Who We Are

Atlanta Insight Meditation Community is a Buddhist meditation, practice, and study community based in the Insight/Vipassana tradition. We are a group of spiritual friends who are committed to the journey of living a peaceful life. Together we take refuge in the Buddha, the Dhamma, and Sangha. By taking refuge in the Buddha, we embrace the historical Buddha and his teachings on working with the mind and heart. We also take refuge in our own awakening hearts. We take refuge in the Dhamma, the teachings that guide us in developing our own understanding of the path to peace and freedom. And, we take refuge in Sangha, this community of friends who support one another as we face life's challenges and joys.

Our Sangha is open to anyone interested in living the Dhamma. Our community is a mix of new and advanced practitioners, and we co-create a warm and inviting space in which we welcome everyone and strive to be a diverse and inclusive Sangha. Specifically, we aim to be a welcoming environment for people of color, members of the LGBTQIA community, people with disabilities, and other underrepresented groups. We also welcome those from other spiritual traditions. We ask everyone who practices with us to come in the door with a welcoming attitude of love, acceptance, and openness for all living beings.

We are committed to Engaged Buddhism. Through volunteer efforts within our own community, we look for ways to apply the insights gained from meditation practice as well as from the teachings on lovingkindness and compassion to issues of social, economic, environmental and animal justice.

Our Community

Atlanta Insight Meditation Community is proud to be lead by our Teaching Circle, consisting of our two Founding Teachers and our Practice Leaders. who thoughtfully and respectfully share the Dhamma teachings with us. Additionally, we are grateful for our Advisory Council, which ensures the continuing success of our gatherings, events, and manages the administrative functions of our Sangha.

Most importantly, we are a Community. Together, we look for ways to apply the insight gained from our meditation practice, as well as from the teachings on LovingKindess and compassion to issues of social, economic and enviornmental justice.

Our Teachers

Stephanie Swann

Founding Teacher

Stephanie Swann, PhD, began her journey into meditation in 1988. After experimenting with various traditions on a circuitous spiritual route, she began her daily practice in Vipassana meditation in 2008.

Of the many joys in this life, studying the Dhamma and practicing meditation are the greatest. The other greatest joy is sharing the teachings with others. Stephanie was a psychotherapist specializing in trauma treatment for 30 years and retired in 2021. Buddhist psychology, along with Interpersonal Neurobiology, played a central role in her understanding of stress, suffering, and healing. Now in retirement and following her lifelong love and passion for dogs, she founded an organization that takes care of the dogs in the local county shelter (www.ellijaypaws.org). Every day in this environment she meets her teachers of compassion.

Stephanie has been teaching Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction since 2010. She received her certification through the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Healthcare, and Society at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. She is currently teaching mindfulness courses through Atlanta Mindfulness Institute. In addition, Stephanie is a facilitating teacher for Bhikkhu Analayo’s courses on Satipatthana and Anapanasati through Barre Center for Buddhist Studies.

Stephanie serves as an advisory council member and teacher for Dharma Voices for Animals, an international Buddhist animal rights/ animal advocacy organization (https://www.dharmavoicesforanimals.org/). As a passionate vegan, she deeply believes in a compassionate diet that respects the lives of all sentient beings.

Stephanie is a 2017 graduate of Barre Center for Buddhist Studies Entering the Path training and was a member of the Community Dharma Leaders Program (CDL6) through Spirit Rock Meditation Center.

Stephanie enjoys using gentle humor in her teaching as she invites her students to embrace the beautiful messiness of life, and to use this as a loving connection to fellow human beings. Stephanie lives in Ellijay Georgia with her spouse Nancy and their three rescue dogs, Willa Dean, Moose, and Cricket.

Susan Reviere

Founding Teacher

Susan Reviere, PhD, has studied Buddhism and mindfulness/meditation practices for more than 30 years, initially exploring the Thich Nhat Hanh and Zen traditions before settling into her spiritual home in the Insight tradition. She has studied and practiced intensively through one-on-one mentoring, residential retreats, sutta study, and intensive study courses with Dori Langevin, Tara Brach & the Insight Meditation Community of Washington, Lisa Ernst of One Dharma Nashville, Thanissara & Kittisaro & Sacred Mountain Sangha, Gloria Taraniya Ambrosia & Barre Center for Buddhist Studies, Mindful Schools, and Awareness Training Institute (ATI).

Susan is a graduate of the 2-year Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Training Program led by Tara Brach and Jack Kornfield and certified by ATI and UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center, and she now serves as a mentor for this program training new teachers. She has served on the mentor team for several of Tara Brach’s online mindfulness courses. She also served on the mentor faculty for the Sounds True Power of Awareness meditation training course, taught by Tara Brach & Jack Kornfield. With the Insight Meditation Community of Washington, Susan served as a mentor and facilitated IMCW’s first online meditation group and still consults as needed with new online facilitators. She periodically teaches mindfulness practices to interns and post-doctoral fellows at Emory University School of Medicine, where she has served as faculty or adjunct faculty since 1998.

She is a clinical psychologist, offering both mindfulness-based psychotherapy and mindfulness/meditation mentoring. Susan loves the Brahma Viharas and holds deep interest in the sacred feminine and devotional practice. Her passions are her family, dharma study, hiking, mountains, and music. Her commitments are open-heartedness, gratitude, environmental and social justice, and embodied spirituality. She finds joy in sharing these transformative teachings and hopes to transmit her love of the Dharma to others on this path.

AIMC Board, Council and Key Contributors

  • LAURA SMALLWOOD
    President

    Laura was introduced to mindfulness ten years ago through work she was doing as a veterinarian to advance wellbeing for veterinary workers. Inspired to move from advocacy to teaching, Laura went on to earn certification to teach the 8-week Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Course, and certification through Yoga Alliance to teach yoga.

    Laura teaches MBSR for Atlanta Mindfulness and East Coast Mindfulness in addition to teaching mindfulness workshops and courses for a variety of academic, healthcare, and veterinary communities. She has been a member of Atlanta Insight Meditation Community since its formation and was a member of the Atlanta Mindfulness Meditation Community before that. Laura's loves include the natural world, her family, preparing delicious food, and helping people connect with wisdom and joy.

  • NICOLE CARLSON
    President ex-officio/Practice Leader

    Nicole Carlson has been a mindfulness practitioner for nearly 15 years in the Insight tradition. Nicole teaches others about the basics of mindfulness through her work as a Mindfulness Based Childbirth and Parenting teacher trainee and a teacher of the Community Resilience Method through the Trauma Resource Institute. She is also starting training in 2025 with Spirit Rock's Insight Meditation Center's Community Dharma Leaders Program.

    She is a member of the Dharma Ground sangha, led by teacher Phillip Moffitt. She has practiced with the Atlanta Insight Meditation Community for 5 years, and currently serves that sangha as a member of their Board and a practice leader. In her professional life, Nicole is a Certified Nurse-Midwife who practices and conducts research on birth equity at Atlanta Birth Center.

  • TIM BRYSON
    Treasurer

    Tim's Dharma journey began with a high school class assignment which led to study of Buddhism in college, then two years of Zen training, seven years of monastic training in Vedanta, and a PhD in History of Religions. Before retirement in 2015, administrative work at the Harvard Center for World Religions, the American Academy of Religions, and Emory University Libraries afforded Tim opportunities to continue learning in the field.

    Tim enjoys studying Suttas, transcribing AIMC Dharma talks, creating "Daily Dharma" emails, and sharing his journey every day with Catherine Larson.

  • DOUG KALLMAN
    Board Member/Practice Leader

    The Dhamma found Doug in 2014 when he began practicing with Sharon Salzberg’s book, Real Happiness. Encouraged by early glimpses of peace, in 2015 he was fortunate to find sangha at the Sandy Springs Insight Meditation Community which met a 5 minute walk from his home at the time. The practice was further nurtured by monthly half day retreats at the home of Mark and Veletta Gebert. In 2018, during his second retreat at Southern Dharma, Doug met Fred Eppsteiner and members of the Florida Community of Mindfulness. At the conclusion of that retreat, he took transmission of the Five Mindfulness Trainings (Precepts) in the Plum Village tradition. For the next three years, he practiced with multiple teachings including Dzogchen, Mahamudra, Lojong and Yogacara with Fred and FCM.

    In January 2020, he was hoping to add the support of a local in-person sangha and found Stephanie and the Atlanta Secular Buddhist Sanga. COVID had other plans, and by April, 2020 we were on Zoom. Soon after, Stephanie and Susan merged sanghas and he arrived full circle, back home in the Insight Meditation Community.

  • C. BERNSTEIN
    Secretary/Practice Leader/Virtual Host

  • STEPHANIE TRONCALLI
    Board Member/Retreat Coordinator

  • TARA DOYLE
    Board Member/Virtual Host

  • KEVIN HUNT
    Practice Leader

  • DANNO McDONALD
    Technology Coordinator/Virtual Host

  • MARGI CONRADS
    Virtual Host Coordinator/Virtual Host

  • CATHERINE LARSON
    Membership Coordinator

Our Mission, Vision, and Values

Atlanta Insight Meditation Community is a Buddhist Sangha practicing in the Insight tradition. Our aspiration is to create a welcoming and inclusive spiritual community offering the transformative teachings of a living Dhamma to guide daily life and practice. Our vision is to support awakening and freedom for all beings through practices of lovingkindness, compassion, generosity, and deep seeing that cultivate wisdom, ethical living, and mindfulness.

Our community is informed by these values:

  • We value the study and practice of the lasting teachings of the Buddhadharma.

  • We value and celebrate diversity, inclusivity, and respect for all beings and recognize the inherent dignity of all.

  • We vow to work against all forms of oppression.

  • We are committed to engagement, justice, equity, and celebration of interdependence.

  • We vow to create a space of “Sangha as practice” by supporting mutual respect and mindful dialogue.