Jacoby Ballard is a white trans queer person working to support and nourish local and national social change work through yogic and Buddhist practices, herbalism, and political education, as well as educating and organizing embodied and contemplative communities in social justice practices and participation in movement building. He is a co-founder of worker owned cooperative Third Root Community Health Center in Brooklyn, and co-founder of Bending Towards Justice, an organization that leads anti-oppression workshops and consultations for yoga communities, and leading teacher at Adhikara Yoga School in Western Massachusetts. Jacoby speaks on college and high school campuses, leading collective care, transformative leadership, and resilience workshops for campus activists, leaders, and queer communities and consults with organizations looking to either build more justice or more spiritual practice into their organization. For the past 5 years, Jacoby has been on the Advisory Board of the Yoga Service Council and on Faculty with Off the Mat, Into the World. Jacoby is a writer whose work can be found in Yoga, the Body, and Embodied Social Change, Real World Mindfulness for Beginners, and Yoga Rising. His first book is forthcoming.

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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Lisa Carbone was introduced to yoga for personal well-being and stress management while in graduate school. This experience sparked her initial research interest in yoga and launched a personal exploration into her own mind-body connections. From there, she pursued yoga teacher training where she discovered many insights and affirmations of what she experienced through her teachers and her own practice. Today she is a registered yoga teacher and has been teaching since 2011.

Inspired by the tradition of hatha and ashtanga yoga, she is recognized as a specialist in the field of adaptive yoga and yoga therapy for returning veterans, servicemembers and others outside of the traditional student demographic in the field of yoga. In 2014, Lisa was awarded the Nova Southeastern University (NSU) Faculty Research Development grant to conduct a study on how yoga and meditation can support the health and healing of veterans with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). This was the first study to investigate the effectiveness of the ancient practice on stress management and physical function through flexibility as a primary measure. In the last couple of years, she has developed a specialized sequence/protocol to address PTSD and other anxiety disorders for those in the military community. She presented this research at several professional conferences around the country, including the OMEGA Institute in Rhinebeck, New York. According to Lisa, yoga reminds her that everything is connected -we must live, act, dance, and breathe with awareness…

Lisa is a professor and administrator at the Abraham S. Fischler College of Education at NSU in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. She holds a Doctorate of Education and a Master of Business Administration degree from NSU, and a Bachelor of Science degree from the State University of New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology. She currently lives in Boynton Beach, Florida with her husband, two dogs, and 16-year-old cat, Oliver.

Phindile Dhlamini-Motshegwa, RYT 200, is an avid yoga practitioner with over a decade of practice and experience. Her area of interest primarily revolves around the yoga eco-system and the diverse communities that make up the industry. She is exploring her curiosity for understanding the application of enterprise governance principles and international best practice—in different types of organizations, across different sectors. She is a supporter of moving towards professionalizing the yoga industry—as a part of the larger health sector—in order to preserve the integrity of teaching the practice. Phindile is currently focusing on producing and contributing to programs and projects that offer yoga in underrepresented spaces, with people who wouldn’t ordinary have access.

Yoga appeals to Phindile because of its unique ability to be both exclusive and inclusive at the same time: exclusive, as it is meant to be a time to selfishly connect; and inclusive, in that it is for all ages, genders, sizes, and ethnicities. She firmly believes that yoga can, and should, be accessed by anyone, anywhere. Phindile feels compelled to share herself through this work, where she is dedicated to teaching and instilling a sense of pride and dignity to those who may be uninspired or feeling depleted.

Phindile practices Hatha, Vinyasa, Bikram, and Kemetic yoga, which influence her eclectic teaching style. She always maintains a pursuit of knowledge and information in the ancient tradition of mindfulness, in a quest towards continuous self-improvement. She is dedicated to living a life full of love, passion, and purpose—attributes she hopes will resonate with all who meet her on her path. Phindile feels blessed and privileged to be able to offer this work as her gift to the world.

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Marshawn Feltus is a Chicago West Side native and owner of the first yoga studio, ACT Yoga, in Chicago’s Austin community. He has gained recognition through a variety of media, community members, and organizations for his work in the Chicago community and the Cook County Jail. In addition to yoga, Marshawn is a student of faith and the progression of people; he is also a youth mentor and a certified public health peer educator. Marshawn is certified in crisis prevention and conflict resolution, trained in mindfulness and trauma education, and is a life style redirection facilitator for adjudicated youth and detained adults. Marshawn is the current president of the organization We Are Light and a board advisor and co-contributor of the best practice for yoga in the criminal justice system for the Yoga Service Council. Marshawn has an invested passion for restorative justice and helping to usher people into awareness, change and triumph.

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

Hala Khouri, M.A., SEP, E-RYT, has been teaching yoga and the movement arts for over 20 years. She earned her B.A. in Psychology from Columbia University and her M.A. in Counseling Psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute. She is trained in Somatic Experiencing, a body-based psychotherapy that addresses trauma and its symptoms.

Hala is a co-founder of Off the Mat, Into the World, a training organization that bridges yoga and activism within a social justice framework. She leads trauma informed yoga trainings nationally and her own 200hr Yoga Teacher Training in Los Angeles. She has been in private practice for 10 years working with individuals and couples. Hala also works with A Thousand Joys training direct service providers in vicarious trauma and self-care.  She lives in Venice, CA with her husband and two sons where she also teaches public yoga classes weekly.

www.halakhouri.com

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Crystal McCreary has taught yoga and mindfulness since 2007. She is committed to creating and holding safe spaces for people to connect, heal, learn, and build resilience in a world that often takes relentless hold of our bodies, minds, and hearts. Crystal’s yoga classes and lovingly curated yoga and wellness retreats for adults feature mindfulness, an exploratory blend of vigor, breath, and alignment, community building, ritual, and restoration. They are inclusive and adaptive, appropriate for all levels of experience and physical ability. She is registered with Yoga Alliance as an E-RYT 500 and RCYT.

Crystal also speaks and facilitates professional development workshops on yoga and mindfulness as tools for wellbeing internationally. She leads 100-hour kids’ yoga and mindfulness teacher trainings for Little Flower Yoga and Bent On Learning, and facilitates trauma-informed yoga for court-involved youth in juvenile detention centers with Lineage Project. Crystal implements yoga programs in New York City Schools, youth development organizations, and in corporations committed to cultivating sustainable and compassionate work environments. She participates regularly as a curriculum consultant and lead teacher for research studies on yoga and mindfulness conducted by CUNY-Hunter’s public health department, and teaches public classes in New York City.

Crystal has been featured in Lauren Lipton’s Yoga Bodies Book, Mantra Yoga + Health magazine, Race & Yoga, the UC Berkeley online academic journal, Shondaland.com, and contributes regularly to numerous blogs and podcasts. She studied African and African American studies at Stanford University, and acting as part of The American Conservatory Theater MFA program before arriving in New York in 2004. Crystal lives in New York City and occasionally moonlights as an actor on film or television. To learn more about Crystal visit www.crystalmccrearyyoga.com.

Maryam Ovissi became an avid student of yoga in 1999, after studying privately with Simin Yahaghi, her first yoga teacher, in California. Since 2001, she has been teaching Hatha, Hatha Flow, Vinyasa, Prenatal and mom and baby classes. Maryam is a certified yoga instructor that has done numerous trainings including her 500 hour teacher training under the tutorledge of Bhekaji Lynch. She has continued to study with reknown teachers in the world of Yoga. Maryam co-developed the BelovedYoga Teacher Training Programs: the 200 hr Immersion, 300 hr Advance Teacher Training and the BelovedYoga Certification Program. The BelovedYoga School meets the standards set by Yoga Alliance and is a member school of International Association of Yoga Therapists.

Maryam’s personal mission as a teacher of yoga is to provide an opportunity for her students to have access to tools that allow self-healing, self-empowerment and self-realization. She carries the teachings of Sri Krishnamacharya and up holds the principle that the yoga practice is a personal individual journey and not a one size fits all practice. Her unique style provides space for multi -level practitioners to journey through yoga in group classes. In her private yoga practice, yogic tools are offered that serve the person and their personal intentions. We are all trying to get back home and yoga is a school of remembering our true self. Maryam is honored to be a part of this lineage. Although A.G. & Indra Mohan, Bhekaji Lynch, and Jafar Alexander continue to serve as her main teachers, nothing can replace her the gifts and wisdom born forth of her showing up for herself every day through sadhana (personal practice).

Maryam has been sharing the teachings and methodology of yoga in group and one-on-one settings with clients for over 15 years, working with a range of clients and a variety of conditions, including: lower back pain, hip and knee replacements, spinal fusions, invasive surgeries, traumatic physical injuries, chronic conditions, emotional stress and mental imbalances from cognitive to stress induced confusion. Maryam’s specialities include experience with medical trauma, such as invasive surgeries, cancer and all the layers of treatment around cancer, as well as complex medical conditions that create medical trauma.

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Luvena Rangel, HHP, E-RYT, RPYT, YACEP comes with over 15 years of experience in international oil and gas, aviation, and logistics businesses. Born and raised in the Middle East and with an academic background in science and medicine from Ukraine, she pursued her passion to develop and deepen her knowledge and skills in holistic health, wellness, yoga, ayurveda, and meditation and built a reputation as a certified coach and trainer alongside her career. Her repertoire includes training with Deepak Chopra’s Center for Wellbeing in Ayurvedic Lifestyle and Meditation. Since moving to India in 2014, she has carved a niche for herself as one of Bangalore’s leading educators in yoga anatomy.

A plus size yoga practitioner and senior instructor, Luvena is the founder of The Curvy Yogi, redefining wellness by embracing diversity and inclusion through inclusive yoga and wellness that goes beyond stereotypes – creating a safe space for yoga and wellness regardless of shape, size, physical limitations or other socio-cultural biases. She is a community partner with the Yoga and Body Image Coalition, a global coalition committed to promoting and supporting yoga that is accessible, body positive and reflective of the full range of human diversity.

A passionate teacher with an immense love of her subject, she has trained hundreds of yoga instructors over the past four years in Bangalore, including a selected team of physicians, paramedics and support staff of Manipal Hospitals, wellness teams at Amway and other established corporate facilities. Luvena works closely with doctors and integrative medicine practitioners and physicians across the world – having mentored and collaborated with teams in the US, UK, Canada, Dubai, Europe, and India. She currently hosts a monthly focus group talk for yoga teachers to discuss yoga anatomy and integrative practices that can benefit the yoga community – teachers and practitioners alike and is the lead faculty in many yoga teacher training Programs. A powerful motivational speaker, she is a strong advocate of empowering women, advocating gender equity and redefining the role of women in a patriarchal society and corporate culture.

Formerly the Bangalore Chairperson, Luvena is currently the India Chairperson for Social Media Support with the ALL Ladies League – the world’s largest all-inclusive international women’s chamber and a global movement for the Welfare, Wealth, and Wellbeing of ALL by empowering women’s leadership. She is the recipient of the award for Exceptional Woman of Excellence 2017 by the Women’s Economic Forum to be held in Delhi in April 2018. Luvena caps her day by being a dedicated mother raising three young very active children.