La Sarmiento (they/them) has been practicing vipassana meditation since 1998. They were the board president, a retreat teacher and manager, and the guiding teacher of the BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ sanghas with the Insight Meditation Community of Washington, DC (IMCW). Currently, they are a Mentor for the Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification Program, a teacher with Cloud Sangha, and a contributor to the Ten Percent Happier app. They were the lead teacher for the Virginia Inward Bound Mindfulness Education Teen Mindfulness Retreats for seven years. They completed the Spirit Rock Community Dharma Leader Training in 2012 and have taught at Spirit Rock, the Garrison Institute, the Omega Institute, and Vallecitos Mountain Retreat Center. La’s favorite mindfulness practices are writing dharma spoof songs and building Lego.
