OUR TEAM

Jeffrey Thomas
Founder & Executive Director

Jeffrey, RYT-200, founder and Executive Director, is passionate about recognizing people of color for their capacity to effect positive change and transcend their circumstances. He is responsible for strategy, partnerships, fund development, and day-to-day operations. He first practiced lyengar Yoga and - after yoga teacher training - continued with Trauma-Informed Mind-Body (TIMBo) and Prison Yoga Project training. Over his career, he has partnered to deliver more than $550M in public and private funds to low-income communities.

In his roles at MYP, he draws on his experience in the design of ambitious multi-stakeholder collaborations designed to resource low-income communities of color. He has been nationally recognized for his business plan for a nonprofit social enterprise called Ploughshares Nursery that has been in operation since 2005 offering employment training to individuals emerging from conditions of homelessness. He worked with formerly-incarcerated activists and a poverty law clinic at Berkeley Law School to co-create Clean State - a program that has assisted more than 14,000 people seeking to remedy their criminal records. In 2011, he co-designed a participatory action research project at a graduate school of public policy that examined barriers to civic leadership in low-income communities. The research resulted in the creation of a training program for women of color that seek to become elected policymakers.

Richa Gawande
Research Director

Research Scientist Richa Gawande PhD directs research for the RWJF-funded Mandela Yoga Systems Alignment Research Project at CHA Center for Mindfulness and Compassion. CHA is a Harvard Medical School Safety Net Teaching Hospital. She is interested in community conversations and community-based participatory research about the impact of stress, culture and illness on our bodies. She is also interested in ways in which listening with compassion to our bodies internally (interoception) and collectively can facilitate social change through healing, joy, and justice.

She serves as Co-Director of the Mindfulness Training for Primary Care teacher training pathway, as a Research Scientist, and a trained Mindful Self-Compassion teacher at CMC. She is committed to working within and towards a larger ethical research and teaching framework that is sensitive and responsive to the importance of social justice, community, story and culture.

She consults with MYP on its pilots and implementations. At CHA Malden Richa has led development of a group medical visit pilot which the Mandela Yogs intervention is paired with healthcare by a provider.

Felipe Kalatauma Rosario

Peer Seed Teacher and Peer Facilitator Trainer

Felipe Kalatauma Rosario is a dedicated Peer Facilitator focused on community healing and empowerment. An advocate for healthy masculinity, he facilitates open discussions on emotional wellbeing to empower men and mentors male-identifying youth in areas of personal development. As a leader in the Taino community, he helps members reconnect with their cultural heritage. Drawing on his 200-hour yoga certification, Kalatauma integrates mindfulness into his initiatives, aiming to uplift marginalized communities.

Julia Naganuma-Carreras

Research Coordinator

With a degree in Psychology from Carleton College, Julia is working at the National Center for PTSD at the Boston VA, where she conducts research on risk factors for PTSD and longitudinal outcomes after trauma exposure. Julia is passionate about improving access to culturally resonant care and is interested in ways in which community-informed interventions can facilitate collective healing. Julia currently serves as a research coordinator in several pilot studies of MYP, where she collaborates with community members and implementation partners to develop and adapt data collection tools. In addition to her research, Julia completed her 200-hour yoga teacher training at JP Centre Yoga, where she currently practices.

Keyona Aviles

Peer Seed Teacher and Peer Facilitator Trainer

Keyona Aviles, LMHC, earned her Master's degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling with a specialization in holistic practice from Lesley University. Her belief in the body as instrumental in mental and emotional healing led her to become an ACE-certified personal trainer in 2003, AFAA certified Group Exercise Instructor in 2006, Vinyasa Yoga instructor in 2009, and to train with Project Adventure in Adventure Based Counseling. Keyona Aviles, LMHC recently opened a home-based wellness boutique / private practice where she provides therapy and treatment to women, youth, and their families. She has integrated her 15 years of clinical mental health experience with what she knows to be true for herself and so many others: awareness of the body, movement, and curiosity is crucial to emotional/mental well-being and soul-level healing. Keyona is a co-creator of the MYP Peer Facilitator Training program and an MYP Peer Seed Teacher.

Max Sass

Peer Seed Teacher

Yoga entered Max’s life as a compliment to his love for movement. As he grew older, an interest in the mind-body connection and a search for answers led him deeper into the practice of yoga. Max traveled to Northern India where he completed his 200-hour yoga teacher training at the Himalayan Yoga Association and completed his 300-hour training at Down Under School of Yoga in Boston. He teaches adults, children, trauma-responsive sessions, and more. Max is passionate about sharing the power of holistic healthcare with his community.

Yogic practice and philosophy have supported and helped Max heal through physical disease and mental anguish as well as overcoming addiction and incarceration. He believes that mindful movement on a yoga mat or in the grass in a park can translate to more conscious action in everyday life. As a native of Boston, Max considers it an honor to share the ancient wisdom of yoga with his community. He says: “Throughout my journey on the path less traveled, I have lived among many communities, learning to become adaptable and search for the beauty in All. These are lessons I carry with me into my teaching.”

Max is on leave for 2025.

Mike Massey

Peer Seed Teacher

Yoga Mike's indoctrination to the wonders of yoga came after a severe injury while playing football back in 2008. Mike spent many decades studying the game of football. So his style of yoga is fun, exciting, and technical. Mike uses each session to challenge the students and build their practice by learning from their reactions to his instructions/suggestions. Mike received his yoga certification in 2014 from David Vendetti & Todd Skoglund at South Boston Yoga. In 2018 Mike joined the N.E.S.T. (New England School of Therapeutics). After an entire year and 650 hours of study, Mike became a Licensed Massage Therapist specializing in structural integration. Mike also works as an Assistant Instructor with the N.E.S.T. - where he continues to sharpen his knowledge of the craft while ushering new talent into the world of bodywork.

Raquel Moreno Marra

Consultant

A yoga teacher for over 10 years, Raquel strives to use the practice of yoga not only as a healing tool for the physical body but as a means to sharpen an inward connection that is more necessary than ever in this age of technology. Her belief is that through authentic work on self-awareness, we can emerge with a profound desire to be active participants in our community and strive to effect change. Raquel's background in administrative work and event planning, coupled with her years as a yoga teacher, bring an appropriate balance of organization and heart to this project. She was the lead implementation partner for MYP's first implementation with a federally-qualified health clinic and executive produced the Mandela Yoga films.

Emily Peterson

Founding Thought Partner

Emily is a yin yoga instructor, yoga teacher trainer, Reiki Master Teacher and lead trainer, and senior facilitator for TIMBo (Trauma-Responsive Innovations for Mind/Body). In researching yoga to co-create the Mandela Yoga public health intervention alongside an array of collaborators from the contemplative practices, Emily draws on 20-plus years of interdisciplinary practice, training, and private consultation in yoga, the science of trauma, traumatic stress, and post-traumatic growth. She was most recently the lead trainer for TIMBo, a body-based trauma and stress resolution program which uses a proprietary system of accessible, trauma-informed yoga developed by marginalized women for women. Emily has been an early thought partner. She is a co-creator of the Mandela Yoga integrative health intervention model, the Hippopotamus Workshop, and the Peer Facilitator Training Program. She spearheads the development of new institutional partnerships for MYP both in the United States and abroad.