Shaila Catherine is a Buddhist author and American meditation teacher. She founded Bodhi Courses, an online Dhamma classroom, and Insight Meditation South Bay, a Buddhist meditation center in Silicon Valley. She began practicing meditation in 1980 and studied with masters in India, Thailand, Nepal, and the West. Shaila has spent more than nine years practicing meditation in silent retreat, and has taught meditation internationally since 1996. She is the author of three books on mindfulness, concentration, jhana, and insight—The Jhanas, Wisdom Wide and Deep, and Beyond Distraction.

Shaila learned about the Prajna Vihar School while attending an insight meditation retreat in Bodh Gaya in 1990, and visited the school several times over the next several years. Since 2007, she has raised funds for the school, initially through the fiscal sponsorship of One World Children’s Fund, and later in partnership with the fiscal sponsor Omprakash. Developing relationships with these fiscal sponsors has enabled the school to receive charitable donations from supporters in the USA.

Shaila supports the Prajna Vihar School for several reasons—She values the opportunities that an education provides. She is motivated by gratitude for the time she spent in Bodh Gaya earlier in her life. And she draws inspiration from having witnessed the school grow from an idea in the mind of a few friends, into an amazing school that transforms the lives of children.