Board Members
See Meeting Minutes on the bottom of this page.
Hamsa Balarama Das (Jorge Sotelo) Board Member
Hamsa Balarama dasa began attending ISKCON Tucson in 2011 and was initiated in 2015. He is a retired priest of the Episcopal Church. He comes to us with forty five years of experience in running and managing churches and congregations. He is a disciple of HG Jivanada dasa Vanacari.
Krishna Nam Das (Ken Girard) Board Member/Secretary
Krishna-nama dasa has been associating with the Tucson ISKCON community for over 30 years and has been an active part of that community since 2018. At this time, Krishna-nama serves as the Chairperson on the Board of Directors of ISKCON of Arizona. In addition, he also serves as Secretary on the Board of Directors for Mantra Oasis. Krishna-nama also hosts the Tucson radio show, Kirtan Cafe, that airs three times a week on KMKR FM. Krishna-nama wishes to assist the ISKCON community in any way that can best serve the devotees, guru, and Srila Prabhupada.
Kirtan Yajna Das (Keshav Paneru) Board Member
Kirtan Yajna Das was born in Nepal and joined ISKCON in 2005 in Kathmandu while doing his MA in Tribhuvan University. He met devotees from Russia doing sankirtan in the busy street of Kathmandu and was attracted to Krishna Consciousness and joined the temple as a full time brahmachari. He was doing book distribution and preaching activities with Russian devotees under the guidance of HG Patri Das. Within the six months of joining the temple, he was initiated by HH Mahavishnu swami and served his spiritual master as a personal secretary for several years. He later served the temple as a temple president for about 5 years from 2008. Later he was invited to Tucson temple by Sandamini Devi and joined the community in 2013. Since then he has been actively involved in ISKCON Tucson and serving as priest, preacher and assisting with fundraising for the new temple.
Atula Govinda das (Aaron Lieberman) Chairman of the Board
Atula Govinda das moved into the ISKCON Tucson temple at age 25 years old and took first and second initiation in 2015 from His Grace Jivananda das Vanachari, a disciple of A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada, the Founder-Acharya of ISKCON. He served for 7 years at the temple as Sankirtan leader and the Child Protection Office Liaison. He graduated from the GBC Leadership college in 2017, which provided a spiritual direction to his business management degree from Eller College at the UofA. He started his professional real estate career in 2019 and moved in with his wife and step-son to serve as a Grhasta. He co-founded the Mantra Oasis organization in 2020 with the blessings of His Guru and assistance of many sincere devotees and God-family in the community.
Meeting Minutes