FESTIVAL LEADERS
We are super excited to have an amazing line-up of talented instructors and teachers to lead the Big Om Yoga Festival. Read below to learn more about the wonderful humans who will be leading each experience.
Ullasita Rose Devi, Founder of Spirit of the Rose
Ullasita Rose Devi (Catie Coon) is a certified E-RYT Yoga Teacher, Woman Rising Certified Flower Essence Therapist, Goddess Rising Moon Temple Facilitator, Reiki Practitioner & a Woman's Wisdom Ways Holistic Health and Wellness Mentor.
She has over 18 years of experience in teaching yoga & in the healing arts. Expressing the anatomy of the soul through her various offerings she strives to live her life in service as devotion. As an interdisciplinary yogini and modern day medicine woman she is honored to share the wisdom transmissions that she has received as a mirror to others healing & transforming. She is the inspiration & founder of Spirit of the Rose Healing Center where she offers Holistic Spiritual Therapy for the Mind, Body and Spirit. Ullasita continues to weave in the ancient traditions of her lineages into her constantly evolving offerings and expanding her knowledge through her commitment to her own daily personal rituals & practices. She is currently studying to become an Ordained Minister & to receive her PhD in Metaphysical Psychology through the University of Sedona & at Hale Pule School of Yoga and Ayurveda to receive her Ayurvedic Health Counselors License.
Joe and Hailey, Be Love Yoga Studio
Joe and Hailey have been acro partners for years. Acro requires trust, touch, communication and play. Over time they grew closer and their relationship grew deeper. Joe owns Be Love Yoga Studio and Hailey manages. They are passionate about running Be Love Yoga Studio, Big Om Yoga Retreat, and the Big Om Yoga Festival together. This passion makes the work seem like play and makes all of life more enjoyable. Joe got his 200 YTT certification at Yoga Deza in 2014. Haiely graduated from Everyone Yoga school in 2016 with her 200 hour certification. They both teach yoga full time along with managing the studios and retreats.
Nicole Peltier Hall, Owner of The Yoga Room
Nicole Peltier studied at Mount Madonna Center in the Santa Cruz mountains of California in 2000. She and Tom Tobias opened The Yoga Room in 2001. Her classes are creative and inclusive, all students seem to benefit and enjoy her style of teaching. She enjoys combining music of all kinds with her flow yoga classes and has been using live music to take her class experience to the next level. She also loves teaching beginners and mellow stretch classes. Most of her classes are powerful and energetic, so be prepared to go the distance.
Jerrod Fassler (@unicornasana) YogaSlacker
Slackline Industries & RadRoller Ambassador, Yoga Teacher based out of Denver, Colorado. I started doing Yoga in February 2014, later that year I saw my first slackline. I stopped cutting my hair. And now I'm here. Let's play!! Private, Group, and Slackline Workshops Available. Upcoming Slackline Events and Yoga Schedule listed below. #hornsup #believe
Yoga: Vinyasa, Hot series, and Yin certifications through Kindness Collective and Kids Yoga Certified through Radiant Beginnings. YogaSlackers teacher training in 2016
Foursee Apparel Ambassador: use code: "unicornasana" at the checkout to receive 15% off RadRoller Ambassador: Recovery tools
Mandy Eubanks, Owner of Everyone Yoga School
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 150 graduates at the 200 and 300 hour RYT level.
Mandy Eubanks mission is to inspire her students to live life fully awake. Blending Hatha and Vinyasa, 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 creative classes that are unique yet relevant to the modern yogini and yogi. Her public yoga classes are often a refuge for those who serve and teach yoga themselves and her private yoga therapy 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.
Nicole Pearl, StudioPOP
Nicole fell in love with group fitness and yoga during her college days in Los Angeles, where she was introduced to a new wave of indoor cycling and was instantly hooked! Nicole motivates through music, encouragement and visualization. Her music taste varies from Pop, Rock, Soul, Funk, Rap, and more! Expect to have fun and work hard!
Marina Mangano, Tensegrity Chiropractic
I started practicing yoga to learn more about the body, which up until that point, I viewed as an athletic machine that could do anything I pushed it towards. Surprise surprise...I got hurt a lot! Yoga altered the relationship I had with my body and opened the doors to healthier movement, introspection, and spiritual growth.
I started teaching yoga once I finished chiropractic school in hopes of bringing together the two communities of people I was learning from. I had amazing mentors and friends that taught me chiropractic science and yoga philosophy side by side; they compliment each other, support the same goals, and both allow you to experience a pain free and fulfilled life.
I was trained at The Yoga Deza Institute in Fayetteville, Arkansas in 2018. My curriculum was heavily focused on anatomical cues, energetic themes, and the power of chanting!
Mystical Matthew, Intuitive Healer
The Heart of Matthew’s abilities, offerings, and healing's are to render the Divine experience undeniably within your own being. It should be an experience that lingers for days, that provides an unassailable lightness to your being. A mixture of emotional, physical, and, at times most important, spiritual healing. So many of us have become burdened with thoughts and beliefs that have cauterized our experience to life so much so we need a mystic to shake us from our own limits. We have a gentle faith in healing but, perhaps, less conviction than that which comes with a lifetime of mystical healing. It can be a great fortune to run into one great mystic in a lifetime, and I speak personally to say that I believe Matthew is a great fortune in a land where so many have lost faith in Jesus, the power of Presence, and their individual ability to experience God.
Patrick Wilborn
With roots in the visual and performing arts, Patrick has been diving into the depths of yogic philosophy since 2016. His practice advanced to the next level during his 200 hour yoga training in Rishikesh where he was instructed on how to teach Vinyasa yoga and meditation. Since then he has received certifications in Hatha yoga and Reiki energy healing, and collected wisdom from all across India. Patrick also shares healing through leading dynamic kirtan meditations and sound therapy sessions.
Ari Christopher and John Ferrante,
Tulsa Modern Movement
Ari Christopher has over 300 hours of Contact Improv training, including participation in the EarthDance July 4 Jam 2014 & 2015, the Bill T Jones Arnie Zane Company Intensive 2016, Texas Dance Improvisation Festival 2015 & 2018, the Pilobolus Dance Intensive 2011 and more.
John Ferrante has been practicing yoga since 2006 and was first exposed to Contact Improv in 2012 at Burning Man. He has been learning CI from Ari Christopher for the last three years and taking video and photographs along the way.
Jonah Kest, Kest Yoga
Jonah Kest has been a student of yoga since day one. Surrounded by his mother, father, and uncle, who were mid-western vinyasa trailblazers, he spent his early years observing and learning from the best. His love and passion for the mind-body connection grew and at age 17, Jonah became a yoga teacher under the tutelage of his father, Jonny Kest.
Over the years, his upbringing has translated into a committed asana practice, daily meditation, and consistent cultivation of gratitude. His grace, compassion, and inspiring intensity are evident in everything he does - both off and on the mat. Today, Jonah travels the world practicing and teaching ashtanga and vinyasa classes, workshops, and at retreats in hopes of spreading his intention to generate loving-kindness.
Bryce Delbridge, Founder of Ashtanga Krama
I began practicing Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga at the age of 15, after being diagnosed with severe scoliosis. Facing the option of full spinal fusion, my dear family friends Andrew and Ray Eppler suggested that I try yoga. During my first class, which was with Ray Eppler, I felt at home & at peace in my body; from this initial communion I began devoting my life to various alternatives to surgery.
At the age of 20, I traveled to India to pursue a more austere regiment of traditional practice with Sri B.N.S. Iyengar, a direct student of Sri T. Krishnamacharya. While studying all 4 classic sequences of Asana (Primary, Intermediate, Advanced A, Advanced B), along with Mudra, Pranayama and Philosophy, I became pain free. Since then, I have continued to travel & study with world renown teachers, such as David Williams, Danny Paradise, David Swenson, Dharma Mittra, Srivatsa Ramaswami, Maria Mendola, Joseph & Lillian LePaige, Robert Boustany, among many others. I have also completed 1000hr certification through Integrative Yoga Therapy and I am E-RYT 500, YACEP & C-IAYT certified.
In April of 2016, I returned to India to help film a documentary about the evolution of the yoga community of Krishnamacharya in Mysore, India; how this community has influenced the vast majority of modern day Yoga practices & the current views held by the keepers of these traditions. The film is called Mysore Yoga Traditions and is available online at:
Claire Spears, Owner of Press Cafe x Yoga
Claire Spears grew up in Tulsa, but left for college and then again for a Masters at Cambridge in the UK before returning home. She teaches power yoga, drinks Americanos, and works also as a digital brand strategist.
Keri Mooney Edwardes, Manger at SALT Yoga
Keri Edwardes has been teaching power yoga for nearly ten years. She believes a strong, healthy body is the way to a strong, healthy mind and spirit. Her classes are challenging and encourage students to reach their full potential as a human being. You are free to explore more advanced variations of poses, or to relax and just be in the room. She believes in making the most out of this precious life we have been given.
Frank/ (Danny) Vekas, Yogic Guide
As a life long Seeker, first for love and knowledge then on to money and power, thinking those were what I was supposed to find. I finally, through the practice of yoga and mindfulness, began to find my life, quite by happenstance . Learning to exist in quiet and stillness in a world of noise and chaos, whether in comfort or discomfort is challenging but extremely rewarding. Being able to let go of everything has enabled me know of that which is unknown. I am in my 6th year as a registered yoga instructor through the ‘Yoga Alliance ‘ with the designation of E-YRT 200, YACEP. I also experience the vibrations of the cosmos; this I offer to those that are willing through the heavy metals of the Gong and other vibrational objects. For years prior to the registration I guided yoga to adventures on Sierra Club outings and Girl Scout High Adventure program participants. As a yoga guide I have offered classes in the styles of Yin and Yang. Classes I have guided have occurred on sandy beaches, desert canyons, forests and on scenic river banks. Training for my registration was through Life Power Yoga, coupled with 20+ years seeking the yogic path. It will be my honor to guide you on a portion of your journey. Peace to you.
Melody Smith, Trailside Yoga
Starting out as a dedicated student in 2015, she made her way to karma yogi and now teaches SloFlow once a week. In late 2018 she completed her 200 hour YTT in Rishikesh, India where she spent 6 weeks studying a holistic approach to Hatha Yoga, Ayurveda, and ashram based living. Melody is passionate about learning, sharing with others and connecting deeper with her self. She hopes to guide her students into greater understanding themselves by bringing awareness to the body, thought patterns, and energetic influences. “My biggest goal as a yoga teacher, and just as a human being in general, is to empower others to make changes for themselves. We have the healing we’ve been looking for. We just have to remember it’s within us.”
Megan Burnett, 405 Yoga
A devoted dancer and athlete her whole life, Megan has a passion for movement and sharing the joy and the balance that dancing and yoga both guide us to. In 2006, after dabbling in a few 'gym yoga' classes, she took her first studio class with an instructor who actually touched her and helped align her properly into a pose. She was hooked and immediately started to see a transformation in her dance training and her life. Seeking to also empower others with the tools to find balance within themselves, she acquired her 220 hour Kunga Yoga teaching certification in 2011 and has now earned the distinction of E-RYT 200 and YACEP. She studies and teaches a wide variety of yoga: hatha, vinyasa, power flow, The Rocket, yin, restorative, prenatal, gentle, sahaja dance flow, yoga for athletes, yoga for dancers, and more. She is passionate about teaching healthy alignment and yoga 'from the ground up', hands-on alignment, and creating classes that are both playful and soulful, drawing both beginners and experienced practitioners alike. Her students like to call this 'yummy yoga'!
Tulsa Acro Yoga Family
Come play with Tulsa's best acro yoga teachers. This family of friends has literally toured the world playing and learning with and from some of the best acro teachers. Trust, communication, touch and play are all part of the fun. Learn more about yourself and what you can do, come play!
Marcus Abernathy, Life Coach and Recovery Mentor
Marcus Abernathy has a Master’s Degree in Spiritual and Depth Psychology, is a Level 2 Reiki practitioner, Life Coach and Recovery Mentor, and currently Executive Director of the nonprofit Sangha, Inc. Marcus has studied meditation and mindfulness at both L’Institut Vajra Yogini in France and the Shunkoin Zen Temple in Japan, and has been leading meditation groups since 2014.
Chanista Karns, I AM Kids Tulsa
Chanista has been practicing yoga for six years and has been teaching for 3. She teaches a wide range of beings and works with kids aging from pre-K to high school and adults young and old. She has studied with Everyone Yoga School in Tulsa, I AM Kids Tulsa with Dana Morris, and with Sarah Klein's Ashtanga Mentorship Program in Durango, Co. Currently she is teaching and learning, and creating new ways to help all generations unplug and tune in. Chanista teaches kids yoga, restorative yoga, and vinyasa!
She believes there is a type of yoga for everyone and has personally seen the benefits through her own practice in managing stress through breathing, meditation, and healthy movement. Her passion is sharing this message with you.