francisco where she has been a core organizer of Bay Area Arinna Weisman retreats since 2008. She is the Finance and Human Resources Director for The Women's Building in San Francisco. Besides her love of numbers, Kelly has a teenager, an Art Degree and is a certified Music-Thanatologist. 

Fresh “Lev” White is a love and compassion activist. He offers mindfulness, mediation, diversity training, writings, and coaching as tools for shifting all of us towards more authentic, conscious, and compassionate living. From SF Drag King 1999, to SF Pride Grand Marshall 2016, to celebrating his 9th year as a teacher at the East Bay Meditation Center, Lev uses their coaching, leadership, and teaching certifications to entertain, ground us in the present, and prepare us for the work of both meeting and creating our future with seeds of love, compassion and empathy. https://affirmativeacts.org