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, Formation, Spiritual Care & Counseling, Power, Privilege & Difference, Buddhist Ethics, Frameworks, and 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 is a member of the Buddhist Ministry Working Group, completed two yearlong CPE residencies, and one unit of Certified CPE Educator training. Her practice and pedagogy invites more 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?