Laurie Amodeo (she/her) is of Haitian ancestry and is the co-founder of the BIPOC Meditation Collective. She has been a student and practitioner of Yoga and Buddhism since 2005, studying in Zen, Shambhala and Vajrayana (Tibetan Buddhist) traditions. She facilitates embodied practices as a Meditation Guide and yoga teacher. Laurie is the Director of Marketing & Communications for Tara Mandala International Buddhist Community and serves on the Board of Directors for The Arrow: A Journal of Wakeful Society. In her creative practice, Laurie is a vocalist, songwriter, dancer, and student of Sogetsu Ikebana.

Natalie Avalos (she/her) is an Assistant Professor of Native American and Indigenous Studies in the Ethnic Studies department at University of Colorado Boulder. Her work in comparative Indigeneities explores urban Indian and Tibetan refugee religious life, healing historical trauma, and decolonial praxis. She received her Ph.D. in Religious Studies from the University of California at Santa Barbara with a special focus on Native American and Indigenous Religious Traditions and Tibetan Buddhism. She is a Chicana of Apache descent, born and raised in the Bay Area and has been practicing Tibetan Buddhism for eighteen years.

Glenda-Alicia Leung (she/her/hers) is a daughter of the soil from the Caribbean island of Trinidad and Tobago. Her home, a place where syncretism is normative, has shaped her spiritual outlook and practice. She has been Buddhist practitioner for over 8 years. Before settling in Colorado, she practiced with the Tallgrass Zen Center in Kansas, associated with the Kwam Um School of Zen. She is now part of the Lafayette Zen Meditation Group, which is affiliated with the Great Mountain Zen Center in Berthoud. Glenda is a linguist and loves playing with words and exploring intuition.

Carla Mueller (she/her/hers) is a faculty at Naropa University with a primary focus on the exploration of meditation, and embodiment practices. In addition she is trained in Maitri (loving-kindness) which utilize the wisdom of emotions, and the elements, in caring for one’s self and others. She is particularly passionate about the ways in which contemplative communities can come to understand multiple ways of being, and how we embody and utilize space as a means to personal and universal liberation from oppression.

Sovereign-Xavier Oshumare is currently studying Resilient Leadership MA at Naropa University. Their education has given them considerable expertise in the cultural, interpersonal, and contextual components that create social issues within communities. Sovereign serves as catalyst, curator, educator, and producer of systemic change. As a consultant they work with organizations to build capacity for increased community engagement through the uses of contemplative practice, performance, and project management as modalities of healing.

Vu Xiong (he/him/they) is a practitioner of zazen, within the lineage of Dainin Katagiri Roshi. He is a co-founding member of two BIPOC meditation groups in Minneapolis & Saint Paul, MN. Vu now lives in Boulder and runs a community engagement practice. He is passionate about food, long hikes in the mountains, and healing justice work.