Professor Bielefeldt specializes in East Asian Buddhism, with particular emphasis on the intellectual history of the Zen tradition. He is the author of Dogen's Manuals of Zen Meditation and other works on early Japanese Zen, and serves as co-editor of the Soto Zen Text Project, a multivolume set of annotated translations of the complete scriptural canon of the Sôtôshû. He received his PhD from the University of California, Berkeley.

Pasang Sherpa was born in Kathmandu, Nepal and completed her education in India. She earned her undergraduate degree in Finance from Santa Clara University. She is multi-lingual and enjoys travelling, learning about different cultures and people. She is also very interested in working with troubled children and hopes to pursue her graduate degree in Child Psychology.