Who We Are

Peace In Practice’s mission is to create and support communities and conditions for healing and empowerment through body-centered practice and professional certification.

Our Mission

Our career pathways include Yoga Teacher Training Certification, Yoga Teaching Mentorship & Apprenticeship, and Job Placement.

We are nurturing a homegrown, sustainable collective of healing yoga practitioners and programs in the Black and brown communities of the Twin Cities and beyond. We are creating more access to services and certifications in integrative health and wellness, yoga and mindfulness education. 

Meet the team

  • Jaina Two Rivers (E-RYT 500, YACEP) is the co-founder and lead trainer of our YTT programs. With over 25 years of teaching experience, Jaina is a respected leader in yoga education, known for integrating ancient wisdom with modern insight in a trauma-informed, inclusive approach.

    From 2022 to 2024, Jaina served as a college professor at Minneapolis College, where she developed and taught YTT curriculum focused on mindfulness, somatic wellness, and holistic education. Her academic background, paired with decades of embodied practice, gives her a unique ability to translate deep concepts into practical, transformative learning experiences.

    Jaina has also led educational international retreats in over 18 countries across five continents. These retreats serve as immersive, community-centered modules for both her 200-hour and 300-hour Yoga Alliance–registered school, Beloved Retreats. Through this work, she’s created a truly global learning environment rooted in spiritual practice, cultural respect, and experiential education. She takes retreat groups to India every year to explore yoga's roots.


    Earlier in her career, Jaina facilitated 200-hour Yoga Teacher Trainings for CorePower Yoga (2003–2010) and 200 & 300-hour trainings for the school she founded: Radiant Life Yoga (2006–2017). She has also opened and operated yoga studios in Minnesota, North Carolina, and Costa Rica, each reflecting her commitment to conscious community and embodied liberation.

    Jaina’s teaching draws from the lineages of Raja Yoga, Tantra, Hatha, Ayurveda, and Buddhist mindfulness, enriched by her studies in somatics, trauma-informed yoga, and nervous system regulation. She balances rigorous study with soulful reflection, inviting students to explore yoga not only as a physical practice, but as a lifelong path of healing, awakening, and beautiful, ethical living.

    As a teacher trainer, Jaina is known for her depth, clarity, and compassion. Her approach is intended to cultivate confident, ethical, and visionary yoga leaders who are prepared to hold space for growth, beauty, and spiritual inquiry in diverse communities.


  • Yoga and Mindfulness Instructor — RYT-500

    A Yoga teacher and educator that began working in North Minneapolis schools in 2008. York currently teaches mindfulness at the University of Minnesota’s Earl E. Bakken Center for Spirituality and Healing, and is studying at Brown University in the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) Teaching program. Teaching yoga and mindfulness specifically since 2016, York has reached a vast audience, diverse in age, culture, and socioeconomic backgrounds.

  • “My role as an instructor isn’t to heal, but to open the space for others to heal themselves. To help guide them towards the realization of their full potential. All through the freedom that comes from movement.”

  • Obiajulu’s vision-mission is lead, facilitate and empower processes that inspire and enhance human performance for

    phenomenal personal, organizational and global growth and impact.

    An empowerment practitioner, Obiajulu uses the empowerment model to guide movement from pain to creativity, from a

    still life to a whole and dynamic growth, and integration of self-awareness with results. She is strategic, creative,

    Inspirational, compassionate and courageous.

    Obiajulu is gifted with superior intuition and compassion and blends both to guide a deep and meaningful transformation.

    She is an articulate professional with superior interpersonal communication, analytical and organizational skills. An avid

    learner, she is committed to collegiality based on personal and professional accountability; a process she believes empowers

    people to high-level effectiveness and creativity. Obiajulu has an intense desire to face challenges and make a difference in

    people's lives. Thus, she gives high priority to turning innovative ideas into realities for local and global impact.

    A global citizen, broadly traveled (Africa, Europe, Asia, the Caribbean, Canada, Latin America, USA), Obiajulu brings a rich

    diversity to a nourishing work and learning environment. She studied French and Spanish, speaks fluent African dialect lgbo,

    and world language Pidgin.

    Her learning experiences include 200-hour Yoga Teacher Training; Advanced Post Graduate Certificate, Global Training and

    Development; MBA (HR Management); Master of Education (M. Ed.); Bachelor of Science (B.S.); Empowerment Certification

    (Practitioner). She is also certified in Change Management (Prosci), Situational Leadership, StrengthsFinder, DiSC, Myers

    Briggs, Leadership Development Dimensions (DDI), Valuing/Managing Diversity, and Team Building.

    Obiajulu’s dynamic career and accomplishments include teaching in Minnesota multi-district schools. One of few to engage

    from preschool to 12 th grade, all subjects! Earned reputation as “one of the best” and requested back by students and

    teachers She coached at UpTurnships, Minnesota, where college students were prepared and equipped with skills that

    enabled their internship success and subsequent employment. As an independent consultant for Legal Shield, she educated

    and empowered individuals and families on legal access. She is a motivational speaker.

    Obiajulu founded PoweredHeart Consulting where she continues to coach and mentor young entrepreneurs on strategies for

    business start-ups with amazing success stories. She also consulted for European Union (EU), World Bank and the Federal

    Republic of Nigeria and completed an extensive performance evaluation of funded projects, and made recommendations. As

    the executive director at Planet One Hospitality Group in Nigeria, Obiajulu re-energized and re-designed the human resource

    processes, and co-designed the five-year strategic plan. She has had roles in human resource organizational development,

    management training and development, designing content as well as facilitating. One of her notable experiences was as

    program administrator at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Center, where she co-designed the African Governance Program that

    launched ahead of schedule and under budget. Program success led to the Institute of African Studies at Emory University.

    She facilitated conference dialogues between Anglo-Franco world leaders, policymakers, philanthropists, government

    leaders, and scholars, that fostered collaborations for development of global policies that enhanced democratic processes.

    Then wrote comprehensive conference reports and papers disseminated to over 500 attendees worldwide.

  • Alex David Hearn (Lex) is a father, husband, holistic educator, and trauma-informed yoga guide. His teaching centers on embodiment as a tool for self-care, creating inclusive spaces where somatic awareness, authentic expression, and non-competitive practice support deep personal wellness

  • Stumbled into yoga in 2008 as a method of rehabilitation after a sports injury and quickly realized how beneficial the breath, postures and sequences would be in recovery and overall well being. The first ever home exercise equipment purchased was a yoga mat, strap, and a block. Nearly 15 years into the practice as a student, Bruce committed to multiple Yoga Teacher Training Programs; Hatha, Vinyasa, Kemetic and Rocket Ashtanga. These training experiences offered a holistic understanding of Yoga that motivated him to personalize by contribution to the practice. Bruce's ultimate goal is to provide unique spaces and experiences that meet people where they are in their life journey.

  • Yoga and Mindfulness Instructor —200 RYT Rochelle Younan-Montgomery (she/her) is the Founder and CEO of the Reset, and is also a published author, certified yoga teacher, and facilitator. Her mission is to guide teams and individuals back to what matters most: alignment with their values and purpose. She has practiced yoga for 15 years, and time and again it has proven to be a balm in her life: connecting mind and body in ways nothing else could. The more she learns to breathe through the discomfort on her mat, the greater capacity she has to face the challenges in her day to day life (one imperfect, messy moment at a time).

  • Andrés is a Venezuelan-American, 200hr YTT trained yoga instructor.  

    Andrés strives to share his love for yoga by creating a safe space for growth in his class.  He blends a deep breathing and meditative practice, typically found in Hatha, with the flow and gentle movement of Vinyasa.  To Andrés, yoga is a practice of self-awareness, healing, and unity with divinity.  

    Andrés Yuya Bio (Spanish):

    Andrés es un Venezolano-Americano instructor de yoga entrenado en 200hr YTT.  Se esfuerza por comparti r su amor por el yoga creando un espacio sano de crecimiento en su clase.  El combina la respiración profunda y la meditación, que se ve en Hatha, con el flow y movimiento tierno de Vinyasa.  Para Andrés, yoga es una practica de conciencia de si mismo, sanacion, y la union con divinidad.

  • Zola is a mama, writer, and PIP Graduate. She’s learning to live at the pace of her body, to raise a free Black child, and to hold space for grief, belly laughs, and all the things in between. Her life on the mat, at home, and in community, is shaped by the knowing that healing is collective, and that liberation lives in how we show up for each other.

How To Support The Work

Donate

Every contribution, no matter the size will help us cast wider nets of inclusivity and representation within the yoga community, especially for those who have yet to find their place in the realm of integrative wellness.

Volunteer

We are in build mode and looking for teachers, fundraisers, capacity builders, and board members who can help us advance this work. Please reach out if you have gifts to share and a passion for BIPOC youth and community development.

Spread the Word

Follow our social channels @peaceinpractice - Your likes, shares, posts, phone calls, and emails go a long way to shine a light on our work.