Free | ONLINE | Please register in advance, a Zoom link and passcode will be provided via confirmation email.
Join our live-online Open House to learn more about our second BIPOC Yoga Teacher Training (TT).
This TT consists of 100% BIPOC teacher trainers and participants. Our curriculum is based on 40 years of Integral Yoga teacher training tradition coupled with harm reductive and anti-racist practices. Students will learn skills to become a knowledgeable yoga teacher for in-person and online classes.
At the open house you will have the opportunity to:
- Meet the members of this all BIPOC teaching staff.
- Explore the importance of a program specifically designed to address systemic racism and lack of equity in the yoga community.
- Discuss how this training has been effectively transitioned to online and how we use modern technology to support the ancient technology of the yogic teachings.
- Have all of your questions about the training answered.
This high-quality training meets the Yoga Alliance standards.
Visit our website for more information about the BIPOC 200-hour Yoga Teacher Training.
If you are unable to attend this open house, please join us next month, Tue. May 3 @ 5:30 pm – 7:00 pm PDT for Open House #2 for BIPOC 200-hour Yoga Teacher Training
Meet the trainers:
Nitika Achalam, E-RYT 500, earned her first 200hr certification through Yogaville in 2000 and is a graduate of the Living Yoga Training Program. She’s certified to teach yoga for arthritis and chronic pain, therapeutic yoga, trauma informed yoga, and much more.
Nitika currently serves as the Executive Director of Project Yoga Richmond, a nonprofit organization working to provide affordable and accessible yoga and mindfulness classes in and around Richmond, VA. In this role, Nitika forges partnerships throughout the community to bring yoga to those who may not otherwise have access. She studied anthropology, specifically focusing on how ancient cultures and societies used plant medicine and ancestral remedies to prevent and treat disease. She founded True Grit Wellness in 2014 as a means of employing her 2+ decades of experience as an herbalist and to advocate for holistic wellness. Find out more at www.truegritwellness.com
Rukmini Ando, E-RYT 200, RYT-500, YACEP
Nathalie Rukmini Ando, a Yoga teacher, fine artist, and graphic designer of Japanese descent, recently moved back to Brazil where she was raised. Prior to this, she lived in Yogaville, VA, where she served for 7 years as a Yoga teacher, program development director, and leadership team member. She continues to serve the Ashram’s Program Development Department as well as the DE&I (Diversity Equity and Inclusion) Committee. She has been practicing Yoga since 2004 and has been teaching since 2010. She is certified in Basic, Intermediate, and Advanced Integral Yoga, Raja Yoga, Adaptive, Stress Management, Yoga of Recovery, and Yin Yoga. As a teacher, she’s known for her clear instruction and her classes include fun, level-appropriate challenges. She also holds a bachelor’s degree in engineering and is a fine artist specializing in oil-on-canvas. You can take her online classes at iytv.online and see her artwork at natiando.art.
Rev. Kamala Itzel Hayward
After practicing law for 13 years, Kamala Itzel Hayward left her successful legal career to pursue social justice and antiracism work through the lens of mindfulness and wellness. Today, she is a Yoga teacher, Yoga therapist, and Yoga teacher trainer. She has shared Yoga with trauma survivors—including underhoused individuals, combat veterans, and survivors of human trafficking—since 2010. She was a Stress Management Specialist for Dr. Dean Ornish’s Program for Reversing Heart Disease and currently teaches for Dr. Ornish non-profit organization, the Preventive Medicine Research Institute. In addition to sharing Yoga and other transformational practices, Kamala is also a mindful communication trainer, an antiracism educator, and a fierce and compassionate advocate for love. You can learn more about Kamala at attunedliving.com.
Mia Velez entered the Integral Yoga Sangha in 2016 through the kitchen by helping to cook Thursday community lunches and silent retreat meals. In 2018 she certified as an Integral Yoga teacher to learn more of the IYI approach and be part of the lineage. Mia is a disciple of the Moy Yat Ving Tsun Kung Fu lineage and is highly influenced by her martial arts training. After completing her first 200 hour teacher training in 2008, she began to see undeniable parallel in Yoga and Kung Fu. When she began teaching Kung Fu in 2014, she incorporated Yoga insight and principles in her classes. Her goal in teaching is to connect with the students and to facilitate a safe space for exploration and self inquiry. Yoga and Kung Fu is integrated into her daily life as a mother, a preschool teacher, and an advocate for gender, race and class equality through multiple non-profits groups.
Arturo Peal has spent over 30 years inspiring and educating yoga teachers, body workers, and movement specialists across the globe through his classes in Anatomy, Kinesiology, and Therapeutic Touch. With a unique gift for translating complex scientific concepts into tangible teachings for his students, he raises awareness of how the body works.
Arturo holds a Master’s degree in Chinese medicine, and has practiced therapeutic massage for over 40 years. He has a 6th degree black belt in Aikido and is certified by the United States Aikido Federation as a Shidoin (Instructor) and is the Chief Instructor at Aikido of New Orleans.
In 2019 he started the New Orleans Light Academy with Brian McCormick. The initial idea was to teach the principles of sword work to kids using lit sabers. Kids & family and separate adult classes are regularly on the schedule.