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.

Maria E Garré, M.Ed, AP, AYT, ERYT-500, is an ayurvedic practitioner, ayurvedic yoga therapist, and Prana Vinyasa Instructor. She is a respected educator and leader in the field of yoga and ayurveda. Maria delivers practical and inspirational classes, courses that inspire all levels of students. Studying and teaching under her root teachers Shiva Rea, Vasant Lad, and Ma India for the past 15 years, she is both a devoted student and humble teacher. Maria integrates more than 20 years of graduate education in biomedical sciences and philosophy, alongside yoga and ayurveda, to lead individuals and
professionals in practice, learning, healing and life experiences. Maria has owned, managed, directed programs at various colleges, organizations, studios and institutes around the country before becoming the founding director for the New Mexico School of Yoga. The New Mexico School of Yoga is committed to pioneering educational programming in yoga, ayurveda and vedic sciences through empowering healing wisdom for peaceful living. For more information you can find her at www.mariagarre.com or www.nmschoolofyoga.com.

Heidi Goldman, C-IAYT, RYT-500, YACEP, LMT, Certified Industrial Ergonomist (CIE), has been called a “Teacher of Teachers” and is a certified Yoga Instructor with the California Yoga Teachers Association (CYTA)/California Institute for Yoga Teacher Education, currently the San Francisco Iyengar Yoga Institute, with 43 years of experience. Her passion and life’s work flows into the Yoga Equipoise System – Yes! Yoga, which inquires into the study of the body, mind and emotions, tapping into the innate wisdom of the body, the center-piece of her work centers around using balls of different sizes to complement and support classical Yoga poses. Her teaching style, is always evolving through what she calls “the Yoga of Inquiry and Inspired Awareness”. Having grown up in the Iyengar tutelage, good body mechanics is first and foremost as far as the asanas but her roots go deep into the yoga sutra’s and the 8-fold path of yoga. Her life is immersed into studying the scriptures, meditation, and yoga philosophy. Heidi is one of the original co-founders of the world-renowned Feathered Pipe Ranch and director of Yoga Vacations since 1976, a yoga retreat and conscious living center in Helena, Montana. She has had the honor of studying with some of the best yoga and consciousness teachers in the world.

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.

Jasmine uses her experience, education, and talents to campaign for change in her community. With more than 10 years of experience working in the Charlotte, NC construction industry, Jasmine uses a collaborative approach to build bridges of trust among diverse groups, optimizing effectiveness and communication. Through her leadership, Jasmine has consistently delivered cutting edge programming with transformative effects. The Amplify and Activate Summit is her most recent work that launched in December 2017.  It is an interactive, inquiry-based learning community that lives at the intersection of yoga, social justice and self care. This collaboration, led primarily by of women of color, employs tools from yoga to dispel the myths of race and eradicate the harmful effects of white supremacy and racism while fortifying people in their work to reconnect human spirits.

In 2016, she wrote a proclamation to the city of Charlotte declaring December 4th as Self Care Day, thereby challenging the current power structure. The proclamation called for the government and citizens to recognize and acknowledge that the primary source of power is in the hands of the citizens. Additionally, it encourages citizens to take back their power by learning and then implementing practical strategies to address their critical needs.

Jasmine is a graduate of UCLA and earned a Master of Science in Organization Development from the McColl School of Business at Queens University of Charlotte. She is passionate about physical activity and sports; she is a former volleyball and basketball player and also trained professionally in Olympic style weightlifting with the aim of reaching the 2000 Olympics for the debut of the sport. She enjoys yoga, long nature walks, and encouraging her daughter’s budding athletic career.

Amber Karnes is the founder of Body Positive Yoga. She’s a ruckus maker, yoga asana teacher (E-RYT 200), social justice advocate, and a lifelong student of her body. Her commitment to accessible, adaptive yoga practice empowers thousands of diverse practitioners around the globe. She is the creator of the Body Positive Clubhouse, an online community using the tools of yoga to build unshakable confidence and learn to live out loud. Through her workshops, retreats, teacher trainings, and online yoga and wellness offerings, she seeks to further the message of inclusivity, consent, agency, body sovereignty, and accessibility for all (on and off the yoga mat). Amber is an Accessible Yoga Trainer, Project Yoga Richmond board member, Yoga International featured teacher, and a contributor to the Yoga and Body Image Coalition. She lives in Richmond, Virginia, with her husband Jimmy, and blogs at bodypositiveyoga.com.

Shelby Lafrinere is a yoga teacher, yoga therapist, personal trainer, and certified polarity practitioner (integrative bodywork). As an artist, activist, professional dancer, and lover of laughter, she began meditating in high school and practicing yoga in 1997. As a student, yoga has guided her recovery from addiction and severe PTSD and has remained a continual healing companion after a traumatic brain injury and the severe hyperextension of my entire spine in 2003. Teaching since 2005, she teaches the full 8 Limbs of yoga and nine styles of asana. Shelby begin training teachers in 2010 and created curriculum for 200 Hr and 300 Hr Yoga Teacher Trainings, Continuing Education Intensives, and workshops. She has also worked as a Yoga Therapist in both private practice and clinical settings since 2007 with focus on injury recovery, chronic pain and stress management, breathing improvement, postural re-patterning, anxiety, depression, addiction, and eating disorders.

Shelby has held management positions at high volume and high-quality yoga studios in Southern California and Ohio, taught yoga and philosophy as a Lecturer at the Ohio State University, was employed within professional dance companies as an injury recovery specialist and arm balance/inversion coach, and has had work published in the IDEA Fitness Journal. As a personal trainer and certified polarity practitioner, her instruction is an accessible blend of science and philosophy reflecting the wisdom of the Krishnamacharya lineage that states “yoga should always adapt to meet the ever changing needs of the unique individual.”

www.shelbylafrinere.com

Ryan McGraw approaches every class with the belief that everyone can do yoga. As a person with cerebral palsy who has been practicing yoga for 15 years, Ryan is well aware that yoga poses can be adapted to meet the needs of the student, no matter their level of ability.

Ryan earned his 200-hour yoga teaching certificate from Prairie Yoga in 2011 and completed two adaptive yoga teacher trainings with Matthew Sanford. He received a Master’s degree in Disability and Development from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2013 and created an adapted yoga manual for people with disabilities for his master’s thesis. He continues his studies in accessible yoga with Gabriel Halpern in Chicago.

Featured in a US News and World Report article on adaptive yoga, Ryan has written about his yoga experience in Yoga and Body Image, a collection of essays from people who are not the average yoga practitioners.

Nikki Myers, MBA, C-IAYT yoga therapist, somatic experiencing practitioner, addictions recovery specialist, and certified health coach is an accomplished speaker, teacher and practitioner. Born from her personal struggle with addiction, Nikki is the founder of Y12SR, the Yoga of 12-Step Recovery. Based in its theme “the issues live in the tissues,” Y12SR is a relapse prevention program that weaves the art and science of yoga with the practical tools of 12-step programs. Y12SR meetings are now available throughout the world and the curriculum is rapidly becoming a feature of addiction recovery treatment centers. Nikki’s work has been featured in the New York Times, Black Enterprise, The Huffington Post, Origin magazine, and CBSnews.com. She is honored to be a co-founder of the annual Yoga, Meditation and Recovery Conferences at Esalen Institute and Kripalu Center. Nikki was named as a Yoga Journal Game Changer in 2015 and honored as a recipient of the esteemed NUVO Cultural Visionary Award in 2014. Visit www.y12sr.com.

Arturo Peal is a Certified Yoga therapist who holds a Masters Degree in Chinese Medicine and practices Craniosacral Therapy. He has been involved in the “alternative” health-care field for more than 30 years, teaching anatomy and physiology for yoga teacher trainings, body workers, and for other movement specialists. He integrates his expertise in anatomy, kinesiology, Chinese Medicine, and the healing processes to present a multidimensional understanding of the human body. Arturo teaches trainings in New York, San Francisco, Slovenia, Australia and Italy. His weekly Therapeutic Yoga classes in New Orleans satisfy the needs of students who are unable to do a traditional yoga practice because of injury, illness or age.

Sherry Sidoti is the Director and Lead Teacher of FLY Yoga School, a 200 hour and Advanced Yoga Teacher Training on Martha’s Vineyard. She is the Founder of FLY Outreach, a non-profit organization dedicated to serving the community through yoga education, teaching scholarships and yoga related leadership programs that address the pressing needs of the Island and the community at large; providing training and programs that focus on Yoga for Substance Use Disorder and Yoga for Pain Management. 

Sherry has been teaching yoga since 2004 and studying yoga and shamanism for two decades. She is a true teachers’ teacher; training and mentoring over 160 teachers, and has developed curriculum and guest teaches for other yoga schools nationwide, including her teacher Saul David Raye’s Atma Yoga Studies Program. Sherry was the recipient of Yoga Alliance’s Scholarship for Advanced Studies in the Spring of 2017. 

Sherry’s journey in the educational field began in 1995 when she did Teach for America, and landed as a bilingual fourth grade teacher in Washington Heights, NYC. Following two years in public schools and another two getting her Masters in Museum Education from NYU, she was the Education Specialist for Community Audiences at the J.Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, where she developed the curriculum and the teacher training program using art to teach ESL (English as a Second Language) to immigrant adults throughout Los Angeles.

When yoga “found her” in the late 90s, it was no surprise that eventually she’d blend her professional background with her spiritual practice and open her own yoga school. Her knowledge bridges ancient yoga wisdom to modern living in a relatable and accessible way, encompassing yoga as holistic science, spiritual practice, and a way of life. Sherry communicates how seamlessly the yoga practice offers tools for transmuting the stresses of modern daily living and continuously offers opportunities for her students to make these connections for themselves.