Board of Directors
The Board of Directors is the governing body of Seattle Insight Meditation Society (SIMS), a 501 C3 non-profit religious corporation. Board members serve as the stewards of SIMS, its resources, programs and activities. Officers include the President, Vice-President, Treasurer and Secretary. The Board meets every other month to discuss issues, deliberate policy and vote. The Board also convenes committee meetings specific to a variety of initiatives. The Board seeks to be an increasingly diverse group bringing a wide perspective of views and skills in service of SIMS and the Dharma.
Tim Geil began practicing Insight Meditation in 1996 and has taught meditation since 2006 under the guidance of Rodney Smith. In 2016, Tim completed the four-year Residential Retreat Teacher Training through Spirit Rock, Insight Meditation Society, and Insight Retreat Center. The core teachers of this intensive program were Joseph Goldstein, Jack Kornfield, Carol Wilson, Gil Fronsdal, Guy Armstrong, Andrea Fella, Trudy Goodman, and Phillip Moffitt.
Tim emphasizes three expressions of the Dharma: investigation, non-resistance, and compassion. Our daily lives prove a tailor-made spiritual path for each person when we are willing to investigate areas of constriction and resistance. This reveals our personal suffering created by the illusion of a separate self. A deep sense of non-resistance and compassion brings balance to investigation. Relaxing fully into this moment is the essence of non-resistance. Compassion brings sensitivity and kindness as we meet all aspects of ourselves. This allows the heart’s release into stillness.
A Co-Guiding Teacher of Seattle Insight Meditation Society, Tim offers talks, classes, interviews, and retreats. He also works closely with leadership and volunteers at SIMS as a member of the board of directors. Tim has inhabited many roles: husband, father, wilderness ranger, martial artist, hospice volunteer, massage therapist. His relationship with his wife and daughter are a joyful and fundamental part of his dharma practice
Cubba found the SIMS community through friends and will be forever grateful. She took a beginning meditation class from Rodney Smith in 2016 and again from Tim Geil in 2019, each experience unique and rich. She’s followed SIMS from St. Marks to SODO to Friends Meeting. The dhamma has been a steadying practice in her life, no matter the meeting place. She appreciates all the spaces SIMS provides, volunteer opportunities little and big, to connect with and grow this community.
A native of Detroit, Cubba has lived on Seattle’s Eastside for the past 20 years where she and her husband raised their three children. A social worker by training, she is a currently a Parent Education Instructor at Bellevue College with a private practice coaching parents. For fun she is an amateur dog trainer and loves dogs, horses, hiking, grandchildren, and as many books as the library will allow her to check out.
Cheryl has been studying and practicing yoga and meditation since the early 2000s. She has been a member of SIMS since the fall of 2018 has found being part of the sangha to be an important support in maintaining a regular sitting practice. Cheryl has attended several non-residential retreats and volunteered in various capacities. She is honored to serve the sangha through her work as Board Treasurer
Cheryl is a CPA and is the Chief Financial Officer and VP Administration at Forterra. She lives in Columbia City with her husband, two young children and three cats.
Steven was first introduced to Vipassana meditation in 2008 via a radio program on prison Vipassana instruction by the late teacher S.N. Goenka. He credits his practice and the SIMS Death and Dying Support Group Project with “saving his life” through the difficult terminal illness of his late wife. Several Goenka retreats and SIMS introductory classes later, Steven has made the SIMS community his home. Along the way he received Rodney Smith’s blessing to train with Jon Kabat-Zinn at the University of Massachusetts to facilitate the Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction curriculum as a way to open the door to others to Vipassana meditation, and he has worked to establish a Vipassana program run by students at Bastyr University with guiding teacher Tuere Sala, as well as continuing to pursue several research projects on the physiology of meditation and focused attention. Steven feels privileged to serve as board secretary and at-large member representing introverts and shy singles.
With deep roots in Kansas, and a deep affinity with the Emerald City, Steven maintains close ties with both, continuing to teach neuroscience at Bastyr University and helping out during planting and harvest seasons on the family farm back home. He has three grown children, likes to kayak to work and work in the garden, and acknowledges that some cats and dogs seem to have taken up residence in his house.
Kalid joined SIMS in 2018 while attending a daylong Rodney Smith talk with his aunt. He came to Seattle from Boston in 2003, and works remotely as a software engineer. He enjoys blogging about intuitive math explanations, snowboarding, and Brazilian Ju Jitsu.
Since joining SIMS, Kalid and his wife Valerie eagerly attend weekly sits and retreats. He looks forward to serving the Sangha and deepening his practice.
Currently vacant. SIMS is looking for someone with experience as a Communications Director.
Volunteer Coordinator Board position is currently vacant.
Sangha Life Board position is currently vacant.
