Dharmacharini Maitrisara (Philippa Bobbett, she/her), co-founder and core team member of AIR, has worked in community development and community education in the field of social change, particularly anti-racism since 1986.  Her post graduate training was as a secondary school teacher and she then completed a postgraduate diploma with the Open University  in managing non-profit organizations in 1996. She has developed a wide range of educational materials including co-authoring the Masters course in Education for Sustainability at London South Bank University. She has been active in a number of Engaged Buddhism projects and organizations in the UK since 2001. She has also worked as an independent consultant and within consultancy consortia in the field of participatory strategic development and evaluation.  Working full time for Buddhist Charities since 2013, she is currently the Chair of Birmingham Buddhist Centre, one of the largest Triratna Buddhist Centres in Europe located in one of the most culturally diverse cities in Europe. She became involved in the wAIR project in 2020 which enables her to integrate her long standing commitment to undoing racism, her skills in learning and training, her experience in managing voluntary organizations and her passion for Engaged Buddhism. She was ordained in 2005 and teaches Dharma extensively. She started to ordain other women into the Triratna Buddhist Order in 2018. 

Dharmacharini Saravantu (Zoe Stephenson, she/her), core team member of AIR, has been ordained in Triratna since 2009. She was Chair of the Shrewsbury Triratna Buddhist Centre in the UK for eight years. And had the great joy of ordaining Liladharani in 2025. She worked in international development for around 20 years - with the UK government’s Department for International Development (DFID), where she led work on social inclusion, in particular seeking to address inequalities caused by unhelpful human responses to gender, race, caste, age and disability. She has also worked with Amnesty International, Save the Children, Interact Worldwide and the UK Government’s Social Exclusion and Neighbourhood Renewal Units. She was a trustee of the Karuna Trust (UK) for over ten years, and led work for the Board on Inclusion, Diversity and anti-racism. She is also a carer for her father who has dementia. Meditation, good friendships and dancing have kept her sane over the past few years.

Dharmachari Shraddhasiddhi (Joel Robinson, he/him),  core team member of AIR, is the CEO of Spectra, a non-profit organisation delivering services for the LGBTQ+ and other minoritised communities in London, UK. Joel has worked in HIV, sexual health and mental wellbeing for over 25 years and cares passionately about issues of inclusion and discrimination. Joel is known as Shraddhasiddhi in the Buddhist world and has been a practising Buddhist for 24 years. He was ordained in 2012, and teaches at the London Buddhist Centre where he leads classes and retreats for LGBTQ+ folks. He also was a co-founder of the Triratna Buddhist Gender Diverse Project which offers retreats, study and classes to trans and non-binary people engaging the gender diverse community in Buddhism. He leads white awareness groups and courses both within and without the Buddhist community.

Dharmachari Suddhayu (he/him), core team member of AIR, has been teaching meditation and Buddhism and leading retreats since 1998. He has a deep love of the processes of meditation practice, as well as poetry, myth and creative ritual. He currently works full-time for Dharma initiatives at the Portsmouth Buddhist Center and Aryaloka Buddhist Center (in New Hampshire), where he serves as Chair for both centers. Suddhayu is a preceptor on the Triratna ordination team for men in the US and Canada. 

Dharmacharini Upayadhi (Savanna Jo Luraschi, she/her), is currently a doctoral student in Buddhist Studies at the University of Chicago. Holder of degrees across business, philosophy, and theology, much of her current research focuses on Buddhist modernism and the Indian Buddhist Revival. Upayadhi's background is in leadership development, change management, executive education, and coaching. In her prior roles in the business sector she oversaw complex multi-stakeholder change management programs in which adult education and development were central. She has also developed over 10 websites for small businesses and nonprofits. Following the rise of political violence in the US, Upayadhi entered Union Theological Seminary in New York in 2017, where she studied Buddhism and Interreligious Engagement. She is also a certified MBSR Teacher, facilitating mindfulness programs for the general public and within organizations since 2010, and has worked and trained as a Buddhist chaplain in both hospice and hospital settings. When the pandemic hit New York City where she was living, Upayadhi co-founded Space2Meditate, a mindfulness community offering online meditation seven days a week that is still going strong. Upayadhi was born and raised in Paris, France, to American parents of Italian, Irish, and English descent. She was ordained in 2018 into the Triratna Buddhist Order.