Jerry is a husband, father, teacher, spiritual director and retreat leader.  He is an ordained Deacon in the Episcopal Diocese of East Tennessee, currently assigned to St. John’s Cathedral in Knoxville.  Since arriving in Knoxville in 1985, he has served as a university dean, foundation president, healthcare executive and on the boards of over 50 nonprofit organizations at the local, state and national levels.

Jerry received his BA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he was a Morehead Scholar, MS from the University of Memphis and Ph.D. from the Ohio State University. He and his wife Robyn, an attorney, have two adult children.

Jerry has led On Being Human, Third Half of Life, Sacred Reading and other workshops.

Chris is a happily-married husband, passionate father of three children, friend to many, and a budding writer and workshop leader. He is an electrical engineer who uses his education to help industrial plants in East Tennessee optimize their facilities for both safety and efficiency. He considers himself to be a spiritual refugee and a searcher for truth and how to live in harmony with it.

Chris has led The Quest for Meaning, Meaningful Life Film Discussion Group, Lanterns to Light The Way, The Artist's Way, and other programs.

John worked in the Audiology department of the University of Tennessee for 10 years, coordinating a number of programs. He left UT to found Blount Hearing and Speech Services, which has served over 20,000 patients in the past 35 years. John is also the co-founder and CEO of the Hearing and Speech Foundation, an institution that focuses on conducting research to provide a better understanding of human perception and in so doing to improve the field of audiology.

John has taught courses on surrender and forgiveness at Blount Memorial Hospital for many years in their recovery programs.

Fred is an art historian (Ph.D., U. Chicago) who taught at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville for 30 years.  Fred has a special interest in the iconology of Buddhist art (“meaning” as well as style and context).  After specializing in the meaning of Buddhist subjects in Asian art for years, one day about 25 years ago he suddenly realized that there is a reason why those Buddhist images sit the way they do. At that point he began a meditation practice of his own. Since that time, he has studied with a number of different teachers and participates in a half-dozen meditation and study groups including one on Lovingkindness based on the teachings of Andrew Olendzki.

David is a professor emeritus of the University of Tennessee College of Social Work. He is a certified MBSR Teacher through the Brown University Mindfulness Center and has had a daily sitting practice for over three decades. He has trained a wide array of individuals and groups in mindfulness practices. For the past five years, he has taught the MBSR 8-week course to UT graduate students in social work, counseling, and psychology.