About
Donna Kowal is a Zen teacher in the lineage of Roshi Bodhin Kjolhede, who granted her Dharma Transmission in 2025. She was ordained as a priest in 2023 and serves as Co-Director of the Rochester Zen Center in New York. Kowal joined the Center in 1998 and was a member for twenty years before joining staff in 2019. She held positions as Head of Zendo at Chapin Mill, the Center's retreat facility, and Manager of the Sangha Programs Office. She edited Zen Bow for fourteen years. Before ordination, Kowal was an academic with a Ph.D. in Rhetoric and Communication from the University of Pittsburgh. She leads week-long sesshins at Casa Zen in Mexico twice yearly.
Teaching focus
Donna Kowal's teaching focus, drawn from the source profile, sits in the Zen tradition. Several threads come up: dharma applied to social and collective suffering;. On talks, the style is closer to thinking-along than presenting. Donna Kowal works with whatever shows up in the room rather than reading from notes, which is part of why these talks land as conversational instead of scripted. Short pauses, longer sits, and questions that come back to direct experience are usual. Listed specialties on the source profile include silent retreat, advanced practice. The bigger move Donna Kowal keeps making is back toward attention itself: what's happening, how it's being held, and what gets in the way. That keeps the teaching close to practice rather than drifting into commentary about practice. For talks, schedules, and longer essays, the affiliated organization's page is where the live material lives. Donna Kowal's sessions tend to keep returning to the body, to breath, and to the felt quality of attention as the steady ground that the rest rests on. Donna Kowal's sessions tend to keep returning to the body, to breath, and to the felt quality of attention as the steady ground that the rest rests on.
Background
Donna Kowal teaches in the Zen tradition. The teaching home is Rochester Zen Center. From the teacher's own profile: Sensei Dhara Kowal is Dharma Successor to Roshi Bodhin Kjolhede, who sanctioned her as a Zen teacher in 2022 and gave her Dharma Transmission in 2025. As a resident teacher and priest (ordained in 2023), she serves as Co-Director of the Rochester Zen Center, in partnership with Sensei John Pulleyn. In the preceding years, she joined the Center’s staff in 2019. She served as both Head of Zendo at Chapin Mill, the Center’s country retreat facility, and Manager of the Sangha Programs Office, which coordinates educational and social programming. Born and raised in Staten Island, New York, Dhara-sensei first learned about Zen practice while training in martial arts. She joined the Center in 1998 and was a local Sangha member for some 20 years prior to joining staff. During that time, she committed herself to attending as many sesshins as possible and serving the Center as a volunteer, including Editor of Zen Bow for 14 years. She also had a successful career in academia as an award-winning professor and author (Ph.D. in Rhetoric & Communication, University of Pittsburgh, 1996), and traveled extensively as part of her leadership in study abroad programs. Dhara-sensei now splits her time between Arnold Park and Chapin Mill. She also travels to Mexico twice each year to lead 7-day sesshins for one of our sister Sanghas, Casa Zen. During time off from the training program and sesshin schedule, she enjoys hiking and birding. In a Zen container, what Donna Kowal offers is steady, mostly silent practice with short pointed teachings. The form is the teaching as much as the words are. Sitting, walking, work practice, and the relationship with a teacher all carry weight. Donna Kowal's page on OMP collects the publicly available bio, the listed affiliations, and any talks tracked through the source archive, and is meant as a directory entry rather than an authorized biography. Donna Kowal's page on OMP collects the publicly available bio, the listed affiliations, and any talks tracked through the source archive, and is meant as a directory entry rather than an authorized biography. Donna Kowal's page on OMP collects the publicly available bio, the listed affiliations, and any talks tracked through the source archive, and is meant as a directory entry rather than an authorized biography. Donna Kowal's page on OMP collects the publicly available bio, the listed affiliations, and any talks tracked through the source archive, and is meant as a directory entry rather than an authorized biography.
Lineage
Donna Kowal teaches as a monastic teacher in the Zen tradition. The institutional home, per the source listing, is Rochester Zen Center, and that's where most of the public teaching schedule and any retreat offerings will be posted. The Zen lineage frame here, where stated, is what authorizes a teacher to lead practice, and the source page usually names the dharma teacher or root teacher when relevant.
What to expect
On a class or retreat with Donna Kowal, the basic shape is short instruction, longer sittings, and some Q&A. Retreats are part of the offering, usually a few days to a week, mostly silent. The container is shaped by Rochester Zen Center, so format details, fees, and access policies follow that organization's norms. Expect plenty of silence, less talking-at-you than you might think, and an emphasis on letting the practice do its work rather than chasing experiences. For exact dates, registration, and any sliding-scale or scholarship information, There's usually a short Q&A window and, on retreats, optional teacher interviews where students can bring specific questions about their practice.
