KCC’s New Executive Director: Liza Baer
Dear KCC Sangha,
KCC is delighted to announce that Liza Baer has accepted our offer to be the new Executive Director. This position incorporates the Program Support Coordinator position held by Linda Grove, who will be retiring.
Liza is a long-time member of KCC and completed a three-year retreat at SCOL in 2018. Since then, she has served as a teacher and co-program director at Kagyu Sukha Chöling (KSC), a Tibetan Buddhist center in Ashland, Oregon. Liza’s official start in mid-February will fortuitously coincide with the next steps of KCC’s strategic planning process. Prior to that, Liza will begin integrating into her new role by attending select KCC meetings remotely. We are confident that the sangha will benefit from her support and leadership as KCC moves into the next chapter of its existence. More information on Liza will appear in the January newsletter.
At this time, we also honor our dedicated Program Support Coordinator Linda Grove as she transitions to retirement. We are blessed to know her retirement plans include continued involvement as a KCC sangha member.
For the dharma,
The Board of Directors
Lama Eric Triebelhorn
Rosemarie Sweet, HR Coordinator
A Message from Liza
Dear KCC Sangha,
I am glad to accept this position and to again be part of this dear community. KCC has felt like my spiritual home since I first attended a weekend retreat on mind training in 2014, and the opportunity to dive deep within the teachings during the three-year retreat was life changing and an extraordinary gift. In these years since retreat, my love of dharma has only deepened, and I look forward to being part of the organizational vision of KCC to support the sharing of these teachings.
This is a significant shift from a teaching role to an administrative role. There are many factors leading to this decision, including the impacts of climate change in Southern Oregon and my wish to be in a place with more water. Also importantly, I deeply resonate with the style of teaching at KCC, and find that my practice comes alive here in ways that are transformative and help me to be a better practitioner and person. I also look forward to collaborating with the many wonderful volunteers at KCC to bring our practice into the daily activities of operating the center and offering these programs to the community. In a broader sense, I am interested in the integration of these nature of mind, mind training and bodhicitta practices within day-to-day living as 21st-century American citizens, including all of the concerns within our society and environment. The Executive Director role gives me the opportunity to be part of a community that is also interested in these broad questions with the intention to live in this world in a better way. While I will miss teaching, I aspire to take these steps to broaden my skill set and ability to be of benefit in many different ways within our community.
Thank you, and I look forward to seeing you soon! Tashi Delek!
Warmly,
Liza Baer