Ayya Santussika

Ayya Santussika was born in 1954 and grew up on a farm in Indiana, USA. She began exploring meditation in the 1970s and later earned BS and MS degrees in computer science while raising her child as a single mother. After working for fifteen years as a software designer and developer in the San Francisco Bay Area, she trained as an interfaith minister and completed a Master of Divinity in 2002.

During her studies, she visited monasteries across the US, Europe, Asia, and Australia, learning from teachers in the Ajahn Chah lineage. In 2012, she received full bhikkhuni ordination and founded Karuna Buddhist Vihara, where she teaches meditation based primarily on the Pali suttas and their application to daily life