Anne Carolyn Klein, Ph.D., is Professor of Religious Studies at Rice University, where she chaired the Department from 1995-1998. She teaches courses on Buddhist thought, Tibetan language, and contemplative studies. She is also co-founding director and residential teacher of Dawn Mountain Tibetan Temple, Community Center and Research Institute in Houston (www.dawnmountain.org)

In addition to her work in Buddhist and Religious Studies at the Universities of Wisconsin and Virginia, she has since studied with world renowned Tibetan scholars and meditation masters in the United States, India, and Nepal. She has studied, practiced, and translated significant works from three of the five major Tibetan traditions. She is the recipient of a Ford Foundation grant on the living dialogue between traditional Buddhism and modern Western Culture. Her books include Knowledge & Liberation, Meeting the Great Bliss Queen and, with Geshe Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, Unbounded Wholeness. She is currently completing chantable verse translations of daily meditations in the Tibetan tradition, Heart Essence, The Vast Expanse: A Story of Transmission.