Joan Jiko Halifax (born July 30, 1942) is an American Zen Buddhist teacher, anthropologist, ecologist, civil rights activist, hospice caregiver, and the author of several books on Buddhism and spirituality.

Halifax has received Dharma transmission from Bernard Glassman, and previously studied with the Korean zen master Seung Sahn.

In 1964 she graduated from Harriet Sophie Newcomb College at Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana, where she had become drawn into the American civil rights movement and participated in anti-war protests.

[1][2] Halifax moved to New York City and began working with Alan Lomax, and by 1965 she was reading books on Buddhism and teaching herself how to meditate.

[5] According to author Sarah Buie, Upaya is, "...a residential and teaching center on the outskirts of Santa Fe on the site of earlier Buddhist communities.

Professor Christopher S. Queen writes—in the book Westward Dharma (edited by Charles S. Prebish and Martin Baumann), "She teaches the techniques of 'being with death and dying' to a class of terminally ill patients, doctors, nurses, lovers, family, and friends.

She travels easily from church to synagogue, hospice to hospital, dispensing techniques and training born of Buddhist traditions and beliefs in a culturally and spiritually flexible manner.