Philip Jones has practiced meditation since 1987 and has been teaching Insight Meditation since 1996. He initially studied with teachers from Spirit Rock and the Insight Meditation Society and graduated from the first Community Dharma Leader program in 2000. For a number of years he studied with Matthew Flickstein and more recently has been practicing with Shaila Catherine. He has served on the board of directors of Mid America Dharma, the regional retreat organization, since the mid-'90's. Many of his talks and writings can be found at http://silentmindopenheart.org.

Donna Strickland has practiced Insight Meditation since 2004. In addition to retreat experience with a number of teachers from the Insight Meditation Society in Massachusetts, she has extensively studied Insight Dialogue, a relational meditation practice, with Gregory Kramer. She has completed a certificate in Mindfulness for Educators, co-sponsored by the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies, and co-directs the Contemplative Studies initiative at the University of Missouri.