After enduring one of the most challenging years of her life, Alex (she/they) was introduced to yoga by a supportive college roommate. Gradually, yoga became a path to healing, helping Alex to feel whole again. Determined to rebuild and strengthen her foundation, Alex traveled to Rishikesh, India, in 2016 to deepen her practice and study at Shiva Yoga Peeth. Since then, Alex has been both a dedicated teacher and lifelong student of Yoga.

Anna found her way to yoga during the pandemic through a group challenge that was meant to keep her moving—and it did! But it also did something unexpected: it helped Anna slow down, turn inward, and sparked a curiosity that led her to dive deeper into the teachings of yoga.

Becca has been practicing yoga for almost two decades, exploring many styles and studios, both near and far. New to Roanoke, Becca, like many of us, found continued peace, community, and solace in yoga during the pandemic and was inspired to complete a 200 hour yoga teacher training.

Beth has been practicing yoga since 2008 and is a graduate of the Uttara 200 & 300hr YTT programs. Her practice and teaching have been transformational in both her work and her life. It has been and continues to be a gift.

Brittany spent her childhood through high school heavily involved in sports. She first picked up a Rodney Yee DVD after seeing Mary-Kate and Ashley with a yoga mat. Yoga came in and out of focus as the beat down from running her whole life took its toll. Seeing how much acupuncture healed her from the inside out she wanted to explore yoga through the same view.

Corey is a graduate of Uttara’s 200 Hour Teacher Training Program and is a Registered Yoga Teacher with Yoga Alliance.

In his classes, Corey strives to provide others with the opportunity to experience the peace and strength that already exists within themselves.

To Cortney, yoga is about the joy she finds in moving her body, and finding inner peace and calmness that she can carry into her life off the yoga mat. She’s practiced yoga for nearly 10 years, but during the pandemic, while being pregnant with her daughter, she realized she wanted to deepen her practice. Cortney completed her 200-Hour Yoga Teacher Training Certificate to learn and grow in her practice. She wants to share her love of yoga with her daughter and others. Cortney wants to bring her students on a journey that she herself is still on. Cortney’s style of teaching is rooted in her belief that yoga should be fun, flowing, and thoughtful. She wants to challenge her students to grow from the inside out.

Dawnbee began practicing yoga in 2019. Although she had taken classes before, this time was different. Her practice quickly began to deepen as she realized that yoga gave her space to be in awe of the body, and to calm an anxious mind. For her, yoga has brought deep healing and connection in multiple aspects of life. Yoga allows you to deeply tune into your entire body (physical and spiritual), what is it asking for in this moment? Let your intuition be your guide! Yoga has given her the courage to surrender, the power to sustain, and the confidence to step into her truth.

Elizabeth received her 200 Yoga Teacher Training certification through a comprehensive program at the Marianne Wells Yoga School in Cahuita, Costa Rica. She then went on to pursue her 500 Hour Yoga Teacher Training certification through Uttara Yoga Studio. She is currently registered through the Yoga Alliance. She is a finance and marketing graduate of the University of Virginia.

Emily first discovered the transformative power of yoga while observing how it brought a sense of calm to her preschool classroom during moments of chaos. During the pandemic, she turned to her mat as a sanctuary, using yoga to ground herself, breathe deeply, and reconnect with her body, heart, and mind.

Evie is a longtime native of Roanoke. She has been teaching yoga since 2003, receiving her 200 hour certificate from Anna Pittman, RYT-500, in Blacksburg, VA in 2004 and her 300 hour certificate from the Himalayan Institute in 2014. In addition, Evie is certified in Restorative Breathwork®, Divine Sleep® Yoga Nidra, Dynamic Gentle Yoga, and has some training in Viniyoga. She has also studied Vipassana meditation with Shinzen Young, founder of Unified Mindfulness. Evie strives for her students to deepen their awareness of breath and body sensation through gentle yoga poses and longer relaxations at the end of classes. Not only does she incorporate what she has learned into each Svasana, she will often use chimes and tingsha bells to help students stay awake and aware during relaxation to enhance awareness of vibrations in the body and spirit.

Gabrielle began her yoga path 4 years ago after being gifted a mat and DVD from a loved one. She began a gentle home practice and attending classes. Yoga began to unveil a whole new level of gratitude for life, spirit, and the physical body. It was the beginning of a powerful healing – giving praise, love, and honor for what the mind and body are capable of instead of what is lacking.

Harrilyn Mills started her yoga journey at Uttara in 2009. From her very first yoga class to now, she continues to be uplifted by the soul-warming light of the teachers and students that pass through the studio doors. Harrilyn completed her yoga teacher training in 2014 at Uttara and has since received certifications in restorative yoga, yin yoga, somatic yoga, and meditation. The biggest lessons, however, still come from her own mat. In her classes, she seeks to create a space where students are invited to be fully present in their body, mind, and breath, learning their own lessons in the same way. For Harrilyn, yoga creates a sacred silence, a coming home, where all can begin to understand themselves and can choose to participate in a loving way in their own growth. And, very importantly, doing it with a light heart and a healthy dose of humor.

Harvey has been practicing Yoga since 2019 starting with a Yoga Life Transformation Course and continuing with 200-hour Yoga Teacher Training, both at Uttara Yoga Studio. Through the Yoga Teacher Training Program he encountered the teachings of Goswami Kriyananda, whose philosophy continues to form the core of his practice.

Jeremy Price is a Fitness Trainer with a studious passion for Functional Training and Intrinsic Well-being. During his 17 year tenure performing with Stomp, Jeremy sustained and recovered from numerous career-threatening injuries. It was during this time that Jeremy’s relationship with recovery became a passion for prevention. Jeremy asserts that by training what we typically take for granted, we sharpen ourselves at an essential level. By examining how we breathe, think, and move we set the stage for less injury, longevity, efficient performance and quicker recovery-should it be neccesary. This tenet applies to athletic endeavors, performing arts, recreational activities, and daily living. In 2020 Jeremy founded VitalWise LLC as platform on which to educate and impart the value of these innate yet fundamentally profound components of well-being.

Kimberly has been practicing, studying and teaching yoga for the past 35 years. A Salem, VA native, she lived in Seattle, WA for many years where she owned her own yoga studio. Kimberly teaches many different styles of yoga with her foundational training rooted in the Integral Yoga tradition, and she is a direct student of Sri Swami Satchidananda.

Laura began her journey on the yogic path in 2006 while living in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. She knew immediately that the practice of yoga would become a consistent thread weaving throughout the fabric of her life. It didn’t take long for Laura to begin to feel the beautiful difference that yoga was making—physically, spiritually, and emotionally—both on and off the mat. Laura continued to deepen her practice after moving to Roanoke in 2009, as well as through seeking out opportunities to visit different studios while traveling the country. She jumped at the chance to be a part of the first Uttara Yoga Teacher Training, and completed the 200-hour program in 2014 under the divine guidance of Jill Loftis and Katie Silcox.

Leilani’s first yoga experience was a class that her sister took her to over 20 years ago in San Francisco. She has since been practicing and teaching around the world from Russia to Australia, London to Honolulu. Classically trained as a dancer, Leilani instantly fell in love with the dance that is yoga. She was certified in the Bikram method in 2010 and the Ashtanga Yoga method in 2015. Leilani teaches from a very personal and honest place and is continually learning how to be a better teacher and student. She looks forward to sharing space and guiding you through practice.

Marie has worn many hats, from world traveler to non-profit researcher, tech worker, labor organizer, and meditation teacher. She’s currently prioritizing health and a slower pace of life, spending time in community in Roanoke, and growing and cooking food from her garden.

Martha Kastler is a believer in not giving up no matter what the circumstances! She feels we are drops in the same vast ocean subject to the rise and fall of each unique wave that comes our way. For her yoga practice allows her to ride the waves of life rather than be swallowed by them. She found yoga in the mid 2000’s and it was the first experience to truly crack her shell and thus began the process of releasing over 30 years of stored chronic pain and trauma from within her body. Yoga led her to becoming certified in Restorative Breathwork®, Bioenergy healing, Havening, and Reiki. She is currently studying to become a Hanna Somatic Educator and offers sessions to release and prevent trauma through this unique mind body approach. She offers a diverse tool set to meet the needs of clients in person in the Roanoke valley and beyond through online sessions. Additionally Martha is a certified Ayurvedic Wellness Coach and is passionate about the power to align with the rhythms of nature to support health, uproot disease, and promote longevity.

Since being introduced to eastern philosophy in her undergraduate studies, Mel has spent the last fifteen years learning about and exploring contemplative traditions and practices. She fell in love with yoga along the way and developed a longing to one day teach. In Spring 2023, she completed the Uttara 200-hour teacher training program, which was life-changing on a personal, professional, and spiritual level. She plans to further her teacher training and eventually acquire the appropriate certifications to weave yoga into her work as a mental health counselor.

Beginning her journey in the late nineties, yoga and meditation have been a salve for Meredith’s heart over the years; a safe place to land when life has been too much or when she didn’t feel like enough.

She offers her students that same opportunity to find their peace. Meredith invites you to bring your authentic self to the mat, to feel everything deeply, and to reawaken the divine within you.

Mike has been practicing yoga since 2018 and is a graduate of Uttara’s 2024-2025 200-Hour Yoga Teacher Training program. He first got into the practice to help manage and recover from previous sport injuries and work on mobility for climbing. However through the pandemic, yoga became a way to center from the chaos of life and to find community.

Natalie has been teaching yoga since 2018, and received her training through the Uttara 200-hour YTT course. She is also a Licensed Professional Counselor, and sees yoga as an essential component in healing on all levels- we can work with our emotions and thoughts, but must also release everything we store in our bodies to create more openness and freedom. She brings her mental-health focus to the way she builds practices, and enjoys intuitive, creative flows designed to help you connect with yourself on a deeper level.

Ninette is a graduate of the Uttara Yoga Teacher Training program. During her training she noticed a very distinct difference of what most athletes could do in class versus traditional “yogis”. That is when she knew she wanted to bring yoga to athletes. She is furthering her training and learning therapeutic style yoga which relates directly to athletes and her ability to teach classes that target their typical trouble areas.

Precious McCullough has been practicing yoga for eight years and is a graduate of the 200 hr Uttara Yoga Teacher Training Program. She has a background in Microbiology and Immunology, with an undergraduate degree in Clinical Laboratory Science from Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU). Having a career with a strong technical focus, Precious was drawn to yoga and meditation as a way to center and ground her mind, body, and spirit.

Sally found inspiration from her very first yoga class. She began a continuous quest for knowledge by completing over 500 hours of yoga teacher training at Uttara, and a 300 hour Ayurvedic Studies Program with Katie Silcox at Shakti School. Her goal was to deepen her understanding of health and wellness from a more holistic viewpoint. As she began to embrace yoga and Ayurveda, her passion for teaching grew. She found the most important aspects to be the desire for self-realization, the personal responsibility to love and care for one’s self, the importance of our connections to each other, the world and the universe at large.

Steve has been an athlete all his life, and is an All-American distance runner and has been a competitive bicycle road racer, tri-athlete and mountain bike racer. During his years as a personal trainer he was exposed to yoga and added it to his training routine in 2002. His knowledge, curiosity and interest in the bones, muscles and structure of the body have helped him to recover from and heal several knee surgeries and injuries.

A compassionate and dedicated RYT 200HR teacher, Tuscany brings a deeply mindful approach to the mat—blending her background in Psychology and Sociology with her passion for holistic well-being.

Her classes are soulful, grounding, and full of heart—crafted to help you embrace authenticity and find peace through movement, mindfulness, and meditation.

Vani is a Roanoke native and has an extensive background in teaching Dance and the Arts with a B.A. in Dance and an M.A.L.S from Hollins University as well as a M.F.A. in Photo/Film from VCU. In 2008 she graduated from the Richmond, VA Integral Yoga® 200hr teacher training program taught by Nora ‘Vimala’ Pozzi. In 2012 she graduated with a Master of Science in Occupational Therapy and is currently working in Acute Care at Roanoke Memorial Hospital. In 2019 she completed the 300hr Uttara Advanced Yoga Teacher training-and is certified as a 500 RYT through the National Yoga Alliance.

With a background in dance education, a foundation in somatic practices, and an interest in neuroscience, Wendi contemplates how yoga might offer support for recovering and re-building resilience in the nervous system. Beginning her yoga practice in 1998, she has studied with teachers of ashtanga, jivamukti, yin, and tantra, ayurveda, mudra and mantra. Her classes encourage the integration of breath, movement, and awareness. She sees the practices of yoga and meditation as eternal opportunities to return to the body as a source of wisdom and insight.