Guidance and Team

Kristin is co-founder and director of One Earth Sangha whose mission is to cultivate a Buddhist response to ecological crises. She is a graduate of Spirit Rock’s Community Dharma Leader program and now teaches with the Insight Meditation Community of Washington (DC). As a co-founder of White Awake, Kristin has been supporting white people since 2011 with a Dharma approach to uprooting racism in ourselves and in our world. With a background in software engineering as well as environmental management, she has worked at several international environmental organizations. She is a GreenFaith Fellow and serves on the advisory board of Project Inside Out as well as the steering committee for Interfaith Power & Light DMV. Kristin was born and raised in northern New Mexico and currently lives in Washington DC, traditional lands of the Piscataway peoples.

Lou is a life-long environmentalist who has worked to advance laws, policies and practices that promote care for the Earth and the people and communities that call it home. Lou discovered the dharma as part of his search for balance and support in the face of the difficult emotions that arise as we dedicate ourselves to healing the world and promoting social change. He’s worked in government, civil society, academia, and the private sector, including serving as Senior Vice President at World Wildlife Fund where he led the climate change program for over a decade. Lou currently serves as Dean of the Falk School of Sustainability & Environment at Chatham University supporting students of all ages who are training to advance climate and food justice. Lou is deeply grateful for the refuge he has found in the dharma and the teachers who have helped him find it.

Nikayla Jefferson is a political science graduate student at UC Santa Barbara, where her research focuses on the intersection of climate justice, the American environmental movement, democracy, and engaged spiritual traditions. She is interested in researching, writing, and living the questions related to what it means to be a human in this moment we call the Anthropocene. Nikayla’s work has been published in the Los Angeles Times, the Boston Globe, the Guardian, the Nation, and others. Her essay, “From the Hunger Strike, With Love,” was selected for publication in the book “Not Too Late: Changing the Climate Story from Despair to Possibility,” edited by Rebecca Solnit and climate activist Thelma Young Lutunatabua.

Brenda left a career in finance in order to experience the world beyond the corporate scene. This new path stretched over many years and most of this time was spent in the emergency humanitarian sector and volunteering on farms. These experiences led to a longing for community. Brenda is transitioning from her most recent community experience at Gampo Abbey in Cape Breton where she spent three years as a temporary monastic. She is grateful to be able to help One Earth Sangha in any way that she can.

Elena (they/them) was raised by a Buddhist father who embodied a deep care for the natural world. This infused in them a connection and appreciation between a Buddhist practice and care for the environment. As someone with a very intersectional upbringing, raised between Cuban and American culture in Tennessee as a queer child, Elena developed a natural passion for connecting the dots between seemingly different cultures, practices, faiths, and justice issues, especially related to the climate crisis. This led them to study theology and public health with a focus on climate communications and opened into a career dedicated to the science and art of environmental communications. Today, Elena resides in Chicago, Illinois with their impertinent rescue pigeon, Giselle.

Yutthichai was born and raised as a Buddhist in Thailand before immigrating to the US in 1987 to study at the United World College in NM. Living and learning with young people from all over the world at this international school, he developed a deep sense of self and an understanding of his individual capacity to impact the world. Yutthichai went on to earn a masters degree in engineering and started working in the Information Technology sector focusing on helping non-profit organizations use technology to achieve their missions. Yutthichai currently lives in the Washington DC area.

dawn entered the path of the Dharma and Buddhist practice in 2009 while exploring meditation during a lifelong journey of spiritual seeking. She has always had a deep relationship with the Earth and the more-than-human world, and having lived in Michigan her whole life, she is especially appreciative of the Great Lakes Basin. In moving into retirement from a career as an attorney, dawn is bringing together her passions for the natural world and Buddhism. She is excited to be a part of One Earth Sangha and to help cultivate connection between and co-create community with practitioners.

Elisabeth has been a student of the Dharma and the human condition for many years, and a lover of the natural world for all of her years. She is currently living on a beach in El Salvador where she appreciates being close to the ocean and the rich natural beauty and diversity of the land, while not turning a blind eye to the suffering that surrounds her. Elisabeth is grateful daily to be on her life journey with the dharma as a guide and with all the beautiful sentient beings she gets to know and love. She hopes to continue to support Ecodharma in our world for as long as she can be of service.