Ordained as a dharma teacher by Zen master & peace activist, Thich Nhat Hanh, Cheri is also a private consultant and trainer. Cheri worked in the criminal justice profession for 25 years as a police officer, the Head of Probation & Parole, and an Assistant Attorney General in Wisconsin. She also has extensive experience as a community organizer and a social justice advocate. She has incorporated all these experiences into her understanding and teaching of the dharma and her practice of engaged Buddhism.
Craig, a dedicated member of Common Ground Meditation Center community, died of pancreatic cancer on April 18 2014 at 76 years of age. He served on the initial Board of Directors, chaired the Ethics Committee and founded the Twelve Steps and Mindfulness group. He led workshops on anger and forgiveness for many years, and also conducted Twelve Steps and Mindfulness retreats. Common Ground was Craig's spiritual home, and many of his books have been donated to the Common Ground retreat center in Wisconsin.
David R. Loy is especially interested in the conversation between Buddhism and modernity. His books include A New Buddhist Path, Ecodharma: Buddhist teachings for the Ecological Crisis, Nonduality, Lack and Transcendance, A Buddhist History of the West, The Great Awakening, Money Sex War Karma and The World Is Made of Stories. A Zen practitioner for many years, he is qualified as a teacher in the Sanbo Zen tradition.
Doug McGill founded the Rochester Meditation Center in 2004 and is the main teacher there. He gives weekly dharma talks, teaches introductory meditation, and has practiced insight meditation since the late 1980s. He publishes a daily email practice reminder called The Daily Tejaniya, and is a student of the Non-Dual teacher, Rupert Spira. He is a former reporter for The New York Times; bureau chief for Bloomberg News in Tokyo, London and Hong Kong; and in 2006 published “Here: A Global Citizen’s Journey,” a book about immigrants living in Southeast Minnesota.
Until 2015, Emil enjoyed careers advocating for unions as a labor law attorney and counseling in the field of substance abuse, including several years for Hazelden Foundation. Emil also taught as an adjunct associate professor at the Hazelden Graduate School of Addiction Studies. He began attending Common Ground and his meditation practice in 2004 as part of his ongoing recovery from addiction. Since then he has attended numerous residential retreats in the Midwest and a month long retreat at Spirit Rock Meditation Center. Emil regularly teaches at Common Ground’s Mindfulness, Recovery and the 12 Steps Group and is one of the facilitators of a mindfulness meditation group at Stillwater Correctional Facility. Emil has also been a guest teacher and led workshops at Common Ground.
