Show Me Dharma began in 1993 and established a space in mid-Missouri to practice Insight Meditation together. Founders Ginny Morgan and Phil Jones nurtured and grew a community where individuals could explore the Dharma and cultivate inner peace.
As the community grew, so did the need for guidance. Supported by their own teachers, Ginny and Phil began offering instruction, nurturing a growing body of practitioners. Over time, senior students took on leadership roles as teachers and trustees, ensuring the continuation of our purpose.
Guided by the teachings and practices of Theravada Buddhism, our purpose is to support personal and collective liberation from suffering. Through shared practice and study, we cultivate awakened minds, compassionate hearts, and a community rooted in kindness, generosity, and wisdom.
Show Me Dharma is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and relies on the support of its Community. This support, called dāna in the Buddhist tradition, allows us to continue our mission to bring Insight Meditation to mid-Missouri.
Board of Trustees
The Board of Directors stewards the organization's resources, programs, and activities in service of sharing the Dharma and bringing Insight Meditation to mid-Missouri.
Executive Committee:
President:
Dallas Jensen 2023-2025
Vice President:
Alex Hedges 2024-2026
Secretary:
Tori Mondelli 2024-2026
Treasurer:
Emily Love 2023-2025
Board Members:
Terry Furstenau 2023-2025
Julie Midkiff 2024-2026
Caya Tanski 2022-2024
Lori Reese 2023-2025
Marc Rice 2022-2024
Amy Stephenson 2022-2024
Tricia Straub 2024-2026
Jen Potterfield 2025-2027
Pete Martin 2025-2027
Emeritus/Emerita Board Members:
Susan Schabilion
Joe McCormack
Show Me Dharma Teachers' Council
Terry Furstenau
Terry has been a member of the Show Me Dharma sangha since 2001 and the Teachers Council since 2004. He also serves on the Board of Trustees. He teaches the “Introduction to Meditation” and the "Eightfold Path" classes for new and relatively new students. He also facilitates the Thursday night committed practice class. His teachings reflect retreat experience and study with Eastern and Western Vipassana teachers, Insight Dialogue with Greg Kramer and the non-dual teachings of Adyashanti and Matt Flickstein.
Philip Jones
Philip began meditation practice in the Zen Buddhist tradition in 1987. In 1992 he started practicing Insight Meditation. He began teaching Insight Meditation in 1996, first in Columbia, MO and then also on retreats in the Midwest. He initially studied with teachers from Spirit Rock and the Insight Meditation Society and graduated from the first Spirit Rock Community Dharma Leader program in 2000. He studied with Matthew Flickstein for ten years and more recently has been studying studied with Bhikkhu Anālayo, Shaila Catherine, and Ann Dillon. Phil was a co-founder of Show Me Dharma and served as a leader and a teacher from 1993-2006. He founded and led the Silent Mind-Open Heart sangha in Columbia from 2008-2019. In 2018 he re-joined Show Me Dharma and the Teachers Collective. He has also served on the board of directors of Mid America Dharma, a regional Insight Meditation retreat organization, since 1994 from 1996 through 2024. Since 2022 he has been a facilitating teacher for Bhikkhu Anālayo’s Online Mindfulness of Breathing courses and Online Brahmaviharas and Emptiness through the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies.
Joe McCormack
Joe has practiced Insight Meditation since 1995 and has been a member of the Show Me Dharma Teachers Council since 2002. Joe leads an insight meditation group in Jefferson City, and has taught Insight Meditation to prison inmates since 1998. His teachers include Ginny Morgan, Phil Jones, and Matthew Flickstein. In January 2008, he completed the Community Dharma Leader training program through Spirit Rock Meditation Center. In his dharma instruction, Joe draws from traditional Theravada Buddhist teachings, Zen and Dzogchen practice, Advaita teachings, and the Diamond Approach. He is also trained as a psychologist and practices psychotherapy in Jefferson City.
Rose Metro
Rose Metro has been practicing vipassana mediation since 2005. She has studied in Burma, Thailand, and the US with teachers including Steve and Rosemary Weissman and the Venerable Chanmyay Sayadaw. Rose joined a committed practice class with Ginny Morgan in 2009, and she has loved being part of the SMD sangha ever since. In 2013, she began teaching mindfulness classes for teens and families.
Linda Pluschke
Linda started practicing insight meditation in 2001 and joined Show Me Dharma as a teacher in 2015. Her educational background includes a degree in religious studies and fine arts. She has been studying Vajrayana Buddhism under the guidance of Kentrul Lodro Thaya Rinpoche since 2017. In 2021 she completed a one year formal upasika program with Ajahn Sona, abbot of Birken Forest Monastery, in the Theravada Thai Forest lineage. While Linda has studied in a variety of Buddhist traditions, her teaching focuses on the core practices and teachings of the early Theravada school and the Pali canon, such as the 4 noble truths, the 8 fold path, the 4 foundations of mindfulness, and the Brahmaviharas.
Tricia Straub
Life has been my greatest teacher. It’s what brought me to Buddhism. Along the way some individual teachers have guided and supported my path. My first teacher was Ginny Morgan and members of a committed practice class Ginny led. Bob Hodge led this class when Ginny was no longer able, and he introduced me to Carol Blotter who has remained my primary teacher. Other individuals who have, and some who still are, instrumental in guiding and supporting me are Phil Jones, Mathew Flickstein, Kate Dresher, and Bhikkhu Analayo as well as the world in which we exist including the natural world which supports us daily.
Donna Strickland
Donna has practiced Insight Dialogue since 2006, and has facilitated a number of Insight Dialogue classes since 2011. She was formally recognized by the Insight Dialogue community as a teacher in 2024. Gregory Kramer, Gary Steinberg, and Mary Burns have been important ID mentors and teachers. Insight Dialogue is one facet of her Insight Meditation practice, which began in 2004 when she joined Show Me Dharma. She feels deep appreciation for the many teachers she has learned from over the years, especially Phil Jones, Ginny Morgan, and Gloria Taraniya Ambrosia. She began teaching under the mentorship of Phil Jones in 2011, first at Phil’s Silent Mind-Open Heart sangha, and later at Show Me Dharma. Donna is a former English professor and a current psychotherapist, and she understands relationality and care to be key tools in awakening. Insight Dialogue
Caya Tanski
Caya has been a student of the Dharma since 2003. Her formal introduction to Buddhism was through the Peacemaker Institute at Naropa University in Boulder, where she completed a year-long Peacemaker certification program and concurrently did intensive training in Non-Violent Communication with Marshall Rosenberg and other teachers. In 2003 she began committed practice classes at Show Me Dharma and is grateful for Ginny’s teaching, all the classes led by teachers on the Teacher’s Council and all the guest teachers SMD has hosted. Caya’s main teacher between 2007 and 2023 was Matt Flickstein. Fleet Maull, Jack Kornfield, Tara Brach, John Milton, Joanna Macy and Thanissara & Kittisaro have been important teachers for her as well. Caya has been a lifelong social activist and is committed to seeing how we can bring the Dharma into social and environmental justice work to help that work go deeper into the core issues that human beings need to address for there to be lasting and transformational change. Caya has done teacher trainings with Matt Flickstein, Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach and Mark Coleman (Awake in the Wild). Caya is self-employed as a traditional naturopath, homeopath and energy medicine practitioner.
Guiding Teacher Ginny Morgan
Ginny Morgan lived in Columbia, Missouri. She was the guiding teacher for Show Me Dharma Center until her death on August 30, 2011. She was also the former President of the Board of Mid America Dharma, the emerging retreat center for the Midwest area. After working as a play therapist for acutely and chronically ill children for many years, she shifted her focus to Dharma teaching, and to worked exclusively for Dharma activities. She studied with Ram Dass, Munindra-ji, Matthew Flickstein, and teachers from Insight Meditation Society and Spirit Rock Meditation Center.
Virginia “Ginny” Lee Townsend Morgan died Tuesday, August 30, from complications of breast cancer. Born in Conway, Ark., on March 20, 1948, she was the youngest of six children of Evelyn Derbyshire Townsend and John Powers Townsend. She graduated from Conway High School and attended the University of Arkansas. It was during this time that she married Speer Morgan. The couple later divorced.She completed her undergraduate degree at Stephens College and her master’s degree in counseling psychology at the University of Missouri. She worked as a play therapist for acute and chronically ill children at University Hospital in Columbia for many years.In the early 1970s she began the serious study of death and dying, pursuing the views of many religions. In 1977 she became interested in Buddhism and began training to be a teacher. She studied with Ram Dass, Munindra-ji, Matthew Flickstein, and teachers from Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Mass., and Spirit Rock in Woodacre, Calif.In 1993 she co-founded Show Me Dharma, a center for the study and practice of insight meditation, and has served as a guiding teacher since that time. In 1995 she also began to spearhead the expansion of Buddhist teachings in the Midwest through her role as president of Mid America Dharma. Besides bringing insight meditation to Missouri and the Midwest, she taught retreats throughout the country for many years, touching the lives of thousands of students.