Our Trustees

SEAN WILLIAMS has been Chairman of Bodhi College since 2017. He has been attending retreats since 2003, frequently at Gaia House (where he was formerly a trustee), and at Spirit Rock and Scheibbs. Sean has been following the secular dharma path since 2010, and travelled with Stephen Batchelor in India in 2010 and 2013. He has recently completed a Master’s Degree in Buddhist Studies. Professionally, Sean works in the UK telecoms sector, currently as Chairman of two small fibre network businesses and formerly as Chief Strategy Officer of BT Group. Sean is married, with four grown-up children.

BRIGITTE HUBER-JORDI has worked as a pharmacist and is married with grown up children. From personal experience she became interested in the Buddha’s teachings about living with suffering. Since 2003 she has studied the early Buddhist texts and practised under the guidance of various Theravada and Secular Dharma teachers. In 2009 she finished her degree in teaching MBSR  (Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction) courses and then taught classes in public and in clinical settings. She has participated in the Swiss MBSR Association and served on its board for some years. In her free time she loves to explore and photograph nature and human life in all parts of the world, where she and her husband travel.

WALTER YOUNG began practicing Insight Meditation in 2008. Having graduated as a Community Dharma Leader in 2017, he now supports the CDL training programme as a mentor. He was a trustee for Gaia House from 2014-2018 and currently runs Insight North East, a sangha based in Whitley Bay. Prior to his retirement in 2020, he was a social worker and served as a director for various companies, including Team Fostering, a social enterprise based in the North of England. As a trainer and consultant, he has supported governments and NGOs in South America, Africa, Europe, the Middle East and Asia with the implementation of family-based care.

ANNA LI VECCHI has been practicing meditation since 2011. She has completed the two-year Committed Practitioner Program with Bodhi College. She teaches MBSR (Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction) courses since 2017. She also works as trainer in hospice in Treviso, Italy where she lives. She works with the Italian Buddhist Union (Unione Buddhista Italiana) on programs dedicated to bring awareness on end-of-life. She has completed a Master Degree in Narrative Medicine; and in fact she is passionate about the integration of meditation and writing. In the past she worked in Corporate in roles related to communication and corporate social responsibility.

ANNE SPECKENS is a professor of psychiatry at the Radboud University Medical Centre in  Nijmegen, the Netherlands. She is the founder and director of the Radboudumc Centre for Mindfulness. The Centre offers mindfulness courses for both clinical populations and health care professionals. Its research focuses on the effectiveness and possible working mechanisms of mindfulness in different populations. Anne is a qualified mindfulness teacher and completed the Teacher Training Program of Bodhi College in 2021.