Jieyan “Jessica” Zheng, President

Ms. Zheng received her MDiv in Buddhist Chaplaincy degree in 2020 from University of the West in Rosemead, California. She is currently pursing a Doctor in Buddhist Ministry degree also at University of the West.

Venerable Dang Hou, Treasurer

Having heard a lecture on the Six Great Divisions of the Wheel of Karma in early 2009, Ven. Dang Hou was inspired to become vegan and began to study the Eighty-Eight Buddha Repentance Sutra and Diamond Sutra. In 2010, she heard a recorded exposition on the Lotus Sutra by Master Yin Guang that solved her personal spiritual puzzle and decided to convert to Buddhism. In 2012, Ven. Dang Hou received ordination as a Bhikkhuni from Xue Cheng Bhikkhu and Miao Ru Bhikkhuni at Chong Fu Temple in Fu Zhou City, China. Her studies thereafter expanded to include English as a Second Language at University of the West from 2016 to 2018. She received a Master in Religious Studies degree in 2020 and is currently enrolled in the Doctor in Buddhist Ministry program at University of the West.

Venerable Woo Sang, Secretary

In 2002, Ven. Woo Sang received novice ordination from the Korean Buddhist “Jogye” Order. For three years afterwards, Ven. Woo Sang contributed to Korea Seon meditation center, while studying Mahayana Buddhism centered on the sutras from 2004 to 2008 at the Buddhist seminary, Unmun Sangha University. She received full Bhikkhuni precepts in 2008. Subsequently, Ven. Woo Sang volunteered to assist patients with daily activities in Young Bul Won Nursing Home for one year. She is currently pursuing a Master of Divinity in Buddhist Chaplaincy degree at University of the West in Rosemead, California.

Dr. Jitsujo T. Gauthier

Jitsujo T. Gauthier is the current Chair and Assistant Professor of the Buddhist Chaplaincy department at University of the West. She teaches courses, e.g., Buddhist Homiletics, Spiritual Care & Counseling, Power, Privilege & Difference, Buddhist Ethics, Frameworks, and Research Methods, for both the Master of Divinity and Doctorate of Buddhist Ministry programs.

Her research focuses on practical application of Buddhism within fields of contemplative education, clinical ministry, religion and heath, and interfaith work. Her dissertation, An On-the-Job Mindfulness Intervention for Pediatric ICU Nurses, was published in the Journal of Pediatric Nursing, (2015). She is the author of “Hope In The Midst Of Suffering: A Buddhist Perspective” in the Journal of Pastoral Theology, (2016), “I am a Woman: Finding Freedom in Seeing Clearly,” American Buddhist Woman Quarterly from Sakyadhita USA, (2016), and “Formation & Supervision in Buddhist Chaplaincy” in Reflective Practice: Formation and Supervision in Ministry, (2017), and has a chapter Oxford Handbook of Buddhist Practice on “Buddhist Chaplaincy in the U.S,” (2020).

Rev. Jitsujo is a Zen priest and Preceptor living in residence at the Zen Center of Los Angeles for the past 9 years, ordained within the Zen Peacemakers and White Plum Asanga. She completed two yearlong CPE residencies, and one unit of Certified CPE Educator training. Her practice and pedagogy invites tenderness, softness, and breath into meditation as well as the classroom. She values questions like: how to train the body-mind to appropriately respond to hardness, violence, and difference? How to stay fresh moment to moment? And how to continue seeing self as other and other as self?

Dr. Lewis Lancaster

Lewis Lancaster is Emeritus Professor of the Department of East Asian Languages at the University of California, Berkeley, and has served as President, Emeritus Professor of Religious Studies, and Chair of the dissertation committee at University of the West since 1992. He graduated from Roanoke College (B.A.) in 1954 and received an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from Roanoke in 2007. He is also a 1958 graduate of USC-ST (M.Th.) and a 1968 graduate of the University of Wisconsin (Ph.D.). He received an Honorary Doctorate of Buddhist Studies from Vietnam Buddhist University in 2011.

Professor Lancaster has published over 75 articles and reviews and has edited or authored numerous books including Prajnaparamita and Related Systems, The Korean Buddhist Canon, Buddhist Scriptures, Early Ch’an in China and Tibet, and Assimilation of Buddhism in Korea. He also founded the Electronic Cultural Atlas Initiative to use the computer-based technology to map the spread of Buddhism from the remote past to the present.

In addition, Professor Lancaster is the research adviser for the Buddha’s Birthday Education Project, which has documented and hosted art exhibitions of the celebration of the Buddha’s birthday in Chinese Buddhism throughout history. Professor Lancaster was a key figure in the creation of descriptive catalogue and digitization of the Korean Buddhist Canon. He was awarded the 2014 Grand Award from the Korean Buddhist Order for his contribution to Buddhism.

Fong Sam, Operations

Fong Sam has a History degree from UCLA and a Master of Arts degree in Religious Studies from University of the West. He worked in the private sector for over eighteen years and has worked with various charities, including Cancer Gets Lost, Scares That Cares, and The Jeremy Wilson Foundation, as well as on projects that benefited American Cancer Society, Alex’s Lemonade, Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, and others.