Meet Our Team
Swami Atmarupa Saraswati is a founding Yogacharya of the Yoga Vidya Council announced in 2015 by Swami Niranjanananda Saraswati. Teaching since 1995, she is registered with the Yoga Alliance at the E-RYT 500 level, RPYT (prenatal yoga), RCYT (children's yoga) and YACEP (Yoga Alliance Continuing Education Provider). She has been conducting teacher training since 2000, training students from around the world.
Prior to following her passion for yoga teaching, Atmarupa was a certified registered nurse anesthetist for over 25 years and was a primary instructor in the nurse anesthesia program for 10 years at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation.
Atmarupa is the Founder and Director of
Atma Center
, a yoga studio in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, which has been open since 1997. The Atma Center houses the Yoga Academy of North America.
Swami Atmarupa
(Beverly Roberts Singh)
Education Director
YANA Board President
Jignasu Karunadhara,
Kristine Fondran, BS, MS,
AYT, E-RYT 500
Board Treasurer
Sannyasi Samatamurti
Anne Monsees, AYT
Board Secretary
Karunadhara is a licensed elementary education teacher, skating instructor, certified yoga instructor, owner of North Coast Inline Skating School in Cleveland, OH and director of the Inline Certification Program.
Karunadhara has a B.S. in Elementary Education from Cleveland State University and a Master in Education (Exercise Science), from Cleveland State University.
Sannyasi Samatamurti has spent many years doing seva at Satyananda Yoga ashrams around the world. Between 2010-2015 she was in Australia, New Zealand and India. Samata has a Diploma in Satyananda Yoga Teaching and is an Elementary and Special Education Teacher. She currently teaches yoga in New Jersy, working for a non-profit organization that provides yoga to underpriviledged children, as well as teaching classes at a studio.
Sannyasi Bhaktitara,
Terri Keppinger, BBA, AYT
Board Member
Swami Maitreyi Saraswati
Board Member
Originally from Sweden, Swami Maitreyi has been teaching Satyananda Yoga since 1985. In 1992 she went to India to participate in the first sannyasa training course conducted by Swami Niranjanananda for overseas students, and remained at Bihar School of Yoga for 15 years.
Since 2009 she has been stationed in Bogota, Colombia and has divided her time giving classes and seminars in Bogota and travelling through South America, as well as the USA and Sweden.
Sannyasi Bhaktitara has a BBA in Marketing and graduated from the Bihar School of Yoga with a Diploma in Yoga Psychology. She is an accredited Satyananda Yoga teacher who lives in Hawaii, and is a founder of Zero Point Embodiment and North Shore Rolfing.
Bhaktitara has spent many years in Rikhiapeeth doing seva, as well as serving on 5 missions with Doctors Without Borders.