Teachers & Presenters

Bessel van der Kolk, MD, is founder and medical director of the Trauma Center, which provides comprehensive services to traumatized children and adults, and their families. An internationally recognized leader in the field of psychological trauma, van der Kolk has been active as a clinician, researcher, and teacher in the area of post-traumatic stress and related phenomena since the 1970s. traumacenter.org

Sharon Salzberg is cofounder of the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, Massachusetts. One of America’s leading meditation teachers and authors, she has been a student of Buddhism since 1971 and has guided meditation retreats worldwide since 1974. Her latest book is the New York Times best seller Real Happiness. sharonsalzberg.com

Beryl Bender Birch, a dedicated student of yoga and the study of consciousness since 1971, has been training yoga teachers as “spiritual revolutionaries” for nearly 30 years. Author of Power Yoga, Beyond Power Yoga, and Boomer Yoga, she is the director-founder of The Hard & The Soft Yoga Institute and a founder of the Give Back Yoga Foundation. power-yoga.com

Kelly McGonigal, PhD, teaches psychology, yoga, and meditation at Stanford University. She is editor in chief of the International Journal of Yoga Therapy and author of Yoga for Pain Relief, The Willpower Instinct, and the audio series The Neuroscience of Change. She leads yoga teacher trainings that take an integrative approach to yoga philosophy, anatomy, physiology, and psychology. kellymcgonigal.com

Roxanne “Nikki” Myers, E-RYT 500, is a yoga teacher, somatic experiencing practitioner, and an accomplished yoga therapist. Born out of her personal struggles with addiction, she cofounded Y12SR, the acclaimed Yoga of 12-Step Recovery program featured in the New York Times and Yoga Journal. cityoga.biz

Bidyut "B.K." Bose, PhD, is founder and executive director of Niroga Institute, which brings Transformative Life Skills (TLS)—yoga, breathing techniques, and meditation—to students, vulnerable youth, cancer survivors, seniors, and people battling addiction. As a child, he learned yoga and meditation from his father, and later studied with monks in the Himalayas. niroga.org

Meghann Beer, MA, former executive director of Giving Back to Africa, is a nonprofit consultant who has worked with organizations of diverse sizes and missions to help them expand their capacity, develop successful strategies, and effectively evaluate their programs. A yoga teacher and practitioner, she has more than 10 years' experience in the nonprofit sector and cocreated and led Africa Yoga Project’s yoga service trips in Kenya.

Claire Campbell, PCC-S, ATR, NCC, is an artist, supervising clinical counselor, art therapist, and nationally certified counselor who uses the expressive arts, movement, breathwork, guided imagery, yoga, and sensory integration to guide her clinical practice. She has presented workshops nationally on trauma-informed treatment, compassion fatigue, and art-based approaches to wellness.

Jasmine Chehrazi teaches yoga studies as faculty at the George Washington University School of Public Health. She is founder of five community-based yoga studios where she leads trauma-sensitive 200-hour teacher training programs, and founder of Yoga Activist, a nonprofit outreach organization dedicated to improving accessibility and trauma sensitivity in yoga and mindfulness instruction. yogaactivist.org

Andres Gonzalez, MBA, is cofounder and chief financial officer for the Holistic Life Foundation, Inc. A yoga instructor and coauthor of a high school physical education curriculum based on yoga principles, he has been teaching for the past 10 years to diverse populations in Baltimore public schools, drug treatment centers, wellness centers, and colleges. hlfinc.org

Jennifer Cohen Harper, MEd, a founding member of the Yoga Service Council, is creator of Little Flower Yoga, which serves more than 700 children per week in New York City schools. She also leads the Little Flower Yoga Teacher Training and helps bring yoga to children in places as diverse as tent cities in Port-au-Prince and FAO Schwarz in Manhattan. littlefloweryoga.com

Sue Jones is founder and executive director of yogaHOPE, a nonprofit outreach organization dedicated to establishing rehabilitative yoga programs in residential facilities for underserved women. She has trained, inspired, and led hundreds of volunteer yoga teachers, who have donated their time in substance abuse rehabilitation centers, domestic abuse safe houses, and homeless shelters for women. yogahope.org

Lucia McBee, LCSW, MPH, CYI, author of Mindfulness-Based Elder Care, is a licensed clinical geriatric social worker who has worked with elders and their caregivers for 30 years. For the past 15 years, she has integrated mindfulness, gentle movement, aromatherapy, hand massage, guided imagery, and other complementary therapies into her practice with elders. luciamcbee.com

Tari Prinster is a 12-year cancer survivor, yoga teacher, and founder of the nonprofit Retreat Project, and y4c (Yoga for Cancer), a specialized methodology tailored to address the specific physical and emotional needs left by cancer and its treatments. Her innovative y4c training program has created a growing, worldwide community of more than 500 yoga teachers. y4c.com

Jill Satterfield, a leading yoga and meditation teacher, educator, and mind/body counselor, is founder of Vajra Yoga + Meditation and founder and director of the School for Compassionate Action, a nonprofit based in New York City that trains teachers and provides yoga, yoga therapy, and meditation to at-risk youth and people with chronic pain and illnesses, PTSD, and addictions. vajrayoga.com

Rob Schware managed the World Bank’s largest ICT portfolio of projects in public sector management, education, and health in every region of the world for 25 years. He is cofounder and director of the Give Back Yoga Foundation, and director of the Global Learning Portal, which strives to improve education outcomes in developing countries through the use of collaboration technologies. givebackyoga.org

Ali Smith, a certified yoga instructor and coauthor of two yoga and mindfulness-based curriculums, is cofounder and executive director of the Holistic Life Foundation (HLF). Through his work with HLF, he has helped develop yoga and mindfulness programs with at-risk youth, and has been part of a federally funded study on the effectiveness of yoga and mindfulness on urban youth. hlfinc.org

Atman Smith is cofounder of the Holistic Life Foundation, where he currently serves as the director of programming. He is also cofounder and cochief executive officer of For the People Entertainment and has taught contemplative practices for the past 10 years to diverse populations in Baltimore public schools, drug treatment centers, wellness centers, and colleges. hlfinc.org