Faculty

	Anneke Anneke Faas is a Certified Iyengar Yoga Instructor and new mother who has lived and worked in New Mexico, Colorado, and New York City. Her use of props, discussion and explanation of benefits for muscles and organs, and time spent with each student promote PHYSICAL, MENTAL, AND EMOTIONAL WELL-BEING with each asana for all levels of flexibility and experience. Anneke uses knowledge of anatomy, the nervous system, and physical health to assist students in counteracting typical daily positions. She is experienced in remedying muscle over- or under-use with targeted poses to balance the effects of POSTURE PROBLEMS created BY all types of work environments and athletic activities. Leading pre-natal and neo-natal [or Mommy and Me/Baby Om] yoga is another specialty of hers. Outside the studio, Anneke enjoys family, camping, hiking, and gardening in our beautiful high desert weather.
	Avery Avery Kalapa spent much of her childhood exploring her parents' rural, densely wooded 50 acre farm barefoot, contemplating the miracle of life and the nature of self.  She rediscovered Hatha Yoga at age 18, and Vipassana Meditation shortly thereafter while living in New Zealand, where she earned her BFA.  Heartfully inspired by her practice and our human capacity for happiness, compassion, and evolutionary transformation, she began teaching yoga in 2005.  She received her initial training through the Temple of Kriya Yoga, and is loving High Desert Yoga's 300 hour course.  A holistic mother, talented artist, devotional musician, organic gardener and sustainability enthusiast, Avery feels true gratitude for her Teachers and the blessing of yoga in her life. She teaches with respect, sincerity, care, joy, attention to alignment, stability, and the breath, and an earnest intention for all beings to live their soul's dream, restoring balance to our world and enabling complete freedom and peace.
	Gwen Gwen has been a student of yoga since 1992 and has been teaching for 12 years.  She completed teacher trainings at High Desert Yoga, The Ashtanga Yoga Center with Tim Miller, The Yoga Institute of Houston, studied at International Yoga Studies and has been a Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT) with Yoga Alliance since 1999.  Gwen has practiced with many master teachers including Sri Pattabhi Jois, Annie Pace, Tim Miller, Sandra Summerfield Kozak, Chuck Miller, Angela Farmer, John Friend and Sarah Powers.  She works with students on body alignment, core strength, breath and awareness in ultimate connection to the body, mind and spirit.  Gwen completed Level 1 Program of Ayurvedic Studies at the Ayurvedic Institute in Albuquerque in 2004.
	Heather F. Heather has a life long interest in Eastern Philosophy and holistic health. She is a DOM, Pilates Mat Instructor ( Levels 1-5) and bicycle racer. She deepened her yoga practice by becoming a Yoga Teacher ( 500hr RYT) She has been a competitive athlete for the past 15 years successfully integrating yoga into her own training. She now instructs yoga for athletes, focusing on muscle flexibility, joint stability and alignment, core strength to increase power, speed recovery and inhibit injury. Heather earned additional certification in peri-natal Yoga areas and teacher at PreNatal Yoga Trainings. She’s studied with Collete Crawfore, a national expert in peri-natal Yoga studies. Doula training and Childbirth Educator training contribute a depth of knowledge to her classes. Heather teaches students to delve deeply into the unexplored parts of themselves through an integrated approach. Her classes focus on proper alignment with stability and openness encouraging change in the body through the power of breath and intention.
	Heather K. Heather is a social worker and psychotherapist. Currently she is training in the Somatic Transformation method, a modality of healing trauma through somatic work. She is a graduate of the 500 Teacher Training program at High Desert Yoga and has been teaching yoga for 3 years. She enjoys working with beginning and more advanced students and is passionate about the healing that comes when students reconnect with their bodies thru Yoga. She incorporates emotional depth and awareness into her classes.
	Kim Kim Schwartz has studied and taught Hatha Yoga for over three decades. His lifelong passion for mystical truth led him to become ordained as a swami of the Temple of Kriya in Chicago. He was recently elevated to the position of Maha Swami in the Kriya lineage, enabling him to ordain others as swamis. Kim was director of the Temple’s Hatha Yoga Teacher Training Program before moving to New Mexico, where he continues to direct High Desert Yoga’s Teacher Training Program. He is certified by the Yoga Alliance as a RYT, 500 hours. He is recognized by many well-known yoga instructors both as a “master of his art” in personal practice and as a true “teacher’s teacher”; one with the ability to communicate the timeless truths of yoga on many levels to fellow instructors in a way that enables them to pass this wisdom on to their own students.
	Judy Judy has been studying yoga for 11 years and teaching for 3. She is a 500 hr. RYT.  After the first 200 hr training at HDY, she was drawn to follow yoga and entered the seminary at the Temple of Kriya Yoga in Chicago. After several years of study, she was ordained as a swami and then furthered her teacher training at HDY.  She has experience teaching both levels 1 and 2 as well as Yoga for 50+. She is versatile in her approach to those with special needs working in private sessions and small groups. Yoga is her chosen path and she is dedicated to practice, teaching and having fun.
	Melissa E-RYT 500, Melissa has been practicing yoga for seventeen years and consistently teaching yoga for twelve years. She has completed extensive yoga studies and trainings in the US, Greece, India and Bali. Her approach to yoga is very intuitive and organic. She weaves together a rich tapestry of inspired teachings from such celebrated teachers as Angela Farmer, Victor Van Kooten, Rama Jyoti Vernon, Shiva Rea, Kali Ray and the students of Desikachar. She invites her students to attune to the natural flow of energy that guides all of life. Melissa is an ayurvedic practitioner, somatic and expressive arts therapist and has directed her own 200 hour RYS.
	Miriam Sumpuran Kaur began practicing yoga to fulfill her college gym requirement, and discovered it enhanced her creativity, her quality of communication, her physical strength, and her peace of mind. In 2004 she first began practicing Kundalini Yoga, as taught by Yogi Bhajan, and was delighted by its quick action and healing techniques. Kundalini Yoga is the yoga of householders, people with families and jobs in today's fast-paced world. After three years of daily home practice and classes, she underwent teacher training in Santa Fe and Espanola and is now certified by Yoga Alliance and KRI (the Kundalini Research Institute.)When she's not teaching, Sumpuran Kaur can be found making art, practicing law, and spending time with her family. Her classes are filled with music, encouragement, and laughter.
	Pam Pamela Hong has been studying and practicing various styles of yoga, including Iyengar and Ashtanga, for the past fifteen years. Her flow-based classes are infused with imaginative sequencing, blending fluid movement with precise postural alignment and spacious breathing. Students are encouraged to journey through their practice with compassion, attention, enthusiasm and grace. Pam has completed Levels I and lII Teacher Training with Tias Little of Prajna Yoga in Santa Fe. She teaches Ashtanga and Vinyasa Flow yoga.
	Patti Patti Lentz is a physical therapist with a broad background including advanced studies in pediatrics and sensory integration, manual therapies and anatomy. Her passion for yoga has added a new dimension and depth to her private physical therapy practice, as her experience as a physical therapist gives her an understanding of challenges that yoga students may encounter. Patti teaches specialty classes including anatomy for yoga students and teachers and therapeutic yoga.
	Rosalind
	Supriti Supriti is a lifelong devotee of Yoga and has been teaching for over 25 years. In 1978, she traveled to India and took public classes at the BKS Iyengar Institute with the Iyengar family. She continues to study primarily in the Iyengar tradition with visiting senior instructors. Recognizing that the body/mind needs to move energy to heal itself, she also wanted to deepen her knowledge of anatomy. In 1981, she attended the New Mexico School of Natural Therapeutics. She has been a therapeutic masseuse for 20 yrs. She attributes her longevity as a masseuse, without injury, to her yoga practice. She continues to deepen her understanding of the workings of yoga while teaching and studying with the staff of High Desert Yoga. Supriti is certified by the Yoga Alliance as a RYT, 500 hours. She is a lover of poetry and inspires her students with readings from the masters of many wisdom cultures. She is currently the Manager of the studio and is thrilled by the explosion of interest in the wonders of Yoga.
	Zoreh Zoreh is the Founder and Director of High Desert Yoga in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She has a B.S. Degree in Business Management. Zoreh is a Certified Hatha Yoga Teacher with more than 15 years of teaching experience. She is a Certified Yoga Therapist, and a Certified Siddha Yoga Meditation Teacher. Zoreh has studied with numerous methodologies, including Iyengar, Phoenix Rising Yoga Therapy, Anusara Yoga as well as the Yoga Methodology of American Yoga College. Zoreh's joyous personality and sense of humor endear her to her students with a teaching style that is nurturing and fun. Her teaching combines a delicate knowledge of the body that allows a compassionate spiritual expression of the postures to emerge.  Zoreh has been offering week long yoga retreats in Mexico and Costa Rica in March and December.