300-hour Teacher Training Team
Barbara Ruzansky, E-RYT 500
founder and director of why
Barbara’s own path to health is at the heart of her teaching. She has a deep conviction that yoga can help you observe your self more objectively, become healthier, more fulfilled, and better able to serve others. In 2002, she opened West Hartford Yoga, a holistic center, offering yoga classes and workshops, teacher trainings, intensives with international teachers, massage, meditation, and kirtan. She spent 20 years as a macrobiotic chef and teacher, and her yoga training includes work with Ana Forrest, David Swenson, Shiva Rea, and Dan Leven as well as deep studies of Bikram Yoga, Kripalu Yoga and a 500 hour yoga alliance certification. Over the last 25 years, she has blended this knowledge into a dynamic style called WHY Power, which encourages students to explore their edges, develop core strength, and connect to their breath. Barbara is compassionate and insightful about students’ individual needs. Her classes move people deeply. Students have said she has an uncanny ability to see where they are blocked and help them move forward.
peter meadow, assistant director
Dr. Peter Meadow has been a student and teacher of yoga for 40 years, taking his first class in 1969. After receiving his MA in philosophy in 1976, Peter moved to California to study holistic healing. He lived in Kayavarohana ashram in St. Helena, California from 1978 through 1981, practicing and studying yoga under Yogeshwar Muni in the lineage of Swami Kripalu, teaching hatha yoga and training as an Enlightenment Master. He has led Enlightenment Intensives since 1981. Peter is assistant director of West Hartford Yoga and leads workshops in yogic philosophy and meditation. He has run a successful chiropractic practice since 1984.
jen leavitt, MSW/JD, RYT 200
Jen Leavitt is WHY’s former studio manager and WHY Power teacher. A 2011 graduate of WHY’s 200-hour Teacher Training, she creates an energetic, vigorous, sweaty practice for those looking to move and breathe. Jen is also a certified Therapeutic Yoga and Yin Yoga teacher who has explored different paths along the yoga road, including Bikram, Ashtanga and Kripalu. Her personal practice has served as an anchor through various life experiences, including divorce, recovery, and spiritual growth. Trained as a social worker and a lawyer, Jen worked as a criminal defense lawyer prior to joining the management team at WHY. Jen continues to serve and support WHY in various administrative capacities.
jude russell
Jude is Operations Manager at WHY, working behind the scenes to keep things running smoothly. She assists Barbara during the teacher training and provides support, encouragement, and inspiration to the trainees. A 2008 graduate of WHY’s 200-hour Teacher Training, Jude is an ideal teacher for those new to yoga, moving towards a stronger practice, or working with limitations or restrictions. Her classes feature slower vinyasa, deeper holds, alignment fine tuning, and use of props to access more difficult postures. Her teaching is rooted in her own practice and body—integrating WHY Power with elements of gentle, yin and restorative. She has studied with many national teachers, including Tias Little and Cheri Clampett.
kelly bay
Kelly Bay is an RYT-500 hour yoga teacher, a C-IAYT yoga therapist, and a Licensed Massage Therapist. She completed her 200-hour Tantra Hatha yoga training in 2012, a second 200-hour Doaist yoga teacher training in 2014, and her 500-hour yoga therapist certification through the Center for Integrative Yoga Studies. Her personal experiences have taught her that the human body and brain are capable of healing beyond our ability to comprehend. Kelly has been leading and developing Anatomy and Yoga Teacher Trainings for many years, and skillfully weaves her understanding of physiology, healing, and body systems into all her work.
Ali Duchesne
Ali Duchesne (E-RYT 200, YACEP) has been practicing yoga for over 20 years, ever since she fell in love with Ashtanga. Teaching since 2017, Ali’s classes have been described as empowering, soulful, challenging, fun, and deeply healing. Ali enjoys exploring yoga as a metaphor for life and incorporating her passion for multi-discipline learning into her classes. She has experience teaching power, all-levels, foundational, gentle, restorative, and family yoga and holds additional certifications in children’s yoga, Trauma Informed Yoga, and Reiki Levels I & II. As the co-owner of Be Wild Yoga, Ali helped build a community based on inclusivity, self-exploration, and compassionate empowerment.
Anne Falkowski
Anne has been teaching yoga full time for over 20 years. In 2001, she created Samadhi Yoga Studio of Manchester and was the director of Samadhi Yoga Teacher Training up until Covid. She is passionate about writing and has many essays on yoga and body image which can be found online. Her teaching style is to be as present as possible, to see everyone in the room, and to speak the language of yoga from a place of grace and humility. Her yoga style is a hybrid blend of Kripalu, Forrest, and her own observations from many years of practice and teaching.
miranda junggren
Miranda came to yoga while bodybuilding and discovered the multiple benefits that yoga and meditation had on her overall wellness. Her classes are a safe space to explore sensation and awareness, with thoughtful sequencing and body-intuitive transitions. Miranda has a broad knowledge of anatomy and biomechanics and offers opportunities to modify postures for a more accessible or more challenging practice. She is a 200-RYT, certified in WHY Power, Restorative, and LoveYourBrain yoga. She has a PhD in Biology and enjoys wildlife, world travel, reading, food, and spending time with her husband and dogs.
Annie Keating-Scherer, LCSW, RYT-200
Annie is a psychotherapist, yoga teacher, and founder of Sage Therapy and Wellness, a small therapy and holistic wellness center in West Hartford. Annie loves working with her clients, helping them connect to their innate self-worth and build resilience, strength, and skills to navigate trauma, stressors, and hardships. Through mindfulness, evidence-based psychotherapy, and yoga, Annie supports adult and adolescent clients through their healing journeys. Annie holds an MSW from New York University’s Silver School of Social Work and a BFA in Acting from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. Most importantly and most magically, Annie is the mother to two amazing girls who remind her daily to connect to wonder and awe.
Sarajean Rudman
Sarajean is a New England-based Yogini and mindful running/outdoor adventure guide. Founder of Bala Strong Hot Vinyasa Yoga and the RunYogiRun podcast, she has several decades of experience across a diverse array of health & wellness fields. Sarajean’s mission is to bring people together in community to experience a healthy lifestyle.
sharon salzberg
Sharon Salzberg is a meditation pioneer, world-renowned teacher, and New York Times bestselling author. She is among the first to bring mindfulness & lovingkindness meditation to mainstream American culture fifty years ago, inspiring generations of meditation teachers and wellness influencers. A co-founder of The Insight Meditation Society in Barre, MA, Sharon is the author of thirteen books, including the New York Times bestseller, Real Happiness, now in its second edition, and her seminal work, Lovingkindess.
Bethany Wallace
Bethany was first introduced to yoga in 2004 while studying dance at The University of Colorado. After only a few classes, she knew she had to share her love of yoga through teaching and soon after began studying under the instruction of Barbara Ruzansky at West Hartford Yoga, where she completed her 200-hour yoga teacher certification in 2010. In the years since, Bethany has become certified in Prenatal Yoga and Restorative Yoga and, in 2017 became a Licensed Massage Therapist. For 10 years, she owned/operated Bloom Yoga Fitness Studios alongside her mother and sister, Julie and Morgan Wallace, during which she developed several workshops and training programs. Bethany is best known for her creative sequencing, lighthearted playlists, and soothing presence.