Board of Directors

Board Meetings

The AIMC Board of Directors​ usually meets on the fourth Sunday of February, April, June, August, October and December from 4 PM to 6 PM. Meetings are announced in the newsletter and listed ​on the website calendar. The Board welcomes community involvement and a process of participatory decision-making. If you would like to attend​ and/or add a board agenda item​ for consideration, please ​email ​​​ to confirm the meeting date, time and location.

Board Service

Board members serve two-year terms, and new board members are elected in the fall at the annual membership meeting. The terms of board members are staggered to help maintain the continuity of the board. 

We are grateful to all who have served on past or present boards.

Board of Directors

Cynthia Copeland | President is currently a Humanist Minister and Wedding Officiant and a Retired RN Hospice Manager who moved to NM from the Bay Area six years ago, having first studied Buddhism in San Francisco beginning in the early ’80s. As a nurse, she worked in various programs for Nursing Operations for Kaiser Permanente. As a student of Buddhism, she tried out just about every possibility, studying Tibetan, Nichiren and Zen, but found her natural fit to be Vipassana. She believes practice and study are the essential building blocks for the development of a fully realized life. Engagement with the dharma brings knowledge & purpose, with greater meaning, understanding, and happiness. For Cynthia, it is key to practice with others, so this sangha and its members are important to each of us.

Shannon McKee | Vice President first joined our sangha in 2001 and was very active in the sangha until moving to Washington in 2006, where she lived and worked for 15 years. After returning to New Mexico to live full time, she renewed her membership with AIMC. Shannon has been practicing Vipassana meditation for 21 years. She began serving on the Board in 2021.

Shannon grew up in and loves life in New Mexico. Her current interests in the dharma are studying and practicing the Paramis.

Steve DeSaulniers | Secretary has been practicing for over 10 years and been an active member of AIMC for five years.  He enjoys volunteer work at the sangha and community building. Steve was “born and raised” in Albuquerque.  He is married to Veronica (“Ronnie”) Medina, also an AIMC member, and they have a daughter Anna who lives in Albuquerque.  Steve likes hiking, southwest literature and Dharma books.

Sarah Schwartz | Treasurer has been a member of AIMC for approximately fourteen years. She has served on the Board in the past and has also served as the web administrator. Sarah is part of a kalyana mitta (spiritual friends) group with other sangha members and likes geeky stuff.

Kelly Klein joined the Sangha in 2005 and served on the Board and other committees during her last five years in the US. In 2010, she moved to Isla del Sol on Lake Titicaca, Bolivia where she moved deeply into quiet solitary space, mediation and study, growing intimate with metta and tonglen practices. Early 2013, Kelly moved to Ladakh, the Himalayas of northern India, with its rich history and presence of Tibetan Buddhism, volunteering/teaching young Buddhist monks and nuns. Deeply committed to the path as a way of life, she pursues long periods of retreat, kamalamitra groups, Sanghas, and weekly meetings around the world. Her current practice interests include embracing dukkha, exploring reactivity and ways of perceiving, emptiness, and compassion practices. She rejoined the community of AIMC Sangha as Zoom entered the world.

Henry Shonerd had lived all over the U.S. and world before arriving in New Mexico to teach high school on the Navajo Reservation in the late ’70s. Albuquerque has been his home for 40 years, most of it as a teacher educator at the College of Santa Fe and UNM, where his focus has been in bilingual education.

Henry began to meditate about 15 years ago to save his life but only began a regular practice three years ago, and about a year later joined AIMC. He joined the board to support the work of our sangha in building community locally through open-hearted awareness in a time of existential threats throughout the world.

Though his meditation practice is new, he has been practicing tai chi for 40 years and martial arts for over 50 years. Tai chi is moving meditation with great benefits for overall health. He hopes to interest other sangha members in the practice.