Bios

Staff

Rachel F. SampleRachel Sample, Executive Director

 Rachel Sample arrives at Street Yoga after passionately serving the community as an educator and non-profit manager. She has worked in both the private and public sectors in finance, management, and education. While living in New York, Rachel worked in both the nonprofit and for-profit world as a financial manager and development consultant for small nonprofits. Since moving west she has become a certified public educator, which made her intimatly involved with the youth and families served by Street Yoga and she has experience in curriculum building in both traditional and non-traditional settings. In addition to finance and education Rachel has worked in non-profit consultation with Decisions Decisions here in Portland, OR where she assisted many local and national organizations strategize and grow. She has been a yoga practitioner for 12 years and is thrilled to continue to serve the community she believes in through a practice she advocates.
Contact: rachel@streetyoga.org


Stephanie Toby, Seattle Director of Operations Stephanie Toby

Stephanie took her first yoga class in college and was amazed with the practice's effects on her mind and body. In the later years of her practice, she began to understand yoga's profound spiritual dimensions as well, and noticed yoga's effects on all aspects of her life. Stephanie also organized programming to support survivors of sexual and gender-based violence in college, and volunteered as a mentor in a low-income school, among many other social justice oriented activities. Stephanie studied American Literature and Culture as an undergraduate at UCLA and went on to complete graduate studies there in Public Policy. She has worked as a researcher and analyst for both non-profits and government entities at the state and federal level. While working as a researcher and analyst, Stephanie also helped organize events, including the first-ever Green Festival in San Francisco (that has since spread across the country), campaigns for issues such as educational equity in California, and fundraising drives. She is delighted to have found a combination of her two loves - yoga and social justice - and feels blessed to bring the healing aspects of yoga to those who would not otherwise have access.
Contact: stephanie@streetyoga.org

Jaime Hedlund

Jaime Hedlund, Program Manager

Jaime Hedlund graduated with a B.A. in Social Work from the University of Portland in 2008, after completing her practicum with Street Yoga in 2007. Since that time, Jaime has taught classes to youth in transitional school, youth in treatment for sexual abuse, and offered yoga and stress relief to Latina mothers and children. She has also served Street Yoga as an Americorps member and Volunteer Coordinator in 2009/2010. Jaime completed her 200-hour yoga teacher training through the Samarya Center in Seattle, WA and is a student of Integrated Movement Therapy. She feels fortunate to offer classes that are full of creativity, self-care, and much love.
Contact: jaime@streetyoga.org

 

Alice NoyesAlice Noyes, Communications Manager 

Alice finds joy exploring the sacred spaces, finding the silence between the breath, between movement and stillness, in lightness and darkness. Alice found yoga at a pivotal time in her life and seeks to share this gift with others. After graduating from the Univeristy of Texas at Austin with a B.A. in English, Alice she trained in Web Design and began her professional career as a designer, learning how to utilize technology for creative communication. It was at this time Alice discovered yoga which provided balance, activity, and introspection. After moving to Portland in 2008 she found the Street Yoga Teacher Training and strives to share the powerful tool of yoga with as many people as possible, especially those who need it most.
Contact: alice@streetyoga.org



Brianna Jonak, Volunteer Coordinator

Brianna Jonak is a lover of life in all it's manifestations.  Her mission is to be heartfully present in every moment.  This is what led her to her journeys in yoga and meditation.  She has studied Tibetan Buddhism, Integral Yoga at Auroville, India, Sharing the Presence in Findhorn, Scotland, and Vipassana training in Italy.  She has a B.A. in Anthropology from the University of Arkansas in 2009.  She moved to Portland in June of 2009 to complete a Master's degree in Process Oriented Psychology. 

She has had experience working with children of all ages in a teaching role, and has recently been working with adults with mental health and substance abuse challenges.  She has been teaching meditation at Stumptown Yoga since last December.   She aims to inspire students to find their own inner guidance.  Her core belief is that embracing all our thoughts, emotions, and sensations in a compassionate way will bring us to holistic connection with the present moment.
Contact: brianna@streetyoga.org

Board of Directors

Mark LillyMark Lilly, Board President

Mark Lilly founded Street Yoga in 2002. He was inspired to share yoga from his personal yoga practice and his extensive work with homeless youth in Portland. As a director of Insight Communication, LLC, he conducts workshops in mindful communication. He is the author of “Felix Maus,” a memoir of his family’s passage through tragedy (forthcoming). Mark is also a software engineer, educator and social entrepreneur.
Contact: marq@streetyoga.org

 

 

Susan Pease Bannit, LCSWSusan Pease Bannit, Board Chair

Susan Pease Banitt, LCSW is a Harvard trained psychotherapist with over thirty years experience in mental health work. She has worked in a variety of settings with hundreds of diverse clients over the years: residential childcare, child abuse prevention, inpatient psychiatric hospitals, outpatient clinics, medical hospitals and private practice. Over the years she has come to see that traumatic stress and experiences are behind the vast majority of suffering in mind and body.

http://www.insightouthealing.com/

 

 

 

Suresh Srivijaya

Suresh Srinivas, Secretary

Suresh Srinivas (सुरेश श्रीनिवास) is a computer scientist and Principal Engineer at Intel Corporation. He has a PhD in Computer Science from Indiana University, Bloomington. He was born and brought up in India as a vegetarian to Hindu parents. He immigrated to the United States 20 years ago and has lived in Indiana, California, and Oregon and is happily married with a ten year old daughter. He is passionate about integrative health and likes to bring the benefit of Yoga and Mindfulness to everyone. In addition to serving on the board of Street Yoga, Suresh has a personal yoga, breathing, and meditation practice and teaches at Outside In for Street Yoga. He also volunteers and teaches Yoga to primary school children at the Catlin Gabel school and has also taught fellow employees at Intel Corporation. His other service to the community include the board president/secretary for the Bethany Homeowner's association, secretary at Rasika, and volunteer at Northwest Veg and OMSI. While he is not working or volunteering he spends time with his family cooking delicious vegetarian foods,, reading, biking, and enjoying the outdoors in the Pacific Northwest.

Arthur Davis: Board MemberArthur Davis, Treasurer

Arthur Davis is an independent grant writer for local nonprofits.  He earned his MBA and Certificate in Nonprofit Management at Portland State University and has substantial experience in nonprofit management, fundraising, finance and governance.    He has previously served on the boards of SCRAP, The Pangaea Project and Common Ground Wellness Center.  Yoga is a part of his mindfulness and wellness practice in support of service and meditation: "Street Yoga helps kids in difficult places get in touch with their bodies, minds and hearts to facilitate healing, and that's pretty much what yoga practice can do for all of us!"

 

 

Rebecca Crosby, Board Member

Rebecca has a Masters in Public Administration and a deep understand of how civic action and engagement better communities from the ground up. She has served on several boards, and currectly serves as a board member at Peoples Food Coop; a possition she has held for the past four years.  Rebecca is a lifelong Oregonian and has a passion for the community here in Portland. Yoga has been present in Rebecca's life for many years and in 2000 she took a month long teacher training course with Richard Freeman and has used her training to engage with youth who need it most through the YMCA and Street Yoga.

Julie Larson


Julie Larson, Board Member

Julie Larson, MPH, has a health background and for more than 10 years has been working in the non-profit arena, specifically focused on youth mentoring. She has a passion for empowering children and teens to live to their full potential through relationship. Julie brings experience in program development, implementation, and evaluation as well as fundraising to Street Yoga. Julie discovered yoga 12 years ago as a pathway to personal growth, health, and cultivation of contentment, and her service to Street Yoga is a means to bring her passions together to benefit those who have a light inside of them just waiting to shine.

 

Carri Munn - Board MemberCarri Munn, Board Member

Carri Munn has worked for the Portland based consulting firm, Decisions, Decisions since 2005.  With twenty years of nonprofit and private sector management experience, she plays lead roles in strategic planning, community engagement, and collaboration development in a wide variety of projects for nonprofits and public agencies.  She offers broad experience in organizational development and communication, including human rescources, strategy development, marketing, training, and board dynamics. Carri became an Oregonian 11 years ago after fleeing the heat and insects of the south to pursue a Masters in Public Administration and Nonprofit Management from Portland State University.  A busy mother of two, she spends her free time dancing, gardening, and doing henna.  In addition to serving on Street Yoga's board she is an advisory board member for the Pangea Project, a local program devoted to developing leadership skills
 among disadvantaged teens. 

 

 

 

The Trainers

The Teachers