Photo of Dale Borglum

RamDev Dale Borglum

RamDev Dale Borglum is the founder and Executive Director of the Living/Dying Project in the San Francisco Bay Area. He is a pioneer in the conscious dying movement and has worked directly with thousands of people with life-threatening illnesses and their families for over 30 years. In 1981, Dale founded the first residential facility in the United States, The Dying Center, for people who wished to die consciously.

He has taught and lectured extensively on the topics of spiritual support for those with life- threatening illness, on caregiving as a spiritual practice, and on healing at the edge — the edge of illness, of death, of loss, of crisis. Dale has a BS from UC Berkeley and a PhD from Stanford University. He is the co-author of Journey of Awakening: A Meditator’s Guidebook and has taught meditation for the past 35 years.

He has intensively immersed himself in the practices of devotion, meditation, and contemplative prayer for over forty years, studying with many of the greatest masters of the last century including Neem Karoli Baba, Suzuki Roshi, Ananda Mayee Ma, Kalu Rinpoche, the 16th Karmapa, Dilgo Khyentse, Mahasi Sayadaw, Tsoknyi Rinpoche, Trungpa Rinpoche, Goenka, Dudjom Rinpoche and HH the Dalai Lama. Dale has taught with Ram Dass, Stephen Levine, Joan Halifax, Jack Kornfield, Joseph Goldstein, Rev. Wayne Muller, and many others. His life’s work and passion has been and continues to be the healing of our individual and collective relationship with death and using our mortality as an inspiration for spiritual awakening.

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Graduate school, Stanford 1968

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Dada, RamDev, Tukaram, Maharaji in Kainchi 1971

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RamDev (lower left) in Nainital, India 1971

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RamDev & Ram Dass, Maui 2009

Aurora Leonard

Aurora Leonard is the Associate Director of the Living/Dying Project. She oversees the ongoing work of the Project and works closely with RamDev supporting individuals who are approaching end-of-life and their caregivers. She also facilitates the Project’s Conscious Grief Support Group. After spending time in the U.S. and India studying with various teachers, she continues to practice contemplative teachings with guidance from her teachers as a bhakti practitioner. In addition to her end-of-life doula training and volunteer experience with hospice, she has a degree in Business Management and is currently completing training in Gabor Maté’s Compassionate Inquiry®. She believes the teachings and conscious approach the Living/Dying Project offers are unique from what is typically offered to those dealing with end-of-life issues. No matter life’s difficulty, healing into wholeness is always available.

Living/Dying Project Leadership & Board of Directors

Doug Wallace (President)

Doug Wallace (President) has been a volunteer with the Living/Dying Project for more than 10 years. He finds working with people at the end of life the most meaningful and enriching service imaginable. It is a privilege to be invited into a client’s life in this way, and to take it as a path of spiritual growth. He is a longtime meditator and yogi, whose primary teachers have been the founders of the Insight Meditation Society (Vipassana), H.W.L. Poonjaji (Advaita Vedanta), and Tsoknyi Rinpoche (Dzogchen). He also studies regularly with David Loy in the Zen tradition. Doug is a certified instructor in vinyasa yoga and qigong, and finds these practices a vital complement in embodied awareness. He is retired from a career in water and environmental policy, and continues his engagement in climate and community activism. He was educated at Yale, Harvard, and the University of Massachusetts, Boston. Throughout his professional and volunteer life, Doug has been motivated by service to the greater good and leading from the heart.

Kristin Singer (Vice President and Chair of Client Volunteer Services Committee)

Kristin Singer (Vice President and Chair of Client Volunteer Services Committee) is a certified Yoga Therapist and Reiki Master supporting clients on the journey of transformation and spiritual awakening. She has been a volunteer and board member for the Living/Dying Project since 2014. As a volunteer, Kristin spiritually supports residents at Maitri Compassionate Care in San Francisco, a hospice/respite center for the unhoused and those living with HIV. She came to the Living/Dying Project after a profound life changing encounter with death where she experienced an 8 hour state of unconditional love, while her physical body struggled to survive. This experience served to deepen Kristin’s spiritual journey and became a catalyst for her own deep emotional healing. Kristin’s background in western psychology combined with her exploration of eastern philosophy and experience of unconditional love give her a unique perspective from which to serve.

RamDev Dale Borglum, Secretary

Ramdev Dale Borglum (Secretary) founded and directed the Hanuman Foundation Dying Center in Santa Fe, NM, the first residential facility in the United States to support conscious dying. He has been the Executive Director of the Living/Dying Project in Santa Fe and since 1986 in the San Francisco Bay Area. He is the co-author with Ram Dass, Daniel Goleman and Dwarka Bonner of Journey of Awakening: A Meditator’s Guidebook and has taught meditation since 1974. Dale lectures and gives workshops on the topics of meditation, healing, spiritual support for those with life-threatening illness, and on caregiving as spiritual practice. He has a doctorate degree from Stanford University.

Lawrence Chyall (Treasurer)

Lawrence Chyall (Treasurer), RN, MS serves as the Neuroscience Programs Manger at Zuckerberg San Francisco Hospital, an American College of Surgeons Level 1 designated trauma center and safety net hospital severing the most vulnerable citizens of San Francisco. He has extensive experience in the care for the dying and their families, especially individuals dying from acute and/or traumatic illness. Lawrence serves as an Clinical Ethics Consultant at ZSFG and also provides training and support to nurses and physicians experiencing moral distress and moral injury. He is a graduate of UC Berkeley and UC San Francisco.

Jonathan Frieman

Jonathan Frieman (Chair of Governance Committee) From a very young age Jonathan found spirituality, which led to a life of service, love of Neem Karoli Baba, and a broad experience with all kinds of nonprofits. With his MPA and law degree, Jonathan co-founded several organizations and helmed boards in a range of efforts from dance troupes, to Amazon rainforest advocacy, to youth groups, to alternative currencies, and now helping people with quadriplegia stay in their own homes through the raising of small stipends. He looks forward to helping the Living/Dying Project.

Virginia Fauvre

Virginia Fauvre has been involved in the field of death and dying for 40 years. She and her late husband, Chuck Fauvre, were present at the launching of the Living/Dying Project in the Bay Area in the late 1980s.  She has led workshops and assisted with trainings for the Zen Hospice of San Francisco. In mid-life she received a master’s degree in Transpersonal Psychology where she explored art as a pathway of consciousness, and grief and death as as opportunities for awakening.

Chris Beaudry (Chair of Fundraising Committee)

Chris Beaudry (Chair of Fundraising Committee) is a father, husband & farmer in NE Saskatchewan Canada. He has a background in devotional bhakti practices, Tibetan Buddhism, and compassionate inquiry. Chris was a coach of the 2017/18 Humboldt Broncos who were tragically involved in a bus accident that killed 16 players and staff and injured 13 others.

Brad Price

Brad Price was training to climb Mt. Ranier 25 years ago when he was suddenly afflicted with a rare autoimmune kidney disease. Due to the disease or side effects from the treatments he has had colon cancer requiring a complete colectomy, two major heart attacks and over 40 emergency room visits.

After undergoing an experimental treatment four years ago his kidney disease had been in full remission. He has cycled over 15k miles in the last three years including a 100 mile ride on his recent 60th birthday.

Brad has served on the board of the National Kidney Foundation serving California, Nevada, Oregon Washington, and Alaska for 8 years and as it’s president for three years. Brad has also worked with other non profits including Home of Hope, Nephcure, The Nephrotic Foundation and coached little league baseball for 8 years. Brad has an MBA from Texas A&M University and a background in software sales and strategic planning.

Jim Forbes

Jim Forbes is a former accountant and real estate investor who had one of those moments of awakening when he realized his life of money sucked. In 2008 and 2009 he attended Ram Dass retreats on Maui and has been devoted to practice ever since. He founded a donation based meditation and yoga studio in Madrid, Spain, where he sometimes teaches and lives part time.

Mukti Ma (Habsburg)

Mukti Ma (Habsburg) resides in Santa Fe New Mexico. In 1972 Neem Karoli Baba called her to spend 3 months with him before he left his body. He blasted her heart chakra open, never to close again no matter what. She then went to be with Ananda Mayi Maa for 10 years until she left her body. Mukti has worked with Stephen Levine and Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, and has been with many people who have transitioned and she is honored to be part of the Board of Living/Dying Project.

Caroline Doyle (Board Consultant)

Caroline Doyle (Chair of Business Development Committee) Caroline has a professional life in the medical office sector of commercial real estate in San Francisco Bay Area where she works with institutional and private real estate investors including healthcare systems and REITs.  In her personal life, she loves the pursuit of consciousness and healing and is working on a second Masters in Consciousness and Transformative Studies at John F. Kennedy University in addition to a certification in a practitioner program in Somatic Experiencing, a body-based bio-psycho-social model for healing trauma and stress disorders. She became a Living/Dying Project volunteer in 2018 after companioning her Aunt Carolyn during her end of life journey and is active with East Bay Hospice regularly facilitating kids and adults support groups. She holds a BA from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in Political Science and a MBA in Financial Management and Markets from Arizona State University. She resides in Danville, CA.

Vanessa Wellmann (Board Consultant) 

Vanessa Wellmann (Board Consultant) is a development and international affairs professional with ample experience in managing significant projects and initiatives in both the public and non-profit sectors. She started working in Colombia, later moving to the United Kingdom to serve as Deputy Consul General of Colombia to the United Kingdom. She was part of the Development Team of the Mayor of London, where she advised the Mayor on women’s rights and corporate social responsibility strategy. In San Francisco, she joined the founding team of Lava Mae, taking the role of Chief Operating Officer and growing the organization from four people to more than thirty people with operations in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Oakland. She transitioned to her current role as a non-profit consultant and moved to Sausalito with her family in 2022.Vanessa’s educational background is in Law with a master’s degree in Diplomatic and International Studies from the University of London.  She lives with her twins Antoine and Alaia, her husband Olivier, and her dog Toni.

Nate Hinerman, PhD, LMFT (Board Consultant)

Nate Hinerman, PhD, LMFT, is Dean of Undergraduate Programs at Golden Gate University, San Francisco, where he is a Professor of Psychology Department Chair. He is also on the faculty at the University of San Francisco, teaching in the Nursing School and in the Religious Studies Department. He serves as Chair of the San Francisco End of Life Network, a community-based support and education group for hospice and palliative care professionals and patients, now in its 23rd year.

Laura Powell (Board Consultant) 

Laura Powell (Board Consultant) After a 20-year career leading banking teams and making large loans to corporations in the Bay Area, she left banking for a second career in executive search and consulting which she’s enjoyed for nearly 18 years now. She’s led a number of boards–including the Living/Dying board in its earlier inception–and has enjoyed working with nonprofit and for-profit clients on board development, board governance, and C-level search engagements.  Her first husband died of cancer, which is when she met Dale and Jinn, and that experience opened her heart and changed her life. She lives and works in San Francisco, along with her wonderful husband Chuck. She is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, N.Y., and has been an active volunteer in the Bay Area for many years, most recently chairing the Board of Larkin Street Youth Services (2014-2017).

Michael Podlin (Board Consultant) 

Michael Podlin (Board Consultant) is a retired fundraising and alumni relations executive. He most recently served as Vice President for University Advancement at Seattle University and was formerly Associate Dean for Advancement in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Washington. He is an accomplished leader with comprehensive campaign experience in large public and private academic institutions. Michael has practiced zen meditation for over twenty years in the Soto and Rinzai traditions throughout the United States and Japan. He resides in Seattle Washington with his English Cocker Spaniel, Sir Stanley.

Jon Vasu Seskevich (Board Consultant) 

Jon Vasu Seskevich (Board Consultant), Retired RN, helped create and worked on the Duke University Hospital Stress Management Consult Team from 1990-2018 in North Carolina. He’s had more than 40,000 patient consultation sessions and is widely recognized as a leader in the education of complementary therapies. He worked throughout the Medical Center with patients having complex and challenging health conditions and also served as a resource for hospital staff dealing with the challenges inherent in the changing health care system. Jon began his own meditation practice in 1972. In 1975, at age 22, he started training as a teacher of meditation and spirituality under the mentorship of meditation expert, psychologist, spiritual teacher, and writer, Ram Dass. Jon currently lives in Ojai where he consults with the Living/Dying Project.

Peter Kelsey
IN MEMORIAM