Carol Krucoff is a yoga therapist at Duke Integrative Medicine in Durham, North Carolina, and co-director of the Yoga for Seniors Professional Trainings, designed to help yoga instructors safely adapt the practice to older bodies, minds and hearts. An award-winning journalist, Carol served as founding editor of The Washington Post’s Health Section and is the author of several books including “Relax into Yoga for Seniors: A Six-Week Program for Strength, Balance, Flexibility, and Pain Relief" and “Yoga Sparks: 108 Easy Practices for Stress Relief in a Minute or Less.” Carol has served as a consultant on several yoga research studies and co-authored articles in peer-reviewed medical journals. She has practiced yoga for more than 40 years and is grateful to have studied with numerous master teachers from around the world. She also studied martial arts for 10 years and earned a second-degree black belt and the honored title Sensei. 

Jess is the Founder of Kaiel TX which brings well-being services into the workplace including meditation and chair yoga, as well as studio chair yoga classes and chair yoga teacher trainings. 

Before making the switch to teaching full-time, she served as the Senior Director of Business Development at a healthcare organization in Manhattan. Prior to this, Jess worked in the field of gerontology and productive aging. She holds a BSBA, MBA (management and entrepreneurship) and MSW (social and economic development with a focus on gerontology) from Washington University in St. Louis. She’s originally from Little Rock, Arkansas and is a perennial student of the French language.  

After working with her beloved meditation teacher, Alex, for a number of years, she began teaching meditation in 2011. She received her 200 hr yoga training in 2012 from ISHTA Yoga, as well as her 300 hr training in 2013 and restorative training in 2016. She was trained in sound meditation in Kerala, India. Jess has been teaching vinyasa and chair yoga since 2012.

Liz Oppedijk (RYT-500, E-LVCTT, MSc) came to yoga in her fifties, following serious illness and injury. Through yoga, her recovery became a transformation. But she was left with a question: how to bring the healing practice of yoga to people for whom the mat is a barrier? She found her answer in Lakshmi Voelker Chair Yoga. Since training with Lakshmi, Liz has taught chair yoga to people with varied abilities, including those with Parkinson’s, MS, stroke, and cancer, as well as those with dementia, learning disabilities, and their caregivers. Her commitment to accessible yoga led her to establish Accessible Chair Yoga CIC, a non-profit social enterprise. ACY is dedicated to bringing yoga to everyone, regardless of age, ability, or physical or mental condition, in particular to UK nursing homes, by training others to teach chair yoga and by sponsoring research into yoga’s effectiveness in the social care sector. Liz is currently training in yoga therapy with The Minded Institute in London, is the official Lakshmi Voelker Chair Yoga teacher trainer in the UK and Europe, and is the European coordinator for Jivana Heyman’s Accessible Yoga charity.

Marie Prashanti Goodell (RYT500, C-IAYT) turned to yoga to manage stress more effectively after being diagnosed with chronic fatigue and Hashimoto’s disease. After practicing regularly, Marie Prashanti began to experience greater energy, improved health, calmness of mind and deeper peace. With a desire to share the benefits of yoga with others, Marie began teaching yoga in 2012. She now teaches Hatha & restorative yoga at IYI San Francisco, stress management to people with early-stage Alzheimer’s in a research study being conducted by Dr. Dean Ornish, wheelchair yoga at SF Laguna Honda Hospital & Rehabilitation Center, Love Your Brain yoga to people recovering from TBI or stroke at SF Zuckerberg General Hospital, chair & floor yoga to seniors at OnLok Senior Center, and 1-1 yoga therapy sessions to people recovering from stroke, TBI, chronic fatigue, cancer, heart disease, arthritis, Ehlers Danlos syndrome, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis and surgery. Marie Prashanti has been a Board member of the Accessible Yoga Organization since January 2018, where she currently serves as Board President. She is also a Board member of the Integral Yoga Institute in San Francisco.