Teaching our current yoga 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
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 (she/her) has a respected and well-deserved reputation in the national yoga community.
She serves as co-director of the Yoga Retreat for Women of Color™, as a member of the You Call This Yoga (YCTY) Board of Directors, and as YCTY Development Coordinator. A full-time yoga teacher and trainer, Kiesha joined CorePower Yoga (CPY) in 2016 as one of the original teachers that opened the Charlotte market. Kiesha continues to grow with CPY in her role as Studio Coordinator, Online YTT200 Coach, and most recently as YTT300 Lead instructor. In addition to teaching with CPY, Kiesha owns her own business, I Am Yoga, which employs several certified yoga instructors to lead a variety of virtual yoga classes. I Am Yoga is a Yoga Alliance-certified Yoga Training School and Continuing Education Provider, offering both 200- and 300-hour yoga teacher training programs and numerous impactful workshops.
Kiesha has been featured in the book YES! Yoga Has Curves, and in articles in Yoga Journal. With a graduate degree in Asian studies, Kiesha brings to her offerings knowledge of Asian philosophy, religion, and language, as well as Eastern philosophy including Taoism, Buddhism, and Hinduism. Kiesha is a wife and mother who enjoys reading, meditating, and breathing.
Facebook: I AM YOGA
Instagram: @iamyogaclt
Website: Kiesha Battles
Contact: yogadirector@kieshabattles.com
Kristen Rae
Kristen is a yoga therapist who has over 15 years of experience teaching a variety of classes and workshops. In addition to her YCTY classes, she offers private/corporate classes and organizes yoga events and retreats. Kristen serves as Secretary of the YCTY Board of Directors and as the Director of Programming. When Kristen isn’t teaching yoga, she is hanging with her family at the beach. She enjoys island life, live music, eating at fancy restaurants, and traveling with her husband.
Facebook: Yoga with Kristen Rae
Instagram: @_yogawithkristen_
Contact: Yogawithkristenrae@gmail.com
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.
Instagram: niambi_dreamcatcher
Facebook: Niambi Kiesha
Teaching our Meals on Wheels classes
Anjana Rathore
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