Leadership
More about Sheryl
Sheryl discovers great joy in the experience of being embodied. Sheryl began a steady yoga practice over 20 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.
Weekly Core Teachers
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 studied with Eddie Modestini and Kristin Bosteels in the method of Yoga on the Inside. Deb is currently a Yoga Therapist in training with Inner Peace Yoga Therapy. She has also trained many hours with Ruby Jo Walker of Southwest Trauma Trainings in Polyvagal Theory, Resilience and Post Traumatic Growth.
More about Brianna
For over 15 years, Brianna has guided individuals and communities through transformative experiences rooted in movement and connection. Yoga has been an integral part of her own healing journey, offering a pathway for self-discovery, resilience, and deeper connection with herself and others. Through yoga, mindfulness, and sound healing, Brianna creates experiences that invite deeper connection, balance, and presence. Her background in behavioral health, addiction studies, trauma-informed yoga, and somatic therapy allows her to bring a grounded blend of compassion, knowledge, and lived experience to every space she holds. She meets people where they are, offering welcoming and accessible spaces for relaxation, reflection, and renewal.
She grew up on the beaches of Florida and now lives in Durango with her husband and two sons on a small homestead. Brianna is the Executive Vice President of Programs at Kula for Karma, a national nonprofit providing mindfulness-based mental health programs in communities impacted by trauma.
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 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 Brittany
Brittany is a yoga and breathwork facilitator with over 15 years of teaching experience across the U.S. and internationally. She is the founder of Move Breath and has lived, studied, and worked in India, where she deepened her understanding of yoga as both a physical and philosophical practice. In addition to India, she has also lived abroad in New Zealand and the Netherlands and spent four years living in a van traveling the US, mexico, and Canada.
Her teachers and influences span traditional yoga, breathwork, and somatic modalities, shaping an approach that blends science, anatomy, and spirituality. Brittany’s classes are breath-forward, accessible, and light-hearted, weaving together movement, mobility, and nervous system awareness in a way that supports a more grounded, embodied experience. Her work is trauma-informed and invites students to explore their practice with curiosity, agency, and a deeper connection to their bodies.
More about Elyse
Movement has been medicine for Elyse since she was a young girl growing up and playing in the woods of the Hudson Valley of New York. At a very young age she began taking ballet and tap classes and devoted much of her early life to dance. She discovered yoga her senior year of college and after moving from New York to San Francisco quickly fell in love with the flowing movements of a vinyasa practice. She has been a student of yoga for 25 years learning from many teachers, including Seane Corne, Hala Khouri and Hannah Muse. Over the years she has deepened her spiritual practice through yoga and believes through the practice of yoga we remember our true nature and can find our way to home to ourselves. She completed her RYT-200 with Samdhana Yoga and Alicia Cheung in Bali and has been teaching since 2023. She is currently a yoga therapist in training with Inner Peace Yoga Therapy.
More about Renee
Renee is a yoga teacher and Ayurvedic health counselor with over a decade of teaching yoga and more than 20 years of personal practice. She blends mindful movement, breathwork, and practical tools to support stress resilience, nervous system health, and whole-person wellbeing.
An outdoor explorer and mountain biker, she offers a grounded, student-centered approach that supports active lifestyles while creating space to slow down and reconnect. With a background in yoga therapy, Renee meets students where they are, helping them build strength, move well, and feel more at home in their bodies.
A Colorado native and Fort Lewis College alum, Renee recently returned to Durango after a period of personal transition and is happy to once again call southwestern Colorado home. An avid mountain biker and outdoor explorer, she spends as much time as she can on the trails with her dog, Todd. She is also a silversmith and artist who enjoys live music, dancing, and time in the kitchen, where she explores food as medicine in a way that feels both supportive and delicious. Cooking for others is one of her favorite ways to express care. Some of her favorite moments are spent cooking in the wilderness, where connection, nourishment, and a sense of place come together. She brings this same real-life perspective into her teaching, weaving mindful movement, breath, and simple tools to help people move well, feel better, and feel more at home in their bodies and lives.
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.
More about Brady
Brady is a lover of life and the natural world. An herbalist by trade, he makes the plant medicines at Durango’s Dancing Willow Herbs. With a background in competitive snowboarding, he is also an enthusiast of health and of the importance of maintaining one’s physical body for optimal performance. Gardener, wild-forager and nutrition buff, he dances a life in balance with all of the elements. Teaching both locally and internationally since 2010, Brady is humbled, honored and inspired to share his insights with you at his home studio for the benefit of all.
Substitute/Community Yoga Teachers
More about Lauren
Lauren has been teaching yoga and meditation since 2017, and has completed 800+ hours of YA approved teaching certifications in Hatha, Vinyasa, Yin and Meditation styles collectively. While she grew up on an island with a Sivananda ashram and with a mother who practiced yoga asana for decades, she first delved into asana consistently as a college athlete looking to balance her training with stretching and recovery. As her asana practice grew, she experienced the clear connection between mind and body, and discovered yoga beyond asana. Leaning into breathwork, stillness and meditation changed her life in monumental ways, and inspired her to learn more about the heart of yoga and how to share it with others. Aside from her teacher trainings, she has taken courses in the foundations of Ayurveda, yoga for women’s wellness, yoga for stress and anxiety, and trauma-informed yoga. She is also a certified holistic nutrition therapist. Lauren cares deeply about connecting with her community and creating a space where all are welcome and met as they are. Her Hatha practices are slower, unhurried flows that focus on breath and body awareness. Her Yin practices lean into pockets of deeper stillness and self-inquiry. All of her offerings encourage and facilitate compassion and curiosity within her students. When she’s not practicing, teaching or learning more about yoga and holistic wellness, Lauren enjoys riding her mountain bike, dirt bike or snowboard (usually accompanied by her dog, Kiwi).
More about Patrick
Patrick arrived at Yogadurango in 2011 to begin fulfilling a long-held desire to explore all that yoga has to offer to heal his beat-up body and to provide a source of inner peace. Inspired by the teachers at Yogadurango, he has participated in yoga retreats, festivals, and yoga teacher training to continue learning from other yoga teachers as well. Eager to share his experience, strength and hope with others, and to contribute to the expansion of the Yogadurango community, he is excited to be a part of the team at Yogadurango to co-teach the Men’s Yoga class.
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 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 Lily
I feel very fortunate to have been practicing yoga for the past 20 years. It has been a path of health, joy, transformation and empowerment since my teen years. Initially, it was the physical practice that captured my attention, but over the years this led me to study all the other facets including pranayama, meditation, tantra, and yoga’s sister science, Ayurveda, as well as other influential disciplines, primarily Buddhism, the Tao te Ching, and plant medicines. I have participated in over 1000 hours of yoga trainings, and am an affiliate of Shiva Rea’s Samudra Global School of Living Yoga, leading 200 Hour Prana Vinyasa Yoga Teacher Trainings. As a Sacred Sensuality Guide, Yoga Teacher, Retreat Organizer, Podcaster and Ayurvedic Wellness Coach, my goal is to guide others to embody a path of connection to their higher selves and to all other beings, and be empowered to access the great cosmic source of radiance, creativity, and healing.
My deepest passion is connecting with women and guiding them to fully cultivate their natural feminine powers of sensuality, intuition, compassion, radiance and pleasure! More information at www.lilyrussoyoga.com
More about Kathryn
Kathryn’s journey into yoga began at the tender age of five, when her mother introduced her to the practice in a neighbor’s living room. This early exposure planted a seed that would blossom years later during her college days at the University of Georgia in the early ’90s.
After moving to Southern California in the mid-’90s, Kathryn’s passion for yoga deepened. She immersed herself in extensive studies, first with Guru Singh, the founder of Kundalini University, and later through an intensive Hatha yoga training with Ganga White and Tracy Rich at the White Lotus Foundation. With over 25 years of experience, Kathryn is twice certified in both Kundalini and Hatha yoga.
More about Donna
Donna Stewart says that before yoga, she was insufferable. She combined a type A personality with a quick temper and an adrenaline junkie lifestyle, doomed to eventually blow herself up in some form or another, probably taking someone else with her. She found her way to yoga when a climbing partner suggested it would make her a better climber. What she didn’t expect was the moments of peace it brought to a heart that didn’t know how to relax (cliff notes: her spirit animal is actually a hummingbird!). She received her 200-hour yoga certification at the rigorous teacher training program at The Shambava School of Yoga in Rollinsville, Colorado, where she occasionally returns for more instruction. She says that she doesn’t have an allegiance to one particular style of yoga, but enjoys the philosophy and techniques from many styles that are reflected in her teaching style: Hatha, Vinyasa, Astanga, Anusura, Acroyoga, & Yin.