Board of Directors

Suelin Chen started practicing at CIMC while in graduate school in 2004. Part of her spiritual journey has been to examine our relationship with mortality, and she is now the CEO and Co-Founder of Cake (joincake.com), the leading website for funeral and end-of-life planning, which serves 40 million people a year. Prior to starting Cake, Suelin served as Director of The Lab @ Harvard University, advised healthcare companies on commercial strategy as a transaction advisor at IMS Health Capital, and earned her BS and PhD from MIT, where she engineered new medical technologies to support doctors and patients in making better treatment decisions. She also serves on the advisory board of the MIT List Visual Arts Center and loves hiking, reading, dancing, and making music and art with her two kids and husband in Somerville. She is immensely grateful to the CIMC community and the Dharma and for the opportunity to serve on the board.

Christine Eaton entered CIMC for the first time in 2014 as a practitioner and in 2017 she joined the staff. After leaving her role as CIMC’s Online Program Director in 2021, she finished her Master’s Degree in Mindfulness Studies at Lesley University and completed Tara Brach and Jack Kornfield’s Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification Program. She brings over 10 years of management experience with a focus on operations and a life-long passion for critically exploring communication and meaning. She is honored to contribute to imagining and creating the future of CIMC with other board members, teachers, staff, and the community of yogis. Christine has served on the Board since 2022.

Andrea Edwards began her meditation and yoga practices over twenty years ago, and later trained to teach those practices as well. After decades in corporate leadership roles, in 2011 Andrea founded SwiftRiver Associates, an executive coaching and consulting business built on a foundation of mindfulness and compassion, working across both for-profit and not-for-profit settings with an intention to support the effectiveness, success, and well-being of individuals and organizations. She is also an author, writing under the name Drea Edwards. In 2014, her unfolding spiritual path led Andrea to deepen her Dharma studies as part of the CIMC and SSIMC communities. Forever grateful for access to these life-changing teachings, she’s honored to join the CIMC Board starting in 2024, and hopes to bring her experiences and skills to bear in serving the Center’s mission and vision. Andrea was born and raised in Brockton, MA, and she and her husband have worked (and sometimes lived) in Cambridge and Boston for over 30 years.

Sheila Murphy has practiced Vipassana mediation for fifteen years and has been attending CIMC for several years. She has sat retreats at IMS and has had a yoga practice for fifty years. She is grateful to have participated in Dharma in Daily Life almost every day since the spring of 2020. Prior to retirement, Sheila served as COO and CFO of several nonprofit organizations, including a regional women’s economic development agency and a national education reform group. She is excited about the opportunity to use her extensive nonprofit management experience in support of CIMC. Sheila has a deep commitment to social justice issues and is grateful for the way her practice helps guide that work. She lives in Concord with her wife and their cat, and is happy that their adult daughter lives nearby.

Dianne Perlmutter discovered CIMC and Vipassana practice in 1995 and has been practicing at the Center ever since. She has been a long-standing member of the Experienced Practitioner’s Group (remembering fondly when it was called ‘Old Yogis’), has started each morning as part of the Daily Dharma sangha since its start almost 4 years ago; and has participated in many Women’s Retreats at IMS.

Currently retired, she has degrees in both social work and public health. During the first half of her career, Dianne’s focus was developing and implementing services for older adults and their families. Subsequently, she went back to graduate school for a degree in public health, spending the second half of her career becoming involved in addressing the AIDS epidemic, as a staff member of the AIDS Action Committee, the AIDS Bureau of the Dept. of Public Health, Cambridge Hospital and then as a senior consultant at John Snow, Inc. (JSI). During her career, Dianne has served on a variety of boards of non-profit organizations, and is currently a board member of the Boston Workers Circle, a progressive, secular Jewish organization committed to celebrating the diversity of Jewish culture and social justice activism. She looks forward to bringing her organizational and board experience to helping ensure the vitality and sustainability of CIMC, making the incredible fruits of Dharma practice available as wildly as possible for many years to come.

Morgan began her practice at CIMC in 2016 and since then it has been an integral part of her life. She has immense gratitude to the center for how it positively influenced her life. Through her practice, Morgan learned how to relate to her past childhood trauma and to be more present, calm, and joyful in her everyday life.

Morgan’s passion is building community and creating opportunities for individuals both personally and professionally. Her focus professionally lies within small businesses and non-profits because she feels these types of organizations inspire creativity and spark deep connections. With a degree in Business Management and Economics, Morgan specializes in growth and money management within companies. Her previous experience centered mostly within the food and café industry, but it has now expanded to working with authors, yoga studios, tech companies, and meditation centers. Morgan also offers pro bono money management to individuals and volunteers as a mentor for foster-care youth. She loves being active, especially if it involves a team sport or hiking. She also enjoys reading a new book, meditating, and spending time with her family and friends.

Cheryl Schaffer has been a Vipassana practitioner since 1981. She became a member of the CIMC sangha many years ago and has volunteered as a retreat manager and around issues of racial justice at CIMC. She has a lifelong commitment to issues of social justice and a passion for activism, evidenced by her work as the CFO at the Union of Concerned Scientists, and the Deputy Director of the AIDS Action Committee. She has also served as the Executive Director of District 925 of the Service Employees International Union, and the Associate Director of the Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship. She hopes that her experience working with non-profit management will help to ensure that CIMC is a strong, thriving, and effective organization able to offer the Dharma to all who seek an end to suffering. Cheryl has served on the Board since 2022.

Sue Vargo’s dedication to the Vipassana form of meditation was fueled by an early Transcendental Meditation mantra, a powerful experience with the Hindu practice of Shaktipat, and her mind-blowing week-long silent retreat at IMS in 1997, where she realized that most of the suffering she was experiencing was completely self-inflicted and thus, surprisingly optional! Sue is grateful to be able to work on a Dharma-based team such as the CIMC board, and for the three jewels of Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. For Sue, following the Dharma has meant the possibility of freedom from being ruled by feelings and the past, and the chance to live a life driven by her own intentions to be present and to cultivate the Brahma Viharas in her relationships.

Sue has been out as a lesbian for almost 50 years and has raised two sons with her partner Sarah, with whom she shares the practice. Sue’s professional career has a throughline of making learning exciting and possible for adults—as a trainer and consultant teaching basic skills to human services staff and guiding non-profit leaders, as workshop facilitator for HIV+ women, as a psychotherapist for individuals and couples, and as a designer of online learning products. There was also a slight detour into being a car mechanic, which was just for fun. Coming to the CIMC board, Sue hopes to bring her personal and professional experience to bear in helping the Center welcome an even broader and deeper diversity of practitioners to the current lively community.

Rochelle Weichman retired from MIT as an Associate Dean, after almost 25 years at the Sloan School of Management. Over those years, she developed expertise in executive education, organizational development, culture change and leading teams. She is now joyfully relaxing, having time with her wife, painting, jogging and volunteering on boards.

Rochelle began her meditation practice in 1994 at CIMC, as stress relief from her work at MIT. Little did she know how important the practice would become in her life – so much more than stress reduction. Just before her retirement, Rochelle found time to volunteer and joined the committee focused on celebrating CIMC’s 30^th Anniversary. Rochelle is grateful for the opportunity to serve on the CIMC Board and contribute to the ongoing wellbeing of the Center. She has served on the Board since 2022.