Board Members


Shohaku Okumura
Abbot
Shohaku Okumura is currently the Abbot of Sanshinji ("Sanshin temple"). He is the founder and guiding teacher of Sanshin Zen Community, and has served on the Board since 1996. He lives at Sanshinji, in Bloomington, Indiana.

Mark Howell
President
Mark Howell received jukai precepts from Okumura Roshi in July 2010 and joined the Sanshinji board the following September. Mark also serves on the Indiana Board of Licensure for Professional Geologists. Mark's interests include studies of the interrelations between science and Zen philosophy, how we know, and being in the great outdoors.

Mark Pfaff
mpfaff@iupui.edu
Vice President and Secretary, Communications Chair
Mark Pfaff has been a member of the Board of Directors since August 2009. He is currently Communications Chair. In 2001, he received the precepts from Shohaku Okumura. From 2001 to 2004, he served on the board of Stillpoint, a Soto Zen practice community in Pittsburgh, PA, where he was the leader of the gardening crew, a member of the outreach community, and webmaster. He now lives in Indianapolis, IN, and is an assistant professor in the School of Informatics at Indiana University. The Communications Committee collaborates with Sanshin's Technology and Development efforts to get information out to the local and global Sanshin audience, and aims to keep the sangha interconnected through traditional and cutting-edge online technologies.

Sabine Karner
Treasurer
Sabine Karner became a member of the Board of Directors in October 2010, serving as Treasurer. She is a native of Austria where she majored in Accounting, English and French. Sabine enjoys foreign languages, travel, making music, and many other creative outlets. Sabine came to the United States a long time ago and has many years of experience working in both public and private accounting. She currently works in the Finance department of Citizens Energy Group in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Don Orr
djorr@verizon.net
Chairman of the Board
Don joined the board of Sanshin in June of 2008 and took on the role of Treasurer in 2009. He has been a student of Shohaku-san for more than a decade and received precepts from him in 1998. He is a native of Malta and became a US citizen sometime in the previous century. He lives and works as an academic in Pittsburgh where he practices at Stillpoint, a lay organization of Zen practioners that has been in existence since 1990. Don is a longtime board member and former president of Stillpoint and spearheaded the group's successful efforts to purchase and rehab a structure in the Lawrenceville section of the city and opening its own practice center in 2002. Shohaku-san has been leading retreats at Stillpoint since the mid 90s and has performed three jukai ceremonies for its members.

Andrea Thach
Development Co-Chair
Yakuso Ryushin Andrea Thach began studying with Okumura Roshi in 2001 in San Francisco, and has come to Bloomington annually since Sanshin opened its doors. She has served on the development committee of SZC since 2008. She received shukke tokudo from Sojun Mel Weitsman at Berkeley Zen Center in 2005, and was head student in 2009. She was on BZC's Board for 5 years, and has held most major temple positions, most recently temple director. She is a senior student at BZC and practices internal and palliative and hospice medicine.

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