Rita M Gross 

Rita M. Gross là tác giả của cuốn sách nổi tiếng, Phật Giáo Đằng Sau Chế Độ Gia Trưởng: Lịch Sử Tranh Đấu Nữ Quyền, Phân tích, và Tái Thiết Phật Giáo và nhiều cuốn sách và bài viết khác. Bà ta là một giáo sư kỳ cựu dưới sự hướng dẫn của Lạt Ma Khandro Rinpoche, và học hỏi với Lạt Ma Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche.

Rita M. Gross (July 6, 1943 – November 11, 2015) was an American Buddhist feminist scholar of religions and author.[3] Before retiring, she was Professor of Comparative Studies in Religion at the University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire.[4][5]

In 1974 Gross was named the head of Women and Religion, a newly created section of the American Academy of Religion.[6] She earned her PhD in 1975 from the University of Chicago in History of Religions, with the dissertation "Exclusion and Participation: The Role of Women in Aboriginal Australian Religion."[7][8]  This was the first dissertation ever on women's studies in religion.[6]  In 1976 she published the article "Female God Language in a Jewish Context" (Davka Magazine 17), which Jewish scholar and feminist Judith Plaskow considers "probably the first article to deal theoretically with the issue of female God-language in a Jewish context".[9][10] Gross was herself born Lutheran before converting to Judaism in her twenties.[11]

In 1977 Gross took refuge with Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, becoming a Tibetan Buddhist.[12][13]  In 2005 she was made a lopön (Tibetan (Wylie): slob dpon; Sanskrit (IAST): ācārya, "senior teacher") by Jetsün Khandro Rinpoche, and taught at Jetsun Khandro Rinpoche's Lotus Garden Center, located in the United States.[4][14]

Gross grew up on a dairy farm in the Rhinelander, Wisconsin area.[15] Gross died, of a massive stroke, on November 11, 2015, at her home in Eau Claire, Wisconsin.[16]