Lisa Pedersen Executive Director
Lisa comes to The Art of Yoga Project as the former Vice President, Services at Nokia in Mountain View, California. She has an impressive track record in the corporate sector, has lived and worked internationally for many years and has experience in fund raising and non-profits through volunteer work for the Junior League of Palo Alto Mid Peninsula. She is also a certified yoga instructor and has been mentoring women for many years. Lisa believes that empowering women and children builds healthy families and vibrant communities. She joined as Executive Director for The Art of Yoga Project in January 2009.
Courtney Woodrow Site Director, San Francisco
A practicing yogi since 1990, Courtney Woodrow is a certified Yoga Teacher through the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Center, and completed the Advanced Teacher Training at The White Lotus. She has also assisted the Teacher Training at San Francisco's Yoga Tree, and studied the Art of Teaching with Manouso Manos.
Courtney's passion for her work with The Art of Yoga Project stems from her own struggles and delinquency as a teen. Her dream is to help her students rediscover the beauty and magic of life. Courtney resides in Half Moon Bay with her loving family.
Rebecca Bara
Site Director, Santa Clara
Rebecca Horsley Bara has been practicing and teaching yoga for 10 years. Having seen yoga transform her life and the lives of so many around her, Rebecca is devoted not only to her own practice but also to teaching and sharing her knowledge with others. Currently Rebecca is teaching yoga to teen girls at the East Palo Alto Academy, a charter school in East Palo Alto, CA. Rebecca loves teaching these girls and seeing the impact yoga makes on their attitude and their lives. She is especially inspired by seeing girls from rival gangs practicing yoga together. "Yoga has a way of uniting these girls."
Married with four children (two teens), Rebecca has completed Teacher Training Levels I and II with master teacher Baron Baptiste in the power vinyasa yoga style. She also completed a 200-hour Yoga Alliance teacher training at Avalon yoga studio in Palo Alto, where she studied asana, yoga theory, pranayama and meditation.
Sarah Barnard
Site Director, San Mateo
Sarah Barnard comes to the Art of Yoga Project with a diverse background in yoga, nutrition and working with teens. She is a certified yoga teacher through San Francisco’s Yoga Tree and has advanced trainings in teaching yoga to children and adults. In addition to teaching yoga in multiple San Francisco locations, Sarah leads a cooking class for high school students in the Mission District. She’s currently in training at the Integrative Institute of Nutrition to become a certified Holistic Health Counselor. Sarah feels so blessed to be a part of the Art of Yoga team and enjoys every opportunity to be in class with the girls. With each class, Sarah finds new ways that yoga can help these girls find their strength and, with art, an opportunity to express this strength to others. Sarah currently lives in San Francisco’s Mission District.
Lisa Danylchuk
Phase II Mentorship Director
Lisa Danylchuk comes to the Art of Yoga Project with a love of yoga and a passion for serving young people at risk. She has worked in rehabilitative settings including group homes, juvenile probation programs, public schools, therapeutic schools and non profit organizations and has always advocated for the integration of yoga into treatment services for youth at risk. She received her Masters in Education in 2006 from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and received a Certificate of Advanced Study for her studies of adolescent adjustment counseling the following year. She has been an avid yogi for the past ten years and has been teaching for eight. One of her favorite parts of being an Art of Yoga teacher is observing the girls unwind and relax over the course of the class, and she hopes that the Phase Two Mentor Program will support the girls in finding relaxation and a strong sense of self after they leave juvenile hall.
Laura Koo
Laura brings a background of non-profit grant-writing, marketing, operations and management experience to The Art of Yoga Project. Her formal training includes a doctorate from UCSF in 2001 in Chemistry & Chemical Biology and a B.A. in Chemistry with minors in Music & German from Rollins College in 1995. After working for several years at the Community School of Music and Arts in the Silicon Valley, she resigned to enter a three-year open retreat to deepen her spiritual practice and nurture a deep appreciation for the philosophies and practices of mental, emotional, physical and spiritual balance common to the Eastern healing arts. She has since pursued hatha yoga, traditional Chinese medicine, qigong and meditation studies. She also teaches meditation classes with her husband throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. Her other hobbies include hiking, gardening, fashion and classical guitar.