Rande Brown, LCSW is a well-known translator of Japanese spiritual and cultural texts, and co-author of the New York Times bestseller Geisha, A Life with Mineko Iwasaki (Atria, 2002), which has sold more than 200,000 copies in the US and another 600,000 copies worldwide in 18 languages; it is still in print. She is a founding board member and formerly the Executive Director of the Tricycle Foundation, publisher of Tricycle: The Buddhist Review, America’s leading Buddhist magazine. With a degree in East Asian Studies from Princeton University, Brown lived for many years in Japan, where she was Associate Director of the International Division of the Institute for Religion and Psychology in Tokyo.

Upon returning to the US, she founded East West Communications, a leading force in cross-cultural programming between Japan and the United States for over 20 years. A graduate of the first Foundations Course of the New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care, Brown served as a volunteer chaplain at Beth Israel Medical Center and is a founding member of the Center’s board. Her experience as a chaplain inspired her to become a licensed psychotherapist and psychoanalyst with a specific interest in the intersection of Buddhism, spirituality, and psychology. Brown is a graduate of the Silver School of Social Work of New York University and a graduate of the William Alanson White Institute of Psychiatry, Psychoanalysis & Psychology. She is the past president of thePsychoanalytic Society of the Institute and is on its faculty. She lives in New York City and is in private practice in Greenwich Village.