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Libby BaileyCox
E-RYT 500, TIYT, RPYT, YACEP, Director of Two Birds Yoga Training 
Libby Cox is a mother, an educator and a dedicated student of the body. With degrees in art, dance and education, a
20-year yoga practice, and a penchant for storytelling, Libby's teaching approach is passionate, compassionate, and witty. Teaching yoga since 2004, Libby has served on faculty in yoga teacher training programs in the US and abroad since 2010, drawing upon her studies from numerous styles of yoga and teaching approaches in order to meet the needs of yoga students and aspiring teachers alike. Most notable are Libby's studies with Patty Townsend, Judith Lasater, and Douglas Brooks. |
Townsend developed 'Embodyoga', an approach to movement steeped in anatomy-driven, developmental movement principles of Body Mind Centering (BMC). Libby uses these principles to help students discover and release underlying causes of dysfunctional movement patterns. Libby's studies with Judith Lasater have given her the skills to work individually with students on shoulder, hip and lower back health. Dr. Douglas Brooks introduced her to Rajanaka Tantra, a body of ideas that emphasize the invaluable education of everyday human experience. Libby works with students, using the vision of yoga philosophy, to help them gain perspective, presence and resilience through life's joys and challenges. Libby recognizes that to be a knowledgeable instructor one has to understand the world of yoga as a whole and not be closed off to any yoga experience, knowledge or practice. It is through this knowledge, Libby discovered, she stays grounded in her personal practice. This combination of studies has sustained Libby's long time love of connecting the exploration of body-mind and breath to invigorating, well-informed creative movement. She also loves the support and inspiration that grows out of being part of a yoga community, and seeks to share her love of yoga as a philosophy that nourishes the capacity for creativity and resilience on life’s paths. Libby moved to Eugene in 2015, where she co-owns Balanced Hot Yoga. She is currently pursuing a Master's Degree in Couples and Family Therapy. She lived in Austin, TX, for the better part of 15 years, and was a teacher trainer and national presenter for Yoga Yoga. Libby also leads retreats with One Yoga Global. |
Emily Ridout
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Emily Ridout is a professional folklorist, yogi, and astrologer. She has cultivated her astro-yoga techniques for over a decade and instructs classes, workshops, and private lessons. Ridout strongly believes that a yoga practice offers a path toward mental, physical, and emotional resilience. She loves her own practice and believes it is an honor to serve others through yoga and astrology. Ridout holds an M.A. in Folklore from the University of Oregon and a B.A. in Folklore and Ethnomusicology from Indiana University. She holds three yoga diplomas: University of Hyderabad, 2009 (first in class, high distinction); Freedom Yoga, 2015; and Two Birds Yoga School (300 hr), 2019. She offers continuing education in AstroYoga for yoga teachers working on advanced certification. She is a member of the American Folklore Society. She is grateful to her yoga, philosophy, astrology, and folklore teachers who have been a lasting influence.
Michele is a Certified RYT 500 Yoga teacher in Eugene, Oregon. On the yoga path since 1987, she teaching with humor, joy and passion. Looking for the good and beauty in everyone, Michele helps her students to radiate their most luminous light. Since 1997, she has completed workshops, teacher trainings, therapeutic trainings and master immersions. Michele embraces a combination of heart orientated virtues, precise biomechanical alignment and supportive community offering a transformational experience both on and off the mat. Teaching for the past fifteen years, Michele knows she has the best job in the world! She teaches weekly classes, retreats and workshops locally and internationally. As a practicing artist Michele strives to create beauty in many areas. In 2004 she produced the Loving Kindness Yogathon in Eugene. A twelve hour celebration of Yoga, Meditation and Kirtan, participants were invited to co-create a profoundly positive change on every level. She currently links her meditation practice and art by creating quilts expressly for the recipient as a meditation in motion. She transforms worn clothing and textiles for another go around as a warm cuddly blanket. Other passions include; parenting her fourteen year old son River, camping, hiking and gardening. Michele is grateful to all of her teachers, her family and the kaleidoscopic beauty of life. She welcomes you to the life of grace and a joyful ride. |
Bonnie Simoa
MFA, RSME/T, RYT-500 |
Bonnie Simoa, MFA-Dance Mills College, ISMETA RSME/T, has taught dance and yoga from a somatic perspective for over 20 years. As lead dance faculty at Lane Community College in Eugene, Oregon, she teaches modern dance, Improvisation and choreography, Fluid Yoga, Balinese dance, and is an active choreographer and performer. Since 1999, Bonnie has traveled to Bali to study Balinese dance and culture. Her recent interest is in exploring the interconnections of Yoga, Continuum, and Balinese spiritual principles. She also completed a 300-hour Yoga Certification with Zuna Yoga. Bonnie creates a supportive and nurturing atmosphere where participants explore and experience the inherent intelligence of the body, and the healing power of movement. |
Susan Somers-Willet
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Susan Somers-Willett (she/hers/they/them) is a writer, scholar, parent, and body-positive yoga instructor dedicated to inclusive wellness practices that serve and center underrepresented people. Using trauma-informed methods, Susan guides people of all sizes, abilities, ages, and backgrounds to discover and integrate the wisdom of their embodied experiences.
An educator in higher education for over two decades, Susan holds a Ph.D. from The University of Texas at Austin, where she teaches gender studies, literature, and creative writing. She is also an E-RYT 500 yoga instructor and cancer survivor who marries yoga and social justice through Yoga in Bold, a project that centers people with bigger bodies and people of all abilities. She teaches yoga using a trauma-informed approach, and she received her Trauma-Informed Yoga Therapy certificate in 2017. Susan seeks to empower people and organizations through accessible movement practices, using inclusive language, and teaching and practicing cultural humility. She advocates for radical self-love, grounded action, leaning into the uncomfortable, and celebrating knowledge—especially when that knowledge transforms limiting scripts we have already learned. Mandy Eubanks founded EveryOne Yoga School in 2014 as a 200 hour registered yoga school based on ancient and modern yoga practices. She has since grown Everyone Yoga School into a reputable training with over 80 graduates at the 200 hour level and has added an advanced 300 hour level professional training.
Mandy's mission is to inspire her students to live life fully awake. Blending alignment, yoga philosophy, and seasonally appropriate sequences Mandy’s classes will set you up for a lifelong yoga practice. Known for her playful and intelligent approach, Mandy leads transformational classes that empower you to live life in your fullest potential. She believes with consistent practice and self love we end our own pain and suffering, from the inside out. Her public yoga classes are often a refuge for those who serve and teach yoga themselves and her private personalized yoga sessions are transformative and truly address the whole person. In summary, her experience is vast enough that her transmission of yoga is simple and accessible to everyone. Mandy has 14 years of teaching experience. She earned her 200 hour training in 2003 through The Living Yoga Program and her 500 hour training in 2009 through Anusara Yoga. She's certified to teach pre-natal yoga through OmMama and a Trauma Informed Yoga Therapist and Overcoming Anxiety Clinic Facilitator. In 2016 received the highly regarded credential as a certified yoga therapist through the International Association of Yoga Therapy. A Tulsa native, Mandy lived in Austin, TX for 10 years studying and teaching yoga under the guidance of her teachers. Read the story about how and why Mandy created everyone yoga school. Mandy now resides in Tulsa, OK with her husband and two children where they plan to settle Visit her website to learn more about where Mandy is teaching. www.mandyeubanksyoga.com |
Gianna Purcell
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Gianna is an international yoga teacher, traveling around the world leading workshops, trainings, retreats, and classes. As a broken gymnast, her first passion was healing her herniations and intense joint pain. As an asana champion her passion was training and discovering different modalities and techniques to help achieve deeper shapes and perspectives. As a motorcycle accident survivor her passion was living and integrated yoga into every aspect of her being no matter the present life state. As a yogini devoted to practice, her passion is to share yoga as an adaptogen; a healing modality willing to meet you where you are.
Gianna is a USA National Yoga Asana Champion, a Bikram Yoga Certified teacher, an Ashtanga/Vinyasa E-RYT 500 hour certified teacher, and continuing education provider. With 15 years of athletic coaching and teaching experience, she teaches asana, pranayama, and meditation practices rooted in holistic movement, hatha yoga and ashtanga yoga in the light of her teachers David Swenson, Emmy Cleaves, Mary Jarvis, Swami Satchidananda, and Lord Shiva. Gianna started the Siddhi School of Yoga, wrote the teacher trainings for 105F, created Queer Retreats LLC, and partners with Open Lotus Retreats. You can join her online community at the Siddhi School of Yoga for on line and on demand classes. she/they |
Scott Cave
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Scott is a registered yoga teacher, who studied with Two Birds Yoga Training in 2017, and has continued on with Two Birds as an assistant for many years. He also trains with Blue Cliff Zen center, studying Buddhist meditation. He completed a 100 hour training in Rinzai Zen Buddhist meditation. On many occasions, Scott has had the opportunity to study I-Rest and Yoga Nidra with both Richard Miller's students at the Kripalu Yoga Center, and with Lisa Namyet in Eugene, Oregon. He is also a certified arial yoga instructor. These practices are near to Scott's heart. As a combat veteran, he is inspired to share the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual healing benefits of the teachings, and works with veterans, in his home studio, and with the Veteran's Yoga Project. |
Sireesha Chirala
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I was brought to yoga by the amazing, influential people in my life, who encouraged me to step out of my comfort zone and try something different. After my first class, I was hooked. One of the many definitions of the word yoga is “union.” For me yoga is that—a sacred union between the mind, body, and breath. While physically challenging, yoga can be so much more than the asana practice. I see yoga as an empowering life-tool, something that helps its practitioners navigate the challenges and stresses that are a natural part of life. Yoga has given me space to breathe. It has helped me through anxiety and grief, opened my mind to new ideas, and continues to challenge me both physically and mentally. Life isn’t easy, but yoga makes it better.
My goal as a teacher is to help students find balance, to get them in tune with their inner-strength, and to help them learn that the practice yoga is for themselves. With that intention, I weave yoga philosophy into my classes. I offer variations on poses, lightness, and compassion to help students find the fullest and safest expression of their yoga practice for their minds and bodies. Yoga is a continuous journey and I am constantly learning from my teachers, my peers, and my students. I completed my 200-hour training in Austin, Texas and finished my 500-hour teaching certificate with Libby Cox of Two Birds Yoga Training. |
Ana Pilar Cruz
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Ana Pilar Cruz, C-IAYT, E-RYT 500, RYT 200, has been teaching yoga in Austin, Texas since 2001 and has been training yoga teachers since 2006 at both 200 and 500 hour levels in the United States and abroad with Yoga Yoga, Global Yoga Shala, and Zingara Yoga. She has been studying with her teacher, Gary Kraftsow, the founder & head of the American Viniyoga Institute, for over 16 years. Under the guidance of Kraftsow, Ana Pilar completed the American Viniyoga Institute’s 500-hour advanced training in 2005. Her continuing education is immersed in a number of specialized areas, including Western & Yogic Anatomy, Injury Prevention, Stress-relief, Mantra chanting, and Tantric philosophy, as she studies with the likes of Leslie Kaminoff, Srivatsa Ramaswami, Donna Farhi, Rod Stryker, and Dr. Douglas Brooks. In 2017 Ana Pilar was grandfathered into the International Association of Yoga Therapist, receiving her C-IAYT designation in recognition of her specialized client work in adaptive structural therapeutics. As a senior teacher trainer she excels in teaching asana, pranayama, mantra, and yogic philosophy & literature.
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Edy Bailey
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Edy Bailey is a certified Bikram yoga teacher, and a devout practitioner of the 26 poses and 2 breathing exercises from Bishnu Ghosh's Ayurvedic clinic prescriptions. He trained with Bikram Choudhury in 2008 for his initial certificate, and again for the 84 posture sequence in 2010. He had the distinct honor of working with one of the top ranked Yoga Schools in Austin, TX for many years, Pure Yoga Austin, and was a part of the USA Yoga collective of students and competitors whose dream it is to bring yoga into a broader spotlight. In 2012-2014, Edy also received his 500 hour certification in Ashtanga Vinyasa yoga with Libby Cox and Global Yoga Shala. He also completed a course on teaching Ashtanga Yoga with David Swenson and Shelley Washington in 2013.
A craftsman and massage therapist, Edy is passionate about arts and movement, and how they intersect. At heart, he believes Yoga is a way of maintaining a strong body and mind, that become the platform for us to dedicate ourselves whole heartedly to making our creative dreams a reality. Edy is also a cancer survivor, a martial artist, a father of twins, a world traveler, and student of comparative religions, with an affinity for the Mahabharata. He's quite a storyteller. |
Steve Tygart, RYT 200
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Steve moves through life and yoga smiling and will encourage you to do the same. He started a dedicated practice at the beginning of 2011 and, inspired to teach, completed his teacher training with Sarahjoy Marsh, and is currently working toward his 500 hour certification with Two Birds Yoga Training. With an extensive background in science and a curiosity that leads to continuous exploration, Steve hopes to help cultivate the same spirit of inquiry, self-exploration, and experimentation safely on your mat, your personal yoga laboratory. |
Erica Alcocer
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Érica Alcocer (they/she) is a queer non-binary femme living on occupied Yanawana • Somi Se'k territory, also known as San Antonio. Their focuses are radical social and self-awareness, abolition, decolonization and organizing community in liberation of colonized folks that centers queer•trans Black women/femmes/folks and queer•trans non-Black Indigenous women/femmes folks. More of their work on de-centering settler ego can be found at https://sites.google.com/view/ericaelizabethalcocer/home
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