Jim Fladmark

Boulder, CO, US, Governance Structures
Jim grew up on a small farm in South Dakota, the third of eleven children, and moved to Colorado in 1980. Since 1985 he has continuously worked in Shambhala, holding core staff positions at Shambhala Mountain Center, Naropa University, and Marpa House. Most recently he was the Director of Practice and Education at the Boulder Shambhala Center from 2008-2018.

Jim is motivated by the vision of Shambhala, especially how Shambhala governance and culture aspires to offer a global alternative to care for our earth and all beings. He has been a practitioner for over thirty years and has tried to apply practice to daily life. In childhood he learned to play the piano and in 2016 began writing songs to share his experience of current events and living life. Jim also has an artistic passion for creating sacred environments, trusting the unfolding process of starts and stops to connect to the magic and blessings of life.

LaDawn Haglund

Phoenix, AZ, US, Culture Change
LaDawn is a sociologist and associate professor of justice and social inquiry at Arizona State University. She brings to the Process Team capacities in justice-based education and group facilitation, institutional analysis, and socially transformative processes. She has been practicing Buddhism since the 1980s, and in 2007 found her spiritual home in Shambhala. She is currently a Vajrayana practitioner who serves as a meditation instructor, director of Societal Health and Wellbeing, and Kenchung at the Phoenix Shambhala Center.

As a sociologist and Buddhist, LaDawn has spent many years thinking about the kinds of social transformation that could make the world a more just and sustainable place, and how contemplative practices might play a role in this transformation. Her heartfelt aspiration in serving on the PT Steering Committee is to find out, together with the precious sangha, how we might together realize Enlightened Society.

Dian Marie Hosking

Bristol, UK, Governance Structure
Dr Dian Marie Hosking is a semi-retired Professor of Development and Change at the Utrecht School of Governance, Utrecht University, The Netherlands. She made a major contribution to developing the social science philosophy of relational constructionism and to working this out in various areas of practice, particularly leadership (for which work she was awarded and honorary doctorate “for bringing leadership research and theory into the 21st century”), organising (viewed as co-arising in ongoing relational processes), and change (emphasising multi-voiced, dialogical, and transformative processes). She has published many books and articles on these and related topics and continues to run international master classes for senior executives. After eighteen years in The Netherlands and the Rotterdam sanga, Dian Marie has returned to the UK and to the hills.

Paul Kelway

Brussels, Belgium, Governance Structure
Originally from Cornwall in the United Kingdom, Paul has lived and worked in Europe, Australia and the United States. He has a bachelor’s degree in Political Science and a Master’s in Business Administration with a focus on organisational leadership. He has been involved in the field of oiled wildlife preparedness and response since 1999, responding to oil spill emergencies in France, Spain, the Netherlands, Norway, Mexico, South Africa and the U.S., and has served in senior leadership positions for a number of organisations during his career. Since 2014, Paul has been living in Brussels, Belgium where he works for the Sea Alarm Foundation as a Senior Technical Adviser on oiled wildlife issues to governments, non-governmental organisations and the oil industry, and as Coordinator for an international, multi-stakeholder project aimed at developing collaborative models and systems to advance oiled wildlife preparedness and response globally.

Paul has been part of the Shambhala community for over 15 years and has been an active member of the London, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Orange County, and Brussels Shambhala communities during that time. From 2005 to 2008 he lived and worked at Shambhala Mountain Center in Colorado, where he served as a Program Coordinator and then Program Director.

David Marshall

Kawartha, ON, Canada, Governance Structures
David Marshall has been in Shambhala since 1997, on the Scorpion Seal path since 2008, and is a member of the Desung Arm of the Dorje Kasung. A PhD scientist (physical chemistry), in his second career he was a social science researcher of child abuse and foster care, with experience in statistical and qualitative analysis, including survey design and evaluation. He is also interested in the intersection between the cognitive/neuro-sciences, evolutionary psychology, and human governance. David has served on the governing councils of the Seattle, Vancouver, and Kootenay Shambhala centres, as co-Director of Shambhala Training and Director of Practice and Education, and has taught extensively in Shambhala and in prisons, universities, and to social workers. Most recently, he co-founded and helps run Kawartha Shambhala with his wife Barbara Moffat in Peterborough, Ontario. He also volunteers in native habitat conservation and in supporting people find their way out of poverty.

Deborah Marshall

Pioneer Valley, MA, US, Culture Change
As a member of the Pioneer Valley Center in Northampton Massachusetts, Deborah has served in various capacities including Council member, organizer and co-facilitator of the Social Justice Group as well as the Center’s Desung. She has also served as the Rusung and Council member at Birmingham Alabama and Karme Choling. Deborah is former military personnel, law enforcement officer and prison Psychologist; presently she is an Abuse Protection Investigator for a state agency. Deborah is committed to waking up and speaking up.

Frederick Meyer

New Orleans, LA, US, Culture Change
Frederick Meyer is a lifelong Shambhala practitioner. His first interest in dharma and in the Shambhala teachings was as a participant in Sun Camp, and he has followed the Shambhala path through Rigden Abhisheka.

Frederick is interested in innovation and social entrepreneurship, and has a master's degree in social business from the Fletcher School at Tufts University. He has an abiding interest in how Shambhala can better foster innovation to benefit both its practitioners and society at large. Frederick has been at various times a volunteer, contractor, consultant, staff member, and project lead for numerous centers and projects in Shambhala throughout the past fifteen years.

Frederick works as a web developer and technology educator, and lives with his wife, Clara, and their dog, Lucy, in New Orleans, where he helps lead a Social Meditation practice group locally.

Lisa Piemont

New York, NY, USA, Culture Change
Lisa Piemont is a Clinical Social Worker who currently serves as Program Lead/Lead Clinician for Morris CARES, a sexual assault recovery and prevention program in New Jersey. She has worked in agency settings with victims and perpetrators of domestic abuse: as the Coordinator of the Children’s Program at Jersey Battered Women’s Service, as a perpetrators’ program group leader, and at The Adult Diagnostic and Treatment Center where she was a staff clinician and supervisor, providing therapeutic programming for incarcerated sex offenders. Since 1996, Lisa has offered individual and family therapy for survivors of sexual violence in her private practice. Lisa began her path of practice and study in Shambhala in 2003 and is a member of the Shambhala Meditation Center of New York City.

Martin Ramstedt

Berlin, Germany, Healing and Learning
Dr. Martin Ramstedt is a social and cultural anthropologist, working on religious and ethnic conflicts. He is also a certified mediator, MI, and offficer in the Dorje Kasung.

Jose Tomas Ruano

Santiago, Chile, Governance Structures
Jose Tomas Ruano is an engineer and works in culture and organizational change in a global organization. He has been part of the Santiago (Chile) Shambhala center since 2008, and he direct with his wife an institute in Santiago that integrate yoga, meditation, and systemic work.

Susan Skjei

Boulder, CO, US, Community Building
Acharya Susan Skjei, Ph.D., is passionate about cultivating healthy teams, organizations and communities. She is an educator, coach and organizational consultant specializing in leadership and transformative change.

In 1972 Susan began her Buddhist studies with the Vidyadhara, Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche. She attended the 1974 seminary and early Kalapa Assemblies and, at his request, became the first Shambhala Training resident director in the San Francisco Bay Area. Later, she became a student of Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche and served on the Shambhala Board of Directors for over 10 years. During that time she was also Vice President of Human Resource Development and Chief Learning Officer for a large technology company.

For the last 15 years Susan has taught extensively and has provided mentoring, training and facilitation to many Shambhala Centers in North America and Europe. She has also consulted internationally with leaders of non-profit organizations and businesses worldwide. Currently, Susan is the founding director of the Authentic Leadership Center at Naropa University which includes the Authentic Leadership in Action (ALIA) Institute. She lives with her husband in Longmont, Colorado.