TEAM
Our global library team is as rich and varied as our content.
The Asian Legacy Library enjoys a mix of experienced executives, managers, employees, and volunteers who support its mission in over 40 countries around the world.
US HEADQUARTERS STAFF
PRESIDENT
JOHN C. BRADY
Executive Director
Emma Grace Lewis
Emma is the Executive Director of the Asian Legacy Library.
Before joining ALL, Emma worked from 2015 to 2018 with the Buddhist Digital Resource Center managing fundraising and communications projects. In 2021, she received a master’s degree from Harvard University in Critical Conservation, where she studied the links between cultural preservation and ecological protection efforts in Ladakh, India, and coastal Louisiana. Emma’s work and research has been funded by the U.S. Fulbright Program, the Harvard Law School Program on Negotiation, the Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute at Harvard University, and others. Outside of her work with ALL, Emma is passionate about mediation and serving as a grief counselor for young people.
DIRECTOR OF TECHNOLOGY
Joel Crawford
Financial Consultant
BEN GHALMI
Ben’s primary responsibility is for the financial management of the Asian Legacy Library.
He is passionate about the global transformation that is taking place and the effect that it’s having on organizations. Prior to joining ALL, Ben’s responsibilities took him to Beijing and Hangzhou with Jumore E-Commerce, a business-to-business digital platform, as a vice president for overseas markets. He also gathered more than 20 years of international investment banking experience in major financial centers (Bahrain, Paris, Frankfurt, and New York) with leading financial institutions (Credit Lyonnais, Deutsche Bank, and AllianceBernstein). His career began as a deputy trade commissioner at the French Embassy in Bahrain, assisting French exporters and local importers in the Arabian Gulf area.
Ben currently shares his time between the United States, France, and Morocco.
DIRECTOR OF DONOR MANAGEMENT
VIMALA SPERBER
Vimala’s contribution to the Asian Legacy Library in special projects is primarily focused on donor relations.
Vimala has been working with ALL since its inception, first researching important yogic and Buddhist manuscripts for its Sanskrit program, and then in 2018, she helped organize ALL’s first input center in Kathmandu, Nepal, in collaboration with the Nagarjuna Institute of Buddhist Studies (NIBS).
She currently focuses on content development and donor management for ALL.
Vimala’s accomplishments include a master’s degree in Geophysics from Stanford University; owner and director of Mimi Ferzt Gallery in New York City; followed by 10 years of study in yogic and Buddhist philosophy at Diamond Mountain University, Arizona; culminating in the completion of a 3-year, 3-month, 3-day silent meditation retreat, which she completed in 2014.
Vimala loves teaching yoga and meditation, inspiring others to work with their inner bodies to create their outer world with health, wealth, and especially love. Recently married, she and her husband share their time between Sedona, Arizona, with Machik (their dog) and Fort Myers Beach, Florida, with their mom Rose.
Creative Director
Osiris Luciano
Osiris Luciano is a committed artist and filmmaker.
His primary responsibility with the Asian Legacy Library is to bring to life, in the most exciting and resonant ways, the stories that make our mission so special. His unique relationship with our global supporters provides him with extraordinary insight into the storytelling that will resonate best with them.
His professional work embraces the concept of value-based entertainment. His early debut was at the prestigious International Short Film Festival in Oberhausen, Germany, where his film was awarded best short film. His work has also subsequently been featured in many film festivals worldwide.
For over 20 years, Osiris has been directing and producing short films, documentaries, video-clips, experimental projects, and commercials. In recent years, he has been working primarily in Europe and Asia.
Osiris studied marketing at the Universidad de Monterrey, and then attended film school in Mexico City at the Asociación Mexicana de Cineastas Independientes. Osiris believes that cinema is a powerful tool beyond its commercial reach, in that storytelling can awaken people’s minds and hearts in profound ways.
Data Design Manager
Phil Baker
Phil’s primary responsibility for the Asian legacy Library has been the gathering and cataloging of transliterated Buddhist texts from our original input centers located in South India. More recently this has also involved adding the catalogue data from ALL’s current partner project located in the National Library of Mongolia, as well as completed projects which were in the Oriental Library of St. Petersburg in St. Petersburg, Russia, and the Ladakh Gonpa Association located in Leh, Ladakh.
Phil has also developed and managed the full-text and cataloging information housed in a SQL database which feeds the entire ALL digital library.
He received a B.A. in music from Occidental College and completed graduate studies at Stanford University in educational psychology and computer science. While there, he worked on an in-depth project focused on sharing the catalogue data from multiple research libraries, hence developing his interest in cataloging—both the intellectual and technical aspects. Most of Phil’s professional career has been in computer system design and programming.
From 1998 through 2004, Phil attended a Buddhist master’s program at the Instituto Lama Tzong Khapa located in Pisa, Italy. He has been a fully ordained monk for 21 years.
Phil continues to teach a group of dedicated students in Germany, as he has for the last 15 years.
COMMUNICATIONS ASSOCIATE
Alejandro Martinez Gallardo
Alejandro Martínez Gallardo is a writer, editor, translator, and independent scholar of religions. He has also worked developing cultural magazines and creating strategies for content creation.
He earned his Bachelor’s degree in Media Studies from Universidad Iberoamericana. After working in media, writing and producing content, he had a philosophical turn of sorts. He co-founded Cadena Áurea with Dr. Ernesto Priani to promote Platonic and Hermetic philosophies. In 2019, Alejandro traveled to South Asia to immerse himself in Mahāyāna Buddhism, studying under various Buddhist masters in Nepal and obtaining an MA in Buddhis Studes from Rangjung Yeshe Institute in Kathmandu.
Alejandro is passionate about languages and preservation of ancient cultures of wisdom, particularly Sanskrit language and culture. Currently, he writes for popular media sites, contributes to academic publications, and serves as an advisor to Fundación Dondé and as a contributor of Saugatam.org, a proyect to provide resources to practice Buddhism in Sanskrit.