Sara Elizabeth Ivanhoe

Director of Yoga USC, Instructor

Sara Elizabeth Ivanhoe, M.A. has been teaching yoga since 1995. She was the Yoga Spokesperson for “Weight Watchers,” “Yoga for Dummies,” “Crunch Yoga,” and appeared as a series regular on “Dr. Drew’s Celebrity Rehab” as the therapeutic instructor. She served as the yoga columnist for Health magazine for three years and has written and appeared in almost every yoga and health publication. Twenty years after graduating with honors from NYU, Ivanhoe completed her master’s degree in 2015 from Loyola Marymount University as part of the inaugural class in Yoga Studies where she served as Senator of the student body for Bellarmine College. Most recently she partnered with Oprah Magazine to co-create the “Just Breathe” brand of yoga and meditation now taught on Holland America Cruise lines internationally. She currently serves as the Yoga and Meditation Content Curator for Glo, teaches at LMU in the Yoga Studies department and is part of the regular MindfulUSC faculty where she teaches a 5-week progressive course on sleep.

Timothy Grundy

Instructor

Email: timothy.grundy.yoga@gmail.com

Timothy Grundy joined his first Iyengar Yoga class in 2012 and has been returning ever since. What had him return every day was the sequential layering of the poses and instructions. Nothing was ever presupposed, nothing superfluous: every instruction and each pose prepared what came next and what went before alike. This resulted in a sense of quiet curiosity and a desire to delve deeper and understand more.

By 2017 Timothy had become a Certified Iyengar Yoga Teacher at the Iyengar Yoga Institute of Los Angeles (IYILA) in 2017 and has since continued to study with senior Iyengar Yoga teachers to deepen his understanding of the practice and teaching of yoga. He believes that yoga is for everybody and every body and always teaches with a strong awareness of limitations, his own and the students, and an eye to overcoming or at least pushing back against these limitations.

Timothy teaches yoga at USC (yoga.usc.edu) and Santa Monica Yoga (santamonicayoga.com). In his other life he translates German writing on art and aesthetics and can be found on his fixed gear in the mountains surrounding Los Angeles.

Laura Baker

Instructor

Email: lbaker@usc.edu

Laura Baker has been practicing Iyengar Yoga since 2004, and is a Certified Iyengar Yoga Teacher (CIYT; Level 1). She has traveled twice to Pune, India to study with the Iyengars, and to B.K.S. Iyengar’s birthplace in Bellur, India for an intensive retreat. She is also a USC Psychology Professor and a member of the USC residential faculty. Laura incorporates Yoga and Mindfulness programs into the USC residence halls and her courses in Contemplative Neuroscience, and serves on the Mindful USC Steering Committee.

Salena Collins

Lecturer

Email: salenaco@usc.edu

Salena Collins is a Yoga 120A & Yoga Therapy Lecturer at USC.Since 2012 Salena has been a wellness advocate in her local community of south Los Angeles, and the Inglewood area. She has dedicated over a decade to the yoga and mindfulness practice. She began practicing at Yogaworks in 2005, her appreciation for the practice drove her to apply to the Yogaworks 200 hour Teacher Training Program in 2011. Upon completing her training, Salena launched the first yoga studio in Inglewood, CA in 2012. Clear Gardens Yoga Studio became a space for peace & comfort, with a mission to serve the community quality yoga and wellness resources. She founded The Balance Of Life Project in 2013: a yoga & mindfulness program that serves over 12 schools grades k-12 in the Los Angeles, Inglewood and Compton area. In 2015 Salena continued her training at YogaWorks, qualifying at the 500 hr certification level. Salena has served as yoga instructor to the following organizations: LAUSD, CUSD, IUSD, Nasdaq, NBCUniversal , The Grammys, Staples Center, Kaiser Permanente, KJLH Women’s Forum, Inglewood City Hall, ICEF Public Schools, UCLA David Geffen School Of Medicine. In 2016 Salena was featured on Fox 11 News, and received the Rising Star Award given by City National Bank, for her dedication to bringing the practice of yoga and mindfulness to inner city schools. As of 2020 Salena has completed Yoga Therapy Certification, obtained a certificate from Harvard CEEL Graduate Program in Stress Trauma, and Adversity, as well as a Meditation Certification from Yoga Journal.

https://dornsife.usc.edu/phed/people/

www.thebalanceoflifeproject.com

Siwen Xi is a certified yoga teacher with Yoga Alliance in Dharma Yoga (a classical Hatha-Raja Yoga), Yin Yoga, and Pregnancy Yoga.

She started her journey of yoga and meditation in 2010 when she was in high school. Suffering from anxiety of the auditions for music schools and exam preparation, as well as the confusion about the future life as a teenager, she found her inner peace from yoga practice and meditation.

Growing up in China, she was immersed in Daoism and confucian philosophy, meridian theory and Chinese medicine from the older generations. She deeply believes in the philosophy of wu-wei (無為), non-purposive action and doing without force. Wu means none, nothing, non-existence, while wei means purpose and action. The concept of wu-wei slows down her pace, calm down her mind. She discovered her way of wu-wei, Yin Yoga. The practice of Yin Yoga embraces both ancient wisdom from China and classic Hatha yoga asanas from India. While holding each pose for a prescribed amount of time, there is an opportunity for meditation, for tuning the breath, mind, and the body.

Moving to New York City to pursue her master’s degree at Columbia University and living a stressful life between study and work, she found and gained the opportunity to study yoga with her guru Sri Dharma Mittra and her mentor Pam Jones. Influenced by them, She gained a deeper understanding of yoga as a lifestyle. She believes that success comes from constant effort and what she needs to do is to try her best but not expecting any results.

She is positive that yoga is for all, and one will develop not only a healthy body, but also a kind heart and a calm mind. Yin Yoga provides everyone a safe pathway to develop one’s flexibility and mobility, to become more mindful, to heal and to love yourself. Due to the fact that our bodies structure differently and everyone has different purposes and needs for yoga practice, her teaching is inspiring and always provides different variations or modifications to support and help everyone’s yoga practice.

And now, she is pursuing her doctoral degree in Music Teaching and Learning at USC’s Thornton School of music. Apart from being a doctoral student and a yoga instructor, she is also a Japanese koto performer. Due to the pandemic, she is currently living in New York City. She feels grateful that the people she loves are safe and healthy. She is so excited to be part of Yoga USC!