Roshi Joan Halifax is a Buddhist teacher, social activist, and author and the founder and head teacher of Upaya Zen Center in Santa Fe. She has received awards and honors from institutions around the world for her work as a social and environmental activist and in the end-oflife care field. She is director of the Project on Being with Dying and founder of the Upaya Prison Project, which develops programs on meditation for prisoners. She is also founder of the Nomads Clinic in Nepal. Her books include The Fruitful Darkness: A Journey Through Buddhist Practice, A Buddhist Life in America: Simplicity in the Complex, Being With Dying: Cultivating Compassion and Wisdom in the Presence of Death, and Standing at the Edge: Finding Freedom Where Fear and Courage Meet. Her latest release is the children’s book Sophie Learns to Be Brave.