Swami Asokananda
President
Swami Asokananda, a monk since 1975, is the President and Spiritual Director of the New York Integral Yoga Institute, as well as one of its foremost teachers. While he enjoys sharing the practical wisdom of the Yogic philosophy (especially that of the great Indian scripture the Bhagavad Gita), he also loves his practice of Hatha Yoga and is one of our primary instructors for Intermediate and Advanced Hatha Yoga Teacher Training. He has served as president of Satchidananda Ashram–Yogaville and currently serves as co-chair, with Swami Ramananda, of the Integral Yoga Global Network.
Vijai Wilansky
Board Member
Vijai Wilansky is the founding partner of a law firm and has been its trial counsel for more than 35 years. He was the director of the Upper West Side Integral Yoga Center for 18 years and has taught teacher training at both Integral Yoga Institute and Harlem Yoga. He has been practicing Yoga and meditation for more than 50 years and has been influenced by Rodney Yee and Carrie Owerko as well as other Yoga luminaries with whom he has had the privilege to study. Vijai has completed a four-year course of study at the Ohashi Institute and is certified as an Ohashiatsu practitioner.
Leda Ressurection
Board Member
Leda Resurreccion is an IYI RYT 200, and certified gong player under Gong Master Don Conreaux. Her focus is healing through the merging of sound and Yoga. A former dancer with the Philippine Dance Co. of NY, Leda studied Fine Arts at Pratt. She co-founded ArenaStudiosNYC and Arena Production, LLC, serving as executive creative director, and curator, and ED of Arena Studios NYC. Leda was co-founder, co-creator,executive producer and artistic director of Black & Blue Ball Inc. She was the artistic director and set designer on Asian Diaspora projects by producer-directors Carrie Preston and Kate Rigg. She is a member of Time’s Up Now, #MeToo. She manages social media for IYINY.
Rev. Shankar Brucee Fern
Board Member
Reverend Shankar Bruce Fern, an ordained Yoga Minister, conducts weddings, baby blessings, house blessings, and memorial services, including weekly services with a group of Interfaith Ministers at Hart Island, NYC’s potter’s field for the homeless and indigent. He is Vice Chairman and on the board of trustees of the global Integral Yoga Ministry. Reverend Shankar has been a devotee of and serving Sri Swami Satchidananda for decades and has been guiding the NYIYI and Satchidananda Ashram as a teacher, coach, and counselor. A a leadership development specialist and management consultant for organizations such as Citigroup and IBM, he is currently president of Change-Ready Solutions, a training/consulting firm dedicated to Inclusive Problem-Solving – helping organizations solve complex problems by leveraging diversity and inclusion.
Mary Conway-Spiegel
Board Member
Mary Conway-Spiegel grew up in the Modern Dance world in New York City and danced professionally before transitioning to the fitness industry in the 1980’s. Mary spent 20 years teaching group fitness, personal training and managing boutique aerobic studios before founding Aerobics At Work. Aerobics At Work offered a variety of group fitness classes and wellness seminars to Fortune 500 companies in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Boston and Washington DC. In 2010 Ms. Conway-Spiegel founded Partnership For Student Advocacy, a non-profit whose mission was to raise funds for students in closing schools that were located in impoverished underfunded districts/neighborhoods; PFSA closed in 2014. Currently, Mary is a full-time parent to her three emerging-adult-children.