Grace Jill Schireson Myoan Grace Schireson is a Zen Abbess, president of Shogaku Zen Institute (a Zen teachers’ training seminary), and a Clinical Psychologist. She received her doctorate in Clinical Psychology at the Wright Institute in Berkeley, California. She leads two practice centers and a retreat center under the Central Valley Zen Foundation. She is the author of Zen Women: Beyond Tea Ladies, Iron Maidens and Macho Masters (Wisdom, 2009), and has published articles in Shambhala Sun, Buddhadharma and Tricycle magazines. She has also been anthologized in Zen books : The Book of Mu, Receiving the Marrow, The Hidden Lamp, Seeds of Virtue Seeds of Change as well as in a book on spiritual training: The Arts of Contemplative Care. She received Dharma Transmission from Sojun Mel Weitsman Roshi of the Suzuki Roshi Zen lineage. The late Fukushima Keido Roshi of Tofukuji Monastery, Kyoto asked her to teach the koan she studied with him during her practice there. She has been married for 47 years, and lives with her husband part time on Stanford campus and at her Zen retreat center, Empty Nest Zendo in North Fork, California. She has two grown sons and four grand-children.