Ellen Jikai Birx is a Zen teacher (Roshi) and cofounder of New River Zen Community in Blacksburg. She earned a B.S. in education from Northern Arizona University and a B.S. in nursing from Texas Woman’s University. She completed a master’s degree in psychiatric/mental health nursing from the University of Rochester and a Ph.D. in psychiatric/mental health nursing from the University of Texas at Austin. For 32 years she was a professor in the School of Nursing at Radford University, and is now Professor Emerita.

In addition to her books, Healing Zen: Buddhist Wisdom on Compassion, Caring, and Caregiving – for Yourself and Others (Penguin Compass, 2003)and Selfless Love: Beyond the Boundaries of Self and Other (Wisdom, 2014), Ellen co-authored Waking Up Together: Intimate Partnership on the Spiritual Path (Wisdom, 2005) with Charles. Her newest book is Embracing the Inconceivable: Interspiritual Practice of Zen and Christianity.