Carol Lee Flinders is a writer, independent scholar, educator, speaker, and former syndicated columnist. She received a doctorate in comparative literature from the University of California, Berkeley, with a focus on medieval women's mysticism. She is currently faculty at the Sophia Center for Culture and Spirituality at Holy Names College in Oakland, California, where she teaches courses on mysticism and contemplative spirituality. She is also a Fellow at Santa Clara University. In the past, Flinders taught at the University of California at Berkeley, the Graduate Theological Union, and elsewhere. Her published writings cover a variety of topics ranging from medieval Christian mysticism to vegetarian cooking to scientific research on meditation. She is a coauthor of Laurel's Kitchen and its later editions, which in all sold more than a million copies. From 1977 through 1989 she wrote a widely syndicated column on vegetarian cooking. Notes from Laurel's Kitchen. She is married to Timothy Flinders, and is mother of screenwriter and filmmaker Mesh Flinders. 

December 12th, 1943 in Portland (Age 80)