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Sat Bir S. Khalsa, PhD, is an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School in the department of medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. His projects have focused on the therapeutic applications of yoga in a number of settings, including public schools, and for several conditions, including insomnia, performance anxiety, and PTSD. Dr. Khalsa is one of the most active and experienced researchers in the yoga world today. |
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Lisa Conboy, MA, MS, ScD, is a social epidemiologist affiliated with Harvard Medical School’s Osher Research Center and co-director of research and faculty at the New England School of Acupuncture. She is currently involved in a number of studies investigating Ayurveda, yoga, and traditional Chinese medicine. Published manuscripts from work at Kripalu, include “Ayurveda and Panchakarma: Measuring the Effects of a Holistic Health Intervention” and “Moving Beyond Health to Flourishing: The Effects of Yoga Teacher Training.” |
 | Sara Lazar, PhD, is an instructor in psychology at Harvard Medical School and a professor of psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital, where she specializes in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Dr. Lazar employs the latest techniques in brain imaging in her research and has been widely cited in the mainstream press for her work on brain plasticity and meditation. |
 | Jessica Noggle, PhD, is a research fellow at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School in Dr. Khalsa’s lab. She holds the first postdoctoral research fellowship funded by a yoga institution (Kripalu) in the United States. Currently, Jessica directs research on IEL’s Yoga in the Schools program to evaluate yoga for adolescent mental health. She recently won a NARSAD Young Investigator Award to evaluate sleep in Dr. Khalsa’s study on yoga for PTSD in military personnel. Her long-term research interests are evaluating yoga and other mind-body modalities to enhance quality of life (pain management, sleep, caregiver stress) within hospice and palliative care settings. |
 | Tim Gard, MSc, is a PhD student of neuroscience at the Bender Institute of Neuroimaging in Giessen, Germany, where he is currently finishing up his thesis on the neural correlates of mindfulness-induced analgesia. He obtained his master’s degree in psychology from Maastricht University with his thesis entitled “Regulation of Emotion and Cognition During Mathematical Problem Solving: the Effects of Yoga in an Indian Sample.” Currently, Tim is a visiting researcher and research assistant at the Lazar Lab at Massachusetts General Hospital, where he works on behavioral and neuroimaging data obtained from Kripalu Yogis. After his graduation, Tim will continue to investigate yoga as a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Lazar’s lab. |
 | Edi Pasalis, Director of Standardized Curriculum for the IEL, has been a student and teacher of Kripalu Yoga for more than a decade, providing thousands of hours of yoga- and meditation-based training on and off the mat. Edi’s yoga education includes a master’s degree from Harvard Divinity School, where she studied the impact of yoga on spiritual life. She also has an MBA from the University of Michigan and has developed and led training in the corporate setting. |
 | Jennifer Johnston, LMHC, E-RYT, is a licensed mental health counselor and yoga instructor. Currently, she is pursuing her doctoral degree in counseling psychology from Northeastern University, is a counselor in private practice, conducts research on yoga with anxiety disorders, and is an adjunct professor at Lesley University. Jennifer is the Project Leader for the Military Populations and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Research Project. |
 | Tosca Braun, BA, BS, IYT 500, has played a number of roles on IEL research studies since 2007, and is currently Project Leader on the Yoga for Weight Loss and Behavior Change studies. She holds bachelor’s degrees from Reed College and SUNY Empire State College in history and health psychology, respectively, and is a 200-hour Kripalu Yoga instructor and 500-hour certified yoga therapist with more than 2,000 hours of training in the fields of yoga, Ayurveda, leadership, and the mind-body connection.
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 | Janna Delgado, BFA, RYT 500, is a senior faculty member at Kripalu Yoga Center. Janna, an Ayurvedic Yoga Specialist, Kripalu Yoga teacher, and AFAA-certified personal trainer and fitness instructor, is the Codirector of Yoga in the Schools Curriculum for the IEL. She is currently Program Advisor for Kripalu’s Healthy Living Fitness and Yoga Retreat and leads workshops for Kripalu’s Retreat and Renewal program. Janna is a regular contributor to Kripalu’s quarterly Healthy Living E-News, their online yoga breaks, and the in-house publication, Thrive.
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 | Iona M. Smith, MEd, CYT 500, holds a master’s degree in education from Harvard University and a 500-hour yoga teacher’s certification from the Nosara Yoga Institute in Costa Rica. She is currently a Codirector for the Monument Mountain Regional High School research project, Yoga in the Schools. She is also a guest yoga teacher at Kripalu and a yoga educator at the Berkshire County House of Corrections. |
 | Larissa Hall Carlson, a Kripalu Yoga teacher, Ayurvedic Yoga Specialist, and Ayurvedic Lifestyle Consultant, serves as an Ayurvedic Yoga Specialist for for the IEL and Kripalu’s School of Ayurveda. She has taught yoga for the Juilliard School, Tanglewood Music Center, and the Boston Conservatory. Creator of the CDs Meditative Yoga Flow and Ayurvedic Pranayama and Meditation for the Doshas, she teaches workshops, directs yoga trainings, and provides Ayurvedic consultations. |
 | Debbie Cohen, MA, E-RYT, has an extensive background teaching yoga and positive psychology. She received her master’s degree in applied positive psychology from the University of Pennsylvania and her master’s in education from Harvard University. Debbie is the Lead Teacher for the Boston Yoga in the Schools study, which examines the effects of Kripalu Yoga on high school students’ psychological well-being and academic achievement. She has recently instituted the Susan E. Tifft Yoga in Schools program to teach yoga to students in the Boston public schools.
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 | Kristen Reinhardt, BM, RYT 200, is a faculty member and researcher for the IEL. She has played many roles on the IEL team since 2007. Currently, she is the Research Coordinator on the Yoga for Military Veterans with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder study at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital (Dr. Khalsa). She is primarily interested in how contemplative practices can mitigate the symptoms of anxiety disorders, and is pursuing graduate studies in this area. |
 | Jessica Frey, BS, RYT 200, currently serves as a marketing and research coordinator for the IEL. She implements, manages, and assists the research and curriculum for the IEL Yoga in the Schools project. Jessica holds a bachelor’s degree in health education and health science from the State University of New York at Brockport. She is a 200-hour registered Kripalu Yoga teacher who teaches Kripalu staff and volunteers, hosts yoga workshops on the Kripalu Retreat and Renewal program, and assists Kripalu Yoga Teacher Trainings. |
 | Olga Overmyer, BA, RYT 200,
assists the development, delivery and research of the Standardized Yoga Curriculum with particular interest in human flourishing and social transformation. Olga holds a bachelor’s degree from Occidental College in Psychology and Religious Studies and intends to pursue graduate studies in Integral Psychology. She trained in Classical Ashtanga Yoga at Hyderabad University, India and received her 200-hour certification in Hatha Yoga. She is currently undergoing the Kripalu 500-hour certification. |
