Dharma Leadership Council
Linda Rose
Guiding Teacher
Linda Rose began meditating forty-five years ago and was introduced to Insight Meditation twenty years later, while she lived in San Francisco. During that time she attended classes and residential retreats at Spirit Rock Meditation Center and became an active member of Mission Dharma, in San Francisco’s Mission District, under the guidance of Howard Cohn. She is a retired clinical social worker and psychotherapist, as well as a dance-movement therapist. She was a professional touring dancer with Wallflower Order Dance Collective in her twenties.
Linda has lived in Eugene since 2014 and helped to found Eugene Insight Meditation Community. Howie Cohn encouraged Linda to begin teaching the dharma shortly after. In 2019 she began Spirit Rock’s Community Dharma Leader program (cancelled due to Covid) and has since continued to study and practice during the pandemic with dharma practitioners and teachers in the U.S. and abroad. She continues to be mentored by Howard Cohn and is currently the Guiding Teacher of River Wisdom Insight Meditation Community.
Amy Trezona
As a former Oncology Nurse, a National Board-Certified Health and Wellness coach, and Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction facilitator, Amy helps people lead healthier, happier, more fulfilling lives. Her expertise is the impact of stress and anxiety on the body-mind system. She brings the neuroscience of mindfulness integrated with the coaching process to trainings that range from individuals, small groups to organizational teams. She integrates didactic teaching, neuroscience, interactive processes, coaching conversations, open dialogue, journal writing, dyad (paired) inquiry, and mindful movement to help people increase self-awareness, and accept accountability from which to set personal goals. During group sessions, Amy places a high value on what the group can achieve together while supporting the diversity of those in attendance.
First and foremost, she loves being with people in the middle of their lives, listening, holding space and supporting safety for life to unfold as it surely does -opening to Grace that is always here. She is passionate about helping people connect their heart to their health.
Kate Savage
Kate’s formal meditation study began in 1993 at Ordinary Dharma of Venice, CA in the Zen lineage of Thich Nhat Hanh, Over the years she has explored many meditation traditions and modalities. In 2017 and 2018 respectively, Kate graduated mindfulness teacher trainings through Mindful Schools and InsightLA, and she became a Certified Mindfulness Teacher-Professional through the International Mindfulness Teachers Association in 2019. Other trainings and dharma study include Eco Sattva, White Awake, UCLA MARC’s trauma-sensitive First Do No Harm Meditation Safety Training, InsightLA’s Dedicated to the Dharma study, Dharma and Art: A Whole-Life Path at the Barre Center for Buddhist Study, and Dharma Here and Now, a 15-month training with meditation teacher Dave Smith.
Over her long career as a teacher and mindfulness coach, Kate has taught many populations in a wide variety of settings. Kate leads mindfulness classes and retreats at meditation and wellness centers, schools, businesses, health-care settings and for city employees through her business Open Window Mindfulness. Kate wrote the teen mindfulness curriculum and is the Mindfulness Coach for POPS (Pain of the Prison System), a national High School club for youth affected by incarceration. Additionally, you can hear her recorded meditations on roundglass.com Finally, Kate is also a visual artist with an MFA from California State University, Long Beach; her artwork has been exhibited nationally and internationally, and you can learn more about her art at katesavageart.com.
Board of Directors
In addition to the following four members, Linda Rose as Guiding Teacher, holds a seat on the Board.
Marilyn Picariello
President
Marilyn Picariello began her Insight Meditation practice in San Francisco under the guidance of Howie Cohn. Upon retiring to Eugene 8 years ago she helped build the Insight Meditation community, first under the umbrella of Eugene Insight and now as a founder of River Wisdom. In addition to practicing on the cushion, she is an avid Italian vegetable gardener, cook, musician, swimmer, and bicyclist.
Rebekka Wachter
Vice President
Rebekka Wachter became interested in the Insight Meditation Society several years ago while living in Arizona. Upon returning to Eugene in 2020, she found a home with the River Wisdom sangha and joined the Board of Directors in August 2023. Rebekka is Emerita Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry in the School of Molecular Sciences at Arizona State University. Her federally funded research projects addressed questions of protein structure and function. She taught undergraduate and graduate courses in biophysical chemistry, and served on editorial boards and government advisory panels. Currently, she is refocusing her life on finding balance, well-being and compassion.
Charles Goldsmith
Treasurer
Charles Goldsmith is River Wisdom’s Treasurer. Before retiring to Eugene in 2012, he worked as a budget and financial analyst for government agencies, private business, and nonprofit organizations. He began practicing insight meditation in the Washington, DC area 20 years ago and is glad to continue his practice with the River Wisdom sangha.
Mitchell Tyler
Secretary
Mitch Tyler discovered meditation and mindfulness 40 years ago and seeks to maintain a beginner’s mind. He brings compassion, wisdom, purpose, and vision to the board, building on his experience as president of a nonprofit support group for military veterans, board member on a publicly traded medical device company, principal investigator in neuro-rehabilitation research, and a university lecturer in biomedical engineering. When not engaged in one of the above activities he spends his time wrangling his 100 pound ‘puppy’, gardening, or hiking and kayaking whenever possible in the splendors of Oregon.