I have been teaching for the past twelve years in both big-city studios and small-town locations. Before moving to Cleveland, I owned a studio in Troy, Ohio that offered a full schedule of drop-in classes and private sessions. I taught at Yogaview and Moksha Yoga while living in Chicago for the summer of 2007; I have taught classes, workshops, and teacher trainings at It's Yoga, World Peace Yoga (formerly Gratitude in Motion), and YogahOMe in Cincinnati, as well as LeeLaa Yoga and Practice Yoga in Dayton. I designed and taught undergraduate courses and yoga teacher trainings at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio., and taught 200-hour Yoga Alliance trainings in Cincinnati and Troy.

My practice and studies have always  emphasized finding the action necessary to align the bones and muscles in each posture,  and opening to a quiet awareness and stillness within those actions. This awareness has continued to develop over the years, as I have become able to breathe evenly and move from a clear intention. I strive to balance these elements--awareness, action, alignment, breath, and intention--when I teach.

I wish to offer many, many thanks to all my teachers, both near and far. Everything that is conveyed in my own classes is the wisdom of the teachers who have come before me intersecting with the insight of the students who are here now. It is with the blessing of my teachers that I continue to be this point of intersection.

My Early Experiences and Trainings

I began a daily practice of yoga in 1999 in upstate New York, working with Elizabeth Troy, learning hatha yoga and the hands-on adjustment techniques of Meridian Flexibility and PNF (proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation). When I moved to Ohio, I trained to teach in an eight-month Ashtanga program through  It's Yoga, with Indu Bala Bhardwaj, Mike Burgasser, and Larry Schultz. Here the breath became the guiding principle of my practice.

Then, in 2003, I was honored to train with Sharon Gannon and David Life in their intensive 300-hour program for Jivamukti certification. The passionate commitment of Sharon and David to their students and to the traditions of yoga has been inspirational, and their approach to teaching is the foundation for every one of my classes and workshops.

These training experiences were amazing; they opened my eyes to the teaching of yoga as its own practice, as a karma yoga, bhakti yoga, and jnana yoga practice all rolled into one.

This practice is one in which the learning never ends, so I regularly travel to attend workshops and classes to integrate other traditions and perspectives into my personal practice and teaching. I have participated in workshops and teacher trainings with Sharon Gannon, David Life, Cyndi Lee, David Nichtern, Erich Schiffman, Kathryn Budig, Rodney Yee, Aadhil Palkhivala, Gary Kraftsow, Dharma Mittra, David Swenson, Beryl Bender Birch, Doug Swenson, Larry Schultz, Martha Marcom, Marcia Miller, Seane Corn, Johnny Kest, Bryan Kest, Baron Baptiste, Ana Forrest, Tias Little, Thomas Myers, Paul Grilley, Sarah Powers, Todd Norian, John Friend, Betsey Downing, Ami Jayaprada Hirschstein, Frank Jude Boccio, Julie Kirkpatrick, Kelly Morris, Ruth Lauer-Manenti, and others. I continue to attend classes with senior Jivamukti teachers and teachers from all traditions when I travel.

I draw on principles of alignment and action from many traditions, such as Anusara, Iyengar, and physical therapy when teaching vinyasa-based classes. My training to teach Pilates helps me incorporate core strength movements at crucial moments in yoga sequences to fire up the center. My experience with Taoist Yin Yoga and restorative yoga informs my approach to opening and closing vinyasa classes, as well as teaching gentle sessions.

I find the study of anatomy always fascinating, and I also enjoy studying Sanskrit and the philosophies of yoga, both as they survive in textual form and through lineages of teachers passing them along orally.

My work in transliterating and translating Sanskrit began when I was a linguistics undergraduate at Boston College with Dr. Michael Connolly. I renewed my interest when reading and learning the Yoga Sutras with Indu Bala Bhardwaj, and found a new approach to the Sanskrit language as "asana for the mouth" with Manorama d'Alvia during the Jivamukti training. I continue to delve into it regularly on my own and with fellow teachers.

I study the philosophies of Advaita Vedanta, Tantra, and Buddhism, threading them throughout the classes I teach. I have even written about the influence of these ancient philosophies on western poststructural theory and film theory in the thesis I wrote for my Masters degree. Every facet of yoga and its related traditions fascinates me.