Board of Trustees
Bhikshu Heng Sure
Ordained as a Buddhist monk in 1976, Rev. Heng Sure serves as Managing Director of the Berkeley Buddhist Monastery. He is actively involved in interfaith dialogue and in the ongoing conversation between spirituality and technology.
Bhikshu Jin Chuan
Bhikshu Jin Chuan was born in New Jersey and grew up in the Silicon Valley. In high school, he began exploring Christianity and Buddhism, and discovered his “calling” to be a monk–to the surprise of his family (and himself). While studying physics and religious studies at Stanford, he joined Dharma Realm Buddhist Youth and frequented Berkeley Buddhist Monastery. In 2005, he became a resident at the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas. He became a novice in 2011 and a bhikshu in 2013. In 2016, he received an MA in Buddhist Classics at DRBU where he now serves as an assistant professor and chaplain. Since 2021, Jin Chuan has served on the Buddhist Global Relief Board and recently the BGR Sangha Council.
Bhikshu Jin Wei
Bhikshuni Heng Liang, Secretary
Bhikshuni Heng Jiao
A DRBU instructor and administrative faculty member, who serves on the Board of Trustees’ finance committee. She is also a monastic with Dharma Realm Buddhist Association.
Peggy Brevoort
Retired business owner and entrepreneur. Peggy Brevoort founded, with her husband, the late Bill Brevoort, Buddha Root Farm in 1971, which was sold to the DRBA in 1999. Peggy has a background in business, market research, accounting and non-profit Board development work. Most recently on Board of Bastyr University, Kenmore, WA. Took refuge with Ven. Master Hsuan Hua in 1975.
Cynthia Chang, Vice Chair
Cynthia joined the DRBU board in 2009 as an at-large member and is Chair of the Audit Committee. She retired in December 2022 from serving as a trustee of Los Gatos-Saratoga Union High School District after 24 years. She is a CPA and has extensive community leadership experiences. She also served as president of Asian/Pacific Islander School Board Members Association for 2020 and 2021. She was named “Woman of the Year” for California District 24 in March, 2010.
Yu-Chung Chang
Stacy Y. Chen
Ronald Epstein
With DRBU from its beginning, in a variety of administrative and teaching roles. Currently Chancellor Emeritus and Professor Emeritus. Also a founding member of the Buddhist Text Translation Society and active participant in its translation work. Lecturer Emeritus, San Francisco State University.
Ming-Lu Huang
Niny Khor
Meilin Kuo
Prajna Murdaya
Prajna Murdaya was a co-founder of the Buddhist Community at Stanford and Dharma Realm Buddhist Youth. He currently resides in Indonesia and also serves as the Chairman of the Young Indonesian Buddhists’ Association (BUMI), as well as the Chairman of Palpung Foundation in Indonesia. He is a director in an industrial business group owned by his family, and is the founder of Shoemaker Studios, a music incubator based in Jakarta.
Terri Nicholson
Educator and writer. One of the founding teachers of Instilling Goodness Elementary.
Birju Pandya
Birju Pandya works with Mobius, a family office based in Marin, CA. His professional experience spans more than two decades in private investment and philanthropy. He engages with inner transformation through a few different topics, including plant-forward living and collective wisdom development, which he supports through professional and volunteer channels. He has been in this role with DRBU since 2020.
Douglas M. Powers, Ex Officio
Teaches various classes at DRBU, ranging from Buddhist Sutras to Western philosophical treatises, and serves as DRBU’s Interim President. Doug also taught at Berkeley High School for over 40 years.
Carol Ruth Silver
A lawyer and activist with educational, teaching, and political experience. Silver’s career includes being jailed as a Freedom Rider in segregation-era Mississippi; publication of her book, Freedom Rider Diary; teaching at Golden Gate University Law School, Lone Mountain College (now University of San Francisco), and SF State; 12 years’ elected service on the SF Board of Supervisors; founding Chinese American International School (CAIS) in San Francisco; a law practice focused on civil litigation, civil rights, and real estate; and being appointed by the Sheriff of SF as Director of a program to provide civil legal services to prisoners in the SF jails.
Li-Li Tang
Martin Verhoeven, Chair
Professor of Buddhist Classics at DRBU, with a PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and past teaching or lecturing experience at Stanford, UC Berkeley, and the Graduate Theological Union. Also a longtime disciple of the Venerable Master Hsuan Hua.
