Employees & Volunteers
- PeopleAaronAaron Solomon, True Dharma Fulfillment, is a Dharma teacher in the Plum Village tradition.He was a monastic member of the Order for 14 years and received the Lamp Transmission in 2016. Aaron integrates mindfulness, somatic awareness, and Nonviolent Communication into his teaching and mentoring work.At Deer Park Monastery, his greatest happiness is sharing practices with the community and supporting collective well-being. He is actively involved in community-building initiatives, including the Happy Farm project. Aaron has supported young adult mindfulness communities, facilitated listening circles, and engaged in social transformation efforts including climate justice and Earth-holding initiatives.He enjoys solitude and time in wild places, sometimes offering mindful climbing and mindful surfing as embodied practices.Read
- PeopleSteveDharma Name: Peaceful Earth of the Heart. Steve attended his first retreat knowing nothing about Buddhism or Thich Nhat Hanh. Having deeply touched a new path, he decided to leave his corporate job the day he returned and eventually moved to Deer Park Monastery in 2022. His professional background is in business strategy, but now, he prefers to volunteer his time baking sourdough, filming Dharma talks, and supporting the Thich Nhat Hanh Foundation and Parallax Press. He loves having time and space to practice throughout the day, including while serving the community.Read
- EmployeePatriciaDharma Name: Peaceful Resolve of the Heart Patricia works as a registrar in the monastery registration office. She first came to Deer Park in 2006 after reading Be Free Where You Are by Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh. After that visit, Patricia never stopped returning to the monastery and to the present moment. She started working in the registration office in 2008.Patricia’s Hidden Talent: There is hardly anyone who knows this and she was even reluctant to mention it here, but Patricia is highly skilled at arranging fruit in a bowl. This talent is sometimes (or rarely) in demand by artists who do still life painting and designers who do staging. Read
- VOLUNTEERSueDharma Name: Unconditional Love of the Heart. Since 2023, Sue has volunteered on the Communications team developing and editing content for the Deer Park website, social media, and Hidden Mountain Record. Most recently she has been curating and publishing Love Letters for Deer Park, submitted by practitioners, and Deepen Your Practice tips, excerpted from Thay's publications. Sue is a retired technical writer with 40 years experience in the Communications field. A practitioner since 2006, she is thrilled to be applying her skills to help spread mindfulness and ease suffering in the world. She also loves to roll up her sleeves alongside monastics and have a voice on upcoming initiatives. When not volunteering for nonprofits, Sue spends her time with family, swimming, hiking, cooking, gardening, painting, and playing piano.Read
- EmployeeSarahDharma Name: Nourishing Wellness of the Source. Sarah began at Deer Park in October 2023 as our Communications & Program Coordinator to support the myriad of retreats, events, online courses, and projects we have going on at any given time. With over a decade of marketing and communications experience, she bridges the gap between monastery life and our global sangha, allowing us to connect more deeply to the dhamma and to one another around the world.Hidden Talent: Outside of Deer Park, Sarah facilitates Transformational Breathwork journeys and is also an ecstatic dance DJ.Read
