This webinar was in celebration of International Women's Day!

For International Women's Day 2024 and beyond, let's #InspireInclusion. When we inspire others to understand and value women's inclusion, we forge a better world. And when women themselves are inspired to be included, there's a sense of belonging, relevance, and empowerment that also includes all communities including BIPOC and LGBTQ. The IWD 2024 #InspireInclusion campaign aims to collectively forge a more inclusive world for women and beyond. To truly include women means to openly embrace their diversity of race, age, ability, faith, body image, and how they identify.

Video

Panelist

Joseph Armstrong, Miami Life Center, Florida

Joseph Armstrong, an Authorized Level 2 Ashtanga Yoga teacher. He teaches yoga with feet planted firmly in tradition and gaze turned towards the future. His search for a more present and peaceful life first led him to the practice in 2008. A few years later he was in India, studying intensively.

After finally overcoming a long struggle with addiction, Joseph began experimenting with Ashtanga Yoga. He understood quickly that the lineage was calling to him to deepen his practice. He underwent a 2-year apprenticeship program at the world-renowned Miami Life Center, continuing his education under his teachers Tim Feldmann and Kino MacGregor. In 2016 he completed 2 months of study in Mysore under Sharath Jois. 2017 brought Joseph to Guatemala where he taught Mysore Style for over a year while also traveling and giving workshops in Europe and the Americas. 2019 brought him back to Miami and his yoga family at MLC.

Joseph teaches yoga because attempts to do any and everything else end disastrously. But when he finally devoted himself to his passion, he became an asset to himself and others. He hopes his practice allows him to be ever more loving and to exist gently.

Tamika Caston-Miller, Ashe Yoga

TexasTamika Caston-Miller is a yoga educator and urban farmer in Houston, Texas. She curates nature-immersive yoga workshops, trainings, and retreats in service to collective healing and community repair. Focusing on moving traditionally marginalized people beyond marginalized realities through truth-speaking, collaborative work, and collective rest, Tamika aims to build intersectional, intergenerational, multiethnic communities in which radical compassion, agency, and self-acceptance are normalized. Her modern application of ancient principles is inspired by her understanding of yoga as a practice of the right relationship with others, the planet, and the Self.

Michelle El Khoury, Yogamazia, Pennsylvania

Dr. Michelle El Khoury is the founder of Yogamazia, a yoga studio specifically focused on maternal and children’s wellness based in the suburbs of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She brings over twenty years of healthcare experience and is a published author and speaker, apart from her various yoga and birth worker credentials. Her mission is to empower and inspire as many women and future generations of leaders to be a voice for positive change in their communities.

Nadine McNeil, Jamaica

Nadine McNeil – humanitarian cum yogi – is regarded as an influencer for global transformation. For over 20 years, she served the United Nations as a ‘crisis responder,’ across the world, eventually leading to her current passion. Nowadays, her work includes teaching yoga, guiding women’s circles, as well as being a personal development coach for individuals and ‘conscious’ corporate entities.

As a non-fiction writer, she weaves yoga philosophy, spirituality, ethnicity, gender, and current affairs. McNeil’s work has been published in several online and print publications, including Elephant Journal, Yoga Herald Magazine, Essence Magazine and more. publications. In 2023 she published her first e-book entitled: Self Love Is A Practice.

Pranidhi Varshney, Yoga Shala West, Los Angeles

Pranidhi Varshney is the founder of Yoga Shala West, a community-supported Ashtanga yoga studio in West Los Angeles. She is also the mother to two courageous and wise little beings. The thread that runs through all her work is the desire to build community and live authentically.

Moderator

Harmony Slater, Calgary, Canada

Harmony is a Mastery Certified Life + Biz Coach, Breathwork expert, and Certified Ashtanga Yoga Teacher. She is one of less than 20 women in the world to hold a recognized teaching Certificate from Mysore, India. She began traveling to East Asia in 2002 to study Buddhism and Indian philosophy. She’s founded two yoga schools in Canada and has been running her own yoga and coaching business for the past 20+ years. She’s taught workshops on yoga, breathwork, personal development, and meditation in over 30 different countries. She’s the host of the Finding Harmony Podcast and has been featured in two anthologies on yoga, pregnancy, and motherhood in ‘Yoga Sadhana for Mothers’ and ‘Strength and Grace: A Collection of Essays by Women of Ashtanga Yoga.’ She specializes in supporting women to boldly claim the life they truly desire and is an active Board Member and Ambassador for Yoga Gives Back.