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service with care

Meet Our People

Texas is known for its big hospitality, and our staff members embody a deep, heartfelt commitment to strong service and stewardship. Our collective wish is for CRC guests to inquire, expand and relax in a beautiful setting that invites reflection and regeneration. Please visit us soon!

service with care

Meet Our People

Texas is known for its big hospitality, and our staff members embody a deep, heartfelt commitment to strong service and stewardship. Please visit us soon!

INQUIRE. EXPAND. RELAX

Texas is known for its big hospitality, and our staff members embody a deep, heartfelt commitment to strong service and stewardship. Our collective wish is for CRC guests to inquire, expand and relax in a beautiful setting that invites reflection and regeneration. Please visit us soon!

Our Founder

Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche

Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche is a widely acelebrated Buddhist teacher and the author of Emotional Rescue, Rebel Buddha, and other books. A lover of music, art and urban culture, Rinpoche is a poet, photographer, accomplished calligrapher and visual artist, as well as a prolific author. Rinpoche is the founder, president, and spiritual director of Nalandabodhi, an international community of Buddhist centers.

Rinpoche is acknowledged as one of the foremost scholars and meditation masters of his generation in the Nyingma and Kagyu schools of Tibetan Buddhism. He is known for his sharp intellect, humor, and easygoing teaching style, for launching the kindness initiative #GoKind and for his outreach to communities internationally.

Learn more about Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche on his website: www.dpr.info

Executive Director

Cindy

In addition to her role with the CRC, Cindy is a board member of the nonprofit charity Causa.international, and serves in the office of Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche as chief of staff. For 10 years, she worked as managing editor for Bodhi Magazine, a publication of Nalandabodhi, a nonprofit Buddhist network of meditation centers. She currently serves as the primary editor of Ponlop Rinpoche’s commercial books. Cindy is a practicing Buddhist and has been a student of Ponlop Rinpoche since 1996. Cindy earned a BA in English from Rollins College, an MA in Secondary Education from Florida International University, and an MA in Contemplative Religious Studies from Naropa University. After many years in Boulder, Colorado and Seattle, Washington, she now resides in Sarasota, Florida, with frequent stays at the Contemplative Resource Center in Bandera, Texas. She has a keen interest in community outreach programs for youth and families and in environmental education.

Mitchell

Mitch is an expert in architectural design and offers customized, integrated solutions across the country for people who are conscious of how their lifestyle choices affect the world around them. He is the owner of MOD LLC, MOD Lodge LLC, and Mitchell Owen Architecture PLLC based in Woodstock, New York, and New York City. He holds a BS in Architecture from The Georgia Institute of Technology and a Masters of Architecture and a MA in Architectural History, Theory, and Criticism, both from Princeton University. Mitch is also a part-time Assistant Professor at Parsons School of Design in New York City, where he has taught architectural design, history, and theory since 2000. Mitch enjoys the benefits of Iyengar yoga, meditation, and the natural environment in all its forms and has been a student of Ponlop Rinpoche since 2010. He is currently involved in developing multiple visions and projects that serve and support the contemplative community.

Executive Advisory Committee

Mark

Mark has traveled many life paths, and early encounters with Buddhist teachers inspired a deep respect for personal integrity and service. He uses a creative combination of tools he calls “The Four Core Strengths of Presence” to build self-awareness, self-acceptance and self-confidence. Mark has more than 30 years of experience in service roles, including time as a professional chaplain in hospice and palliative care, and he is skilled in sensitively supporting diverse individuals and groups. Mark is also a teacher at Nalandabodhi International, a Buddhist organization under the spiritual direction of Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche; a founding partner in Life Positioning, Inc.; and he serves as adjunct faculty at Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business. His business, Mark Power Coaching, is based in Hudson Valley, New York.

Beth

Beth is a lifelong student of wellbeing. Her search for innovative healing practices led her to extensive professional training, and her personal life journey provided her path. Her love of art and sport add further dimensions to her wellbeing teachings and disciplines. Her private coaching practice, Awakening Touch, based in Fernandina Beach, Florida, provides a holistic and total mind, body, emotion and energy experience. Beth is an accredited Ayurvedic Counselor, a Licensed Massage Therapist, Certified Traumatologist, recognized Western Herbalist, and a Reiki and Polarity Practitioner. She collaborates with her brother, Mark Power, to provide workshops and small group leadership coaching for the CRC. Please visit awakeningtouch.net for more information.

Diane

Diane is a social psychologist, applied researcher, nonprofit executive, speaker and trainer. Over 29 years she has focused on global health, mindfulness, gender, poverty, and human rights. A proud first-generation immigrant, she began her career in corporate strategy, advancing to international humanitarian work, and academic research in social psychology and organizational behavior. She was the ED of a small international non-profit for over a decade. Diane combines meditation, scientific and philosophical studies with engaged action to alleviate suffering. She feels fortunate to have been trained by top teachers in her fields, and the greatest contemporary Buddhist masters. As a new mom, she is passionate about helping others use mindfulness to transform difficult emotions.

Jan

Jan is a retired anesthesiologist and Buddhist practitioner. She attended Texas A&M University, and was one of the first two women pre-med students to graduate. She received her medical and anesthesiology training at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, then moved to San Antonio in 1978 to practice anesthesiology for 34 years before retiring in 2012. Jan has been a practicing Buddhist since 1984, and was director of Rigpe Dorje Center, a Tibetan Buddhist meditation center in San Antonio founded by HE Jamgon Kongtrul Rinpoche III, from 1991-2019. She has been studying with Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche since 1992, when she attended the inaugural Treasury of Knowledge (TOK) Retreat. Jan and the Texas sangha are happy to have found a home for TOK at the CRC in Bandera.

Lynne

Lynne is an artist, performer, teacher and professional fundraiser. As a certified fundraising executive (CFRE), she has raised more than $40 million for nonprofit organizations in the greater Seattle area and New York City. She has been a student of Tibetan Buddhism for several decades, is a meditation instructor, and facilitates Buddhist study classes. She helped found Nalanda West in Seattle and served as co-director from 2004 to 2008. Lynne received her Bachelor of Arts in Theatre Arts from SUNY Empire State College in New York City and is also a graduate of the Washington State Teaching Artist Training (TAT) Lab. In April 2019, she was the artist-in-residence at Nalanda West. Lynne believes in the healing power of kindness, humor, and artistic expression. Learn more at lynneconradmarvet.com.

Kim

Kim is a science educator with more than 15 years of experience working with youth in K-12 settings. Her main area of certification is in biology but she also teaches college science research, environmental science, forensic science, and chemistry. She is trained to teach secular mindfulness practices in the classroom. Kim was inspired to become a science teacher by a deep sense of connection with nature, and a desire to share the wonders of the natural world with children. She enjoys creating programs and activities that deepen understanding and connection to nature. Kim has been a practicing Buddhist and student of contemplative practices for many years, and has studied with Ponlop Rinpoche since 2015. She enjoys Chinese martial arts, outdoor recreation and yoga.

Marketing

Joy

Joy is the chief strategist for Padma Content Solutions and has more than 25 years of experience in publishing and media management. Her background is primarily in business to business magazine journalism, with a focus on health, fitness and wellness. Joy is an award-winning poet and writer, certified personal trainer, registered yoga teacher, Reiki Master and dedicated advocate for happiness and wholeness. She enjoys combining her passion for marketing and copywriting with spiritual pursuits, and her favorite ranch horse is Reno the wild Mustang.