Judith Simmer-Brown, Ph.D., is Distinguished Professor of Contemplative and Religious Studies at Naropa University, and Acharya in the Shambhala lineage. She chairs a committee of the Board of the Society of Buddhist-Christian Studies and has been active in interreligious dialogue internationally for decades. In the 1980s, she directed the Buddhist-Christian dialogue conferences held at Naropa, and was a member of the Cobb-Abe Theological Encounter international dialogue group from 1984-2004.