Instructors
Cristina
Series: Reconnect
Cristina Hoff is a Group Exercise Instructor at Harvard University and Fierce by Choice. She has over 15 years of experience in the fitness industry as a manager and fitness instructor. She is an ACE, STOTT and AFAA Certified fitness professional and holds numerous specialty certifications including Zumba, TRX, Balletone and Tabata Bootcamp, Barre among others. With over thirty years of dance experience, Cristina has danced professionally for multiple professional sports teams as well as coached the nationally ranked Harvard Crimson Dance Team and has been a member of the Cambridge Dance Company for 10 years.
When she is not teaching fitness classes Cristina brings her love of teaching, food and flowers to the Alice's Table team as a Lifestyle Host where she teaches floral & culinary workshops. She lives in Wellesley, MA with her husband, 2 young daughters and Australian Labradoodle puppy.
Siri
Series: Reconnect, Refresh
Siri is an ACE, AFAA and SCW-certified group fitness professional and national fitness presenter with nearly 15 years of experience in the fitness industry and a background in ballet and jazz dance. She is a Master Trainer for Cardio Yoga® and RAQ THE BARRE® by RAQISA®, and her specialty certifications include Pilates, Barre Above®, Balletone® and Zumba. Siri teaches a wide variety of classes including Step, Kickboxing, HIIT and stretching with the goal of empowering people to lead their healthiest, most fabulous lives. Outside of the gym, Siri is an academic researcher at Harvard Kennedy School studying gender equality and women's advancement in organizations. She lives in Boston, MA with her husband and enjoys cooking, baking, running and long walks outdoors. She is obsessed with anything and everything pink.
Shannon
Series: Reconnect
Shannon Nelson Tai grew up in the southeastern US and currently lives in Brooklyn with her husband. Shannon loves art, problem solving, traveling and building community.
Shannon is a Vice President at a large asset management firm where she encourages sustainable business practices at publicly-traded tech companies. She previously spent half a decade developing and maintaining relationships with institutional investors and also spent a few years in the Markets group at the New York Federal Reserve. Shannon earned her BS in Economics from Duke University and her MBA from Harvard Business School. She enjoys serving on the board of an arts education nonprofit (all are welcome to attend our free virtual benefit and encourage our students in finding their artistic voice!), serving as a member of the Bridge Church NYC and also writing and performing spoken word poetry.
Emily
Series: Reconnect
Emily is the Director Emerging Technology & Innovation at Education First. She is also a Co-Founder of Brave Initiatives, an organization which helps girls build confidence in coding, design, and leadership for social impact. Emily received her Ph.D. in Technology and Social Behavior at Northwestern University where she developed and researched online tools to improve motivation, collaboration, and self-efficacy.
Emily has industry experience working at Walt Disney Imagineering in the Disney Research behavioral sciences team and as a UX research intern at Facebook. She has worked in the nonprofit sectors as an intern at Citizen Schools, helping support STEM learning, and AccionEmprendora, helping to empower female microentrepreneurs. Emily received her B.A. in Social Anthropology and Psychology from Harvard University, where she played on the Varsity Women's Volleyball Team.
Cessna
Series: Reconnect
Cessna Mac is Head of Portfolio Services and an investor at Powerplant Ventures, an emerging-growth investment fund that supports world-changing, plant-centric companies focused on making a lasting, positive impact on the global food system. She serves as a board observer to support PPV portfolio companies and helps accelerate their growth through key strategic, talent-related, and operational initiatives. Prior to joining PPV, Cessna spent the majority of her professional career working in management consulting at EY-Parthenon in New York City. She has also served as a public school teacher with Teach For America in the Bay Area. Cessna holds an MBA from The Wharton School and an A.B. from Harvard University. She is passionate about building community through health and wellness, enjoys teaching and practicing yoga, and is a proud dog mom.
Pheonix
Series: Refresh
Phoenix Kay, founder of Phoenix 4 Fitness, personal trainer and life coach supports clients in lighting up their mind, body, soul and FIRE. With a background as a professional dancer for more than 20 years, Phoenix is a NASM-certified trainer, Xtend Barre master instructor and teacher trainer, Reiki master, Power Pilates-certified instructor, TRX-certified instructor and student of meditation, mindfulness and all the spectacular lessons adventure, curiosity and a sense of play bring to life. Phoenix blends her diverse training, style and experience for a holistic 360-degree approach: Mind-body connection, alignment, whole-self integration, sweat-sesh success and FUN create the balance in all P4 sessions. Let's ignite!
Brooke
Series: Refresh
Brooke is a yoga instructor, meditation teacher, and registered dietitian. Brooke’s passion is exploring the mind-body connection and utilizing mindfulness, embodiment, and breath-based practices to help people discover their own potential, alleviate unnecessary stress, and tap into their own personal power. Brooke is trained in a wide variety of yoga disciplines, mindfulness, and behavior change. Outside of the yoga space she uses these skills daily in her work as a dietitian. Her specialties in the area of dietetics include eating disorders, sport nutrition, intuitive eating, hormonal imbalances, polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS), pre-diabetes, diabetes, and vegan/ vegetarian nutrition.
Chorus Meditation with Maddy
Series: Refresh
Chorus is set to the beat of energizing music with supportive teacher guidance, helping you reach greater clarity and peace of mind more easily than with traditional meditation. During this time you will harness the power of your breath to engage your nervous system in a profound and empowering way. This is not your typical meditation practice, so if you think meditation isn’t your thing, it’s even more of a reason to join us!
Michelle
Series: Refresh
Michelle Hammar was a Radio City Rockette for over 15 years, where she also had the pleasure of teaching & choreographing. Michelle has been teaching dance and fitness the majority of her life. She is a trained yoga instructor, and most recently taught/trained instructors at The Dailey Method. Now Michelle is proud to be a co-founder of Align@home were she teaches Myofascial Release & Barre style classes. https://www.alignathomesf.com/
Michelle’s classes are known for being challenging, yet supportive. She motivates you to give your best in every class! When she’s not joyously teaching she can be fond hanging in Bernal Heights with her husband & 2 daughters.
Desiree
Series: Refresh
Desiree is a meditation instructor, certified health & wellness coach, and mindful communication group facilitator. She is passionate about using mindfulness to help people better connect with themselves and with what's most important to them. Desiree has been practicing meditation since 2009, and since 2016 has made a yearly 10-day vipassana silent meditation retreat a part of her personal practice. In her coaching, she focuses on fostering deep connections and giving clients the tools to live more intentional lives and expand their sense of possibility and inner optimism. In her day job at a large healthcare company, Desiree explores partnerships in the areas of wellness, mental health, and behavior change.
Ruthie
Series: Refresh
Ruthie Nachmany is a certified sleep coach and founder of The Rest. We're building a support system for getting better sleep through weekly classes, support circles, and a group of peers and experts.
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Amanda
Series: Refresh
Amanda’s passion for health and wellness is grounded in her South Bronx, New York upbringing. Recognizing the health disparities that existed in her predominantly Black & Latino, low-income neighborhood, Amanda decided to study Global Health at the University of Pennsylvania to explore ways to address this complex issue. After graduating from UPenn, Amanda began her career at Google, which brought her to the Bay Area. Since then, she has continued to pursue opportunities in the wellness space outside of her full-time job, most notably as the CEO of Bounce Bay Area. Founded in 2016, Bounce hosts free workouts and community events for a diverse community in the Bay. Amanda believes that fitness has cascading effects for every other dimension of wellbeing and that an investment in your physical health can lead to increased confidence and emotional and mental strength.
Sunita
Series: Refresh
Sunita's journey with yoga is rooted in her background in classical Indian dance. She became a yoga teacher with the intention of fusing together her love for music and movement through an athletic, vigorous vinyasa style. Based on the premise that no two bodies are alike, her style is focused on helping build strength, courage and flexibility no matter where you are in your practice. She is a 500hr RYT trained yoga teacher, has taught at YogaFlow SF and during the pandemic has raised more than $25K for various charities through Zoom yoga. Outside of yoga, Sunita is a product leader. She is currently a product lead for Facebook's New Product Experimentation group. Previously, she's led product teams for Oculus, Facebook Core Growth and Lumosity. She started her career in investment banking at Lehman Brothers and is a Stanford GSB and University of Michigan alum. Sunita will be donating her proceeds to the Homeless Prenatal Program, an amazing non-profit in San Francisco that works to break the cycle of childhood poverty: http://www.homelessprenatal.org/
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Rachel
Series: Refresh
Boston born + bred, I tore both of my ACLs in high school which led to my love of yoga and group fitness. I went on to complete my yoga 200-hr and group fitness cert and have been teaching ever since. When I wasn't teaching, I was living at the studio as a student. I'm obsessed with discovering and taking group fitness classes. This developed my passion for helping fitness professionals become entrepreneurs, hence Sutra was born. I hope to build a future where wellness experiences are more inclusive, diverse, and creative - led by those with incredible talent. I can't wait to connect :)
MK
Series: Refresh
MK Hurlbutt is the cofounder and Chief of Experience and Community at Chorus. Prior to Chorus, MK spent 6 years as a SoulCycle Instructor. She has a passion for building community and making health and wellness inclusive and accessible to all.
Courtney
Series: Refresh
Hi! I'm Courtney. I was born and raised in Marin County, and now work in tech and teach reformer pilates at Bodyrok Studios. I was an athlete all my life, and I am a strong believer in finding movement that challenges you, but that you also enjoy! My goal is to inspire individuals of all different fitness levels to work hard and feel stronger, accomplished, and ready to take on whatever challenges they may face. I am all about good vibes, a killer playlist, and creating a space where working out is something that you get to do in your day rather than something you have to do.
So let's move! Whether you're just starting out on your fitness journey or a pro, I can't wait to move with you!
Kevin
Series: Refresh
I started House of Sweat with Professor K because I was exploring a fitness startup idea and wanted better understand what it's like to be a fitness instructor running virtual classes first hand. But eventually, it became a fun way for me to connect with friends while getting a sweat on during the pandemic :) Disclaimer: I'm not a real professor. Just a dude that likes to workout with friends and have a good time.
Amira
Series: Refresh
Amira Polack is the Founder & CEO of Struct Club, bringing you music-inspired workouts powered by a vibrant global community of world-class, certified trainers. The Struct Club app is live on the App Store and integrates with Spotify and Apple Music to bring you choreographed workouts that flow with the beat of the hottest tracks.