Joan Halifax, Ph.D an anthropologist, Buddhist teacher, and writer, has worked with dying people since 1970. She has been on the faculties of Columbia University, the University of Miami School of Medicine, the New School for Social Research, The Naropa Institute, and the California Institute for Integral Studies. Her books include The Human Encounter with Death (with Stanislav Grof); Shamanic Voices; Shaman: The Wounded Healer; and The Fruitful Darkness: Reconnecting with the Body of the Earth. She founded The Ojai Foundation, an educational center, in 1979, and Upaya (a Buddhist study center) in Santa Fe, New Mexico in 1990. In 1994, she created the Project on Being with Dying as a way to train healthcare professionals in contemplative care of the dying.

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