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MAITRIPA COLLEGE COURSE INSTRUCTORS & FACILITATORS

VENERABLE THUBTEN MUNSEL is a student in the Maitripa College MA Program, and leads prayers and meditations for the community. Ven. Munsel has been a Buddhist nun since 1981, receiving full ordination as a Bhikshuni in 1982. She lived, worked, studied, and practiced for 15 years within a Chinese monastic community under the late Great Master Hsuan Hua. There she taught English and Buddhist studies in the elementary and secondary schools, as well as teaching ESL in the early 1980’s to the boat children arriving into the US from Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. She served as the women’s coordinator for the four year Sangha and Laity Training Programs, taught classes on monastic vows, and was appointed manager of a nunnery by her Abbot. In the early 1990’s Thubten Munsel spent a year at a Vinaya academy in Taiwan, studying the Bhikshuni precepts. She has taught basic Buddhist studies to prisoners both in Taiwan and the United States. In 1997 she came over to the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, and has had the great fortune to receive teachings from His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Kyabje Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Ven. Kirti Tsenshab Rinpoche, Ven. Denmo Locho Rinpoche, Ven. Choden Rinpoche, Rilbur Rinpoche, and Ven. Lati Rinpoche. She has also embarked on a number of solitary retreats. She served for six and a half years at her root guru, Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s personal retreat homes making water bowl offerings, holy statues and stupas, and serving as housekeeper. Thubten Munsel is currently studying with Yangsi Rinpoche in the MA Program in Buddhist Studies at Maitripa College. She is also a substitute teacher in an after school literacy program in Gresham, and works as a transcriber for the Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archives.

VENERABLE YALTEN MINDROL is a Maitripa College alumnus, and leads prayers and meditations for the community as well as acting as a facilitator for the Discovering Buddhism series. She met the Dharma through her father when she was ten years old and came to Tibetan Buddhism at the age of seventeen.  She joined the FPMT family in her mid-twenties, first attending Basic Program courses with Geshe Tsulga at Kurukulla Center in Boston and Ven. George Churinoff at Land of Medicine Buddha in California. She has also received numerous teachings from His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Kirti Tsenshab Rinpoche, Choden Rinpoche, Geshe Lhundub Sopa Rinpoche, and Gyume Khensur Lobsang Tenzin Rinpoche, as well as Ven. Sarah Thresher and Ven. Robina Courtin.  She joined the staff of FPMT International Office as editor working in education materials development in 2005, and later that year took novice ordination with Choden Rinpoche. She has led Nyung Ne fasting retreats at Land of Medicine Buddha and currently visits a prison near Vancouver, WA, as well as offering Discovering Buddhism courses as part of Maitripa College ’s Jokhang program. She has been a student of Yangsi Rinpoche at Maitripa College since 2006.

VENERABLE WANGMO GYALTSEN is a Maitripa College alumnus, and leads prayers and meditations for the community. Ven. Wangmo was ordained as a nun in the Tibetan tradition in 2009. She has finished the coursework for the MA in Buddhist Studies at Maitripa and has a master’s degree in Counseling Psychology. She works as a Child and Family Therapist in Portland, Oregon.  Ven. Wangmo’s favorite part of the Dharma is studying and sharing and she hopes someday to be a fully ordained nun and teach in the fields of psychology and Buddhism.

MEGAN EVART serves as the Maitripa College Online Technical Coordinator and is responsible for the technical aspects of the Online Program and the onsite media archives. Megan has been part of Maitripa since she moved to Portland in late 2005.  She is a student of Yangsi Rinpoche, a graduate of the original three year Advanced Buddhist Studies program, and has received the one year Certificate in Tantric Studies.  Megan continues to develop her Tibetan translation skills in the Maitripa College Tibetan Translation Seminar.  She also holds the following degrees from the University of California at Berkeley: B.A. English Literature, B.S. Conservation and Resource Studies, M.S. Wildland Resource Science, and J.D. (Boalt Hall).    

MICHAEL JOLLIFFEE is a Maitripa College alumnus, and leads meditations for the community. Michael graduated as the youngest member of Maitripa College's first cohort. He currently works as assistant editor for FPMT's Mandala Magazine. He has been able to serve Portland surrounding communities by leading meditations for men with HIV/AIDS and the incarcerated, and has extensive experience as a caregiver for those with memory impairment and developmental disabilities. 

CHUCK LATIMER is a Maitripa College alumnus, and Discovering Buddhism faciliator for the community. Chuck was raised in Spokane, Washington and attended college at the University of Colorado. His academic pursuits have led to three degrees in psychology and participation in the Buddhist Studies Program at Maitripa College. This formal education coupled with an intense interest in Mysticism and other spiritual pursuits created a strong base for seeing the mind as the ultimate source of activity in the human being.  Chuck pursued a career professionally as a ski coach working with athletes from the introductory level all the way up to the United States Ski Team. He worked with Olympic and World Cup competitors such as A.J. Kitt, Tommy Moe, Hilary Lindh, Megan Garety, and Bill Hudson. This opportunity provided Chuck with an intense look at the world as an international community, as well as providing him with over 30 years of experience in the operation of non-profit organizations and the ski industry. In 2001 Chuck was innocently invited to attend an initiation with His Holiness the Dalai Lama at Shoreline Theater. The event changed his life and was the beginning of his relationship with the Dharma. He met Lama Zopa Rinpoche later that year and attended his first month long retreat. In 2005 he met Yangsi Rinpoche for the first time. His meeting with Yangsi Rinpoche coincided with start up of Maitripa College. He decided to join the Maitripa College Buddhist Studies Program and with the support of his wife, Sherry, and his classmates has completed the course work. At this time he is working on a thesis for the completion of his degree process.

RACHEL RYER is a Maitripa College alumnus, and serves as a Discovering Buddhism facilitator for the community. In 2005 due to many dreams and wishes, Rachel moved from Taos, New Mexico to Portland, Oregon to attend Maitripa College. Along with the first cohort, Rachel completed the MA in Tibetan Buddhist Studies courses in December 2008. She has continued her studies at Maitripa in the Tibetan Translation Seminars and Vajrayana Certificate Program. The experience at Maitripa has transformed Rachel significantly. During the summers "off" the experience continued through two Mahamudra retreats and Geshe Sopa's explanation of "The Ocean of Reasoning." Throughout this, Rachel has juggled family, study, practice, service, and teaching.  She currently teaches Language Arts and Social Studies to Middle School students. Sometimes the juggling is funny to watch, other times not. Occasionally she takes on extra service opportunities such as doing phonetics for FPMT's Education Department, Goose Hollow's Salmon Street Day Care, Maitripa's Community Service Center planning, Meals-on-Wheels, or Open Meadow's Step-Up program.

JANE SELLERS is a Maitripa College alumnus, and leads meditations for the community. Additional to come.


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