The Governing Council

Amelie Bracher

Amelie is a psychotherapist who specializes in body-centered counseling, EMDR and infant and early childhood mental health. She maintains a private practice in Boulder, CO where she provides treatment, education and training. Amelie is an alumna and former adjunct faculty at Naropa University.

A native of Germany, Amelie first came to DMC in 1998 on a visit to the United States. Since that time, she has been haunted by the magical beauty and transformative power of the “Land” and the dharma being taught here. She has regularly come back here for visits, work at the Stupa, retreats, Scorpion Seal Assemblies, and a number of volunteer roles.

Amelie is a teacher and meditation instructor in the Shambhala tradition. She encountered the dharma in 1995 as a student of Thich Nhat Hanh, and in 2004 became a student of Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche. She joined the Drala Mountain Center Governing Council in 2012. She is married, has a daughter, and lives in Boulder, CO.

Ming Linsley

Ming has worked in advertising and technology for over 15 years and currently leads the Project Management and Client Solutions groups for a Software Engineering and Consulting company in Denver.

Ming first fell in love with Drala Mountain Center as a child in 1990. Over the years, she has returned again and again, both as a practitioner and a program staffer. Serving on the DMC Governance Council is a natural expression of Ming’s aspiration to support and serve the Shambhala community and to preserve the longevity of DMC. Before moving to Colorado, Ming previously served on the Governance Council of Karme Chöling and the board of the New York Shambhala Center. She now lives in Denver with her wife and two children, and continually strives to join her meditation practice with family and work.

Reid Miller

Reid Miller first came to Drala Mountain Center in 2017 where he joined the staff as a volunteer in the kitchen. He had worked as an Emergency Medical Technician with various ambulance services and emergency departments for nearly a decade and arrived at the center burnt out, disheartened and tired. Profoundly affected by the wisdom he found at the center, it wasn’t long before he stepped into the role of executive assistant. Over the next 4 years, Reid embraced numerous roles at DMC, ultimately serving as the center Rusung from 2020 to 2021. Reid has held the post of Secretary to the Governing Council since 2018, and joined as a full member in 2022.

Now working as a software engineer, Reid continues to see DMC as his spiritual home, a place of immense potential to nurture and inspire a more compassionate, kind society. He sees his continued service to Drala Mountain Center as the natural way to pay back a small part of the value of the wisdom he has found there.

Clifford Nueman (Council Chair)

Cliff has been engaged as a principal in his own law firms for over 40 years, emphasizing corporate and securities law in the representation of companies in matters of corporate finance, mergers, acquisitions, reorganizations and public and private offerings.  He has served on the boards of directors of numerous public, private and non-profit companies and has been actively involved in the process of capital formation on behalf of his clients for many years. He is also the Managing Partner of Gemini Gaming, LLC, which owns and operates a gaming casino in Blackhawk, Colorado.

He currently serves as Chairman of the Board of Medicine Horse Program, a nonprofit equine assisted psychotherapy facility in Boulder, and as Director and CEO of Ratna Foundation, a nonprofit charitable foundation, which he founded with his wife Margot.

Cliff has been attending dharma programs at DMC since 1975 and was a student of the Venerable Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche who officiated his wedding ceremony with Margot that same year. He has three adult children and four grandchildren.

He received his Juris Doctorate degree from the University of Pennsylvania and his Bachelor of Arts degree, magna cum laude from Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.

Connie Rogers

Connie Rogers is the principal of Terra Law Group LLC, practicing in the environmental regulatory field with an emphasis in public lands, permitting, Federal Indian law and historic preservation. She is a former partner in the Denver law firm of Davis Graham & Stubbs LLP.  Prior to law school, Connie was a professional potter and active in feminist politics. She has served as a board member and board chair for several nonprofits in Colorado.

In the first term of the Obama Administration, Connie was a political appointee serving as Deputy Solicitor for Energy and Mineral Resources for the U.S. Department of the Interior, where among other things she advised the Secretary of the Interior on renewable energy development on public lands and Interior’s regulatory response to the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Connie first came to Drala Mountain Center in 2008 for a retreat on mindfulness as has been returning ever since. A Mahayana student in the Shambhala lineage, Connie is authorized as a Shambhala Guide. She joined the Governing Council in 2016.

She received her juris doctor degree from Georgetown University Law Center and her undergraduate degree from William Jewell College. She is married to Lisa Timmon.

Karen Wilding

Karen Wilding is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with a private practice in Boulder, Colorado. She is a member of Boulder Psychological Services and serves on their leadership team. She was previously the Director of Counseling at September School for 17 years.  She has served as chairperson of several nonprofit boards including Attention Homes, Boulder County AIDS Project, Tibetan Village Project, and Drala Mountain Center.

Karen moved to Boulder in 1975 because the Venerable Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche told her that families should gather there for the early years of Karma Dzong and Naropa University.

She has taught at Naropa, Boulder Shambhala Center and Drala Mountain Center, and served as a meditation instructor for many years. She is currently a student of the Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche and attends Scorpion Seal Assemblies.

Karen has been attending programs at Drala Mountain Center since 1976, and considers it the most magical, open-hearted and spacious place in the world.  She received a B.A. in English cum laude from University of Rochester and a Master of Social Work from University of Denver.