Dr. Ilana Nankin—the Founder & CEO of Breathe For Change—is an award-winning entrepreneur, teacher educator, and former public school teacher committed to using wellness as a vehicle for healing and social change. Ilana earned degrees in both psychology and education at UC Berkeley, and received her Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction at University of Wisconsin. Her dissertation revealed the critical connection between educator well-being and student learning, and the positive impact that wellness and social-emotional learning can have on teachers and students’ lives. Inspired by her research, Ilana founded Breathe For Change, a movement on a mission to enhance the health and well-being of educators, students, and entire communities. Breathe For Change offers the world’s only 200-hour Mindfulness, SEL, and Yoga Teacher Training specifically for educators, and provides wellness and SEL professional development for schools, districts, and organizations. Since 2015, Breathe For Change has certified 10,000+ educators through their 200-hour training, who are now positively impacting the lives and well-being of over 2,000,000 students around the country.

Michelle Cordero, Breathe For Change’s Head Trainer, has devoted the last 3 decades to deepening her connection to and sharing the powerful practice of yoga with the world. Michelle has led retreats, workshops, and teacher trainings internationally, and was voted “Best Yoga Teacher of the East Bay” by Oakland Magazine. She is certified at the highest level with the Yoga Alliance E-RYT 500 & YACEP credentials.

Michelle’s greatest passion is inspiring educators to teach yoga in an inclusive and accessible way. She teaches with a sense of humor, curiosity and compassion. Michelle’s classes are inclusive, gender affirming, trauma-informed and uniquely tailored to meet the needs of each student regardless of experience, age, gender, or body shape.Michelle has contributed greatly to the development of Breathe For Change’s 200-hour Training, 300-hour Training, Professional Development offerings, and Educator Collective events.

Michelle has her Master’s Degree, a certificate in Integrative Somatic Trauma Therapy and is a Certified Wellness Coach and Craniosacral Work practitioner, and has trained with the Trauma Center’s Trauma Sensitive Yoga (TC-TSY) program and the Trauma Informed Resilience Oriented Approach (TIRO). She also completed a 75-hour Skill in Action training with Michelle C Johnson, focused on the intersection of Yoga and Social Justice. Michelle is inspired and honored to be guiding you along your yoga teaching journey.

Sam is the Senior Vice President of Product at Breathe For Change and a member of the founding team. He started his career as an educator, first as an ESL teacher in the Middle East and later as a middle school science teacher in Washington, D.C. He is a successful entrepreneur in the education sector, where he’s held leadership positions at innovative companies in K-12 and higher education like Amplify, Coursera and Hone.

Sam is a certified professional coach, transformational leadership facilitator and certified yoga teacher (through Breathe For Change). He holds a Masters in Clinical Psychology from Columbia University, with a concentration in mind, body and spirituality practices. He has facilitated workshops in leadership for tens of thousands of leaders across the globe over the past decade.

Sam lives in Boulder, CO and enjoys spending time with his growing family – his wife Talia and 2 young children, Jonah and Nora. Sam is a triathlete, and completed his first Ironman race in 2020. He loves to travel, meet new people with different perspectives, and is continually humbled by all there is to learn and experience.

Kelli spent more than 29 years in public education with roles ranging from classroom teacher to building principal to district Director of School Leadership.

After earning her doctorate in curriculum from the University of Louisiana at Monroe, she began to work to design a new teacher induction program for Texas schools that was grounded in positive behavior, systems, mindful practices, and social emotional health. During the years that she served as a district director, a professional development, she always grounded her professional development presentations and trainings in mindful practices regardless of the content being delivered, so that every educator that she had the privilege to lead received tools for their own well-being that then informed their professional practices. She’s also a 500-ERYT yoga instructor, is a certified Masters of wisdom meditation teacher, and is certified by The Chopra Center as an Ayurvedic health coach. All of these yoga tools inform her practices as an educational leader.

One of her greatest strengths is coaching and empowering school leaders to create environments of health and well-being for their staff so that ultimately staff are doing the same thing for the students and families they serve. She firmly believes that without wellness being kept as a priority at the leadership level, schools will never perform at the level of expectations that our state legislature is setting for them.

Dr. Salina Gray is an educator, researcher, and trauma-informed coach specializing in healing through resilience building. Her educational career of 25 years includes research and classroom teaching, serving students from elementary through graduate school. 

Salina earned her doctorate from Stanford University in the area of Curriculum and Instruction in Science Education. Her research focuses on the intersection of racial and science identity with an emphasis on social justice science teaching. Her work has been disseminated at the National Association for Research in Science Teaching, the Teachers for Social Justice conference, Free Minds Free People, and the American Educational Research Association.

Salina is trained in trauma-informed facilitation and has vast experience and publications in the field of social justice. She is a certified yoga instructor through Breathe For Change and is currently a mentor and social emotional learning expert facilitator in the organization.

Rabia Meghani (she/her) is a Medical Researcher, Behavioral Therapist, Educator, Yoga Therapist and a student of Kathak. Rabia’s formal education is in public health, epidemiology and education. Merging her knowledge of disease and education with the ancient science of Yoga and Ayurveda, Rabia aims to make these practices accessible to the masses while honoring the roots of the science. Her passion lies in integrating yoga and mindfulness in K-12 and higher education spaces.

Rabia uses her knowledge of yoga, ayurveda and mindfulness to help those experiencing physical and emotional ailments. When it comes to healing, Rabia believes that one size does not fit all. This is why she works on the full person and caters her practices to each and every individual. Currently Rabia is working on creating mindfulness and yoga tools to be made accessible in K-12 and higher education settings. Her hope is to lobby for systemic change to make these nervous system healing modalities accessible to all. To learn more about Rabia, please visit www.rabiameghani.com

Izzi has been practicing yoga in various spaces since 2008, and has always worked within the realms of education and service. While living in Denver, CO, she worked as an Early Childhood Lead Teacher, completed a Master’s Degree in Education and Human Development, participated in over 500 hours of Yoga Teacher Training with The River Yoga, supported her first Breathe for Change 200-hour training, and led weekly classes in deep stretch meditation, candlelight vinyasa, and power vinyasa. Izzi is now living in Massachusetts, and – alongside her work with B4C – she is a Lecturer in Human Development and Family Relationships, teaching online undergraduate courses for the University of Colorado Denver’s School of Education and Human Development. In addition to all of the inspiring B4C trainers she has worked with, her mentors in yogic training and practice include Dr. Christa Kuberry (Yoga Alliance Vice President of Standards), Christen Bakken (let it be Meaning Full), Anthony Davis (Shapeshift Wellness), Steph Winsor (stephwinsor.com), Kady Lafferty (Yoga Alliance Director of Standards; Big Booty Yoga), and Samy Mattei (Yoga Mattei)