IMS Online Learning Center

Gina LaRoche (she*/her*) is a trainee in the four-year IMS and Spirit Rock teacher training program. She started her meditation practice in 2000 and was introduced to Insight Meditation while attending her first residential retreat in 2010. Deeply transformed by the Dharma, Gina integrates its teachings into her daily life and work. She is a 2017 graduate of the Spirit Rock Community Dharma Leader Program, a founding teacher of Elm Community Insight in New Haven, CT, a former IMS Board member, and co-holds the monthly POC sit at CIMC (MA). Gina is married with two adult children and co-authored, The 7 Laws of Enough: Cultivating a Life of Sustainable Abundance.

Ramona Lisa Ortiz-Smith, MBA, (she+), brings over 25 years of meditation practice and spiritual studies to her livelihood as a Spiritual Teacher and Leader. She is a dedicated lay practitioner of the Dharma and has spent the last six years undertaking contemporary Upasika vows and living as a lay renunciate. Ramona Lisa is honored to be in the 2025-2028 cohort of the Insight Meditation Society/Spirit Rock Teacher Training Program. She enjoys scholarly programs and has completed East Bay Meditation Center’s Commit to Dharma Program (C2D3), Spirit Rock Meditation Center’s (SRMC) Dedicated Practitioners Program (DPP6) and East Bay Meditation Center’s two-year Spiritual Teacher and Leadership training. Ramona Lisa is an Indigenous Focusing Oriented Therapy (IFOT) Practitioner, certified mindfulness teacher and mentor. Ramona Lisa is a Free Spirit who creatively weaves real life experiences into her Dharma interpretation using Earth based practices, authenticity, kindness, humor, music and joy! When not teaching, she is likely meditating, sitting in long, silent retreat practice or enjoying time with her adult daughter, family, friends and Dharma Buddies!