Rita Sherma, PhD, an Arihanta Council Member for Arihanta Institute, is founding Director and Associate Professor at the GTU Center for Dharma Studies; Core Doctoral Faculty; and Co-Chair of Sustainability 360 at GTU, Berkeley, CA. She holds an MA in Religion, and a PhD in Theology & Ethics from Claremont Graduate University, CA. She is the founding Vice President of DANAM (Dharma Academy of North America)—an eminent scholarly society for research on Hindu, Jain, and Buddhist multidisciplinary research & interreligious studies. Dr. Sherma has published eight books including Religion & Sustainability: Interreligious Resources, Interdisciplinary Responses; and Contemplative Studies & Jainism (forthcoming, with Dr. Cogen), and numerous academic articles.

She is the founding Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Dharma Studies, and an Associate Editor of the Encyclopedia of Indian Religions. She serves on the Editorial Board of Reading Religion Journal (an AAR publication), serves as Advisor to the Parliament of the World’s Religions Climate Action-sponsored Faith for the Earth online & print project, as well as on the Advisory Board of the Yale University Forum for Religion and Ecology.