Meet your faculty.

Meghan Hogan

Lead faculty Yoga Vidya 200hr Teacher Training

Lauren Toolin

Founder and Director of the Yoga Vidya School.

Preeti Bavdekar

Physical Therapist, Myofascial Practitioner, 2012 Yoga Vidya Graduate, Anatomy Teacher for 200hr and 340hr advanced training, faculty for Yoga for Young Ones and Trauma-Informed Yoga Training.

Nadia El-Fawal

A practitioner since 2009, Nadia embraces the idea that yoga is for all bodies and all people. She is the creator of the Yoga for Ample Bodies series.

Karen Bona

Karen came to teaching by heeding a call to embody a love both tender and fierce. She cultivates a personal practice filled with maitri — unconditional friendliness toward the self.

Certified through Yoga Vidya in 2021, with additional certifications in Trauma-Informed and Restorative Yoga, she is also an ordained Interfaith Minister and Reiki Master Teacher.

Chris Darby-King

A retired Occupational Therapist and longtime student of yoga Chris received her yoga teacher certification through Yoga Vidya in 2011. She is now a certified Accessible Yoga instructor and senior fitness instructor, teaching Gentle Hatha and Chair Yoga at senior centers and living communities.

Prachi Mondaiyka

Prachi received yoga training while growing up in India and completed a 200-hour yoga teacher certification in Albany with Lauren Toolin.

Prachi studied Sanskrit as a third language and has been learning mantras and slokas since childhood. Her mother has her masters in Sanskrit and has a keen interest in Vedas and Upanishads. And hence Sanskrit scriptures, yog, meditation, and havans have been part of Prachi’s growing up. Prachi is a seeker and learner in the path of Yog Shastra, Ayurveda, Naturopathy, and Jyotisha. By profession, Prachi did her undergraduate in Engineering from India and master’s from RPI, Troy, and works for New York State Government.