Michael G. Burbank has been a student of HH the XIV Dalai Lama and Robert Thurman for nearly 30 years, since his undergraduate days studying Eastern religions and cultures at Columbia University in the late 90s. In February of 2002, Robert Thurman invited Michael to help Tibet House U.S. launch their newly acquired Menla Retreat Center in the Catskills. Over the years, he worked variously as Menla’s dishwasher, housekeeper, maintenance assistant, Front of House Manager, and Assistant Director, before finally taking on the role of Executive Director from 2013-2025. Additionally, Michael served on the Board of Directors of Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche’s Buddhist-based Middle Way School in Saugerties from 2022-2024, and he continues to serve the school in an advisory capacity.

An avid life-long student and practitioner of Tibetan Buddhism, he teaches classes at Menla and occasionally co-leads retreats there. In his spare time, he works on spiritually-based screenplays and graphic novels, including most recently as letterer and co-author of Man of Peace: the Illustrated Life Story of the Dalai Lama with William Meyers and Robert Thurman.