I was lucky, I looked in a phone book for a Buddhist teacher near me and found a Korean zen center in a nearby town in Oregon. I have never had a Western Buddhist teacher. I check their qualifications and training. From my experience traditional trained monks and lay people are the best teachers. I’ve had 2 lay teachers, SN Goenka a vipassana Theravada teacher from Burma who passed away several years ago and Namkhi Norbu who is a Vajrayana Dzogchen teacher from Tibet. I’ve met lots of teachers over the years and you have to vet Buddhist teachers carefully.

Teachers are called spiritual friends and must be of the highest quality.
https://www.dhamma.org/en-US/about/goenka
http://tsegyalgar.org/theteachings/namkhainorbu/
http://www.koreanbuddhism.net/bbs/board.php?bo_table=2030

http://www.viewonbuddhism.org/spiritual_teacher_guru.html