Meet the Board
We are a group of meditation instructors and practitioners whose lives have been radically transformed by the practice of meditation. Retreats have been essential to deepening our practice and building our community, and we want to make deep meditation experiences accessible to all, regardless of means.
We are a group of funders, professionals, practitioners, and teachers who believe in opening up this experience to everyone.
We are a global community of meditators, and all are welcome.
The Open Dharma Foundation was started by Dr. Tucker Peck, who, in the middle of a potentially fatal illness, decided he wanted to start such a foundation in his memory. When he made a full recovery, he decided not to wait.
Jim Irving
President of the Board
Jim is an engineer and community organizer living in Seattle, Washington. As one of the founding members of the Seattle Pragmatic Dharma Society, he hosts biweekly meditation discussion forums and group meditation sessions, as well as organizing retreats. His current work involves facilitating the growth of meditation groups through outreach and effective use of social technology.
Tucker Peck
Founder and Treasurer
Tucker is a meditation teacher and Clinical Psychologist. He studied meditation first with Sharon Salzberg and then with Upasaka Culadasa, who approved Tucker to teach. He lives in Alameda, California, an island in the San Francisco Bay.
Jeff Grizzard
Chief Operating Officer
Jeff Grizzard is the Chief Operating Officer of the Open Dharma Foundation. He is a dedicated practitioner of Buddhist Meditation. He lives in Chattanooga, Tennessee with his wife Molly and dog Mabel.
Noah Starbuck
Board Member
Noah Starbuck is a recruiter in Seattle. He is passionate about Buddhist practice, community building & service. He hopes deep meditation practice will become available to as wide an audience as possible in a scalable & authentic way.
Lauren Berk Wheelock
Board Member
Lauren Wheelock is a computational scientist and educator living in Cambridge, Massachusetts with her wife and toddler. She has experience working with community-focused organizations to help expand effectiveness and reach. She has immense gratitude for the impact of silent retreat on her own life and is moved to share these benefits by making retreat available to more practitioners.
Kathryn Devaney, PhD
Board Member
Kati is a neuroscientist and dedicated meditation practitioner, with over twenty years of meditation experience. Kati has sat retreats across the US, Europe, and India and she has collected behavioral and neuroimaging data from meditators across several retreats, events, and laboratories. Kati is currently the Executive Director of The Alembic, an advisor at Jhourney, and a researcher at the UC Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics. Previously, Kati designed and taught her course ‘Meditation and the Brain’ at Stanford, taught cognitive psychology at Boston University, and has given invited lectures at MIT, Harvard University, IIT Delhi, and elsewhere.
