Faculty

Visionary

Mingyur Rinpoche

In his approach to teaching meditation, Mingyur Rinpoche integrates traditional Buddhist practice and philosophy with the current scientific understanding of the mind and mental health — making the practice of meditation relevant and accessible to students around the world.

Mingyur Rinpoche is a world-renowned meditation teacher with personal experience of anxiety and panic attacks, which he suffered throughout his childhood and into his teenage years, when he learned to transform his panic through meditation. Born in Nepal in 1975, Mingyur Rinpoche began to study meditation as a young boy with his father, Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche, himself a well-respected Buddhist teacher. As a child he became interested in contemporary science through conversations with scientists who were visiting his father, and as he grew older he began to collaborate with neuroscientists and psychologists, including Richard Davidson and Antoine Lutz at the University of Wisconsin, on research projects that study the effects of meditation on the brain and the mind.

Mingyur Rinpoche’s first book, The Joy of Living: Unlocking the Secret and Science of Happiness, was on the New York Times bestseller list and has been translated into over twenty languages. His second book, Joyful Wisdom: Embracing Change and Finding Freedom, explores how difficult emotions and challenging life situations can be used as stepping stones to discover joy and freedom. In his most recent book, In Love with the World, Mingyur Rinpoche shares how his meditation practice sustained him when he left his monastery to wander through India and the powerfully transformative insights he gained from the near-death experience he had at the beginning of his journey. Mingyur Rinpoche recently appeared in the Netflix series The Mind, Explained, in an episode about the benefits of mindfulness.

As the head of the Tergar Meditation Community, Mingyur Rinpoche supports groups of students in more than thirty countries, leading workshops around the world for new and returning students every year.

Monastic Faculty

Khenpo Gyurme

Khenpo Gyurme took refuge with Mingyur Rinpoche at the age of twelve. At the age of twenty, he received full ordination from Tai Situ Rinpoche. Khenpo-la enrolled in the monastic college at Sherab Ling Monastery in northern India for twelve years. During this time, he studied the inner sciences of Buddhist metaphysics, Tibetan grammar and spelling, and astrology. Upon completion he received the title of Lopon and taught for two years at Sherab Ling. In 2010, Khenpo-la received the title of Khenpo, or doctor of Buddhist philosophy, and joined Mingyur Rinpoche in Nepal, serving as the first abbot of the monastic college at Osel Ling. 

Khenpo Gyurme has received many profound teachings and key instructions from Tai Situ Rinpoche and Mingyur Rinpoche. These include the Great Five Treasuries by Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Thaye, commentaries on Mahamudra, empowerments of the tantras in Marpa’s tradition, and the empowerment of Dorje Drolo from Mingyur Rinpoche’s Yongey tradition. 

Monastic Faculty

Khenpo Pema Woser

Khenpo Pema Woser was born near the border between Tibet and Nepal in a region known as Tsum. After the tragic death of his mother, Khenpo-la left his home in order to study and practice the Dharma and joined Tergar Oseling Monastery, located near the great stupa of Swayambunath. Shortly after, and at the encouragement of Mingyur Rinpoche, his root guru, Khenpo Pema Woser joined the monastic college at Sherab Ling monastery. Since completing his traditional monastic studies and receiving the title of Khenpo in 2010, Khenpo Pema Woser has worked closely with Mingyur Rinpoche to realize his vision at Tergar Osel Ling, primarily teaching logic, debate, and epistemology, and serving in various leadership roles. 

In addition to the traditional course of study, Khenpo-la has studied many important practice systems. This includes those described in the Great Five Treasuries by Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Thaye as well as numerous commentaries on Mahamudra. These transmission and teachings have come from great masters such as His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Tai Situ Rinpoche, and Mingyur Rinpoche.

Co-Executive Director

Justin Kelley, PhD

Justin Kelley is a contemplative educator, scholar-practitioner, and institutional leader working at the intersection of Buddhist tradition and transformational learning. Raised on a farm in rural Massachusetts, he spent a decade living in and around Tibetan refugee communities in India and Nepal, where he studied Tibetan language, Buddhist philosophy, and meditation.

Justin completed his PhD in Religion at Rice University in 2021 under the mentorship of Dr. Anne C. Klein. His research centers on meditative and philosophical systems in Indian and Tibetan Buddhism, phenomenology, contemplative studies, and learning theory. His dissertation focused on Longchen Rabjam’s ontology of purity within the Great Completeness (Dzogchen), part of a broader project tracing the historical and experiential dimensions of purity in Buddhist thought.

Justin serves as Executive Director of both the Tergar Institute (www.tergarinstitute.org) and the Tergar Schools (www.tergarschools.org) projects. At Tergar Institute, he applies his scholarly training to the design of innovative Buddhist education programs that are experiential, socially engaged, and rooted in Tibetan contemplative lineages. At Tergar Schools, he helps shape a K–12 educational model that weaves together mindfulness, compassion-based learning, and academic excellence. Across both roles, he blends the soul of a scholar-monk with the vision of a systems architect—bridging the ancient and the contemporary, the textual and the embodied, the individual and the collective. His work empowers learners to integrate wisdom, compassion, and awareness into both personal practice and social impact.

Justin splits his time between the forests of southern Vermont and the vibrant streets of Kathmandu, Nepal—a rhythm of life that embodies contrasts: rural and urban, solitude and sangha, family life and contemplative immersion. In Vermont, he draws from the groundedness of daily rhythms and the responsibilities of fatherhood and family. In Kathmandu, he is immersed in Buddhist lineages and living traditions that sharpen, stretch, and inspire his commitments. This dynamic, bi-continental life—shared with his wife and children—keeps his work responsive, integrative, and human.

Whether crafting dharma-inspired curricula, guiding contemplative seminars, or mentoring transformative learning projects, Justin’s approach is grounded in inclusive and relational pedagogies. He is especially drawn to questions of how inner transformation occurs, how we cultivate it, and what becomes possible when we do. His teaching often seeks to hold both the immediacy of lived experience and the long arc of tradition.

Contemplative Faculty

Tsunma Kunsang Palmo

Tsunma Kunsang Palmo, originally from England, traveled and worked around the world as an art teacher in international schools for over a decade. In 2005, on a trip to Nepal, she encountered Lama Zopa Rinpoche, a Tibet Buddhist monk, and was so inspired by his teachings that she chose to stay in Asia and live a life immersed in the buddhadharma. 

Soon after she traveled to North India where she met Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo, whose twelve-year retreat in a cave high in the Himalayas described in the book Cave in the Snow brought international attention to the role of women in Buddhism. She served as Tenzin Palmo’s assistant for several years in her nunnery, dedicated to helping women of the Himalayan region to achieve spiritual excellence. 

She took ordination in 2010 and went on to complete a traditional Tibetan three-year meditation retreat at Sherabling Monastery in North India, under the guidance of her teacher Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche. 

Continuing to take teachings from Mingyur Rinpoche, Kunsang serves as a meditation and dharma teacher for Tergar’s Joy of Living and Vajrayana Online courses and Tergar retreats. She also mentors the Tergar practice groups in Kathmandu, India, and Bhutan.

In 2021 she was invited to teach in Ringu Tulku’s Bodhicharya centers in the Caribbean and divides her time between sharing what she has learned through her years of study and practice in Antigua, Trinidad, and the Caymen Islands and Kathmandu, India, and Bhutan.

Co-Executive Director

George Hughes

Beginning his journey into meditation and the wisdom traditions as a teenager, George Hughes has been a practitioner and teacher in several traditions. He found his spiritual home with his root teacher, Mingyur Rinpoche, and has dedicated his life to sharing his profound teachings. In particular, George draws inspiration from the joy, levity, and simplicity of Rinpoche’s approach.

George has worked with Mingyur Rinpoche for many years, teaching his Joy of Living and Path of Liberation curricula around the world, including to groups in North America, South America, Africa, and Asia. In addition to his work with Mingyur Rinpoche, George has also taught yoga, massage, and other holistic healing modalities.

In addition to the Institute, George has worked with Mingyur Rinpoche on a variety of projects, including guiding a series of treks through the Himalayas to help support Rinpoche’s social engagement projects. George’s passion for the dharma and meditation extends to all aspects of his life.

Faculty & Translator

Joseph Faria

Joseph Faria was born and raised in Massachusetts, USA and became intensely interested in Buddhist thought and practice when he started college. In 2009 he attended a 10 day meditation retreat with Mingyur Rinpoche where he decided to take refuge and take Rinpoche as his root teacher. 

Joseph has been living in Kathmandu, Nepal since 2012 devoting his life to study and practice. He earned a Master’s degree in Buddhist Studies from Rangjung Yeshe Institute, where he also served as an instructor of spoken and written Tibetan for several years, while occasionally acting as an oral interpreter. 

Mingyur Rinpoche asked Joseph to serve as a teacher, translator, and facilitator at Tergar Osel Ling Monastery, which he has been doing since 2021. 

Joseph uses his Tibetan language skills to work with the monastic community at Tergar Osel Ling on several projects to enhance education and learning, as well as serving the monastery in various other capacities as needed.

Faculty

Jacob Fisher

Jacob Fisher completed his DPhil (PhD) at the University of Oxford. Prior to this, he studied the six-year FPMT Masters Programme in Buddhist Studies of Sutra and Tantra, a full-time traditionally orientated study programme based on the Tibetan Geshe degree, covering the Abhisamayālaṅkāra, Madhyamakāvatāra, Abhidharmakośa, and the Guhyasamājatantra at Instituto Lama Tsongkhapa, Italy. Following this he entered a three-year retreat. After two years he was asked by Lama Zopa Rinpoche to conclude the retreat and teach for the Masters Programme in Nalanda Monastery, France. He then spent five years teaching this programme. Following this, Jacob completed an MA in Tibetan Studies at the University of Oxford. His research focuses on the history of ideas, Madhyamaka phenomenology, and meditative practice. His teaching attempts to bring these subjects home into experience.

Faculty

Darcie Price-Wallace, PhD

Darcie Price-Wallace is a scholar-practitioner of Tibetan Buddhism. She received her B.A. from Smith College in Religious Studies, and her M.A. degrees from the University of Chicago’s Crown Family School of Social Work and the Divinity School. She received her Ph.D. in Religious Studies at Northwestern University, where she completed her dissertation entitled, “Telling Stories Differently: Changing Landscapes of Ordination for Buddhist Monastic Women in the Tibetan Tradition.” A Fulbright-Nehru Grant funded her year and half of fieldwork in Bodh Gaya and nunneries in the northwestern Himalayan regions of India. 

Her interdisciplinary research and teaching engages with Indo-Tibetan Buddhist history, philosophy, and lived practice. She also explores questions about the application of cultural psychology and anthropology in Buddhist Studies, and examination of gender and sexuality in religion.

She is completing her first book on oral histories and textual narratives of Himalayan and Tibetan nuns’ lives and friendships, and creating communities of care. Her other project includes a translation of a Tibetan scholar’s manuscript on issues concerning ordination for Tibetan Buddhist nuns.

She serves as interim Vice President of Sakyadhita International Association of Buddhist Women and volunteers as Program Committee Chair. Previously, she worked as a Visiting Assistant Professor at Northwestern University and as faculty on the Carleton Buddhist Studies Program in India and Thailand. When in Chicago, she teaches Asian Religions at DePaul University and Loyola University.

Visiting Faculty

Vin Harris

Vin Harris has been a Tibetan Buddhist practitioner for just over 50 years. After completing a degree in English and European Literature, he learnt to milk cows, trained as a woodworker, helped to build the first Tibetan Buddhist monastery in the West and then started a specialist conservation woodworking company. Although Vin is supposed to be retired, he keeps finding new projects to engage with on behalf of the Hart Knowe Trust.

Vin knew the late Akong Rinpoche as a friend, mentor and teacher for almost 40 years and was Executive Producer for the award-winning film Akong: a remarkable life.

Working with Akong Rinpoche to establish Samye Ling in SW Scotland, it became apparent that spiritual practice does not have to be separate from daily life. 

Vin was a founding member of the Mindfulness Association and a Teaching Fellow at the University of Aberdeen on the MSc in Mindfulness Studies. Students on his courses particularly value his ability to communicate the subtle meaning and purpose of meditation practice in everyday language.

Inspired from an early age by the freedom and creativity of entrepreneurship, Vin never felt the need to have a “real job”. His own experience and his MBA research into strategy for growing small businesses informs “Sharing Your Treasure”. This is an innovative method for turning compassionate aspirations into effective action which is offered to support the Social Impact Projects at Tergar Institute. 

Faculty

Scott Tusa

Scott Tusa is a Buddhist meditation teacher who has dedicated over 25 years to exploring the embodiment and meaningful application of the Buddhist path in daily life.

A profound longing for healing and spiritual understanding sparked by his mother’s death when he was sixteen led him to Tibetan Buddhism. In his early twenties, he sought out and learned from various Tibetan Buddhist masters. His dedication culminated in ordination as a Buddhist monk at age twenty-eight by His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama.

For the next nine years, he immersed himself in the Dharma through solitary meditation retreats and continued studies with esteemed teachers—including his primary teachers Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Tsoknyi Rinpoche—in India, Nepal, and the United States.

Since 2008, Scott has shared his knowledge as a meditation teacher, guiding students in group and individual settings in person and online.

His focus lies in bridging Buddhist wisdom with the needs of modern practitioners, empowering them to cultivate confidence and depth within their practice.

Faculty

Anya Adair

Anya Adair grew up at Kagyu Samye Ling Monastery and Tibetan Centre, which was founded in Scotland in 1967 by Akong Rinpoche.

She met Mingyur Rinpoche while visiting Palpung Sherab Ling in India in 2000 and became his student in 2003 when he began teaching Mahamudra in the United Kingdom.

Anya co founded the Tergar Edinburgh Meditation community in 2017 and is a Guide with Tergar International supporting Joy of Living and Vajrayana on line and in person programmes. She is also a Trainer on the Meditation Teaching programme and a chant leader (Umdze) with Tergar International.

Anya works as a Transplant and Liver/Pancreas Surgeon in Edinburgh and has been involved in outreach healthcare in Tibet with the charity ROKPA.

Faculty

Colin Simonds

Colin H. Simonds is a scholar of contemporary Buddhist ethics and a practitioner in the Drikung Kagyu tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. After completing his PhD at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, he has since taught courses on Buddhist thought and practice at three of the top universities in Canada. He has held the position of Baker Postdoctoral Fellow of Contemporary Asian Religion at Queen’s University and is presently an Assistant Teaching Professor at the University of Alberta.

His research focuses on the ways that the Tibetan Buddhist philosophical and contemplative tradition can be useful lenses for thinking about and approaching some of the most pressing issues facing our more-than-human world today. He has authored over fifteen peer-reviewed articles and chapters on topics as diverse as eco-Buddhism, feminist Buddhist ethics, and the intersection of Buddhist and indigenous thought in North America, and his writing has appeared in popular magazines like Tricycle and Buddhadharma. His first book, Buddhist Environmental Ethics: A Contemplative Approach was published in 2025 by SUNY Press, and his second book on Buddhist animal ethics is forthcoming with the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics’ series with Palgrave Macmillan.

Dr. Simonds began practicing meditation as a teenager and began a serious study and practice of Zen Buddhism shortly thereafter. In his early twenties, he met his teacher Lama Yongdu Chokyi Gyaltsen and has been practicing in the Drikung Yangzab tradition ever since. He has lived in monasteries in China, studied Tibetan language in Nepal, and has done several retreats across North America. He brings this lived experience of dharma to both his research and his teaching at the Tergar Institute.