About YOL

Our Best-in-Class Team

• 

  Melissa Andrada

  Experience Lead & Facilitator

  Melissa is passionate about collaborating with diverse leaders and teams to drive inclusion and transformation at scale. As a queer Filipina American born in Nigeria who came to the States as an undocumented immigrant, Melissa brings an interdisciplinary, multicultural approach to the workplace where creativity, diversity, and strategy intersect.
• 

  Miriam Bekkouche

  Facilitator

  Miriam Bekkouche is a sought-after workplace mindfulness expert, having worked with dozens of teams, Fortune 500s, and government agencies on 3 continents since 2014. Her approach is inspired by her decade-long career with the Canadian Foreign Service and 4 years within NYC’s dynamic tech start-up and investor community. In 2016, Miriam completed a TED Residency & TED Talk to explore the intersection of meditation and leadership in global problem solving.
• 

  Michelle Bouvier

  Experience Lead

  Michelle is a somatic educator, GYROTONIC® trainer, certified yoga therapist & teacher trainer devoted to sharing embodied practice as a resource for personal and collective resilience. She empowers clients to understand the mechanisms of body-mind practices through the meeting of modern science and ancient wisdom, sharing teachings that have guided her life for 30 years. Michelle specializes in movement meditation that builds sustainability in the body while balancing the nervous system.
• 

  Kelley Busby

  Experience Lead & Operations

  Kelley is a creative, resourceful and award-winning film/tv producer and communications professional. With 20 years of mindfulness/meditation practice, she is also a Kripalu-certified Yoga Instructor who leads classes and retreats. Her background as a producer helps with her work in operations for YOL and she enjoys helping bring balance, strength and peace to others both online and out in nature.
• 

  Marc Champagne

  Facilitator

  Marc is a mental fitness strategist who unpacks the best practices of some of the most successful and brilliant thinkers in the world to bring clarity, intentionality, and possibility. He is the author of Personal Socrates, a best-selling book exploring the pointed questions that stimulate our mental fitness and teach us how to direct our internal narrative to work for us instead of against us. Marc is the host of the top 50 ranked podcast Behind The Human, and also co-founded the journaling app, KYO, which reached 87 million people.
• 

  David Cherner

  Co-Founder & CEO

  A serial entrepreneur, David founded and led several health services, research and advisory firms. He’s also been a leader in venture-backed growth, public and mission-driven companies, including serving on the executive team of Vicinity Corp. (acquired by Microsoft) through its $120M IPO.
• 

  Damon Clark

  Predictive Index

  Originally from the United Kingdom, Damon has led cross-functional teams for multinational companies, including Fujitsu Siemens, Acer, EMC, and Hubspot in the UK, Italy, UAE, and the United States. After a 2-year stint with Predictive Index, Damon is a talent optimization consultant helping organizations retain and develop talent and align teams with strategy.  Damon is a certified Predictive Index, DiSC, and Five Behaviors consultant.
• 

  Nancy Dionne

  Operations

  Nancy is an award winning documentary filmmaker and photojournalist as well as an adventure travel pro who brings operational experience from GeoEx in San Francisco and Rim Tours in Moab, Utah. She spends her creative time producing documentaries in California and New York and can be found at Lincoln Center or off the grid in nature.
• 

  Jason Gant

  Experience Lead & Facilitator

  Jason is an adversity, mental skills training, and mindfulness coach with 10+ years of experience working with students, athletes, and collegiate teams. A learning designer and experience curator, Jason’s philosophy promotes and supports healthy and inclusive communities and workplaces.
• 

  Kjartan Jansen, MA, CFA

  Facilitator

  Born and raised in Norway, Kjartan is passionate about the intersection of finance and wellbeing. He supports clients in navigating the complex landscape of wealth, communication and relationships. With over two decades of experience in economics and investing, he merges financial acumen with interpersonal communications skills to help individuals and families define their values, enhance their financial literacy, and live more meaningful lives.
• 

  Marlis Jansen, MA, LMFT

  Facilitator

  Marlis is a licensed marriage and family therapist and certified coach with specialized training and experience in financial psychology and behavioral finance. She is keenly interested in the key determinants of decision-making and how people make decisions that impact their wellbeing. For the last decade, she has been focused on the identifying and relational drivers that get in the way of joy, purpose and financial freedom. Through her practice, Graddha, she consults with individuals, couples, families, family offices and financial advisors.
• 

  Zanette Johnson, PhD

  Director of Learning & Facilitator

  Zanette Johnson PhD, YOL’s Director of Learning, helps teams increase engagement, wellbeing, and effectiveness, as they bring their shared values to life. Drawing upon her background as a neuroscientist and her 25 years as a mindfulness practitioner, Zanette teaches leaders to stay relaxed and consistent as they build alignment between their daily actions, shared values, and future goals.
• 

  Andrea Manitsas

  Experience Lead

  Andrea is known for her spiritual classes and retreats that combine a lot of soul and a fierce flow. She has studied with Janet Stone, Jason Crandell, Jasmine Tarkeshi and Jai Uttal, and is an ambassador for Lululemon
• 

  Erik Mazziotta

  Facilitator

  Erik Mazziotta is a leadership consultant and executive coach specializing in transformational leadership development, team performance, and coaching programs. After a 24-year career with Citibank, Erik has worked internationally building leadership capabilities at organizations including Amazon, Google, and MD Anderson, among others. Complimenting his corporate focus is his work as a spiritual healer, helping individuals understand, maintain,  and heal their mental, emotional, and physical energy systems. 
• 

  Nadine McNeil

  Experience Lead

  Nadine has worked in challenging environments across the globe, providing key services as part of UN emergency response efforts, community development and logistical operations for over 20 years. Her own threat of burnout led her to yoga. She facilitates integrated workshops that combine her Sivananda, Kripalu and Baptiste trainings with leadership development.
• 

  Ramekon O’Arwisters

  Experience Lead & Facilitator

  An artist and meditation instructor, Ramekon began meditating as a teenager. While at Duke University, he began to explore the impact of art and spirituality on issues of social justice, race, and culture. In 2012, Ramekon founded Crochet Jam, a community art event steeped in the African-American tradition of weaving in a calm and non-judgemental environment without rules or limitations. He is also the airport-wide Mindfulness Meditation Instructor at San Francisco International Airport, where he started the program in 2013.
• 

  David Perls

  Facilitator

  David Perls is an executive coach, mindfulness teacher, and leadership facilitator. After spending the first half of his career in senior strategy roles at eBay and Landor, David’s work today is focused on enhancing conscious leadership through mindfulness. David graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and is a Certified MBSR Teacher through the Brown University School of Public Health.
• 

  Elizabeth Pierce

  Advisor & Facilitator

  Elizabeth is dedicated to driving a progressive learning culture throughout organizations to meet company, customer, and employee goals for strategic growth. Recently named one of the Top 50 Leaders in Learning and Development, her experience ranges from large-scale organizations such as Oracle and Walmart eCommerce to hyper-growth startups TaskUs, Uber, Eventbrite, Glassdoor, and Zenefits. A veteran YOLer, Elizabeth participated in the very first YOL Women's Leadership Intensive.
• 

  Jackie Richards

  Co-Founder, Facilitator & Experience Lead

  Jackie has worked with local and international communities for over a decade, in community mental health, social services and school settings. She holds a MA in somatic psychology and is also an experienced yoga instructor.
• 

  Gitta Sivander

  Facilitator & Experience Lead

  Gitta is an executive coach for individuals and teams, using a holistic and somatic approach. Gitta has also been an international communications and presentations coach for over 15 years. Yoga has been her passion since she was 15 years old, and it complements her daily mindfulness practice. Gitta’s global experience of living across 3 continents in over 8 countries, and her quadrilingual upbringing, add significantly to her global perspective and multicultural insights.
• 

  Mira Valeria

  Experience Lead

  Mira’s classes are rooted in gratitude—to self, to others and to all teachers. A student of Jason Crandell and Rusty Wells, her teaching is steeped in precision, mindfulness and Bhakti—the practice of love, surrender and service. She’s also a Yoga in Action leader for the non-profit organization Off the Mat, Into the World.
• 

  Shannon Wallis

  Advisor & Facilitator

  Shannon is a leadership consultant and facilitator who coaches leaders to transform companies, organizations and communities. She has worked extensively with Amazon, Coca-Cola, Google, Guidehouse, Zillow Group, and Grameen Foundation. She is the former global leader of High Potential Leadership Development at Microsoft and author of WE the Change: Launching Big Ideas and Creating New Realities.
• 

  Kari Zabel

  Co-Founder & Experience Lead

  A certified Jivamukt teacher, mentor and health coach, Kari has taught meditation and yoga since 2003. She leads workshops, teacher trainings and retreats worldwide and has extensive experience helping grow social justice non-profits.