Meet Our Teachers

IMCC's teachers are revered for their depth of practice, breadth of understanding, and compassionate hearts. Keenly attuned to our participants, they consistently deliver invaluable teachings reflecting their unique perspective and personal style. They also continue as students themselves, dedicated to ongoing study and Dharma practice and to deepening their understanding and embodiment of the Buddha's teachings. Our teachers adhere to a code of ethics, reflecting their belief that as Dharma teachers they become stewards of the trust students place in them. All teachers are committed to personal integrity, clear teacher-student boundaries, and manifesting the paramis of generosity, virtue, renunciation, wisdom, energy, patience, truthfulness, determination, loving kindness, and equanimity in daily interactions. 

Guiding Teachers Council

IMCC’s Guiding Teachers Council (GTC) meets monthly to plan and oversee all aspects of teaching at IMCC, including weekly Dharma teaching, periodic classes and retreats, guest teachers, support for teacher development, identifying and mentoring new teachers, establishing and monitoring teacher criteria, and ethical guidelines. Current members of the GTC are Teresa Miller, Marylouise Kelley, Anna Vanhoy, Jeanne van Gemert, and Matt Fritts. Visit our Contact Us page to reach a member of the GTC or direct an inquiry to any teacher.

Teacher Training and Development

IMCC teachers have completed formal meditation teacher training through  respected programs such as Spirit Rock Meditation Center and its Community Dharma Leaders Program, the Meditation Teacher Training Institute, the Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction Program, and the Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification Program. IMCC’s Teacher Development Program offers aspiring teachers training, co-teaching opportunities, and mentorship from senior IMCC teachers. New teachers at IMCC are approved by the GTC using formal selection criteria.

IMCC Teachers

Sharon Beckman-Brindley, (she/her) a clinical psychologist, is an IMCC co-founder and a current IMCC teacher.  Her offerings blend deep inquiry into the Dhamma with practical insights from modern western psychology.  She is also a senior teacher of the relational meditation practice of Insight Dialogue. (www.metta.org) Sharon enjoys developing programs for mental health professionals and she writes a blog (sharonbb.org) whose aim is to integrate western psychological understandings with the wisdom teachings of Buddhist psychology. She is a graduate of the Community Dharma Leaders Program at Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Woodacre, Calif. Sharon is a stepmother, and a grandmother and she lives with her husband in Charlottesville.

Laura DeVault (she/her) Is a practicing End-of-Life Doula who became a certified meditation teacher with Martin Aylward and Mark Coleman in the year-long training with the Mindfulness Training Institute in 2017. She graduated from the Mindfulness Self-Compassion Teacher Training with Kristin Neff and Christopher Germer later that same year. More recently, she completed the year-long New York Zen Center’s Foundations in Contemplative Care program, which brought even greater depth to her Death Doula practice as well as to her Dharma practice.

Matt Fritts (he/him) first met the Dharma as a UVA undergrad through a class on Buddhist meditation taught by Jeffrey Hopkins. He has been practicing and teaching yoga since 1996, when he completed his first Integral Yoga teacher training program at Satchidananda Ashram-Yogaville. Matt has been an IMCC Sangha member since he moved back to Charlottesville in 2018 to work in UVA’s employee well-being program, and he finds that IMCC complements well his primary practice in the Himalayan Buddhist tradition. In his free time he loves hiking with friends and his dog, and hosting a classical piano radio show on WTJU.

Jeanne van Gemert, MFA, LMBT, LPC, (she/her) came to meditation 30 years ago through art; she co-founded McGuffey Art Center and taught art at PVCC.  She is a graduate of Spirit Rock Meditation Center's Community Dharma Leader Program and studied Mindfulness- Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) under the direction of Jon Kabat-Zinn.  Jeanne was on staff as a psychotherapist (incorporating meditation, body-oriented and expressive modalities) and taught MBSR at Duke Integrative Medicine for 16 years.  Jeanne co-founded and served as a guiding teacher for Triangle Insight Meditation Community in Durham, NC until she moved back to Charlottesville in May, 2018.  Jeanne enjoys teaching the integration of Buddhism into our everyday thoughts, emotions and interactions so that we can see how the extraordinary and the wise is hidden in the ordinary.