Yoga Alliance Adds Eight Members to Its Governing Boards of Directors
New Board Members Join Six Returning Members as the Organization Advances Its Strategic Plan
ARLINGTON, VA (March 13, 2025) – Yoga Alliance, the largest nonprofit association representing the international yoga community, and Yoga Alliance Foundation, the organization’s charitable arm, announced today it has expanded its Boards of Directors with eight new members. Six board members will return, bringing their continued leadership and expertise.
“Our vision is a better, bolder, more compassionate world grounded in yoga and to do that we believe in the importance of individuals being seen, heard, felt, and represented. Yoga Alliance and Yoga Alliance Foundation remain committed to creating and nurturing a community where yoga providers and those who practice yoga, can see themselves not only in our work, but in all levels of leadership,” said Shannon Roche, President, CEO, and ex-officio member of Yoga Alliance and Yoga Alliance Foundation Boards of Directors. “The professional and lived experiences of incoming Board members will play a vital role in our mission to advocate for yoga, in its wholeness, and for all human beings in theirs.”
Yoga Alliance Boards of Directors play a pivotal role in shaping the future of Yoga Alliance, Yoga Alliance Foundation, and the broader yoga community. Recruitment priorities included a demonstrated commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, belonging, and accessibility, as well as professional knowledge and skills relating to yoga, mental health, and law.
Applications for its Boards of Directors opened June 2024. The organizations received 300-plus nominations and more than 700 applications during the recruitment period. Twenty individuals were invited to interview, each answering a pre-planned set of questions designed to assess skills and expertise related to key recruitment priorities. Eight candidates were selected, voted on, and accepted to join the Boards of Directors. Their term began January 1, 2025.
Yoga Alliance and Yoga Alliance Foundation’s new Board members are:
- Catherine “Cat” Chang, Finance, Strategy, and Operations Executive (she/her): Cat Chang is a dedicated yoga practitioner of more than 20 years. She has helped build and scale teams in high-growth environments including as an early team member of the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and at Planet Labs, an impact-oriented aerospace startup that operates the world’s largest fleet of Earth imaging satellites. Chang holds a Bachelor of Arts in applied mathematics from Harvard University
- Science in sustainable development from Stanford University in Stanford, California. She also currently serves on the board of WBEC-West. Chang holds an RYT 200 credential with Yoga Alliance.
- Manmeet “Mona” K. Desai, Chief Operating Officer, Mother of Fact (she/her): Raised in the South Asian community, Mona K. Desai is passionate about honoring Yoga’s origins while fostering meaningful connections through practice. A former high school teacher and global immigration attorney, she now serves as Chief Operating Officer at Mother of Fact, a digital women’s health company delivering medical nutrition therapy to at-risk pregnant patients. She holds E-RYT 200, RYT 500, and YACEP credentials with Yoga Alliance and trains future instructors in yoga history, philosophy, Sanskrit, and Ayurveda.
- • Chantelle Diachina, Psychotherapist, Yoga Teacher, Corporate Wellness Facilitator and Consultant (she/her): Chantelle Diachina has studied in ashrams with Shri Yogi Hari (United States) and Swami Nityamuktananda (India), both students of the late Swami Vishnu Devananda of the Sivananda lineage. Her current projects include addressing mental health for the Racial Justice Program at University of Victoria’s Faculty of Law in Victoria, British Columbia and contributing to the latest Changing Work Collective Anthology to be released Summer 2025. Diachina holds a Bachelor of Science in education from Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan, a master’s degree in education from University of Windsor in Windsor, Ontario, a Master of Arts in counseling psychology from Yorkville University in Fredericton, New Brunswick, and a post-graduate certificate in corporate communications and public relations from Fanshawe College in London, Ontario. Diachina also holds E-RYT 200 and RYT 500 credentials with Yoga Alliance.
- Britt Lake, Feedback Labs (she/her): Britt Lake is a nonprofit executive and yoga practitioner with more than 20 years of experience in the social impact sector. When she’s not practicing or teaching yoga, she leads Feedback Labs, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting high-quality feedback and listening to communities in the nonprofit and philanthropic sectors. Lake holds a Bachelor of Arts in international studies from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, North Carolina where she was a Morehead-Cain Scholar, a master’s in international relations from the University of Cape Town in Cape Town, South Africa, and a master’s in public affairs from Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs in Princeton, New Jersey. Lake holds an RYT 200 credential with Yoga Alliance.
- • Kathryn Luna, Director of Community Investment for Sacramento Republic Football Club (she/her): Kathryn Luna is an experienced community and relationship builder with more than a decade of experience in professional sports, corporate philanthropy, and the nonprofit sector. Her journey towards lifelong contentment and fulfillment includes a continued passion for building community, being an advocate for historically marginalized communities, and a proponent of holistic health and well-being. Luna completed her undergraduate studies in sociology at Santa Clara University in California and holds a master’s degree in nonprofit administration from the University of San Francisco in Santa Clara, California. She also holds an RYT 200 credential with Yoga Alliance.
- Radha Metro-Midkiff, Executive Director, Integral Yoga Institute New York (she/her): Radha Metro-Midkiff brings a lifetime of experience in yoga and business to the organization. She was born and raised in Yoga. She grew up at Yogaville in Buckingham, Virginia, under the direct tutelage of Sri Swami Satchidananda and met Sri Gurudev at the age of one. Her parents, Integral
- attend the Integral Yoga School/Yogaville Vidyalayam. As the only student to attend the school from first through 12th grade, she was certified as both a Hatha Yoga and Raja Yoga instructor at the age of 18. Additionally, she had the fortune of being one of only four individuals to receive the direct blessing of Dharma confirmation from Swami Satchidananda.
- Glenna Tinney, Retired United States Navy Captain Social Worker (she/her): Glenna Tinney’s work has focused on advocacy, activism, social justice, and eliminating violence against women, children, animals, and the environment. Her goal is to help people add yoga as a tool to aid in their healing and recovery from trauma. She is a published author and was recognized by the White House in 2013 as a Woman Veteran Champion of Change. She holds an RYT 500 credential with Yoga Alliance.
- Benjamin C. Varadi, Law Professor (he/him): Ben Varadi is a law professor teaching nonprofit and business law, professional ethics, and agricultural law and policy at Vermont Law and Graduate School in South Royalton, Vermont. His scholarship explores relationships between business regulation and social responsibility. Prior to academia, he built a nationally recognized law practice focusing on expanding opportunity for members of historically marginalized communities and directed a free legal clinic assisting people impacted by natural disasters. He holds a Juris Doctor, cum laude, from Tulane University Law School in New Orleans, Louisiana, with a sports law certificate. He holds an RYT 200 credential with Yoga Alliance.
The following individuals will return to the Boards of Directors:
- Jo-Ann Bance, Yoga Teacher, Board Chair of Yoga Alliance and Yoga Alliance Foundation Boards of Directors
- Chandana Achanta, Yoga Teacher and Meditation Instructor (she/her)
- Yoshi Aono, Founder of Hanuman Companies (he/him)
- Kristoffer “KC” Carter, Executive Coach and Author, Epic Leadership (he/him)
- Nisha Devi Rodrigo, Founder, KALA Wellness (she/her)
- Siddharth “Sid” Kulkarni, Market Research, Stripe (he/him)
You can learn more about each board member at yogaalliance.org/ourboard.
With these new additions, 73 percent of Directors identify as female, and 27 percent identify as male. Forty percent identify as white, 40 percent identify as Asian or Asian American, and 20 percent identify as multi-racial or multi-ethnic.
“Last year we shared the organization’s 2024 – 2030 Strategic Plan – the first strategic plan following generational shifts affecting multiple aspects of our lives – our perspectives on human interactions, our awareness and understanding of systemic inequities and their broad effects, the concepts of public health and wellness, and the notion of community care,” said Jo-Ann Bance. “In the feedback from the yoga community, one theme for Yoga’s Alliance future clearly emerged – amplifying the power of yoga and improving its accessibility for anyone – wherever they are, in whatever circumstances. I look forward to working with each of these individuals as we pursue the organization’s purpose.”
Over the next five years, Yoga Alliance has committed to focusing on the following foundational commitments:
- • Uplifting the Transformative Power of Yoga
- • Surfacing and Reducing Barriers to the Practice
- • Building, Engaging, and Supporting Community
You can learn more about Yoga Alliance’s 2024-2030 Strategic Plan and the organization’s progress at yogaalliance.org/strategic_plan.
Applications for the 2026 Boards of Directors will be available Summer 2025. However, Yoga Alliance and Yoga Alliance Foundation welcomes nominations to its all-volunteer governing Boards of Directors on a rolling basis. If you or someone you know is interested, complete the nomination form at yogaalliance.org/ourboard. Additional inquiries should be sent to Kevin James Karas, Board Governance Manager, at [email protected].
About Yoga Alliance and Yoga Alliance Foundation Founded in 1999, Yoga Alliance is a member-based, non-profit organization that serves yoga schools and teachers across the globe, providing world-recognized, best-in-class credentials and unifying its members around a shared ethical commitment. Yoga Alliance’s goal is to support and foster the high-quality, safe, accessible, and equitable teaching of yoga. In addition, Yoga Alliance delivers a strong value proposition to its members through community-building initiatives, educational resources, advocacy efforts, and social impact programs.
Its partner organization, Yoga Alliance Foundation, leverages yoga for social impact and fosters an expansive, accessible, and equitable yoga community. It does this through broadening access to yoga’s healing potential, fostering greater equity and more diverse representation within the yoga community, and expanding educational, service, and economic opportunities for yoga teachers.
For more information about Yoga Alliance and Yoga Alliance Foundation, visit yogaalliance.org.
CONTACTS:
Toni Carey, Head of Strategic Communications Kevin James Karas, Board Governance Manager
Yoga Alliance Yoga Alliance
[email protected] [email protected]
(571) 482-3351
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