Growing up on a farm in Ohio, she learned about the dharma before ever knowing the meaning of the word. While in college in the spring of 1974, she continued to have many unanswered spiritual questions. The next 35 years she focused on raising a family and on a career in nursing the ill and dying. Her search of a guiding teacher led her in 2008 to a committed dharma practice in the Theravada tradition. Still in search of answers to numinous direct experiences, her path led her to "Venerable" Pannavati-Karuna in 2011, undergoing training and study in the Theravada and Mahayana lineages. In 2015 she was ordained as a lay minister in the dharmacharya contemplative order of Shakyamuni Buddha. Soon after that a connection developed with H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III and his disciple Master Zhaxi Zhuoma Rinpoche Shang Da De after reading the holy discourse, "What Is Cultivation?". Day by day the spiritual journey unfolds with freshness and new understanding. She gives thanks to the good fortune and blessings of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas and the precious teachings of H.H. Dorje Chang III. At long last, with unending heartfelt gratitude and love, "I have come home." Hearing the cries of the world, I vow to respond with compassion and action to lessen the suffering of all beings.