Department for Sustainable Living

Jerry Jian Flach is Project Director, Sustainable Building at the Paterson Habitat for Humanity and is founding Principal of Sustainable Solutions LLC, a sustainable business consulting practice for organizations committed to advancing economic, environmental and social goals.  At the Paterson Habitat for Humanity Jerry directs the building of energy efficient and healthy, affordable housing and the development of sustainable communities.  Jerry has over 20 years of project portfolio management and business analysis experience, transforming processes and systems and innovating solutions within leading financial services and nonprofit organizations.  She participates in local planning efforts and serves in an advisory capacity on several non profit boards Jerry develops and delivers financial literacy, sustainability and project management programming. She is PMP certified by the Project Management Institute and has an MBA from William Paterson University.

Spirituality for Social Justice

Frank McCann, MA, CSJP-A Frank McCann, MA, CSJP-A is an educator, advocate and activist for peace and social justice, who has has facilitated learning and advocacy nationally through his workshops and classes. He is Director of Just Neighbors, an interactive poverty awareness program created by Family Promise, a national non-profit that organizes congregations in local communities to shelter, feed, and provide services to temporarily homeless families, enabling them to achieve sustainable independence. Frank is an Associate with the Congregation of St. Joseph of Peace, and has served on the national steering committee of Let Justice Roll, a campaign for a living wage. He is a trustee for IRATE and First Friends, an organization that visits immigration detainees and lobbies for comprehensive immigration reform.

Emotional Intelligence

Jocelyn Jacks Kahn has been a student, practitioner and teacher of various energy healing methods since 1990. A desire to better understand the part the psyche plays in facilitating a return to wholeness led her to Inner Relationship Focusing (IRF), developed by Ann Weiser Cornell, in September of 2008. She is certified through The Focusing Institute by Eugene Gendlin and Ann Weiser Cornell as a Focusing Trainer. For more on Jocelyn and her work, visit her website: http://www.truly-profound-relief.com

Buddhist Texts

Roshi Bill Jikai Greenberg is a Zen Teacher, Buddhist Priest and Dharma Successor of Roshi Genki.
He is a physician, psychotherapist, medical researcher and educator. He has served on national committees of the American Psychiatric Association, been Medical Director of a large New Jersey hospital, directed psychiatric education in a large internship program at Bergen Regional Medical Center, and took time to live in a trailer and work in relief efforts as a psychiatrist in the aftermath Katrina. Currently he is engaged in supervising international trials of psychiatric medications. At Zen Garland he teaches Zen, teaches courses in our Buddhist Studies Program, led a psychotherapy and Buddhism study group for 5 years, and designed our two year Pastoral Counseling Program, a significant component of our Chaplaincy and Priest-Ordination Programs, an effort to make stronger foundations for Zen Chaplains and Priests.

Christian Zen

Roshi Ann Ankai Wagner is a Zen Teacher and Dharma Successor of Roshi Genki.
She is founder of the Christian Zen Ministry of Zen Garland, and directs the Christian Zen “Praying a New Story” Community and the Eckhart Tolle Living in the Now Group. She is a member of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace Lay Associates, Co-Founder of Oasis: A Haven for Women and Children in Paterson, NJ and a member of Waterspirit, an environmental center in Elberon, NJ.

Spiritual Development & Buddhist Studies, Ethics

Roshi Paul Genki Kahn, LCSW is a Zen Buddhist Priest and Master Zen Teacher in the lineage of Taizan Maezumi Roshi. A student and practitioner of Buddhism and yoga for over 40 years, he is Founder and Spiritual Director of Zen Garland and High Mountain Crystal Lake Zen Community. As a licensed social worker, mental health leader and administrator, SIFI-certified supervisor, instructor and psychotherapist in private practice with over 30 years of experience. He has designed and administered public and private mental health programs for disadvantaged people in New York and New Jersey. He helped pioneer quality treatment for persons with co-occurring conditions of mental illness and drug and alcohol addictions. He has studied psychoanalytic, cognitive behavioral, and Focusing schools of psychotherapy, and uses a multidimensional, spiritually informed approach in his treatment and teaching.

John Reizan Peterman, Ph.D. has been teaching Ancient Philosophy, Environmental Ethics and Humanities at William Paterson University for 30 years, where he has worked extensively on curricular reform and the development of new curricular initiatives. He became involved with Vipassana mediation 40 years ago and attended sittings with Dhiravamsa for many years. After teaching various Eastern Philosophies in his classroom over the years, his interest in sitting was renewed, and he joined Zen Garland in 2006. He now serves on its Board of Directors and is Chair of the Curriculum Committee. He also is one of the zendo’s hike leaders, helping to continue our meditation experience into other dimensions of our lives. He is a regular runner, cross country skier, gardener and outdoor enthusiast. He will be offering courses on ethics.

Zen Yoga

Ellen Seigyoku Peterman has been involved in education much of her adult life. She earned her Masters degree in child development at Sarah Lawrence College where she also taught in the Early Childhood Center. She has been interested in Buddhism and meditation since the age of 15 and began studying Vipassana meditation in 1974 with the Thai Buddhist, V.R. Dhiravamsa. This work included body and psychological/relational practices, helping people develop energy, awareness and presence in all aspects of their lives. The power of Dhiravamsa’s approach to spirituality laid the foundation for Ellen’s continuing focus on the body/mind continuum (Embodiment) in all experience. She continued her practice of Buddhism with a number of teachers at the Insight Meditation Society. Ellen has been studying Zen with Roshi Paul Genki Kahn since 2004.

Ellen received her yoga teacher certification from Kripalu and has been teaching yoga since 1996. Her classes draw on her experiences with many approaches to yoga and movement, including qi gong, Feldenkreis, anatomy of movement, zazen, Iyengar, Donna Farhi and Adrienne Jamiel. She serves on the Board of Directors of Zen Garland, is Chair for Embodiment Practices at Zen Garland’s Community Study Center & Seminary, and coordinates retreats.

Earth Science

Marc Daigyo Imhoff, Ph.D, is an internationally famous NASA scientist central in the development of remote sensing to study Earth sciences. Bouncing radar type signals back and forth between satellites and Earth and using computer programming to resolve images, he has studied leaf health to preserve forests, helped develop agriculture and tracked flood planes to save lives. His current project proposes to study urban sprawl to help design greener patterns of development for cities and towns that will shrink their carbon footprint. Currently he is in charge of a fleet of satellites studying Earth.
Mark and Genki began their Zen Buddhist practice together 40 years ago under Yamada Roshi and Aitken Roshi at Koko-an Zendo, Honolulu, Hawaii.

Tara Care: Buddhist Hospice Training

Wendy Megerman, Ngakma Yeshé Zértsal is the Director of Zen Garland’s Tara Care: Buddhist Hospice Training. She is an ordained disciple of Ngak’chang Rinpoche and Khandro Déchen and practices within Nyingma tradition of Vajrayana
Buddhism. She is a long time hospice professional who is currently in the process of co-founding
Community Hospice of Bergen County, a non-for-profit hospice located in Westwood, New Jersey.

Pastoral Counseling

Duncan Sings-Alone (C. W. Duncan, Ph.D.) has been a Counselor since 1956, first as a pastoral counselor, then since 1970, as a Counseling Psychologist. He has been an Assistant Professor at the University of Florida, Western Arizona University, and Antioch University. In these settings he has trained numerous paraprofessional and professional students in counseling and communication techniques. He has also been employed in the departments of Corrections and Mental Health for the State of Florida, and has been a consulting psychologist for the department of social services in Arizona where he was also the developer of a Mental Health Program for the Colorado River Indian Tribes. Before his retirement from psychological services he was the Executive Director of the Tri County Youth Services Bureau (Mental health agency for children and adolescents) in southern Maryland, and from 1986 to 1997 he was exclusively in private practice. From 1976 to 1983 he trained intensively in Native American medicine with George Whitewolf, and from 1983 to the present he has been a spiritual teacher, healer, storyteller and ceremonialist for Native people. In 2009 he became part of the Zen Garland and was fully ordained as Zen Priest in 2010.

Laura Bloom, LCSW has been a Clinical Social Worker for 36 years. For many years she served in agencies, including Jewish Family Services and Senior Services. For the past 11 years she has been exclusively in Private Practice in Teaneck, NJ. She treats children 5 years and older, adolescents, adults and does couples and family counseling as well as individual therapy. She is certified as a Yoga Teacher by Kripalu Institute, and in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction.

Rev. Tim Sei-on Dunn, LCSW, LCADC is an ordained Protestant minister with a variety of experience in parish ministry and college and hospital chaplaincy. He graduated from New York Theo. Sem. (MPS), Drew Univ. Theo. School (M.Div.) and Rutgers Univ. Graduate School of Social Work (MSW) and has various experiences as clinical social worker and addictions counselor and clinical supervisor in hospital, community agency and private settings.
Rev. Tim Dunn is studying and practicing both Western and Eastern contemplative traditions since many years.

Marion Kharem, LCSW-R is has been a Social Worker for the past 26 years. She is certified as a Psychoanalytic Psychotherapist and in Dialectic Behavioral Therapy, one of the first mindfulness-based treatment modalities. She has worked at Rockland Psychiaric Center and in several of their community mental health centers. She has provded direct therapy treatment to individuals, couples and families, been Coordinator of the Yonkers Service Center MICA Treatment Program, and a Supervisor. She is in Private Practice in Tarrytown, NY.

Ellie Muska, MSW, LCSW, has been working in the mental health field for over 30 years. She is in private practice in New Providence, NJ. She is on the faculty of the Center for Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis in New Jersey (CPPNJ) and the New Jersey Couples Therapy Training Program (NJCTTP). She teaches and supervises therapists who are receiving training on the post-graduate level in Couples Psychotherapy, Individual Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis. She has received advanced training in death and dying, grief counseling, couples counseling, psychotherapy and psychoanalysis with a specialty in trauma and dissociation. She has an on-going Zen practice at Zen Garland and is a student of Roshi Paul Genki Kahn.