Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche
President & Spiritual Director

Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche is a renowned tulku of the Kagyu and Nyingma lineages of Tibetan Buddhism—a teacher, spiritual leader, and bestselling author. He has a rare ability to present the ancient wisdom of Tibet in a fresh and engaging way. His profound yet accessible teachings and playful sense of humor have endeared him to students around the world. Rinpoche’s teachings uniquely weave together his personal life experiences with modern scientific research related to meditation practice.

He is the author of several books, including two bestsellers: The Joy of Living: Unlocking the Secret and Science of Happiness, which has been translated into more than 20 languages; and In Love with the World: A Monk’s Journey Through the Bardos of Living and Dying. His TED Talk is titled How to Tap Into Your Awareness—and Why Meditation is Easier Than You Think.

Rinpoche teaches extensively around the world and oversees numerous Dharma centers, including three monasteries in Nepal, India, and Tibet; the Tergar Institute in Kathmandu; Tergar meditation communities on six continents; and numerous schools and social engagement projects addressing health, hunger, hygiene, the environment, and women’s empowerment in Nepal and India.

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Glenna Olmsted
President

Glenna has been a student of the Dharma for over 24 years and is a dedicated student of Mingyur Rinpoche and his brothers, Tsoknyi Rinpoche and Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche. She has served on the Board of the Yongey Foundation since its inception. Glenna has also been the longtime executive assistant to Pema Chödrön. In her free time, she is a plein air artist who exhibits exclusively in Steamboat Springs. For over 40 years, she has worked as a real estate agent in Steamboat Springs, where she lives with her husband, Tim Olmsted, and their dog, Mr. Pounce.

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Josh Baran
Director

Josh is a communications professional and founder of Baran Strategies. Over the decades, his clients have included numerous environmental and human rights organizations, film studios, record labels, and tech companies. In his professional capacity, he has provided media support for many of the Dalai Lama’s visits to the U.S., as well as for the three visits of the 17th Karmapa. He has been a Dharma practitioner since 1970 and has served on the Board of the Yongey Foundation since its founding. He lives in New York City.

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Sandra Fernández
Director

Sandra is a mother, teacher, student, activist, author, and lover of stories. She holds a PhD in International and Intercultural Development Education from Florida International University. Her teaching experience spans primary, secondary, and university levels, and she has taught in Canada, Australia, Japan, and the United States. In her current role as Chief of Staff to Mingyur Rinpoche, she supports the Tergar mandala by facilitating connections and projects across Rinpoche’s diverse activities. This includes Dharma centers, global meditation communities, and social engagement projects in Nepal and India.

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Edwin Kelley
Director

Edwin Kelley attended his first meditation retreat near Perth, Australia, in 1975. He later pursued a career as a certified public accountant and, in 1992, traveled to Burma for a six-month period of intensive meditation practice with the meditation master Chanmyay Sayadaw. While practicing in Burma, he was temporarily ordained as a Buddhist monk.

In 1994, he was hired as Director of Operations by one of the most well-known meditation retreat centers in the United States, the Insight Meditation Society (IMS) in Barre, Massachusetts. Eighteen months later, he was appointed Executive Director of IMS and served in that role until 2003, when he stepped down to undertake long-term intensive meditation practice.

Edwin was first introduced to Vajrayana Buddhism in Dharamsala, India, in 1993 and became a student of Mingyur Rinpoche in 1998. He holds a postgraduate diploma in Buddhist Studies from the University of Sunderland in the UK.

In 2009, Edwin and his wife Myoshin moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota, to help establish the global Tergar Meditation Community, where he later served as Executive Director, Co-Executive Director, and Chief Financial Officer until retiring from his administrative role at Tergar International at the end of 2022. He is now retired and lives in Australia.

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Cathryn Mayer
Director & Executive Assistant

With extensive experience in business management and accounting, Cathryn has been crunching numbers for all types of organizations since 1995. She has developed a growing interest in working with nonprofit organizations and has served on the board of the Pema Chödrön Foundation since 2019. She was also an active board member of the Steamboat Springs Buddhist Center for nine years. Since 2010, Cathryn has been committed to the Buddhist path as a student of Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche.

In 2019, Cathryn became the executive assistant to Glenna, the board president, managing all donations, and she recently joined the board of the Yongey Foundation with great enthusiasm. She lives with her family in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, and spends her free time playing in the mountains and rivers of the western U.S.

Tim Olmsted
Director

Tim has been a student of the Dharma for the past 45 years. In 1981, he moved to Nepal to study with Mingyur Rinpoche’s father, Tulku Urgyen, and remained there for 12 years. While in Nepal, Tim worked as a psychotherapist serving both local and expatriate communities. He co-founded the Yongey Foundation with Mingyur Rinpoche in 2003. Tim is deeply engaged in Mingyur Rinpoche’s world as an instructor for Tergar International.

After returning from Nepal, Tim served as the director of Gampo Abbey in Cape Breton, the largest Buddhist monastery in North America. He is also the founder and president of the Pema Chödrön Foundation. Tim and Glenna live in Steamboat Springs, Colorado.

“The whole path is a shift in perception.”.