Jess has devoted much of her adult life to practicing and studying Buddhism. After completing  both  Bachelor and Master of Science degrees in Earth Systems at Stanford University, she moved to Zen Mountain Monastery, where she trained for over three years. During that time she completed over 40 week-long sesshins (silent retreats) and studied many Buddhist topics. She then decided to pursue Tibetan Buddhism, and was ordained as a monastic by Thrangu Rinpoche in 2015. She met Mingyur Rinpoche shortly afterwards at Tergar Monastery in Bodhgaya, India, and knew immediately he was her main teacher. Under Mingyur Rinpoche’s guidance, she completed two months-long solitary retreats in Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo’s cave in the Himalayas, including a five-month retreat over winter where she saw no one. After completing her solitary retreats, she moved to Madison, Wisconsin to participate in the Tergar community and the Center for Healthy Minds. In 2018, Jess chose to return to lay life and  her homeland in Alberta, Canada. Over the past few years, Jess has continued to study with Mingyur Rinpoche and Tsoknyi Rinpoche, while discovering both the joys and rich opportunities for practice that lay life offers. She serves as a Tergar Facilitator and host for online retreats, and supports a local practice group. Jess currently works as a website designer and meditation coach. In her downtime, she loves to backcountry ski, run, and bike in the mountains with her dog Pema.

Tim Olmsted is a Tergar Instructor with decades of experience teaching meditation. He began his Buddhist studies in 1977; in 1981 he moved to Kathmandu to study with Mingyur Rinpoche’s father, Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche. During the twelve years that he lived in Nepal, Tim studied with many of the renowned meditation teachers living there and worked as a psychotherapist serving the international community. Tim is one of the founders and senior instructors of the Tergar Meditation Community, for which he regularly travels around the world leading retreats and teaches online. He lives with his wife Glenna in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, where he leads an active community that follows Mingyur Rinpoche’s teachings and those of his family lineage. Tim is the founder and president of the Pema Chödrön Foundation. He is known for the down-to-earth warmth, practicality, and humor of his approach to teaching meditation.