Most significantly, Shiva Rea turned me onto Vinyasa Flow in 1996. I feel blessed to have studied and assisted with her in classes and on many retreats in the late 1990s. The fluid power and grace of the yoga dance she embodies in her life and teaching greatly shapes my own practice and teaching to this day.

In 1996 and 1997 I did the teacher training program at Yoga Works with Maty Ezraty, Eddie Modestini and Chuck Miller, followed by six-month apprenticeships with Jasmine Lieb and Shiva Rea. I have deepened and refined these studies over the years through my personal practice, teaching and in advanced student and teacher workshops with Dona Holleman, Aadil Palkhivala, Tim Miller, Richard Freeman, Lisa Walford, John Schumacher, John Friend, Kofi Busia, Rodney Yee, Patricia Walden, Gary Kraftsow, Ramanand Patel and others.

I started teaching a full schedule of Vinyasa Flow classes and workshops at Malibu Yoga in 1997 and Flow classes at Yoga Works in Santa Monica in 2000. I then founded, directed and taught at L.A. Yoga Center, which offered over 90 classes weekly, a wide variety of workshops, teacher training and yoga retreats until selling to Yoga Works in 2004. Along with teaching classes and workshops, I have led yoga retreats at White Lotus Foundation, Zaca Lake, Maya Tulum, Machu Picchu, Joshua Tree National Park and in the Eastern Sierras.

In 1996, my involvement with the Samaya Foundation in bringing Buddhist monks from Dharmasala, India to teach meditation to incarcerated youth inspired me to create Yoga Inside Foundation. From 1997-2004, the Foundation created hundreds of opportunities and provided material support and guidance for yoga teachers in giving the gift of yoga in inner city and poor rural schools, treatment center, prisons and other unlikely places in 42 states. Tens of thousands of children, youth and adults have participated in these programs, and many teachers and community leaders have been inspired and supported by Foundation in creating similar initiatives all across North America. Yoga Journal recognized this work with its 1st Annual Karma Yoga Award in 2000.

A native of Santa Cruz, California, I somehow navigated through a pretty wild adolescence in the desert communities of Southern California and eventually made my way to college. I graduated from UC Santa Cruz with highest honors in Community Studies and Sociology and then completed far too many years of masters and doctoral studies on topics of historical sociology, social theory and politics at UCLA, which yoga has done much to alleviate. I taught at UCLA and L.A. City College, worked for many years in activist politics and social change efforts, and was a senior administrator in the L.A. County alternative school system until 2000.

I feel blessed to teach on my native soil and to be connected with the wonderfully open and vibrant Santa Cruz yoga community. I am registered with Yoga Alliance at the E-RYT 500 level and offer classes for all levels of students, advanced yoga studies courses, teacher workshops and a comprehensive Yoga Teacher Training certification program.

"Breathing in I calm the body and mind.
Breathing out
I smile, Dwelling in the present moment – I know this is the only moment."