Jeff Wallman

Jeff Wallman has 20-plus years of experience leading cultural heritage organizations, with a focus on strategic technology planning and implementation. In 2001, after quitting his corporate engineering job to attend a month-long silent meditation retreat, he met Gene Smith in Cambridge, Mass. He worked closely with Gene during the formation of Tibetan Buddhist Resource Center (TBRC) building technical and organizational capacity, and establishing TBRC’s first digital library in 2006. In 2009, Jeff became Executive Director at Gene’s request. During his tenure he established foundational programs that significantly advanced the organizational mission. He established the Harvard University Repository for the Long-Term Preservation of Tibetan Texts, and the massive digital preservation program for Tibetan culture in China, funded by the United States Agency for International Development.

In 2015, he led the formal expansion of TBRC, funded by the American Council of Learned Societies, into all Buddhist languages. He founded the Buddhist Universal Digital Archives (BUDA) as a linked-data fueled hub of Buddhist texts, funded by the Robert H.N Ho Family Foundation, and the preservation and access of the National Library of Mongolia.

In 2018, Jeff stepped down in a planned transition and led the search committee to hire his successor Jann Ronis. In the last few years, Jeff has worked to advance technology in a variety of cultural initiatives, including Asian Legacy Library, Khyentse Foundation, the Hip-Hop Education Center, Tolani Lake Enterprises (Navajo Nation), and the Owl Bonnet Cultural Preservation Organization (Lakota Nation). Jeff is thrilled to return to 84000 to advance its important mission.

Jeff met his teacher Tai Situ Rinpoche through the introduction of Gene Smith. Under Rinpoche’s direction, he completed the eight-year Mahamudra transmission at Sherab Ling in Bir, India. Jeff is a Sundancer in the Sicangu Lakota Oyate tradition of Yuwipi Medicine Man Chief Keith Horse Looking, Sr. He lives with his family in Western Massachusetts and their four dogs, who notoriously hijack Zoom meetings. He has a BA in Philosophy and an MS in Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mathematics.