Our Teachers
Bio Coming Soon
Wednesday
10:45am - 12:00am Level I
5:30pm - 6:55pm Vinyasa & Alignment I/II
Thursday
4:15pm - 5:25pm Level I-II
Jodie DiMinno is a certified instructor of Kripalu Yoga and has been a student of yoga for more than ten years. She spent three years as a resident staff member and facilitator of yoga and self-discovery programs at the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health in Massachusetts, one of the premier centers for yoga in the country. Through the practice of yoga, Jodie has found a deep sense of peace and grace within; it is one of her greatest joys to share this gift with others.
Wednesday
7:00pm - 8:30pm Restorative
Sunday
6:30pm - 8:00pm Restorative
Christine Fiorentino is an inventive and adventurous instructor, drawing her inspiration from an eclectic variety of sources. A primary influence is her background as a professional dancer/instructor with a degree in dance from CSULB. She caught fire for yoga while living in New York, practicing with Cyndi Lee at the renowned Om Yoga Studio. This led her to Oakland, where she completed the intensive 650-hour Yoga Teacher Training under the guidance of Rodney Yee.
Early in her career as a Yoga teacher in Santa Cruz, Christine discovered the path of spiritual inquiry as taught by Adyashanti. This teaching has been invaluable in deepening her understanding of the mind-body-spirit connection and the true meaning of Yoga. Most recently she has been inspired by her own personal practice, integrating insights from professionals in a variety of fields and modalities. Christine has been teaching in Humboldt County since 2005 and feels excited and blessed to be part of the thriving Yoga community in this area.
Tuesday
5:30pm - 6:55pm Vinyasa & Alignment
Thursday
5:30pm - 6:55pm Vinyasa & Alignment
Franchesca Hanna began her yoga practice on San Juan Island, Washington where she first took classes in Anusara and Vinyasa style Yoga. Once introduced, yoga became an important part of her life. As her love for yoga continued to grow, she found it to be a beautiful gift to her life that has helped her on spiritual, physical, and emotional levels. She believes that yoga is a great tool that is valuable to anyone at any age and ability level. While living on San Juan Island, Franchesca worked as the Art Director at Stepping Stones Children’s Center Preschool. Early on, it became apparent to Franchesca physical movement can help children find focus. Teaching yoga to children is an exciting new venture for her, as she believes that Yoga is a great form of physical movement that brings focus and centering to all who practice. As a new mother, Franchesca believes that it is important to integrate Yoga into her son’s life from early on. She is very grateful for the opportunity to help bring Yoga into other children's lives, as well as to provide a place where children and their caregivers can come and celebrate Yoga together.
Thursday
10:30am - 11:30am Mommy/Daddy & Me, ages 0-5; $5 per child
Raki Kopernik grew up between Chicago and Israel. She has a gymnastics and dance background, which is what drew her to yoga. She started teaching classical hatha yoga and Vinyasa in 1997, then in 2005 took a break to live in the middle of nowhere and have an amazing garden. She's thrilled to be back in town, able to share her yoga practice once again. Her classes have a strong focus on the breath and on opening the heart. When not practicing yoga, Raki plays rock music in a band, grows flowers and vegetables, and writes short stories she reads to her cat.
Tuesday
9:00am - 10:25am Vinyasa Flow I/II
Thursday
9:00am - 10:25am Vinyasa Flow I/II
Shemaia "Skywater" Lucas – Certified yoga teacher/performing artist/
vibrational healer. As a dancer/poet/seeker, Shemaia came to yoga with a curiosity for its beauty and deep mystery. Her practice over more than two decades had a huge impact on her body/mind fitness approach as a trainer/teacher.
Shemaia has been teaching yoga since 1988, and her influences and teachers are wondrously varied; Kundalini, Ashtanga, Iyengar, Taoist yoga and now, especially, Anusara make up the threads of her Yoga tapestry. Widely known teachers she has trained with have been Erich Schiffmann, Shari Friedrichsen, Ana Forrest, Paul Grilley, Judith Lasater, Tim Miller and, most currently, Sarajoy Marsh, Mary Pafford, and Anusara’s founder, John Friend.
Shemaia’s compassionate, supportive teaching reflects her reverence for this practice and its capacity to facilitate awareness, health and the profound recognition that our core essence IS pure luminosity!
Tuesday
10:30am - 12:00am Anusara Inspired I/II
Thursday
10:30am - 12:00am Anusara Inspired I/II
April Martin – Truth: April is way too rajasic – a fireball of energy racing at light speed to that space, that place, where she is floating, free of body, free of mind, aware of all, knowing of all, and at peace with all. April, STOP. Breathe. That space, that place will always be. So enjoy the journey. Five deep breaths. Count them, slowly. Sit, breathe and be.... Yoga.
April is a graduate of the North Carolina School of Yoga under the guidance of Chandra Om, senior disciple of Sri Dharma Mittra.
Monday
5:45pm - 7:25pm Hatha Raja I/II
Wednesday
5:45pm - 7:25pm Hatha Raja I/II
Friday
5:45pm - 7:25pm Hatha Raja I/II
Marta discovered meditation early in life when she ventured alone into the silence of the wilderness thirty years ago. This experience led her to formal training in Zen and in Buddhism. She has been slowly deepening her practice over the decades, and now enjoys sharing her depth, insights, and enthusiasm for meditation practice.
Sunday
5:30pm - 6:30pm Universal Meditation; Free
Janine Melzer teaches Forrest Yoga as a way to support and inspire students to become their most genuine selves. She is passionately committed to getting people turned on to embodying spirit in their yoga practice and in their lives. Janine asks her students to bring a willingness to work honestly at their edges without struggling, clearing the way to find delight in every breath
Tuesday
9:00am - 10:25am Forrest Yoga All Levels
Saturday
9:00am - 10:30am Forrest Yoga All Levels
Laura has been practicing Yoga for 18 years and teaching for seven. She likes to incorporate somatic and movement principles as well as yoga philosophy and poetry in her teaching. It is her wish to give the student tools and inspiration to find her/his own inner teacher. She feels very passionate about Yoga – the infinite path of Self-inquiry and Self-discovery – and the joy of embodying consciousness! She has studied with Shiva Rae, Simon Park, Paul and Suzie Grilley, and has completed several teacher trainings.
Tuesday
6:30pm - 8:00pm Vinyasa Flow I/II
Thursday
6:30pm - 8:00pm Vinyasa Flow I/II
Seth “Bhavaji” Powell has tapped into a great Source of love and light in this life. Through his deepening journey into yoga, he has learned to cultivate and share this great joy with others. His life is his practice (sadhana), and his practice is his art,his gift of expression to the world. In 2008, Seth decided to walk to school, literally. He embarked on a Pilgrimage for Peace, trekking up the coast of California from San Diego to Arcata, on foot! This was a life-transforming journey of Self-discovery, as Seth moved mindfully upon the Earth, one step, one breath at a time. The pilgrimage affirmed his commitment to live life as a message of peace, love, and nonviolence – qualities that shine through his teaching. Seth completed his 200-hour Hatha Yoga teacher training in Grass Valley, CA through the lineage of Paramahansa Yogananda. He is currently finishing his last semester at HSU, where he will obtain a B.A. in Religious Studies in May, 2010. Seth has been immersed in the sacred texts and study of the world’s various religious and spiritual traditions with a special emphasis on Eastern Religion, particularly Buddhism, Hinduism, and Yoga. He also currently teaches yoga at HSU. Seth’s passion and zeal for life and yoga is contagious. It is his greatest joy to share this journey and practice with others – to help students explore their unique connection to Spirit on the path of Self-discovery. Om Shanti Shalom Peace! Check out his blog http://mindfulroots.blogspot.com
Tuesday
4:15pm - 5:25pm Level I-II
Sunday
5:00pm - 6:25pm Seth's Sadhana All Levels
Peggy Profant spent her teenage years on the beaches of Santa Barbara drinking wheat grass, throwing a frisbee, and sharing yoga with her sunworshipping friends. In yoga she had discovered the fountain of youth! She has been an explorer of wilderness and culture and has traveled the world to experience the many flavors of life. Formerly a wilderness guide, her journey into parenthood has settled her in the Arcata area to become a massage therapist and yoga teacher. Peggy co-founded World Family Yoga, retreats which combine the three things she most loves: family, yoga and travel. Her eleven years of teaching yoga have been influenced by Iyengar and Ashtanga Yoga, which she became passionate about during her travels to India. Now Peggy's love resides with the teachings of Anusara yoga. She travels frequently to study with Anusara's founder, John Friend, and has become a certified Anusara Yoga teacher. Based in Tantric philosophy, Anusara offers a heart-centered, life-affirming approach to hatha yoga, with an exquisite attention to alignment. It is Peggy's joyful passion to share the teachings of yoga with her students.
Monday
9:00am - 10:40am Anusara Yoga II/III
10:45am - 12:00am Anusara Yoga I
Wednesday
9:00am - 10:30am Anusara Yoga I/II
10:35am - 10:55am Pranayama & Meditation; Free
Friday
9:00am - 10:25am Anusara Yoga I/II
10:45am - 12:00am Anusara Yoga I
Paula Scott was introduced to yoga in India in 1993 and since then has had an eclectic background in her journey of self discovery, including vipassana meditation, restorative, primal energetics, Anusara, belly yoga, pirate yoga, diamond heart work, and more. One of her greatest teachers was her own pregnancy and labor. She brings to her classes a soulful curiosity, weaving poetic imagery into breath and movement and stillness with the intent of touching the deeper realms of being and integrating these deeper realms into life. She has been teaching in the community for nine years, primarily at HSU. Paula holds certifications from the California Yoga Alliance – certified through the teacher training program at Yoga Mendocino under the direction of Mary Pafford – the National Council of Massage Therapists, and the National Guild of Hypnotists. In addition to prenatal yoga, she offers hypnobirthing, baby yoga, doula services and massage therapy.
Monday
9:00am - 10:30am Prenatal Yoga
Lori Snyder's pre-yoga world included dance, taking kids and adults snorkeling with sea lions and sharks, booking music at a Hollywood club, fiction writing (still happening), and way too many years of college. She has studied with her primary teacher, Max Strom, since 1997 and has also practiced or trained with Erich Schiffmann, Steve Ross, and many other incredibly spirited yoga teachers.
What captures her most about yoga is its power to remind us how connected we all are, and how ridiculously happy and beautiful life can be. With her background in dance and music, Lori has a blast creating musical mixes that add to the experience of breath and being, so expect music as an integral part of her classes.
Tuesday
7:30pm - 9:00pm Groove Yoga I/II
Wednesday
11:00am - 12:30am Vinyasa Flow I/II
Thursday
7:30pm - 9:00pm Groove Yoga I/II
Friday
11:00am - 12:30am Vinyasa Flow I/II
Saturday
10:30am - 12:00am Groove Yoga II/III
New Teachers / Teacher Trainees
Om Shala Yoga offers $5 community classes taught by our teacher trainees or by newly certified teachers.
Tuesday
1:00pm - 2:30pm Community Class - $5; All Levels
Wednesday
7:30pm - 9:00pm Community Class - $5; All Levels
Thursday
1:00pm - 2:30pm Community Class - $5; All Levels
Mary Tillman began her journey with yoga at age 15 when her mother took her to her first yoga class. As a dancer, she instantly fell in love with the combination of breath and movement. Practicing yoga all the while, she graduated from HSU with a degree in modern dance and soon became certified to teach yoga. She continues to learn and is currently studying Bliss Yoga (Svaroopa). Also an avid surfer, Mary loves surfing on the North Coast and is the founder of Humboldt Ocean Adventures Surf School, teaching surfing and ocean safety during the summers. Mary loves practicing yoga at the beach!
Monday
11:00am - 12:30am Vinyasa Flow I/II
7:00pm - 8:30pm Vinyasa Bliss I/II
Children remind us to live in the moment and from the heart. Elizabeth is delighted to have the opportunity to share yoga time with you and/or your little ones. She was certified by Om Shree Om Kids Yoga in 2006 and has taught yoga in several local schools. A credentialed teacher, she is grateful to be able to take time off to raise her son, Humboldt, but still loves to teach and be with kids, whose souls are so close to pure spirit. Elizabeth thanks the many wonderful teachers who have helped her to open her heart to universal love.
Thursday
4:15pm - 5:25pm Kids' Yoga ages 9-12
Teacher photos by Eva York Photography.