OUR TEAM

REBECCA D'ONOFRIO

Program & Operations Director

Rebecca is the Program & Operations Director of Dharma Moon where she enjoys creating and organizing programs that support people along their meditation journey. She also serves as a Senior Teacher, providing training and mentoring support to the Dharma Moon teaching team. 

Rebecca is also the Director of RDYoga, LLC, a company she founded in 2014 that creates tailored wellness programming for a variety of organizations to help transform workplace culture and work life balance by integrating mindfulness and somatic practices. Rebecca is a certified meditation, yoga and fitness coach with over 15 years of teaching experience.

Rebecca is a dedicated Buddhist practitioner, having completed The Sacred Path of the Warrior, which is a series of in-depth trainings, courses, and meditation retreats based on the unique teachings of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, as well as extensive study and practice of the three-yana Buddhist path within the Karma Kagyu lineage since 2013. 

Rebecca is passionate about integrating meditation as part of the dying process and has provided hospice care and end-of-life services to actively dying people and their families since 2015. Rebecca is passionate about normalizing the concept of death in society and considers it a sacred transition.  

Rebecca also serves as a Special Education Advocate for neuro-diverse and transgender/queer youth in the US public school system. This provides her with the ability to integrate and provide specialized learning support to the programs she creates and teaches.

Rebecca is an avid hiker & nature lover and spends much of her free time exploring the White mountains region of New England with her family.

RENÉ FAY

Community Director & Teacher

René is the Community Director for Dharma Moon. They are a certified mindfulness meditation teacher and death doula, they studied comparative religion and gender studies, and they earned their black belt at 17. René’s career has a long and extensive history of advocacy, with a focus on collaboration with, support of, and focus on: at-risk youth; queer communities and people; intimate partner violence/sexual assault prevention and intervention; and grief and crisis counseling. René is passionate about making meditation and dharma teachings radically accessible and has personally used meditation to transform their relationship with their own anxiety and chronic health issues. Outside of work, they're likely to be knitting while trapped under a cat listening to podcasts.

BRITTANEY VALENTINO

Programs Coordinator & Senior Teacher

Brittaney is an E-RYT 500, YACEP and Mindfulness meditation teacher and owner of Rooted Nest LLC, a Yoga and Meditation company based in Wilmington, De. She is also the co-founder of Embodied Mind LLC, a mindfulness-based consulting company.

Along with offering online and in person classes nationwide, she also moonlights as a Senior Teacher and the Programs Coordinator at Dharma Moon Incorporated, an online mindfulness-based learning platform, and global community under the direction of her mentor, Senior Buddhist teacher David Nichtern.

When not teaching or practicing, she enjoys making memories with her family with traveling, being in the woods, hanging out by lakes, cooking, and gardening.

ETHAN NICHTERN

Senior Teacher

Ethan Nichtern is a Senior Buddhist teacher, author, and lecturer. For the past 19 years, Ethan has taught meditation and Buddhist psychology classes and workshops around New York City, North America and Europe, along with working with students privately.

He was formerly on the part-time faculty at Eugene Lang College at New School University and has lectured at Brown, Wesleyan, Yale, NYU, FIT, Antioch and other universities, and as well at many other meditation/yoga centers and conferences around the country and world.

Ethan is the author of the acclaimed book The Road Home: A Contemporary Exploration of the Buddhist Path and his most recent book, The Dharma of The Princess Bride: What The Coolest Fairy Tale of Our Time Can Teach Us About Buddhism and Relationships. He is also the author of One City: A Declaration of Interdependence, and the Novella/poetry collection, Your Emoticons Won’t Save You.

His podcast, The Road Home, available on iTunes and Stitcher.

SUSAN LAYDEN

Senior Teacher

Susan Layden is a senior teacher with Dharma Moon, serving as the coordinator of the 100hr Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Training programs and a close senior student of David Nichtern’s for over 10 years.  She received her 100hr meditation certificate from David Nichtern and Kaia Yoga. She is a yoga and meditation teacher and a 500hr E-RYT and a YACEP(continuing education provider- with yoga alliance) and holds a 100 certification from Little Flower Yoga to teach mindfulness and yoga to children.

Susan is a 4th degree Black Belt in Tae Kwon Do and Hapkido. She has studied and taught under Grand Master Ik Jo Kang for over 20 years. She is registered under Tae Kwon Do Jidokwan in Korea. She is the mother to three precious adult daughters.  Susan is committed to her practices, her family and giving back to her community. She has been in recovery for over 30 years.

JASMINE LAMB

Teacher

Jasmine is a seasoned entrepreneur, strategic marketing executive, and certified life coach, who has worked with scores of brands, artists, and creators. She has been a student of David Nitchtern for 3 years and became a Dharma Moon mindfulness meditation teacher following the completion of its signature MMTT certification in 2020. Over the last 8+ years, she has worked with some of the tech industry's top executives & CEOs to help them navigate challenging times and turn their vision into reality. Through her unique, multidimensional coaching style, Jasmine helps her clients & students develop clarity, strength, and stability to achieve their life goals and build purpose-driven careers. Ultimately, all of Jasmine’s work is rooted in her belief that personal development and self-discovery are key to collective progression, liberation, and social change. 

STEPHANIE BELHOMME

Teacher

PANOS MAVROMATIS

Teacher

Panos has studied and practiced Tibetan Buddhism in the Karma Kagyu and Nyingma traditions since 2006, and counts David Nichtern and Ethan Nichtern among his mentors. He is a certified Dharma Moon and Tibet House meditation instructor, and joined the Dharma Moon Teacher team in 2021. Apart from meditation, Panos has been teaching and researching music theory and the psychology of music at New York University since 2003, where he directed the music theory program until 2021. In addition to music, Panos holds degrees in mathematics and physics and enjoys exploring connections between Buddhism and Western science.

SAMMY GOODRICH

Teacher

NOEL COAKLEY

Teacher

 Noel has been practicing meditation since 1996, beginning initially with the Indo-Tibetan traditions and then the Yundrung Bön tradition since 2013. Over the years, Noel has been fortunate to learn from over 100 teachers, including HH the Dalai Lama and HH the 34th Menri Trizin. 

His first teacher was Lama Tsering Ngodup Yodsampa, from the Karma Kagyu lineage. He later studied with the psychologist and meditation teacher, Dan P. Brown, who introduced him to Mahamudra, Dzogchen, and a Rime a style of practice. 

Noel’s main practice lineage is currently the Yundgrung Bön tradition, with his root lama, Geshe Tenzin Gelek Rinpoche, studying Bonpo Dzogchen from the Zhangzhung Nyengyud. 

Noel has been given the refuge name “Zhen Phen Gelek” - ‘Zhen Phen’ meaning ‘to bring benefit to others’ and ‘Gelek’ meaning ‘positive virtues, everything good'.’ 

In addition, Noel is a student of David Nichtern, founder of Dharma Moon, with whom Noel works as a Senior Teacher for the Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Training program as well as other offerings. 

As the founder and director of the Boston Center for Contemplative Practice, Noel has created a welcoming space where individuals can explore their own paths to healing, recovery, development, and flourishing.

He is also a certified yoga instructor, supporting a holistic, mind & body approach to wellness. His experience from years as a special education teacher benefits his ability to support differentiated learning styles and needs.

Beyond his professional life, Noel is a loving father, husband, brother, musician, and friend to his dog, Clementine.

MICHAEL KAMMERS

Teacher

Michael is a lay practitioner in the lineage of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche who believes the path is the goal, the obstacle is the path and that society is our monastery. A student of David Nichtern trained at the Tibet House, Michael's voice as a contemporary practitioner and presenter of mindfulness is informed by his professional career as a musician and bandleader.

ERIC GERARD

Teacher