Our Instructors
Our dedicated yoga teachers are passionate about helping you reach your personal yoga goals and optimizing the overall yoga experience for everyone.
Barbara Adams
(Owner, Anusara Certified, E-RYT500, YACEP) has been the owner of Yoga Village since 2003. She has studied and practiced several styles of yoga and deeply appreciates the value of varying perspectives. Barbara loves ALL that yoga offers and has especially focused on alignment and bio-mechanically sound approaches in her studies. She is deeply grateful to her fellow teachers for daily inspiration and for her daughter, Mae, who has shared and supported this journey since the beginning. Barbara has a MS in Counseling and Human Development and worked in behavioral health for 15 years - she is delighted to see how yoga can bring contentment to so many hearts and how the yoga philosophy weaves seamlessly with her Counseling studies. Barbara offers her wisdom in a heartfelt way through her teaching.
Mae Adams
(E-RYT500, Anusara Certified) began her yoga journey as a surly 13-year-old. While it took a couple years, she eventually grew to love the practice and embraced it wholeheartedly throughout her later teen years and college. She decided in 2008 to pursue teaching and has loved it as intensely as her studentship. Trained in the Anusara method, she imbues her classes with thoughtful alignment, spontaneous humor, and heart. Mae believes that the practice has something to offer to everybody, regardless of age, experience, or health. She hopes to empower her students to not only improve their health and achieve their goals, but also to better connect with their hearts to “the bigger picture.” Mae is immensely grateful to her many teachers, but especially to her first and foremost: her mother Barbara.
Courtney Griffin
(RYT500) first tried out yoga in her teen years and has been drawn to the practice ever since. She found the practice went well with cheerleading, but as the years went on, she kept going back to it for more than just the physical benefits.
Courtney was a TV reporter for the last decade before making yoga her full-time job. Throughout her journalism career she realized how a constant yoga practice helped keep her on track to living a purposeful, positive life even in the midst of covering the inevitable heartbreaking stories.
She's always had a passion for helping people, and is excited to share her knowledge and love for yoga in hopes of bringing out more peace, clarity and purpose to her students' lives.
Jen Gantwerker
(RYT200) began her yoga journey at this very studio shortly after moving to Arizona in 2013. As she fell in love with yoga and Yoga Village, she transitioned from student to staff, working at the front desk while completing her 200-hour teacher training under the guidance of Barbara, Mae, Angie, and Katrina.
In addition to her Anusara training, Jen completed Radiant Roots Kids Yoga Teacher Training, and combined both sets of skills while teaching yoga to high school students. She enjoys guiding her students to feel more connected to their bodies and their hearts, and to find the fun in their practice. Off the mat, she can most often be found teaching theatre, performing, writing, rock climbing, or singing songs to her cats.
Nicki Byrd
(RYT200) Nicki was first introduced to yoga as part of her recovery from a serious auto accident. Not only did yoga improve her health, it transformed her life as it has been her career for over twenty years. Nicki has taught throughout the valley in various fitness centers, community colleges, and studios. But she has a special place in her heart for Yoga Village since she began teaching there in 2004. Extensively trained in the Iyengar method, Nicki expresses her love of the practice through her incredibly detailed alignment instructions. She hopes to guide her students to a better understanding of themselves as the part of the philosophical journey of yoga. Nicki lives in Fountain Hills with her husband, two children, and two dogs.
Monica Hoder
(RYT200) came to Yoga Village in 2013 with more than twenty years of teaching experience, working with both children and adults in a philosophy-based Art of Yielding (Jujutsu). Since her introduction to Anusara Yoga she has immersed herself into her practice and has been quickly able to integrate her new learning with her previous experience. The result has been a wonderfully fresh approach to the transmission of yogic instruction. Monica is also a co-founder and active board member of an Arizona non-profit that brings health and wellness to individuals and groups of all ages and walks of life through the mobilemonk.org community outreach programs.