The Tree Yoga Cooperative Team
The Tree Cooperative Owners
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Founder & Owner of The Tree Yoga Cooperative
Yoga Instructor (bilingual: English-Spanish), Health Equity & Partnerships Director
Jennifer Alvarez received her Master of Public Health, in the Urban Health Disparities program at Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science. She is a health equity advocate with an extended experience in community organizing and program development. In 2016, she undertook the role as Operations Director of The Tree South LA (the former nonprofit organization). As a certified yoga instructor, she has dedicated her energy to sharing the healing modality of yoga and mindfulness with system-impacted youth of color, Spanish-speaking communities, and beginners to the practice.
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Founder & Owner of The Tree Yoga Cooperative
Yoga Instructor (bilingual: English-Spanish), 200hr & 300hr Yoga Teacher Training Lead, Programming Director
Jana’s enthusiasm for yoga has led her to specialize in Meditation, Hatha, Yin, and Ganja Yoga styles of yoga practice in both English & Spanish. Her classes tend to have a relaxing & rejuvenating feel as she sets the tone for authentically & intentionally connecting with one’s true, inner Self. Jana is committed to bringing focus, intention, and value to every class she teaches. She has a lighthearted & friendly attitude as well as a desire to harmoniously connect with students in ways that effectively enhance their personal practice. Her intention is for her students to allow the benefits garnered in the class to extend "off the mat" for positive influence in everyday life that go well beyond the formal practice.
Jana is an E-RYT® 500, YACEP® with Yoga Alliance. She completed her 200-hr teaching training at Green Tree Yoga & Meditation (the origination of The Tree) with Raja Michelle, her 300-hr teaching training with Melanin Yoga Project with Davina Davidson, and her second 300-hr teacher training with SmartFlow Yoga with Annie Carpenter. Her current primary teachers are Jerome Mercier at Power Yoga East, her Inner Self, everyone she meets, and her Life Experiences.
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Founder & Owner of The Tree Yoga Cooperative
Yoga & Kinam Instructor (bilingual: English-Spanish), Accounting Manager, Spanish Programming Curator.
Mexican born & Raised in Los Angeles this Punk rocker found her zen thru the practice of yoga. She's a military service woman and has worked her way up the fashion industry ladder which has given her the ability to be a tough, fashionable and humble yogi.
She offers all level classes in spanish, spanglish and english. She is also certified in Kinam which is the Toltec knowledge to connect with our roots through the practice of Toltec power postures & functional exercises.
A 40+ year resident of South Central Los Angeles she embraces and loves her sometimes rough and misunderstood community.
@rita_la_yogui
The Tree Yoga Cooperative Story
Jana, Jenni, Rita & Jonié founded The Tree Yoga Cooperative in August of 2020 after years of teaching yoga and meditation throughout South Los Angeles. Their community leadership at The Tree South LA (a nonprofit organization, formerly Green Tree Yoga & Meditation Foundation & The Tree South LA) united them to reimagine the ways we connect, heal, build, and celebrate ourselves and our community.
Jana's practice and purpose became clearer for her during her time as a Peace Corps volunteer in Paraguay where meditation and mindfulness helped her to navigate and embrace herself more fully as well as other people with different cultures, norms, languages, experiences, and backgrounds. These elements of inclusion, acceptance, and mindful facilitation are what she brings to the forefront of our yoga teacher training program. Our yoga teacher training program has allowed community members to deepen their own yoga practice, evolve their leadership in wellness, and become certified practitioners.
Our youngest of the team, Jenni, started her yoga journey with the intention of healing from sexual trauma. That healing journey has expanded into how we support collective healing from systemic oppression and co-conspire through our partnerships to address the health inequities among marginalized communities. Each brings full circle to the importance of sharing our stories, building healthy relationships, and creatively collaborating in this healing justice movement, so we are reminded to live in Liberation now.
Rita and Jonié, both raised in South Central, never saw yoga in their neighborhood growing up. They saw yoga in the mainstream media practiced by thin, European American (White) women and didn't see anyone who looked like them practicing yoga. It wasn’t till later in their adulthood that they found Yoga as a tool for mental health and physical wellness. Rita has played an important role over the years in creating access to yoga with our Spanish-speaking communities and mentoring other Spanish-speaking yoga practitioners.
Current Instructors
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Yoga Instructor; 200hr Training Guest Teacher; 300hr Training Lead
Yoga found Rebecca in 2003, when she stumbled into a hot yoga studio on a cold New Year’s Day. After those first 90 minutes, she knew she needed more yoga (or whatever it was that just happened) in her life. She spent the next 3 years sampling styles and ultimately was called to share the practice of Vinyasa. What initially began as a means to heal her old athlete’s body, transformed into a healing of heart and mind as well.
Rebecca considers herself blessed to have found teachers who connect the physical and spiritual planes within their teachings. In 2006, she obtained 200-hour certification with Shiva Rea in Prana Vinyasa Yoga. Rebecca has since continued to study with numerous esteemed senior teachers. Her personal hatha practice is heavily influenced by the classical teachings of Dharma Mittra, and her beloved Kundalini Yoga mentor is Krishna Kaur Khalsa.
Yogic Education:
200 Hours, Prana Vinyasa with Shiva Rea
Rocket Yoga 50 Hours, 100 Hours
Awakening Yoga Immersion with Patrick Beach & Carling Harps
RYT 200 Get Loved Up Vinyasa with Koya Webb
Level 1 Kundalini Yoga 220 Hours with Krishna Kaur
2019 - Foundational AcroYoga with Jason Nemer
2020 - 200 Hours, JM Vinyasa with Jared McCann
2021 - 300/500 Hours with Erin Kelly, Steph Gongora, & Bianca Scalise
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Yoga Instructor
Amisha Stanley, affectionately known as “The Unicorn” laid the foundation for her yoga practice in 2014 after feeling stagnant in a stage of her many weight loss journeys. She knew that a physical change was necessary in order to balance the mental and emotional challenge she undertook to lose over 100lbs naturally. She began emulating photos she’d seen on Instagram, searching for plus size yogis and YOC (Yogis of Color), then attended her 1st community yoga class although it felt welcoming, she also felt very out of place, especially after having represented larger bodies for over 25years. It wasn’t until an old friend saw a post on Facebook and offered her a free pass to a hot yoga class, that she was able to practice with someone who looked like her, and comfortably shift.
The strength, beauty, and just effortlessness of yoga, done with ALL bodies, is what drew her in and the practice of going beyond the physical is what keeps her in. Seeing her love of dance and movement, paired with the dynamic beauty of yoga, and the fluidity of physical therapy; all ignited her desire to create a practice to feel continual appreciation for body-conscious movement. Learning how yoga is here to teach us to self-heal with self-love, self-mindfulness, and being present with self.
Amisha’s background has seamlessly led her into the arms of Yoga. As a natural educator and altruist, extending her 1st free Yoga class to the community in 2016 she fell in love again. Offering Breathing techniques, yoga asana, and strength-building moves, with a mix of the fluidity of her foundation in physical therapy, her classes are always a learning and fun experience. Students get an invitation to dig into their inner selves to find the strength to try and smile while doing it.
After being laid off in 2018 from her Executive Assistant position, she dove full swing into her Yoga teacher training with The Tree SouthLA the very next week. After the 1st week, she knew she had made a great decision and had taken on a venture that would forever transform her. Graduating in 2018 with 15+ YOC (Yogis of Color) and being the last Green Tree Yoga and Meditation Cohort felt amazing.
No longer feeling like the big girl who had something to prove, now it was just Amisha proving she was The UNICORN, a beautiful, magical creature with limitless abilities.
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Yoga Therapy Apprentice, Natural Mystic Mama, and space curator, with roots from the Bay Area, Lauren "Wolley" Ross is a Plant Based community holistic wellness weaver and certified Hatha,RYT200 (The Tree Yoga CO-OP, South LA) and Kemetic Yoga instructor KYT200(Yoga Skills, Jamaica)and Ma'Yoni'At Womb Yoga Instructor, and currently studying to be a certified yoga therapist. Residing in South Los Angeles with a background in community centered programming, mental health & rehabilitation services, she specializes in Kemetic, Soul Flow and Restorative yoga. Wolley’s yoga style is a liberatory practice centered in remembering who we are, ancestor veneration, reclaiming our sacred movement, and the attunement and transcendence of the god body consciousness. She is dedicated to creating access and weaving holistic healing modalities in her community that strengthen our mind, body and soul. In addition to teaching yoga in K-12 schools in South LA, teaching yoga and life skills in juvenile detention centers, community resource centers and non profit organizations; she cultivates wellness spaces and strategic wellness programming for community events. Lauren is the co-founder of Baba's Vegan Cafe , South LA Wellness Organization(Known now as Black Being); Co-Founder of Black Yogi Day, a Black Breastfeeding Advocate, and most passionately a mama to two Warriors in Light
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Founder & Yoga Instructor
Ja Cole is one of the Founders of The Tree Yoga Cooperative, He is a 500hr E-RYT Yoga Instructor, Lecturer, & Author.
In 2005 Ja took his first 200HR training, later in 2019 Ja began his 300-hour Training with Annie Carpenter’s SmartFlow Yoga.
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Yoga Instructor
I started my yoga journey over 20 years ago. I’m a self-described yoga nerd. You will find me in a yoga class almost every day of the week. I completed my 200-hour training at Shanti Hot Yoga with Thomas Taubman, Star Rader, and Meredith Meyer. I completed my 50-hour yin yoga training with Shanti Hot Yoga. In my classes, you can expect a welcoming atmosphere of supportive challenge, mindful sequences, affirmation, and chill beats. Follow me on Instagram @yogiprincipal. Let’s flow!
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Yoga Instructor
Naima loves teaching yoga which encourages people to be soft and connect with their bodies gently and lovingly. In a world that often hardens us, softness can be a form of resistance that helps us become more resilient. Naima is passionate about teaching yoga in an accessible way. Specializing in restorative yoga, yin yoga, and gentle vinyasa; as well as having experience teaching chair yoga and prenatal yoga. Naima teaches in a trauma-informed way acknowledging that it can be difficult to be in our bodies. The yoga practice can be a chance to check in with our bodies, meet them where they are today, and listen to what it is that they are trying to communicate with us, using that as feedback to better understand how we can care for ourselves. Naima is passionate about supporting QTPOC communities in particular and acknowledges the ways that systems of oppression affect our health and our ability to care for ourselves.
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Yoga Instructor
Noemi Rivera was born and raised in Los Angeles and is the proud daughter of Mexican immigrants. She has been practicing yoga since 2013 because of chronic back pain after a herniated disc injury while she was in college. Yoga helped her heal both physically and mentally. However, in her experience, the traditional yoga spaces were often dominated by white instructors with “fit” bodies. This can be discouraging not only to her but to her community, who don’t feel represented in these spaces. Since then she has been teaching beginner-friendly, vinyasa-style classes with The Tree to beginners, families, and older folks. Her goal is to share this healing practice with loved ones, BIPOC communities, and all types of bodies. Noemi also loves combining hiking with yoga because it is a special way to connect to nature, mind, body, and spirit.
When Noemi isn’t on the mat or on a trail, she is passionate about advancing healthy equity through community-led and Social Justice oriented efforts. Her professional background is in Public Health. She received a Masters in Public Health (MPH) in 2019 with a focus on Community Health Sciences. Follow me on
IG @yoginoemi.
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Yoga Instructor
Lenise "Harmony" Halley is a multifaceted wellness expert with a deep foundation in health and personal development. As a Professional Certified Coach (ICF-PCC), a National Academy of Sports Medicine Certified Personal Trainer (NASM-CPT), a Usui/Holy Fire® III Reiki Master Teacher, and an experienced Yoga Teacher (E-RYT® 200, RYT® 500, YACEP®), additionally Harmony has a Bachelor’s and Master’s in Business Management and a Master’s in Divinity. Harmony integrates mind, body, and spiritual wellness into a holistic approach for personal growth. She has authored two books: “Got Harmony?: Quick Guide to Living Your Best Life!” and “Boundaries & Balance: Guide to Protecting Your Peace”
Her students are empowered to reach their healthiest, most balanced selves through practices that nurture the mind, body, and soul, all while embracing the joy of play. Inspired by her transformative journey, Harmony provides practical self-exploration exercises, helping people uncover their deepest desires and equipping them with tools to achieve a life of wealth, wellness, and harmony.
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Yoga Instructor
Nacida en Mexico and living in California for 16 years, she has always considered herself as an athletic person who enjoys pushing her body beyond a workout. She tried many forms of exercise from acrobatics, to circus and pole but it wasn’t until se enamore con yoga, that she truly found the connection between body and mind. A gift that she cherishes and wants to share with everyone she comes across.
Her goal is to make the benefits of practicing yoga accessible to all.
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Yoga Instructor
Jelani Estelle is an LA native, born and raised in Baldwin Hills, CA. She has dedicated much of her time to assisting in the curation of healing spaces for Black and Brown people. She believes that our community needs it the most and that healing is a journey, not a destination. Jelani is honored to be a guide for those looking towards expanding their healing process.
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Yoga Instructor
Marlene Martin (she/her) is a Spanish & English speaking yoga & meditation teacher, and Embodied Mindfulness coach & mentor who has taught since 2010.
Marlene empowers her students to cultivate a harmonious union between body, mind and spirit through nurturing presence and insightful guidance. With a compassionate heart, she challenges her students to explore their personal edges and cultivate a connection with the deep inner wisdom that lives within us all.
Marlene enjoys teaching many styles of yoga including vinyasa (flow), gentle, yin & restorative.
In Marlene’s classes you can expect to breathe deep, be challenged & receive endless opportunities to adjust your practice for what you need in the moment. At times, there will be opportunities to laugh :)
Marlene’s favorite thing to do is teach Yoga.
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Yoga Instructor
Hi, my name is Lisa Sutton and it is a pleasure to be here. I am a twice trained 200 hour Yoga facilitator and I love this work. It has been said that if you get to do what you love, then you may not have to labor a day of your life. Teaching yoga is that for me. I teach a gentle yet heat-building Yin-Yasa type of Hatha yoga with a touch of Bhakti.
My first experiences with trying yoga were not so great, so when I discovered that this practice has the potential to heal you from the inside out I gave it one last shot. This happened when I was at my lowest point I would say of my life experience, just when I wanted to truly give up, yoga found me. As I began to heal and release the issues in my body’s tissues, I re-connected with my childhood friend Jah (one of the fab 4 owners of this very studio), and I registered for my very first Yoga teacher training. Let it be said, that when you start on your path to healing, all things show up for you to help assist in the process to progress. Since that time my entire life has transformed. It is for this reason that I have made teaching yoga my dominant intent.
I delight in the idea that yoga is the only practice we can do that has the potential to touch every part of our being. Our mind, body (skin, bones, tissue, ligaments, organs, tendons, joints, breath, etc), energy, soul, and all that make us who and what we are. Yes please to yoga.
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Yoga Instructor
Sabrina Racquel (they/she) is a community educator and lifelong learner dedicated to healing as social justice. Sabrina developed their yoga practice searching for an embodied approach to healing from complex trauma and relief from the symptoms of an auto-inflammatory disorder. After spending three years as a survivor’s advocate and crisis counselor, they became curious about providing folks with healing education, outside the rigidity of the medical industrial complex. They received their 200 Hour YTT at The Tree Yoga Cooperative, with the intention of developing their yoga practice through a decolonized framework. They went on to complete an additional certification in Trauma Informed Yoga for Survivors of Sexual Assault.
Their intention as a teacher is to provide QTBIPOC communities and survivors of interpersonal violence with tools to reconnect to themselves and regulate their nervous systems in community. Sabrina is most passionate about teaching restorative, hatha yoga, y yoga en español. They remind students their value is not dependent upon their ability to perform or serve. You deserve to be!
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Yoga Instructor
Asha Nia (she/her) is a writer, movement practitioner, and teacher curious about the human experience and our inner worlds. Using the breath and body as a canvas through which to notice what is present in the mind and spirit, Asha's classes are explorative and mindfully sequenced, set to a soulful soundtrack.
Off the mat, she can be found seeking out all the magic that this life has to offer. Let's flow! @ashawafer
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Yoga Instructor
Diana Gamez is a queer yoga teacher with roots in Guatemala. She received her certification in 2023 with The Tree and currently teaches in Spanish and English. Connected to the Maya cosmology, she sees the body and yoga practice as a portal for liberation. Outside of teaching and practicing yoga, she is writing her dissertation on radical women’s organized resistance in Guatemala and state violence.