The Contemplative Life advisor encourages, develops, and guides contemplative life at Hampshire College, and works in Spiritual Life to develop and implement a vision of spirituality as a multi-faceted search for meaning and purpose within, across, and outside multiple faiths, and integral to the development of a well-rounded education and well-rounded individuals and communities.

Before the age of twelve, Ryumon Hilda Gutierrez Baldoquin, Sensei wanted to be a priest. Proclaiming this with joyful abandon to the local priest at her Catholic school in eastern Cuba, he summarily dismissed her by patting her head and responding: "How sweet, but little girls are not born to be priests".

Internally assessing this man as a naturally misguided adult, she followed an unfolding path that led, almost forty years later, to her ordination as a Soto Zen priest in the lineage of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi.

Today she is a Zen teacher and Dharma Heir of Zenkei Blanche Hartman Roshi, and founder of Dragon Gate Zen, "a temple without walls", whose mission is "transforming the world community through fearless intimacy and living compassion".

As a senior consultant, trainer, facilitator, and bilingual/bicultural mediator, she worked for twenty five years in the fields of conflict resolution, multicultural organizational change, cultural competency, and systemic anti-oppression training. As a Zen priest, she has been instrumental in the founding of People of Color and LGBTQ Sanghas in numerous western convert Dharma centers in the U.S., and has served in a consulting role to Dharma centers aspiring to become culturally and racially inclusive.

She has also trained and mentored young social change activists, political organizers, and emerging leaders, and has taught contemplative practices to social work professionals. She has contributed to several books and national publications.

When not serving as Contemplative Life Advisor, Ryumon Sensei works closely with her Zen students, meditates with her four-legged 'daughter' Scout, and practices fearless intimacy and passionate laughter with her compañera, Anraku Sensei.