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KARMA YESHE CHÖDRÖN
(Ivonne Prieto Rose)

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A first-generation American and certifiable nerd, Yeshe was born in New York City to a Spanish father and Cuban mother. She completed graduate degrees in Biology and Law and worked as a litigator in Miami, Florida and Silicon Valley, California before beginning her studies of Buddhism and Tibetan language at Rigpe Dorje Institute of Pullahari Monastery in Kathmandu, Nepal in 2002. 

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To this day, she is still at it, and is bold enough to say that she may have scratched the surface of the vast and profound wisdom of Buddhadharma. Four years of studying and practicing in Asia instilled in her a deep respect for lineage and tradition, as well as an admiration of Tibetan language to equal her lifelong passion for English and love of her native Spanish. She began translating at RDI in 2005 and cloistered retreat in 2013.

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In 2016, she completed the traditional three-year fully cloistered meditation retreat of the Karma Kagyu lineage at Vajra Vidya Retreat Center in Crestone, Colorado, under the auspices of Kyabje Thrangu Rinpoche, led by Khenpo Jigme and Khenpo Lobzang. Thereafter, Yeshe returned to translating Dharma teachings at RDI in 2017. 

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With her husband, Karma Zopa Jigme, Yeshe co-founded Prajna Fire as a global community and gateway for their Dharma talks focused on empowering fellow Westerners to integrate the Dharma into their lived experience through the tried and true pedagogy of the Buddha.

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Yeshe is a recipient of a 2020 Tara Project Teachers' Support Grant from Hemera Foundation and a planning committee member of the GenX Buddhist Teachers' Sangha.

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She lives on Tewa and Pueblo lands known as Santa Fe, New Mexico and at Pullahari Monastery in Kathmandu.