Jaechan Anselmo Park, the coordinator of the Korean Commission for Monastic Dialogue (MIDK), is Prior of Waegwan Abbey  in South Korea. He earned a ThM and a PhD from the University of Toronto in 2021. For his book, Thomas Merton’s Encounter with Buddhism and Beyond, he received the Thomas Merton Award from The International Thomas Merton Society in 2019. Park was the first Asian to receive this award, which is given to an individual who has written and published a work on Merton and his concerns that has brought provocative insight and fresh direction to Merton studies.