Kate Munding

Kate Munding is one of the Founding Mothers of Assaya Sangha as well as Guiding Teacher. Since she was twenty years old, Kate has been steeped in Buddha Dharma practice and has been teaching since 2010. She was grated teaching transmission in the Insight Meditation tradition in 2016 after four years of mentorship through the Spirit Rock/ IMS/ IRC Teacher Training under the tutelage of teachers such as Jack Kornfield, Philip Moffit, and Joseph Goldstein.  Kate sits on the Spirit Rock Teacher Council, where she is also a Dharma Teacher. 
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Kate has been a mindfulness educator in schools since 2008. She is the co-founder and primary teacher for Now Children. This work's nexus is mindfulness as a transformative technique that can help steer future generations towards a more conscious and compassionate future. Though this is secular, Kate finds her Dharma practice necessary foundational support in doing this work. 

When she's not teaching, Kate loves being a mom to her young son, hiking through the hills, and cooking for her loved ones. She lives with her family in the San Francisco East Bay.

The practice I offer is grounded in the tradition of the Buddha. It’s also informed by my life as a mother, a devoted practitioner, and as a conscious member of society concerned for the suffering on our planet.   

Betsy Rose

Since 2018 Betsy Rose has be a co-creator in the Assaya Women’s sangha, helping bring women’s lives, stories and voices to the Buddhist tradition. The joy of bringing women into sangha, with teachings, songs, and storytelling that reflect our true realities, is a longtime dream come true!

She is a singer and song writer who for many years has been a voice within the progressive and spiritual movements of our times. Contemporary cultural visionaries such as Thich Nhat Hanh, Matthew Fox, and Joanna Macy have included her music in their work. She has performed widely throughout the world at festivals, ecological conferences , grassroots women’s organizations, and spiritual gatherings. 

For twenty years she was a teacher in the Spirit Rock Meditation Center Family Program, helping teach the dharma and build community through songs, skits, and ceremonies. Betsy founded and led the monthly Womansong Circles in the Bay Area and for over 15 years brought the power of song to women’s voices and spirits, locally and nationally. 

​Betsy is a social justice activist, and in the tradition of the Civil Rights and other liberation movements, leads folks in song at demonstrations, vigils, and gatherings for peace and justice.​

You can find Betsy’s music on YouTube, itunes, and on her many CDs ,at www.betsyrosemusic.org

Syra Smith

Syra Smith is an artist, organizer and mindfulness educator interested in deep ecology and manifesting a culture where we can turn toward fearless abundance and generosity. 

Along with her teaching role at Assaya Sangha, Syra is a Community Teacher with the East Bay Meditation Center in Oakland California, where she is co-creating space with one of the most diverse communities of dharma practitioners in the US. For many years, Syra worked with Resolve to Stop the Violence, an award winning program in the San Francisco County Jail System, utilizing contemplative and restorative practices to impact violence and recidivism in our prison communities. Syra has been educating and working with young people for more than 20 years. She coordinated and co-facilitated EBMC’s weekly Teen Sangha and eventually established and served as Co-Guiding Teacher for the Center’s first peer-led Young Adult Deep Refuge Group. As an instructor with the Mind Body Awareness Project, Syra worked directly within Alameda County's Juvenile Justice Center and Oakland Unified, offering tools for resiliency to high risk and incarcerated youth.

Syra began her personal meditation practice as a teen in 1988 and has been practicing in the Theravada Buddhist tradition since 2009. She graduated EBMC’s Commit to Dharma study program in 2011 and became a Spirit Rock Community Dharma Leader in 2017. Syra is currently participating in the multi-year Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification Program through the Awareness Training Institute and UC Berkeley's Greater Good Science Center under the guidance of Amma Thanasanti, Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach. She is a Core Teacher with the San Francisco LGBT Sangha and co-leads the Mid-day Dharma Collective at SF Insight. 

Syra teaches Insight Meditation and mindfulness throughout the SF Bay Area and currently resides in Lake County, California with her wife of 25 years and 5 precious felines! To learn about additional offerings from Syra, please visit: https://projectroot.org/syra-smith-meditation