Leadership Team
More about Sheryl
Sheryl discovers great joy in the experience of being embodied. Sheryl began a steady yoga practice 15 years ago and her initial training was in Nasik, India at www.yogapoint.com in 2005. Her dedication to yoga ignited while teaching middle and high school however, the earliest seeds were planted through a passion for dance. Sheryl has always been a teacher in some capacity. With a background in experiential education, she was guided to a path of working with people, holding space and facilitating healing. She enjoys connecting and listening to the similarities of the human experience. Sheryl strives to honor the art of teaching in her classes by offering an experience that is inspiring, resonate, digestible and authentic. Sheryl has taken countless hours of trainings and workshops and finds value in recognizing the similarities of varying spiritual disciplines. She has additional training in prenatal, kids, and trauma-sensitive yoga. Sheryl also leads retreats both locally and internationally.
Sheryl has blended the sister sciences of Yoga and Ayurveda into her own life and helps others rediscover a true and balanced nature. She is a graduate of the Ayurvedic Health Practitioner (AHP) program through the California College of Ayurveda and shares her knowledge through seasonal cleanses, workshops, cooking classes, public lectures and individual consultations.
Sheryl finds grounding, strength and inspiration in connecting with the natural world. Her heart lights up through creativity, music, adventure, humor, leadership and community involvement but her most beloved pastime… being and laughing with her son, Cedar.
More about Deb
Deb enjoys fusing devotion, strength, integrity, and grace in order to inspire contagious enthusiasm in service to Mother Earth, Community and Self. She practices deep interest in Yoga as a rich path of transformation, awakening innate intelligence and healing through which yoga combines the practical with mysticism. Deb embraces the boundless yoga practice as something that can open paths of transformation and nourish one’s unique spiritual way of life. Her specialty is to encourage students toward self-inquiry through their connection to nature as well as exploring how yoga practice can be a metaphor for how we choose to be in life and in relationship. She loves to discover and continuously question how to embody the practice; how to really walk the talk and perceives Yoga as path towards wholeness. Deb began yoga at the age of 19 eventually participating in her first yoga teacher training through Yogadurango in 2010. She has since invested her time and heart in study with Bhavani Maki, diving deep into the heart of Yoga Philosophy and Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras and most recently studies with Eddie Modestini and Kristin Bosteels in the method of Yoga on the Inside.
More about Lynn
Lynn’s journey on the yogic path began in 2001 while in graduate school and grieving the devastating loss of her mother to cancer a few years earlier. Her first yoga class brought an immense sense of peace, a state of being completely lacking in her life at that time, and she was immediately hooked. Over the next several years she navigated through periods of stress, emotional pain, and grief, and through her dedicated study and consistent practice of yoga and meditation, she allowed herself space to heal and transform her grief. This process ultimately led her to the path of sharing yoga with others. Her life was forever changed after completing a residential yoga teacher training program at the Yandara Yoga Institute in 2009. Since that time, her home practice has expanded to emphasize Bhakti and Kundalini Yoga, as well as Classical Hatha Yoga. She has taught group and private yoga of various styles since 2007 and is a proud co-owner of Yogadurango. Lynn also plays and teaches the harmonium and applies sound energy as a tool for healing in her group classes and with private yoga clients.
In 2020, Lynn became a Certified Yoga Therapist after completing 3 years of study through Inner Peace Yoga Therapy. Her areas of specialty include grief, chronic pain, and neurological disorders. She works one-on-one, applying the tools of yoga to address the individual’s health concerns and empowers her clients to take an active role in their health and wellness. Lynn also offers small group yoga programs for people in pain or grieving the loss of loved ones.
Teachers
More about Natasha
More about Kimberly
Kimberly DeVenero didn’t have a lot of experience with yoga until she was 21. In 2009 she was a massage therapist at a yoga studio in New Jersey and was offered free classes (that she never went to) and one day the owner told her about a 200-hr teacher training program. Kimberly didn’t know why but she always had a feeling she was going to be a yoga instructor, so she took the leap and said “yes” to the 200-hr. training. She was teased (lovingly) by her fellow classmates because she couldn’t bend over without discomfort, she would check the clock behind her in three-legged dog to see how much more time she had to be tortured and when teachers said the poses felt yummy, she would feel annoyance come up in her body because nothing about that felt “yummy”. Yoga didn’t come easily at first for her but during that teacher training she was very aware of the peaceful bliss she would feel after. Along that journey, she slowly discovered the magic and beauty in understanding and truly feeling in her body. She discovered a deep patience and playfulness within herself that she shares through her teaching. She loves holding space for others to let go of expectations and begin to observe the amazing Being within. Since then, she has done a lot of yoga and it has become the love of her life. She has done trainings in the Bahamas, New York City and upstate New York at the Sivananda Ashram with her beautiful teacher, Arjuna, as well as, weekend trainings with some of her favorite instructors. She pulls lessons from all aspects of her life to bring into her yoga instructing and tries to bring her yoga into all aspects of her life. Her goal is to weave a deep spiritual practice with a playful, light spirit. She knows her yoga teachings are a life long journey and she couldn’t be more pleased by that. During her time in Durango, she fell in love with the community and created a business called Thimbleberry smoothie Co.
More about Lindsay
Lindsay started on her yoga path early – lying in Savasana on her family room carpeting in her mother’s yoga classes after kindergarten. Following in her mother’s footsteps (only after leaving the house) Lindsay stepped onto her intentional path as a practitioner in 1997. She received her RYT-200 from Kripalu in 2008, and has since done advanced trainings at Laughing Lotus yoga studio in NYC, and studied with teachers around the world including Patrick Creelman, Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa, and Jim Harrington. She has done immersions in Ashtanga-Vinyasa, Anusara, Forrest, Kundalini, Synergy and Sivananda yoga and never tires of new learning. For Lindsay, yoga is the truest mirror, and the most intelligent, free way to dance with her inner self. Lindsay’s classes are heartfelt and intuitive, and develop as a natural extension of her own practice.
More about K-Lea
K-Lea Gifford is Iyengar Certified at the Junior Intermediate Level 2 as well as certified with International Association of Yoga Therapists. She started practicing in 1983 and has studied in Pune, India with the Iyengars several times. She enjoys working therapeutically as well as specialty classes such as pregnancy, restorative, and back care needs. More can be found on her website at https://www.k-lea.com/
More about Nichole
Nichole Fox, Avtar Devpreet, LMT, is a spiritual healer. With over 18 years as a bodyworker, intuitive, and emotional healer, Nichole brings a gentle feminine approach to Kundalini yoga. She began her journey with yoga over ten years ago. Since then she has taken a deep dive into the roots of yoga. With training in Kundalini yoga and hatha yoga, her classes weave yogic philosophy, subtle body energy healing, skeletal alignment, breathwork, mantra, and nervous system healing. Yoga in its origin is rooted in the cycles of nature. Using yogic tools to transform the mind by shifting the body, Nichole inspires a remembrance of ourselves as nature and divinity. Nichole has 220 hours in Kundalini training, 100 hours with Bhavani Maki, and 200 hours of training in Yoga on the Inside.
More about Joy
Joy Kilpatrick trusts the bodies’ intuitive intelligence to be the entry point for healing and transformation. Joy is passionate about sacredly serving others through a tapestry of healing art modalities while empowering them to live authentically. Joy’s love of learning has inspired her continuing education on the path of unity by becoming a certified Yoga Therapist with IAYT accredited Inner Peace Yoga Therapy program; registered Yoga Teacher, certified advanced Thai Yoga Bodyworker, Reiki practitioner and a student of NVC (Non-Violent Communication). Joy feels blessed to teach Kid’s Theatre, Yoga and Mindfulness classes to young people through Durango’s District 9-R Schools. To learn more about Joy and her offerings, visit: https://
More about Sarah
Sarah’s passion and enthusiasm for the practice of yoga shines through the minute you meet her. Her classes are upbeat, lighthearted and fun, aiding students to push themselves to their edge, but no further. She strives to lead a class in which individuals of all levels and yoga backgrounds feel comfortable and able to develop their own personal practice. Her mission is to assist others in finding a moving, breathing, meditation on and off the mat. Initially inspired by Ashtanga yoga, Sarah began her studies in 2008 with Larry Schultz, completing her first 200hr YAC. She then stayed with the school to complete a master’s level YAC Rocket training led by David Kyle. Sarah took the role as a leader in training teachers to be YAC through the It’s Yoga System. Inspired by the idea that anyone can do yoga, Sarah turned her studies to therapeutic yoga. She completed a training to specialize her to work with cancer survivors during all stages of recovery. Sarah runs The Yoga Mentorship Program for new yoga teachers and/or dedicated practitioners looking to dive deep with the support of an experienced eye. Sarah is also an integrative nutrition/health coach and owner of Whole Health Lab, and co-founder of the 30 Day Clean Living Challenge to learn more about Sarah check out her site www.wholehealthlab.com.
More about Ivy
Ivy is an educator, occupational therapist, and alternative health practitioner. Over the past two decades, Ivy has loved a range of styles including hot yoga-kundalini-yin-
Ivy received her RYT-200 with Devi Yoga for Women and is in the process of a 500hr training with Amy Ippoliti. Ivy offers a meditative yoga practice that helps students access and integrate the deep layers of inner wisdom that connect us all.
Along with her yoga classes and workshops, Ivy also combines complementary modalities such as Reiki, craniosacral therapy, rhythmic movement training and Bal-a-Vis-X techniques by offering individual and group sessions through her private practice, Red Monkey Therapeutics. Please connect with her at ivy.ot@icloud.com for more information.
More about Luna
Luna first fell in love with yoga in 2007 when she began a daily practice while backpacking through the wild places of California on a college Eco-psychology course. For her, yoga is linked to deep healing, self love, connection with nature, and community. In 2009 she went to live and work at Mount Madonna Center, located in the Santa Cruz mountains, where she completed her 200 Hour Teacher Training. Since then she has assisted with the teaching of two other teacher trainings through Mount Madonna and taught at various retreats offered there. She has taught on the beaches of Maui in exchange for pineapples and in gym and studio settings in Santa Cruz, CA. She is passionate about spreading the messages of self kindness, reclaiming wildness, and listening to one’s own intuition in each pose. She has worked as a yoga teacher and counselor in eating disorder recovery, and believes that all bodies are beautiful and deserve love and care. Also a singer and a dancer, Lunaloves to let creativity emerge and step outside the box in her yoga practice and her teaching style. She is humbled by and grateful for the vast practice of yoga and how it embraces her body, mind, heart, and soul again and again.
More about Michele
Michele believes in yoga’s ability to heal and transform, and that yoga, regardless of one’s physical ability, is available to all. As a way to balance out her active life, Michele first stepped on a yoga mat in 1999. It was not long after that she began to practice regularly; and while she could not quite put her finger on it, she was amazed at how much better she felt. For the first time, she began to live in and appreciate her own body. And, more importantly, she started to understand that she was much more than her physical body.Michele started teaching yoga in 2005, has studied various yoga styles, yet is most drawn to the teaching and practice of Yoga Therapy. Through her own journey of Self-discovery, she has come to realize that yoga is a practice for all life situations. She leads retreats, teaches private yoga thearpy sessions and a variety of classes including Yoga for Healing. Originally from New Jersey, Michele moved to Durango, CO in 2006. Along with her yoga teaching credentials, she also has an MBA, and has worked in large and small corporations for over 15 years. She still uses this skillset in her current endeavors: Michele is the founder and director of Inner Peace Yoga Therapy an IAYT-accredited 800-hour yoga therapy certification program.
More about Lily
Lily has been practicing yoga most of her life. Her initial practice of asana lead her to study all the other facets including pranayama, meditation, and Ayurveda, as well as other influential disciplines, primarily Buddhism and the Tao. She believes that practices which lead us to recognize our relations to our higher selves and to all other beings as well as the natural world create a life of harmony. As a teacher Lily is passionate about sharing these practices with her students, so that they may use them to realize mental calm and clarity, as well as physical strength and grace. She crafts classes and workshops based on the needs of her students, time of day and year, and her intuition around what is energetically calling for attention in the moment. More information at www.lilyrussoyoga.com; the Firewalks and empowerment trainings she leads with her husband at www.thehighpath.com; and about her other work, mosaic art, at www.lilymosaics.com.
More about Sara
Sara’s love for yoga began in 2005. This love grew deeper upon meeting her teachers Tias and Surya Little in 2007. Since this time, Sara has become certified and has completed over 600 hours of training with Prajna Yoga in Santa Fe, NM under Tias and Surya Little. In addition, she has also received training in prenatal, yin, therapeutics and The Great Yoga Wall. Sara has over 11 years of teaching experience in the Four Corners Area and was the founder/director of Sage Yoga Studio before recently moving to Durango. She offers group and private classes to all levels with a fun, playful, and informative teaching style, often incorporating Ayurveda into her classes. Sara’s passion stems from the benefits of healing she has received during difficult times. She is an avid meditator and enjoys traveling and spending time with family. For more information please visit saratweedieyoga.com.
More about Brady
A 20 year resident of Durango, Brady received his first Yoga teaching certificate from Yogadurango’s 200-Hour Teacher Training program in 2010. He has been a yoga teacher ever since. Progressively studying locally and internationally, he has received consecutive certificates from the Pavones Yoga Center in Southwestern Costa Rica, and from Author and MD, Dr. Ray Long (The Key Poses of Hatha Yoga.) Brady teaches at least five classes each week at Yogadurango, Ska Brewery, and “In-House Privates” for employees of various local businesses. In addition to his local offerings, he serves occasionally as an assistant teacher for the Pavones Yoga Center’s 200 Hour Teacher Training. Brady believes in the intelligence of the body, and in each individual’s innate healing abilities. His yoga is based in breath, combined with conscious alignment, and mindful movement. Hosting annual, international yoga retreats in Colorado, Costa Rica, and Colombia with The Life Force Project, he is most passionate about offering his unique, rocky mountain yoga experience here at home, in Durango.