JUDI HARVIN   Judi is the founder and director of Focus Yoga. She has been involved in the fitness industry for 18 years, and received a 200-hour teacher training certification from the Temple of Kriya Yoga as well as another 200-hour certificate from Moksha Yoga.  She has attended workshops and teacher trainings with many of the countries top instructors.

Judi's goal in creating Focus Yoga is to create a friendly neighborhood yoga community where people could enjoy and further their practice, and instructors could share their passions.  She loves introducing yoga to brand new practitioners.  Judi works to develop classes that safely challenge her students while stressing proper alignment and technique. And as her personal practice has deepened, she has become very interested in sharing yoga as a tool to strengthen the focus of the mind. However, her greatest goal is to help her students discover how yoga can affect and improve their lives off the mat, and to encourage them to develop their intuition and find their own "inner teacher".

ANNE UNGER  Anne believes every class provides an opportunity for physical, mental, emotional and spiritual transformation and healing. She is truly excited about sharing the benefits with her students. With a focus on connecting body movement and the fluctuations of the mind to the rhythm of the breath, Anne's eclectic approach to teaching yoga includes a blend of holding and working in asanas, coupled with mindful flowing sequences.

Anne received her training through the Temple of Kriya Yoga's extensive nine month teacher's training program and continues to deepen her practice through participating in events and training workshops with master yoga teachers.

LISA MUSIAL  The gift of yoga was given to Lisa in the unassuming package of an offer made by a friend, pursuing the yoga teacher certification program, to take an "in-home" practice class. Since this initial introduction, Lisa has been reaping the rewards of her yoga practice. Among the many benefits, Lisa has eliminated her insomnia and weak digestive system (classic "vata-type" conditions).

Currently working as an adult educator and textbook author, Lisa finds it satisfying to be involved in the process of student development. She considers it personally rewarding to foster an environment in which students strive to reach personal goals. Her decision to become a yoga instructor allows her to share her love of yoga with students who share that passion.

Lisa is certified through Moksha Yoga Center's 200 hour teacher training program. She has completed teacher workshops with many master teachers including Tias Little, Eddie Modestini, and Nicki Doane. Lisa's objective is to lead students through a safe and progressive yoga practice, with the ultimate goal of achieving "quietness of mind" and "lightness of body" While flexibility, strength and stability are important aspects of Lisa's yoga class, she feels that integrating the whole body within a pose is equally important. Her classes provide a traditional yoga environment incorporating total body and breath awareness, as well as some classical warm-up techniques used by dancers.

SUSAN DIEDERICH   Susan Diederich has a warm, humorous, and nurturing teaching style that she uses to help bring the healing benefits and joy of yoga to all of her classes.

Susan has been in the fitness industry since 1988, and has been a personal trainer since 1992, having owned the personal training business, Fit For All Seasons. Eventually Susan's love for yoga led to her becoming certified in 1994 through the Chicago Yoga Center, and she has been sharing her love of the practice through her teaching for the past 10 years. She has studied Ashtanga, Iyengar, and Vinyasa styles of yoga, and her teaching is a blend of these, mixed with compassion and appreciation of the individual.

In addition to providing instruction through her regular classes, Susan has presented many workshops through the area. These include her particular interest and specialty, therapeutic and restorative yoga, where she encourages the student to allow their own healing powers to inspire each practice. Susan has the unique ability to nuture others to feel and celebrate their emotions and creativity. She enjoys furthering her knowledge through the attendance of workshops and conferences, and particularly draws upon the influences of her teachers Gabriel Halpern, Suddha Weixler, and Kathleen Wright.

KIM WADE  has been practicing yoga for as long as she can remember although she just called it 'stretching'. As a child, Kim would practice a great deal of time on strengthening, forward folding and twisting her body. Somehow instinctively, even as a kid, she knew her body was out of alignment. Then, at the age of 12, Kim was diagnosed with scoliosis.

For many years following, Kim vigorously challenged her body. Active in sports, rock climbing and rappelling, circus skills, Pilates, Yoga and as a certified actor/combatant, Kim knew her body was capable of anything she set her mind to. Then, in 2004, she became pregnant with twins and everything changed. The rapid weight gain created tendonitis in both of her wrists; she developed sciatica and overtaxed ligaments. The ability to walk, sit and climb out of the bathtub became almost impossible. At the time of their birth, she was measuring 3 months past a full term pregnancy.

Kim began a daily rigorous Ashtanga practice to get back into her natural shape and lose the weight. She then realized how much of her body had been forever altered. Life had taken it's toll and she discovered that what had once been easy for her was now a new and difficult challenge.

She enrolled in the extensive Moksha Yoga Teacher Training Program and logged over 690 hours of study. Learning how to rebuild and correct the asymmetry she had developed had been her primary focus. Once in the program, however, the beauty, peace of mind and acceptance she found through practicing yoga became her passion. She began teaching to share this passion with others. Our body and mind are connected. Our bodies are our words, emotions, thoughts and experiences. Our bodies are us. They are the only vehicles we have to express ourselves and the sole way we take up space allotted to us in this world. How do we choose?

As a student of Manju Jois, Ana Forrest, Sean Corne, Gary Kraftsow, Tias Little, Gabriel Halpern and Daren Friesen, Kim has learned that Yoga is the Quiet You and it vibrates. She teaches intention, beginning and intermediate asana, pranayama, vinyasa, and quiet flow.  

NANCY DESERT LIZARD HERATY  Nancy Desert Lizard Heraty has been practicing yoga for 15 years and teaching for 8 years. She teaches yoga in classes and workshops in the Chicagoland area and retreats in Sedona, Arizona.

Desert Lizard brings her creative spirit, passion and love into her yoga journey, influenced by ancient traditions and the mentors in her life. She brings that wide ranging color pallette into her teaching and shares that with her students. Desert Lizard creates a sacred space to enter and explore yoga making a safe and nurturing practice. She emphasizes alignment and attention to technique, and the careful use of props supports learning for all levels. She teaches mindfulness in her eclectic blend of sequencing and encourages students to take her teachings off the mat and into life.

Desert Lizard continues to deepen her personal yoga journey as an assistant and apprentice with renowned Iyengar teacher Gabriel Halpern at Yoga Circle in Chicago, where she also teaches. She continues study with other senior Iyengar teachers as well, and she is finishing her training with Elise Miller to become a Yoga for Scoliosis Teacher which enhances her deepening wisdom of the spine.

Desert Lizard is an accomplished clay artist with a home studio and kiln. She is a mother of two daughters and three step daughters, and shares in a loving relationship and home with her soulmate, Red Bear. She loves to share what she loves to do through her art and yoga journeys.

To quote Tom Robbins: "There are only two mantras, YUM and YUCK, mine is YUM." .

LINDA ROTUNNO Linda Rotunno began to practice yoga after experiencing running injuries and stress fractures due to osteoporosis. She admits that her first yoga experiences were following the Rod Stryker, Baron Baptiste, and Rodney Yee yoga videos. Always attracted to the power of the body and now discovering the positive effects yoga has on both the body and the mind, Linda enjoyed learning the body, breath, and mind techniques that tapped into her inner strength and energy. Having worked as a junior high school teacher for seven years and a retirement plan administrator/manager/paralegal for twenty-four years, Linda sought to do something else, something she could engage in spiritually, physically, and mentally while interacting with others. It was her fourteen-year old daughter's encouragement and her experience practicing with a few outstanding yoga teachers that led Linda to enroll in the 2004 Moksha Teacher Training program.

Linda transfers some of the experiences acquired as a schoolteacher and the research skills used in the corporate/legal world to her yoga 'classroom.' She continues to study a never-ending source of materials to enrich her own and her students' practices. Creating new and challenging sequences to keep the students engaged and interested is one of her main goals. Learning about those postures designed for specific conditions (particularly bone and core strengthening asanas) is another of her goals.

While appreciating the knowledge gained in her undergraduate and graduate studies (M.B.A. from Loyola), Linda feels that she is only now beginning to learn a science that she feels passionate about. Linda has practiced with and been inspired by several Master Teachers including Ana Forrest and Andrey Lappa.

FREYA SMITH  Freya has always been athletic,but after experiencing a few sports related injuries she was intuitively drawn to Yoga, seeking the combination of physical, mental and spiritual aspects in one discipline that she had long been looking for. Freya tried her first class about 6 years ago and has been practicing ever since.

"Once I began practicing Yoga, I knew that it would become a lifelong passion. I learned that Yoga is a lifetime of learning and practice; there is always something more to discover and explore. I plan on practicing well into old age." 

Freya has been a fitness instructor for the past 8 years teaching spin, strength, core and stretch classes. Freya has long been incorporating Yoga into her teaching even before she knew it was Yoga!

"After practicing Yoga for several years and experiencing the mind and body calm and satisfaction after each Yoga practice, I wanted to deepen my practice by delving into all things Yoga." Freya says.

Having the honor to learn from Master teachers Tias Little, Gabriel Halpern, Daren Friesen and numerous inspiring instructors over the years, Freya looks forward to sharing the knowledge with her Focus Yoga students. She has a 200 hour CYT certification from Moksha Yoga.

ELLIE TAYLOR  Ellie walked into her first yoga class nine years ago, and it has been a part of her life ever since.  She loves the fact that every time you come to the mat, it is an opportunity to learn something new, providing rest and quiet for the mind while strengthening and opening the body. 
Ellie holds a 200-hour hatha yoga certification, and received a second  certificate for her participation in a 108-hour Anusara immersion.  She continues to study Anusara yoga and feels its Universal Principals of Alignment are a phenomenal tool for any practice.

Ellie is known for her enthusiastic teaching style and the down-to-earth way in which she helps students make their practice their own.  She is full of gratitude for the opportunity to be able to share the sweetness of yoga with others.