Meet Our Teachers
Our instructors are experienced, helpful, and motivational. Students often mention how friendly and encouraging Mission Yoga teachers are. We want to see you reach your full potential, and we love bringing our unique skills and expertise to help you exceed your expectations — and have fun.
Winner of SF Bay Guardian’s Best of the Bay, SF Weekly’s Best of SF
& the SF Examiner’s Reader’s Choice
Come find out what the buzz is about!
Our Teachers
Steve23 Sanchez
Hello!
Right after my first year at Burning Man in 2001, I was invited to try my very first hot yoga class which happened to be at Mission Yoga! After their intro deal, I found a temporary home at Funky Door Yoga where I worked the front desk and fell in love with the heat and the way the yoga made me feel. I have been practicing hot yoga ever since and have been teaching since 2006.
In addition to my extensive experience teaching hot yoga, I’m also trained in other modalities including Inferno Hot Pilates and Somatic Breathwork. I am committed to creating a welcoming and inclusive environment for all of my students and strive to offer classes that are fun, challenging, and uplifting.
I am the owner of New Mission Yoga, a thriving studio where I have helped countless students find physical and mental balance through the practice of yoga. With the help of my community, we have built a beautiful temple where all people can come to heal, celebrate and commune with the divine. The space continues to evolve and has exceeded my initial vision.
Aurelle Amram
Aurelle Amram first fell in love with Bikram’s hot yoga in November 2008, when she was seeking a reprieve from her first New York winter. She fell in love with the structure, focus, and intensity of the 26&2 series. She quickly became a consistent practitioner as she saw immense physical and mental health benefits beyond escaping the cold! Aurelle has been practicing the Bikram and Bishnu Ghosh lineage of yoga ever since (almost 14 years!), and was motivated to receive her Bikram Yoga teaching certification (500+ hours) in 7 years ago, in Spring 2015, so that she could deepen her knowledge of the practice and share these benefits with others.
Aurelle has also dedicated countless hours to deepening her understanding of this yoga lineage. She’s been lucky enough to learn from advanced seminars and classes with some of the Bishnu Ghosh lineages’ most pre-eminent teachers and champions, including Bikram Choudhury, Rajashree Choudhury, Emmy Cleaves, Mary Jarvis, Cynthia Wehr, Joseph Encinia, and many others. Aurelle placed 15th in the USA Yoga 2015 National competition and has placed in the top 10 and top 3 numerous times in multiple state and regional yoga championships.
Aurelle’s classes are energetic, focused, thoughtful, and fun: just the way she practices! She enjoys teaching students about small changes that can make a world of difference and seeing their progress along the way. She hopes that each time you attend her class, you learn something new and feel something different in your body.
Outside of the studio, Aurelle is Partnerships Director at the nonprofit Code for America and has a B.A., from New York University and an M.B.A. from the MIT Sloan School of Management.
Alyssa Quintanar
Alyssa Quintanar is a California native from the San Fernando Valley who moved to San Francisco in 2009. A dedicated yoga practitioner and teacher, Alyssa began her yoga journey in 2012 and was immediately called to teach. She completed her 200-hour RYT Certification in 2013 after studying with Cloud Nine Yoga in Hawaii and returned to San Francisco to teach Hatha yoga. Alyssa began practicing Bikram yoga on a daily basis and found it to be incredibly beneficial for both her mind and body. As she dedicated her time to various Bikram studios throughout San Francisco, her love and connection to the practice and community deepened.
In 2018, Alyssa became an Inferno Hot Pilates instructor and quickly expanded her teaching skills to include other styles such as Classic Hot Pilates, Yin Yoga, and Restorative Yoga. In 2022, Alyssa returned to teaching in the studio after 2 years of practicing at home. She knew it was time to come back to the heat and the community. She realized that she needed to share her passion for the 26&2 Beginners’ series by becoming a teacher. She signed up for teacher training later that month with IYSF the International Yoga Sports Federation and began teaching in the summer with an enthusiasm 9 years in the making.
Alyssa’s classes are designed to help students listen to their bodies, push beyond their limiting beliefs and believe in themselves. She encourages her students to find ways to make movements work for them and to find success on a day-by-day basis. Her classes offer balance to students’ lifestyles, deepening the connection between mind and body through movement and mindfulness. Alyssa’s teaching style focuses on finding intensity through control, rather than force or speed. She helps students to identify their muscles so they can use them more efficiently on and off the mat. Seeing simple functional movements as key to strengthening mobility and stability in their body for use in everyday life. Her classes are suitable for all body types, any level and always low impact. Her aim is to keep you moving and remind you of your power.
Gabrielle Nayale
Hi, I’m Gabrielle! I live in the Mission with my two cats, Howie (AKA “Trash Cat”) and Debbie (AKA “Coyote Killer”). I love my neighborhood, animals, veggies, humans, the planet, outer space, and… well, pretty much everything. I’m exceptionally good at touching my toes and staining white clothing. Unsolicited reviews from people I barely know include “philosophical with an edge of commitment”, “obviously good vibes”, and “really good at being nice while telling me what the f*ck to do”.
I stumbled upon hot yoga while exploring ways to improve both my physical and mental health. At the time I was struggling with trauma and anxiety and reading a lot about somatic healing modalities. Hot yoga turned out to be my saving grace, and 18 months later I was wrapping up my teacher training so I could share this powerful practice with others. Since then, I’ve also completed foundational training in Trauma Center Trauma Sensitive Yoga (TCTSY) and with the Prison Yoga Project. I believe that every individual holds potential beyond their wildest imagination, and I’m passionate about serving people as they discover their perfect Self.
Outside of teaching yoga, I’m studying to become a Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner, stretching people out, and volunteering with the Shanti Project. In my unstructured time you’ll likely find me meditating, trying a new healing practice, reading the Bhagavad Gita (again), or right next to you at one of Mission Yoga’s amazing classes. I look forward to meeting you soon!
Kim Randolph
Kim Randolph was born in Cleveland, Ohio on January 8, 1958, one of fraternal triplets. From an early age, Kim was a psychic sensitive and experienced psychic phenomena that included astral projection and lucid dream states, which were frightening for her as a child and young adult. Kim had a strong sense of reincarnation very early in life which propelled her to seek spiritual answers.
Kim began her spiritual quest in search of the meaning of life at the age of 14 while growing up in Cleveland, Ohio during the global social unrest and spiritual stirrings of the Vietnam War era. She joined what was known then as the Hare Krishna Movement and attended the ashram’s religious functions, then lived with devotees for several months as a Brahmacharini, It was also during this time period that Kim was immersed in Bhaki Yoga and the ancient philosophy of Vedic culture and Sanskrit, vegetarian diet, devotional hymns and chants, and Hindustani musical instruments.
After Kim left the temple, she attending Cleveland State University and studied mrindangam, a drum
she’d become familiar with while in the temple, with Pandit Ramnad V. Raghavan from India, an artist-in-residence with the university’s ethnomusicology program.
Kim’s keen interest in esoteric spiritual practices and teachings deepened and she sought the teachings of Eck, and the Ascended Masters, such as St. Germaine, that focused on astral training in addition to written teachings.
When Kim relocated to San Francisco in 1985, she continued her spiritual seeking in earnest and through the years encountered the teachings of Gurdjieff’s Fourth Way School, gnostic Christianity,
African syncretism, Reiki master training, firewalking, chi gung, martial arts, and various types of visualization and meditation techniques.
Kim learned grounding meditation from the Berkeley Psychic Institute and with the skills she learned there, Kim attained work as a psychic medium, giving phone consultations for a short while.
Kim has studied, both formally, and informally, several Western musical instruments over many years ranging from strings, to woodwinds, to percussion, and brass. Few instruments have held her attention than the folk instruments she now plays, which are the 6-holed Bansuri; an Indian bamboo flute; the koncovka, an ancient Scandinavian overtone flute; the 10-string lyre or Davidic harp, the shakere, a West African percussion instrument; the balafon, a West African xylophone; and the udu, a plosive aerophone and ideophone of the Igbo of Nigeria.
Kim’s own personal journey to physical wellness lead her to combine her interest in music, energy work, and wellbeing led her to become a Sound Healer. As a Sound Healer, Kim has led percussion workshops in polyrhythms for grounding and connecting with the root chakra. She has also led vocal toning workshops for individual and group tuning for chakra balancing and group bonding. Kim does Sound Baths using a variety of music instruments and pre-recorded nature sounds over guided meditation and visualization.
Kim Randolph has a B.A from New College of California in Humanities.
Madison
I first started practicing yoga before high school after being introduced to hot yoga by my dad. In college, I found an amazing studio community in Burlington VT where I attended many classes a week and discovered Buti yoga. I quickly fell in love with the transformational power of the practice and I completed a Buti yoga certification in spring 2017. Upon moving to San Francisco later that fall, I immediately found Mission Yoga and continued to practice and occasionally teach Buti yoga.
Maria Young
San Francisco native Maria Young has been captivated by the energy and richness of traditional Guinean dances since a life-changing class at CCSF in 1994. Her studies also encompass the rhythms that accompany the dances, and she teaches drumming as well. Teaching and performing for over 22 years has taken Maria to dance centers across California, Oregon and Colorado, and abroad to St Croix. Throughout her dance journey, Youssouf Koumbassa has been Maria’s main instructor and inspiration. Through his teaching, she learned to present material clearly, with attention to detail and focus on technique. Her classes are great for beginners and also helpful for more experienced dancers. As a mom, Maria is very attuned to the needs of the community and creates a welcoming, family friendly environment.
Michael Barrios
As a holistic trainer, Michael has guided clients worldwide in achieving their goal of optimal health through movement, nutrition, stress management, and the breath for long-term lifestyle change. From working with tech executives and athletes to single moms and everyone in between, many find that after attending just one of his classes they receive clarity and inner peace. He believes the first step to healing trauma is to connect our minds back to our bodies and to allow the innate wisdom of our bodies to do the work
Reverend Jessica Sharp
Rev Jessica Sharp is a graduate of the Globe Institute Sound Healing school and Psychic Horizons. She is a minister of the Church of Natural Grace and has been performing sound baths since 2018. Rev Sharp enjoys mixing toning, chanting, prayers, and pop songs in her Sound Baths.
Salman Hatta
Salman’s life and spiritual journey in this world started in California and has led him to experience and serve the medicine of plants, breath, music and dance all over the world – from the jungles of Bali to the beaches of Costa Rica and all over in between. He is a multidimensional guide who produces and runs transformational retreats and events, supports people with psychedelic journey preparation and integration, coaches on life expansion, and curates music for ecstatic dance and sound healing along with leading somatic breathing journeys. His purpose in this world is to help people expand their ability to access more freedom and love for themselves.
