Our Team

Lesley Desaulniers

Teaches Vinyasa in Fairfax & San Anselmo

Lesley Desaulniers is the founder and visionary behind Padma Studio. She is known for her energizing, soulful, and inspiring classes. Her gift for storytelling and passionate connection to music and art make each class a dynamic journey of sound, spirit, and soul.

Lesley was trained under the expert guidance of Sharon Gannon and David Life, founders of the Jivamukti Yoga Method, and is one of Northern California's most in-demand teachers.

  • Lesley has been studying yoga and meditation since 1996, taking her practice to New York, Russia, India and back. In her early twenties, Lesley was a resident at Ananda Ashram in upstate New York, where she intensively studied Sanskrit, meditation, philosophy, yoga, and chanting. She was later certified by master teachers Sharon Gannon and David Life and went on to teach at the Jivamukti Yoga Center in downtown Manhattan. She returns to NYC several times a year to lead workshops and retreats.

    Lesley was featured in Origin magazine’s “Leaders Who Inspire” series, and selected by Mantra magazine as one of San Fransico's leading yoga teachers. She serves on the faculty at Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health, 1440 Multiversity, Omega Institute, and Yoga Journal Conferences. Lesley teaches ‘Transformational Vinyasa Yoga’ workshops and retreats at premier yoga destinations throughout the year. Lesley has been a Lululemon brand Ambassador (Brooklyn) and the Athleta brand ambassador for Northern California. She has been featured in GOOD magazine, New York Magazine (Best of NY), Mantra Magazine, Real Simple Magazine, Vogue, Origin, The NY Observer, Fit Yoga Magazine, YogaCity NYC, L magazine, among others.

    Lesley continues to study, practice, and teach daily. Her classes are imbued with a rare blend of sweaty Vinyasa, scholarly study, spiritual awareness, and good humor. Lesley feels thankful for the many wonderful teachers she has encountered along the path.

Erika Trice

Teaches Hatha Flow and Yin/Restorative in Fairfax

Erika began studying yoga in 1988 as she was pursuing a career in dance. It was yoga that changed her life and ever since that first yoga class she has been an avid student. Her yoga studies include Iyengar Yoga, Ashtanga, Anusara, Yin and some therapeutic yoga studies.

Erika is a certified Yoga Works teacher and teacher trainer and currently teaches in both the 200 and 300 hour Yoga Works teacher training programs.

  • Erika is a teacher of teachers. Her depth, precision and skill has supported many yoga students to deepen both their practice and their love of yoga. Her classes are thoughtful and strong and yet allow for every person to have a supportive and individualized practice. Erika has worked with multiple ages, abilities, and interests throughout her yoga teaching career. Her teaching is as compassionate as it is skillful.

    Erika is a certified Mindfulness Meditation teacher and a certified Psychosynthesis Life Counselor & Coach. She has studied and taught Qigong for the past 25 years and often brings a little of this breath inspired practice into her retreats.

Nubia Teixeira

Teaches Nourishing Flow in Fairfax

Yogini, teacher trainer, and Odissi dancer and instructor.

Nubia Teixeira, a Brazilian-born yogini, has devoted herself to teaching many different aspects of yoga and dance for the past 30 years. Perceiving yoga as a healing art, Nubia’s refinement and devotion to this ancient practice is reflected in her unique teaching, centered around heartfelt compassion and inspiration. Drawing from the universe of symbols, myths, deities, mudras, and sacred geometry she teaches embodied Bhakti (devotional yoga).

  • Known for her fierce heart, uplifting humor, and keen intuition, her classes are rooted in her extensive knowledge gained from years of devotional study and practice in yoga and dance. She helps students connect with their deeper selves, fully inhabit their bodies, and live with deep awareness.

    Also a Reiki instructor and practitioner, Nubia leads workshops, retreats, and teacher trainings locally, nationally, and across the world. https://www.nubiayoga.com @nubiateixeira_bhaktinova

Dave Larot

Teaches Hatha Flow in Fairfax and San Anselmo

Dave stepped on the mat for the first time in 2002 and began his life long yoga journey, “Learning how to be in my body was like coming home for the first time.” 

Under the guidance of his first teacher he started leading classes in 2004 at local gyms and studios. After four years of searching for a complete teacher training program, in 2008, David enrolled in the 200-hour teacher-training intensive at Yoga Works SF.

  • Inspired by his mentor, Nikki Estrada, he went on to complete his 500-hour training, and in 2010 decided to take the big leap from his full-time job of ten years with AT&T to put all his energy and focus into teaching and sharing the practice of yoga. Since then, David has been leading classes around the Bay Area as well as workshops and retreats around the globe. Having practiced and trained in various styles, including Iyengar and Ashtanga, David’s classes have evolved into a deep, methodical, and dynamic flow, focusing on the importance of breath and the principles of alignment.

Jessica O’Connell

Teaches Vinyasa in Fairfax & San Anselmo

In the early 2000s, Jessica was a stressed-out east coast transplant living in San Francisco. She discovered yoga and it immediately and profoundly changed her life for the better.

Now a California girl through and through, Jessica has been a devoted Yoga teacher and student for over ten years and has completed 500 hours of teacher training. She strives to help students become mindful, grounded, and discover compassion for themselves and others.

  • Jessica’s challenging and joyful Vinyasa classes reflect her spiritual journey towards health and harmony and feature unique sequencing, inspiring Dharma teachings, upbeat music, skillful alignment instruction and a focus on mindfulness. She is thankful for her many teachers including Clayton Horton, Geoffrey Roniger, Rusty Wells, Jane Austin and most recently Lesley Desaulniers.

    She is beyond grateful to her children Wyatt and Farrah for always reminding her to stay present and notice the beauty and wonder in every day.

Natasha Zaslove

Teaches Vinyasa in Fairfax

has been teaching yoga for over 20 years. At Padma, she continues her mission to make yoga accessible to everyone as she believes in the transformative power of the practice. Natasha’s love of yoga began in 1998 when she was introduced to hatha yoga through the vigorous Ashtanga method. It was love at first asana, and the train has not stopped since. Natasha completed her first yoga teacher training in 2002 at It’s Yoga in San Francisco. She has been teaching ever since while maintaining her work both as a lawyer and since 2009, as an astrologer. 

  • In 2010, hungry to go deeper, Natasha completed the Jivamukti 300-hour residential training in Rhinebeck New York. In 2015, Natasha began her 500-hour apprenticeship at Jivamukti’s New York Center. After a teaching hiaitus due to the pandemic and then living in Mexico for two years, Natasha has returned to Marin and is delighted to be able to offer the gift of yoga to our vibrant and receptive community. 

    Whether hot and spicy or slow and gentle, Natasha’s classes are based on the Jivamukti method, which includes safe practice of hatha poses and pranayama, nada (or sound) yoga, yoga philosophy, bhakti and meditation.

Maya Rose

Teaches Gentle Flow & Yin Yoga in Fairfax & San Anselmo

Maya’s classes are nurturing, creative safe spaces to explore the body and breath. She specializes in therapeutic, emotionally oriented, and trauma-informed Gentle and Yin practices. Maya uses guided imagery, poetry, music, and breath to cultivate an inner climate of love and acceptance and honor the layers of tension held deep within the tissues of the body. Maya has been teaching since 2015, with over 400 hours of YTT certification and a background in art and music from which to draw inspiration. Her classes are welcoming, fun, and deeply healing.

Stephanie Crawford

Teaches Vinyasa & Flow & Restore in Fairfax

Stephanie has been practicing yoga since 2015 and completed her first 200-hour teacher training at Padma Studio in May 2023. Stephanie's yoga practice is deeply informed by her work as a hospice nurse and death doula, and serves as a daily reminder to live each day with presence, gratitude, compassion, and an awareness of the impermanence of life.

Her grounding yet dynamic teaching style continues to evolve under the guidance of her beloved mentors, Lesley Desaulniers and Estee Fletter. 

Keely Ferguson

Teaches Vinyasa in Fairfax & San Anselmo

Keely comes to yoga teaching after 20 years of practice.  Originally from Durham in the North-East of England, her Grandmother “Nana Elsie” was also a Yogi, practicing in the 1960s in the UK.  Radical.

Her first 200-hour teacher training was with the inimitable Lesley Desaulniers at Padma Yoga Studio in Fairfax.  Rooted in Jivamukti, this training went deep into anatomy with Alison Smith, yoga philosophy, creative sequencing, hands-on assists, and the art of teaching. She recently completed an additional 300-hour certification.

  • Keely has a deep passion for music, combined with Dharma wisdom and interesting flows.  Her classes have a beautiful arc and promise to have great energy and a unique playlist each time.

    Keely lives in downtown Fairfax with her two delicious children, Theo (12) and Autumn (7).  In her ‘alternative’ career, she has practiced real estate in San Francisco and Marin for the past 26 years.

    Keely is excited to share connection, community and love of music with her students as we come together.  It is, after all, simply a practice.

Rebecca Blondell

Teaches Kundalini Yoga & Meditation in Fairfax

Rebecca Blondell is passionately drawn to exploring the intricate facets of the human mind, body, energetic system, and spirit, delving into diverse avenues of healing. Recognizing inherent patterns in nature, she embarked on a journey to unveil the natural rhythms within humans and their harmonious connection with nature itself. It’s a profound realization that we, too, are nature—harboring tides like the ocean and embodying all elements. In this context, healing transcends linearity; it unfolds as a quest to discern what is needed and when. 

  • The pivotal question emerged: How can we guide the body back to its innate, pain-free equilibrium? This solidified Rebecca’s commitment to holistic work with the body, mind, and spirit, substantiated by certificates in various modalities. She is a licensed Kundalini Yoga Teacher and Massage Therapist, with certifications in Kundalini Yoga, CranioSacral Therapy, Gyrotonic, Deep Tissue, Shiatsu, Meditation, Breath-work, and beyond.

    Fluent in the language of the body and energetic systems, Rebecca is on a mission to share this profound understanding with others.

Ali Rucker

Teaches Yin Yoga in San Anselmo

Ali is a joyful and curious student of life who accidentally discovered yoga thanks to a college PE requirement. Those initial yoga classes provided a strong peace antidote to a stressed out hungover college kid. As Lesley teaches, we often discover what yoga is by having distinct experiences of what it is not. The yogic lessons on breath, presence, and paying attention resonated immediately with Ali’s lifelong study of music and since then, yoga has become her favorite practice for balancing spirit and body. Ali’s classes include dharma, chanting, breathwork, meditation, active and restorative shapes, and music as a main character.

  • Ali is ever-grateful for her teachers Marianne Linn, Lesley Desaulniers, and Alison Smith. Ali’s teaching style is inspired by Lesley’s lineage with David Life and Sharon Gannon of Jivamukti and Ananda Ashram in upstate New York, Marianne’s lineage with Rod Stryker and Sarah Powers, and Alison Smith’s lineage with therapeutics, Anusara, and tantra. Ali completed her vinyasa RYT200 in 2018, RYT300 in 2019, breathwork cert in 2023, yin yoga training in 2024. She is honored to study, share, and grow yoga in community. 

Annabelle Scott

Teaches Vinyasa & Yoga Basics in Fairfax & San Anselmo

Annabelle Scott has completed 500 hours of teacher training under the mentorship of Lesley Desaulniers. A lifelong student of yoga, she is dedicated to her studies and is honored to teach at Padma Studio.

Annabelle’s class is dynamic and thoughtful, offering soulful music, intentional sequencing, and a heartfelt presence to meet students where they are. Annabelle lives in West Marin learning, loving, and living a life dedicated to yoga and teaching.

Hillary Skibell

Teaches Vinyasa in San Anselmo

Hillary Skibell is a Bay Area yoga teacher, mentor, and transformational coach. She is known for her soulful and inspiring guidance that connects individuals to the deeper pulse and flow of life.

Her classes offer an uplifting and challenging practice embraced with heart and spirit. Her passion is to guide you to a deeper experience of your power and brilliance as you uncover what is possible on the mat and in your life beyond.

Sarah Steen

Teaches Align & Flow in San Anselmo

Sarah Steen, RYT-500, has been delighting in the discoveries of yoga since first stepping onto a mat in 1998. She began teaching in 2003 and soon after became a registered yoga teacher with Yoga Alliance. Using yoga philosophy, mindful sequencing, breath practices, and a bit of humor, she creates classes to encourage students to build awareness both on and off the mat. Sarah’s practice and teaching are deeply rooted in the joyful expression and alignment principles of Anusara yoga.  She completed the Dharma and Yoga Teacher Training at Spirit Rock and received SATYA (Sensory Awareness Training for Yoga Attunement) certification from Prajna Yoga.

  • Sarah has expanded her studies of alignment-based yoga under the guidance of Sienna Smith and is continuing her studies with Prajna Yoga teachers Tias and Surya Little and Djuna Devereaux.

Valerie Goffin

Teaches Vinyasa Fusion in Fairfax & San Anselmo

Valerie first stepped on a mat in Brooklyn in the late 90s… but to her surprise, did not immediately find enlightenment.

Over the next two decades, she explored many modalities of fitness, from kickboxing to triathlons, from pilates to capoeira and barre. Yet, something kept her coming back to yoga. Through many years of practice and various disciplines, Valerie learned that it was more than physical fitness she was seeking; It was something broader and deeper, something found as a the result of returning to the mat over and over and a willingness to bring yoga into life at large.

  • Eventually, Valerie left New York for California sunshine, where she honed her fitness instruction skills at The Dailey Method Fairfax studio. Barre certified, for ten years, she has taught both students and instructors as a Master Teacher Trainer, and designed and developed new class formats. She has a growing passion for physical therapy and is continually exploring multiple paths toward wellness.



    Considering herself a forever student, she took the opportunity to deepen her practice with Lesley Desaulnier in a 200 hour training in 2023, where she found the alignment-based teaching, combined with Lesley’s focus on instruction for the individual yogi, energizing and rewarding.



    Valerie

    brings a heavy dose of midwestern charm to her dynamic classes. She sprinkles in alignment cueing and loves to deliver an energetic vinyasa class. Expect upbeat music and challenging sequences. With an extensive knowledge of movement, anatomy, and helping clients accommodate injuries, she is ready to suggest modifications to challenge and support students of all levels. She also offers private sessions, allowing students to deepen their own practice, address injuries, or simply return to a desired level of fitness.



    Valerie

    loves living in San Anselmo, is married with two daughters currently attending Archie Williams, and can often be found on local trails hiking with her two dogs, Frankie and Ziggie.

Wendy Wilkinson

Teaches Vinyasa in Fairfax & San Anselmo

Wendy Wilkinson is a life long lover of movement and the healing arts. She is a 500E-YRT and has co-led numerous Power/Vinyasa Teacher Trainings. She hopes to inspire others to become their own best teacher. Expect a creative flow that is both challenging and mindful.

Nance Leombruno

Teaches Vinyasa in San Anselmo

Nance found her way to yoga 9 years ago when she moved with her family from Amsterdam, the Netherlands to San Anselmo, CA. 

She felt the transformative power of yoga while searching for peace and calm during the challenging time of moving to a different country while raising 3 children.

Her absolute desire is to provide an uplifting and energetic experience for her students through a balanced class that is challenging and fun at the same time and finds the freedom that comes from dropping out of the mind into the heart so we can find our way back home.