Brother Phap Huu (Dharma Friend) first encountered Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh and the Plum Village community as a nine-year-old child when he traveled from Canada to Plum Village, France, in 1996 with his father and sister. He was immediately drawn by the joyous brotherhood and the peaceful comportment of the monks. At the age of twelve, he knew that he wished to become a monk. After much persistence on his part, his family allowed him to realize this wish at the age of thirteen. Brother Phap Huu was ordained as a novice monk in 2002. He received full bhikkhu ordination on 18 December 2006, and the Lamp Transmission as a Dharma Teacher in 2009. He became vice abbot in 2008 and has been the abbot of Upper Hamlet since January 2011, at the age of twenty-three. He was Thich Nhat Hanh’s personal attendant for seventeen years. As an abbot, Brother Phap Huu takes his time to connect with, and understand his monastic and lay brothers. He is much appreciated as a skillful facilitator at Sangha gatherings. His favourite practices are walking meditation and organizing retreats in Plum Village. He is interested in team building, coaching, and mentoring. When playing, Brother Phap Huu loves basketball and music.

Jo Confino is a leadership coach, spiritual mentor, facilitator, journalist, author, and sustainability expert. He works at the intersection of personal transformation and systems change, and his coaching practice focuses on supporting leaders within the fields of climate change, biodiversity, and social justice. As a journalist for more than forty years, he was executive editor as well as Impact, Innovation, and editorial director of What’s Working at HuffPost in New York. Before joining HuffPost, he was an executive editor of The Guardian, helping to create the environment, sustainable business, and global development websites as well as being responsible for ensuring the media organization lived its own values. A mindfulness advocate, Jo has worked closely with Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh and his monastic community in southwestern France for nearly twenty years.