Jill is a special education teacher at the Oak Bluffs School on Martha’s Vineyard. She incorporates trauma informed mindfulness and yoga in helping teens self regulate. She also teaches weekly at a local studio on island. Jill spent the last ten years running her own studio and leading annual 200 hour teacher trainings that focused on how to help others use a trauma informed approach to the yogic healing modality. She is committed to making the practice of yoga body inclusive and more economically accessible. Jill embodies the service of yoga and believes it is for absolutely every body, race, gender, non-gender and age. She is especially passionate about using yoga as a way to heal and manage the effects of personal, racial, and collective trauma. Her eclectic experiences with race as a young girl influenced her life's trajectory as a social justice activist and a race conscious mother of a bi-racial teen. She understands and has learned the importance of humility and resilience as it relates to white body supremacy. She has learned and gained knowledge from Resmaa Menakem and Cultural Somatics Institute, Connection Coalition of Miami, FL; Dr. Chelsea Jackson of Atlanta, GA.
Jill has brought yoga to alternative school systems such as Rosa Menoka Hill in Green Bay, WI and schools designated as trauma informed in the Appleton Area School District. Jill has also taught classes for women in the county jail where she focused on breaking down the barriers of shame and judgement while emphasizing the healing benefits of a mind body connection. She has created various outreach initiatives such as All Rise Hip Hop and Yoga and Zentouring in which spoken word, youth mentoring, and yoga are used as ways to connect with children and instill tools for self regulation. Jill holds a Master of Arts degree in Spanish from Middlebury College in Vermont and has used her language proficiency by sharing the benefits of yoga with latinos at the Iglesia de Santa Teresa in her community. She is embarking on her second master's degree in special education to better serve her students.
Jill has brought yoga to alternative school systems such as Rosa Menoka Hill in Green Bay, WI and schools designated as trauma informed in the Appleton Area School District. Jill has also taught classes for women in the county jail where she focused on breaking down the barriers of shame and judgement while emphasizing the healing benefits of a mind body connection. She has created various outreach initiatives such as All Rise Hip Hop and Yoga and Zentouring in which spoken word, youth mentoring, and yoga are used as ways to connect with children and instill tools for self regulation. Jill holds a Master of Arts degree in Spanish from Middlebury College in Vermont and has used her language proficiency by sharing the benefits of yoga with latinos at the Iglesia de Santa Teresa in her community. She is embarking on her second master's degree in special education to better serve her students.
