Our Teachers
All teachers emphasize the qualities of experiential Buddhism, which develops as meditation practice deepens and filters into one’s daily life. We take our direction from Chogyam Trungpa, Rinpoche, who was a Tibetan meditation master, scholar, and teacher who interpreted Buddhism for Western lifestyles and minds and who brought the Shambhala Buddhist teachings on creating enlightened society to the West.
Derek Kolleeny
Senior Teacher
Derek began the practice and study of Buddhism in 1976 and soon became a student of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, attending his first of many Naropa Institute summer sessions in 1977. He earned a B.A. from Harvard College in the Comparative Study of World Religions, focused on Buddhism, including study of Sanskrit and Tibetan languages. During a year off from college, Derek was the assistant coordinator of the six-month US tour of HH the XVIth Gyalwa Karmapa in 1980 and attended the Vajradhatu Seminary and the Kalapa Assembly in 1981 at Lake Louise, in Alberta, Canada. In addition to his involvement in WMC, Derek is the founder and senior teacher of Rime Shedra, NYC.
Jane Kolleeny
Senior Teacher
Jane Kolleeny has been studying and practicing Buddhism since the early seventies when her teacher Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche arrived in Boulder, Colorado. A native Coloradan, she moved to New York in 1990 and taught classes at the New York Shambhala Center for many years, organizing and teaching at the Tuesday dharma gatherings for nine years. She serves as retreats and business development director at Garrison Institute producing over 100 retreats a year.
Gene Bobker
Senior Teacher
Gene Bobker met Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche as a student at University of Colorado the summer of 1971. She attended the 1974 Seminary and became a meditation instructor in 1976. In the late seventies she became a teacher at the New York Shambhala Center and also served as director of the center from 1977 to 1982. In 1982 she staffed the Bedford Springs Seminary, and later served as Practice Department coordinator in New York. She has been teaching at Westchester Meditation Center for ten years. Genie is an educator in the Westchester public school system.
She has led mindfulness/awareness training for educators in school and camps, and has taught meditation to students in classroom settings. Genie is a mother and grandmother.
WMC Teaching Staff
Mark Bertin
Mark Bertin is a developmental pediatrician who began practicing meditation in the 1990s while living in California, and the author of several books integrating mindfulness into pediatric care. He has studied Vipassana meditation with teachers at Spirit Rock and the Insight Meditation Center, and trained in Jon Kabat Zinn’s mindfulness based stress reduction program. Mark teaches mindfulness classes for both physicians and parents and is a frequent contributor for both mindful.org and psychology today. His classes and meditations can be found online at www.developmentaldoctor.com and on the Insight Meditation Timer app. Mark co-facilitates Community Meditation and Morning Meditation and leads the Awake Outdoors series.
Warner Dick
Warner Dick was introduced to meditation and the buddhadharma at the New York Shambhala Center in the early 1990s, while pursuing a graduate study in Clinical Psychology at NYU. He studied in the communities founded by Gelek Rimpoche and later Khandro Rinpoche, but circled back to the original inspiration found in the Buddhist and Shambhala curricula established by Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, and more recently the Profound Treasury Retreats led by Judy Lief. Warner lives in Katonah, NY, and currently manages the CTR Transcription Project for the Chögyam Trungpa Institute at Naropa University.
Kevin Gormley
Kevin studied yoga and meditation at the Himalayan Institute during the 1980s. Later he developed and performed health and science magic shows for elementary school assembly programs. The shows included simple meditation and yoga for children. Currently he is training inner city middle school students to tutor/mentor struggling elementary readers. The training includes mindful leadership strategies for the mentors.
Kevin has been a Buddhist student for over 15 years studying at the NYC Shambhala Center and later at Westchester Meditation Center. He is currently a student of Phakchok Rinpoche. He is co-teaching Aging for Beginners with his wife of 35 years, Andrea, at Westchester Meditation Center. They have a son, Erik, and a labradoodle named Sparky.
Paul Griffin
Paul Griffin has practiced meditation for over 20 years through Dharma Ocean and Shambhala. His teachers include Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Dr. Reggie Ray, Will Johnson, and Tenzin Palmo. Currently, he is a devoted volunteer and teacher at WMC through which he co-hosts the Family Meditation program. In the summer of 2024, Paul and his wife Erin Carney will serve as Directors of Family Camp at Karme Choling in Barnett, Vermont.
As founder of the tutoring company Griffin Prep, he regularly teaches meditation, writing, philosophy, and math to high school and college students. He lives with his wife and two daughters in Sleepy Hollow, New York.
David Frankel
A philosophy student in college, David found his way to Buddhist study and practice in 2013, when he began attending Westchester Buddhist Center’s Sunday morning open meditations. David co-facilitates Open House Meditation Gatherings on Sundays.
Erich Kramer
Erich Kramer has been a Buddhist practitioner since the early 1970s. He studied with Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche and HH Dudjom Rinpoche, and joined Westchester Meditation Center in 2012. Erich has an M.A. in history from Columbia University Graduate School of Arts & Sciences, and worked in market research. He and his wife, Susan, live in Tarrytown; they have two daughters and a grandson.
Joshua Lutz
Joshua Lutz is an artist, teacher, and Buddhist practitioner. He co-founded the Contemplative Studies Program at Purchase College and currently serves as the chair of the Photography Department. Josh has authored three books that explore the convergence of image and text. His most recent publication, "Mind the Gap," is a meditation on the buddhist term Bhavacakra “Wheel of Life”
Josh’s teachings are primarily focused on creating the conditions and “on ramps” for new practitioners to engage with meditation and buddhist practices. Josh co-facilitates the Community Meditation and Morning Meditation at WMC.
Charles Olson
Charles Olson was raised in a family of Buddhist practitioners, who studied with Chogyam Trungpa, Rinpoche since 1975. Buddhism has been part of his life ever since. He began regular practice and study with Westchester Buddhist Center in 2009. He has served as Controller for the last ten years, and has worked with the Profound Treasury texts for seven years. Charles and his wife, Salomé, live in Manhattan, where he works for the City of New York, helping to adapt for climate change.
Tom Pantaleoni
Tom Pantaleoni met Trungpa Rinpoche in 1983 at Naropa Institute. In 1985 he attended seminary with Rinpoche at Rocky Mountain Dharma Center and helped staff the 1986 seminary. In 1990 he moved to Ojai, CA. in order to join a small group of students studying with and supporting the Vajra Regent Osel Tendzin. After the death of VROT, Tom had the opportunity to study with The Very Venerable Thrangu Rinpoche at many intensives taught on the West Coast. He has been a student at the Westchester Meditation Center since 2018.
Laura Read, Ph.D.
Laura Read, Ph.D. has been a student of the Westchester Buddhist Center (now WMC) since 2011, a meditation instructor since 2014 and a teacher of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche’s work since 2017. Laura also worked for many years as a psychologist, research scientist and assistant professor at NYU Department of Psychiatry and Nathan Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research. She currently supervises students training in a Focus-Oriented Therapy program and has an on-going interest in the intersection between Buddhism, addiction and right and left brain processing.
Andrea Sherman
Andrea Sherman was inspired by the teachings of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche to enter the path of Buddhism. She studied at NY Shambhala Center, where she led the community group Conversations on Aging and trained with Acharya Judy Lief. At the Westchester Buddhist Center she has studied extensively, including The Profound Treasury of Dharma Courses. Andrea is currently a student of Phakchok Rinpoche. She is also a graduate of the New York Zen Center Foundations in Buddhist Contemplative Care program, as well as the Zen Buddhist End-of Life Doula training, and author of The Five Invitations: Teachings on Death and on Living Fully. Andrea has a Ph.D in gerontology and taught at NYU for many years. She lives in Dobbs Ferry with her husband Kevin. Together they Co-Teach the WBC Aging for Beginners group. They have a son Erik, and a Labradoodle named Sparky.
Arthur Segreti
Arthur Segreti, Ph.D., is a licensed clinical psychologist who has worked in Westchester County for nearly 30 years, both in private practice as well as within the public schools. He has a regular meditation practice and incorporates mindfulness and meditation in his work with individuals, couples, and families. He first began his affiliation with the Westchester Meditation Center (formerly the Westchester Buddhist Center) in 2010, where he has been both a regular student and part of the teaching staff . Arthur has a heartfelt awareness of the struggle that we all share and views the study and practice of Buddhism as a most effective way of cultivating compassion for oneself and others. His ongoing effort is to bring this awareness and compassion to each moment and to help others do the same.
Rachael Sokołowski
Rachael Sokołowski, ATR-BC, LCAT, began her Buddhist studies at the NYC Shambhala Center and later on studied with the Westchester Meditation Center. She has helped facilitate the family meditation series and offers creative, nature-based, and playful mindfulness experiences for our youngest students.
Additionally, Rachael is a licensed creative arts therapist working in private practice with children and their families in Westchester County. She also offers environmental and herbal education in her community and is a student studying family herbalism. She is passionate about taking good care of her community and the earth.
Emily Waters
Emily Waters became enamored with Buddhism in college, majoring in Buddhist Studies at Middlebury College with a particular focus on Tibetan Buddhism and Buddhist Iconography (complemented by a second major in Studio Art). After many years of trying out different meditation techniques on her own, she discovered Westchester Meditation Center in 2019, and has been practicing and studying within the lineage of Chögyam Trunpga Rinpoche ever since. She has been a volunteer staff member at WMC since 2020, and is thrilled to have begun her teaching journey, assisting with classes at WMC and Profound Treasury Retreat in 2023.
Professionally, Emily works as a fashion designer, with a recent shift in emphasis toward harnessing the power of design to make the apparel industry more sustainable, inclusive, and ethical. Beyond design, visual art remains an essential life passion, especially within the fields of drawing, painting, and textile art, and with an increasing focus on the role of Dharma art in her creative process.