I am a passionate Social Worker with the intention to spread the gift of yoga to cultivate healthy communities. My conviction to create supportive environments that foster change is the foundation for my yoga teaching. This is inspired by my own yoga practice and teacher trainings in Ashtanga Vinyasa and Anusara.

I enjoy gold ceilings and tea parties. I have been known to wear angel wings, bonnets and bake blue cakes.  My favorite color is green. I've lived in Russia (many gold ceilings) as well as traveled to many far off and fancy lands. I've been in the company of saints and sages and been given holy names in ancient languages. I swam in the Ganges. I've eaten frog's legs. My best friend's name is Willow.  I like the window seat. Who I'd like to meet: Yoda

Yoga provides me with a framework to continue to study and increase my understanding of the intelligence behind the science of the human form, and how when we align it according to the laws of nature, we create more beauty both inside and out.

I started teaching yoga in 2000, after taking my first Yoga teacher training. In following years I experimented with various yoga styles, until I happily found Anusara Yoga.

My greatest joy in teaching is seeing a student discover that how through yoga we can unlock the key to a door that reveals a healthy mind, an energetic body and a warm, open heart.

I have spent most of my life investigating the movement and form of the body. The curiosity began at the age of eleven when I began studying dance and gymnastics. The study of dance brought me to Los Angeles to study at California Institute of the Arts, where I received my BFA in dance performance and choreography. Since living in Los Angeles my study of the body has included the areas of balinese dance, Feldenkrais bodywork, yoga and massage therapy. I am fascinated with how the physical body allows the inner body (spirit and heart) to be expressed in a multitude of ways. Without fail, the outer and inner body connect in an attempt to express and bring into form the truths that are carried within our hearts. It is my goal to help my students reside in the space of their own hearts in order to playfully expand from within.

I began practicing yoga in my hometown of New York City when a friend invited me to a class at Alan Finger's studio "Be Yoga" in 2000. There and then, I began a dedicated practice of ISHTA yoga. I was an eager and avid student and my passion for the practice of yoga developed quickly.

A 2004 relocation to the West Coast brought the Anusara practice into my life. Since then, I have studied with a number of world-renowned teachers of Anusara Yoga including its founder, John Friend, and other established teachers including Desiree Rumbaugh, Ross Rayburn, Tiffany Fraser and Douglass Brooks among others.

I found my first Anusara home at Yoga Inside Out, where I practiced and taught until the merger with Bala Yoga. Since the close of both those studios, I have had the opportunity to teach at the some of the best studios in town including Liberation Yoga, Black Dog Yoga, Center For Yoga-Yogaworks, Exhale, Mission Street Yoga and now Urth Yoga. I am a caring teacher with an inspiring energy that is matched only by my infectiously playful spirit. I look forward to seeing you in class.

In early 2002, I sustained a shoulder injury in the gym. As an alternative to lifting weights, I decided to try yoga for the first time. After one class, I realized that yoga offered much more than just a great workout. I migrated out of the gym and into local yoga studios. Yoga quickly became my primary training for body, mind, and spirit.

I have studied a variety of yoga styles and respect all of them for their diverse offerings. My ongoing practice, training, and teaching is dedicated to the Anusara style, a heart opening practice that focuses on alignment. In my teaching, I strive to be creative and fun, helping students to take their practices off the mat and into their daily lives.

I offer my teaching and practice to my teachers; Peter Barnett who got me to come back, even when I needed 3 blocks to do Uttanasana. Peter continues to teach me to make yoga light and fun. Anthony Benenati for teaching me the difference between leading a class and teaching a class. John Friend for his inspiration and wisdom, and his ability to organize an incredibly sophisticated system of hatha yoga into relatively easy to grasp concepts. Will Duprey for getting yoga off the pages of books and making it experiential. Will taught me that yoga isn't something you do. It's something you are. And I thank so many others who have offered wisdom, support, love, and encouragement, whether they knew it or not.

My introduction to yoga came from my mother when I was a teenager studying ballet.  I would come home from dance lessons to see her on the living room floor in positions that looked fun and reminded me of dance.  As an adult I rediscovered yoga and began to understand the spiritual connection between my body and my breath.  No longer just a physical activity, yoga became my meditation until I learned how to be still to meditate.  I was so grateful to my teachers that I wanted to give back.

I took my first teacher training four years ago at Earth's Power Yoga and began teaching there right away.  This first experience made me realize how vast a concept yoga is, and prompted me to take a second training at Black Dog Yoga where I first encountered Anusara alignment principles that have absolute transformed my teaching as well as my own practice.  Today I teach a mixed style of yoga -  Power Vinyasa Flow with Anusara alignment.  I thank all my teachers who taught me how to teach. Steven Earth, Peter Barnett, Matt Schwartz, Greta Hill, John Friend and Shiva Rea, and a whole host of others  who inspire me everyday.

For me, yoga is a way of being. It's an intimate exploration of self in the world, a practice of engaging the heart of supreme beauty by penetrating and experiencing my own authentic heart. I encourage my students to plunge into the ocean of their own divine being - to explore, experience, and express their innate goodness and truth from within. My classes are personal, safe, and fun. I always intend for my students to feel even better after class than when they began. The possibilities are infinite!

I am ever grateful to all of my teachers, particularly John Friend and Dr. Douglas Brooks. I offer my practice to the currents of grace they continue to remind me of.

I am a Certified Anusara Yoga instructor.

I live in the valley with my husband, daughter, and 2 cats (also yogins).

I drink green tea and bubbly water all the time.

I am totally excited to share this journey with those who desire to align with their hearts and soar brightly.

I first discovered yoga during my theatre training at Meadows School of the Arts at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, TX. At the time, I don’t think I even realized that I was doing yoga, but gradually became more and more aware of the connection between the mind, the body, the breath and eventually the Self. After moving to Chicago in 2003, I began practicing Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga with a wonderful teacher and soon became enthralled with the process of Yoga. In my classes, I tend to focus on breath as an avenue to the deeper layers of being and the fact that yoga is a process of transformation, reminding students frequently that in order to transform, we must first come to realize that we are beginning from somewhere. I strive for a fun and relaxed atmosphere while inspiring a passionate approach to this ancient and sacred art.