Leading with
Mindfulness & Wisdom
A Regenerative Training for Environmental Professionals
For environmental professionals carrying the weight of environmental destruction, we invite you on a six-month journey to meet the ecological crisis from a place of steadiness, balance, and resilience rather than depletion and burnout. This program weaves Buddhist wisdom, nature-based practices, and a community of peers to nourish and support you through these difficult times while strengthening the impact of your leadership.
Meet the Teachers
With Mark Coleman, Kristin Barker and Bonnie Duran • January 2027 – June 2027
The earth has always known how to renew itself. So can you.
Environmental work asks everything of the people who do it. You hold the science, the policy, the deadlines, the overwhelm, the grief. What often gets left out of the equation is the human doing the work—you.
Leading with Mindfulness & Wisdom is a training designed to put your humanity back at the center of your work. Over six months, this hybrid program weaves together three complementary streams: Buddhist wisdom and mindfulness practices, community building, and a unifying regenerative arc that connects inner renewal with outer impact.
When the moment is urgent, we turn to what is timeless.
What Our Students Are Saying
Three streams. One regenerative arc.
A Field for Renewal
Burnout, overwhelm, and ecological grief are not signs that you're doing the work wrong—they are the cost of caring deeply in a time of unraveling. This program offers contemplative practices as the foundation for clear, grounded, values-aligned leadership that can last. Just as ecosystems do not simply sustain themselves but continuously renew and evolve, you are invited to cultivate that same regenerative capacity within.
Wisdom from the Living World
We pair inner practice with insights from nature itself: how living systems adapt, collaborate, and regenerate. Through facilitated retreats, you'll be supported to bring lessons from your personal practice and the natural world directly to the challenges you face in your organization and community.
A Community of Environmental Leaders
You'll move through this 6-month program alongside a cohort of environmental leaders and professionals who share your values, your struggles, and your commitment—building relationships rooted in shared practice and mutual accountability that can sustain you well beyond the program.
How the Program Works
2 Five-Night Retreats
Immersive, in-person retreats at Mount Madonna Center (California) & the Garrison Institute (New York) offering deep renewal, contemplative practice, and community.
Monthly Online Sessions
Live online gatherings offering guided practice, community connection, and Q&A with faculty and guest teachers to help you integrate the teachings into your life.
Practice Support & Resources
Curated readings, podcasts, videos, and reflection prompts to deepen the journey between gatherings.
Optional Peer Groups
Participant-organized spaces for shared inquiry, mutual support, and integration of practice into daily life.
Two Residential Retreats
The concept of regeneration is the throughline of this training. Just as ecosystems do not simply sustain themselves but continuously renew, restore, and evolve, this program invites environmental leaders to cultivate the same capacity within themselves and their organizations.
Each retreat day follows a regenerative rhythm, with sessions of sitting meditation, movement, guided reflection, and Buddhist teachings, alongside time for reflections on applications of practice to one’s environmental work. Together, these practices explore how we can learn from nature and apply those lessons to organizational life, systems thinking, and environmental impact.
Retreat One
Feb 21–26, 2027
Mount Madonna Center, Santa Cruz, CA
Personal Regeneration
Turning inward, renewing the leader from the inside out. Deep contemplative practice to restore your relationship with yourself, your body, and the natural world.
Retreat Two
May 16–21, 2027
Garrison Institute, Garrison, NY
Collective & Ecological Regeneration
Bringing renewed leadership outward into organizations and ecosystems. Working with others, systems, and the living world to cultivate regenerative impact.
Over the course of the program, you'll be invited to…
Cultivate compassion and empathy to meet and hold the inevitable pain and stress of environmental work amidst the climate crisis.
Practice mindfulness and nature-based strategies for strengthening personal and organizational resilience in the face of ecological and social challenges.
Reflect on your relationship to leadership, power, and influence, deepening self-awareness and clarifying the impact you seek to have.
Consider diverse styles of leadership and how they can help build trust, foster inclusion, and generate impact across differences.
Develop tools for navigating difficulty with skill and compassion—staying present, grounded, and values-aligned under pressure.
Examine how to cultivate growth & resilience, for yourself, colleagues, teams, and communities, informed by regenerative principles.
Begin shaping your professional vision and sustainability plan that integrates well-being, self-care, and the flexibility to sustain long-term service.
Connect with a peer community of environmental leaders and professionals rooted in shared practice, values, and mutual accountability
This program is for anyone whose work serves the environment
Work that involves understanding, managing, protecting, or restoring the natural environment and the systems that sustain life. This includes professionals engaged in scientific, technical, policy, educational, spiritual, or community-based work, such as:
- Land, fire, and water stewards
- Scientists, engineers, and policy professionals
- Educators and communicators
- Organizational leaders and changemakers
- Community-based and grassroots facilitators
This may be especially meaningful for you if you…
- Pour yourself into environmental work, and quietly wonder how long you can keep going at this pace
- Carry grief or urgency about the state of the world that few people in your life fully understand
- Sense that sustainable leadership requires more than new strategies; it requires inner steadiness
- Want practices that integrate contemplative depth with real-world impact
- Are ready to lead from a place of renewal rather than depletion
- Long for a community of peers who share your values and understand your work
The Power of Community
The heart of this training is the community that forms within it—environmental leaders supporting one another through practice, presence, and shared intention.
Shared Practice
Moving together through silence, inquiry, and growth, grounded in a common contemplative foundation.
Mutual Support
Building trust and accountability with peers who understand both the outer demands and the inner costs of this work.
Lasting Connection
Leaving not only with practices and tools, but with relationships and a sense of belonging that sustains long-term service.
Your Teachers
This program is guided by three experienced teachers who bring together deep contemplative practice, nature-based wisdom, and a lifelong commitment to ecological care.
Mark Coleman, MA
Mark has a master's in Clinical Psychology and has trained extensively in the Buddhist tradition, both in the Insight meditation and in the Dzogchen tradition. He is a senior teacher at Spirit Rock Meditation Center and has taught insight meditation retreats since 1997. Mark is a lifelong nature lover and is passionate about guiding people into the beauty of meditation and nature. He has led wilderness nature retreats worldwide for over twenty years. Through his organization Awake in the Wild, Mark leads yearlong nature meditation teacher trainings in the US and Europe.
Co-founder of the Mindfulness Training Institute, Mark also leads year long professional mindfulness teacher trainings in Europe and the US.
Author of Awake in the Wild, Make Peace With Your Mind, From Suffering to Peace, and A Field Guide to Nature Meditation
Kristin Barker
Kristin is co-founder and director of One Earth Sangha, whose mission is to cultivate a Buddhist response to ecological crises. She is a graduate of Spirit Rock's Community Dharma Leader program and now teaches with the Insight Meditation Community of Washington (DC). As a co-founder of White Awake, Kristin has been supporting white people since 2011 with a Dharma approach to uprooting racism in ourselves and in our world.
With a background in software engineering as well as environmental management, she has worked at several international environmental organizations. She is a GreenFaith Fellow and serves on the advisory board of Project Inside Out as well as the steering committee for Interfaith Power & Light DMV. Kristin was born and raised in northern New Mexico and currently lives in Washington DC, traditional lands of the Piscataway peoples.
Bonnie Duran
Bonnie Duran, DrPH, embarked on her journey with the Dharma in 1982. She graduated from the Insight Meditation Society (IMS)/Spirit Rock Meditation Center (SRMC) retreat teacher-training program and has taught meditation retreats for over twenty years. She has been a core SRMC Dedicated Practitioners Program teacher and is on the SRMC Guiding Teachers Council.
Bonnie teaches long and short retreats at IMS, Spirit Rock, and other communities and is involved in Native American spiritual practices and traditions. Bonnie was introduced to the Jodo Shinshu Buddhist tradition and is now happily studying and practicing. Bonnie has contributed to Hilda Gutiérrez Baldoquin’s book Dharma, Color, and Culture: New Voices in Western Buddhism and has written for the Harvard Divinity Bulletin, Tricycle, and The Turning Wheel.
Dr. Duran is a professor emeritus in the Schools of Social Work and Public Health at the University of Washington and a faculty member at the Indigenous Wellness Research Institute. Her academic work has been primarily with Tribal, urban Indian, and International Indigenous communities.
Program Fees
Spirit Rock is committed to making our programs as accessible as possible. We are fortunate to have grant funding to support this important training.
A $400 non-refundable registration fee is required upon acceptance to secure your place in the cohort. Up to $400 of travel reimbursement will be provided to each student, per retreat.
Application Timeline & Process
We keep this cohort small on purpose. To protect the depth of the experience for everyone, participants are selected through an application process.
Applications Open
July 1, 2026
Applications open and must be complete to be considered.
Application Deadline
September 13, 2026
Final deadline for applications to be submitted.
Selection & Registration
September 2026
Applications are reviewed, and selected applicants are notified and invited to register.
Program Begins
January 20, 2027
This six-month training program begins with a virtual kick-off gathering.
Begin Your Application →
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the retreat dates and locations?
The first retreat takes place February 21–26, 2027, at Mount Madonna Center in Santa Cruz, CA. The second retreat takes place May 16–21, 2027, at the Garrison Institute in Garrison, NY. The full program runs January 20 – June 16, 2027.
What is the format of the program?
A six-month hybrid program combining two five-night residential retreats, monthly online practice sessions, supplemental resources, and optional peer groups.
Who is this program for?
Any professional whose work is in service of the environment—including scientists, engineers, policy and planning professionals, educators, communicators, organizational leaders, and community-based practitioners.
Do I need prior meditation experience?
No prior meditation experience is required to be eligible to apply for the program.
How much does the program cost?
A non-refundable $400 registration fee secures your place upon acceptance. Full fee details and inclusions will be shared with accepted applicants. Up to $400 of travel reimbursement will be provided to each student, per retreat.
How do I apply?
Applications open July 1, 2026, and close September 13, 2026. Selected applicants will be notified and invited to register in September.
EcoDharma & Transformational Culture at Spirit Rock Meditation Center
Spirit Rock’s EcoDharma & Transformational Culture Program (ETCP) brings together Buddhist teachers, activists, and community partners to nurture resilience, deepen climate awareness, and inspire compassionate action.
If you’d like to explore the full vision, upcoming offerings, partners, and ways to get involved, visit the ETCP page below.
Explore the EcoDharma & Transformational Culture Program →This is an opportunity to renew yourself as a leader.
Be held in practice, community, and a deepened connection to the living world. We hope you'll join us.
Begin Your Application →Applications open July 1, 2026
