Buddhist Recovery Network - Board Members

Ellen Berryman - Secretary

Dr Ann Bolger

Ann Bolger is a Clinical Psychologist who maintains private psychotherapy practices in west San Jose and in Santa Cruz (USA), specializing in the treatment of substance abuse and other addictions. She has trained extensively as a Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction teacher with Drs. Jon Kabat-Zinn and Bob Stahl. At present, she is teaching Mindfulness-Based Relapse Prevention to people recovering from alcoholism and drug addiction in the Bay Area. Previously, she held Lecturer appointments at San Jose State University (SJSU) and has served as Vice President of the Board of the Silicon Valley chapter of the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence (NCADD).

Pablo Das

Pablo is a mindfulness based nutrition, wellness and recovery counselor. He centralizes mindfulness practice as well as the principles of non-religious Buddhist Dharma in his client work. He is a graduate of the Institute for Integrative Nutrition (NYC) and has trained in food therapy at the Natural Gourmet Institute (NYC). He is trained and empowered to teach meditation and Dharma by Noah Levine at the Against The Stream Buddhist Meditation Society (L.A.) He is a strong advocate for empowering and non dogmatic approaches to nutrition, wellness and recovery. Pablo is a nationally distributed indie-folk punk musician. He volunteers at a suicide helpline for Gay Youth. He lives in Brooklyn, NY.

Dr. Fran DiDomenicis

Fran is a Psychologist and long time student of meditation and spiritual approaches who came to Buddhism in 1998. He served originally as a Drug and Alcohol Counselor and later as Psychologist in Delaware for 35 years, and has now relocated to the East Bay area of California. He brings personal experience with drug and alcohol abuse, and has integrated meditation and Buddhism into his practice and approach with patients. He founded the Delaware Association for Children of Alcoholics, was proud to serve as President and Board Member for several other professional and non-profit organizations, and is active on BRN committees.

Kevin Griffin

Kevin Griffin is the author of One Breath at a Time: Buddhism and the Twelve Steps. A longtime Buddhist practitioner and Twelve Step participant, he is a leader of the mindful recovery movement. Kevin teaches at Buddhist centers and treatment centers in the U.S. as well as speaking at professional conferences. He also teaches mindfulness in schools with the Community Partnership for Mindfulness in Education.

Noah Levine

Noah Levine, author of Dharma Punx and Against The Stream, is a Buddhist teacher, author and counsellor. He was trained to teach by Jack Kornfield of Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Woodacre, CA. He is the founding teacher of Against the Stream Buddhist Meditation Society, with a center in Los Angeles and over 20 affiliated groups around North America. He teaches meditation classes, workshops and retreats internationally. Noah holds a Masters degree in counselling psychology. He lives in Los Angeles.

Professor G. Alan Marlatt

Alan Marlatt is Professor of Psychology and Director of the Addictive Behaviors Research Center at the University of Washington. In addition to over 200 journal articles and book chapters, he has published several books in the addictions field. He specializes in relapse prevention and has received several awards for his work, including the Jellinek Memorial Award for Alcohol Studies (1990), the Innovators Combating Substance Abuse Award from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (2001), and the Distinguished Research Award from the Research Society on Alcoholism (2004). He is a Buddhist who practices in the Shambhala tradition.

Jeffrey McIntyre - President (from July 2010)

Jeffrey McIntyre, CADAC, LMFT, LMHC began training and working in the field of addictions treatment thirty-seven years ago. He started practicing Buddhism thirty-six years ago. He has also taught and written about family systems treatment of addictions in graduate and medical school mental health programs. As part of his own recovery from a compulsive eating disorder, he began participation in OA five years ago, and initiated the Heart of Recovery© program within the Shambhala Buddhist network of meditation centers two and a half years ago, to integrate Buddhist and Twelve Step practices.

Timothy O’Brien (Dh. Amara) - Treasurer

Timothy O’Brien (Dharmachari Amara) has been a consultant to for-profit and non-profit businesses for over 30 years. He is currently the Program Coordinator for the Northwest Dharma Association (www.northwestdharma.org). His Buddhist practice began at the San Francisco Zen Center in the 60’s. He has been a member of the Western Buddhist Order since 1996.

Paul Saintilan - Interim President

Paul is an Australian Director, currently serving as the Interim Chair. He co-founded the website www.buddhistrecovery.com (which was donated to the Buddhist Recovery Network), and facilitated the Cannon Beach meeting which led to the founding of the Network. He has a history of involvement with the Sydney Buddhist Centre, and has had articles on Buddhism published (the most recent is Downshifting: A Theoretical and Practical Approach to Living a Simple Life - ICFAI University Press 2008). His professional career has been in arts and entertainment management, and he established the Master of Arts Management program at Sydney Opera House.

Mary Stancavage

Mary Stancavage currently serves as Director of Against the Stream Buddhist Meditation Society in Los Angeles, California, and was Event Coordinator for the first Buddhist Recovery Network Conference in 2009. She has practiced meditation, yoga, and cultivated a spiritual practice for over 20 years. She began studying with Noah Levine in 2005, and in 2009 completed his first teacher training program. Mary also teaches meditation at recovery centers in Los Angeles, has taught at Buddhist Recovery seminars, and has a weekly class at Against the Stream. In addition, Mary has a Masters from UCLA, and has worked as an archaeologist in the Middle East.