Jafar J. Alexander, E-RYT 500, C-IAYT, believes that “practice is what happens on the mat, and yoga is what happens in life.” His belief is “Yoga is yoga. No need to complicate it, it’s quite simple. Breathe, move, and find your way to silence. Everything you need to know is right here…Atha!” His dvoted study of yoga has made him a multi-dimensional teacher who is able to playfully weave stories with expert sequencing and thoughtful philosophical inquiry all in one asana, making his classes what he likes to call “Yogasanas- keeping the yoga in the asana.”

Jafar uses his diverse and comprehensive understanding of the yogic tradition to guide practitioners in individual sessions, group classes, weekend workshops, master classes, and teacher training programs. Jafar’s energy and presence brings yoga theory to life as he encourages yogis to find space, allowing for movement, which leads to freedom from attachment. He shares his yoga practice and passion through a connected journey of self-awareness, conscious breath, and physical strength.

Jafar has a unique range of influence from fellow yogis such as A.G. Mohan, Kelly McGonigal, Cora Wen, Richard Rosen, Doug Keller, and Maryam Ovissi. Jafar is a Registered Yoga Teacher with Yoga Alliance and a certified yoga therapist through IAYT. He is the Director of the BelovedYoga School’s 200 and 500 hour programs and specialty certifications. Jafar helped expand the BelovedYoga School to Europe and continues to offer workshops and trainings domestically and internationally. See his schedule at www.belovedyoga.com.

Marla Apt is a Senior level Iyengar Yoga teacher and was highlighted by Yoga Journal magazine as one of twenty-one young yoga teachers helping to shape the future of yoga. She has been involved with medical research studies at UCLA on yoga for depression, anxiety and IBS and created the first yoga therapy content to be incorporated into the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine’s curriculum. She is a writer and contributor to Yoga Journal magazine and other periodicals.

Marla visited India for the first time while doing research for a degree in Buddhist philosophy and has since returned numerous times for yoga studies, including a year of study in Pune at the Iyengar Yoga Institute. She served the Iyengar Yoga community as President of the Iyengar Yoga National Association of the United States and is a current member of the national certification committee. She is pursuing her interest in making the benefits of yoga available to communities in need as a founding board member of the nonprofit organization Iyengar Yoga Therapeutics. She teaches in Los Angeles and conducts teacher trainings, workshops, and retreats and presents at conferences in the United States and abroad.

Susanna Barkataki, M.Ed. Ayurvedic Wellness Counselor, E-RYT 500, C-IAYT, member of Thich Nhat Hanh’s Core Community of Interbeing, is known for her passion for decolonizing yoga – practicing yoga not just as poses but as a way of life. She welcomes everyone to yoga through story, questions, and inspires people to their own authentic powerful experiences.

Susanna is mixed, born in England with a family lineage is from Assam, India, where an ancient line of teaching the traditions of Yoga and Ayurveda is practiced still today. Susanna integrates this lineage with the practical application of a Master’s degree in Education as well as a B.A. in Philosophy for U.C. Berkeley to create a culturally aware and socially relevant practice.

She is the founder of Ignite | Yoga and Wellness Institute in Orlando, Fl. Ignite teaches yoga beyond asana. Ignite provides comprehensive Yoga Alliance Certified 200 and 300–hour yoga teacher trainings, a Health Coach Certification, and online Love and Relationships course. Susanna is viral yoga and wellness blogger for Huffington Post, Yoga International and Elephant Journal, an advisory board member of Yoga Service Council, a member of the Yoga and Body Image Coalition Team, and is part of the Core Leadership of Thich Nhat Hanh’s community of mindfulness. She optimistically believes that yoga can create more personal and social connection, unity and fulfillment.

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Jasmine Chehrazi is founder of Yoga Activist, a nonprofit outreach organization dedicated to improving accessibility and trauma sensitivity in yoga and mindfulness instruction. She trained with teachers from a wide variety of yoga traditions (including Dharma, Power, Bhakti Flow, Kundalini, and Sivananda) and has taught students of diverse backgrounds, from people experiencing homelessness to White House staff.

In her role as a yoga educator, Chehrazi led the yoga teacher training program at George Washington University. She also directs the 200-hour yoga teacher training programs at Yoga District, a collective of seven Washington, D.C., yoga centers she founded in 2006.

Since 2009, she trained over 400 yoga and meditation teachers. As an advisor to yoga teacher trainees and experienced yoga teachers, it’s Jasmine Chehrazi’s goal to skillfully share yoga’s teachings and assist other instructors in doing the same.

Mayte Criado, E-RYT 500, E500H, T500H, is a yoga teacher trainer registered with Yoga Alliance and the European Yoga Federation. She participates as a delegate in Spain for The World Community of Indian Culture and Traditional Disciplines, is a member of the Board of Directors of the European Yoga Federation, and the President of the Professional Yoga Federation of Spain. Ms. Criado is the co-founder of the Federation of Teacher Training Schools of Spain, and was part of the experts’ committee that wrote the regulating bylaw to Qualify as Yoga Instructor and Teacher (bylaw: RD 1034/2011) in the Ministry of Education of Spain.

She has trained more than 5,000 yoga teachers (in Spanish) over the past 20 years, and created methodology compiled in two teacher manuals (“Manuales Profesor de Yoga I y II”) published in the ISBN system in 2004 by Escuela Internacional de Yoga, where she teaches. Her work focuses on yoga teacher training and specialized training in restorative yoga, Nada yoga, and sensory yoga, and she developed her own teacher training program in 2002. Since 2005, with the assistance of her friend and colleague Manuel Luque, she has worked with students with multiple sclerosis and cerebral palsy as well as blind and deaf students. She has expanded her training with a course on Drhupad (classical Hindu singing), which exposed her to the harmonic effects of sound, mantras, and music on the body, the energy, and the integrative consciousness of the human being. 

Her book Yoga en Evolución was published in November 2017. It compiles her experience, vision, and a great part of her methodology for teacher training programs. She is a contributor to Yoga Journal, Yoga en Red, Cuerpo y Mente, Psychologist, Espacio Humano, Universo Holístico, and others.

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Gary Kraftsow has been a pioneer in the transmission of yoga for health, healing and personal transformation for over 40 years. He began his study of yoga in India with T.K.V. Desikachar in 1974 and received a Viniyoga Special Diploma from Viniyoga International in Paris, France in 1988.

Gary graduated with a BA, Magna Cum Laude, from Colgate University in 1976 and received his Masters Degree in Psychology and Religion from the University of California at Santa Barbara in 1983.  Around that time, he opened Maui School of Yoga Therapy.  In 1999, he founded the American Viniyoga Institute.  Since then, he has become a renowned speaker and teacher of the Viniyoga methodology at many conferences and schools nationally and internationally.

Gary has successfully developed protocol for two National Institutes of Health studies: “Evaluating Yoga for Chronic Low Back Pain” and “Yoga Therapy for Generalized Anxiety”, as well for the “Mind-Body Stress Reduction in the Workplace” clinical trial for Aetna Insurance Company.

He is the Director and Senior Teacher of the American Viniyoga Institute (AVI), the author of two books published by Penguin: Yoga for Wellness and Yoga for Transformation, and author of four educational DVD’s:  Viniyoga Therapy for Low Back, Sacrum and Hips and Viniyoga Therapy for Upper Back, Neck and Shoulders, Viniyoga Therapy for Depression, and Viniyoga Therapy for Anxiety. He has also produced several online workshops:  Pranayama Unlocked, Meditation Unlocked, and Yoga Therapy for Depression. 

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Brahmani Liebman, MSEd, E-RYT 500, is an internationally recognized yoga teacher in the Kripalu tradition. She founded the Rivertown Center for Yoga and Health and was director and head teacher for over 20 years. Brahmani is currently co-creator & director (with Jashoda Edmunds) of Journey Into Yoga School of Yoga and Meditation, including workshops, retreats and yoga teacher trainings. She is former co-director of Kripalu Yoga Teacher Association (KYTA) and presently part of the Kripalu Yoga School teacher training faculty. She and Jashoda Edmunds co-created the Kripalu Yin Yoga Teacher Training and Living a Spiritual Life programs as part of the Kripalu 1,000 hour teacher training programs. Brahmani is a Phoenix Rising yoga therapist, Transcendental Reiki Master and Teacher and Multi-dimensional Life counselor who integrates decades of yogic, Buddhist, meditation, mindfulness, dharma and consciousness studies into all her teaching. She also co-teaches with a diverse group of master teachers, including Sylvia Boorstein and Sharon Salzberg.

Heather Peterson is the Chief Yoga Officer and the longest continuous staff member at CorePower Yoga. She has been teaching yoga since 2002 and was hired as the second studio manager for the company in 2003.

Throughout her tenure, Heather has served in a number of varied strategic and operational capacities, including as the Regional Manager of Colorado and then California where she developed the emerging markets along the West Coast as CorePower expanded its studio reach. She oversaw the strategy and content for classroom instruction and programming and created the first Hot Yoga Teacher Training program at CorePower Yoga. She co-developed and lead the CorePower Yoga Nutrition Program and has served as faculty for over 80 teacher trainings for 200-hour and 300-hour programs. In her current role, Heather is focused on yoga quality and innovation and continues to teach throughout the CorePower network of studios nationwide.

Nivedita Ashok Pingle, M.B.B.S., M.Sc., is a yoga therapist and the founder of the Millennium Concept, a yoga therapy clinic. Since 1998, she has assisted over 3,000 patients with yoga therapy to control chronic disorders especially affecting lT professionals, such as cervical spondylosis, lower back pain, stress, carpal tunnel syndrome, heart disease, and diabetes. She holds a Bachelor of Medicine from Shivaji University, a Master of Science in clinical psychology, and has studied under Yoga Vidnyan Visharad (master in yoga therapy) at Kabir Baug Sanstha, a yoga therapy center in Pune, Maharashta, India.  As a lecturer in modern medicine, she instructed postgraduate students in the correlation of Western medicine with the practice of yoga for therapeutic and restorative benefits. At Kabir Baug, Dr. Pingle conducted regular teaching programs for yoga teachers from 1998 to 2004 and has lead several teacher training courses, workshops, and classes involving yoga anatomy and physiology and restorative and therapeutic yoga in Thailand, Mexico, and Rishikesh, India.

Swami Ramananda is the President of the Integral Yoga Institute in San Francisco and a greatly respected senior teacher in the Integral Yoga tradition who has been practicing yoga for over 35 years. Ramananda offers practical methods of integrating the timeless teachings and practices of yoga into daily life, transforming the painful aspects of human experience into steps toward realizing one’s full potential. He leads beginner, intermediate and advanced level yoga teacher training programs in San Francisco and offers a variety of programs in many locations in the U. S., Europe, and South America. Ramananda trains yoga teachers to bring yoga into corporate, hospital, and medical settings and has taught mind/body wellness programs in many locations.