After beginning  insight meditation practice in Thailand in 1999, Jill Shepherd has lived and worked at meditation centers and monasteries in the US, Australia, England, and Thailand.

She spent seven years on staff at the Insight Meditation Society (IMS) in Barre, Massachusetts, where she participated in several long retreats and Buddhist study programmes, and offered weekly meditation classes at a nearby prison.

She is a graduate of the IMS / Spirit Rock teacher training program in the US, under the guidance of Joseph Goldstein and Gil Fronsdal.

She lives in Aotearoa / New Zealand and is the founding and guiding teacher of Auckland Insight. She teaches internationally, offering insight / vipassanā and brahmavihāra retreats and ongoing study and practice groups focused on bringing the dharma into daily life. She also leads courses and non-residential workshops exploring the relational practice of Insight Dialogue, as developed by Gregory Kramer and colleagues.