Ten Years of Skill in Action practices, gathered in one place

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Michelle Cassandra Johnson is an author, activist, spiritual teacher, racial equity consultant and educator, and intuitive and shamanic healer. She approaches her life and work from a place of knowing we are, can, and must heal individually and collectively. Michelle facilitates workshops and immersions, leads retreats and transformative experiences nationwide, and offers an array of healing services for individuals and groups.

Michelle is a seven-time published author, including her first book and bestseller, Skill in Action: Radicalizing Your Yoga Practice to Create a Just World. Her latest book, You Are Protected, published by St. Martin’s Essentials, came out in September 2026.

Michelle was a TEDx speaker at Wake Forest University in 2019 and has been interviewed on several podcasts.

Michelle leads courageously from the heart with compassion. She lives in North Carolina with her husband, sweet dog, Jasper, and her honeybees. 

https://www.michellecjohnson.com/.

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Kiesha Battles, E-RYT 500, RPYT, CPC, Reiki Master, has been a dedicated yoga professional since 2010. Drawing on her academic background in Business Management and Asian Studies from Seton Hall University, she is the owner of I Am Yoga CLT, a Teacher Trainer, and the Studio Manager of CorePower Park Road in Charlotte. Kiesha’s ongoing study of Sanskrit informs her commitment to the intersection of wellness and intergenerational community, a theme central to her Yin Yoga mantra, “You are not stuck.”

In 2016, she was appointed Co-Director of the Yoga Retreat for Women of Color, continuing its 25 year legacy of sacred space-making at Kripalu. Kiesha is also a founding member and advocate of the Black Yoga Teachers Alliance and the creator of SAFE Yoga (Safe, Accessible, Free Energy) in Greensboro and Charlotte, NC. Off the mat, Kiesha enjoys life with her husband, two sons, and her mother, who first discovered her zest for hot yoga in her 60s!

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As a Black, queer, family caregiver with a background in Yoga, social justice, and race & equity facilitation, they want to co-create spaces where we can be in deep inquiry together around the work we have to do to as messy human beings on a dying planet.

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Anjali Rao is the author of Yoga As Embodied Resistance: A Feminist Lens on Caste and Gender in Yoga History, and is on the faculty of multiple yoga education programs. She considers herself first, foremost, and forever a student and is currently pursuing a PhD in Philosophy and Religion (Women's Spirituality) at California Institute of Integral Studies.

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Kyle Skovira, LMSW (they/them) is a restorative justice facilitator and psychotherapist who centers relationship as a practice: with self, with one another, and the systems we've inherited. Kyle creates spaces for reflection, dialogue, and storytelling: the slow and recursive practice of tending trust, care and accountability. At its core, their work is a practice of right relationship: to remember, again and again, the beautiful ways we can weave together.

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Melissa Shah (she/they), founder of Find Your Breath, is a first-gen Indian-American yoga therapist, community builder, and public health advocate. Their work is rooted in a holistic and social justice oriented approach to the healing arts, supporting people of all ages globally through 1:1 yoga therapy and mentorship, therapeutic classes, retreats, and social emotional learning in schools. Holding over 2000 hours of study and training in yogic traditions, she is currently writing a book on the therapeutic applications of mantra.

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Shakira writes, speaks, and facilitates learning experiences about what happens when culture gets under the skin. Her work explores the relationship between body, story, power and the worlds we create together, inviting people to notice what they have inherited, what they have learned to override, and what becomes possible when they listen differently. Through movement, storytelling, dialogue, and reflection, she creates spaces for people to cultivate embodied wisdom and practice cultures rooted in dignity, relationship, and collective care. You can learn more about her work at www.rhythmicbloom.com.

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Erica Shockley (she/her) received the gift of yoga while seeking a more truthful and embodied way to live in relationship with herself and the interconnected world. Her work supports folks moving through transitions, including offering yoga practices rooted in seasonal cycles and grounded in remembering that we are interwoven, belonging to each other. Devoted to the collective liberation movement, she believes that yoga sustains our efforts to address harmful systems of disconnection and oppression while we create spaces that uplift the dignity and worth of all living beings. With her wife and two dogs, Erica enjoys being in relationship with the trees and waters in the lands of the Cayuga Nation (Ithaca, NY).

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Marcia is a Trauma Center Trauma-Sensitive Yoga Facilitator (TCTSY-F) and a registered yoga teacher (RYT 500) who has a passion for presenting contemplative practice and yogic texts in a way that is both accessible and engaging.

Using inspiration from yoga philosophy, trauma theory, and pop culture, her goal is to arm you with the tools and confidence to unlock the wisdom of contemplative traditions so you can navigate the challenges of everyday life. One of her favorite guiding principles as a facilitator is “No yogi left behind!”

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Johanna Olivas is the founder of Luna Serenity, a wellness practice centered on nervous system regulation, restorative practices, and the therapeutic use of sound. As a sound healing practitioner, Reiki Master, and yoga teacher, she creates accessible, trauma-informed experiences that invite people to slow down, reconnect with the body, and cultivate a greater capacity for rest and regulation. Through guided meditation, breath, movement, and immersive sound, Johanna works with individuals, organizations, and communities to explore wellbeing in ways that feel grounded and sustainable. She facilitates experiences throughout the Washington, DC region, from intimate gatherings to workplace wellness programs, retreats, and large-scale community events. Luna Serenity’s home for private sessions is the Luna Sound Lounge in Bethesda, Maryland, where Johanna offers personalized sound healing, Reiki, and meditation experiences.

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Rebby Kern is a student of embodiment, joy, and human connection. They are drawn to the ways movement, presence, and curiosity can soften barriers and create deeper belonging. With a grounded spirit and playful heart, Rebby invites others into more authentic relationships with themselves, their bodies, and the communities they call home.

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Carole Hsiao (she/her) is the first-born daughter of refugees from China and lives in Seattle, WA (land of the Coast Salish). She is an educator and activist in the realms of the arts and public mental health. She holds a PhD in Education from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, her research focused on the need for the arts in the education of marginalized middle school girls. She is currently at work on a series of essays on the theme of filial piety in her family’s journey from pre-1949 China to the present. She serves as a practice mentor for Lama Rod Owens whom she also studies with. She commits her time and energy toward a liberated world for all beings.

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Dewi Chen (she/her) is a Singapore-based movement teacher, doula and bodyworker whose practice is grounded in a trauma-aware, decolonised approach to the body. She works across two closely related strands – teaching yoga and movement, and offering manual therapy and remedial bodywork – and treats them as intertwined: remedial and therapeutic touch shapes how she teaches, and in turn the teaching of movement shapes how she touches. Drawing on more than a decade of practice, she's interested in the body as a site of past and present embodied knowledge, and in so doing, she often questions the euro-centric frameworks through which the body is so often framed.

She is the co-founder of Centred Space (www.centredspace.co), where she teaches movement classes and professional education courses, including Beyond Safety: Trauma-Awareness & Decolonisation in Movement Education. As a bi-racial person, she often finds herself needing to untangle and hold multiple identities, and what this means for the clients she serves. Her ongoing engagement with decolonial and feminist frameworks as they apply to wellness and trauma work is fed by her own self-practice and client-facing work. She brings a curiosity-driven, non-dogmatic voice to her teaching, and by extension is more interested in inquiry than instruction. To know more, please visit www.dewichen.com.