Meet our Team

At Three Rivers Yoga Fest, we have a team of experienced and certified yoga and meditation instructors. Our instructors are passionate about spreading the benefits of yoga and mindfulness to our community. They are dedicated to providing a variety of classes for all levels of ability and experience.

Tanaya Larsen

Co-Founder & Yoga Teacher

Tanaya Larsen is a 500-hour registered yoga instructor with over 14 years of teaching experience. She is passionate about sharing her love for yoga and exploratory movement with her students. Tanaya is the owner of SpringStone Yoga in Rome. Her classes are known for their creative flow with mindful messages woven throughout. She believes that yoga is the best compliment to a busy life, and its practice will help individuals find peace and balance in both mind and body.

Melissa Lerner

Co-Founder & Instructor

Melissa Lerner has been a practicing yogi for more than 15 years and is a 330-hour/26x2 OHYA certified instructor. Her practice and her classes are designed to be intentional moving meditations that allow mind, body, and spirit to move, rest, and breathe together as one. Her fellow students and instructors have all been inspirations in her desire to pass on a practice that allows and encourages body awareness and self-discovery of contentment, equanimity, and love.

Interested in Teaching in 2025?

We are looking for experienced local instructors to bring unique class ideas, variety, diversity, and creativity into our festival. We need classes for all abilities. If you are interested in bringing your passion to the Three Rivers Yoga Festival, apply below by September 6th. Instructors will be chosen by September 30.

APPLY TO TEACH

2024 TEACHER LINEUP

Jeff Lidke

Jeffrey Lidke is professor of Asian religions and chair of the Department of Religion and Philosophy at Berry College. He is also a tablā player and long-time exponent of Kirtan, the Indian yogic tradition of the chanting of sacred music. He first learned Kirtan from his yoga teacher, Gurumayi Chidvilasananda, in 1984.

Rutu Chaudhari

Rutu Chaudhari began her yoga studies in 1999, received her first teaching certification in 2003, and holds over 4,000-hours of yoga certification to date. She has additional training in trauma-informed yoga therapy and meditation.

She opened All Life is Yoga, a community based, boutique yoga studio in the heart of Inman Park in 2011, where she hosts classes, workshops, yoga certifications and yoga wall trainings.
Driven by the intention to diversify the audience of people who teach and benefit from the practices of yoga and mindfulness, The Dharma Project was founded by Rutu in 2016 in Atlanta.

Lynne Jacobs

Lynne is an E-RYT 500 and certified IYAT Yoga Therapist. She is the founder of SpringStone Yoga in Rome and has developed her own somatic training for yoga teachers and other disciplines. Lynne has a talent for helping students feel nourished and renewed throughout her thoughtfully guided classes.

Libby Gore

Libby's journey into formal study of yoga began in Orlando, FL at Hindu University, where she received her initial training. She furthered her knowledge and skills under the guidance of renowned yoga teacher, Lynne Jacobs, here in Rome at Springstone Yoga, where she received her initial 200-hour certification. Libby is also certified at the 40-hour level in Yin Yoga, and finds the meditative, slow-paced character of Yin to be quite complementary to her active practice. She continues to deepen her understanding through ongoing self-study in diverse yoga traditions.

John Reiners

John certified as 200-hour yoga instructor under Sue Hopkins in 2008. He has taught yoga classes at the Rome YMCA since 2011, and he introduced meditation classes at the Y in 2018.

John is a beloved teacher at the YMCA, with his classes reaching over 30 participants on a regular basis. He is known for bringing yoga and meditation wisdom to all ages.

Kelly Sanker

Kelly started yoga just after graduating college when a friend started teaching kundalini. She loved the way her body felt both physically and mentally after practicing. Kelly received her RYT 200 certificate from her original kundalini teacher in Atlanta in 2020. The training focused on vinyasa, ashtanga, and kundalini. She also has a trauma yoga certificate and experience teaching teenagers and those struggling with addiction. Kelly's classes focus on alignment with emphasis on the bandhas and breath.

Chandra Sosebee

Chandra is anE-RYT 200 and RYT 500 yoga teacher primarily teaching at Etowah Valley Yoga in Cartersville where she completed her training in 2016. She loves to incorporate many forms of yoga and movement in her classes. Though a shoulder injury brought Chandra to yoga, she kept going back because she found so much more. Chandra holds a BS in Psychology, and is a certified herbalist, level 2 Reiki practitioner, and also practices Thai yoga. Chandra loves when someone realizes they can practice yoga no matter what age they are or what physical capabilities they have. If you can breathe, you can do yoga.

Shannon Kennedy-Newby

Maintaining a consistent daily practice of asana, pranayama, chanting, and study of Patanjali Yoga Sutras, Shannon is dedicated and experienced as both student and teacher. Shannon has been committed to the discipline of Ashtanga Yoga for over a decade. In addition to being a Yoga Alliance registered teacher, Shannon spends approximately 100 hours every year in intense study of the Ashtanga Yoga method with her teacher, David Garrigues. It is her firm belief that Ashtanga Yoga is a lifetime practice. Under proper guidance, it is suitable for anyone who truly wants to do it. The breath is the tool for awareness. Asana, breathing, and mastery over the body and senses brings discipline to the mind, and fullness to the experience of being human.

Kam Malone

Kam teaches yoga and sound therapy at Springstone Yoga in Rome, GA, and he works as a music, yoga, and sound therapy group facilitator at Red Top Wellness

Center in Cartersville, GA. He holds a 200RYS yoga teacher certification with add-on certificates in Trauma-Informed Yoga, Yoga Nidra, and Sound Therapy I/II.

Kam came to yoga in 2011 after a cardiac event and a lifestyle change. He is a retired music teacher and church choir director that enjoys bridging the gap

between traditional music and innovative sound therapy.

Amy Quarles

Amy Quarles completed her 200 hour yoga teacher training under Sarah DeFoor, E-RYT 500
and Grace Stephens, E-RYT 500 and Professional Yoga Therapist, in June 2021. She completed the 95 hour Grounded Kids Training with Amy Haysman, E-RYT 500, RCYT, and Sedef Dion, E-RYT 500, RCYT, to become a Certified Childrens Yoga Teacher. She completed Restorative Teacher Training with Sarah DeFoor, E-RYT 500, and studied yoga for back care
with Lillah Schwartz, E-RYT 500, I-AYT. Recently she completed Yoga Kurunta Teacher Training Level 1 under Rutu Chaudhari, 2,000 hour certified teacher. Currently she is in the 300 hour certification program for Trauma Center Trauma Sensitive Yoga through the Center for Trauma and Embodiment, and will complete this in March 2024. At Yovana Yoga in Calhoun, GA she teaches a weekly yin yoga class, restorative yoga classes, and substitutes for general yoga and back care yoga classes. She is also a licensed professional counselor, working with children,
adolescents, and adults.

Melody Parker

In 2011, Melody completed her 200-hour certification with Aura Wellness Center, along with mentoring coach Rhonda Shannon of Stretch & Breathe Yoga.

In 2021, Melody completed her second 200-hour certification at Yovana Yoga under the direction of Sarah DeFoor E-RYT 500 & Grace Stephen E-RYT 500 & PYT. This allowed her to register with Yoga Alliance as an RYT-200. Melody has done advanced teacher training in Yoga for Back Care with Sue Hopkins & Lillah Schwartz both are E-RYT 500 & C-IAYT. She completed her restorative teacher training at Yovana Yoga in 2022 under Sarah DeFoor E-RYT 500 and Certified Rest and Renew Restorative Trainer, has recently completed Yoga Kurunta Teacher Training Level 1, under Rutu Chaudhari and is working toward her CYT 500. Melody teaches alignment-based Yoga and Yin at Yovana Yoga in Calhoun.

Beth Hughes

Beth is E-RYT 500 yoga teacher, a Certified Yoga Therapist (C-IAYT), and a Certified iRest Yoga Nidra Meditation Instructor. She has been teaching yoga and leading private and group yoga therapy sessions since 2008 and is the former owner of the Healing Arts Center of Rome. Currently, Beth is a PhD Candidate at Liberty University where she is deepening her knowledge of the human body and healthcare systems by majoring in Health Science: Exercise and Sport Science. She is a soon to be published yoga researcher having researched the relationship between yoga and aging, gender, cancer, non-communicable diseases, stress, psychological issues, and the comparison of medication to meditation in lowering cortisol. Beth currently teaches at Berry College in the Kinesiology Department and Maryland University of Integrative Health in the Yoga Therapy Department. The main thrust of Beth's life has always evolved around five main subjects: music, education, spirituality, fitness, and technology. These subjects come around cyclically slowly unraveling their true meaning and place in her life.