Instructors

Vickie Russell Bell was born and raised in Ohio, and is a journalist by education. She teaches yoga because she loves to. Her intention is to help her students increase their level of daily awareness through their body, breath and experience. She is a graduate of the Piedmont Yoga Studio Advanced Training Program and is a certified “Relax and Renew Trainer” through Judith Lasater’s accredited program. Vickie does a bit of short story writing, belts out an occasional jazz or country tune, and walks with her Rhodesian Ridgeback in the redwoods. She reads a lot, and adores her friends and Oakland. She is also part of the core faculty for the Deep Yoga Program at Piedmont Yoga Studio.
Contact Vickie: yogavickie@hotmail.com or www.yoga-vickie.com

Anja Borgstrom has been teaching for 15 years, and is a graduate of The Yoga Room's Iyengar-based teacher training program. Anja is knowledgeable, patient, and flexible. She has a gift for offering valuable individualized guidance, regardless of the size of the class. Anja teaches Hatha, prenatal, postnatal, back-care, and restorative yoga.
Contact Anja: anjayoga@gmail.com

Erin Collom Erin Collom has been practicing Hatha Yoga for 22 years. A graduate of Piedmont Yoga's Advanced Training program, her Iyengar-based teaching methods offer accessibility, relief, precision, challenge, and joy. She teaches Yoga to preschoolers, elementary students, teens, and adults of all abilities. Erin’s carefully crafted sequencing, modification, and pace, nurtures the physical and emotional needs of every student in the room. She considers Richard Rosen, Donald Moyer, Barbara Voinar, her children and her students, to be her greatest teachers.
Contact Erin: erincollom@gmail.com Ê

Jonothon Gross conveys his quiet passion for yoga in his ashtanga vinyasa classes. His yoga evolved from years of exploring (as a psychiatrist) the complex relationship between mind and body. Classes use flowing sequences of postures linked together by a steady focus on connecting breath and movement. Attention is directed to developing core strength and proper alignment while cultivating and sustaining an inner calm throughout a challenging practice.
Contact Jonothon: (510) 236-8612

Melissa Lago, M.A., grew up in Ojai, California and began studying yoga when she was fifteen years old as a way to calm her mind and merge her love for movement with meditation. In college she practiced Ashtanga Yoga, and taught yoga to children. After graduating from Yale University in 2004, she began studying Anusara, Kundalini, Prana Flow and Aroma Yoga. In 2005 she completed her first yoga teacher training and assisted her first workshop. In 2010 she completed her 200-hour Prana Flow teacher training with Shiva Rea. Through her experience, she has learned that as long as she is connecting her attention to her breath and body transformation occurs. Her inspiration to teach is her wish to facilitate this experience of transformation for others. Off the mat she enjoys teaching in the Department of Arts and Humanities at Holy Names University, and spending time in nature.
Contact Melissa: melissa.lago@gmail.com

Claire Lavery has practiced yoga for over 20 years and taught since 2001. Her own experience with yoga has informed her studies on alignment, breathing practices, and the many health and psychological benefits a yoga practice can bring. She uses adjustments and adaptive poses often to deepen each student's practice. She would love to find a way to pursue all her interests without cloning.
Contact Claire: Clavery123@comcast.net

Scotty McCaulley is a graduate of the Yoga Room's Advanced Studies Program. He has been teaching Iyengar-style yoga for the past 10 years. Scotty was a late-comer to the practice of yoga and hence offers classes that are suited for both beginning through intermediate level students regardless of age. His intention is to teach classes which are available and welcoming to everyone. Scotty's teaching motto has become: "IF I CAN DO IT THEN YOU CAN DO IT TOO."
Contact Scotty: yogadiner@yahoo.com or (510) 649-1800

Pam McKernan I didn’t walk out of my first yoga class – I glided. I still have vivid sense memories of that first post-yoga class walk – sorry, glide home. Everything about me and my surroundings had transformed into substances much lighter, airier and fresher than before. The only way to describe how I felt is to say that I experienced a moment in time utterly without burdens – or even gravity. Many years later I became a fitness specialist and yoga teacher but it wasn’t until I experienced TriYoga that my meditation practice, spiritual seeking, and love of yoga found a home. After 20 years of teaching there is still nothing I would rather be doing than helping people discover their own glide home. Namaste.
Contact Pam: pamckernan@me.com

Anne Richards loves yoga. Many times she has claimed that it has been her salvation in life. She became interested in yoga in 1974 but didn’t actively dedicate herself to practice until 1984. Yoga has been a resource for creating calm in her body, focus in her mind and greater peace in her heart. She has studied at the Iyengar Institute of San Francisco, 4th Street Yoga and the Yoga Room in Berkeley where she completed the advanced studies program in 2006 and became certified to teach. She now approaches yoga practice and teaching through the integration of breathing practices, asana and concentration to cultivate inner perceptual awareness. She has developed a yoga program for women with incontinence and will soon be conducting a research study on the efficacy of the program. She is an interdisciplinary social scientist in anthropology and psychology and has conducted behavioral and public health research for over 20 years. The study of the effects of yoga on incontinence will be the first time her path of yoga will intersect with her research path.
Contact Anne: Tannerichards@aol.com

Beth Greenfield Rodgers has been practicing yoga since 1982 and began teaching in 1988 while completing her Advanced Yoga Studies at The Yoga Room in Berkeley, CA. Beth studied and apprenticed with Rodney Yee for many years, and was one of his first students to become a teacher. Beth helped found the 4th Street Yoga studio with her yoga partners Clare Finn and Barbara Voinar. Beth studied Yoga in Balance with Jean Couch www.balancecenter.com while she was healing a back injury. Beth's style of teaching blends precision of body alignment from her Iyengar training with gentle relaxation and skeletal re-alignment from her Yoga in Balance work. Beth's classes are suited for back and joint care, for beginners and all levels. Beth guides her students carefully through the subtle nuances of a pose. Her classes are straightforward and humble. All are welcome.
Contact Beth: (510) 428-1860 or artibeth@pacbell.net

Don Tuttle has enjoyed a regular yoga practice since 1981. He has taught yoga since 1983 in San Francisco and Berkeley at the Yoga Room, the Berkeley Yoga Center, 4th Street Yoga and the Iyengar Yoga Institute of San Francisco as a teacher training faculty member. He has studied several times in India with B.K.S., Geeta and Prashant Iyengar. Classes center on learning useful foundation principals for the yoga asanas. Students learn core poses and sequences and learn to develop their personal practice.
Contact Don: dontut@earthlink.net

Barbara Voinar has a unique teaching style that is beautifully infused with influences from her studies in the traditions of Siddha, Iyengar, Anusara Yoga and eastern meditation. Her classes offer a joyful and heartfelt approach to explore the life enriching and emotional healing benefits of yoga.

Barbara co-founded 4th Street Yoga Berkeley, CA in 1993 . Her classes range from gentle to advanced levels. She has taught in prisons, specialized in pre and post natal yoga, and created Healing Yoga for woman living with cancer. A registered yoga therapist she provides yoga therapy to yogis with special needs Through her love of chanting and meditation she has collaborated in teaching with Krishna Das, Jai Uttal, Ram Dass, Wah, Sharon Salzberg and Jennifer Berezan. Her innumerable hours in classes have reaped the good fortune to hold the students as her most treasured teachers.
Contact Barbara: barbara@4thstreetyoga.com

Tom Williams has been teaching Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction in Bay Area hospital settings for 16 years. Based on the teachings of John Kabat-Zinn. Tom provides students the opportunity to bring awareness and attention to the asanas and concludes his classes with a meditation period.
Contact Tom: (510) 339-1809