Rhoda Ann Walter grew up near Erie, Pennsylvania. After earning a BS in biology from Allegheny College and an MS degree in aquatic ecology from Cornell University, she had a short career as a fishe...view moreRhoda Ann Walter grew up near Erie, Pennsylvania. After earning a BS in biology from Allegheny College and an MS degree in aquatic ecology from Cornell University, she had a short career as a fisheries research biologist in Juneau, Alaska, studying the effects of logging on a salmon stream. She then lived and worked in a small intentional community, the New Road Map Foundation, in Seattle for 20 years. During that time, the community collectively participated in writing the New York Times best-selling manual for living a low-consumption, high-fulfillment lifestyle, Your Money or Your Life. Rhoda's memoir, The Heartbeat of an Intentional Community: A Spiritual Memoir, describes the underlying spirit of this community as seen through her eyes. She now leads a quiet spiritually oriented life in the foothills of the North Cascades mountains in eastern Washington state with her partner and two donkeys.view less