Passionate Teachers
Every teacher at Mission Yoga teacher has completed a Yoga Alliance approved 200hr Yoga Teacher Training and continued to complete higher-level educational courses in various movement modalities. Including but not limited to XPT Breathwork Coaching, Meditation Mastery Courses, Animal Flow, Functional Range Conditioning, and more. The beautiful thing about our teaching staff is their endless commitment to professional development and refining their craft. Each one of the Mission Yoga instructors infuses their own unique talents, insights, and strengths into their classes so you leave feeling even more inspired than when you first stepped onto your mat.
Shay Kelley
FOUNDER & OWNER OF MISSION YOGA
Entrepreneur, E-RYT 500, YACEP Provider, FRCms (mobility specialist), NASM CPT
Shay is the founder and owner of Mission Yoga in Oakland Park, where she is passionate about helping individuals achieve their best through a blend of research-based methodologies and traditional practices. With over 14 years of teaching experience, Shay has earned the trust of professional athletes, first responders, and corporate executives, providing them with tools to enhance their overall health and longevity.
As a former competitive athlete and collegiate tennis player, Shay's teaching is deeply rooted in anatomy and mental resilience. She integrates the science of movement with the philosophical essence of yoga, offering a holistic approach to well-being. Shay collaborates with professional athletes across various leagues, focusing on sports-specific movement, injury prevention, corrective exercises, and breathwork techniques. Her unique approach emphasizes dynamic movement patterns and strengthening neuromuscular connections, both on and off the mat.
Shay discovered yoga in 2008 and was captivated by the mind-body connection and its physical and mental challenges. She completed her first 200-hour yoga certification in 2011, launching her career as a full-time yoga instructor and quickly building a vibrant community in South Florida. In 2014, Shay pursued a 300-hour certification course under the direct mentorship of a lifelong yogi and monk, leading her to co-facilitate certification courses and eventually develop her own curriculum.
In 2018, Shay began offering Yoga Alliance certification programs with a distinctive focus. By 2019, she had realized her dream of opening Mission Yoga, a non-heated, community-driven, and anatomy-focused studio. For Shay, Mission Yoga transcends a typical yoga studio; it embodies a lifestyle centered around movement, connection, and community. She is committed to fostering a team of skilled educators and bringing in top experts to enrich the community's experience.
Shay is on a mission to empower people to thrive and live their best lives, one movement practice at a time.
Mission Yoga Teachers
Jess Birrittella
Studio Manager, RYT 200
As Mission Yoga's studio manager, Jess's ensures daily operations run smoothly. Her passion for cultivating community is felt amongst all she encounters. She embarked on her yoga journey in 2018, seeking solace from the chronic stress and anxiety that had taken a toll on her body. Having spent over a decade in the corporate world, Jess found herself physically and mentally unable to unwind.
Through dedicated and consistent practice, yoga emerged as a transformative force, revitalizing both her body and mind. Jess is a living testament to the profound healing powers of yoga. Driven by her unwavering belief in its benefits, she chose to share this gift by becoming a yoga instructor and paying forward the wellness she has reclaimed.
Beyond the yoga mat, Jess finds joy in soaking up the sunshine, engaging in creative projects, and cherishing moments with her husband and their trio of furry companions. Her journey from seeking healing to becoming a dedicated yoga teacher reflects her commitment to holistic well-being and the profound impact of this ancient practice.
Arkell Mokler
Program Director
Arkell is a graduate of Auburn University with a degree in Exercise Science and Kinesiology. She has worked in management with Orangetheory Fitness, Westin Hotels, lululemon but her true passion lies in teaching yoga and movement. Arkell focuses on the foundations and building blocks of movement to make her classes informative with deep adjustments and assists. Helping to cultivate a mind-body connection that feels sustainable. Arkell incorporates, Pranayama “breathwork” in her classes and educates athletes on the importance of combining breath + movement to enhance performance and reduce injury. When she isn’t teaching or practicing, Arkell can be found walking her dogs, enjoying the outdoors or fulfilling her love of coffee around some of South Florida’s best coffee spots.
Amanda White
Yoga Teacher
Amanda gained her 200-hr certification from Yoga South with James Kigar and Judy Weaver back in 2009. It was here that she gained the foundation of alignment, sequencing, and adjustments that are staples of her teaching style still today. She credits yoga for being a monumental shift in her spiritual, career, and mental evolution that has led her to amazing opportunities and relationships. She also teaches Yin Yoga classes + Trainings, 200hr TT, Workshops, and International Retreats. She continues to practice with mentors regularly because she understands that an exceptional teacher must also be a devoted student. She is currently gaining her 500-hr certification with Caroline Wybar.
Taylor Gonzalez
Yoga Teacher
Taylor believes in yoga for everybody and every body. She is a 200-RYT and has her M.Ed from Johns Hopkins University. She is an athletic coach that encourages her athletes to align their training in a body partnership led way. She believes in practicing yoga on the mat, to lead a life of yoga off the mat. Yoga on the mat includes connecting breath with movement, aligned asana for your body, & incorporating blocks/props to help you dive deeper into the posture with more ease. Taylor incorporates subtle body/kosha energetics into the flow to enhance yoga off the mat. Come flow with her and find yourself building stability, flexibility, mobility, and strength to calm the nervous system. When she isn’t teaching, you can find her reading, hanging with her dogs Luna and Axel, and celebrating the full moon.
Erica Dade
Yoga Teacher
Erica Dade found yoga in 2013 as a healthy way to manage stress and compliment her other movement practices. Erica fell in love with practicing yoga for the challenges it brings to the mind and the body. She believes that nothing can top the way your mind, body, and soul feel after an invigorating yoga practice.
Erica completed her 200-hour teacher training in 2019. She is also a graduate of Mission Yoga’s inaugural 20-hour Anatomy Intensive. She enjoys continuing her studies of movement practice, both on and off the mat, & sharing her knowledge with her students.
Erica is honored & stoked to be a part of Mission Yoga – it feels like coming home. When Erica is not teaching, you may find her training for her next runDisney race, snuggling with her dog Dante, or having a movie marathon with her husband Zach and a bottle of wine.
Chloe Ravel
Yoga Teacher
Chloe Ravel is a passionate wellness entrepreneur, yogi, meditation teacher, mindset coach, and speaker.
Since starting her yoga journey in 2012, her dedication to sharing wellness started with her own healing from chronic stress and burnout. Her teaching has a strong focus on mindset development through mindful movement and breath awareness.
Chloe‘s wellness brand, The Gemini Rising offers coaching, group classes, workshops, and international retreats all rooted in the expansion of self-awareness as a way to inspire personal development, professional growth and quality of life.
She is certified as a 200-Hour YT with continuing education in Breath Coaching, Theta Healing, Sound Therapy and Mindful Meditation.
Delaney Smith
Yoga Teacher
Delaney Smith was born and raised in sunny South Florida. She discovered yoga 11 years ago and has been dedicated to her practice ever since. Naturally drawn towards self expression, she will lead you through a dynamic and creative flow ending in a sweet surrender of savasana. Fueled by passion and gratitude for how her practice enriched her life, Delaney decided to receive her training and further her education. She has found her life’s purpose in helping people become happier and healthier through her own healing journey.
Allie Newman
Yoga Teacher
Allie began her yoga practice when she was 16 years old through a passion for dance and movement. After receiving her 200 hour teacher training certification she has been teaching in south Florida for almost 10 years. Allie focuses her classes around breathwork, music, and providing adjustments and modifications to help the practice feel yummy to everybody. When she’s off the mat, Allie enjoys strength training, cooking (and eating) and loving on her animals Otto and Lucille.
Maritza Paz
DC, RYT 200
Maritza seamlessly integrates her role as a chiropractor with her passion for teaching yoga, viewing it as a natural extension of her 30+ years of dedicated service in healthcare. She has consistently recommended yoga to her patients as an effective means to
support proper alignment and sustain vitality throughout life's various seasons.
Her love for yoga began approximately 7 years ago when she discovered its transformative power in her own life. This revelation sparked a deep desire to share the benefits of mindful movement with others.
Her unique blend of chiropractic knowledge, breath coaching, and gravity yoga instruction positions her as a compassionate and knowledgeable guide, dedicated to empowering others in their quest for physical and mental wellness. Maritza is a 200hr graduate
of the Mission Yoga Teacher Training Program with Shay Kelley and Amanda White.
Tara Ackerman
Yoga Teacher
Coming Soon :)
Chris Smith
Yoga Teacher
Chris is a graduate of the Mission Yoga 200HR teacher training program and leads energetic but fun, and challenging but soothing Mission Vinyasa classes, with a guaranteed killer playlist.
A native of Shrewsbury, England, Chris has made a second home in South Florida, where he fell in love with yoga more than a decade ago.
He loves experimenting with the sequencing of asanas and gains fulfilment seeing the Mission community in full flow, while witnessing students grow in confidence through their yoga practice.
As a freelance journalist, writer and published author, Chris' craft underpins his teaching and delivery. He is inspired by how yoga can be a vessel to unlock creativity, provoke new ideas, and provide freedom to explore and experiment.
Kryshel Charles
Mat Pilates
Kryshel is a Mat Pilates + Sculpt instructor, certified in Miami, FL. She was initially drawn to a pilates certification program to deepen her practice, after practicing both reformer and mat in NYC before the pandemic. Kryshel joined the certification program with little to no intent to teach. However, she quickly learned that she could successfully lead a room of all-level clients through pilates flows that challenged both mind and body. Kryshel’s love of movement, approachable demeanor and naturally high energy captivated clients. And she leaned into it, finding that those client interactions brought her a different level of joy and fulfillment.
Kryshel’s teaching style reflects that of her own practice—fueled by the power of the mind, demonstrated in the strength of the body—a philosophy that comes from her early years as a sprinter. Her goal as an instructor is to motivate, inspire and help lead clients achieve their personal wellness goals, but also remind them to celebrate the little victories along the way.
Kryshel’s dynamic pilates sequences, soundtracked by energetic beats, incorporates classical principles and the teachings of Joseph Pilates, while infusing contemporary elements for dynamic “power-ups.” Clients should expect to sweat as they lengthen and strengthen for 45 minutes.
When Kryshel is not teaching, she is likely in “mama” mode with her daughter, Aura, working her job in experiential marketing, cooking plant-based meals, or traveling to a new city for a museum visit or a hike.”
Ryan Jones
Yoga Teacher
Ryan found yoga when he first started university in 2018, and he fell in love with how it made him feel. Over the years, yoga became a consistent aid in the way he shows up for himself and everything around him. Ryan went on to complete his 200-hour Teacher Training in Detroit, Michigan. He has a mission to help heal the collective through giving space for individuals to be seen, heard, and loved. In his classes, you can expect to be led with love through intentional flows set to a curated playlist and designed to help you feel at peace. To him, yoga heals, and he hopes that you join him for the journey.
Olivia Glegg
Yoga Teacher
Bio Coming Soon :)