Rhonda Varette Magee, MA, JD

Rhonda V. Magee, M.A., J.D., is Professor of Law (Emeritus) at the University of San Francisco, where she has taught Torts, Insurance Law, Race in American Legal History, and a course she co-created called Contemplative Lawyering. She is the author of the The Inner Work of Racial Justice: Healing Ourselves and Transforming Our Communities Through Mindfulness (Penguin RandomHouse TarcherPerigee: 2019), which broke new ground on publication as the first book of its kind to integrate mindfulness principles and practices thoroughly into the conversation on addressing race and racism in diverse settings and communities, and helping us heal from the trauma that the legacies of racism causes. She accepted authorization as a spiritual guide and teacher in the Zen lineage, Hoshi Myozen Magee also draws on her training as a mindfulness teacher trained in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, and her study and co-teaching with Bhikkhu Analayo, a Buddhist Monk in the Theravadan tradition, and renown scholar of early Buddhism. Hoshi Magee is a founding advisor of the Mindfulness in Law Society, and an internationally recognized mindfulness teacher and Keynote speaker. Her current writing and teaching explore how culturally-specific practices – including Black cultural spirituality and the quality of soulfulness — may intersect with and strengthen mindfulness, and consider the way that mindfulness may support ongoing efforts to strengthen communities across difference in these challenging times.

In January 2023, Magee received an appointment to the National Institutes of Health’s National Advisory Council for Complementary and Integrative Health, which plays a key role advising the NCCIH on forthcoming research projects and policies. In Fall 2023, and while continuing to serve as Professor of Law, Rhonda accepted an appointment as the founding Director of the Center for Contemplative Law and Ethics at the University of San Francisco. She recently retired from her role as a tenured law professor, to devote her time to expanding her work practicing, teaching and writing about mindfulness.