Unity In Yoga Podcast

Tajamika (Taj) Paxton is an award winning documentary producer, screenwriter, and director. Her work has been honored with four consecutive Daytime Emmy Awards in the Documentary category. In her 15+ year entertainment career, she has been honored with a Humanitas Prize, NBC Shorts Cuts Award, and a special Television Academy honor for the documentary, Forbidden: Queer & Undocumented in America. Her most recent work is a music-inspired short, My Brothers Keeper, a meditation of love and loss that asks the audience to expand their understanding of Black masculinity that screened for Diverse in Cannes. Her short film, A Fat GIrl's Guide to Yoga won an NBC Audience Award for writing and directing. The film was inspired by her experience as a yoga student and teaching yoga to diverse communities. She served on the Board of Directors for Outfest Film Festival and was the chair of Outfest’s Fusion Film Festival. She’s a mentor for Women In Film, Chicken & Egg Pictures and is a member of Georgetown University’s Entertainment & Media Alliance. Her entire career has been lived at the intersection of race, gender, and sexual orientation—and, equally important—at the intersection of art and social change. She believes a story well told is one of our best tools against bigotry and hatred.

Barrie Risman, E-RYT 500, YACEP, is an internationally recognized yoga teacher, public speaker, and author. Her best-selling book, Evolving Your Yoga: Ten Principles for Enlightened Practice, is a guide for teachers and continuing students to deepen, expand, and integrate the benefits of yoga in their lives. Widely regarded as a teacher's teacher, she's the creator of online classes, courses, and trainings that fuel the inner journey of yogis around the globe.

Dr. Jennifer B. Webb is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychological Science and the Health Psychology Ph.D. Program at UNC Charlotte. She received her undergraduate degree in Cognitive Neuroscience from Harvard University. She went on to complete her Ph.D. in clinical psychology at the University of Southern California and postdoctoral fellowship training in clinical health psychology at Duke Integrative Medicine. Dr. Webb’s research program is informed by a non-dieting, weight-neutral philosophy on health promotion in culturally and body-diverse groups with a particular emphasis on enhancing the integration, dissemination, and accessibility of evidence-based mind-body approaches (e.g., yoga, self-compassion, mindful and intuitive eating, mindful self-care, etc.) to strengthen embodied self-regulation, positive body image, and wellbeing among women during the developmental transitions of young adulthood, pregnancy, and the postpartum. She also currently serves as an Associate Editor for Body Image: An International Journal of Research, an Advisory Board member of the Give Back Yoga Foundation, a Community Partner with the Yoga and Body Image Coalition, and as a Scientific Program Committee member of the Symposium on Yoga Research.

Jasmine’s website: amplifyandactivate.com

Cinthya Esquea Yermoshin, RYT 200, is a tantra intimacy priestess, facilitator, coach, and delightful Afro-Latina enchantress. Cinthya's dharma is helping people become joyful, grounded, and authentic by creating deeper connections with themselves and others.

Cinthya has been teaching various styles of yoga for over a decade and has been practicing Tantra for eight years since she was initiated into one-on-one tantra training with a Master in Costa Rica. Inspired by the Master who recognized her potential as a tantra practitioner and teacher, Cinthya followed his advice to embrace this as her life path. Since then, she has studied with world-renowned Tantra and yoga experts. In addition, she has worked directly with healthcare professionals in the mental health field, sharing the mind-body practice of yoga.

For the past year, Cinthya has been creating Praise Your Fire; a platform for women to embody their Divine Feminine. She also coaches women to live freely and fully entrusting in their divine feminine through Tantric and Yogic principles. On her teaching and coaching journey, Cinthya has shared her wisdom in many different settings, from private students, workshops to crowds of hundreds of students under a full moon! on the beaches of Rhode Island and including her own yoga studio.

Cinthya truly embodies pleasure and play as a path of healing and self-discovery. She believes that when you praise your fire, you find liberation.

Sandy Boutros is a yoga teacher and practitioner based in Beirut, Lebanon, who started her yoga journey in 2012. After developing a keen interest in meditation, she left her advertising job and traveled to Bihar School of Yoga in India to take a four-month course in Advanced Yogic Studies. After the course, she completed her yoga teacher training and enrolled in Progressive Trainings on Raja Yoga with her guru Swami Niranjananda. In 2018, she established Koun, a non-governmental organization (NGO) that makes yoga accessible to economically marginalized communities and refugees in Lebanon to promote total wellbeing and mental health.

Jasmine C. Hines, RYT 200, is a mother, cultural organizer, creator of the Amplify and Activate Summit, and founder of the Inspower Agency. Operating from the belief that change begins within, the Inspower Agency’s mission is to co-create actionable paradigm shifts at the intersection of desires and needs that enable and empower organizations, groups, and individuals. The firm specializes in organizational strategy, program design, team building, leadership development and coaching. Grounded in diversity, inclusion, equity, and social change, the firm’s work is known for being creative, innovative, and effective.

Chelsea Roff, C-IAYT, is the Founder and Director of Eat Breathe Thrive, a nonprofit organization that helps people overcome eating disorders. A yoga therapist, educator, and research collaborator, she has spent the better part of a decade working to make integrative health programs available to people with mental health challenges.

Robin Downes is an Emmy Award-winning journalist for “Outstanding Individual Achievement In News and Documentary” for ABC News “20/20”, since 1981. She is a talk show host, radio personality, model, and a featured blogger. Ms. Downes is also a certified Hatha Yoga instructor and founder of Yoga Flava™ in 1996. In 2021 Robin Downes was a featured spokesperson in Sports Illustrated “Yoga In The Age of Covid” and on the TV series The Doctors “Yoga Saved My Father’s Life”. She produces videos and blogs on health, wellness, spirituality, entertainment, and lifestyle through her Youtube channels.

Stephen Cope is a best-selling author and scholar who specializes in the relationship between Eastern contemplative traditions and Western depth psychology. Among his seminal works in this area are Yoga and the Quest for the True Self, The Wisdom of Yoga, and The Great Work of Your Life. His most recent work, Deep Human Connection, is an examination of the psychology, neurobiology, and spirituality of deep human connection, and the imperatives of human attachment—an issue of great importance to both the Eastern and Western traditions. For almost thirty years, Stephen has been Scholar-in-Residence at the renowned Kripalu Center. He is also the founder and former director of the Kripalu Institute for Extraordinary Living—one of the world’s most influential research institutes examining the effects and mechanisms of yoga and meditation. Stephen is the recipient of both a Telly and an Apple award for his work. In its twenty-fifth anniversary edition, “Yoga Journal” named him one of the most influential thinkers, writers, and teachers on the current American yoga scene.

Bryant is a former Editor with The New York Times, and former reporter and political columnist with The Boston Globe. At The Times, he was an editor with The Week in Review section. He was Chief of The Globe’s State House Bureau in Boston, nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for his series on U.S. Senator Ed Brooke. Since leaving journalism, Bryant’s passion has been working with people and groups in depth experiences around personal growth. He has more than 40 years as a consultant and trainer on Diversity, Equity & Inclusion with Fortune 500 companies, colleges and universities, Federal, state, and local government and community-based organizations. He and his wife and partner Shirley Stetson have focused their work on creating safe spaces for deep reflection and dialogue on issues of race, gender, sexual identity, and other human and cultural differences. They have developed strategies, tools, and practices designed to foster healing and reconciliation. Their practice incorporates bodywork with experiential learning designed to engage mind, body, and spirit in holistic personal growth that encourages people to explore the impacts of systemic social and cultural material on beliefs and behaviors. Their work has included projects in the U.S., Canada, India, France, and the UK.

Emily Workman Luther teaches university courses in mindful professional communication and offers professional development for educators who want to utilize mindfulness and yoga in their classes. She teaches yoga and Sanskrit for families, children, and adults in the Philadelphia area. Her current projects bring yoga philosophy into conversation with rhetorical studies, feminism, brain science, and digital learning.

Sowmya Ayyar is the Founder-Director of Prafull Oorja Charitable Foundation, a Bangalore-based NGO that trains yoga teachers to implement sustainable programs with communities in vulnerable conditions. In addition to being a yoga teacher, Sowmya is a musician (vocals, violins, keyboards) and performs Carnatic and global music, bhajans, and mantra chanting, to bring peace and joy to those she serves. She also composes music for children and sings lullabies from around the world. Sowmya loves to hike, swim, research, write, read, learn, and of course, practice yoga.

Monique Schubert, MFA, sees life as an extended project to make the world a more beautiful and kinder place. She uses the tools of art, yoga, and music to educate, inspire, and connect. A Kripalu certified yoga teacher, she works with Kripalu as a RISE facilitator and teacher trainer. For almost 20 years, Monique has taught yoga and mindfulness in the New York City area. She weaves her background in visual arts into her mindfulness teaching and has brought yoga to diverse cultural spaces including Socrates Sculpture Park, Studio Museum in Harlem, Museum of Contemporary African Diasporic Art, Rush Arts Philanthropic, and the Fashion Institute of Technology. Through collaborations with non-profits, museums and schools, Monique creates engaging public programs for young people and adults.

Rose Weaver, a pro-aging advocate, writer, performer, and producer of her plays Menopause Mama and Black Women Taking Off The Masks, holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Brown University and Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts Degrees from Marymount Manhattan, Providence College, and Wheaton College. Her career spans 47 years as a Screen Actor’s Guild/Actor’s Equity actress/singer in all media, a teacher in higher education, and private coaching. CEO of her non-profit organization, Waterspill Junction, Rose uses creative writing, spoken word, song, and vision boarding as tools to show how to be present with Pro-active Aging and self-healing. She has practiced yoga, meditation, the Laws of Attraction, and the Power of Intention principles for over 40 years to enrich her life as an artist and activist.

Bryant is a former Editor with The New York Times, and former reporter and political columnist with The Boston Globe. At The Times, he was an editor with The Week in Review section. He was Chief of The Globe’s State House Bureau in Boston, nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for his series on U.S. Senator Ed Brooke.

Since leaving journalism, Bryant’s passion has been working with people and groups in depth experiences around personal growth. He has more than 40 years as a consultant and trainer on Diversity, Equity & Inclusion with Fortune 500 companies, colleges and universities, Federal, state, and local government and community-based organizations. He and his wife and partner Shirley Stetson have focused their work on creating safe spaces for deep reflection and dialogue on issues of race, gender, sexual identity, and other human and cultural differences. They have developed strategies, tools, and practices designed to foster healing and reconciliation. Their practice incorporates bodywork with experiential learning designed to engage mind, body, and spirit in holistic personal growth that encourages people to explore the impacts of systemic social and cultural material on beliefs and behaviors. Their work has included projects in the U.S., Canada, India, France, and the UK.

Ava Wolf is a transcendental meditator of more than fifty years. A Reiki Master for more than twenty years, she was one of the first people to bring Reiki into the hospital clinical setting as complementary care in the Department of Women’s Oncology at Women and Infants Hospital in Providence, RI, in 1998. She has studied polarity therapy, is a Certified Kripalu Yoga Teacher, and is a graduate of the Robert Moss School of Active Dreaming. Her lifetime inward orientation continuously confirms that the inner worlds are the most vast and powerful; it is by opening to them that she believes we have a chance to dream a more beautiful world into being.

Stephanie Spence has spent over 40 years practicing yoga and sharing her love of this ancient system of living through writing, teaching, and public speaking. She's known as a Yoga Scholar, Award-Winning Author, Former CEO, Activist, and Creative Leader. Her objective is to share the authentic teachings of yoga to the modern era, as well as build bridges between different countries, faiths, healing modalities, and people to promote social and spiritual health.

Founder of the LifeForce Yoga® Healing Institute, Amy is a pioneer in the field of yoga and mental health. She is the author of two non-fiction books: Yoga for Depression (Broadway Books, 2004), Yoga Skills for Therapists (W.W. Norton, 2012) and numerous articles and book chapters. Her evidence-based LifeForce Yoga® series is an award-winning library of yoga and meditation CDs and DVDs for mood management. Her psycho-spiritual novel, Temple Dancer (Tumamoc Press, 2020) is garnering high praise and is a finalist in the Indie Fiction Awards. Sounds True will be publishing her card deck Yoga for Your Mood: 52 Ways to Shift Depression & Anxiety in August, 2021. www.amyweintraub.com

Marla Teyolia, M.S., is a mother, partner, executive coach, facilitator, and personal guide who has held sacred space for individuals and groups to access their healing and liberation for 20+ years. She is the Founder and CEO of Culture Shift Agency, a consulting and coaching firm whose mission is to advance the holistic leadership development of women of color and their allies by promoting internal transformation as the necessary catalyst for societal change and liberation. In this capacity, she functions as a highly sought-after workplace strategist and transformational leadership coach who mentors high-achieving executives to lead from their most deeply held values while maximizing their potential to create inclusive and liberatory environments for BIPOC. Marla holds a Master of Science from Columbia University. She also served as Co-President of the Latino Student Union and was a diversity trainer for incoming students at the School of Social Work. Marla holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Psychology from UC Berkeley, graduating magna cum laude, and is also a Certified Empowerment Facilitator and Conversational Intelligence® (C-IQ) Enhanced Skill Practitioner.

Crystal McCreary is a Lead yoga, mindfulness, health educator, and teacher trainer with 13+ years of experience in instructing yoga and mindfulness to people of all ages. She has a passion for implementing comprehensive wellness programs within schools and organizations to foster compassionate and equitable communities and sustainable work environments. Crystal’s expertise is derived from a lifetime of harnessing powerful embodied and contemplative tools necessary to navigate the challenges of living in an inequitable world. She currently teaches a K-12 independent school in New York City. Crystal graduated from Stanford University with a BA in African and African American studies, completed The American Conservatory Theater’s Master of Fine Arts program in Acting, and is registered with Yoga Alliance as a 500-ERYT and RCYT. When the stars align, she occasionally appears as an actor on film or television. Crystal is the author of the Little Yogi Deck: Simple Practices to Help Kids Move Through Big Emotions On & Off the Mat (Shambhala Publications, of the Penguin Random House publishing group). Learn more about Crystal at http://www.crystalmccreary.com.

Sherry Ryan (LMT) is the founder and Director of Yoga Vidhya, a yoga studio and alternative healing center in Ashaway, Rhode Island, that facilitates classes and retreats throughout the world. Sherry has been a student of Hatha, Kriya, and Kundalini yoga for 48 years, and she has 35 years of experience in the study of Macrobiotics, Ayurveda, Kinesiology, and Traditional Five Element Theory. She currently leads Kriya Yoga Initiation in the U.S. and loves traveling to esoteric foreign lands for spiritual study.

Shankari Goldstein is an E-RYT 500 and Regenerative Black Farmer. She has spent years connecting to breath, body, strength, movement, and energy to best cultivate a holistic approach to being with the land. She is a Program Manager and host of the “Inspiring Minds Series” at the Mind & Life Institute, a Certified Yoga of Recovery Instructor, and an Accessible Yoga Ambassador. In 2020 she co-founded the State of Union (Yoga) Address, a groundbreaking six-part series that uplifts and amplifies the voices and experiences of Black and Brown Yoga teachers. She is the Director and Program Curator of Shensara Yoga, Music & Art Festival. Shankari also established the Black Yogis of Virginia and Black Female Farmers groups on Facebook. In 2016, she released her debut Kirtan album titled Virgo Meets Libra, with The Ascendants. An avid race and environmental activist for over a decade, Shankari is an advocate for propelling the voices of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) or the Global Majority forward to share their embodied practices and wisdom. She is educating her contemplative community on food sovereignty and food justice. Being one of a handful of Black farmers in the mid-Atlantic region uplifts her to share techniques that create a nourishing approach for beginning gardeners, homesteaders, and practitioners. With these tools, they can begin to understand the cycle of responsibility for our ecological wellness systems. Shankari lives on a regenerative farm, with her husband, Dan, and more than 70 animals, a medicinal herb garden, and edible landscapes.

J Miles, the creator of Maha Vira Yoga, is a yoga teacher who has been dancing to the rhythm of life since childhood. Yogi, martial artist, bodyworker, retired breakdancer, community activist, and the son of a Baptist minister, J Miles has been learning and studying eastern arts and philosophy for nearly two decades. Over the years, J has crafted a style tempered by real life experience and humor, yoga philosophy, and the importance of breath as a guide and strength source. His classes aim to create a fluid, sustainable, and enjoyable practice for each person that hopefully will prove to be beneficial over a lifetime. He lives in his hometown of Richmond Va, loving on family and friends, while working to improve the community through his co-founded organization Project Yoga Richmond (PYR), the paradigm-shifting virtual platform The State of Union Yoga, the Maha Vira Yoga Mindfulness and Leadership training, and by partnering with other leaders in the wellness community for positive change in the world. J can be found teaching classes Virtually for Project Yoga Richmond, The Sanctuary in the City, and for Maha Vira Yoga.

Emily Workman Luther teaches university courses in mindful professional communication and offers professional development for educators who want to utilize mindfulness and yoga in their classes. She teaches yoga and Sanskrit for families, children, and adults in the Philadelphia area. Her current projects bring yoga philosophy into conversation with rhetorical studies, feminism, brain science, and digital learning.

Tracee Stanley was introduced to the practice of Yoga Nidra in 2001. She immediately recognized it as a healing salve for the world and began to incorporate it into her life and yoga teaching. She left her high-stress career as a Hollywood film producer to delve deeper into the study of the practices that were empowering and rejuvenating her, so she could share them with others. With over 20 years as a lineaged teacher in the traditions of the Himalayan masters, Tantra and Sri Vidya, Tracee understands the demands of life as an entrepreneur, wife, and stepmom. Her ability to effortlessly share ancient teachings in accessible ways is her superpower. RADIANT REST, published by Shambhala Publishing, is her first book. She is also the creator of the popular Empowered Life Self - Inquiry Oracle (a 72-soul card deck)—which is a self-study and divination tool that leads to self-knowledge, clarity, and healing.

Noha Arafa is an Afro-Arab, neurodivergent, QT, RYT-500. They are the founder of Our Ancestors’ Children, which offers trauma-informed, community-based Yoga, & co-founder of The Trans Yoga Project. Noha believes Yoga is for Everybody & that space MUST be made for Everyone to heal. As a teacher, they are committed to honoring the roots of Yoga & making Yoga accessible. They aim to empower their students with resources for self-regulation & selfcare, inspire their students to live the eight limbs of Yoga & serve the collective. Noha has practiced Public Interest Law since 2004, representing survivors of domestic & carceral violence, migrants, & indigent criminal defendants. They are an abolitionist & activist. Noha believes that Trans liberation is everyone’s liberation and that like Yoga, Trans is boundless & liberatory. They love Yoga, flowers, Jazz, nature, making people smile, seeing people unite. They are based in LA.

Rebby Kern (they/them) generates space for connection, empowerment, and self-discovery through their ten years in LGBTQ activism, drawing connections to the yoga world and uplifting experiences of marginalized identities. Rebby began their yoga practice in 2011 as a student. Today, they work full-time as a social justice warrior supporting LGBTQ youth through education policy, youth programming, anti-racism work, and leadership development. Rebby has taught in studios, yoga for queer youth, yoga with horses, head-start programming to introduce yoga to children, and in many spaces in Charlotte, NC.

After completing their training, Rebby began working with Jasmine Hines and Amplify & Activate to teach yoga as a tool for self-care and social justice. This work stems from anti-racism work and challenges current practices and ethics in yoga studios and fitness spaces. From that work stemmed Rebby’s Race, Gender & Bias workshops facilitated for YTTs, studio staff, and virtual workshops.

In 2019, Rebby became one of the first lululemon Ambassadors for the newest Charlotte store, Atherton Mill. Rebby is the first non-binary person of color to represent lululemon in the region and continues to uplift voices of LGBTQ and BIPOC people who often don’t find themselves represented within the brand.

Red Eagle (Shawn Stevens) is an enrolled member of this nation’s First People, whose ancestral homelands are the Berkshires, including the entire Hudson Valley. As a member of the Stockbridge Munsee Band of Mohicans, he is a Native American culturalist, artist, musician, and ceremonial helper, drawing on experience from living a Native American spiritual way of life. Apart from his beautiful artwork, which can be found in all 50 states and 14 countries, he is also a traditional Native American storyteller, drummer, dancer, singer, and flute player. He is an ordained minister of the Universal Church of Light and a certified facilitator of White Bison’s Mending Broken Hearts.

For over two decades, Lauren Sarat has provided outstanding editorial services to private and corporate clients across the United States and abroad. She also writes her own original fiction, poetry, and nonfiction for a variety of publications. Of note, she was nominated for the Pushcart Prize and was a finalist in the Raymond Carver Short Story Contest. Many writers who have worked with her have secured literary representation and book contracts with major publishing houses. Others have seen their life-long writing dreams come to fruition. As a veteran of the publishing industry, Lauren Sarat worked as an assistant editor at Picador USA/St. Martin's Press, and with the literary agency, Sobel Weber Associates.

Since leaving Manhattan, Lauren has taught creative nonfiction and fiction workshops at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, for nearly a decade. While there, she was nominated for an Undergraduate Excellence in Teaching Award. Lauren has also taught creative writing at Rhode Island College, University of Connecticut, and Rutgers University. She founded and continues to facilitate an original workshop series entitled "Generating the Goods," which blends meditation and writing.

Kathleen Kraft is a poet and RYT 500. She teaches students of all ages and is certified in Vinyasa, Yin, accessible, chair, and kids yoga. Her poetry has appeared in many journals, including Five Points, Gargoyle, and The Satirist, and she has been nominated twice for the Pushcart Prize. Her chapbook of poems, Fairview Road, was published in 2015. In 2020, she was published in two anthologies: Embodied Resilience Through Yoga: 30 Mindful Essays About Finding Empowerment After Addiction, Trauma, Grief, and Loss and What They Bring: The Poetry of Migration and Immigration. Kathleen is also a freelance copywriter and editor. She has written and edited for Yoga International, the Accessible Yoga blog, and YogaCityNYC, where she developed Reflections of Master Teachers, a bi-weekly interview series.

Kiesha Battles (E-RYT 500, RPYT) is Co-Director of the Yoga Retreat for Women of Color™ hosted at Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health. Kiesha is a full-time yoga teacher based in Charlotte, NC, where she is Yoga Director at Charlotte Family Yoga Center. She has been practicing yoga for over 20 years.

Reggie Hubbard (RYT 500) is the Founder/Chief Serving Officer of Active Peace Yoga, whose mission is to serve all communities, all practice levels, and lifestyles by helping people nurture foundational habits of self-care, rather than viewing wellness as an afterthought. Reggie has authored a thesis entitled, "Yoga and Spiritual Activism: Serving Humanity from a Sense of Devotion and Love" and has been a featured speaker on racial justice and civic engagement for the Hanuman Academy, Yoga Alliance, Upaya Zen Center and various other platforms. In addition to his yoga teaching practice, Reggie has held many senior strategic and logistical roles across a variety of fields, ranging from global marketing, digital and community organizing, government relations, international education to Presidential campaigning. He currently serves as a leading progressive political strategist, regularly interacting with elected officials on Capitol Hill and managing relationships, impact and communications among the broader progressive movement. Reggie's dharma sits at the intersection of bringing more peace and balance to activists AND to guiding the wellness community toward being more engaged, concerned citizens. He is open to collaborate with anyone on teacher trainings on issues of social justice and inclusion as well as speaking to communities to facilitate these challenging, important conversations.

Arturo Peal is an Anatomy and Physiology (A&P) instructor and a certified Yoga therapist. He co-leads the Therapeutic Yoga Training Program and holds a Master’s degree in Chinese medicine, practices craniosacral therapy, and has been involved in the alternative health-care field for more than 30 years. Arturo teaches A&P for Yoga teacher trainings plus studios, bodyworkers, and other movement specialists. His weekly class in Therapeutic Yoga serves students who are unable to do a traditional Vinyasa practice. He integrates his expertise in anatomy, kinesiology, Chinese medicine, and the healing processes to present a multidimensional understanding of the human body.

Arturo Peal is an Anatomy and Physiology (A&P) instructor and a certified Yoga therapist. He co-leads the Therapeutic Yoga Training Program and holds a Master’s degree in Chinese medicine, practices craniosacral therapy, and has been involved in the alternative health-care field for more than 30 years. Arturo teaches A&P for Yoga teacher trainings plus studios, bodyworkers, and other movement specialists. His weekly class in Therapeutic Yoga serves students who are unable to do a traditional Vinyasa practice. He integrates his expertise in anatomy, kinesiology, Chinese medicine, and the healing processes to present a multidimensional understanding of the human body.

Kemiko Y. Lawrence (E-RYT 200) is a mixologist and brewmaster. Her wellness journey has been her life’s story. As a child, she experienced severe illnesses. This experience led her mother to radically modify the family’s diet. Kemiko’s mom laid the foundation for what is now her life’s work and passion. She is passionate about educating others about the power of diet and yoga. Her signature kemboocha is an extension of who she is. Having worked with corporations, individuals, small, and large groups, Kemiko continues to lead the charge of spreading wellness throughout her community and the world. A health and wellness advocate, Kemiko believes that being non-judgmental of yourself will ensure you will be the same way with others. Self-care is key to Kemiko’s way of life. Caring for herself is her way of exemplifying strength, courage, and wisdom.

Larry O'Brien considers himself "nobody's yogi," though he has two practices that have immensely helped his life. The first is he Knowledge taught by Prem Rawat, which he has been practicing since 1974. The practice of Knowledge requires sitting daily and helping others do the same. This has helped Larry deal with both bipolar disorder and multiple sclerosis. The second practice is Laughter Yoga. He first attended a session around the new Millennium and became a certified leader in the practice as taught by Dr. Madan and Madura Kataria in May of 2014. Together, Knowledge gives him insight into the absurd and illusory nature of what passes for reality, and Laughter Yoga has offered Larry tools to throw back his head and laugh and help others do the same.

Sunu P. Chandy has performed poems and led creative writing workshops in various settings for about 25 years. Her work can be found in Asian American Literary Review, Beltway Poetry Quarterly, Poets on Adoption, Split this Rock’s The Quarry, This Bridge We Call Home: Radical Visions for Transformation, and is forthcoming in The Long Devotion: Poets Writing Motherhood. She completed her MFA in poetry at Queens College, CUNY in 2013, and previously completed degrees from  Earlham College (Peace and Global Studies/Women’s Studies) and Northeastern Law School. Sunu is also a civil rights attorney, and since August 2017 has served as the Legal Director for the National Women's Law Center.

Neil Patel (N1, The Rapping Yogi) comes from a long family linage of yogis, dating back 100 years to Porbandar, Gujarat, India—the home of Mahatma Gandhi. His family has been teaching yoga in the U.K. since 1976, which Neil began to take over as a teenager in 1990. He is most notable in England for having survived (and still lives with) 1.5kg of active cancer in his body (now for 20 years). He cites yoga as his sole source of “mental medicine” against the disease. He is also known as the “Rapping Yogi,” having produced many songs, poems, and raps on themes like Christ as a yogi, Anti knife-crime, religious unity, and other philosophies. You can find his latest tracks called “Breathe” and “The Truth” under his rap name, “N1”. He started a worldwide trend of “Hip Hop Yoga” in the early 2000s by bringing rap music and beats to classes and choreographing the two traditions carefully into one. He trains teachers and develops students through his work, and is currently writing a book on mind over matter for cancer, as well as a new take on the yoga classic, the Mahabharata.

Red Eagle (Shawn Stevens) is an enrolled member of this nation’s First People, whose ancestral homelands are the Berkshires, including the entire Hudson Valley. As a member of the Stockbridge Munsee Band of Mohicans, he is a Native American culturalist, artist, musician, and ceremonial helper, drawing on experience from living a Native American spiritual way of life. Apart from his beautiful artwork, which can be found in all 50 states and 14 countries, he is also a traditional Native American storyteller, drummer, dancer, singer, and flute player. He is an ordained minister of the Universal Church of Light and a certified facilitator of White Bison’s Mending Broken Hearts.

Rona Luo is a poet, acupuncturist, and yoga teacher currently based in London, UK. She walks after her maternal lineage of herbalists and storytellers. Rona has provided harm reduction acupuncture in California with the Oakland clean needle exchange, trained abortion doulas, and was a founding member of Shift Acupuncture Collective—Oakland's first multilingual healing collective. She has also taught bilingual yoga classes and Chinese medicine workshops in New York and the SF Bay Area.

Shola Arewa is a leading figure in the worlds of spirituality and wellness. She’s delivered her award-winning work internationally for over 30 years and is the author of five books, including bestsellers Opening to Spirit and Energy 4 Life. Today, she trains and mentors wellness professionals worldwide.

Salim Rollins directs wellness and cultural arts programs that aim to create transformative experiences and uplift communities. Originally from New York, Salim currently resides in Nairobi, Kenya, where he is the founder of Soul Flow Ltd (Kenya) and a partner of Synergy Yoga. Through this work, Salim organizes and hosts yoga teacher training, Thai massage certifications, wellness festivals, retreats, and workshops. He is also the founder of Capoeira Kibera. This community-based program uses Capoeira Angola to impart critical life skills and offer alternative choices to youth in Nairobi’s Kibera slum, the largest urban slum in Africa. Salim has a background in youth development and conflict resolution facilitation. Salim deeply values his role as a community organizer and the opportunity he has been given to share healing practices with communities throughout the world.

Francisco Morales-Bermudez has been traveling the world teaching yoga since 2002. Today, he leads yoga classes and seminars as well as Synergy Trainings and Open Heart Journeys. In 2005, he founded Synergy Partner Yoga. Since then, his mission has been to share this practice and yoga asana in order to assist in alleviating pain in bodies, maintaining physical wellbeing, and cultivating trust, connection, and a playful vibration. Francisco grew up in Lima, Peru, where he spent time in the ocean, playing soccer, and becoming intrigued with a healing touch. His intrigue turned into a passion, and for many years he studied and learned from different art forms and exercise systems. He immigrated to the United States with his mother and sister at the age of nine.

Bruno Garrote is an experienced and multi-faceted body and theory professor and instructor. His writings include a Ph. D (2016) and Masters (2013) by USP in Law and Philosophy and books, articles, reviews, translations, poems, and more, including other knowledge fields. Some of his formal trainings and certifications are in AcroYoga, Yoga, Contact Improvisation, Massage, and Expansion of Sexuality Therapy.

Berry Murray is Principal Partner and Chief Operating Officer for Business Focus, Inc. (BFI), a Rhode Island-based Information Technology consulting and staffing firm. She is also the owner of the Brooklyn Coffee Tea & Guest House located in historical Smith Hill, Providence. “The Brooklyn” currently serves as a hub for supporting community and civic-minded activity for Smith Hill and surrounding communities and has been featured in Essence Magazine online and Edible Rhody. Berry is also an active member of the RI community and an outspoken advocate for creating inclusive work environments that provide entrepreneurial opportunities to women of color—believing people are most inspired by first seeing success and then doing. She sees yoga as having brought her the practice of “breathing into her life,” which offers clarity to the mind.

Sherri Doucette (E-RYT 500, YACEP) has been featured on WFAA, NBC, BET, KHVN97 and KNON, is a native of Los Angeles, CA and a long-time resident of Dallas, TX.

Motivated by the sudden passing of her husband in 2015, Sherri founded Litehouse Wellness—a non-profit purposed to strengthen the African American family & community by bridging the wellness accessibility gap for Black men using yoga, meditation, and preventative health education. She is a certified yoga teacher, meditation guide, Reiki II practitioner, mindfulness consultant, plant-based transitioning coach, and life-span doula. Sherri studied social work at Clark Atlanta University and trained with international master yoga and meditation teachers. To learn more about Sherri, subscribe to her website www.litehousewellness.org and connect via Instagram and Facebook @litehousewellness.

Bruno Garrote is an experienced and multi-faceted body and theory professor and instructor. His writings include a Ph. D (2016) and Masters (2013) by USP in Law and Philosophy and books, articles, reviews, translations, poems, and more, including other knowledge fields. Some of his formal trainings and certifications are in AcroYoga, Yoga, Contact Improvisation, Massage, and Expansion of Sexuality Therapy.

Rona Luo is a poet, acupuncturist, and yoga teacher currently based in London, UK. She walks after her maternal lineage of herbalists and storytellers. Rona has provided harm reduction acupuncture in California with the Oakland clean needle exchange, trained abortion doulas, and was a founding member of Shift Acupuncture Collective—Oakland's first multilingual healing collective. She has also taught bilingual yoga classes and Chinese medicine workshops in New York and the SF Bay Area.

Reggie Hubbard (RYT 500) is the Founder/Chief Serving Officer of Active Peace Yoga, whose mission is to serve all communities, all practice levels, and lifestyles by helping people nurture foundational habits of self-care, rather than viewing wellness as an afterthought. Reggie has authored a thesis entitled, "Yoga and Spiritual Activism: Serving Humanity from a Sense of Devotion and Love" and has been a featured speaker on racial justice and civic engagement for the Hanuman Academy, Yoga Alliance, Upaya Zen Center and various other platforms. In addition to his yoga teaching practice, Reggie has held many senior strategic and logistical roles across a variety of fields, ranging from global marketing, digital and community organizing, government relations, international education to Presidential campaigning. He currently serves as a leading progressive political strategist, regularly interacting with elected officials on Capitol Hill and managing relationships, impact and communications among the broader progressive movement. Reggie's dharma sits at the intersection of bringing more peace and balance to activists AND to guiding the wellness community toward being more engaged, concerned citizens. He is open to collaborate with anyone on teacher trainings on issues of social justice and inclusion as well as speaking to communities to facilitate these challenging, important conversations.

Sherri Doucette (E-RYT 500, YACEP) has been featured on WFAA, NBC, BET, KHVN97 and KNON, is a native of Los Angeles, CA and a long-time resident of Dallas, TX. Motivated by the sudden passing of her husband in 2015, Sherri founded Litehouse Wellness—a non-profit purposed to strengthen the African American family and community by bridging the wellness accessibility gap for Black men using yoga, meditation, and preventative health education. She is a certified yoga teacher, meditation guide, Reiki II practitioner, mindfulness consultant, plant-based transitioning coach, and life-span doula. Sherri studied social work at Clark Atlanta University and trained with international master yoga and meditation teachers. To learn more about Sherri, subscribe to her website www.litehousewellness.org and connect via Instagram and Facebook @litehousewellness.

Bruno Garrote is an experienced and multi-faceted body and theory professor and instructor. His work includes a Ph.D. (2016) and Masters (2013) by USP in Law and Philosophy and books, articles, reviews, translations, poems, and more. Some of his formal trainings and certifications are in AcroYoga, yoga, contact improvisation, massage, and Expansion of Sexuality Therapy.

Dr. Tara Brach’s teachings blend Western psychology and Eastern spiritual practices, mindful attention to our inner life, and a full, compassionate engagement with our world. As an undergraduate at Clark University, Tara pursued a double major in psychology and political science. After college, she lived for ten years in an ashram—a spiritual community—where she practiced and taught both yoga and concentrative meditation. Over the following years, Tara earned a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the Fielding Institute, with a dissertation exploring meditation as a therapeutic modality in treating addiction. She went on to complete a five-year Buddhist teacher training program at the Spirit Rock Meditation Center, and in 1998, she founded the Insight Meditation Community of Washington, DC (IMCW), which is now one of the largest and most dynamic non-residential meditation centers in the U.S. She and Jack Kornfield lead the Awareness Training Institute (ATI), which offers online courses on mindfulness and compassion, as well as the Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification Program (MMTCP).

Jack Kornfield trained as a Buddhist monk in the monasteries of Thailand, India, and Burma. He has taught meditation internationally since 1974 and is one of the key teachers to introduce Buddhist mindfulness practice to the West. After graduating from Dartmouth College in Asian Studies in 1967, he joined the Peace Corps and worked on tropical medicine teams in the Mekong River valley. He met and studied as a monk under the Buddhist master Ven. Ajahn Chah, as well as the Ven. Mahasi Sayadaw of Burma. Returning to the United States, Jack co-founded the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts, and the Spirit Rock Center in Woodacre, California. Over the years, Jack has taught in centers and universities worldwide, led International Buddhist Teacher meetings, and worked with many of the great teachers of our time. He holds a Ph.D. in clinical psychology and is a father, husband, and activist. His books have been translated into 20 languages and sold more than a million copies.

Sara Clark is an international Vinyasa yoga and meditation teacher with nearly two decades of experience. Sara’s teaching merges the physical and spiritual practices of yoga with mindfulness and meditation techniques that help to ease suffering and liberate the soul. She has been a Global Yoga Ambassador for Lululemon and has graced the cover of Yoga Journal twice along with Prevention magazine. Sara has created a series of online yoga and meditation videos for Shape Magazine, Yoga Today, and Glo. Known for her compassionate teaching style and fluid sequences, Sara makes both the novice and the more experienced practitioner feel welcomed in her class.

Satta Jallah is a certified yoga instructor and doula. She is the founder of Holistic Roots Movement, where the mission is to empower women to reclaim their health through different holistic modalities such as yoga, dance, energy therapy, and natural beauty education.