Speaker Biographies
Jiun Hosen, Osho
Jiun Hosen, Osho, began her formal training with Zen Master Joshu Sasaki Roshi in 1979 and has been in residence at the Bodhi Manda Zen Center since 1980. She was ordained as a Zen nun in April 1983. Hosen’s devotion to practice led her to become a Zen Priest or “Osho” formally recognized in a “Suijishiki” Ceremony at the Rinzai-ji Zen Center in Los Angeles, California on July 21, 1988. The following year Jiun Hosen was first appointed as Abbess to the Bodhi Manda Zen Center, and carried on her work as Abbess and Director. The Board of Trustees reaffirmed her position of Abbess and Director of the Bodhi on April 10th, 2015. She is the mother of twin sons.
Along with her primary focus of manifesting and teaching the practice of her own Buddhist tradition, she has opened the Bodhi to hosting retreats for sincere seekers, students and groups from many diverse paths, which has endeared her to the hearts of many. In 2026, Hosen will celebrate her 46th year at the Bodhi Manda as its Abbess, guardian, and spiritual teacher.
Rabbi Shefa Gold
Rabbi Shefa Gold is a leader in ALEPH: the Alliance for Jewish Renewal and received her ordination both from the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College and from Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi (z”l). She is the director of C-DEEP, The Center for Devotional, Energy and Ecstatic Practice in Jemez Springs, New Mexico. She teaches workshops and retreats on the theory and art of Chanting, Devotional Healing, Spiritual Community-Building and Meditation.
Rabbi Shefa composes and performs spiritual music, has produced ten albums, and her liturgies have been published in several new prayerbooks. She is the author of Torah Journeys: The Inner Path to the Promised Land and In the Fever of Love: An Illumination of The Song of Songs, both published by Ben Yehuda Press. Her latest book, published by Jewish Lights, is The Magic of Hebrew Chant: Healing the Spirit, Transforming the Mind, Deepening Love.
Paola Huffmon
Paola “Pao” Huffmon is a tea maker, herbalist, business owner, and student of contemplative and earth-based traditions. Born in Chihuahua, Mexico, and now living in Albuquerque, New Mexico, she is a co-owner of Old Barrel Tea Company, where she oversees tea sourcing, blending, and production. Over time, her relationship with tea has grown beyond craft into a doorway to presence, ritual, tea meditation, and a deeper relationship with the natural world.
Pao’s spiritual path weaves together meditation, Hatha yoga, Mexican ancestral traditions, herbalism, and traditional Mexican medicine. She also explores the womb through archetype and embodiment, feminine wisdom, and the teachings of women mystics and poets across traditions. As a wife and mother of two, she is interested in how spiritual practice can be woven into everyday life through tea, meditation, plants, and ceremony.
Michelle Khoo, MD
Dr. Khoo was born in Malaysia and grew up in the jungle in Malaysia. She finished high school and medical school at Trinity College Dublin. Dr. Khoo won the Foundation Scholarship at Trinity College, Dublin and was a Wellcome Foundation Scholar at the University of Oxford. She completed her Internal Medicine residency at Tufts University in Massachusetts. She then trained in Cardiovascular Diseases and Clinical Cardiac Electrophysiology at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee. She was the Chief Fellow in the Cardiovascular Diseases Fellowship Training Program at Vanderbilt University. Thereafter, Dr. Khoo was Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Colorado before moving to Albuquerque to practice. Dr. Khoo has more than 40 publications, including two papers in the Nature journal. She is a Fellow of the American College of Cardiology and the Heart Rhythm Society. Her interests include the use of artificial intelligence in Cardiology, wellness and prevention, integrative medicine, and sudden death prevention. Prior to moving to Texas in 2022, Dr. Khoo had a highly successful practice in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and was voted Top Cardiologist in Albuquerque from 2011 until 2022. She currently works at Texas Cardiac Arrhythmia in Decatur, TX. Her hobbies include meeting new people, kung fu practice, meditation, travel, and food.
Estella Loretto
Estella Loretto was born and raised in the ancestral homelands of the Pueblo of Jemez, a Towa-speaking tribe, whose creative voice emerges from a lineage of profound cultural continuity.
Estella’s artistic formation bridges continents and traditions. She refined her vision at the Institute of American Indian Arts, where she cultivated a rigorous understanding of Indigenous aesthetics within a contemporary discourse. Her studies then carried her to Japan at the Oomoto School of Traditional Japanese Art. This cross-cultural immersion deepened her sensitivity to form, negative space, and the meditative potential of line.
Despite international acclaim and global exhibitions, Estella ultimately returned to Jemez Pueblo, drawn by the gravitational pull of home and community. There, she immersed herself in the teachings of Pueblo pottery, passed down by her mother and grandmother, and integrated their matrilineal knowledge into her evolving sculptural language. Her trajectory toward monumental sculpture was profoundly shaped by her mentor, Allan Houser, whose guidance and example catalyzed her ascent into bronze.
Estella established her own gallery on Canyon Road in Santa Fe, the first native woman to own and operate a gallery on Canyon Road.
In a recent evolution of her practice, Estella closed her gallery and has shifted her focus toward smaller-scale bronze works and exquisitely handcrafted jewelry.
Giovanna Rossi
Giovanna Rossi is the producer and host of The Well Woman Show on NPR and a public affairs consultant, creating systems that work for women and families. Giovanna is also the Founder of Well Woman Life, which supports women to achieve their highest level of fulfillment and well-being, Giovanna holds a Master of Science degree in Public Policy from the London School of Economics, and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Spanish and Latin American Studies from the University of New Mexico.