Don Handrick is the resident teacher at Thubten Norbu Ling Buddhist Center in Santa Fe, NM, and he teaches for the FPMT at the Ksitigarbha Tibetan Buddhist Center in Taos, NM. Don also serves as a Buddhist teacher for Liberation Prison Project, which includes teaching Buddhism at a local prison in New Mexico. Don's study and practice of Buddhism began in 1993 when he read The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying by Sogyal Rinpoche. Over the next two years he practiced with Rigpa, Sogyal Rinpoche's organization, until he began attending classes with Venerable Robina Courtin at Tse Chen Ling, the FPMT center in San Francisco.

At the beginning of 1998, Don left the Bay Area to attend the FPMT's Masters Program of Buddhist Studies in Sutra and Tantra, a full-time seven-year residential study program in Tuscany, Italy, taught by the incomparable scholar and kind Spiritual Friend, Geshe Jampa Gyatso. By 2004, he successfully completed all five subjects of the program and received an FPMT final certificate with high honors. Soon after, Don moved to Santa Fe and served as the Spiritual Program Coordinator for Thubten Norbu Ling, and in 2006 he was appointed Resident Teacher.