MFD Board
Sumi Loundon Kim
Teacher EmerItus & MFD Founder
Sumi Loundon Kim was the founder of Mindful Families of Durham and primary teacher until May of 2018, as well as the Buddhist chaplain at Duke University. She recently published Sitting Together: A Family-Centered Curriculum on Mindfulness, Meditation & Buddhist Teachings (2017), and she has previously published two anthologies about young Buddhists: Blue Jean Buddha (2001) and The Buddha’s Apprentices (2005), among other articles and chapters. After receiving a master’s degree in Buddhist studies and Sanskrit from the Harvard Divinity School, she was the associate director for the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies. Originally brought up in a Soto Zen community in the 70s, she has been following the Theravada lineage since her teens. Sumi and her husband, a native of Korea and professor of Korean Buddhism and culture at Yale University, have two children. They live in New Haven Connecticut
Christine Bixiones
PresiDent
Christine spent most of her growing up years in eastern North Carolina, but has been happily putting down roots in Durham with her husband and two children since 2015. Christine enjoys swimming and would be very content to garden as a full-time job. When not spending time with books, friends, and family Christine works in public health for an international non-profit. Through her board role, Christine enjoys strengthening the social parts of the MFD community.
Amy Bryant
Vice President
Amy is originally from Baltimore, and traveled and lived around the world before coming to the Triangle for work in 2009. It was supposed to be for 2 years, but she met her husband Brian and has been in Durham ever since. They now have two elementary aged children. For fun she likes to go for long walks with a podcast or a friend, get silly with her kids, enjoy leisurely dinners with lively conversation, and spend time with family and friends. Amy cherishes the welcoming and nurturing community MFD provides. Amy is a physician and educator who finds mindfulness and compassion practice to be essential to her work with patients and students. She currently organizes the adult teachers for MFD and enjoys interacting with and learning from the board.
Amy Kumar
Treasurer
Amy is originally from Connecticut and currentlly works as a physician in the Emergency Department of the Durham VA Hospital. When she is not working, she is busy spending time with her three daughters - shuttling them around to activities, playing sports & games, dancing, and watching movies with them. She also enjoys traveling, hiking, biking, going to the gym, and trying out restaurants with her husband. Amy started meditating in 2019 and has been a member of the MFD community since 2020. She loves having a community of like minded parents to meditate and share her parenting experience with. Mindfulness has helped her bring empathy, kindness, and compassion to her family, her patients and herself.
Sarah Cottingham
Secretary
Sarah, a native of a rural town on the Virginia coast, has lived in Durham for 15 years with her partner. Although she still feels Durham is too far from the ocean, she enjoys raising her two sons here and holds deep gratitude for the community MFD offers. A nurse practitioner and educator by training, Sarah finds mindfulness practice essential professionally and personally and enjoys supporting MFD as the board secretary. In her spare time, she likes to do yoga, travel, read, and cheer her kids on at their various activities.
Monica Wrobel
Membership Chair
Monica grew up in small towns in the Western Piedmont of North Carolina and then spent 8 years with her husband Mike in Maryland, outside Wasington, DC, going to graduate school and post-doc for clinical psychology. Monica has had a steady meditation practice for about 20 years and recently completed a two-year mindfulness teacher training program, so she enjoys occasionally teaching at MFD. She and her family have been members of MFD since 2018 and this community has helped us really integrate mindfulness into our family routines and rituals. It's been especially joyful watching my children learn to be more mindful and kind towards themselves, others, and all beings.
Rachel Roberts
Adult Program Chair
Rachel is the proud parent of three children in middle and high school. Her journey with meditation has been a steadying force in parenting, offering presence and perspective in a rapidly changing world. Six years ago, after touring small progressive cities by bike with her family, they enthusiastically chose Durham as their home. Durham’s accessible wild spaces and dynamic downtown—both within biking distance—make it a fantastic fit for her family. She is deeply inspired by the open, inclusive, and social community her family has found at MFD, and is committed to creating welcoming spaces for parents and caregivers to explore mindfulness together. Through her work, she supports others in cultivating compassionate, connected, and mindful family life.