Teachers and Sangha Leaders

Jody Ansell started meditating in 2008 with One Drop Rinzai Zen’s Water Moon Sangha. She has been sitting with Valley Streams since 2014. She is retired, a hiking and biking enthusiast and a poet.

Susan Farrar practices in two traditions—in the Tibetan tradition with Lion’s Roar Dharma Center since 2008, and more recently, with Valley Streams Zen Sangha.  She completed the 2-year Foundation of Buddhist Thought training in 2014 and  the Chaplaincy Program from the Sati Center for Buddhist Studies in 2019. She volunteers as a chaplain at U.C. Davis Medical Center and has volunteered as a hospice worker also through U.C Davis. She is also active in various activities surrounding food insecurity in the Sacramento community.

Prior to her retirement in 2004, Susan worked as a law office manager and as a research manager specializing in data and demographic research. She has a BA from the University of Colorado and post-graduate work at UCLA.

Serves as Tanto, or head of practice. He lived in the San Francisco Zen Center community from 1980 to 1984, was lay ordained by Tenshin Reb Anderson in 1985, and priest ordained by Myo Lahey in 2016. He served as Head Student at Green Gulch Farm during the spring 2002 practice period.

Dave was first attracted to Buddhism, and Zen in particular, through the writings of Thich Nhat Hanh and Shunryu Suzuki Roshi. He works on the staff of Child Advocates of El Dorado County, and when not engaged with work or sangha, he enjoys wandering through the Sierra Nevada.

Serves as Ino,  or head of the meditation hall. She studies in the Soto Zen lineage with Sojun Diane Martin, founder and guiding teacher of Udumbara Zen Center in Illinois and Rev. Val Szymanski, Head Priest of Bamboo in the Wind Zen Sangha in California. She was lay ordained in 2008 and priest ordained in 2019. She served as head student for the Spring practice period at Bamboo in the Wind Zen Sangha this May 2022. She offers Practice Interviews upon request.

Malia is a member of the Valley Streams Board of Directors and serves as secretary.  She recently
retired from the practice of child and adolescent psychiatry.  She has two daughters in college and lives
in Davis with her husband.  She feels very fortunate to have been able to practice with Valley Streams
since 2019

Sarah has practiced in several different Buddhist traditions including Nichiren Shoshu’s Soka Gakkai, the Chan lineage of Master Sheng Yen and, since 2007, in the Soto Zen lineage of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi.  She shares her avocation for botany and the natural world leading hikes for the Sacramento Valley Conservancy and volunteering at the Cosumnes River Preserve.   She is a retired IT professional and former camp cook for Forest Service backcountry work crews.  In addition to serving on our Board of Directors and Practice Committee, Sarah edits our events calendar and creates Eventbrite invitations.

Kyūshin Larry Smith is a retired attorney with over 35 years of practice of law in the Sacramento community. He has been practicing with Valley Streams since February, 2017 and has served as its Treasurer since October, 2018. Larry was lay ordained in the Soto Zen lineage in November, 2021.  Larry also serves on the Valley Streams Doanryo and has offered service in numerous other matters including performing a variety of audio-visual tasks.

Charles is a long time Valley Steams member and serves on Valley Stream’s Board of Directors.