About Lena.

Hi there! I use she/her pronouns. Black Lives Matter. Trans rights are human rights. Abortion is healthcare.

I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area doing gymnastics, dance, arts & crafts, theater, and playing outside. My experience attending the Sojourn Project—a living history education journey through the lessons of the modern Civil Rights Movement—while a high school student was impactful for me. I moved to San Diego in 2002 for my undergrad studies at UC San Diego, where I completed my BA in Ethnic Studies, danced a lot of modern dance, ate a lot of burritos, and further learned to appreciate education as social justice. After college I found the physicality of yoga to be a delightful and challenging way to move my body without competition. Uncertain of my next direction, I attended graduate school at San Diego State University, where I completed my MA in Women's Studies and began a multiple subject teaching credential for elementary education. I taught dance to children, volunteered with the IRC, and served as a member of AmeriCorps before deepening my yoga practice with my first yoga teacher training in 2011. I have since completed my 500-hour yoga teaching certification, an 85-hour prenatal certification, the Prison Yoga Project training, and workshops and trainings on a myriad of continuing education interests. The spiritual aspects of yoga have aided me in the never-ending search for peace, calm, and positivity within, and I'm passionate about sharing these tools with others. My other favorite healing modalities include massage, meditation, writing, hypnotherapy, coaching, hiking/running, reiki, acupuncture, cold plunges, and chocolate. I'm intentional about taking yoga off the mat and I love finding the bridges between the heart & mind, the individual & community, and mindfulness & expression. I continue to be passionate about integrating movement, self-study, social justice, leadership, nature, and connection. For the last decade I have been enamored with travel and grateful to have led many yoga + adventure retreats locally & internationally. To ensure safety on retreats and personal backpacking trips, I have training as a Wilderness First Responder (WFR) through NOLS. It’s been a winding path! I currently work as a teaching assistant for the Dimensions of Culture Program at Thurgood Marshall College at UCSD. You can find me writing morning pages, reading five books in bed, snuggling Clementine, watering my plants & propagating succulents, cooking up random recipes from what I’ve got around the kitchen while listening to podcasts, hiking, camping, writing letters to friends, pulling oracle cards, and planning my next adventure. She currently resides on the ancestral homeland of the Wiyot & Yurok Tribes in Humboldt County.