Governing Council on
Community Investment
Purpose:
Begin to change the public perception of yoga to more accurately represent the beautifully accessible and diverse range of practices and practitioners.
Support preserving the tradition and stewarding the forward evolution of yoga through grants.
Support transformational growth in the field of yoga through annual strategic initiatives.
Support excellence and quality in the field of yoga by creating a scholarship fund for teachers who want to advance their studies and level up their skills, as well as students who want to deepen their practice of yoga.
Support research to continue demonstrating the efficacy of the practice as a whole.
Investing in the community for the purpose of stewarding systemic change so that we all may pivot during this time of great transformation to a community that embraces all in the practice of yoga, innovates new ways of sharing, and tends to the roots of the practice, will not only have the lasting impact of expanding the reach of yoga's benefits for all but will support the community in navigating these changes.
– Heather Sheree Titus
Anticipated Outcomes:
Determine Strategic Initiatives for 2021. Consider dual purpose grants: a) Recovery and new initiatives as a result of limitations due to pandemic, b) investment in programs and organizations promoting diversity and equity in the yoga community.
Develop process for receiving grant proposals and distributing grant funds and scholarships.
Develop income based sliding scale for professional fees.
Consider the potential for regional chapters.
*This policy will be revisited and reviewed annually
Founding Council
Chanda Williams
Chanda Williams is a yoga teacher, yoga teacher trainer, and yoga therapist in training with a background in body mechanics, wellness coaching, and advanced education in trauma-informed yoga practices. Chanda has a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering and a master’s degree in integrative health studies and a second master’s degree in depth somatic psychology. A yoga teacher since 2004, Chanda offers group Hatha and vinyasa yoga classes as well as individual yoga therapy sessions for people with injuries or chronic health conditions. With a deep devotion to service, she taught yoga in the San Francisco County Jail for two years prior to joining the Prison Yoga Project, where she has taught regularly since 2014 at San Quentin State Prison. Committed to teaching yoga for health and social transformation, she is a Ph.D. student conducting mixed-methods research to describe the effect of mindfulness-based, trauma-informed yoga therapy for incarcerated men and its impact on their interoceptive awareness, dispositional mindfulness, and psychological well-being.
Duilia Turner
Duilia Turner is the founder of Integrative World, a community focused on promoting balanced lifestyles.
For eleven years “Dui” lived in the islands of Hawaii where she studied a variety of healing arts including Tai Chi, Qi Gong, sound therapy, and Yoga. She has conducted meditation and Yoga classes in the United States and abroad and has led empowering courses based on the program “Calling in the One” from the bestseller author Katherine Woodward Thomas.
Dui is also a military officer in the United States Air Force. She has been able to bridge her military life with her love for yoga, mindfulness, and wellness to educate and awake interest in healthy living.
She has served as an ambassador for two non-profits: Mindful Yoga Therapy and Warrior One. She has contributed to various Yoga blogs, public talks, and Yoga for Veterans trainings. Most recently, she has collaborated with the Give Back Yoga Foundation and Connected Warriors to create “Yoga Readiness Kits” for active-duty military members, completely free of charge. Now re-located to Miami, Dui continues to share her passion for wellness, service, and quality of life.
Dui completed the “Yoga Philosophy Intensive Course” offered by the AC Foundation in Hawaii. She has earned 200-hr and 500-hr Yoga certifications, specializing in Yoga for veterans coping with Post-Traumatic Stress (PTS). She is also a Transformative Coach, certified Reiki Master, and Health Coach. She is a member of the International Association of Yoga Therapists and the American Association of Drugless Practitioners. Dui holds a B.S. in Meteorology, an MBA in Global Management, and a MA in International Relations.
Heather Shereé Titus
Heather, Founding Director Yoga Unify, is passionate about bringing authentic yoga to the global conscious community across a variety of platforms. Her commitment to building community and offering service in the field of yoga, arts, sustainability, and consciousness is reflected in decades of community building, community event and festival creation and direction, and program development. Heather has produced and directed the annual Sedona Yoga Festival in beautiful Sedona, AZ since 2013. She co-created Aumbase Sedona, a multi-disciplinary studio of authentic yoga teachers and an on the land guide service for yoga and sound healing on the red rocks of Sedona, AZ. Heather studies and teaches in the Hatha tradition.
J Miles
From the teachings of Swami Satchidananda and Integral Yoga, along with Ashtanga, Jivamukti and other prominent systems of yoga, Yogi J has crafted a style tempered by humor, relies on the importance of breath, and aims to create for each person a fluid, sustainable and enjoyable practice. Understanding that even ancient practice continues to evolve, the mantra continues to be “practice is effort toward steadiness of mind”.
Currently J Miles resides in his hometown of Richmond Va, loving four children while working to improve his community through his co-founded organization, Project Yoga Richmond (PYR). He teaches classes locally at PYR, and Om On Yoga, where he serves as lead ERYT for the Om On Yoga Teacher Training Program.
Kim Bauman
Kim Bauman has been a yoga teacher since 2009, and founded One Love Movement in 2012 upon realizing her purpose in life, to advocate for social justice for kids who don’t have a voice. She has taught yoga at events upwards of 900+ in attendance, in 2015 was invited to speak at Deepak Chopra’s Global Meditation for Compassion and lead the yoga class after Deepak’s meditation and in 2018 was invited to tour with Kerri Walsh Jennings’s p1440 as the event’s yoga teacher.
Kim has appeared and had mentions on NBC, CBS, ABC, KUSI, The New York Times, San Diego Magazine, Pacific Magazine/DiscoverSD, The SD Union Tribune, SD Reader, Yoga Digest, Ranch & Coast Magazine, The Del Mar Times; keynote speaker for The Chopra Center, Lawrence Welk Resorts, Hera Hub, Oliver McMillan; an honoree for the 2016 Tony Gwynn Lasting Legacy & Inspiration Award; and a lululemon ambassador.
With a passion to share people’s stories, Kim created a podcast & live event which kicked off with guests: Kathryn Budig, Seane Corn, Jason Mraz, Academy Awards movie producer Charles Roven, 3x Gold Olympian Kerri Walsh Jennings, Michael Franti, Trevor Hall.
Kim’s nonprofit, One Love Movement, raises money & awareness advocating for kids world-wide with past & current projects focused in San Diego, San Francisco, Haiti, Tanzania, Puerto Rico, India, and Seoul Korea.
Lisa Faremouth Weber
Lisa Faremouth Weber is the founder of Heaven Meets Earth Yoga, Chicago Yoga Project, and The Illuminated Soul 200 Hour and Advanced Yoga Teacher Trainings. CYP offers trauma-sensitive yoga, lifestyle, and nutrition to adjudicated youth She produced the Yoga for Pregnancy DVD and the documentary short film “The Future of Yoga: Your Pathway to Happiness” which is showing on OmStars online yoga platform. Lisa has traveled internationally as a teacher trainer in the mind/body space for over 35 years. She presents Ashtanga for Everybody, Chakradance, Kundalini, Radiant Child Yoga, PreNatal. Yamas and Niyamas, Yoga Lifestyle & Nutrition for Optimum Health, Pilates/Yoga Fusion, Yoga Nidra, Reiki. Lisa graduated from Northwestern University, is currently on their Mind/Body teaching staff Lisa is a weight loss and optimum health coach for foodfuels.com
Reggie Hubbard
Reggie began his yoga journey in November 2014 seeking to alchemize and navigate extreme professional adversity. Through disciplined practice, ruthless focus and surrender to inner peace he has adopted the yogic path, now as a 500 hour certified yoga teacher who has extensively studied with leading teachers such as Faith Hunter, Amy Ippoliti, Yogarupa Rod Stryker and Sri Dharma Mittra and countless other amazing teachers he has encountered along the way.
Reggie teaches Members of Congress, Congressional Staff, leading progressive organizations and individuals, sharing techniques for growing peace and ease as a foundation, not an afterthought. He also advises yoga communities, yoga studios, teachers and the broader wellness industry on the importance of diversity and inclusion, opening the practice to all and eliminating exclusionary cultures and habits.
His teaching practice is designed for all levels and lifestyles, the only thing required is an open mind. The focus of his teaching is to bring more peace and balance to activists AND to guide the wellness community toward being more engaged, concerned citizens. Achieving this balance is how we catalyze transformative change.
In addition to his yogic activities, Reggie has held many senior strategic and logistical roles across a variety of fields, ranging from global marketing, digital and community organizing, government relations, international education to Presidential campaigning. He currently serves as a senior political strategist for a leading progressive campaigning organization, managing their relationships, impact and communications with Capitol Hill. He received a B.A. in philosophy from Yale University and an MBA in international strategy from the Vlerick Business School in Belgium.
Rob Schware
Rob Schware, PhD, heads the Give Back Yoga Foundation and the Yoga Service Council, and writes for the Huffington Post. Rob brought his two decades of management experience with the World Bank to help grow the yoga service movement as a second career. He wanted to combine his development and project management expertise in over 30 countries (including India, Indonesia, Turkey, Rwanda, and Palestine) with his passion for yoga by forming an organization whose mission it is to bring yoga to underserved populations.
Sat Bir Khalsa
Process
The Founding Governing Council on Community Investment began meeting Fall 2020 to reveal strategies for redistributing the majority of revenue above operating expenses back out into the yoga community in the form of grants for professionals, scholarships for all, and funding for research.
Founding Circle Members are regularly queried and have access to council session records through the member portal.
Community Investment Governing Council meets the 4th Monday of the month 6pm – 7:30pm Pacific Time.
Beginning sometime in 2021, Yoga Unify will accept nominations to run for any of the three Governing Councils and put a vote to membership.