Santiba Campbell, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Bennett College. Dr. Campbell is currently studying Identity Development in regards to academic self, race and ethnicity among African American college students and the effects on physical health, psychological well-being and academic success. This is in addition to exploring principles of equity, diversity and inclusion within the academy and society. A native of North Carolina, Dr. Campbell received her B.A. in psychology from Winston-Salem State University. She earned her M.A. and Ph.D. in the field of Social Psychology from the University of Delaware in Newark, DE. Santiba was first introduced to vinyasa yoga as a graduate student for weekly stretching and stress relief. She continues to practice and strives to develop a more holistic understanding of a yogic lifestyle. She recently completed her RYT-200 training to deepen her awareness.

Jonathan Dickstein is a PhD student in Religious Studies at the University of California-Santa Barbara. He researches South Asian religions, Animals and Religion, and Comparative Ethics. He earned a MA in Religious Studies from the University of Colorado-Boulder and a BA in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics from the University of Pennsylvania. Jonathan is also an Intermediate level Iyengar Yoga instructor.

Donna Farhi is a Yoga teacher who has been practicing for 39 years and teaching since 1982. She is one of the most sought after guest teachers in the world, leading intensives and teacher training programs internationally.

Her approach to Yoga is informed by the refinement of natural and universal movement principles that underlie safe and sustainable Yoga practice. This concentration on fundamental principles allows student of all levels of experience and from all traditions to build their own authentic Yoga practice.

Donna is the author of four contemporary classics; The Breathing Book, Yoga Mind, Body & Spirit: A Return to Wholeness and Bringing Yoga to Life: The Everyday Practice of Enlightened Living. Her fourth book Teaching Yoga: Exploring the Teacher-Student Relationship is a curricular text for teaching trainings worldwide. She has been profiled in four separate publications on exceptional contemporary teachers of our time, including Yogini: The Power of Women in Yoga.

After nearly four decades of practice Donna believes that Yoga is about learning to befriend our self and to be in friendship with others as a means to building greater fellowship with all of humanity. American born, Donna now resides in Christchurch, New Zealand on a 30- acre farm with her horses, Santosha, Liberty and Ambrosia.

Ann Gleig is an assistant professor of religion and cultural studies at the University of Central Florida. Her primary research area is Asian religions in American. She is co-editor with Lola Williamson of Homegrown Gurus: From Hinduism in America to American Hinduism (Albany: SUNY Press, 2013) and her forthcoming monograph on contemporary developments in American meditation-based “convert” Buddhism will be published by Yale University Press. She is currently working on a second book project on the sexual scandals in American Zen and Tibetan Buddhist communities.

Jivana Heyman, C-IAYT, E-RYT500, is the founder and director of Accessible Yoga, an international non-profit organization dedicated to increasing access to the yoga teachings for people of all abilities and backgrounds. Accessible Yoga offers two Conferences per year, which focus on community-building and education, as well as a popular Ambassador program, and Accessible Yoga Trainings. Jivana is co-owner of the Santa Barbara Yoga Center and an Integral Yoga Minister. With over twenty-five years of training and teaching in the Integral Yoga tradition, Jivana has specialized in teaching yoga to people with disabilities with an emphasis on social engagement.

Find out more about Jivana’s work at www.accessibleyoga.org

Carol Horton, Ph.D., is a writer, educator, and activist working at the intersection of mindful yoga, social science, and social justice.

Carol serves as Vice President of the Yoga Service Council and was a co-founder of Chicago’s Socially Engaged Yoga Network. She has taught yoga in Chicago’s Cook County Jail, a drop-in center for homeless women, a residential foster care facility, a community health center, and several independent studios.

Carol is an Associate Editor of the scholarly journal Asian Medicine: Tradition and Modernity. Currently, she is facilitating and editing its first-ever Practitioners’s Forum, “Reinscribing ‘Tradition’ and ‘Modernity’: Paradigm Shifts in 21^st Century Practice,” which will include considerations of contemporary yoga, mediation, and Chinese medicine.

An ex-political science professor, Carol holds a doctorate from the University of Chicago.

Andrea R. Jain is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, Editor of the Journal of American Academy of Religion, and author of Selling Yoga: From Counterculture to Pop Culture (Oxford University Press, 2014). Her areas of interest include contemporary spirituality and the history of modern yoga; the yoga industry’s relationship to neoliberalism, market capitalism, and consumer culture; the intersections of gender, sexuality, and yoga; religion and politics in contemporary society; and methods and theories in the study of religion. She is a regular contributor to Religion Dispatches on topics related to yoga in contemporary culture and Co-Chair of the Yoga in Theory and Practice Group of the American Academy of Religion.

Tamara Jeffries, RYT-200, been a health writer and editor for national publications including Essence, where she was Executive Editor; and Health, where she oversaw coverage of mental, emotional and spiritual health. She was also Editor-in-Chief of HealthQuest: The Publication of Black Wellness and a contributing writer for the National Black Women’s Health Imperative.

In 2009, Tamara was awarded the Rosalynn Carter Fellowship in Mental Health Journalism; she was an Association of Health Care Journalists-National Library of Medicine fellow in 2012.

She is currently an associate professor of journalism at Bennett College for Women, where she also teaches the first for-credit yoga course at a historically Black college.  There, she has developed an interdisciplinary mindfulness program designed to help college students develop skills to enhance mental health, cope with stress and make purposeful life decisions.

She practices and teaches with a devotion to what she calls “whole yoga”—encouraging a conscious mindfulness of yoga principles; honoring the history, culture and evolution of yoga, and offering sound instruction that respects all bodies, beings and spirits.

Tamara has an interest in issues of diversity and cultural sensitivity in yoga communities; and in how yoga can be used to encourage mental and emotional wellness among people of color.

Tamara completed yoga teacher training with Terry Brown at Triad Yoga Institute in Greensboro, NC in 2013, and is registered with Yoga Alliance and is a member of Yoga Service Council.

Octavia Raheem is a Yoga Alliance experienced registered teacher (E-RYT) at the 200-hour level. She completed teacher training at Peachtree Yoga Center in Georgia in 2007 and began teaching later that year.  Octavia holds additional certifications and specializes in restorative, yin, power, and yoga for kids+teens To date, she has taught over 7,500 hours of yoga in studio, corporate, and private settings. She has headlined several national yoga events including the Dirty South Yoga Festival and  Wanderlust Yoga Festival 108 in Atlanta.

Octavia co-founded and owns Sacred Chill {West}- a yoga and meditation studio in Atlanta, GA. Additionally she is co-owner of Red Clay Wellness, LLC,  offering corporate and women’s only retreats. She is the creator of CHILLshop®yoga, an immersive restorative and yin yoga experience.

She sits on the board of Red Clay Yoga, an Atlanta based nonprofit and volunteers/ co-directs Yoga, Literature, Art Camp, for Teen Aged Girls at Spelman College Museum of Fine Art.

Off the mat Octavia is a life partner, mama, avid reader, and writer.

Roopa Singh, works at the intersection of wellness and justice through art, scholarship, and social entrepreneurship. She is a licensed attorney, university instructor, and a yoga teacher/student.  In 2013, Roopa gathered the first public forums for South Asian American yoga educators to share experiences in the field.  SAAPYA (South Asian American Perspectives on Yoga) shaped social discourse on race, yoga, and the commodification of traditional knowledge.  In 2018, SAAPYA is partnering with SAADA (South Aisan American Digital Archives) to create an archive of foundational content; including footage of panel discussions at the Brecth Forum and UC Berkeley’s Race and Yoga Conference.  Next steps for SAAPYA include designing an online presence that is accessible to those seeking solidarity and support for justice based yoga teacher trainings.

Roopa is a doula, certified pre-natal yoga instructor, and a mom.  She teaches Justice Studies at Arizona State University; has taught Political Science at City College (CUNY) and Pace University; interned at National Public Radio; and advocated for Legal Services for Prisoners with Children and the ACLU.  In 2015, Roopa exhibited a silk screen print series on race and yoga created during artist residencies at the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh, Boom Concepts, and the Neighborhood Print Shop in Braddock, PA.  Roopa has a law degree (UC Berkeley), a Masters in Cinema Studies (NYU), and is a PhD student in Justice (ASU).  Her writing on yoga as property is featured in Yoga, the Body, and Embodied Social Change: An Intersectional Feminist Analysis.  Roopa also authored Survivor Yoga, a zine on best practices.  Email saapya@gmail.com to link.