IMS Online Learning Center

Ronya Fakhoury Banks is the founding teacher of Asheville Insight Meditation group, in Asheville, NC, which she has led since 2010. She has maintained a daily Vipassana meditation practice since 1985, spent two years sitting on Vipassana meditation retreats, as well as having had valuable experience as a Theravada Buddhist nun. In addition to being a retreat teacher, she is presently in the joint IMS/Spirit Rock teachers training program, a graduate of the Spirit Rock Community Dharma Leader program, and served eight years as a mentor for Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach’s Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification Program. Although she has sat with over 30 different teachers, she considers Jack Kornfield, Joseph Goldstein, and Chanmyay Sayadaw her primary teachers. Ronya has led and co-led several residential and online meditation retreats since 2014. As a social worker, Ronya works as a “Embodied Presence” therapist, with an emphasis on healing trauma and transforming conditioned patterns to support one’s spiritual life journey . Born in Kuwait of Palestinian-American descent and raised in Islamic faith, Ronya values justice and equality for all. Her teaching style is characterized by her authentic, easy-going personality, helping people synthesize complex topics into digestible pieces. Her greatest joy has been as a parent and grandparent.

Brett Bethke has been practicing insight meditation since 2010, when he attended his first retreat at IMS. He has a love of long retreat practice and has spent three years in silent retreat at IMS, Spirit Rock, and elsewhere. He has deep trust in the potential for each of us to transform our suffering and realize greater peace, clarity, and compassion in our lives. His interest in teaching is to explore this possibility with others, using the unique conditions of our own lives as opportunities for growth and understanding. Brett has been leading community meditation groups for more than 10 years and is part of the current IMS/Spirit Rock teacher training program. Brett has a PhD in aerospace engineering and has worked for numerous Silicon Valley startups in the fields of autonomous vehicles and global health. He has a strong interest in the compassionate and ethical use of technology. Prior to leaving his job to pursue several years of intensive dharma practice, he worked on autonomous drones that deliver lifesaving medical supplies to underserved communities. Learn more at brettbethke.com