Jennifer Merritt

Jennifer Merritt has a passion to follow dreams; following her own dream, she holds space for others to follow theirs. She believes all dreams are about knowing yourself and the dream itself is the path to get there. Yoga and mediation on many levels helps people learn about themselves. After experiencing this over and over Jen studied to become a teacher at The Yandara Yoga Institute. She studied Hatha Yoga with, Kevin Durkin, whom is strongly influenced Iyengar style, helping her practice and classes become a balance of meditative flow and structural precision and alignment. She is devoted to learning about healing and spiritual arts. She began this dream studying Massage therapy with Bridget Yanni, owner of The Amma Center. She also studied at the National Academy of Massage Therapy and Healing Sciences and taken courses in emotional freedom technique, magnified healing, and reiki. Her dream is to continue to advance her yoga practice studying various forms, including pranayama, chanting and meditation.

Barb Morrissey

Barbara began yoga practices in 1979 and practiced on and off through the 80's while she raised her son Seth. As she got older she found more time to practice. She started to practice with the SKY foundation in 1993 and continued those studies through 2001, in which she found David Newman and Inner Fire Yoga. She received her certification through Yoga on Main in 2002.

Barbara’s other studies include an Ayurvedic certification through Ed Zadlo, as well as meditation studies. She has also studied with Betheyla in the Essence of Yoga courses, Judith Lasater's restorative yoga, and is currently studying with Kirin Mishra at the Saraswati River Yoga school. Her inspiration to teach is influenced by all of her studies and her own personal practice.

Elizabeth Moulder

Elizabeth began practicing what she thought was yoga at the ripe age of eleven after being introduced to it by her mother, who had recently suffered from severe back injuries. With the help of Elizabeth's sister, the three occasionally rehearsed a sort of stretchy, gymnastics-type of exercising that they neither understood nor committed themselves to. Half way through high school, Elizabeth began to study something much more akin to yoga than the gymnastics of her past in that it concerned life and reality as much as it did entertainment. She began studying yoga in its physical dimension with a discipline she rarely lent to her other studies. Through college, she studied the actual practice of yoga, which included it's philosophical, psychological and spiritual dimensions. She combined her philosophy major with her yoga studies at Temple, which helped lead her to apply for teacher certification in Vinyasa style hatha yoga at Wake Up Yoga in Fairmount, Philadelphia. Her teachers (of which there are many) included Corina Benner and Jill Manning, the head instructors at Corina's studio. The training included a study of anatomy with David Kiel, Sanskrit with Manorama, meditation with Michael Carroll and sutra chanting with Paul JJ Alex. Elizabeth firmly believes that the greatest teachers are the ones who do their best to point students in what they feel is the most truthful, intelligent direction, and works hard to follow in the respectful footsteps of the teachers before her while maintaining her own unique style and personally. She does her best to learn and to teach yoga while remembering, no matter what she's learning or teaching, that "everything's about loving and not loving." Rumi

Barb Cutler

Barb Cutler has been living and loving yoga for six years. She feels blessed to have taken part in the 250 hour teacher-training program at Wake-up Yoga, led by the amazing and inspiring Corina Benner and Jill Manning. It was there that she came to love the nooks and crannies of yoga, and to delve beyond the physical asana. She believes that gratitude and compassion make for the best practice both in yoga and in life, and works daily to not take herself or her yoga too seriously.

Mirella

(Mirella Nicholson, RYT). Mirella received her 200 hour certification in Inner Fire Yoga from Yoga on Main in 2008. She has also completed her 500 hour certification in 2009 from Yoga on Main. Mirella has been teaching yoga for 3 years and has been a student of yoga for more than 14 years. Her classes are classical in nature and include pranayama and meditation. Using her training in Ayurveda, she provides adjustments and modifications to make each class as blissful as possible for each student. She strives to apply lessons learned on the mat to her daily living. This is usually the inspiration for the bhavana or theme of each class.

Deb

Deb (Devapriya) began her yoga journey with a meditation course in an extracurricular college class. (Don’t you just love liberal arts?) She fell in love with ashtanga 11 years ago for its copious physicality, but has tried nearly every style since. She completed her first teacher training program in 2006 in Baron Baptiste-inspired power yoga. Her path has brought her more inwardly-centred, completing recently, an Integral yoga certification at the Satchidananda ashram in Virginia. Devapriya’s philosophy aligns with the teachings of Swami Satchidananda: to practice, live and impart the teachings of yoga; to ascertain the condition of an easeful body, peaceful mind and useful life, thereby experiencing Supreme Peace and Joy and sharing that with one or many.

Cari

Cari has been practicing yoga for more than 10 years. She is a Yoga Alliance Certified Instructor, who received her 200 hour Inner Fire Yoga Teacher Training Certification through David Newman at Yoga on Main in Manayunk in 2005. She also completed a 500 hour Advanced Ayurveda and Yoga Therapy Teacher Training Certification, led by Ed Zadlo, D.Ay and Shiva Das in 2009. She has received certifications in Prenatal Yoga, with 95 hours training and Thai Yoga Bodywork as taught by the Vedic Conservatory.

With more than 20 years management experience in the corporate and nonprofit spheres, Cari has a strong background in events management, staff development, and the implementation of highly-effective employee training programs. She is also the author of two published cookbooks.

John

John DeMinico is a nationally renowned instructor of Hatha Yoga. He travels throughout the United States providing hands on Yoga educational experience to fitness professionals of all levels.

John has founded his own company, New Paradigm Fitness, and is also general manager of AAAI/ISMA. He is co-creator of "YOQUA" and is accredited to teach "YogaRythmics".

John's balanced approach to teaching yoga has led to the development of Blue Collar Yoga, combining the best of eastern and western philosophy.

Jaimie

Jaimie has recently returned to her Philly roots having lived and worked in India, Oregon, EL Salvador and Kenya, working with grassroots development. As a certified yoga instructor, Jaimie blends her life adventures along with a background in dance and meditation to her teaching style. Her yoga classes are a fluid vinyasa style of rhythmic movement designed to take students deeper into their bodies and relaxed selves. Be prepared to sweat, laugh and breathe as we rock out to the sun coming in.