In 2011, Jeanette Prince-Cherry became a lay novice in the Three Jewels Order (3JO) of the Cloud-Water Sangha.  After a comprehensive three-year period of Zen training, study, and service, she completed this novitiate and earned full investiture.

In 2018, Jeanette was ordained a novice Zen Buddhist priest of the 3JO.  Photos here.  She plans to complete her novitiate for full ordination in 2022. ​Jeanette feels honored to serve Zen sanghas (communities) in Louisville, KY, and Rochester, NY. 


Click here to listen to her 50-minute Coming-to-the-Path talk about her journey to the Dharma and to the Rochester Zen Center.


UPDATE: Jeanette's Zen Buddhist Priest ordination ceremony will be held at Rochester Zen Center on October 23, 2022. You may attend in-person or on Zoom. More details to come. You can support Jeanette's Dharma work through sponsorship, financial gifts via PayPal.Me, or by making an offering of personal items or materials from her Amazon wish list.

​​Our Group Leader & Resident Novice Priest at Heart of Perfect Wisdom Zendo (HPWZ), Jeanette Prince-Cherry​

​​​​Jeanette Prince-Cherry (pictured left with Sensei Amala Wrightson, Spiritual Director of Auckland Zen Centre) was born in North Carolina in 1967.  She served in the United States Air Force for eight years and earned a B.S. in Industrial Engineering from Southern Illinois University.  For nearly 15 years, Jeanette worked in engineering before leaving this vocation to raise a family and to dedicate herself to the Buddhadharma. 

Jeanette began practicing Zen in 1994.  Since then she has been maintaining a daily personal practice and regularly attending group sittings, sesshin (intensive meditation retreats), and other residential training in both the U.S. and Japan. She works closely with her teacher, Roshi Bodhin Kjolhede, Co-Spiritual Director of Rochester Zen Center.  With his on-going guidance and support, Jeanette began instructing others in Zen meditation in 1999.