Meet Our Teachers
*Indicates Bilingual Spanish/English
Amy Davis
Executive Director, Co-Founder with James Loney + Meditation Teacher
Amy is a licensed NY Pre-K - 6 educator and a certified 200/hr mindfulness for adults as well as 200/hr mindfulness for children teacher. She has earned an MBA and MSEd, and completed a certificate program in Art Therapy at the New School. During the pandemic, she wrote a book titled “52 Weeks to Sanity,” a curriculum for meditation teachers. Her most recent book is a curriculum for teaching mindfulness to children, employing the six senses in a way that develops focused and curious attention to one’s experience.
Yes, Amy loves school and thinking and puzzling through life’s experiences. But even more than that, Amy loves teaching and approaches every teaching opportunity with the intention of relieving as much suffering in herself and others as she can. She uses her education, intuition, and personal experience of living a life with agency to guide her students towards their own personal sanity. Amy is both the director of HMY and the head teacher for HMY’s Children’s Program.
Amy speaks English and conversational French.
Masako Miyakawa
Yoga Teacher, Staff Director + Director of Yoga Teacher Training
Masako came to NYC in 90’s after moving to Chicago from Japan in 1986. In the spring of 2001 she stumbled into a yoga class at Crunch Gym in SoHo and it was love at first downward facing dog. She completed her first 200-Hour Teacher Training in 2004, with additional trainings in anatomy, restorative, pre and postnatal, yin, chair, aerial yoga and 300-Hour Teacher Training. She has been training teachers both in NYC and Japan over a decade. Her classes are breath-centered, focusing on mindfulness, safe and sound alignments, and is known for light hearted approach to yoga. She serves as Director of Programming and Teacher Training @ HMY and registered E-500 & RPYT (registered prenatal yoga teacher) with Yoga Alliance.
Masako is fluent in Japanese.
Meli Rios*
Yoga Teacher
Melissa Rios was born and raised in Costa Rica, moved to New York in 2005. Melissa started her yoga practice because she experienced a form of depression. Yoga helped her to connect deeply with her mind and heart, so that she was able to love her life. This journey inspired her to become a yoga teacher not only for adults but as well for children.
In 2012 she decided to take a 200h YTT. Later in 2013 she started studying kids yoga and she finished her 90h in 2017. She continued her yoga studies and in 2018 she completed her 300/500 YTT.
She has studied with Sir Dharma, Yoshio Hama and Dr. Rose Erin Vaughan.
To Melissa practicing yoga is not only about the asanas, yoga is about loving every sentient being, as we are all connected.
Rosana Rodriguez*
Trauma-Informed Yoga Teacher
Rosana Rodriguez is the wellness visionary who founded Yogiando NYC in 2017. Born and raised in Washington Heights to parents who immigrated from the Dominican Republic, she has dedicated the last 9 years to transforming community spaces into yoga studios. Rosana is committed to making wellness affordable & accessible to the LatinX Community & every one of all shapes, shades and sizes. She offers a Spanish and English class where you arrive for yoga and exit learning a second language.
Rosana was diagnosed with PTSD and asserts that yoga saved her life. She feels profoundly responsible to share healing with her comunidad and people who never believed that yoga was for them.
Rosana changed careers at 50 years old to became a certified yoga teacher and to serve her community. She holds 200hr certification from Breathe for Change, Yin Yoga, Mindfulness certification from Josh Summers, at Kripalu, she studied Divine Sleep Yoga Nidra & Five Element Yoga with Jennifer Reis and Teaching Pranayama: Essential Practices for Yoga Teachers.
Beyond teaching yoga, she has a background in fashion design and over 20 years of grassroots advocacy for marginalized communities and a passionate activist against domestic violence since 2004.
Sloan Daley
Yoga Teacher
Sloan Daley (she/her) is a movement artist and teacher shaped by the intersection of both dance and stillness. Raised just outside Dallas, Texas, she carries a lifelong devotion to embodied expression. A graduate of George Mason University’s School of Dance, Sloan earned her BFA in Dance with a focus on choreography and performance. During her studies, she completed her 200 hour yoga certification—a practice that became not only a companion to her art, but a deeper way into it. Sloan weaves yogic principles into all facets of her life, inviting curiosity, compassion, and presence both on and off the mat. Her classes are a gentle call to return home to yourself—to move honestly, breathe deeply, and listen closely to the wisdom of the body. She believes yoga mirrors our inner landscapes, revealing how we meet the world and ourselves with each breath. Sloan is honored to share space with Heights Meditation and Yoga, and she looks forward to growing deeper roots within the Washington Heights community!
Amy Lee Pearsal
Yoga, Reiki + Meditation Teacher
Amy Lee Pearsall received her 200-hr training from MindBodySoul Yoga and Wellness in 2019 (Hatha / Vinyasa with Alyssa Snow, Stacey Linden, Amy Soucy, and Colleen Kerns), and went on to receive additional certifications in Yin and Restorative (Sacred Brooklyn / Masako Miyakawa), Accessible Yoga (Integral Yoga Institute / Rev. Jivana Heyman), Trauma-Informed Yoga (Exhale to Inhale / Julie Fernandez), Pranayama / Breathwork (Accessible Yoga School / Rev. Jivana Heyman), Yoga Nidra (Bodsphere), and Reiki (Omega Institute / Brett Bevell). In 2021, Amy Lee completed MNDFL's Mindfulness Certification and Training program under the guidance of Rev. angel Kyodo williams and David Perrin. In tandem with her work as a mind-body facilitator, Amy Lee is an actor, voice over artist, and writer.
Monisha Raja
Yoga Teacher, Ayurveda Lifestyle Coach + Neuroscience Collaborator
Monisha Raja began her yoga journey at age four, in India. She brings over 26 years of teaching experience in New York City and a lineage in classical Sivananda yoga that runs unbroken for over 1,200 years. This lineage traces back from Adi Shankaracharya, born in Kerala in 788 CE, through Swami Sivananda of Tamil Nadu, Vishnudevananda, and her own teacher Swami Govindananda Saraswati at the Sivananda Ashram in Neyyar Dam, Kerala. As a child in India, she also attended classes with Guruji B.K.S. Iyengar. She was born into this tradition.
Her teaching bridges classical yoga with contemporary neuroscience, exploring how pranayama, āsana, and meditation directly regulate the nervous system, reduce stress, and support long-term vibrant health. She has collaborated with Harvard and MIT-affiliated researcher Dr. William Bushell, to explore yoga's therapeutic potential as a supplemental treatment for COVID and other infectious diseases.
Monisha is a certified Ayurveda Lifestyle Coach and the founder of YOGA AID, a non-profit honouring yoga's roots. She travels regularly to India to deepen her studies. You can learn more about Monisha here.
Marinés Rodriguez*
Sound Healer + Yoga Teacher
Marinés Rodriguez is a dedicated Ceremonial Space Holder and a facilitator of profound transformation.
Equipped with a diverse toolkit of healing modalities, including Reiki, Sound Healing, and Transformational Hypnosis, she carefully guides her clients in energetic healing and rewriting subconscious narratives.
Driven by a passion for lasting change, Marinés' skills transcend typical healing encounters. Her socio-emotional and mental health background, coupled with her experience as a certified Recovery Coach, ensures holistic support beyond the initial session. By addressing core wounds and behavioral patterns, she empowers her clients to experience lasting transformation and blossom into their most empowered selves.
Demetra Adams
Reiki & Yoga Teacher
Demetra is a Reiki Master teacher and practitioner, musical artist and yoga teacher. Trained in the Usui Method of Natural Healing, her Reiki practice includes treating private clients (both in person and via distance healing worldwide), leading healing circles and offering trainings. She creates Reiki infused custom-made essential oil blends, which are crafted to support vitality and well-being. As a sound healing practitioner, she combines her expertise in both the musical and healing arts, incorporating singing bowls, tuning forks, voice and other instruments to foster calm and enhance life force energy. Her immersive specialty classes and workshops integrate sound, yoga, Reiki and essential oils to create a state of deep meditation and facilitate healing. She received her 500-hour yoga teacher certification from YogaWorks in NYC. Through yoga, Reiki and sound healing, Demetra aims to enhance joy, well-being and connection to one's True Self. Please visit www.dragonheartwellness.com to learn more about her offerings.
George Kormendi
T’ai Chi Chuan
George Kormendi has studied and taught Tai Chi Chuan for over 40 years with The New York School of Tai Chi Chuan (www.taichichuan.org), an affiliate of the T'ai Chi Foundation, founded by Professor Patrick Watson. George's studies have included direct study with Professor Patrick Watson and his senior students. Patrick was a senior student of Master Cheng Man-Ch'ing, who was a senior student of Yang Cheng-Fu, and one of the most renowned Tai Chi teachers of the last century.
Along with conducting ongoing classes for the New York School of T'ai Chi Chuan, George has had a wide variety of teaching experience with a broad spectrum of people, including performing artists, students, academic officials, and corporate executives, having taught Tai Chi for organizations as diverse as the Omega Institute, the Dance Department of Sara Lawrence College, the Stella Adler Acting Conservatory, the Ford Foundation, the NYC Public School system, and the NYC Department of Corrections, District Council 37 (New York City workers' union), YW-YMCA, and Crunch Fitness Health Club.
Carolina Lindoff
Yoga Teacher
Carolina grew up in Sweden and came to New York City to continue her dance studies and decided to move here permanently because of love. Through her dance studies she came across yoga and since her move here, yoga became the anchor that helped her through that transition and beyond.
Carolina completed her 500 hour Teacher Training with YogaWorks in 2015. She got certified in Prenatal Yoga through Maha Mama in 2017. She has since then continued to study restorative yoga, Accessible yoga and Carolina is, through Yogi Beans, a certified kids yoga teacher and teaches kids all around the city.
In her kids yoga classes, joy is at the center of the practice! We go on adventures, learn to breathe in different ways, play mindful games, practice relaxation and have a lot of fun together.
For her adult yoga classes, Carolina likes to teach different styles and always incorporates a spiritual or emotional theme to explore. She’s a firm believer that yoga is for everyone and loves the connection that is created in the practice, both the inner connection and the connection within the community.
Sadie Isseks
Meditation Teacher
Sadie Isseks is a Meditation Instructor, Performer, and Dharma Artist. With a Master’s degree in Theater from Naropa University, Sadie’s classes are centered around playfulness and the curious exchange between the mind, body, and spirit. “I believe exploration of movement, sensation, and breath can be empowering and radicalizing. By tapping directly into our nervous systems, we can re-pattern our conditioned ways of thinking and being in the world. In our historical moment of upheaval, oppression, and dehumanization, it is important to find our humanity and our spirit. Through meditation, we can imagine ourselves as we are and who we are becoming.”
Patricia Maldonado*
Meditation Teacher
Patricia Maldonado has always had a strong desire to be of service, which led me to become a teacher and administrator in the NYC schools. She is Puerto Rican, and speaks fluent English and Spanish. She taught bilingual education and English as a Second Language in schools in Manhattan and the Bronx, and then founded a community-based school in Lower Manhattan called the Neighborhood School.
Looking for solutions to my own personal life challenges, I explored mindfulness meditation and energy healing. Both energy healing and mindfulness meditation have helped me to alleviate stress and develop inner peace. I have been practicing mindfulness meditation for close to 20 years.
Katie Zaffrann
Meditation Teacher
Katie Zaffrann is a theatremaker, singer, wife, mother, lover of the outdoors and mindfulness meditation teacher at the intersection of drama + dharma.
A longtime yoga practitioner, she came to her meditation practice specifically during a period of acute anxiety. It has since grounded her through many life transitions, bouts of stage fright, traffic jams and toddler tantrums. She completed four levels of The Sacred Path of the Warrior training at Shambhala NYC, Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction with Palouse Mindfulness, and continues her studies with Ethan Nichtern. She has taught at Tibet House US and writes the newsletter drama/dharma.
With over 20 years’ experience onstage, Katie brings a deep understanding of what it means to be human to this time-honored way of waking up to our lives. Katie is certified as a Mindfulness Meditation teacher by Dharma Moon / Tibet House US, is a member of the International Mindfulness Teachers Association and is also an Usui Reiki practitioner. www.katiezaffrann.com
Keely Garfield
Yoga Teacher
Keely Garfield is a certified E-RYT 500, YACEP yoga teacher, and a highly regarded YTT instructor. She is an Urban Zen Integrative Therapist, Reiki Master, and an ordained Buddhist chaplain board-certified with the Association of Professional Chaplains. Keely has been faculty at Yoga Shanti, Yogamaya, YogaWorks, and Equinox and in many other settings. Highlights include leading UZIT trainees in Haiti, creating a popular online restorative yoga training for YogaRenew, teaching yoga and Reiki for Yoga Journal NYC, and facilitating a pranayama workshop for MIT. Alongside her work in wellness, she is an acclaimed choreographer, dancer, and educator, and is currently a Director of Spiritual Care and palliative care chaplain with Northwell Health. Keely’s broad experience has provided her with exceptional insight into the ways health and vitality are deeply rooted in the awareness of our mind and body. She centers a spirit of philosophical inquiry and compassionate concern at the heart of all her endeavor. Find out more about Keely HERE.
Emma Poole
Yoga Teacher
Emma has been teaching yoga in New York City for the last 13 years. She completed her 200-hour training at Pure Yoga in 2013, shortly after moving to the city to pursue a path in musical theatre. She has since completed additional trainings in the chakra system, reiki, sequencing, and the harmonium. A believer that everything is connected and that life is our biggest teacher, Emma infuses her classes with fluid movement, storytelling, and wisdom from her own experience and practice. Since 2020, she has had the privilege of traveling the world with her students, facilitating yoga retreats everywhere from Morocco to Portugal to the back woods of Vermont. In addition to HMY, Emma teaches downtown at Equinox, and privately throughout the city. To learn more about her offerings, visit her at www.emmapooleyoga.com, or follow her newsletter, a weekly exploration of being a human on earth. She has called Washington Heights home since 2012!
Alex Tripp
Yoga Teacher
Alex is a dedicated yoga teacher with 8+ years of teaching experience in New York City. She holds a 500 Hour Certification from Sonic Yoga, and specializes in Vinyasa Flow classes for all levels. Her teaching style is fluid and dance-like, drawing inspiration from yoga philosophy and storytelling. Originally drawn to NYC for her passion in Musical Theatre, Alex balances her artistic background as a performer, with her current role in Human Resources at Anthos|Home, a nonprofit startup focused on housing New Yorkers with vouchers. When not on the mat, she enjoys being outdoors and spending time with her family at their pond house in Massachusetts. She has been a Washington Heights resident since 2010, and is a mother to a very silly 4 year old named Clementine.
Dylan Taisen Stein
Zen Meditation Teacher
Dylan (Taisen) Stein is a student of Jokai Blackwell Roshi in the White Plum Asanga lineage of Hakuyu Taizan Maezumi Roshi. Taisen's practice is rooted in the Soto lineage, emphasizing the integration of mindfulness, compassion, and everyday life along with shikantaza meditation and koan study. Taisen has undertaken periods of residential training and numerous sesshin at Yokoji Zen Mountain Center in the San Jacinto Mountains of California. His style blends traditional Zen forms with an accessible, down-to-earth approach that welcomes practitioners of all backgrounds. He is committed to helping students discover clarity and ease through direct experience of stillness and presence.
Shawna Emerick
Yoga Teacher
Shawna Emerick (she/they) is a trauma informed yoga instructor with well over 800 hours of certifications and 21+ years of teaching. She is a Thai massage therapist, Life Coach for Transformation, and an integrative somatic healer who also holds a B.S. in Dance. She is passionate about supporting the healing of her clients and drawing out their Inner Wisdom in order to live from their most authentic place of heart.
Currently, she teaches yoga online, has a private practice office in NYC, offers one-on-one 'A.L.I.G.N.' sessions, runs local and international retreats, and has completed her studies with Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach in mindfulness meditation. She comes from multiple lineage lines of heart-centered healers, givers, and hard workers and is grateful, humbled, and honored to be carrying on the traditions in her own unique ways.
Shawna could not do any of this without the support of her partner, two children, and dog! You can find all that Shawna does HERE.