Staff
Kate Johnson | Co-Director, Programming & Partnerships
Kate Johnson (she/her) is a teacher, facilitator, writer and mother. Buddhist Peace Fellowship is one of her most beloved spiritual and political homes – the place where she truly learned that the hard work of meaningful societal transformation can also be joyful, relational, and life-affirmingly effervescent.
Kate began practicing Theravada Buddhism in the Western Insight tradition in her early 20’s, deeply influenced by the Thai Forest and Burmese Sayadaw lineages. She has participated in many multi-month meditation retreats and multi-year teacher trainings, and graduated from Spirit Rock Meditation Center’s four-year retreat teacher training in 2020, under the leadership of Gina Sharpe, Larry Yang and Lila Kate Wheeler. Kate began facilitating organizational training and retreats after co-founding the Meditation Working Group at Occupy Wall Street in 2011, and went on to help organize yoga and meditation communities in service of labor and environmental justice campaigns. She spent several years as a faculty member of MIT’s Presencing Institute, and she has spent much of the last decade working with leaders and organizations committed to equity, impact, sustainability, and the practice of wise relationships, using awareness-based and embodied practices to support communication, strategy, and relational culture.
Kate holds a BFA in Modern Dance from the Alvin Ailey School/Fordham University and MA in Performance Studies from NYU. She is the author of the book Radical Friendship: Seven Ways to Love Yourself and Find Your People in an Unjust World. In her off hours, she can be found exploring Philly with her kid, sipping tea with friends, and looking for all manner of good trouble.
Sarwang Parikh (he/they) was born into the Dharma within a devotional Hindu Indian lineage from an immigrant, working-class, caste-privileged family. They have been steeped in contemplative practice and study of Vedic Yoga and Buddhism for over 20 years.
Sarwang has been a casual admirer and participant in local Buddhist Peace Fellowship actions in the East Bay, CA until they officially joined BPF board in 2019. They’ve been moved by BPF’s beautiful and politically-relevant expression of engaged Buddhism. They are excited to continue to deepen and build on the radical vision that has fueled BPF to become a spiritual hub for so many engaged Buddhists and spiritually-adjacent movement folks.
Sarwang brings nearly two decades of experience in community mental health, including being a founding member of a holistic mental health non-profit based out of Oakland. As a licensed therapist and trained facilitator, they are deeply interested in interpersonal and intergenerational healing through spiritually-rooted practices. They’re committed to creating spaces for decolonized wellness and healing justice.
Along with their cultural roots, Sarwang’s dedication to the Buddhadharma deepened specifically in the soil of western Insight lineage of Theravada Buddhism through regular retreats and training at Spirit Rock. Their spiritual home is East Bay Meditation Center where they participate as an engaged sangha member, community teacher and graduate of their inaugural Spiritual Teacher Leader training. They also hold a special love for teaching teen retreats with Inward Bound Mindfulness Education.
Sarwang is most at home playing flute in a forest, immersed in sci-fi/fantasy or on a dance floor.
You can reach Sarwang at Sarwang@bpf.org.