Mandy Sergent Glitzer
Mandy is a Certified Yoga Therapist (C-IAYT), Experienced Yoga Teacher (E-RYT 500) and the owner of Wellness in Motion. Though she’s taught yoga for nearly two decades, Mandy’s goal from her yoga practice has never been to stand on her head. The goal has always been to quiet her mind, check in with herself, and stand more fully on her own two feet. She uses yoga as a way to help her stay sane, as a business owner and mom of two young boys, and as a way to stay pain free even though she has severe scoliosis.
Mandy’s passion in teaching yoga to others is to “meet her clients where they are”. She primarily works with beginner level students and those who are in pain. She excels at making yoga accessible to all regardless of their physical condition. Her group classes incorporate yoga therapeutics and functional movement correctives to help students find ease in every day movement with a balance of strength and mobility. She also offers individual sessions for those seeking a more therapeutic approach.
Mandy is a life long learner and self-professed yoga training addict, always eager to learn more about the body, mind and spirit. Knowing first hand the emotional toll that physical pain can have on a person, Mandy’s work incorporates physical poses as well as mindfulness, breathwork, and yoga nidra to help calm the nervous system and restore a sense of well-being to the whole person.
Becca Beck
Becca’s love of movement started in preschool the first time she saw a ballerina and the love and passion has only continued to grow over the years through studying dance, physical theatre, and now functional movement for core and pelvic floor health. She has been teaching dance and theater classes for over 15 years and felt like she was in good shape and really in tune with her body, but the birth of her first born revealed there was more to learn. She began looking for ways to rehab her core and pelvic floor and found the Restore Your Core® program. Becca knew right away she wanted to become a Restore Your Core® teacher and she completed her certification in 2020. She is so excited to support and help others to regain function and strength in their core and pelvic floors.
Roe Davis
Roe has been involved in fitness since the ‘80’s ‘aerobics’ craze. Starting as a group exercise instructor, leading every phase from boxing to “Silver Sneakers”. During this time she also achieved a Level 1 Mat Pilates instructor. She became an ACE personal trainer in 2004. Since moving to the area May of 2017 she has been a part time trainer at Fit for Play. Roe, missing group exercise classes found Wellness in Motion by taking Jessica’s PiYo class.
Sunna deForest
Sunna deForest, RYT200 has practiced yoga since 1995. She decided to become a yoga teacher in 2005 out of a desire to share the benefits of practicing yoga with others. Sunna’s experience with yoga infuses her classes, where she weaves alignment principles, breath work and flowing movement through her teaching. Born and raised in Alaska, Sunna has an innate love for the outdoors and enjoys gardening, hiking, biking and camping. She and her husband, Russ, moved to State College, Pennsylvania in 2007. When Sunna’s not doing yoga, she’s teaching second and third grade at the State College Friends School.
Briel Beaty (Driscoll)
At Wellness in Motion, Briel offers group and private instruction in Yoga Asana, Meditations, Mantra, Reiki and Traditional Western Herbalism. Her yoga teaching style emphasizes alignment and introspection while assisting students to make poses doable through the use of props, breath and by finding balance between effort and effortlessness.
Briel strives to inspire and cultivate curiosity in her students. She encourages them to dive deep and explore the body, the patterns, strengths and weaknesses that present themselves. That knowledge can help us move smoothly in this world with more awareness and compassion. For Briel, yoga is home, and it isn’t excluded to time on the mat. She enjoys taking her yoga practice outdoors and carrying what she learns in practice into her daily life. Briel is a lifelong dancer/mover and started the journey of yoga in 2010. In 2017 she traveled to Rishikesh, India where she studied at the International School for Yoga and Meditation (200YTT) and the Himalayan Iyengar Institute. She also holds two certificates in Traditional Western Herbalism and is a RMT (Reiki Teacher).
Toni Feret
Toni began her yoga journey 16 years ago after graduating from Penn State and accepting her first sales position. Yoga became an outlet to build strength both emotionally and physically helping her to work through some personal life challenges. With 11 years of total teaching experience, Toni spent the first six years teaching group fitness classes. One class was inspired by muay tai, boxing and karate and the other was inspired by tai chi, pilates and yoga. It was the love of the second that encouraged Toni to pursue her 200 hour RYT at The Zen Den in Margate, NJ in 2015, her Mindfulness Resilience Training for Trauma through the Veteran’s Yoga Project in 2019 and now her 300 RYT at Wellness in Motion. Toni’s vinyasa is a fun, flowy practice designed to empower you.
Chrissy Fritton
Chrissy has always had a passion for health and fitness which has kept her engaged in rec leagues, running for wellness and participating in fitness classes. Additionally, Chrissy coaches youth and Special Olympics sports. As a mother, and preschool teacher, involvement in youth yoga felt like a natural step in her life and career. She is excited to bring her passion for health and supportive early childhood development to Wellness in Motion as a baby-toddler yoga instructor!
Jackie Gardner
Jackie has a graduate degree in Exercise Physiology and was a professional cyclist (road and mountain) many moons ago. Physical activity has always been a part of her life. Jackie found yoga during a very difficult time and it was love at the very first practice. She’s been practicing for over 11 years and enjoys all forms, but finds restorative yoga to be one of the most gentle yet empowering forms. In addition to yoga, Jackie enjoys cycling and spinning, nature, spending time with her son, and thrift shopping.
Nicole Harmon
Nicole began practicing Yoga over 20 years ago for physical and mental well-being and, through her journey of practice and self-discovery, developed a desire to share her love for Yoga with others. Nicole has a professional background in dance and is now on a mission to create a fun and energizing experience that allows students to strengthen and lengthen through creative and dynamic flows. Nicole is dedicated to her personal practice and expanding her knowledge as a yoga student and teacher. Nicole will encourage students to explore what is physically possible and to honor their individual practice through mindful sequences that allow breath and body to move together gracefully.
Jessica Minelli
Jessica Minelli is certified as a Group Fitness Instructor, Personal Trainer, and Health and Wellness Coach through the American Council on Exercise (ACE). She has completed 500hr of Yoga Teacher Training here at Wellness in Motion in State College and Mindful Resilience Training with the Veterans Yoga Project. When planning her classes and working with private clients, she is able to pull from multiple disciplines to create an unique experience every time. Jessica’s goal as an instructor is to provide a community experience where class participants feel welcomed, encouraged and inspired. When Jess isn’t teaching, she enjoys being outdoors and participating in activities such as stand up paddle boarding, kayaking and camping.
Sakarra Rae
Sakarra Rae has been a holistic health practitioner since 2003. She is a state licensed and nationally certified bodyworker, and Usui Reiki Master. She offers Energywork, individual and group Meditation, and individual and group Coaching, and is on track to complete her training in Holistic Nutrition by the end of 2020. She approaches her work with a gentle, nurturing, empowering model to assist you in unwinding your past and creating your best future.
Jill Wood
Jill has been practicing yoga for over 20 years and completed her 200 hour yoga teacher certification in 2019 at Wellness in Motion. She continues her yoga education through various workshops on trauma-informed yoga, functional movement, meditation, alignment based yoga, and yoga nidra. Jill is a movement enthusiast who runs, cycles, swims, lifts weights, and practices yoga to feel good in her body and in her life. She has her PhD in biobehavioral health and women’s studies, and her teaching and research at Penn State focuses on women’s health and sexuality. She has 3 fantastic kiddos, a cute little dog, & spoiled backyard chickens.
Kathleen Zdenek
With over 14 years experience in early childhood special education and a life-long passion for the benefits of movement for all ages, Kathleen is continually growing as a yoga instructor. As a long time yoga practitioner Kathleen was eager to grow with yoga and completed the Every Kids Yoga © training in 2011 and was inspired to further her knowledge by completing the basic ChildLight Yoga and Yoga for Tween & Teens trainings as well as graduating with a 200 hour Yoga Teacher certification in March 2017. Kathleen recognizes how much learning takes place when the body is in motion as well as the importance of learning to be still. Within a traditional classroom setting, as well as during yoga classes, she has utilized her knowledge for behavior management, conflict resolution, connection to self and others and to energize or calm student groups as necessary. Yoga for youth has shown to promote gains such as improving attitude toward self and others, increasing body awareness as well as strength and flexibility while also reducing anxiety. Kathleen believes in identifying individual strengths as a means to motivate and inspire all youth to reach new goals, both on the yoga mat and in life.
Guest Teachers
Theresa Conroy
Theresa Conroy spent 26 years working as a Philadelphia journalist. In January 2007, she left her job covering criminal courts for the Philadelphia Daily News to teach yoga full-time.
She earned her 200-hour Yoga Teacher certification in 2005. In 2008, she deepened her knowledge of yoga by becoming a Yoga Therapist with Phoenix Rising Yoga Therapy school, based in Bristol, Vt. Five years later, she completed a second Yoga Therapy certification, through Inner Peace Yoga Therapy, based in Durango, Co. There she was trained in Functional Yoga Therapy, Yoga Nidra, Ayurveda, and Yoga therapeutics for Anxiety and Depression, Grief, Chronic Pain, Addiction Recovery, Heart Disease and Cancer. She now works as an Inner Peace Yoga Therapy Program Mentor.
She is also trained to teach Adaptive Yoga for Disabilities, which includes instructing those with spinal cord injury, traumatic brain injury, cerebral palsy, stroke, MS, Parkinson’s and other conditions. She is also certified to teach Yoga for Chronic Pain and Core Strength Vinyasa,
For the last seven years, she has received a grant from The Parkinson Council to teach Yoga for Parkinson’s group classes. Theresa also leads teacher trainings in Yoga for Parkinson’s Disease and Yoga for Special Populations.
She is registered with the Yoga Alliance (E-RYT) and is also is a member of the International Association of Yoga Therapists (C-IAYT) and a certified Thai Yoga Bodywork practitioner. In 2010, she was named one of the Top 10 Yoga Instructors in the area by Philadelphia Magazine online. In 2014, she was a semi-finalist in Philadelphia Magazine’s Be Well Philly Health Hero competition.
Theresa is a guest instructor for our yoga teacher training program.
Kate Marshall-Chase
Kate Marshall-Chase, a Certified Iyengar Yoga Teacher (CIYT), began her studies and practice in 1980. She started teaching in 2005 at the Iyengar Institute of Central Pennsylvania. In addition to numerous workshops and teacher trainings with Senior Iyengar teachers Kate has traveled to Pune, India three times to study with BKS Iyengar and his daughter Geeta and son Prashant. With a special interest in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, Kate strives to weave practical yoga philosophy into her teaching and life. In 1983, Kate began a long career as a Bodywork Therapist with training at the original Kripalu ashram in Sumneytown, PA.Jen Yost
Jen Yost has been teaching yoga for over a decade. She earned her 200 hour yoga teaching certification from the Mt. Nittany Institute of Natural Health in 2003, and later became part of their yoga teacher training staff. She also holds a 500 hour professional level yoga teaching certification from the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health. Yoga and Zen awareness practice as taught by Cheri Huber have transformed Jen’s life, and she loves to share these powerful practices.