FACULTY

Mitra Dr. Karl Brunnhölzl has been a teacher, translator, and oral interpreter at Nitartha Institute since 1999 in both North America and Europe. Originally trained and having worked as a physician for 20 years, since 2006, Karl works as a full-time author and translator from Tibetan and Sanskrit to English in Seattle. He has published fifteen books in several languages (in the US with Snow Lion Publications and Wisdom Publications) on Madhyamaka, Prajñaparamita, Yogacāra, buddha nature, and other topics, including commentaries by several of the Karmapas and other major Kagyu lineage figures. Currently, he has been working on the collection of Indian Mahamudra texts (including many songs of realization) compiled by the Seventh Karmapa.

has been attending Nitartha Institute since 1999, has served as a translator at the Institute since 2000, and joined the Institute’s faculty in 2003. He has contributed written translations to various Nitartha Institute courses and serves as a Tibetan-to-English oral interpreter for Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche.

Dr. Phil Stanley has been involved in Nitartha Institute since its founding in 1996 and serves as its Dean of Academic Affairs. He is a Professor of Religious Studies at Naropa University where he teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in Buddhism and Tibetan language. He is Co-Director of the Tibetan Buddhist Canon Catalog of the Tibetan and Himalayan Library at the University of Virginia, Co-Convener of the Union Catalog of Buddhist Texts, and Vice-Chair of the International Association of Buddhist Universities.

Scott Wellenbach has been part of the leadership of Nitartha Institute since its founding in 1996. In 1998, he was appointed Co-Director and serves as head of the Translation Department. A translator of the buddha-dharma from Sanskrit and Tibetan for more than twenty years, and a long-time member of the Nalanda Translation Committee, he served as co-translator and co-editor of the Rain of Wisdom.

Stephanie Johnston, a Tibetan Buddhist practitioner since 1985 and student of Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche’s since 1996, is Nitartha Institute faculty and developed its Science of Creativity and the Arts courses. As a graphic designer and avid practitioner, she trains and supports practice instructors for Nalandabodhi. An alumni of Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, and certified in Museum studies, Renaissance Art Techniques, and Graphic Design, she loves digging into the symbolic and its applied meaning in art and everyday life.

Jirka Hladiš has studied under the guidance of Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche since 1997. He joined Nitartha Institute in 2002 and was authorized as a faculty member in 2007. Jirka’s interest is in approaching study, analytical meditation and debate as a unified tool for spiritual transformation. Jirka holds graduate degrees both in engineering from Prague Technical University and in Buddhist studies from Naropa University.

Israel Lifshitz holds degrees in Physics and Mathematics from the National University of Mexico. He has been involved with Tibetan Buddhism since 1992 and has studied under Kagyu, Gelug and Nyingma teachers. His teaching activities include courses and retreats in more than 35 cities throughout North, Central and South America and has served as translator into Spanish to more than 25 Tibetan and Western teachers. After meeting DPR, he joined Nitartha Institute in 2005, started teaching there in 2008, was authorized as a full faculty member in 2010, and translated all the root texts of the foundational and intermediate curriculum into Spanish.

Dr. Sandra Roscoe has been involved with Buddhist studies and practices since 1984 and a student of Tibetan Buddhism since 1996. She began her Tibetan studies and practices in earnest when she met Khenpo Tsultrim Rinpoche in 2000. She started studying at Nitartha Institute in 2002 and became a student of Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche the same year. Sandra holds a PhD in psychology with a focus on family systems and was a graduate and undergraduate professor at NSU. She was director of Nitartha Institute for Higher Buddhist Studies for over three years and became a fully authorized faculty member in 2016.

Mark Seibold has been a student and practitioner of Tibetan Buddhism since the early 1980’s. At the inivitation of Dzogchen Pönlop Rinpoche he joined the Nitartha faculty in 2005 with the instruction to create a Tibetan language track. In 2016 he was authorized to teach the Core Curricum as well. His current projects include a collaboration with Lama Tsöndrü Sangpo, a Nyingma Lama in the lineage of Chatral Rinpoche, on a translation of the Padma Khatang, a famous text attributed to Yeshe Tsogyal that chronicles the life, teachings and enlightened activity of Padmasambhava, as well as several projects related to Tibetan grammar.

Alison McKee has been attending Nitartha Institute since 2010 and was authorized as a member of the faculty in 2019. She has been a student of Ponlop Rinpoche since 2012. Her passion is in teaching debate as a way to joyfully and playfully examine and deconstruct one’s habitual concepts. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area and works as a library administrator.

Susan Stewart became a student of Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche in 1999, first attended Nitartha in 2004, and joined Nitartha faculty in 2019. She facilitated and taught the Nalandabodhi study curriculum in Vancouver for many years, and served as study director for Nalandabodhi Canada. Susan is a social practice artist, photographer, and professional educator. She is Associate Professor Emeritus at Emily Carr University of Art & Design, where she was the founding Dean for the Faculty of Culture and Community.

Francis Sullivan has been a practitioner and a student of Tibetan Buddhism since the early 1980s. He began his studies at Nitartha Institute in 2008 and in 2019 was made a fully authorized faculty member for the Shedra program. Francis holds a PhD in Biochemistry and lives and teaches in Boulder Colorado.

Arne Schelling is following Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche since 1989 and has been a dharma teacher, translator and editor in various sanghas of all Tibetan buddhist traditions since almost two decades. Originally trained and having worked as a physician for 20 years, Arne devotedly follows the Nitartha Institute since 1999, and has helped to establish various Buddhist centers in Germany; he is an archivist and a videographer, a piano player, and is currently in the ten-years teacher training program of Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche’s Milinda Project. Arne works full time in the Khyentse Vision Project, 84000, Longchen Shedra and other projects of publishing dharma texts in various sanghas. Being a practice instructor he is supporting many Ngöndro practitioners on their paths. Since 2022 he is also a student in the Nalanda Master Course.

The Nitartha community is saddened by the passing of Dr. Stuart Horn on Saturday, April 10, 2021. Stuart first came to Nitartha as a student, served as the chair of our board, and in time came to be among the most valued members of our faculty. A prodigious teacher with an incisive intellect, he had a gregarious nature and was friend and confidant to many of us. There was nothing you couldn't tell him, nothing he wasn't willing to think through with you, nothing that he flinched from in serving the Institute and its family. He was always there, for all of us, and will be deeply missed.