Risa has over 20 years of experience as a student and teacher of yoga. She currently holds an ERYT-500 with the Yoga Alliance and is the founder and owner of Tiny Buddha Yoga.

Risa has an extensive training background in Vinyasa, Iyengar, and Ashtanga styles and has studied with many world-renowned teachers. In 2018 she travelled to Mysore, India to train at the Mysore Institute with Saraswati Jois and continues her education of the Ashtanga series by working regularly with certified Ashtanga teachers.

Risa has taught tens-of-thousands of hours of in studio vinyasa and ashtanga classes and has been leading Teacher Training cohorts since 2016. Risa and the Tiny Buddha Yoga Teacher Training Program have graduated hundreds of successful yoga teachers who can be found the world over. Her extensive teaching background and years as a student of the practice shine through in her teaching. As a self-described “goofball” she brings energy, laughter, and wit to her teaching, while still demanding a whole-hearted effort from her students. She will be the first to tell you as a teacher she is strict but fair. Students can expect her classes to be well-rounded, powerful, and alignment-based.

Ted Grand co-founded the Modo Yoga community of studios in 2004, after years of teaching and study.

He feels very strongly that a regular yoga practice can help us become more socially engaged and compassionate humans, not to mention more chill and powerful in one’s body. More yoga tends to bring more calm. More calm can help us make better decisions. Better decisions can help create a healthier, more equitable and sustainable world.

Ted is a proud father, a trained organic farmer, a Zen Buddhism practitioner and an environmental/social activist. He plays too much Scrabble and Sudoku as well…

He lives a quiet life in the woods on a small island off the coast of British Columbia, Canada

Sandor has been playing music since the age of 4. He started with the violin, then moved to the cello, but it wasn’t until a Jimi Hendrix record inspired him to ask for a guitar at the age of 12 that he found his true calling. After starting a band with his brother, Sandor played in a variety of venues across western Canada and won multiple Battle of the Bands contests. Now as a solo artist, he has focused on composing and performing his own brand of “Yogispheric” music, designed to enhance the student’s experience in a yoga class setting. After his recent certification in Reiki, a hands-on healing skill that comes naturally to him, he plans to continue his journey into therapeutics by delving deeper into formal meditation training. Above all, he is excited to provide support and enhance flow at this Nicaragua healing experience!

Leslee holds a Bachelor’s degree in both Psychology and Medical Rehabilitation (Physiotherapy). She received her first yoga certification through Moksha (Modo) Yoga in 2009 and since has gained over 1800 hours of training and has taught over 2000 yoga classes. Knowing that yoga can act as a powerful tool in the promotion of health and in the prevention and treatment of disease, she founded and implemented the Physiologic Therapeutic Yoga Method in her privately run clinic, Prana Physiotherapy, for over 7 years. She has developed multiple therapeutic yoga programs that treat stress, tension and persistent pain with breath, movement and relaxation and facilitates a training program to help other yoga instructors and health professionals add therapeutic yoga instruction to their skill set. She is excited to be able to expand these offerings to new and international venues!

Learn more about Leslee Watt here!

Lindsay Hall was born in Canada raised on the island of Tobago, in Trinidad & Tobago. She started dancing at the age of 5 at the Tobago Academy of the Performing Arts. In 2008 Lindsay moved to New York City to pursue her love of dance and was accepted to the world-renowned Ailey School of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, where she studied under master teachers Milton Myers, Ana Marie Forsythe, Nancy Turano, Graciela Kozak, Kazuko Hirabyashi and Jacqulyn Buglisi. In May 2011 she became one of the first Tobagonians to graduate from The Ailey School’s Certificate Program. Her dance training includes Classical Ballet, Modern Dance, Contemporary, Jazz, Dancehall, Salsa, Hip Hop and Caribbean Folk Dance. As a dancer Ms. Hall has had the pleasure of performing at New York City Summer Stage, 2012 Ladies of Hip Hop Festival, Heard NY with artist Nick Cave in celebration of Grand Central’s 100th Anniversary, the LACOSTE La Machine L.12.12 Launch at Grand Central Station alongside Hip Hop legends Furious Five, Opening Ceremony’s Fashion Night Out event for NY Fashion Week Fall 2011 and with Jamaican Dancehall pioneers Red Fox and Screechy Dan. Over the years Lindsay has had the opportunity to perform works by some truly talented choreographers such as Darrell Grand Moultrie, Earl Mosley, Andrea Miller, Jessica Chen, Robin Dunn, Hanna Herbertson, Peter London, Francesca Harper, Bradley Shelver and Kevin Wynn to name a few. She also had the honor of being a member of dance companies throughout New York City, namely J CHEN PROJECT and Purelements: An Evolution in Dance. She has also been able to share her love of dance through teaching and has taught classical ballet and modern technique in both Trinidad and Tobago and New York City.


Throughout her career as a dancer in New York, Lindsay found herself being drawn to yoga more and more. She used yoga as a way to calm and focus her mind and to help keep her body strong and balanced so she could keep up with the demands of dancing professionally. In early 2014, Lindsay moved back to her home island Tobago, ready for a change of lifestyle. Upon her arrival she soon found out about The Sangha Trinidad’s Yoga Teacher Training Program with Director Karen Blackman and she immediately signed up! Digging deeper into the practice of yoga at this specific period in her life was definitely perfect timing for Lindsay and it was a truly enriching experience.


With over 4 years of teaching yoga under her belt, Lindsay still considers herself new, to the Yoga Instructor world, but with fresh ideas and a great love for the practice. She loves sharing and mixing what she knows as a dancer and what she has learnt throughout her yoga practice, with the vibes that come along with living near the sea. She is excited to share all that she knows with you and is open to whatever unfolds next on this journey we like to call life…

Karen Blackman was born in Ottawa, Canada and while she has spent most of her life in Canada moving back and forth between Toronto and Trinidad & Tobago, she also has the awesome benefit of being a dual citizen of both Canada and Trinidad & Tobago, giving her the added advantage of being able to deliver classes with both a Caribbean and North American flavour. She took her first yoga class over 20 years ago, starting with Bikram Yoga, then Moksha Yoga® and now Sangha Yoga. In fact, she was a part of the very first Moksha Yoga® 800hr Teacher Training in 2004, under the direction of co-founder Ted Grand, co-founder Jessica Robertson and Natalia Brajak. It was a Training that changed her life! She has been teaching for over 13 years in many places like Toronto, Montreal, London (Ontario, Canada), The British Virgin Islands and Trinidad and Tobago, where she remains today.

Karen is an E-RYT® 500 (with over 15,000 classes taught, under her belt). She is a Certified Moksha Yoga Level I and II, Certified Yin Yoga, and Certified Aerial Yoga, Instructor. She is the Creator/Founder/Director of The Sangha Trinidad’s Yoga Teacher Training Program (est. 2013) which helps her help others in her community, who want to share what they have learned in a deeper way with others. She has six (6) Teacher Trainings under her belt and Trainees all over Trinidad and in Tobago and as far as Barbados, The British Virgin Islands and Dominica in the Caribbean to Aberdeen, Scotland! Karen is also the Creator/Founder/Director of The Sangha Trinidad (est. 2005, RYS® 500, currently the only 500hr registered school in the Caribbean). She has completed the Vipassana 10-day Silent Meditation Course in Costa Rica, completed the Reiki 2nd Degree (Level 2) Course and has trained with many other renowned teachers such as Michael Stone, Frank Jude Boccio, John Friend, Susi Hately, Hali Schwartz, YuMee Chung, Steph Gongora, Erin Kelly, Meghan Currie, David Robson, Kam Thye Chow (Founder Lotus Palm Thai Yoga Massage), Trina Altman and more! She has worked with many National athletes, including Trinidad and Tobago’s very first Olympic Judo Representative – Christopher George, Emmanuel Callendar – Olympic Gold Medalist and National Kata Champion – Zachary Alexander, helping them with their Training programs to better their athletic ‘game’.



With a little humour and her crazy fun side, Karen continues to dedicate her life to helping folks find their yoga and loving every minute of it!

Vanessa Pattison lives and teaches yoga and meditation in San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua. Originally from California, she traded the golden handcuffs (they’re real and shiny) for a surfboard. The surfboard is her husband’s but the yoga mat is hers. All jokes aside, she never set out to teach yoga and meditation but now understands that it was her dharma/purpose. Everything in her life was always leading her on this journey, a path to authentically serve others by unraveling her own authentic expression.

Vanessa has 2000+ hours of Vinyasa, Hatha, and Yin training. She built and runs Zen Yoga Nicaragua, the only yoga studio in this cool Central American beach town. Vanessa co-founded Nicaragua Yoga Institute, which runs and hosts yoga retreats and yoga teacher training programs. She is a certified Primordial Meditation Instructor with the esteemed Chopra Center and loves to help others cultivate a solid meditation practice. Vanessa loves to support women during childbirth as a doula. A mother to three boys, all born and raised in Nicaragua, it’s her intention to raise her kids connected to the culture and show by example that to live a healthy life they must help others do the same. Her family cares deeply for the country and especially the kids of Nicaragua, many of whom they’ve known since they were small. You can always find Vanessa with a car full of kids going to baseball or soccer. With a house full of kids to feed. She’s constantly fundraising and all proceeds from her meditation class and a percentage of every retreat go to helping kids have food, clothes, education, and sports programs.

It’s her hope and intention that her classes and retreats are infused with love, creativity, and inspiration. You can think of her classes as a journey of unraveling the layers of stress, that we all accumulate, revealing our authentic, radiant selves. One movement at a time, one pause at a time, one breath at a time.