Tanner McAlister received a B.A. in Religious Studies, a B.A. in Economics (2019) at Utah State University, and a MTS in Buddhist Studies at the Harvard Divinity School (2021). He is currently pursuing a PhD in Buddhist Studies at UC Berkeley. His research focuses on issues of legitimation and innovation in the Tibetan Treasure (gter ma) tradition, particularly about biographies of Padmasambhava. He has worked as a Translation Instructor at SINI since 2021 and as a translator for the Kangyur Karchag Project since 2023.