Paige Butzlaff

Paige, a RYT-200, has been practicing yoga and meditation for 8 years. She fell in love with yoga during college at UCSC. It was then that she knew she tapped into something divine. Yoga, meditation, and energy work have tremendously helped her with anxiety and panic attacks. She hopes to create space in which others can be freer from their own anxiety. Paige is a certified Reiki 1 practitioner and also has a miniyogis certificate, because of her passion for working with children. Some of her favorites are chai tea lattes, cats and the color purple.

Michelina Payetta

Michelina is a E-RYT 200 and RYT 500 certified yoga teacher via yoga alliance.  She is also certified in 30 hours of Bhakti Yoga training.  Yoga is Michelina’s lifestyle.  She is happy to offer the gift of yoga as you can open it up to be whatever you want it to be.  Whether this gift of yoga fuels your body, mind, heart, or soul, Michelina is there to offer yoga in any or all of these entities.  Michelina feels that we all come to yoga at different points of our life and the mat space is a place that we can take that journey, as then it assists beyond the mat.  Michelina likes to weave in themes and practical thoughts throughout her classes, tells mythological stories of yoga in correlation to class, and sometimes plays the harmonium. Prior to teaching yoga at Love Roots Yoga Shala, she taught yoga in Orange County, Long Beach, Temecula Valley, and Portland, Oregon.  One of Michelina’s Portland ventures involved having a yoga studio of her own.  Michelina currently teaches yoga in Santa Clarita and also teaches physical education for middle school students in Palmdale School District.  When she is not teaching the kiddos at school or teaching yoga, you can find her on a hike, exploring the outdoors, taking yoga herself, studying  yoga, playing her harmonium, or hanging out with her loved ones and kitty cats. 

Leslie Sikes

Leslie has been teaching her entire life. If it wasn’t some form of dance like ballet, jazz, disco or ballroom, it was elementary and middle school. She taught art classes to home schoolers and to kids in a summer youth program.  With her public school second and third graders, she would incorporate dance and movement into the curriculum. Since practicing yoga for the last twelve years, she has decided to move on to teaching yoga to adults. At this stage in life, yoga provides just the right mental, physical and spiritual nourishment that our aging bodies need to stay functioning at a healthy level.

Katherine Matthews

Katherine is a 200 RYT, certified Yoga Nidra instructor and Reiki practitioner. She began her yoga journey in 2001 when she was searching for community and more peace in her life. Her yoga practice would come and go over the years until she was pregnant with her second child. She began to take prenatal yoga classes which re-ignited her passion for the practice.  It helped her connect with her intuition, breath and body on a deeper level. Three months after her son was born, she began her transformative yoga teacher training, followed-up shortly after with training in Yoga Nidra meditation. Katherine believes that yoga can play a vital role in a person’s mental, physical and emotional well being.  It’s a tool for strength building, reflection, focus, self-healing and community.  She is excited to share her passion and knowledge of yoga and Yoga Nidra meditation to learn, heal and grow together.

Gail Nieto

Gail has been practicing Tai Chi Chih (TCC) for over 13 years.  She finally got accredited to be a Tai Chi Chih teacher in November, 2019.  Gail is a retired elementary school teacher from the Snowline School District.  Having found the benefits of TCC to be profound in her own practice, she is excited and looking forward to sharing this gentle practice with others. 

Jan Stevens

Jan discovered The World GROOVE Movement while searching for an exercise routine she could love enough to do every day.  She danced to the DVD's developed by Misty Tripoli, the Movement's creator, every day for two years.  After meeting Misty and participating in her dance programs, Jan decided to train to become a facilitator to lead classes in her own community.  She has recently completed her training and is eager to share her enthusiasm, passion, and love of dance, music, and movement with all who attend her classes. 

Mary Duman

Mary is an artist, teacher, and healer. She studied yoga and meditation at the Meditation Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota and with master yogis in Rishikesh, India. She has been practicing and teaching yoga for 20 years. She is also certified in a movement modality known as Nia, which combines modern dance, healing arts, and martial arts. Shamanic healing, ritual, and ceremony are also integral aspects of her healing work, informed by her studies with Sandra Ingerman, the Foundation for Shamanic Studies, and the Institute of Modern Wisdom.

Lynn Crawford

 Lynn discovered yoga after major shoulder surgery in 2010. After she finished her physical therapy, she realized that the shoulder needed more work.  Already in her 50s, it was not easy to rehabilitate herself so she signed up for yoga classes with Cheryl Boyles at the Wrightwood Yoga Shack.  She added more classes each week, both at Galaxy Fitness and the Wrightwood Country Club. She then discovered Love Roots Yoga Shala and was further inspired. She decided it was time to share her love of yoga and decided to take a teacher training and offer classes in Senior Yoga. Having taught quilting for many years, teaching comes naturally to her and she loves to share her knowledge and enthusiasm.  Please join her on this new journey.

Suzi McKinney

Suzi took her first yoga class when she was in college and was looking for a way to find a sense of calmness and focus during her studies. After two years at Santa Monica College, she transferred to University of Southern California to study Dental Hygiene.  Suzi continued her yoga practice to maintain a healthy balance in her life. 

In 2007, she attended Yoga Works 200- hour teacher training in Santa Monica. Then, in 2015, she attended the 50- hour Prime of Life teacher training at LMU.

Suzi had been teaching in the Los Angeles area for the last 11 years.  In January 2019, Suzi and her husband followed their dream to move to Wrightwood full time.  Suzi started teaching at Love Roots Yoga Shala in February.

Suzi shares her enthusiasm for good health and wellbeing in her yoga classes, by placing emphasis on breathing and movement to heal the body.

Chloe Copeland

Chloe, a 300-hr certified yoga teacher, has been committed to yoga through her own practice and teaching others of all ages for 17 years. Her teaching style blends the benefits of different yoga traditions, offering warm and passionately created classes that weave together universal heart themes with physical application. She enjoys leading kirtan and incorporating the tradition of Bhakti yoga, the path of love and devotion, into her classes. Additionally, Chloe holds certifications in Aerial Yoga, Children’s Yoga - RCYP Levels 1-2, YogaMinded-Yoga 4 Teens, Kirtan, and a Master’s Degree in Education. Her desire is to inspire her students, of all ages, to use the yoga practice as a tool to uncover the true nature of their being -that which is LOVE itself.  Chloe is the creator and owner of Love Roots Yoga Shala.