Jeff holds a BA in History from University of Illinois, and a Master of International Management from the American Graduate School of International Management (Thunderbird). He has lived abroad for many years, including in the UK, Mexico and Brazil, and loves languages, culture and travel.  He is the co-author of two books on international management, and is presently Director of Corporate Strategy at Brown-Forman Corporation.

Karen is a 2003 graduate of the Yoga East teacher training program, with special merit for excellence for her research project. While the majority of her yoga studies has been at Yoga East, she has also studied with Ramanand Patel, Mukesh Desai, Francois Raoult, David Swenson, John Friend, and Sharat Rangaswamy. Karen studied with Shri K. Pattabhi Jois in Colorado and New York in 2002, and in Mysore, India, in 2003.

Karen's main interest is in helping herself and others learn to walk lightly and in beauty on the earth. As a graduate of the 1999 Louisville Urban Environmental Leadership Institute, she has been active in a number of local environmental groups and is knowledgeable about local environmental issues. Karen is a writer and has been published in several international journals. Read Karen's article:  "Learning from Each Other: Beginning Thoughts on Environmental Issues and Education in India and the United States of America", by Karen Cairns, Published in Science and Society Vol. 2 (1), January- June 2004 Pages:63-73. 

Karen and Shri K. Pattabhi Jois, Mysore, 2003

Dana Carnall is an honors graduate of our 2001 teacher training program. She has a strong, accomplished Ashtanga yoga practice. Dana has studied with Shri K. Pattabhi Jois in both the United States and Mysore, India, where she received permission in 2003 to start Intermediate series. She received an Ashtanga teaching certificate from David Swenson in May, 2002. Dana's studio, Full Moon Yoga, is in the Crescent Hill neighborhood of Louisville. Dana teaches Intermediate and Mysore Ashtanga classes.

Dana and Shri K. Pattabhi Jois, Mysore, 2003

Kim teaches Ashtanga and Hatha yoga at Yoga East and in several locations in Southern Indiana.  She is a graduate of the 2001-2002 Yoga East Teacher Training program.  In June of 2002 she traveled to Mysore, India, to study with Sri K Pattabhi Jois and has been practicing Ashtanga yoga in her personal practice ever since. 

Kim says, “I’m truly a “Type-A Ashtanga person, my life’s challenge is to slow down and learn to let things happen as they will.  Yoga, in general, but Ashtanga specifically, is a good teacher. Every time I try to push too hard in a new pose or “strong-arm” my way into something before I’m ready, my body lets me know I’ve gone too far. Mindfulness practice is a difficult lesson for me, but a very important one! I’ve learned much from the healing process of yoga and about beginning again “with awareness”.  While Ashtanga is my personal practice I have learned much from other teachers; David and Doug Swenson, John Friend, Lino Miele, and especially, Francois Raoult.

After spending nearly 20 years in “Corporate America” as consultant, International Trade Specialist, small business owner, and manager; I first became interested in yoga for the meditative, spiritual aspect, but very soon I was hooked on the postures and the increased flexibility and balance my practice gave me. After moving to the Louisville area in 2000 from Phoenix, Arizona, and finding Yoga East, I learned that yoga was much more than I ever dreamed.  Then I became serious about learning how to live my yoga.  Every day something new comes up, each day something old drops away.  I love teaching yoga; my students are the most wonderful people in the world.  They keep me real and we keep each other from getting too serious about our practices.  My deep and driving desire is to live a compassionate life of service.  My very first yoga teacher said that the most important thing you can give your students is the example of your life working.  I try to live by that every day.  In addition to yoga, my life does work because I share it fully with my best friend and husband, Eric, our dog, 4 horses, 3 cats, and we live on a little farm out in Southern Indiana….now that really works!”

Lisa Flannery is a 2001 graduate of our Teacher Training program.  She is a gourmet cook and combines her knowledge of healthful cuisine with her love of yoga. Lisa's studio, Full Moon Yoga, is in the Crescent Hill neighborhood of Louisville in 2003. Lisa recently made a yoga instructional video.

Rory Foster, RYT, is a certified yoga instructor registered with the Yoga Alliance. He recently located to Louisville from Chicago's North Shore community where he served on the teaching staff of the Lake Forest Health and Fitness Institute of Lake Forest Hospital, the Multiplex Club, and Total Body Yoga and Healing Power Yoga studios. Rory has been a lifelong devotee of Paramahamsa Yogananda, author of the spiritual classic, Autobiography of a Yogi. He has spent most of his adult life in the study and practice of Raja   Yoga and specifically, Kriya Yoga, as taught by Yoganandaji.  Rory teaches in the classical Hatha yoga tradition incorporating the active engagement of mind and breath with asanas along with visualization and movement of prana (energy). He also teaches classes in Pranayama and Meditation.

Rory is a Professor Emeritus of DePaul University in Chicago. He held the rank of Professor and Dean of the Conservatory of Dance at Barat College of DePaul. He danced throughout the world as an artist of the American Ballet Theatre, London Ballet Theatre, International Ballet Caravan, and New Orleans Ballet. He served as Ballet Master for Ruth Page's Chicago Ballet and Ballet Master and Choreographer of the New Orleans Ballet.

Rory has taught both nationally and internationally and has been enthusiastically received as a Master Teacher.

Debra Kehl is an instructor and board member of Yoga East who truly embodies the spirit and teachings of St. Francis. She  received her yoga teaching certificate in 1996. Debra grew up in Louisville, youngest of five children from a Catholic family. She graduated from high school in 1972 and began a computer career that started with card reading machines and advanced into today’s electronic networking. She worked in the computer field for 24 years.

In 1993, Debra’s oldest sister suggested they take yoga to help with stress, so Debra and two sisters attended their first yoga class. It was a life-changing experience that resulted in Debra enrolling in the Yoga East Teacher Training Course in 1995. From the course Debra learned more about the life of St. Francis, a saint known for peace, non-violence, joy, simplicity and his love for earth and all of creation. Later Debra met a Franciscan nun who became an important role model for her. Now resigned from the corporate world, her work is  teaching yoga at Yoga East and Unity Church and introducing yoga at corporate meetings, church and civic organizations.

Debra has adapted a lifestyle in harmony with the teachings of yoga, saying: "You learn to awaken your true nature  - becoming who and what you already are." Debra is an associate with a Franciscan Order of religious women, active in co-membership with the Loretto nuns.   With yoga Debra has remarkably freed herself from medication she once needed to cope with depression. She says, "What is so exciting for me today is: we are seeing leaders of theology and science coming together and agreeing - There is a Hidden Intelligence in the Order in this Magical Universe". Yoga for Debra demonstrates and nurtures that magic.

Lavenia says, "Yoga practice has had and continues to have a profound effect on my life.  I feel healthier now than I have in my life, mentally, physically, and spiritually!  It is my intention to share with the community my love of yoga, the physical and psychological benefits of relaxing the mind, building and strengthening the body, honoring the temple we have been graced with.  Thank you to all the teachers and students for sharing much love, guidance, and support on the path of my purpose!"

"You have opened my eyes to many new opportunities."

"Z is an awesome teacher, takes time to make sure everyone is on track & is sensitive to her students needs."

"I think that I have learned more about my flexibility and how my body operates. I have had an extremely great teacher leading the way for me." 

Laura Spaulding is President of Yoga East and Director of Teacher Training.  She has over 8000 hours of teacher training and experience and has trained over 40 yoga teachers since 1995.  She received Best of Louisville Magazine's 2002 Critic's Choice Award for Yoga Teacher. 

"My mother taught me meditation and the philosophy of non-violence over 40 years ago. She gave me books to read about Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr.  In 1967 she gave me a magazine article about hatha yoga.  I began practicing some asanas shown in the article. Over the years I gradually learned more about Raja Yoga.  I traveled to India in 1986 but never found a teacher and always practiced by myself or with friends.  After I moved to Louisville I met Maja Trigg, founder of Yoga East, in 1990.  I studied with her until she retired in 1994 and then studied with several teachers in different styles of yoga.  I discovered Ashtanga Yoga in 1995 and took my first workshop with David Swenson in 1998.  Later I took David's teacher training, as well as Larry Schultz's and Tim Miller's.  At the suggestion of Tim Miller, I traveled to Mysore, India, in 1999 and spent three months with Shri K. Pattabhi Jois.  I returned to Mysore in 2002 and 2003, and have studied with Mr. Jois on his visits to New York.  My personal practice is Ashtanga Yoga, but I have also learned a lot from great teachers in other styles: Ramanand Patel, Mukesh Desai, Arthur Kilmurray, Francois Raoult, Patricia Hansen, John Friend and many other great, dedicated teachers.  I also continue to learn a lot from my students, which is one of the reasons I teach yoga."

Laura received her B.A. in Fine Arts, cum laude, from the University of the South at Sewanee, Tennessee, and hopes to find time to resume painting again.  She is an attorney and received a J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, D.C.  She closed her law practice and began teaching yoga full time in 1998.  Laura has been a student of Swami Chidvilasananda (Gurumayi) since 1991 and has studied the philosophical traditions of yoga at both Shree Muktananda Ashram in New York and Gurudev Siddha Peeth in Ganeshpuri, India.  Laura plays recorder (alto and soprano), and is learning flute, Indian flute and mrdanga (two-headed Indian drum). Her flute teacher is Ravi Shankar Misra of Mysore, India. She has been married to her best friend, Victor, since 1986. 

Karen Strobel began yoga in the late 1980s with Maja Trigg, the founder of Yoga East. She is now a member of our Board of Directors. She is co-Manager of Yoga East along with her husband, Paul Long.  Karen's love of teaching has always drawn her into the classroom.  She received a Masters of Education with an emphasis in reading at U of L in 1991.  Karen began teaching full time as a 5th grade teacher at St. Francis School in Goshen and remained there for 9 years.  To deepen her knowledge of yoga and yogic philosophy, Karen enrolled in Yoga East's Teacher Training program in 1999, graduated in 2000 and began teaching yoga part-time.  In June 2001, Karen, along with her husband, Paul, joined Yoga East full-time to manage the new Holiday Manor studio and to teach classes there.  She has studied various styles of yoga with several teachers, but regards Maja Trigg and Laura Spaulding as her first and foremost teachers and credits them with lighting the spark of yoga which now burns in her heart.

Kelli is a 2003 graduate from Yoga East's teacher training program. She has an MA degree in art therapy from the University of Louisville and is currently enthusiastically involved with the Mellwood Arts & Entertainment Center as Leasing/Marketing Manager.  

Ken Von Roenn III