Garrett Sarley (Dinabandhu), Chief Executive Officer
Garrett Sarley (also known by his Sanskrit name, Dinabandhu) has been a leader in the field of spirituality and human development for more than 30 years. Kripalu’s Chief Executive Officer, he previously spent nine years as president of the Omega Institute for Holistic Studies. His passion is applying the principles of integrated functioning—the foundation of yoga—toward organizational growth and vitality.
Garrett is an active teacher and workshop leader in the areas of communication, spirituality in the workplace, organizational development, and leadership, and is the cofounder with his wife, Ila, of the Natural Yoga system of self-development and the Essential Communications method. He has devoted his life to the intensive practice of a wide variety of Eastern and Western disciplines for spiritual growth, personal transformation, and organizational leadership. Garrett is coauthor with Ila of Walking Yoga and The Essentials of Yoga.
Ila Sarley, President
Ila Sarley was a founding member of Kripalu, and she currently serves as Kripalu’s President. Previously, she was director of marketing and communications at the Omega Institute for Holistic Studies for nine years. Ila’s passion lies in integrating the curriculum and communications strategy of an institution with its mission and culture. She combines marketing strategy, program development, staff training, and brand coherency into a seamless whole so that both internal and external participants in the life of the institution know what the institution stands for and can participate accordingly.
For the past 30 years, Ila has dedicated her life to the intensive study and practice of the science of yoga, communications, and personal and organizational development. She has led yoga, meditation, and communications workshops throughout the United States, Costa Rica, and Canada for more than 25 years. Ila is the cofounder with her husband, Garrett, of the Natural Yoga system of self-development and the Essential Communications method, and is also the coauthor of Walking Yoga and The Essentials of Yoga.
Executive Team
Denise Barack, Director of Program Development
Denise Barack has been involved with Kripalu since 1985. She holds a degree in communications and was the advertising director at East West Journal in Boston before moving to the Berkshires to be part of the Kripalu community. She was Kripalu’s photographer and Group Events Manager for several years before joining the Curriculum Team. As Kripalu’s Director of Program Development, she uses her gift for networking people and ideas in overseeing the planning and development of all of Kripalu’s guest-faculty programs. Denise is the mother of two teenagers, and is a 200-hour certified yoga teacher.
Barbara Bonner, Senior Vice President for Institutional Advancement
Barbara Bonner, MA, MFA, has spent more than 25 years managing and leading the fund-raising efforts of cultural institutions in New York City and the Berkshires. Until recently, Barbara was vice president of Bennington College where she oversaw the planning, staffing, and early implementation of a $150 million capital campaign, and she has held senior positions at the Cathedral Museum at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, the Asia Society, and the Museum of the City of New York. Originally an art historian with her master’s degree in art history from the City University of New York, Barbara went on to receive her Master of Fine Arts in Arts Administration from Columbia University. Barbara is a devoted and enthusiastic student of yoga and meditation and lives in a converted barn down the road from Kripalu in Housatonic, Massachusetts.
Stephen Cope, Director, Institute for Extraordinary Living Living
Stephen Cope, MSW, is a psychotherapist, a national best-selling author, and a senior instructor of Kripalu Yoga with more than 15 years of experience as a yoga teacher. During the summer of 2005, he launched a pioneering music and consciousness program in conjunction with the Tanglewood Institute to study the effects of yoga and meditation on performance anxiety, physical health, and states of optimal performance. The senior Scholar-in-Residence at Kripalu Center, Stephen is the author of Yoga and the Quest for the True Self, Will Yoga and Meditation Really Change My Life?, and The Wisdom of Yoga: A Seeker’s Guide to Extraordinary Living. Stephen was named by Yoga Journal as one of the top 25 innovators in yoga in America in the last quarter of a century.
Devarshi Steven Hartman, Director of Professional Training
Devarshi Steven Hartman has been a student and teacher of yoga for 25 years and is a former longtime resident of the Kripalu ashram. A facilitator of the Avatar Course for many years and a teacher of A Course in Miracles since 1976, he is a devoted scholar, teacher, and retreat leader. From an early age, Devarshi has been dedicated to the pursuit, education, and practice of spiritual wisdom from a variety of traditions. He has been trained in many transformational healing modalities, which he used in his 17-year private practice in Chicago, Illinois. Devarshi is currently the Director of Professional Training at Kripalu, overseeing the schools of yoga, massage, and Ayurveda.
Deb Howard, Executive Chef and Director of Food Services
Deb Howard opened her first natural foods cafe in Reading, Pennsylvania, at the age of 21. In 1987, Deb discovered the Kripalu ashram, became a resident a year later, and spent the next four years working in the kitchen, practicing yoga, and living the Kripalu lifestyle. In the early 1990s, Deb and her husband Dan opened an organic cafe, The Love Dog, in Lenox, Massachusetts, which became well known as the place to go for delicious whole-foods cuisine. In the fall of 2005, Deb returned to Kripalu as Executive Chef and Director of Food Services, where she has been instrumental in creating a well-trained team of cooks and support staff and has created a new Kripalu cuisine that is receiving rave reviews from staff and guests alike. She lives with her husband and two daughters in West Stockbridge, Massachusetts.
Holly McCormack, Director, Institute for Integrated Leadership
Holly McCormack received a degree from Babson College in entrepreneurialism. At Bennington College, she served as director of Field Work Term, an experiential career development semester. Prior to that, she worked with the Cooperative Association of States for Scholarship, a youth-leadership partnership program between the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and Georgetown University, counseling young adults from Latin America and the Caribbean in personal and professional development. Holly copresented at the Summit of Emerging Visionaries, a young-adult conference held in conjunction with the United Nation’s Millennium Peace Summit of Religious and Spiritual Leaders. At Kripalu, she has applied her skills to creating and directing the Semester Intensive, a four-month program in self-development and life skills for 18- to 22-year-olds. Holly is also a nationally certified massage therapist and a Kripalu-certified holistic lifestyle teacher.
John O’Neill, Director of Finance
John O’Neill was a long-term resident of the Kripalu ashram until 1994, during which time he worked at all levels of the finance and accounting departments. He then held financial controller positions in several retailing businesses in New Mexico before returning to Kripalu in 2001. As Director of Finance, John oversees all aspects of the organization’s financial areas, manages the Finance Department’s staff, and has developed substantial improvements in Kripalu’s budget system as well as in the quality and timeliness of accounting reports and financial statements. John has a deep respect for the work that Kripalu performs in the world and is deeply committed to the success of its mission.
Patrick O’Shei, Vice President and Director of Facility Development, Information Technology, and Business Analysis
From 1996 to 1999, Patrick was Kripalu’s Director of Operations and then Chief Operating Officer and was instrumental in turning the business around. Patrick returned to Kripalu in mid-2004 and now oversees major construction, information technology infrastructure, pricing-revenue forecasting, and other financial modeling and analysis. From 1995 to 2005, Patrick was a mentor/lecturer at Empire State College, the SUNY adult-education college, and taught capstone studies in technology management and operations management. He also has 10 years of independent consulting experience and 10 years of professional experience with two Fortune 500 companies. Patrick holds a Masters of Science in Applied Statistics from Rochester Institute of Technology and a bachelor’s degree in engineering from SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry and lives in East Longmeadow, Massachusetts, with his three children.
Tom Rocco, Vice President, Marketing and Communications
Tom Rocco has been with Kripalu Center since July 2004, and oversees marketing strategy and operations, including the Kripalu catalog and website and the Registration Department. Prior to Kripalu, he spent more than four years at the Millard Group, Inc., a leader in list and marketing services, overseeing the Internet division, marketing services, and new ventures. From 1988 to 2000 Tom directed all list, analytics, and database marketing for Rodale Press, the leading publisher of magazines and books about health and wellness, including Prevention and Men’s Health. Tom began his direct marketing career at Publishers Clearing House in 1981 and Guideposts Associates from 1985 to 1988 in marketing analysis and research positions. He received his Masters of Business Administration in Marketing in 1985 and has been a yoga practitioner for more than 15 years.
Jennifer Webster, Director of Operations and Staff Development
Jennifer came to Kripalu in late 2004 as a volunteer in Kripalu’s Spiritual Lifestyle Program. She then joined Kripalu’s staff as the Production Manager, a position that she held until the fall of 2006, when she began her new role as Director of Operations. Prior to coming to Kripalu, Jennifer directed the residence life and housing program at a small university in Georgia. Jennifer has studied English literature and writing, Spanish, and cultural and medical anthropology. She holds a master’s degree in anthropology, with a focus on cultural understandings of health and communicable disease. A primary theme in her work has been pulling seemingly disparate experiences, studies, work, skills, and systems together to create new understandings.
Jennifer Young, Director of Retreat and Renewal and Healthy Living, and Codirector of the Institute for Integrated Healing
Jennifer Young is the Director of Kripalu’s Retreat and Renewal and Healthy Living programs and codirector of the Institute for Integrated Healing. Before coming to Kripalu, Jennifer worked in marketing and new business development in the active travel and hospitality industry for 10 years. As the vice president of marketing for Overseas Adventure Travel, her work took her all over the world, including Tanzania, Botswana, Kenya, South Africa, Nepal, Ecuador, the Galapagos Islands, Egypt, and Europe. As the vice president of marketing for VBT Bicycling Vacations, she developed a new market of women’s tours. Jennifer was also the president of her own marketing and communication consulting business for two years. She has her bachelor’s degree in English and philosophy from Boston College and is also an actress, yogini, artist, and mother of two. She lives with her husband and children in Pittsfield, Massachusetts.
