Carolyn has always endeavored to bring the values of care, attention, and respect to her work in the arts, in spiritual inquiry, and with food and gardening. She has been fortunate to share her knowledge and exploration of these fields with many people across the nation through her many classes, workshops, seminars, and retreats over the years. She has traveled widely, including four years of living in Tuscany and Lombardy, Italy, where she worked as a freelance graphic artist. She returned to the United States with great fondness for the Italian people, and an abiding love of Italian food, art, and language.

Carolyn practices and teaches meditation in the Buddhist Theravada and Soto Zen traditions at meditation centers in the San Francisco Bay Area. She has done intensive retreat training at Vipassana (Insight) meditation centers in the United States and Burma.

In January 2009 Carolyn will complete a two-year Master of Fine Arts degree. This program included a book-length collection of poems, Well, and a critical/analytical thesis, “Toward a Meditative Poetics.” Her undergraduate education was in Creative Writing and English Literature at California State University Northridge, Los Angeles.

In community work, she serves on the board of the Sati Center for Buddhist Studies, Redwood City, CA and the advisory boards of the Dante Alighieri Society, Santa Cruz CA chapter, and the Poetry Center San Jose, in San Jose, CA . She founded and administered The Growing Good Things Garden Program at Cory Elementary Academy in her previous home town of San Jose, CA.

Carolyn makes her home and garden in Santa Cruz, California with her husband Dick Walvis and cat Calvino.