River Shannon (she/her) is a student of Soto Zen Buddhism in the lineage of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi. She received lay precepts in March of 2018 from Myoshin Kate McCandless, a guiding teacher of Mountain Rain Zen Community in Vancouver, British Columbia. River practices as a lawyer, offering free legal help to survivors of intimate partner violence. She also educates and advocates in the fields of violence prevention and trauma-informed practice. River has contributed as an author to Trauma-Informed Law: A Primer for Practicing Lawyers and a Pathway for Resilience and Healing, edited by Helgi Maki, Marjorie Florestal, Myrna McCallum, and J Kim Wright (2023) for the American Bar Association, as well as the Golden Eagle Rising Society’s Trauma-Informed Legal Practice Toolkit. In 2023, River was named Legal Advocate of the Year by DomesticShelters.org.