Meet Our Highly Qualified Instructors

Vanessa, Certified Anusara Instructor and E-RYT500 and co-founder of the Ashland Yoga Center where she has taught classes and workshops for 11 years. She also holds a teacher certification from the Iyengar Institute of San Francisco and continues to evolve her teaching from the universal source of yoga in herself, her students and other teachers. Vanessa’s classes combine vinyasa flow and sustained poses with a focus on core strength and integration of breath, alignment and presence in students of all levels. She is passionate about the power of Anusara principles applied and explored in the context of opening the heart to the flow of “Shri”, the irrepressible beauty and creative energy of life. Private practice or therapeutic sessions are available.

Phone: 541-301-0177 or
E-Mail Vanessa

Marion has been teaching yoga since 1987, and is one of the founders of the Ashland Yoga Center.  She is a graduate of the Advanced Studies Teacher Training Program at the Iyengar Yoga Institute of San Francisco.  Marion’s style is gentle and flowing.  She emphasizes going deeper into the poses by letting go of tension.

Phone: (541) 488-4448 or
E-mail Marion

Melissa has been teaching vinyasa flow style classes and workshops for over 9 years in the Rogue Valley. Melissa is a dedicated student, having studied within the Vinyasa, Ashtanga, and Iyengar traditions, as well as meditation practice. Melissa's intention in teaching is to support the student's container in which to grow and refine themselves...remembering their own integrity, alignment, mind, body, and spirt connection to grace. Available for privates individual and small groups.

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Kristin spent 2 years in Mysore, India, studying Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga with Sri K. Pattabhi Jois and yoga philosophy and pranayama with Dr. Shankaranarayana. She has been teaching yoga since 1987 and leads teacher trainings and workshops nationally. Kristin joins AYC from Richard Freeman's Yoga Workshop in Boulder, CO, where she taught from 1998 - 2003. Kristin brings her joy in life and deep understanding of the body's innate intelligence to her teaching. Private sessions available.

Phone: (541)  535-1022 or
E-mail Kristin

Vrnda has been exploring yoga since the 1970s & was certified in 1988 in the Sivananda style, trained in the Iyengar style w/Geeta Iyengar & senior teachers, & completed an Anusara Training in 2002. Both a student and teacher of focused, purposeful living, she creates sacred space for deep personal exploration, making possible the transformation and increased self awareness that yoga offers. She inspires students to explore their potential, while respecting individual capacity. Vrnda is also a certified Phoenix Rising Yoga Therapist, Hakomi therapist and a Relax and Renew Trainer. She is available for private sessions and children’s classes.

Phone: (541) 552-0108 or
E-mail Vrinda

Lizz helps her students celebrate the present moment and connect to their inner teacher. Her style is focused, yet light and open-hearted. Classes emphasize ease, strength, flexibility and precision riding on the flow of breath. Lizz is a certified Integrative Yoga therapist and a dancer with extensive training in massage and body centered counseling; she has practiced, studied and taught yoga for over 20 years.

Phone: (541) 482-6858 or
E-mail Lizz

Nora began teaching Yoga four years ago at the   Santa Barbara   Yoga   Center  where she completed the 300 hr. certification program. She has completed Teacher training with world renowned instructors Erich Schiffman and Sarah Powers and is certified as a therapeutic Yoga instructor. Nora’s Love and devotion to Yoga is unwavering. She shares that Love and devotion with her students. Nora provides a safe space for her students to relax deeply in order to release accumulated stress. As a certified Therapeutic Yoga instructor her gentle approach to Yoga focuses on healing, self discovery and the pure joy of being in the present moment.    Private Sessions Available.

Phone: (541) 482-8870 or
E-Mail Nora

Lindagrace, RYT has actively practiced, studied and taught classical hatha yoga since completing her teacher training in Kriya Yoga in 1995 (the Yoga Connection, Tucson, AZ). Continuing education in the Iyengar and Anusara traditions combine with studies in tai chi and chi gong to create her gentle, inclusive teaching style. She values deep breathing, good alignment, strengthening and experiencing joy as a result of a well rounded practice. She is skilled in teaching gentle/ restorative yoga, and loves to work with seniors and practitioners of all ages and levels.

Michal grew up in Warsaw, Poland and has continued his exploration of yoga since age 17. Strongly influenced by the beauty, precision and depth of Iyengar's teaching method, Michal has trained with many accomplished mentors around the world including Patricia Walden and Karin Stephan of Cambridge, MA. His yoga teaching style emphasizes efficiency, living in a blissful state of being and alleviating suffering in the body. Asanas (yoga poses), selected for their essence and qualities, help guide the body back into a state of balance. The practice of awareness brings compassion, wisdom and clarity. Becoming aware of unconscious thoughts, emotions and restrictions in the body creates a greater opening for change. Michal has also performed around the world as a cellist and enjoys bringing the musician's mind into the practice of yoga. 

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Website: www.ashlandyogaclasses.com

Paige is a certified Kripalu yoga instructor who began exploring yoga while traveling in India ten years ago. She has spent time living in ashram settings in the U. S. where she has been able to immerse herself in yogic teachings, and has studied extensively with Yoganand Michael Carol, a masterful yogi with a thorough understanding of the deeper practices. Paige's classes offer an exploration of asana and pranayama with the intent to cultivate the balance of sensitivity and strength, enabling growth in body, mind and spirit. Students will be encouraged to challenge themselves, but always in a compassionate, non-competitive way. Private sessions available.

Phone: (541)482-8150 or
E-Mail Paige

Krista has had a lifelong passion for the movement and healing arts. She was first introduced to Eastern philosophy, mysticism and various practices of meditation at an ashram in India at the age of twelve. Inspired by seeing her mother's Ashtanga yoga practice, she began practicing hatha yoga in 1989. Her yoga practice has been nurtured and guided by many wonderful teachers branching from the Sri T. Krishnamacharya lineage. Krista has completed four teacher training courses (Rod Stryker, Ana Forrest, John Friend and The Center for Yoga, L.A.). She has been teaching yoga since 1998. Krista is gifted at teaching all levels of students, from those just beginning yoga to advanced practitioners. She is known for her passionate, insightful and transformative teaching.

Sheryl Grunde has been teaching yoga for the last 10 years, and has a diverse background including a foundation in Iyengar yoga, certification as an Ananda Yoga instructor, and continuing practice and study in vinyasa and Anusara yoga.  She loves to breathe, has a keen eye for alignment, and is a natural teacher with a gift for description.  Sheryl is also a Thai Massage therapist with an office in Ashland. Since 2002, when she was first pregnant, Sheryl has been passionate about sharing yoga with women transitioning into motherhood.  She teaches prenatal yoga and "Baby Yoga," for postpartum moms and babies, works as a doula at the Ashland Community Hospital, and offers pregnancy massage.

Phone: (54) 951-7474 or
E-Mail Sheryl
Website: www.honoringthemother.com

Wendy Hale has been an early childhood educator for 15 years. She combines her experience and wisdom from her teaching career, her 12 years of training in Self Awareness Counseling, and her certification as a Children’s Yoga Instructor, in her Kid’s Yoga classes. Introduced to spiritual practices at an early age, Wendy values the foundation that brought to her life and recognizes the wisdom, and powerful connection to their spirit that children are born with. Her classes utilize the joy and playfulness within those powerful connections and within yoga.

Lizz Love’s was born into a family who studied Kundalini Yoga and practiced meditation on a daily basis. After many years of growing and learning, rebelling and expressing, Love realized that being a songstress/healer is her purpose. In addition to using her voice as a channel to heal, she hopes to help inspire others to sing in their bodies in their minds and in their hearts. In '09 she became a certified Kripalu yoga teacher. Kripalu is a compassionate Hatha yoga including emphasis on the breath, physical healing and spiritual transformation that overflows into daily life. Love is also a certified sound healing practitioner and includes some vocal/ toning expression in her yoga classes.

Phone: (54) 541.690.6582 or
E-Mail Liz

Mona Therese Winston, E-RYT 500
Mona is originally from Copenhagen, Denmark and she moved to the United
States of America in 2005. Mona has always found the body fascinating, not
only physically, but also mentally and spiritually. Her many years as a
therapist and teacher of Yoga, Body Work, Massage, Reflexology and Reiki
Healing have given her a profound insight into the mind/body connection.
Mona is trained in the lineage of Krishnamacharya, and focuses on
Pranayama, Meditation and Vinyasa Yoga, which means "breath synchronized
movements." Mona teaches Yoga nationally and internationally and she is a
part of the team at the Vajra Pani Teachers Training.


Website: http://www.theresewinston.com/