Buddhist Scholar, Teacher, and Practitioner

Jan Willis, PhD, has had a distinguished career as a scholar and teacher of Buddhism spanning fifty years. She first met Tibetan Buddhists in India and Nepal when she was nineteen and went on to earn degrees in Philosophy and Indic and Buddhist Studies from Cornell and Columbia Universities.

She has taught at UC Santa Cruz, the University of Virginia and at Wesleyan University and now –in retirement–teaches part-time at Agnes Scott College in Decatur, GA.

Jan’s areas of expertise are Tibetan Buddhism, Buddhist saints’ lives, Women and Buddhism, and Buddhism and Race and she has published works in all of these areas.

Coming from Birmingham, AL. she marched there with Dr. King in 1963 and has recently begun leading workshops which explore Race and Racism through a Buddhist Lens. Willis’ work has been hailed by TIME, Newsweek and Ebony magazines.

In 2000, TIME named her one of six “spiritual innovators” for the new millennium.