Swami Asokananda

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.

Radha Metro-Midkiff

Radha Metro-Midkiff

Executive Director

Radha Metro-Midkiff, Executive Director for the Integral Yoga Institute New York, brings a lifetime worth of experience in yoga and business to the organization. She was born and raised in Yoga. Brought up at Yogaville, under the direct tutelage of Sri Swami Satchidananda, she met Sri Gurudev at the ripe old age of one. Her parents, Integral Yoga Ministers Bhagavan and Bhavani Metro, moved from Colorado, to Connecticut, then to Virginia, so she and her 5 siblings could attend the Integral Yoga School/Yogaville Vidyalayam. She was the only student to attend the school from 1st -12th grade. She was certified as both a Hatha Yoga and Raja Yoga instructor at the age of 18. In addition, she had the fortune of being one of only four individuals to receive the direct blessing of Dharma confirmation from Swami Satchidananda.

Rev. Shankar Brucee Fern

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.
Vijai Wilansky

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

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.

Mary Conway-Spiegel

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.