About Yoga East
Our Non-Profit Mission
To make the benefits of yoga available to everyone regardless of age, fitness level or ability to pay class fees.
We fulfill our non-profit mission by offering low-cost Yoga Classes, scholarships and work-study opportunities to many students. We make yoga available to people who might otherwise never have access to its benefits. The feedback we get from participants in these programs is positive as they begin to experience the uplifting nature of yoga acting in their lives.
Corporate Officers
Laura Spaulding, President and CEO
Susan Reid, Vice President
Treasurer, Susan Rudy
Secretary, Gail Minotti
Susan received her 200 Hour Certificate from Yoga East in 2009 and her 500 Hour certificate in 2012. She has been the assistant to the president of Yoga East since 2011.
Susan Reid, Vice-President
General Manager
susan@yogaeast.org
phone or text Susan: 502-523-8020
Our Generous Donors and Corporate Supporters
Eileen Walsh and Barry Stokes
Millie and Paul Ratner
Kaden Associates
Controldoc, Inc.
Susan Rudy
Community Foundation of Louisville
Susan Reid and Rich Benner
Jamie Turner-Lovett
Kroger Company
Board of Directors
Brian Andriot
Anne Borders
Gail Minotti
Susan Reid
Susan Rudy
Laura Spaulding
Laura became President of Yoga East in 1994.
Laura Spaulding, President & CEO
Director of Teacher Training
laura@yogaeast.org
phone or text Laura: 502-585-2070
Our Fabulous
Volunteers
Volunteer Teachers
Karen Cairns
Tamara Conaway
Laura Harbolt
Gail Minotti
Susan Rudy
Dariana Salinas
Angela Scharfenberger
Karen Sorgel
Ky Street Plants
Gail Minotti - Orchid Guru
Kentucky Street Blanket Washing
Rita Hynes
IT & Technical Support
Victor Davenport
Yoga East History
Yoga East was founded in 1971 by Maja Trigg (1927-2016) and incorporated as a non-profit educational organization in 1978. Yoga East has expanded over the years to multiple locations and more classes and styles of yoga, but our corporate philosophy and mission has remained the same: To make the benefits of yoga available to all in the Greater Louisville community.
Yoga East and the Kentucky Department of Juvenile Justice
Partnership for Trauma-Sensitive Yoga
In 2017 the Kentucky Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) obtained a grant to begin a program incorporating trauma-sensitive yoga classes to youth in DJJ facilities. Due to the demonstrated effectiveness of Trauma Sensitive Yoga as an adjunctive treatment for chronic post-traumatic stress disorder, DJJ trained 5 staff members to become yoga teachers. Yoga East developed a unique Yoga Alliance-registered 200 Hour Teacher Training Program for Professional Therapists. From August 2017 to April 2018, four mental health clinicians and a state-wide director from DJJ attended and completed the training.
Since graduating, the 5 DJJ yoga teachers have authored a training manual and a sequence as well as having presented a 6-week series of interactional on-line trainings. This series related to the brain, the neurobiological impact of trauma and the beneficial effects of yoga for DJJ staff across the Commonwealth. This component of the training also involved academic readings and on-line discussions. Eighteen of the staff who completed the on-line training were then invited for a 2-day training for the sequence the yoga teachers designed. Upon returning to their respective facilities, these staff began teaching weekly yoga classes to youth confined in 10 different locations in DJJ run facilities across the state. DJJ planned a collaboration with researchers at University of Kentucky and Kentucky State University to research and assess the effects of the practice across several domains. Unfortunately the program was interrupted by the pandemic and shutdown in 2020, and afterwards the administration of DJJ changed and future plans to train more staff in additional settings, generate additional sequences and monitor all settings to ensure fidelity to the model were all abandoned.
1971 Yoga East Courier-Journal Ad
St Matthews Studio mural Shiva and Shakti | Painted by artist and Mysore Ashtanga student, Jean Distler, and assisted by Linda Erzinger
Dedicated on December 13, 2014.
Workshop with Ramanand Patel 2022
View of sunrise over the Ganges, Varanasi
2015 Yatra to North India
Workshop with Doug Swenson 2001
Our Ashtanga Legacy
Laura Spaulding first heard of Ashtanga Yoga around 1994. In 1995 Laura found the first commercially-published book on Ashtanga, Power Yoga, by Beryl Bender Birch, a teacher in New York. In 1996, Laura took a class with Richard Freeman, who directed an Ashtanga program in Boulder, Colorado. In 1998 Laura met David Swenson, and Tim Miller and Larry Schultz in 1999. Laura took her first trip to the Ashtanga Yoga Research Institute in Mysore, India directed by K. Pattabhi Jois, and studied with him for three months, August-October. Laura took classes in NYC with Mr. Jois in 2000 and 2001, and returned to Mysore every year for study 2002-2009. Laura received authorization from Mr. Jois in 2004. Laura was in Mysore when Mr. Jois died and attended his funeral rites. In 2009 Laura was invited to attend the first Teacher's Course and received Level 2 authorization. She attended the next Teacher's Course in 2014. In 2015 she attended the Ashtanga Yatra (Pilgrimage) taught by Sharath and Saraswati in Uttarkashi, North India; and the Ashtanga Yatra taught by Sharath in Rishikesh in 2018. Laura has taught morning Mysore classes 6 days a week since 2002 and maintains a personal Ashtanga practice as she learned it from the Jois family. Other authorized teachers here are Karen Cairns and Jude Vanderhoff.
Sharath Jois Workshop - 2003
Sharath was Director of the K P Jois Ashtanga Yoga Institute in Mysore, India. In June 2003, we were the first yoga shala in the U.S. to host Sharath for a full two-week workshop. Sharath taught morning led classes and showed us the correct form for Sanskrit-counted vinyasa for Primary Series. We took Sharath for a cruise on the Belle of Louisville and to the Louisville Zoo, primarily to see the tigers. Sharath was a well-known wildlife photographer and supported programs for the protection of tigers in India. Sharath passed away on November 11, 2024. age 53.
Saraswati Jois Workshop - 2015
Saraswati Jois (Sharath's mother) is a pioneer in the field of yoga. She was the first woman to graduate from the Sanskrit College of Mysore and the first woman yoga teacher in India to teach men and women yoga students together. She has been teaching Ashtanga for many decades. Saraswati and her daughter Sharmila visited and taught a week of Mysore classes, and they cooked delicious South Indian meals for us while they were here. We bought hats for them and took them to The Oaks on Derby weekend, 2015.
Yoga East in New York City on 9/11/2001
Four Yoga East students: Debbie Saag, Dana Christensen, Kari Nolan, and Laura Spaulding were in New York City for a week-long workshop with K. Pattabhi Jois September 8-15, 2001. On Tuesday right after our morning class at the Chelsea Piers we had a celebration of Saraswati's 60th birthday. We were waiting in line at a coffee shop when we heard the terrible news that an airplane had hit the World Trade Center. Classes were cancelled the next day, but resumed on Thursday. It was an unforgettable week. The above photo was taken on Friday, September 14.
Support our Mission
The best way to support Yoga East is by coming to classes regularly as a yoga student. By helping yourself, you also help and support Yoga East and other students by being present.
Contributions to Yoga East are tax deductible as charitable donations. Yoga East is recognized by the IRS as a charitable organization. Donations support scholarships for students with financial hardship. No one is turned away from classes for inability to pay fees.
Kroger Community Rewards
Register your Kroger Plus card, enroll in the Community Rewards Program and choose Yoga East as your charity. Your purchases help support our nonprofit mission.
Click here to enroll your card.