Teaching our Spring Yoga 2022 classes
Amma Fandiño
Amma Fandiño, RYT500, MSc, has been a devoted yogini for over 28 years and a passionate biologist for 28 years. She holds a master degree in environmental sciences from Yale University and is a certified Integral Yoga and Accessible Yoga teacher. She is also trained in Therapeutic Yoga, Yoga for Arthritis, Yoga of Recovery, Lifeforce Yoga, Prison Yoga, and Mindfulness. Amma’s passion is to share yoga with communities with challenges and conditions of vulnerability on a physical, mental, and emotional level. Amma has been dedicated to teaching cancer patients and their caregivers. Her inspiration is bestowing support to patients in order to improve their quality of life as well as their ability to cope with the difficult circumstances associated with the disease. Another facet of Amma´s vocation is teaching yoga to people with anxiety, depression, and addictions. She teaches in two prisons in Bogota, dedicating her efforts to provide a space that promotes empowerment, rehabilitation, and healing of those deprived of liberty, as well as supporting their addiction recovery processes. Amma is contributing to the Accessible Yoga Program since 2015 and is a regional representative of the AY group in Spanish. As an Accessible Yoga Trainer, she feels honored and fortunate to support the training of yoga teachers in the Spanish-speaking community. She lives in Colombia with her husband and two kids and loves to spend her free time in contact with nature.
Website: Amma Fandino
Facebook: Accessible Yoga- Español
Contact: amma@accessibleyoga.org
Carolina Chávez
Carolina is originally from Viña del Mar, Chile and moved to the Raleigh area in 2014. Being passionate in leading a healthy active lifestyle, Carolina added yoga into her life in 2011. She discovered the physical, mental and spiritual changes it brought into her life. In 2017, she decided to share her passion and completed her RYT-200 training. She teaches slow flow, power flow and restorative yoga. When she’s not teaching, Carolina loves working out, enjoying the outdoors, and cooking.
Facebook: Carolina Chávez
Instagram: carolina__healthandyoga, carolina__chile
Email: carolinachavezg@gmail.com
Courtney Gendron
Courtney’s goal is to provide yoga to those that would otherwise not practice yoga. She currently provides in-person yoga classes at Southpaw Training Center, On Track Yoga, and NoDa Yoga. She completed her 200 RYT training in the Tantra Lineage in 2017 and continued her training by completing 300 more hours in 2021 with Michelle Cassandra Johnson focused on social justice. Courtney is certified in Mindfulness Meditation and is an Accessible Yoga Ambassador.
Website: Yoga Courtney
Consulting Group: Courtney Gendron Consulting
JJ Gormley
JJ Gormley: (M.S., C-IAYT, E-RYT) has been a practitioner of yoga since 1979 and teaching since 1989. She has been steeped in the therapeutic approach to yoga since 2003. Using her therapeutic approach, she works with clients who have many different types of ailments and issues, including those with cancer, autoimmune disease, neurological disorders, trauma/PTSD, substance abuse, and addictions. She also works with the caregivers for people with chronic issues.
Facebook: JJ Gormley
Instagram: yoginijj
LinkedIn: JJ Gormley
Website: Surya Chandra Healing Yoga
Contact: j@schys.yoga
Kiesha Battles
Kiesha Battles (E-RYT 500) is Yoga Director at Charlotte Family Yoga Center and a full-time yoga teacher and trainer who studied with Maya Breuer and Kristine Kaoverii. Her speciality is in Yin Yoga, training under Bernie Clark. She earned a graduate degree in Asian studies, with a certification in international business and a focus on Asian philosophy, religion, and modern language. Through her academic studies, she was exposed to Taoism, Buddhism, Hinduism, and yoga. Kiesha has taught for the YMCA of Greater Charlotte for eight years and was a R. O. S. E. Award recipient. She has been interviewed by the Charlotte Post, featured in the book Yes Yoga Has Curves and in Pride Magazine.
In 2016, Kiesha was honored as an inaugural Self-Care Charlotte Ambassador. In her role, she promotes self-care for the purpose of nurturing healthy lives and relationships for individuals, families, and communities. In 2018, she was appointed Co-Director of the Yoga Retreat for Women of Color™. In 2020 Kiesha joined the Board of Directors for Amplify and Activate, and the Development Committee for You Call This Yoga. Both are North Carolina yoga non-profits.
Facebook: I AM YOGA
Instagram: iamyogaclt
Website: Kiesha Battles
Contact: yogadirector@kieshabattles.com
Kristen Rae
Kristen Rae is a Yoga Therapist with over 13 years of experience — teaching many types of classes, workshops, providing private instruction, and organizing yoga events. When Kristen isn’t teaching yoga, she is hanging with her family, rarely very far from a beach. She enjoys traveling and teaching yoga annually in Jamaica, Australia, and Indonesia. Kristen is currently You Call This Yoga’s social media manager and programming co-chair.
Please join her weekly classes. All levels welcome, all the time!
Facebook: Yoga with Kristen Rae
Instagram: kristen.rae, yogioasis
Website: Yogi Oasis
Contact: Yogawithkristenrae@gmail.com
Michaele Woodhouse
Michaele’s practice on the mat began about 9 years ago, when a vinyasa class became much more than the asanas; it became a dance for her soul. Her love for yoga led to becoming a teacher through Yoga-Mojo Studio in Cary, NC. In addition, Michaele has trained in Yoga for Cancer Patients and Survivors through the UNC Lineberger Center. Michaele teaches several styles of classes: vinyasa, gentle, restorative, and yoga for cancer survivors. For her, it is about meeting everyone on their level. In addition to You Call This Yoga, Michaele partners with Waverly Hematology Oncology in their Healthy Movements Program. She has been a Reiki Master since 2010 and recently became certified in Thai Body with Michael Sitzer. Find her on Instagram and Facebook.
Niambi Goings
Coffee Lover, Plant Mama, and Nature Frolicker is the most accurate description of Niambi. You can usually find her on a greenway/walking trail, in a park walking in grass, near water, swinging in a hammock or just sunbathing. A self-proclaimed Peaceful Warrior, she fights for the things she’s passionate about with an understanding that love and peace are her greatest tools.
After practicing yoga for over 10 years off and on she became more consistent in her practice in 2017 and decided in 2020 to pursue Yoga Teacher Training. She graduated from the I Am Yoga YTT Program in September 2021. Niambi is an advocate for self-care, self-love, and self-awareness and sees her yoga practice as the vehicle to navigate them all. She especially enjoys Deep Stretch and how the breath allows the body to go to amazing lengths. Life is always full of excitement and activity as the mom of 3 sons. Niambi is also Plant Mama to a whole host of plants that bring her peace, joy, and many life lessons off the mat.
Teaching our Meal on Wheels classes
Amy Rockwell
Amy has been a fitness professional for over 25 years in both corporate and private practices. She found her true passion for teaching in yoga. She has completed both 220-hour teacher training and advanced training in Yoga for Cancer Patients and Survivors. Amy has 24-year old identical twin girls, who are her best friends and the center of her world. Her father was in the military, which influenced her decision to join. She was commissioned after College Army ROTC, and left the Army to raise her daughters and become a fitness professional.
Anjana Rathores
Anjana began yoga as a way to fight-off polymyalgia rheumatica and adopted it as part of her daily routine. Having personally benefited, she developed a passion for yoga and made it her mission to spread the goodness of yoga as a way of life to seniors with similar age-related conditions and to communities in need.
She received her first yoga teacher training in 2016 and is continuing to train in various forms of yoga including chair yoga and yoga-trapeze.
Karen Parrish
Karen Parrish (RYT 500) discovered the practice of yoga while on a journey to self-acceptance and self-love. Like many, Karen had been “at war” with her body for years, trying to change it, make it smaller. Through yoga and education about diet culture from Health at Every Size (HAES), she learned body-acceptance and changed the way she views herself and others. She is passionate about bringing yoga to people who have experienced the harm of diet culture and weight stigma, as well as to those who don’t have access to classes or might feel intimidated in a studio setting.
Karen is a certified Yoga For All teacher, specializing in larger bodies and diverse communities. She has had additional training in Accessible Yoga; Subtle Yoga for anxiety, depression and body image; and Restorative Yoga. She currently teaches online, offering 3 weekly drop-in classes, private group, and individual sessions.
Website: Karen Parrish Yoga
Facebook: Karen Parrish Yoga
Instagram: @karenparrishyoga
Contact: karenparrishyoga@gmail.com