Meet Our Dharma Teachers
Speakers
George Haas
George moved to Los Angeles from New York in 1992 to pursue a career in film and photography, while also beginning his practice of Vipassanā at Ordinary Dharma in Venice. He studied under Shinzen Young starting in 1998 and became a senior facilitator at Vipassanā Support International. George began teaching meditation in 2000, founded Mettagroup in 2003, and taught at Against the Stream Buddhist Meditation Society from 2007 to 2016. In addition to his daily meditation practice and one-on-one student sessions, he offers classes, intensives, and retreats nationwide. An accomplished artist, his works are in the permanent collections of the Hammer Museum, MoMA, the Library of Congress, and the American Irish Historical Society
Eileen Ybarra
Eileen Ybarra began studying Theravadan Buddhism and started a mindfulness meditation practice in 2004. Since 2004, she has studied with a variety of Buddhist and mindfulness meditation teachers through the Against the Stream Buddhist Meditation Society, InsightLA, Insight Meditation Center of Redwood City, and Spirit Rock Meditation Center. Her profession is public librarianship, a meaningful practice of service and mindfulness, for which she is grateful.
Currently, Eileen is a Buddhist mindfulness meditation teacher for InsightLA and the Insight Meditation Community of the Desert. She has completed two 1-year-long meditation facilitator training programs with the Against the Stream Buddhist Meditation Society. She has also completed the Dedicated Practitioners Program at Spirit Rock Meditation Center.
Lee Coleman
Lee Coleman is a meditation facilitator who loves integrating research on the psychology of mindfulness into his practices to make them as practical and as useful as possible. In 2015 he obtained a certificate in Mindfulness Facilitation from UCLA’s Mindful Awareness Research Center, and he’s a member of the International Mindfulness Teachers Association. He’s a secular Buddhist who teaches from a secular perspective.
When he’s not geeking out about psychology or mindfulness, he’s probably in the pit at the closest metal concert.
Robert Lurye
Robert Lurye is an artist, meditation practitioner, and educator passionate about integrating ancient wisdom with modern science to promote mindful awareness and wellbeing. He is a certified MBSR teacher through the Brown University Mindfulness Center, a CYT yoga instructor, and a graduate of InsightLA’s Mindfulness Facilitator Training. He also facilitates Mindfulness-Based Behavior Change programs grounded in modern neuroscience and Buddhist teachings that support people working with everyday addictions and unwanted habits. Robert also completed the Sati Center’s Buddhist Eco-Chaplaincy Program, training him to offer spiritual care to individuals and the environment. He currently teaches at InsightLA, Mindful USC, University of California Irvine, and Long Beach Meditation. He also facilitates meditation groups for the LGBTQ+ community and at Hollywood Forever Cemetery.
Sara Campbell
Sara Campbell is a writer, narrative strategist, and lay Zen teacher at Angel City Zen Center, where she helps steward the sangha and leads meditation, study, and community programs. Through her newsletter Tiny Revolutions and her coaching work, she guides people in turning inner wisdom into bold stories, brave experiments, and lives that feel fiercely their own.
About Angel City Zen Center:
Angel City Zen Center provides traditional Soto Zen practice in a casual atmosphere open to anyone and everyone who would like to join us. Our community is based around Zen’s original promise that no one here has to do or become anything other than what they already are.
Michael Zittel
Michael Zittel, MA, AMFT is a Buddhist meditation teacher and psychotherapist based in Los Angeles. He began daily meditation practice in 1985, training in Samatha, Vipassana, and Jhana, and later studying with Shinzen Young, zen monastics, and at Kopan Monastery. He became a facilitator of Shinzen’s Unified Mindfulness system in 2001 and was empowered to teach the Buddhadharma in 2015.
A graduate of Antioch University with a Master's in Clinical Psychology, Michael specializes in mindfulness-based trauma therapy, integrating EMDR and meditation to support healing from addiction and trauma. He is a senior teacher at InsightLA and emphasizes liberation as the heart of practice, offering a clear, practical path to awakening in both meditation and daily life.
Mike Zittel Website
Jonathan “JC” Chang
Jonathan Chang, who also goes by JC, Jonathan Chang, who also goes by JC, is a fellow member of the Recovery Dharma Los Angeles sangha and long-term practitioner of Vipassana meditation. His practice has been shaped by the Thai Forest tradition, Shinzen Young’s Unified Mindfulness Method, and the lineages of Mahasi Sayadaw and Sayadaw U Tejaniya. JC’s primary teachers include Lienchi Tran and Andrea Fella, both dedicated students of Sayadaw U Tejaniya, whose perspective towards Vipassana practice and emphasis on continuous mindfulness has radically shifted JC’s approach towards meditation. His hope is to possibly offer a fresh and easeful approach to mindfulness in daily life, one that blurs the distinction between practice both on and off the cushion.
Lulu Toselli
Lulu Toselli (she/her) is a Brazilian-American mindfulness facilitator, artist, and therapist-in-training rooted in InsightLA’s Theravāda tradition. She trained under Trudy Goodman, PhD, and Maureen Shannon-Chapple, and her work integrates mindfulness, somatic awareness, and themes of belonging and creative presence. Lulu regularly teaches for InsightLA’s Youngish Adult community, Wildwomxn, and Mindful USC.
She also offers sound baths as a way of tapping into embodied presence—combining vibration, stillness, and inner listening. As a neurodivergent artist with a background in design, she brings a unique sensitivity to emotional and sensory experience. Lulu has led mindfulness programming for a range of creative communities and organizations, and identifies as a Buddhist student—grateful to walk this path while continuing to learn from the Dharma, her teachers, and the communities she serves