Ellen Birx has a PhD in psychiatric nursing and for the past twenty-seven years has been a professor at Radford University. She is a Zen teacher and cofounder of New River Zen Community and a member of the White Plum Asanga and the American Zen Teachers Association. She is the author of Healing Zen and the coauthor, along with her husband, of Waking Up Together. She lives in Radford, VA.