Co-Founders
The vision of Morning Sun is carried by Fern Dorresteyn and Michael Ciborski. It has grown out of their collective training in mindfulness practice and experience in intentional communities.
Their most significant community experience comes from the nine years they lived in Plum Village in France, the monastery and practice center of Vietnamese Buddhist Monk Thich Nhat Hanh. They trained in the meditative arts as monk and nun for seven of those years and were fortunate to live and work intimately with Thich Nhat Hanh and the monastic community to organize, support, and offer meditation retreats around the world. While living in Plum Village they became Dharma teachers in Thich Nhat Hanh’s tradition.
They have also lived and studied in several healing arts and yoga communities in the US. They also lived for a short time as co-workers in two Camphill Communities where they were deeply inspired by a simple life of service, hand crafts, and caring for the Earth alongside developmentally disabled people.
In 2003, each of them departed Plum Village and, when they encountered each other, returned to lay life. Now they are married and have a son, Laurian, and two daughters, Seriena and Fiana.
Read about Michael, Fern and MorningSun on Shambhala Sun’s SunSpace Blog.
Other Residents
Candace Licari
Candace’s write up is coming soon.
Annie Millar Desmond
Annie directed the environmental education center, Slide Ranch, for seven years. During that time, she managed a staff of 7-10 environmental educators and expanded programming for low-income families. She currently works as a management and program consultant to nonprofits.
T. Ambrose Desmond
Ambrose has co-founded two non-profits, directed an intensive mental health treatment center for children and co-developed a two-year training program for psychotherapists. He currently works as a therapist in private practice and writes extensively on mental health. He is a Board member of MorningSun and Planting Justice, where he is the chair of the finance committee.
After living and studying in many different Buddhist monasteries, he received transmission of the 14 Mindfulness Trainings of the Order of Interbeing in August of 2005 and is an apprentice Dharma Teacher with Lyn Fine. He began studying Permaculture while a visiting student at the Institute for Gandhian Studies in Wardha, India and has taught Permaculture and natural building in the US and Mexico. He also helped to organize several large global justice protests between 2002-2004 at meetings of the WTO and FTAA. He is the chair of the finance committee on the board of directors of Planting Justice, an Oakland-based food justice nonprofit. He has taught Nonviolent Communication and consensus process at intentional communities, mental health settings and other nonprofits.
John Young
I came to MorningSun after spending a bit less than a year (2007/08) in Plum Village, the Zen monastery and practice centre in France established by Thich Nhat Hanh.
After fifteen years of professional activism (advising national and provincial political leaders in Canada; serving as Executive Director of two social justice nonprofits; and a host of other political, public policy, organizational and advocacy work), I encountered the teaching and practice of Thich Nhat Hanh five years ago. The timing for this encounter could not have been more auspicious given how various aspects of my life were unfolding. Without knowing it at the time, I was wending my way toward a spiritual opening; a journey that would connect me deeply and joyfully with life while continuing to engage suffering in its many forms – both in me and in the world around me.
I attended my first retreat in Plum Village in 2006. And everything changed. I knew that my former life of bruising partisan politics and driving aggressively for social change was over. But I didn’t know what came next. I left everything behind; my home, career, possessions. I began walking wholeheartedly (though at times visited mightily by doubt, fear, self-judgment etc.) down a spiritual path.
One of the, to me, surprising discoveries is that community is critical if one is to live in a profoundly different way than most of our society lives. The daily support of others seeking to live lives of simplicity, loving kindness and service is vital. Or so I have found. It is that discovery which led me Plum Village, where awareness of its importance grew ten thousand-fold. It is that discovery which led me here to MorningSun, where I feel so incredibly fortunate to live with wonderful wise people – learning so much together every day.
Sara Ciborski
Sara’s write up is coming soon.
Board of Directors
Ethan Roland
Ethan is an international expert in sustainable agriculture and permaculture design based in the Hudson river valley. He has studied in over 25 countries, from the wild apple forests of Kazakhstan to the tropical monsoon ecosystems of Thailand. He runs an international consulting firm and holds an M.S. in Eco-Social Design from Gaia University. Keep up to date with Ethan’s research on carbon farming and ecosystem investing over at the AppleSeed Permaculture Blog.
Randy Parker
Randy Parker is a Boston-based software entrepreneur and consultant to startup ventures and founders. He is passionate about startups, innovation, and small business marketing, and has started several companies in his 25 year career, most notably the email marketing service Constant Contact now used by over 400,000 non-profits and small businesses. He and his wife Nancy have been practicing for 10 years with Boston’s Old Path Sangha (BOPS) in the tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh, and currently host a weekly Mindful Parenting sitting in their home. They have three children (Allee, Myles and Camden) and enjoy frequent family visits to MorningSun. He has also served in various community roles, including coaching youth sports and as Finance Co-coordinator for BOPS.
Valerie Piedmont
Valerie Piedmont, 58 yrs, lives with her husband, Pablo on their off-grid homestead in Gilsum, NH. Together, in the Emerson Brook Forest, they raised three children Ariel, Iris and Bodhi. Valerie’s strong connection to the natural world and a “North Star” vision of a peace-filled, equitable and sustainable future led her to establish The Sustainability Project, a non-profit education organization promoting a love of nature, environmental stewardship, and caring communities. <www.emersonbrookforest.org>. Valerie and Pablo own and operate Green Energy Options, a retail business in Keene, encouraging independent power production and natural resource conservation through responsible technology.
Bethany Klug
Bethany Klug, DO founded the Heartland Community of Mindful Living devoted to the mindfulness meditation practices of Thich Nhat Hanh in 1997. She has been an ordained member of the Thich Nhat Hanh’s Order of Interbeing since 2000. Dr. Klug practices holistic medicine in her private practice in Kansas City, offering bioidentical hormone replacement, holistic treatment of chronic conditions, biodynamic cranio-sacral work and health and wellness guidance to patients of all ages. She recovered from two autoimmune conditions with holistic medicine and has developed extensive expertise in the healing power of whole foods cooking. The Latin meaning for doctor, “teacher,” inspires her to write for general audiences in order to empower them to discover their self-healing ability through holistic health. She writes the monthly column “Food Conscious” for the Evolving Magazine. Dr. Klug lives with her husband and fellow Order of Interbeing member David Klug and their spiritual director Shanti the cat. She enjoys yoga, knitting and just about anything to do with food.
