Meet Your Teachers
Get to know the dedicated teachers behind Rasa Yoga, who are passionate about creating a community where students can thrive. Our teachers are committed to providing an uplifting and transformative experience in each class, helping students deepen their yoga practice and feel more connected to themselves and others.
Owner, E-RYT200, RYT500, YACEP
Heather Badger / Harena EkaBhakti
Heather's journey into the world of yoga began in 2011 while recovering from a running injury. The transformative benefits she experienced from yoga classes and the sense of community it fostered left an indelible mark on her life. Motivated to share these experiences with others and deepen her own practice, Heather enrolled in Ayurveda Yoga Training with Rasa Yoga School.
In 2014, Heather completed her 200-hour teacher training. Since then, she has gained extensive experience teaching a wide range of class types and styles, while earning her 500-hour certification. Currently, she is pursuing her E-200, yoga therapy and Ayurvedic Health Coach certifications. Dedicated to personal growth and learning, Heather is a perpetual student of yoga.
Heather takes immense joy in teaching various types of yoga and meditation classes. However, she harbors a special fondness for foundation classes that inspire and encourage students to remain inquisitive and curious. With a compassionate and nurturing teaching style, Heather strives to create a welcoming and supportive environment for her students, enabling them to explore their potential and experience the transformative power of yoga firsthand. Whether you are a beginner seeking a solid foundation or an experienced practitioner yearning for new challenges, Heather's classes are designed to meet you where you are and guide you towards your unique yoga journey. Join her on the mat and embark on a transformative voyage of self-discovery, healing, and growth.
RYT-200
Monica Ellis
Monica became a 200 hour Certified Yoga Teacher, through Go Yoga, in 2022 after several years of a personal practice.
Monica is also a Dancing Mindfulness Facilitator with The Institute for Creative Mindfulness and has a love for tap dancing.
She believes in the power of movement for self-expression and healing. She uses vinyasa style yoga classes to explore and support the body, heart, and mind with a sense of strength, curiosity, openness, and joy.
RYT-200
Geni Jacobs
Geni began practicing yoga in 2013 at a local gym as a way to reduce stress. She has always enjoyed a slow flow/gentle yoga practice. Increasingly curious about the practice, she tried several studios and types of classes.
In 2018, curiosity got the best of Geni and she enrolled in the Yoga Teacher training program at Yoga on High. This is where she truly fell in love with the practice of Yoga and started to investigate the practice of Meditation. Geni completed her 200 hour Yoga Teacher Training in July 2019 and has had a variety of teaching experiences. She has taught restorative, gentle flow and chair yoga and in the last year, has been sharing Yoga in parks, church, at work and most recently in her home yoga space.
Geni is starting her 16th year with a large health insurance provider. She lives in Blacklick and when not sharing yoga, can be found reading, biking or walking (either alone or with 3 crazy rescue pups).
Geni is really looking forward to sharing her love of Yoga at Renew Wellness and looks forward to seeing you soon on your mat!
Meditation Teacher
Daryush Parvinbenam
Daryush has been practicing different forms of meditation for the last 30 years. However he has specialized in the path of wondering Sufis of Persia, and Classical nondualistic Tantra of India. He uses different meditative techniques from these traditions to create embodied spiritual practices that are wholistic, grounded and balanced. His approach is a nondualistic mind-body oriented that is healing, and creates connection and a sense of wholeness that at its core directed toward healing, and deep experience of one-ness.
RYT-200
Kevin Ryan
After thirty-plus years of classroom teaching and coaching, Kevin has spent the last ten years guiding “seekers” in the flows of yoga and the quietude of meditation. As a former runner now walker, biker, cross-country skier, back-packer and overall outdoor enthusiast, Kevin well recognizes the healthful physical benefits of yoga, but he has been especially drawn to yoga because of its emotional and spiritual benefits as well. In Hatha Yoga classes ranging from gentle to challenging, as well as in Chair Yoga classes that encourage people to re-embrace their aging bodies, Kevin, an RYT-200 certified teacher through Samyoga Institute/Shiva Shakti Synthesis, always seeks the yogic goal of the union of body, mind, and spirit.
Along with his present joy of leading yoga and meditation classes, Kevin, a published author of two books on prayer and seeking and discovering the Great Mystery all around us, continues to share in writing his outdoor experiences, and his passion for living life more fully.
RYT-200
Tara Myers
Have you met Tara? She was a dancer for 14 years and grew up around yoga. After 8 years of developing her own yoga practice, in 2022 Tara decided to become a certified yoga instructor so that she could share the practice with others. Tara truly loves the yoga practice and teaches an arrangement of different courses which include vinyasa, yin, yoga nidra, and meditation. Join her classes to see what type of practice works for you!