Leadership Sangha (Board):

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Howard Cohn, Guiding Teacher

Howie has led the Mission Dharma sitting group in San Francisco for over 30 years. He has practiced meditation since 1972, has led vipassana retreats since 1985, and is a senior teacher at Spirit Rock Meditation Center. Howie has studied with many Asian and western teachers of several traditions, including Theravada, Zen, Dzogchen and Advaita Vedanta, and has been strongly influenced by contact with the Indian master H.W.L. Poonja. Howie is known by his students for his kindheartedness and warm sense of humor.

​Andrea Camille Shane, President

Andrea was introduced to Eastern spirituality and meditation while living in Argentina in 2004. In the same year, she moved to the San Francisco Bay Area to seek a spiritual community. After practicing in several traditions, Andrea encountered Buddhist practice in 2008 and began sitting and volunteering regularly at Mission Dharma. She is a founding member of the Mission Dharma Planning Group which later evolved into the Board of Directors. Andrea is also a practitioner of Tibetan Buddhism and is currently doing ngondro (preliminaries) practice under the guidance of Lama Tsultrim Allione. 

​​Mary Davis, Vice President

Mary fell in love with meditation in 1997 and has practiced and studied in Tibetan traditions before coming to Insight Meditation ten years ago. She is one of three co-leaders of Insight Richmond, a relatively new sangha in her hometown of Richmond. In addition, she is currently enrolled in Spirit Rock's Community Dharma Leader program, and has taught beginning meditation classes at Mission Dharma. Mary has taken the lead in bringing mindfulness classes and sitting groups for staff and physicians at Kaiser San Francisco, where she works as an administrative manager.   

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Katherine Janes, Treasurer

Katherine has been practicing various types of mediation since 2006, and has been a part of the Mission Dharma community since 2011.  She also volunteers with environmental nonprofits in the Bay Area.  Katherine enjoys spending time in nature while hiking and camping and likes to practice meditating while running marathons.

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David Wilmore, Secretary

Dave has been practicing Vipassana meditation since 1996 and sitting with Howie Cohn since 1997.  He enjoys exploring the practice of meditation and the teachings of the Buddha -- and sharing both with others. He has been a volunteer at Mission Dharma since 2014. He is the Director of Operations for an educational research firm as well as a husband and father.

Ken Barnes

Ken was introduced to meditation 8 years ago, and since that time has had a daily practice, deepening his understanding of the path leading to liberation. His chosen tradition is Theravada, with the addition of some studies in Dzogchen. Ken has been a member of Mission Dharma for 7 years, with Howie as his several-year guiding teacher. He has attended numerous residential retreats, and is now a member of the current two-year cohort of Spirit Rock’s Dedicated Practitioner Program. He is teaching in the Introduction to Meditation classes of Mission Dharma. For many years a social justice advocate, he is currently active in a coalition of community organizations around the issue of equitable health care. He is honored to be a new member of the Mission Dharma Board and looks forward to serving the sangha and the wider Buddhist community.

Tara Mulay

Tara has been practicing insight meditation and lovingkindness since 2003, and Mission Dharma became her home sangha in 2010.  The support of the Mission Dharma sangha and guiding teacher Howie Cohn were invaluable as Tara committed to a 24/7 daily practice and a number of long retreat practice periods in the United States and Myanmar.  Tara is passionate about the capacity of dharma practice to free the mind from difficult patterns and to awaken practitioners to their own capacity for deep happiness and peace.  She is committed to empowering people of all backgrounds to see this potential for awakening in dharma practice.  She has taught a number of class series for Mission Dharma and in May 2016 co-founded the San Francisco People of Color Insight Meditation Group. In April 2017, she will graduate from Spirit Rock Meditation Center's Community Dharma Leaders Program and begin a four-year retreat teacher training program with Insight Mediation Society.  She takes great joy in providing volunteer service to Mission Dharma and knowing the benefits it provides to practitioners in San Francisco, as it has benefitted her.  Tara's daily practice also informs her work as an appellate attorney in San Francisco. ​

​Punit Rathore

Punit was born and raised in India, and he moved to San Francisco in 2012. Dissatisfied by the rat race, he started meditating in 2013, and went to his first Vipassana retreat in 2015. He's been influenced by multiple schools of thought - Buddhist, Advaita Vedanta, and Self-Inquiry. Punit enjoys giving back to the community, and started volunteering at Mission Dharma in 2016. In his free time, you can catch him reading a book or planning his next camping trip.

​Noemi Sohn

Noemi has been part of the Mission Dharma sangha for almost nine years and Howard Cohn is her primary dharma teacher. She has studied Zen and Tibetan Buddhism.  However she is most nurtured in the Theravada/Vipassana tradition. Noemi has been to several residential retreats and practices in the dharma everyday. She has devoted her life to working for social justice, working in racial equality, ending violence against women and disability rights. Sometimes she’s a poet.