Valerie Baker grew up in Ireland and first encountered the Buddhist teachings when she met Sogyal Rinpoche in Dublin in the early 1990s. Shortly afterwards, she visited Dzogchen Beara and stayed for 12 years, studying and practising, supporting the centre’s activities and accomplishing practice in retreat. While attending the Three Year Retreat in Lerab Ling, she designed the Home Retreat transmissions for the wider sangha. For ten years she assisted Rinpoche on his teaching events and now continues to share his teachings with the Sangha. She has directed the Dzogchen study Programme since its inception in 2015, and is part of the team holding the annual Dzogchen Mandala Retreat. Valerie spends most of her time in Lerab Ling and is passionate about spreading the wisdom of the Buddha which has been transmitted to us in an unbroken lineage from master to student, down to the present day.